Did a CIA document in the unsealed JFK assassination files name British actress Penelope Keith as the lone killer? No, that's not true: The purported investigative document naming Keith as the "lone shooter" cites her work in the BBC TV comedy series "The Good Life," which did not start airing until 1975, at least 10 years after the investigation ended. A search for the document in the National Archives' JFK files did not find the document.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) shared on X.com on March 20, 2025 under the title "This, from the recently released JFK files, is earthshaking news!I can't believe they didn't redact this." It included the image of a document that ended:
(4) We can hereby name the assassin.
The lone shooter in Dallas, Texas on 22 November 1963 was Miss Penelope Keith, star of the BBC television program 'The Good Life'.
This is what the post looked like at the time of writing:
(Source: Threads screenshot taken on Fri Mar 21 17:26:34 2025 UTC)
The document's purported author is listed as H. Clark Schor, who was a CIA employee from 1950 until his retirement in 1981. His name can be found in the JFK files, but only from 1978 when he was serving as the chief of the CIA's plans and review group central cover staff. His reports were responses to the House Select Committee on Assassinations, which was reviewing the investigation of President John Kennedy's assassination 15 years after the November 22, 1963 killing. These were released in 2017, 2022, and 2021 -- not in the 2025 release.
Penelope Keith, born in Sutton, Surrey, England in 1940, was a member of London's Royal Shakespeare Company in 1963, the year of the assassination. Her breakout TV role came in 1975 when she was cast to play Margo Leadbetter in the BBC's "The Good Life" series.
Despite the bizarre claim that Keith would have traveled to Texas to single-handedly assassinate the U.S. president in 1963, the fake document was shared by British comedian Russell Brand on his X.com account. Brand deleted his post amid widespread criticism.
