JFK files: UK journalist received call 25 minutes before the assassination telling him to call US embassy for 'big news'

The call was made to Cambridge News on 22 November 1963 and urged the reporter to call the embassy for “some big news”

A British journalist apparently received an anonymous call 25 minutes before the John F Kennedy assassination telling him to call the US Embassy, newly released documents reveal.

The call was made to Cambridge News on 22 November 1963 and urged the reporter to call the embassy for “some big news”.

A memo written to the director of the FBI from the deputy director of the CIA (Plans) outlines the details of the bizarre call.

After the news broke about Kennedy’s death, the reporter informed the authorities, who then relayed the information to intelligence in the US.

Dated just four days after the president’s death, the memo says: “The British security service (MI5) has reported that at 18:05 GMT on 22 November an anonymous telephone call was made in Cambridge, England, to the senior reporter of the Cambridge News.

“The caller said only that the Cambridge News reporter should call the American embassy in London for some big news and then hung up.

“After the word of the president’s death was received the reporter informed the Cambridge police of the anonymous call and the police informed MI5.

“The important point is that the call was made according to MI5 calculations, about 25 minutes before the president was shot. The Cambridge reporter had never received a call of this kind before and MI5 state that he is known to them as a sound and loyal person with no security record.”

Mr Kennedy was assassinated while his motorcade passed through Dallas in 1963.

Lee Harvey Oswald, a former US marine, was charged with his murder, but Oswald himself was shot dead two days later by Jack Ruby.