Question for Doug Horne

[Adele Edisen]

Dear Doug,

Hello, it has been quite a few years since we last talked in Dallas at a conference on the Kennedy assassination. I am so happy to make contact with you again, even though it involves a global communication system across the Atlantic Ocean!

My question is this: Approximately how many documents were submitted to the Assassinations Records Review Board (ARRB) by the US Secret Service?

This question may not be applicable to your area of military documents, but I understand that the Secret Service was not very cooperative with the ARRB. Is this true?

I look forward to your answer.

All the best wishes,

Adele Edisen

[Doug Horne]

Dear Adele,

Very nice to hear from you again. I hope you are well.

I do not have the specific answer to your question, but Steve Tilley at the National Archives (who controls the JFK Collection) would be able to tell you if you were able to contact him either by phone or by e-mail.

However, I can give you some background information on "the big picture." The ARRB reviewed about 60,000 records that various agencies desired redactions in. (Of course, some individual "records" were hundreds of pages long, and some were only one or two pages. So this figure of 60,000 records in no way equates to a page count.) Overall, there are almost 5 million pages in the JFK Collection now, based on what I was told by an authoritative source after the ARRB shut down in September 1998.

Best regards,

Doug Horne

[Adele Edisen]

Dear Adele,

Very nice to hear from you again.  I hope you are well.

I do not have the specific answer to your question, but Steve Tilley at the National Archives (who controls the JFK Collection) would be able to tell you if you were able to contact him either by phone or by e-mail.

However, I can give you some background information on "the big picture."  The ARRB reviewed about 60,000 records that various agencies desired redactions in.  (Of course, some individual "records" were hundreds of pages long, and some were only one or two pages.  So this figure of 60,000 records in no way equates to a page count.)  Overall, there are almost 5 million pages in the JFK Collection now, based on what I was told by an authoritative source after the ARRB shut down in September 1998.

Best regards,

Doug Horne

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Dear Doug,

Thank you for your reply.  I'll get in touch with Steve Tilley and find out what proportion of that huge number of documents came from the Secret Service.

When I do, I shall also let you know.  Many, many thanks.

All good wishes coming your way!

Adele Edisen

Edited July 23, 2004 by John Simkin

[Ron Ecker]

From Larry Hancock's Someone Would Have Talked (p. 163):

"After being given personal instruction and orders from the Assassination Records Review Board (under federal statute) not to destroy any further records, the Secret Service destroyed boxes full of documents relating to an aborted Kennedy trip to Chicago in early November, 1963."

[Larry Hancock]

Absolutely Ron and direct from my notes taken while hearing Doug present at a Lancer NID conference. As I recall the incident happened shortly after the SS representative was part of a briefing in which several agencies were given an introduction to the charger and process of the ARRB and instructed not to destroy anything further from that point. That's a generalization from memory.

And by the way gives me the opportunity to say once again that Doug is one of my limited number of personal heros for his work on the ARRB and his strong sense of ethics! I only wish Doug had been running the show instead of a staff member......

-- Larry

[Doug Horne]

Absolutely Ron and direct from my notes taken while hearing Doug present at a Lancer NID conference.  As I recall the incident happened shortly after the SS representative was part of a briefing in which several agencies were given an introduction to the charger and process of the ARRB and instructed not to destroy anything further from that point.  That's  a generalization from memory.

And by the way gives me the opportunity to say once again that Doug  is one of my limited number of personal heros for his work on the ARRB and his strong sense of ethics!  I only wish Doug had been running the show instead of a staff member......

-- Larry

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Larry,

Thanks very much for the very kind words. I have written about 10% of a manuscript for a book about my experiences at the ARRB, but have temporary discontinued it until some later time. I do not have the energy or the time to complete it just now, given my demanding job at the State Department Passport Office. But I have a lot to say, and hopefully one day I will finish it.

Best Regards,

Doug