NARA Response to Request for Oval Office Dictabelt Recordings

Gene Morris <eugene.morris@nara.gov>	Thu, Dec 6, 2018, 9:27 AM

William E. Kelly:

This is in response to your November 20, 2018, request for information about the records of the JFK Assassination Records Collection. Specifically you are seeking information about Assassination Records Review Board records relating to the trunks, and their contents, willed by Mrs. Evelyn Lincoln to Mr. William H. Norton, as well as the various items willed by Mrs. Lincoln to Mr. Robert White. Additionally, you have a question regarding the location of Box 4 of the Kim Herd Files. We received your request on November 21, 2018.

We searched the finding aids to the records of the ARRB and identified the following boxes as containing files on Evelyn Lincoln, Robert White, or William Norton. We've included series, box number, file name, page count, and the locations of everything we found. 650L1 68:15:3 means Stack 650L1, Row 68, Compartment 15, Shelf 3.

Series 4: Box 18 Evelyn Lincoln, 49 pages, 650L1 68:15:3   

Series 4: Box 68 Robert White, 122 pages, 650L1 68:16:2   

Series 4: Box 69 Robert White, estimated 1,000 pages, 650L1 68:16:2

Series 4: Box 70 Robert White, estimated 300 to 500 pages, 650L1 68:16:3 

Series 5: Box 29 Norton, 1 page,  650L1 68:18:1 (This is the Norton to Marwell letter you included in your request.) 

Series 5: Box 56 Lincoln, 650L1 68:18:4 (newspaper clippings, probably not relevant, so we didn't do a page count.)

Combs: Box 8 Lincoln Papers, 38 pages, 650L1 67:21:1 (material at JFK Library, probably not relevant), 

Gunn: Box 6 Robert White, 173 pages, 650L1 67:22:2

Gunn Box 6 Evelyn Lincoln, 81 pages, 650L1 67:22:2

Herd: Box 4 (not on shelf)

Herd: Box 7 Evelyn Lincoln, estimated 1,000 pages, 650L1 67:23:5

Marr: Box 5 Evelyn Lincoln, 26 pages, 650L1 67:24:2

It appears that in addition to the material willed to the JFK Library Evelyn Lincoln willed material that may have contained JFK assassination record material to at least 7 people, including White and Norton. All of these people were contacted by the ARRB at some point. There are inventories of the material Lincoln willed to the JFK Library and of the items that White intended to put up for auction in 1998. We haven't found an inventory of the contents of the Norton trunks. Beyond a few mentions, there's nothing much to be found for the Norton trunks. The ARRB files contain no mention of any followup on the contents of the Norton trunks. We cannot say what, if any actions, were taken to inventory the contents of the trunks, what they contained, or where they might be now.

As you can see from the above list, there are extensive records relating to the interaction between Mr. White and the ARRB. We can make these records available to you at our College Park, Maryland, facility. We can also arrange to copy them at a cost of 80 cents per page. We do know that several items were withdrawn from the planned 1998 auction, but we could not determine the current disposition of those items. The JFK wristwatch that was among the items willed by Mrs. Lincoln to Mr. White. It was not withdrawn from the auction and was presumably sold. We can find no record that has since been donated to NARA and it is not part of the JFK Assassination Records Collection, nor does it appear to be in the custody of the JFK Library.

Box 4 of Kim Herd's files in ARRB records is still missing, but Box 7 contains a large file on Evelyn Lincoln. We're unaware of any additional missing records in the ARRB records. 

We hope that this information is of assistance to you. If you have any further questions or would like to be sent an order form for any or all of the above cited material, please feel free to respond by return e-mail or by calling (301) 837-1993.

Gene Morris

Archives II Textual Reference Branch (RDT2)

Room 2400

On Wed, Nov 21, 2018 at 10:12 AM RDT2 Assignments <textual.assignments@nara.gov> wrote:

Hi Gene:

The email it was sent from was billkelly3@gmail.com

On Wed, Nov 21, 2018 at 9:59 AM RDT2 Assignments <textual.assignments@nara.gov> wrote:

Other recipients: billkelly3@gmail.com, martha.murphy@nara.gov, AOTUS@nara.gov, bsimpich@gmail.com, public.affairs@nara.gov

Dear Mr. Kelly, 

Thank you for your inquiry. I will reach out to our archivists and see if they can provide any answers. Please note that Martha Murphy now works in a different office at the National Archives.

Sincerely, Laura Sheehan

Other recipients: laura.diachenko@nara.gov, martha.murphy@nara.gov, AOTUS@nara.gov, billkelly3@gmail.com, bsimpich@gmail.com

National Archives and Records Administration

JFK Collection, Archives II, College Park, Maryland

November 20, 2018

Re: Mrs. Lincoln’s Trunks and Mrs. Lincoln Project Papers and Recordings

Laura, 

1) According to the attached word document and link to same, attorney Mr. Norton had possession of two trunks that belonged to the late Mrs. Lincoln.

Can you tell me if the Assassination Records Review Board (ARRB) made an attempt to retrieve them? If so what became of them? What were the contents? Are the contents a part of the JFK Collection at the NARA?

2) In addition, it has come to my attention from the recently published book The Inheritance, that other documents, artifacts and evidence (tape recordings and watch) were among Mrs. Lincoln’s possessions that were inherited by Mr. Robert White.

Can you tell me what became of these items? The documents, the recordings and watch?

I understand that John Kennedy, Jr. obtained the watch at auction and intended to donate it to the NARA. Do you now possess that Cartier watch? 

It is also been noted that this case was discussed at a ARRB meeting the minutes of which were kept in the files of ARRB staff member Kim Herd in Box 4, that inexplicitly went missing. Is Box 4 of Herd’s files still missing?

Can you tell me if there are any other cases of such missing ARRB boxes from the files?

Thank you for your time and interest in these matters,