Keep those eyes open, friend.
O,
Enclosed are copies of all the 001-related documents I could get my hands on. There's more here than I expected, but less than you were hoping for.
A word of warning: be very careful with these files. I don't know if you've dealt with them before, but the Foundation doesn't fuck around with their max clearance secrets. I'd ask you to keep my name out of your mouth if they interrogate you. but I expect you'll have forgotten it well before you read this letter.
Keep those eyes open, friend.
N
File Inbox New Mail
FROM: Jonah Blackwell <moc.dcm|llewkcalb.j#moc.dcm|llewkcalb.j>
Mr. Doe,
On behalf of Marshall, Carter and Dark, I'd like to thank you for your patronage. The items you requested have been sent to the prearranged drop-off point and are expected to arrive within the next 24 hours.
If you ever feel the need to again seek out esoteric, anomalous, or otherwise strange objects of value, please do not hesitate to contact me again.
Cordially,
Jonah Blackwell
MC&D Acquisitions Department
John F. Kennedy (pictured left), shortly before EE-001.
Date of Occurrence: November 22, 1963
Location: Dallas, Texas, USA
Event Description: At 5:30 PM (GMT), U.S. President John F. Kennedy was fired upon in Dealey Plaza and struck twice. The first bullet was nonfatal, penetrating his upper back and exiting through his throat. The second bullet passed through his skull, killing him instantly.
An independent investigation performed by Mobile Task Force Delta-100 ("Lone Gunmen") has determined that Extranormal Event 001 was entirely nonanomalous in nature.
ITEM 2: Video tape recovered from the 1978 estate sale of Neil Tafani, an outspoken Kennedy truther. Footage appears to have been removed from both the beginning and end of the tape.
Video Log
> RECORDING STARTS <
| An unidentified subject sits across from the camera, swathed in shadow. He is holding a lit cigarette in his left hand, gesturing with it. Tafani, who appears to be holding the camera, speaks from out of frame. | |
| TAFANI | So you admit to being present for the assassination? |
| SUBJECT | Of course I admit to it, the damn thing was all on camera. And more fool me for reading the wrong forecast and dressing for the rain… I do take issue with your wording, though. That— |
| Subject jabs the air with the cigarette. | |
| —was not an "assassination." I'd know. It was a killing. | |
| TAFANI | What do you mean? |
| Subject takes a long drag on his cigarette, exhaling smoke. | |
| SUBJECT | An assassination, done properly, looks like any typical… expiration. Slipping in the shower. Overdrinking. A heart attack. God, I couldn't tell you how many of those I've done. And none were meant to be noticed. |
| Subject coughs for several seconds. | |
| Do you think anyone was trying to go unnoticed, shooting one of the most powerful men on the planet in front of a crowd of his devoted followers? No. It was a killing. A spectacle. It was meant to be seen. | |
| TAFANI | I don't think most people would agree with your definition of assassination. |
| SUBJECT | That's language, yes? It only means something so long as we're all in agreement. Too many differing interpretations and a word becomes only so much shape and sound. |
| TAFANI | Would carrying an umbrella on a sunny afternoon be something that was "meant to be seen?" |
| Subject chuckles. | |
| SUBJECT | Now he's catching on. |
| Subject takes another drag of his cigarette. | |
| You look disappointed. | |
| TAFANI | You still haven't really answered — about the first thing. You keep dancing around the subject. |
| SUBJECT | I apologize. When I get started talking I never really stop. A terrible habit, really. What was it you wanted to know, again? |
| Silence. | |
| TAFANI | Did you or did you not shoot John F. Kennedy? |
| SUBJECT | Well. That's the question, isn't it? |
> RECORDING ENDS <
Designation: Ideatic Specimen 001-288
Investigator: Agent Tomlin
Point of Origin: Aaron Laguardia, 1976
Description: EE-001 was orchestrated by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis's mother, Janet Lee Bouvier, who had secretly disapproved of her daughter's choice of spouse. Additionally, Bouvier was also responsible for the 1975 death of her second son-in-law, Aristotle Onassis, who is believed to have passed away due to complications from a neuromuscular junction disease.
Additional Notes: For the duration of the interview, Laguardia appeared to be making fixed eye contact with an indeterminate point 3-5 inches to the left of my head. This habit remained consistent even when I shifted in my seat or stood up to fetch him a cup of water. I suggest we isolate him to test for additional symptoms, he might be further along than initially anticipated.
Photo of the "umbrella man" witnessed near the motorcade during EE-001.
ITEM 3: Audio tape of a phone call Jack Ruby made shortly after being detained for killing Lee Harvey Oswald. Only Ruby's side of the exchange is audible.
Audio Log
> RECORDING STARTS <
| RUBY | It's me. |
|---|---|
| Silence. | |
| So you've heard already, have you? News travels fast. | |
| Silence. | |
| What's the problem? I had an opportunity and I took it, like you said. And I only needed one shot, so you tell Eddie he can get off my ass about my aim. | |
| Silence. | |
| Yeah, I guess I could've been more discreet about it, but— | |
| Silence. | |
| What do you mean "too much attention?" Nobody cares about that two-bit— | |
| Silence. | |
| He shot who?! |
> RECORDING ENDS <
U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson being sworn into office aboard Air Force One, two hours after EE-001.
ITEM 4: A collection of autobiographical tapes privately recorded by U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson.
Audio Log
> RECORDING STARTS <
| JOHNSON | There was something wrong with John, you see. Something in his head. |
|---|---|
| That's not to say he was— John wasn't crazy. He didn't have a mental sickness. It was… | |
| I could see it behind his eyes, sometimes, grey and squirming and full of teeth. Like a parasite, but… larger. I don't know how else to put it. | |
| It was rotting him from the inside. Devouring him by increments and replacing what it ate with more of itself. If he was still around by the time of his second term, he would've… | |
| The things he told me he'd do. God. Nuclear armageddon would've been mercy. | |
| I've done a great many things throughout my life that I've come to regret. But not this. Not for a damn second. |
> RECORDING ENDS <
Photo of the "babushka lady" that was witnessed taking photographs during EE-001.
Incident 001-D6
Description: On December 1st, 1993, a small electrical fire broke out in the Department of History's physical archives at Site-12. Though the automatic fire suppression system was able to extinguish the flames before they could spread, several historical documents were destroyed in the process.
ITEM 5: A laser disk copy of Ice Cold: A History of Coolness, a "post-modern, post-truth, post-all" docuseries made by members of Are We Cool Yet? regarding the art collective's history.
Video Log
> RECORDING STARTS <
| For the duration of the interview, which appears to have been filmed in a parking garage, the Zapruder film is projected onto a concrete wall behind its creator. In this version of the footage, a parade of domesticated clowns is cavorting through the motorcade as Kennedy is assassinated. | |
| ZAPRUDER | We got the call from JFK's campaign manager sometime in the spring of '62, I think? It was pretty crazy, we'd never gotten a call from any big names before. |
| INTERVIEWER | What was the call about? |
| ZAPRUDER | They wanted us to shoot an ad for his upcoming reelection campaign. Make something that would grab everyone's attention, get the youth voting, y'know? We workshopped it for about a week before I figured it out. |
| Zapruder grins. | |
| Assassination! That would get eyes like crazy. | |
| INTERVIEWER | Do you know who shot JFK, then? |
| ZAPRUDER | I dunno. I was pretty hungover that day, so I can't say for sure who ended up doing it. I'm surprised I was even able to keep the camera steady. |
| INTERVIEWER | What did Kennedy's people think of your video? |
| ZAPRUDER | They ended up cancelling the campaign before we could send it in. Shame, would've loved to see a dead guy run for president. |
| Zapruder laughs. | |
| I mean, he couldn't be any worse than the jokers we already have to choose from, right? |
> RECORDING ENDS <
Item №: SCP-001
Object Class: Maksur
Special Containment Procedures: SCP-001-A is to be sealed in a lead-lined box and interred in Holyhood Cemetery in Brookline, Massachusetts. SCP-001-B is to be held in a standard containment chamber positioned beneath the primary conference room of Site-01.
SCP-001-A and SCP-001-B may not, under any circumstances, be allowed to come into physical contact with one another.
Description: SCP-001-A is the projectile that killed U.S. President John F. Kennedy. It does not possess any verifiable anomalous properties.
SCP-001-B is the corpse of U.S. President John F. Kennedy. Since his assassination in 1963, SCP-001-B has failed to decay. It does not possess any other verifiable anomalous properties.
Radiocarbon dating suggests that SCP-001-B has been dead for at least 20,000 years.
Name: John Fitzgerald Kennedy
Sex: Male
Age: 46
Cause of Death: Homicide, firearm
Time of Death: 5:30 PM (GMT)
Identifying Marks: Face rendered unrecognizable due to extensive cranium damage. DNA, fingerprints, and dental records match.
Examination Summary: Body remarkably cold, considering recency of death. Skull partially collapsed. Wounds from the first bullet, in the upper back and throat, were not found. No other injuries uncovered.
Additional Notes: N/A
ITEM 6: Film reel anonymously sent to the private residence of former Chief Justice Earl Warren.
Video Log
> RECORDING STARTS <
| The camera appears to have placed on the counter of a picnic table at an indeterminate park. Across from the counter is the subject, a woman whose face is out of frame from the chin up. She appears to be wearing a headscarf. | |
| SUBJECT | All my life, I have always preferred to play games that I know I will win. "Luck," my grandmother said, "is a luxury only for those who can afford to lose." |
| Subject places three paper cups on the table in a row. | |
| Of these, my favorite has always been "find the lady." It is a simple game, and probably too well known to always work, but simplicity is a balm to me in this violent and complicated world. | |
| Subject displays a marble to the camera, then places it under the cup on the right. She starts shuffling the cups around, continuing to speak as she does so. | |
| It is like this: you turn and you turn the cups or the cards or the caskets around. You show the mark your trick. You talk to him, make him feel smart. "Don't look at my hands," you tell him. "Look at my face. Look at me." And when he's ready to gamble it all… | |
| Subject raises all three cups at once, revealing them all to be empty. | |
| He learns there was never a lady to find. | |
| Subject lowers the cups, then places a marble under each of them. | |
| Kennedy — is another kind of shell game. | |
| Subject starts shuffling the cups, faster than before. | |
| They dazzle you with the mysteries, the questions. How did they kill him? Why? And who really did it? Was it her? Or him? Was it me? | |
| Subject stops shuffling the cups. | |
| You look, and you look— | |
| Subject raises the left cup, showing it to be empty. | |
| And you look. | |
| Subject raises the right cup. It is empty. | |
| When the truth has been in front of your eyes the entire time. | |
| Subject raises the center cup. Beneath it is a single bullet. |
> RECORDING ENDS <
After snooping through the Foundation's Persons of Interest files, I've collated a list of notable 001 suspects. There looked to be plenty more, but I didn't have time for anything else.
| "Umbrella Man" | Professional killer, identity unknown. Theorized to have been employed by MI6. |
| George Warren Hickey Jr. | Secret Service agent that was stationed in the car directly behind Kennedy's vehicle. Received a large sum of money from one of the Unusual Incidents Unit's front organizations several days later. |
| "Badge Man" | Identity unknown. Suspected ties with the KGB. |
| Hugh Cartwright | Younger brother of Hogarth Cartwright, then-leader of the Chicago Spirit. |
| Jack Ruby | Nightclub owner primarily known for killing Lee Harvey Oswald. Believed to have previously done business with organizations associated with the Scarlet King. |
| "The Three Tramps" | Identities unknown. Several members of the Secret Service that witnessed the assassination claim to have seen them in their dreams the previous night. |
| James Earl Files | Claims to have fired a gun from inside the Texas School Book Depository, having accidentally dropped his pistol out of the sixth floor window with the safety off. |
| Siena 5 | Operative of a tachyon regulation agency from the 28th century. |
| ZSNMVCYTBBGG | Oiu mrs xbfk wfnh bzucnrz, rlba'h zcx? Gg kbg kmj kf tlpfh nsw, yshff djy. |
| Möngke Khan | Temporally-displaced khagan of the 13th century Mongol Empire. |
| Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis | John F. Kennedy's widow. |
| Dr. Thaddeus Robspierre Xyank | Deceased director of Research and Containment Team Δt. |
ITEM 7: Film reel recovered from the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, labeled "JFK Autopsy Footage (2 of 3)"
Video Log
> RECORDING STARTS <
| Due to poor camera quality and low lighting, this film's contents are extremely difficult to discern. This transcription should be considered to be largely conjecture. | |
| Footage begins in the interior of a cavern, lit by a lamp strapped to the cameraman, who appears to be wearing caving gear over hospital scrubs. His surgical gloves are visibly torn and stained with blood. | |
| For the first 18 minutes of film, the cameraman slowly works his way through the cave, gradually descending. The only sounds audible throughout are the cameraman's breathing, the wind, and a low, arrhythmic thumping sound. | |
| At 18:32, the cameraman reaches a narrow passage with a hole in the wall to his left. When he peers through the wall, something red and pulpy is visible on the opposite side. The cameraman inhales sharply and quickly continues through the passage. | |
| Cameraman continues to descend until 31:01, when he enters a small alcove. Another man is crouched on its opposite side, his face in profile, cradling something that might be a large stone or a skull. He appears to be mumbling to himself, though his speech isn't picked up by the camera's microphone. | |
| CAMERAMAN | Commander Humes? Is that you? |
| HUMES | <unintelligible> |
| CAMERAMAN | Commander Humes? |
| HUMES | <unintelligible> |
| CAMERAMAN | …James? |
| As if only just noticing his presence, Humes turns to look directly at the cameraman, eyes glinting strangely in the gloom. Seen straight-on, it becomes apparent that a large chunk of his head is missing. | |
| HUMES | Is this how it happens? |
> RECORDING ENDS <
Name: John F. Kennedy
Sex: Male
Age: 46
Cause of Death: Homicide, firearm
Time of Death: 5:30 PM (GMT)
Identifying Marks: Face unrecognizable due to faulty memory. DNA and dental records match.
Examination Summary: Body's temperature close to freezing. Skull fully collapsed. Hands missing. Had trouble finding the bullet holes.
Additional Notes: I never want to do this again.
Item №: SCP-001
Object Class: Sapientia
Special Containment Procedures: Non-applicable.
Description: SCP-001 is an anomalous neurological disorder that was discovered by Foundation researchers during the 1963 investigation of the Kennedy assassination, when over 100 witnesses to the event began displaying severe symptoms.
The primary effect of SCP-001 is the divergence of perception from objective reality. 80-95% of the population appear to possess a mild variant of SCP-001, including nearly all Foundation personnel. It is theorized that SCP-001 is responsible for various clerical errors in Foundation documentation; for example, the phenomenon of multiple anomalies receiving the same numerical designation.
Presently, no known treatment for SCP-001 exists.
ITEM 8: Video tape recovered from the 1978 estate sale of Neil Tafani, an outspoken Kennedy truther. Footage appears to have been removed from the end of the tape.
Video Log
> RECORDING STARTS <
| An unidentified subject sits across from the camera, swathed in shadow. They are holding an unlit cigarette in their right hand, gesturing with it. Tafani, who is sitting behind the camera, speaks from out of frame. | |
| TAFANI | Thank you so much for coming to speak with— |
| SUBJECT | You don't got to stand on formality with me. |
| TAFANI | Right. I'll cut to the chase, then… Did you shoot John F. Kennedy? |
| Silence. | |
| SUBJECT | Does it matter? |
| TAFANI | What? |
| SUBJECT | Whether or not I shot him. Does it matter? I mean, I could tell you anything, right? |
| I could say that I did do it. Or that I was just another patsy. Or that I didn't do it, but the guy who did used my gun. I could tell you whatever story I felt like. It wouldn't change a thing. | |
| TAFANI | The truth always matters. |
| SUBJECT | The truth… |
| Subject chuckles bitterly. | |
| SUBJECT | You want to know the truth? Well, the truth is, I don't have a single goddamn idea if I did it or not. |
| Now, can you pass me a light? I feel like an idiot, waving this thing around. | |
| Tafani briefly leans into frame as he passes the subject a lighter. The subject fiddles with it for a moment, before lighting the cigarette in a brief flash of flame. Though your face is only lit up for a fraction of a moment, it is plainly recognizable. |
> RECORDING ENDS <
Incident 001-G9
Description: On November 22nd, 1983, the security camera in Agent Tomlin's Site-01 office briefly ceased functioning for 5.6 seconds. At some point within this interval of time, Tomlin vanished, leaving behind a spot of his own blood on the seat of his chair. Investigators later found an unloaded pistol and a handwritten note in the drawer of his desk; forensic analysis suggests that Tomlin wrote it earlier that day. It reads as follows:
Working for an organization like the Foundation, one grows inured to conspiracy. Our purpose is to erase whatever information the public isn't ready for from the face of history. This, of course, does not mean that all conspiracies are true. Jews don't control the world government, fluoride in the water supply isn't being used to control your mind, and the Beatles didn't cover up Paul McCartney's death.
If every Kennedy conspiracy we had on record went off at once, there wouldn't be enough standing space in all of Dallas for that many assassins. If Kennedy had been hit by that many bullets at once, he'd likely be crushed to death under all that lead or vaporized by the amassed kinetic force. It simply isn't possible for all to be true.
But impossible things happen here every day, don't they?
The investigation into Tomlin's disappearance has since been suspended at the request of the ████████ █████████ Department.
Name: John Doe
Sex: Male
Age: Unknown
Cause of Death: Suicide, firearm
Time of Death: Unknown
Identifying Marks: N/A
Examination Summary: Body frozen solid. Head and arms missing, removed post-mortem. The bullet hole wouldn't stop bleeding.
Additional Notes: Kept getting lost on my way there. Accidentally dropped my scalpel in and didn't hear it hit the bottom.
Item №: SCP-001
Object Class: Principalis
Special Containment Procedures: SCP-001's effects can not and should not be contained. Those reading this document are to understand that one or more of the following descriptions are correct:
Description [01]: SCP-001 is the bullet responsible for John F. Kennedy's death. It does not possess any anomalous properties.
Description [02]: SCP-001 is a bullet that has never been fired. It is believed to have generated the mass delusion that Lee Harvey Oswald ever existed.
Description [03]: SCP-001 is the bullet-shaped focal point of an ongoing TK-Class Certainty Restructuring Event. All individual perceptions of the anomaly are partially-to-mutually exclusive and equally accurate.
Description [04]: SCP-001 is the bullet, yes. And it is the badge. It is the men in dark suits and the men with bags over their heads and the men we aren't allowed to remember. It is an impossibly vast and influential conspiracy that has affected society on every conceivable level.
Description [05]: SCP-001 is truth itself; the Foundation all things are built upon.
Name: N/A
Sex: N/A
Age: N/A
Cause of Death: N/A
Time of Death: N/A
Identifying Marks: N/A
Examination Summary: Couldn't get close enough to look. Doctors come and they fall in, down through the hole. I think they're still falling. I can hear the wind as it passes through them.
Additional Notes: [DATA EXPUNGED]
ITEM 9: Cassette tape that was found on John F. Kennedy's person after his assassination.
Audio Log
> RECORDING STARTS <
| Silence. | |
| Weighty plastic click. | |
| SUBJECT | I've been thinking about the Mandela Effect. The term refers to the phenomenon of false memory — named after the large-scale misconception that Nelson Mandela died in prison in the 1980s, rather than as a free man in 2013. |
| Many civilians believe this is proof of parallel realities, timelines. Though such things, of course, do exist, the only thing the so-called Mandela Effect proves is the American's stupefying inattention towards world events. | |
| And yet. | |
| There's something worth thinking about, in that. | |
| Click. | |
| Tape whirring. | |
| Click. | |
| I am holding the bullet in my hand. I am looking at it, and in this moment— | |
| Click. | |
| Tape whirring. | |
| Click. | |
| —overlayed over one another, like light through colored panes of glass. I blink, and I see the bullet. | |
| I blink again, and I see— | |
| Click. | |
| Tape whirring. | |
| Click. | |
| When perception can no longer be shared, where can truth be found? Where does it go? How does it change? | |
| Click. | |
| Tape whirring. | |
| Click. | |
| I am holding the bullet in my hand. I am— | |
| Click. | |
| Tape whirring. | |
| Click. | |
| —how to get it across. Sometimes, I think I can find a way. The words seem so close to being within my reach — but then they slip through, and I remember. Nobody will ever know the world the way I do. | |
| Click. | |
| Tape whirring. | |
| Click. | |
| Nobody will ever know— | |
| Click. | |
| Tape whirring. | |
| Click. | |
| Nobody will ever know— | |
| Click. | |
| Tape whirring. | |
| Click. | |
| Nobody will ever know— | |
| Click. | |
| Tape whirring. | |
| Click. | |
| Nobody wi— | |
| BANG. |
> RECORDING ENDS <
Item №: SCP-001
Object Class: [DATA EXPUNGED]
Special Containment Procedures: [DATA EXPUNGED]
Description: SCP-001 is the gunman, pulling the trigger.
ITEM 10: One bullet (used).
