Meet Farris Rookstool III, former FBI analyst, JFK historian and WFAA special contributor:
Farris Rookstool III is the world's leading expert on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
During his distinguished career with the FBI, Rookstool spent over nine years reading more than 500,000 pages of classified investigative reports concerning the assassination and prepared over 3,500 pages of follow-up investigative reports.
- The only FBI employee granted access to the National Archives Records Administration Southwest Region vault where Parkland Hospital Trauma Room One was stored.
- Personally transported all of the official records from Dallas to Washington, D.C. and served on the FBI JFK Task Force in Washington, D.C.
- Briefed the Attorney General, FBI Director, and members of Congress on the Kennedy Assassination Records.
Solving One of the Greatest Kennedy Mysteries
Rookstool solved one of the greatest Kennedy assassination mysteries of all time. He located the original missing arrest records and identified the 'three tramps' that were arrested after the assassination on November 22, 1963 and long suspected as being CIA operatives The Jim Garrison investigation, followed by the Rockefeller Commission, and the House Select Committee on Assassinations failed to identify and solve the mystery of these three individuals. Following the passage of the John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992, Rookstool assisted the FBI JFK Task Force in the declassification of the classified records.
- Conducted the first face-to-face meeting with the KGB to discuss Lee Harvey Oswald and also prepared the FBI interview questions for the New Orleans Mob Boss Carlos Marcello prior to his release from prison.
- Served as a principal historian in the creation of the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza.
- Invited as the only historian by Caroline Kennedy and the CEO of Sotheby's to go through all of President and Mrs. Kennedy's personal items in the 1996 Sotheby's auction.
Today, Rookstool lectures nationally, as well as internationally to prestigious organizations and individuals to include being IDF Counter-terrorism adviser to Yitzhak Shamir &Yitzhak Rabin and to H.S.H. Prince Albert of Monaco and the following:
- United States Secret Service (USSS)
- Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
- Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
- Royal Canadian Mounted Police
- MI-5, INTERPOL
- International Chiefs of Police
- Col. Yigal Carmon
Honoring Tippit and Family
Rookstool also assisted the Dallas Police Department with the restoration of a Dallas Police patrol car to resemble Officer J.D. Tippit's vehicle as a tribute to all fallen police officers. He provided a personal historical narrative to the Tippit family, which was the first time the entire family, had visited the crime scene since 1963. Rookstool's research also led to honoring Mr. Temple F. Bowley, the citizen who came to the aid of Officer J.D. Tippit immediately after he was shot.
Historical Marker
On January 27, 2012, The Texas Historical Commission unanimously approved Rookstool's 109-page historical narrative request for awarding a state historical marker at the site of the killing of Dallas Police Officer J.D. Tippit by Lee H. Oswald - November 22, 1963. The marker was installed in a new park on the DISD campus of Adamson High School on November 20, 2012 around the 49th anniversary of his death.
