CORBIS/SG James Files claims he shot JFK

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James Files, 72, has been moved from a high-security jail to a less secure one in Illinois in preparation for his release. His extraordinary claims in a filmed prison interview have become an internet sensation since being put on the web by Dutch film-maker Wim Dankbaar. Now the CIA and other US secret agencies are bracing themselves for a fresh wave of conspiracy theories as Files identifies himself as the missing piece of the jigsaw in the Kennedy plot.

GETTY JFK shortly before his assassination

I fired one shot and one shot only James Files

Controversially, he says there was collusion between the Mafia and the CIA to kill 46-year-old Kennedy, claims which could lead to him being called to give testimony on oath in Washington. The Vietnam war veteran was part of the CIA team that trained a militia for the ill-fated Bay of Pigs invasion in Cuba in 1961, which turned many in the agency against Kennedy when he called a sudden halt to the clandestine operation. After being kicked out of the military, Files joined the “outfit” in Chicago, becoming a right-hand man to Mafia chief Charles “Chuckie” Nicoletti, a hitman for Chicago mob boss Sam Giancana. Files said he also had a now-dead CIA handler. Files, who is serving time for being an accessory to a mob murder, claims that CIA men felt betrayed over the Bay of Pigs fiasco and feared Kennedy was going to shut the agency down because it was out of control. They called in mobsters to carry out the killing in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963, which is 52 years ago next month. Files claims ex-marine misfit Lee Harvey Oswald, 24, teamed up with him in Dallas where they fired weapons together and checked out positions at the Dealey Plaza, where Oswald worked in the Texas School Book Depository building.

GETTY Lee Harvey Oswald

On the morning of the assassination Files says he was joined by Nicoletti, who took up a sniper’s position with another Mafioso, Johnny Roselli, in the Daltex office building, near the book depository. Files, a back-up shooter, says he took up position behind a fence at the top of the infamous grassy knoll. Mercury in the tip of the fatal bullet would make it explode on impact. His instructions were to go for a head shot if Kennedy had not been hit by the time the cavalcade came into view. Files told Dankbaar: “I fired one shot and one shot only. Mr Nicoletti hit him as I squeezed off my round. I hit him and blew the head backwards.” Official inquiries into the assassination suggested only one bullet was used, fired by Oswald from the book depository. Oswald denied being the assassin but was shot dead by nightclub boss Jack Ruby before he could go on trial. British author Matthew Smith, an expert on the assassination, said: “I have always thought there were two shooters on the grassy knoll. I have no doubt the CIA was involved.”

GETTY JFK's car driving away after his assassination