{"id":20470,"date":"2025-04-28T12:28:56","date_gmt":"2025-04-28T12:28:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/?p=20470"},"modified":"2025-05-10T21:08:11","modified_gmt":"2025-05-10T21:08:11","slug":"the-robert-f-kennedy-assassination-records-archive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/the-robert-f-kennedy-assassination-records-archive\/","title":{"rendered":"The Robert F. Kennedy Assassination Records Archive"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"flex w-full flex-col gap-1 empty:hidden first:pt-[3px]\">\n<div class=\"markdown prose dark:prose-invert w-full break-words light\">\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\" data-start=\"293\" data-end=\"689\"><em>(<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/the-robert-f-kennedy-assassination-records-search-tool\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Click here to jump directly to the search engine<\/a>)<\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"\" data-start=\"293\" data-end=\"689\">In January 2025, President Donald J. Trump signed Executive Order 14176, titled <em data-start=\"373\" data-end=\"536\">&#8220;Declassification of Records Concerning the Assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, and the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.&#8221;<\/em> As part of this initiative, a large collection of records related to the assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy has now been released to the public.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" data-start=\"691\" data-end=\"917\">To make these documents easier to search and access, <strong data-start=\"744\" data-end=\"763\">The Black Vault<\/strong> has created a fully searchable database that allows researchers, journalists, historians, and the general public to explore this newly released material.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"\" data-start=\"919\" data-end=\"922\" \/>\n<h2 class=\"\" data-start=\"924\" data-end=\"944\">About the Release<\/h2>\n<p class=\"\" data-start=\"946\" data-end=\"1432\">The National Archives, acting as the official custodian of U.S. government records, was tasked with reviewing and releasing assassination-related files under Executive Order 14176. While many RFK-related records had previously been transferred to NARA from various federal agencies, much of the material remained inaccessible to the public. In 2025, a prioritized interagency effort was launched to ensure that remaining withheld or unreleased RFK files would finally be made available.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" data-start=\"1434\" data-end=\"1787\">This review was carried out in coordination with multiple federal agencies across the Executive Branch. The goal was to maximize transparency, while adhering to legal requirements under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) regarding the protection of sensitive information. As a result, researchers may still encounter redactions where required by law.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" data-start=\"1789\" data-end=\"2049\">On <strong data-start=\"1792\" data-end=\"1810\">April 18, 2025<\/strong>, the first major release of RFK assassination records was made public. This initial batch included <strong data-start=\"1910\" data-end=\"1949\">10,185 pages spanning 229 PDF files<\/strong>, containing investigative records, correspondence, and previously unseen government communications.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"\" data-start=\"2051\" data-end=\"2054\" \/>\n<h2 class=\"\" data-start=\"2056\" data-end=\"2076\">About the Records<\/h2>\n<p class=\"\" data-start=\"2078\" data-end=\"2345\">In order to expedite the interagency review process, many documents were scanned and processed in black-and-white format. However, when a page proved difficult to read, the National Archives replaced those scans with higher-quality color images to improve legibility.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" data-start=\"2347\" data-end=\"2494\">All of the newly released records from this April 2025 release are now available for download and review through The Black Vault&#8217;s new search tool.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"\" data-start=\"2496\" data-end=\"2499\" \/>\n<h2 class=\"\" data-start=\"2501\" data-end=\"2529\">Using the RFK Search Tool<\/h2>\n<p class=\"\" data-start=\"2531\" data-end=\"2602\">The Black Vault\u2019s RFK Assassination Record Search Engine allows you to:<\/p>\n<ul data-start=\"2604\" data-end=\"2823\">\n<li class=\"\" data-start=\"2604\" data-end=\"2659\">\n<p class=\"\" data-start=\"2606\" data-end=\"2659\">Search across document titles, contents, and previews<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"\" data-start=\"2660\" data-end=\"2710\">\n<p class=\"\" data-start=\"2662\" data-end=\"2710\">Highlight your search terms inside the full text<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"\" data-start=\"2711\" data-end=\"2767\">\n<p class=\"\" data-start=\"2713\" data-end=\"2767\">View documents immediately in an integrated PDF viewer<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"\" data-start=\"2768\" data-end=\"2823\">\n<p class=\"\" data-start=\"2770\" data-end=\"2823\">Download original PDFs directly for your own research<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"\" data-start=\"2825\" data-end=\"2876\">Advanced search functions are supported, including:<\/p>\n<ul data-start=\"2877\" data-end=\"3109\">\n<li class=\"\" data-start=\"2877\" data-end=\"2939\">\n<p class=\"\" data-start=\"2879\" data-end=\"2939\">Exact phrase searches using quotes (e.g., <code data-start=\"2921\" data-end=\"2938\">\"Sirhan Sirhan\"<\/code>)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"\" data-start=\"2940\" data-end=\"2969\">\n<p class=\"\" data-start=\"2942\" data-end=\"2969\">Boolean searches using <code data-start=\"2965\" data-end=\"2969\">OR<\/code><\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"\" data-start=\"2970\" data-end=\"3034\">\n<p class=\"\" data-start=\"2972\" data-end=\"3034\">Word exclusions using a minus sign (e.g., <code data-start=\"3014\" data-end=\"3033\">Mexico -consulate<\/code>)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<li class=\"\" data-start=\"3035\" data-end=\"3109\">\n<p class=\"\" data-start=\"3037\" data-end=\"3109\">Basic word stemming for broader matches (e.g., <code data-start=\"3084\" data-end=\"3091\">shoot<\/code> finds <code data-start=\"3098\" data-end=\"3108\">shooting<\/code>)<\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"\" data-start=\"3111\" data-end=\"3217\">Records will continue to be added as additional material is processed and released by the U.S. government.<\/p>\n<hr class=\"\" data-start=\"3219\" data-end=\"3222\" \/>\n<h2 class=\"\" data-start=\"3224\" data-end=\"3264\">Explore the RFK Assassination Records<\/h2>\n<p class=\"\" data-start=\"3266\" data-end=\"3300\">Start your search now by visiting:<\/p>\n<p class=\"\" data-start=\"3302\" data-end=\"3420\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/the-robert-f-kennedy-assassination-records-search-tool\/\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-20508 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/2025-04-27_18-20-54.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1029\" height=\"678\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/2025-04-27_18-20-54.jpg 1029w, https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/2025-04-27_18-20-54-300x198.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/2025-04-27_18-20-54-1024x675.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/2025-04-27_18-20-54-150x99.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/2025-04-27_18-20-54-450x297.jpg 450w, https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/2025-04-27_18-20-54-768x506.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/2025-04-27_18-20-54-600x395.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1029px) 100vw, 1029px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(Click here to jump directly to the search engine) In January 2025, President Donald J. Trump signed Executive Order 14176, titled &#8220;Declassification of Records Concerning the Assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Senator Robert F. Kennedy, and the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.&#8221; As part of this initiative, a large collection of records related<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20508,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","transcript_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[51,2],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-20470","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-controversies","8":"category-government"},"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/2025-04-27_18-20-54.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20470"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20470\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20535,"href":"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20470\/revisions\/20535"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theblackvault.com\/documentarchive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}