John F. Kennedy assassination conspiracy theory
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The assassination of John F. Kennedy is one of the most popular sources for conspiracy theories. The people who subsrcibe to these theories often focus on the idea that Lee Harvey Oswald did not act alone, that he was a "patsy," or that Oswald didn't commit the murder at all. They also often argue that shots were fired from the "grassy knoll" near Dealey Plaza in Dallas, and not only from the Texas School Book Depository from where Oswald shot Kennedy. Some conspiracy theorists also believe that the Warren Commission report was a coverup.
JFK conspiracy theorists are notoriously fractious and may hold to one of several competing theories:
- Oswald made the shot; however he had some group providing logistics.
- The mafia was behind it, as payback for JFK
sleeping with their mistressesand his brother, Robert F. Kennedy, cracking down on organized crime after they allegedly helped them win Illinois in the 1960 election. Alternatively, they did it because JFK went too easy on Fidel Castro, which cost the mob revenues from Cuban casinos. - Right-wing anti-Castro groups were behind it, as payback for the botched 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion.
- Fidel Castro himself was behind it, in retaliation for the Bay of Pigs invasion or numerous assassination attempts from the CIA.
- The CIA, or a rogue faction of CIA agents and private wingnut activists was behind it.
- The government of Israel and Mossad were behind it, because Kennedy opposed Israel's nuclear weapon development programs.
- The Soviet Union brainwashed Oswald during his time in the USSR and programmed him to do it.[1] That or he was recruited by the KGB to do it. Or the KGB sent a double in his place. Or...
- Woody Harrelson's estranged father was behind it.
- Lyndon Johnson was behind the assassination. (Due to LBJ's personality and style, this is the one that manages to get the most fanfare.)
- Kennedy was assassinated because he had attempted to restore the printing of paper money by the U.S. Treasury rather than the Federal Reserve bank (a favorite theory of Paulbots[2]).
- Kennedy was assassinated by a cabal who wanted to expand the Vietnam War, because he was about to pull U.S. troops out.
- Some focus more on the theory that there was a second gunman at the grassy knoll and, again, Oswald being a "patsy" rather than trying to ascribe any broader conspiratorial motive.
- T. Casey Brennan[wp] did it, or so he says. This claim is just one ingredient of his mighty chick-magnetism.
- Principia Discordia author Kerry Thornley was Lee Harvey Oswald's best friend in the Marines in 1959, so there is a Discordianism connection to the assassination.
- Kennedy shot first.
- The driver shot Kennedy. This one is thought to be a parody since there would be millions of people seeing jfk being shot. unfortunately, it isn't.[3]
- Oswald shot Kennedy through the neck and a Secret Service agent in the following car accidentally shot him in the head raising his rifle to return fire (the third casing by Oswald was used to keep the chamber of his rifle clean).
- Kennedy arranged it all as an elaborate suicide.
- Kennedy was killed by a version of himself from the future, because otherwise it would cause WWIII.
- Kennedy survived and was replaced by a double "they" buried instead, alien abducted, still secretly running things from behind the scenes along with his family, the "curse" being a huge smokescreen, died in a mental institution as a vegetable from the brain damage... take your pick.
Conspiracy theories about the assassination are still popular on both the left, right, and amongst the American public.[4]
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[edit] Investigation
The first official investigation was undertaken by the Warren Comission, which concluded that the assassination was not a conspiracy, and all official investigations after it have more or less accepted its findings. The United States House Select Committee on Assassination, however, concluded that there is a high probability that the assassination was a conspiracy.[5] Two conflicting reports, and that's where it all began.
Two early books critiquing the Warren Commission report were Inquest by Edward Jay Epstein, and Rush to Judgment by Mark Lane. Both hinted at a conspiracy and were relatively tame by today's standards. Mark Lane later went off the deep end with conspiracy books on several other subjects (including the Jonestown mass suicide, and the assassination of Martin Luther King). The John Birch Society was an early proponent of an assassination conspiracy theory, with an article by Revilo P. Oliver claiming the KGB did it. Liberty Lobby later took up the assassination conspiracy theory and wooed Mark Lane into defending them in a libel lawsuit brought against them by "Plumber" E. Howard Hunt, in response to an article in Spotlight newspaper claiming Hunt was implicated in the assassination. Louisiana district attorney Jim Garrison prosecuted New Orleans businessman Clay Shaw in 1969 for conspiracy to murder in the Kennedy assassination, claiming that it was the job of a bunch of homosexual males, including Lee Harvey Oswald and Jack Rigby, the motive being it was "kill thrill club"; the jury took 54 minutes to find Shaw not guilty. Shaw even went a step further by disproving the theory himself.
Another more reliable book criticizing the investigation, came from task force member Gerald Ford. In A Presidential Legacy and The Warren Commission, Ford stated the CIA destroyed or kept from investigators key facts that would expose operations; which he said could easily be read the wrong way as collaborating with the assassination. [6] [7]
[edit] Popcorn, anyone?
Two popular films portraying the Kennedy assassination as a conspiracy were Oliver Stone's 1991 flick JFK,[8] based on Garrsion's theory, and the 1973 movie Executive Action,[9] based on Lane's theory that a cabal of right-wing businessmen was behind the assassination. JFK assassination conspiracy books proliferated, in particular, after the popularity of the 1991 film, ranging from the meh to the completely ludicrous.
[edit] Reality
Lee Harvey Oswald did it.
Why? It was due to a lack of bowling alleys and nightclubs. No, really.[10] More immediately, he hung out with Castro sympathizers in Mexico City during his unsuccessful attempt to get a Cuban visa, some of whom voiced the opinion that Kennedy should be killed in retaliation for his attempts to have Castro assassinated.[11]
Oh, and the KGB spread many of the other conspiracy theories, because they knew that given the climate of the time, the Soviet Union was likely to be blamed and they wanted to mitigate that to some extent — it appears to have worked more than they ever imagined. They knew fairly early on that American intelligence didn't believe they were involved, but if the American public was to hold a widespread belief that the Kremlin had Kennedy killed, not only would the door be open for retaliation (some nutjob shooting up Soviet embassies, for example) but it could cause the public to press for war. If declassified Soviet materials are to be believed, they were just as surprised as the Americans by the assassination.[12]
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- The Umbrella Man, an Errol Morris mini-documentary on one aspect of the assassination.
- Mortal Error, a book that analyzes the ballistics and concludes that Oswald acted alone, but the shot to Kennedy's head was an accidental shot by a Secret Service agent.
[edit] Footnotes
- ↑ Sound familiar, video gamers?
- ↑ Myth: The Federal Reserve had a role in the JFK murder, John McAdams
- ↑ timestamp given in the video provided as the name is misleading and just a series of out-of-context Bullshit
- ↑ 59% as of 2013
- ↑ Background of John F. Kennedy assassination conspiracy theories on Wikipedia
- ↑ http://books.google.com/?id=HOCdGQAACAAJ
- ↑ See the Wikipedia article on Gerald Ford.
- ↑ JFK (1991), IMDB
- ↑ Executive Action (1973), IMDB
- ↑ 5 Turncoats Who Changed the Tide of History, Cracked
- ↑ Why'd Oswald Do It?, Slate
- ↑ K.G.B. Told Tall Tales About Dallas, Book Says, The New York Times (the Mitrokhin Archive, if you were wondering).