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Press Release
Press Release · Friday, April 5, 1996

Press Release
April 5, 1996
National Archives to Open Additional JFK Materials

Washington, DC. . . . On Tuesday, April 9, 1996, the National Archives will make available to the public additional documents related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy in accordance with the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992. These materials are the first donated by private parties to be included in the JFK Collections. These donations were completed following the public hearing held by the Assassination Records Review Board in New Orleans in June of 1995. The Board has authority to add assassination records to the JFK Collection which were previously in private hands.

The following two collections are being made available to the public:

The personal assassination files of the late Jim Garrison, the New Orleans District Attorney who conducted an investigation into the Kennedy assassination and prosecuted Clay Shaw for conspiring to kill President Kennedy. Garrison's family donated these documents which total approximately 15,000 pages.

The files of the late Edward Wegmann, a member of the legal team that defended Clay Shaw at his 1969 assassination conspiracy trial. Mr. Wegmann's family donated these files used in the Shaw defense. There are approximately 6,000 pages of documents in the files.

One copy per organization of selected documents from both the Garrison and Wegmann collections will be available beginning at 9 A.M. on April 9, from the College Park facility and the National Archives Public Affairs Office in Room G-6 of the downtown building, between 7th and 9th Streets, NW. Please use the Pennsylvania Avenue entrance. Copies of these documents will also be available from the Assassination Records Review Board, located at 600 E Street, NW, 2nd Floor. Contact Tom Samoluk, (202) 724-0088, ext 227.

The original documents are at the National Archives facility at College Park, MD, located at 8601 Adelphi Road. Researchers will be limited to one box at a time. Research Room hours are: Monday and Wednesday 8:45 A.M. - 5 P.M.; Tuesday, Thursday and Friday 8:54 A.M. - 9 P.M.; Saturday 8:45 A.M. - 4:45 P.M. Research cards are required. Personal property, i.e. notebooks, briefcases, purses or fountain pens are not allowed in the research room. Lockers are available. Debit cards may be purchased for the photocopying machines.

DIRECTIONS:

BY CAR the new facility is approximately 40 minutes from downtown Washington, DC. Take North Capitol Street north, turn right onto Michigan Avenue, (Michigan Avenue becomes Queens Chapel Road in Maryland,) continue to East West Highway, turn left on Adelphi Road and follow it to the Archives II entrance on the right. Parking is available.

BY SHUTTLE from the National Archives in Washington, DC, board the bus on 7th Street between Pennsylvania and Constitution Avenues. The shuttle leaves on the hour, from 8 A.M. to 5 P.M., returning to the downtown building from Archives II on the hour. Researchers may use the shuttle on a space available basis with National Archives staff members receiving priority boarding.

For PRESS information or additional information about obtaining research and debit cards, contact the Public Affairs Office at (202) 501-5525 or by e-mail. For more information about the JFK Assassination Records Collection call Steve Tilley at (301) 837-3190.

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