The Science of Conspiracy Theories

The JFK conspiracy theories

The JFK conspiracy theories

This is the most discussed incident in modern history. There are a whole bunch of conspiracy theories connected with the assignation of President John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963. I remember hearing about it on the radio and I had trouble believing it actually happened. At the time it appeared that Lee Harvey Oswald shot the president, but the conspiracy theories about this event bloomed into a massive bundle of media madness, especially after Jack Ruby killed Oswald.

The top ten theories about JFK's assassination are in reverse order: Jimmy Hoffa got the Mafia to do it; Fidel Castro retaliated; Anti-Castro Cubans were angry at failed coup; Right-wing extremists hated Kennedy; Oswald was a Soviet agent; The Military-Industrial Complex was afraid of cutbacks; LBJ orchestrated it; the CIA gave Oswald LSD; The Federal Reserve did it; and the best for last is that is was a part of the government's UFO cover-up.

As you might know, Jimmy Hoffa was the President of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters who vanished in July 1975. There are conspiracy theories about what happened to him, but I will stick to his connection to Kennedy except to say that the theory goes that Frank 'The Irishman' Sheeran killed Jimmy Hoffa. There is no doubt that the 'mob' had the ability to assassinate Kennedy, but did they? That's a great question. I don't believe that they actually engineered the assassination, but I do believe that they wanted Kennedy dead. Kennedy had no love for Hoffa and was determined to bring the Mafia, which was supposed to be running the Teamsters, to justice.

It's easy to understand why Fidel Castro would want Kennedy killed, especially after the Cuban Missile crisis of 1962. The so-called 'Jodie Foster theory' about the Kennedy assassination proposes that Oswald admired Castro and killed the president to show his loyalty to him and to impress Foster. There is a lot of secrecy about the possibility that Kennedy sought secret meetings with Castro and that McGeorge Bundy, National Security advisor, and the CIA were involved. This theory runs counter to the theory that Castro had anything to do with Kennedy's assassination.

Anti-Castro Cubans certainly wanted justice for the failed coup attempt; they were certainly trained in covert military procedures, but it's unlikely that they had anything to do with the assassination. There is a possible link between Oswald and these Cubans, but the evidence is lacking or not very reliable.

There were plenty of Right Wing Extremists in Dallas at the time of JFK's assassination, and they hated the liberal president. This fact led to the label that Dallas was the City that Killed Kennedy. The John Birch Society was at the top of the extremist list. As you might know, the John Birch Society is an ultra right wing society dedicated to fighting communism and promoting the limiting of government. It's like the Tea Party on steroids. Founded by Robert W. Welch. The theory goes that leading members of the society (Texas oil millionaires) hired two gunmen to kill the president. Of course, as soon as the assassination happened, outstanding conservatives tried to quell any popular idea that the John Birch Society had anything to do with it. As it turns out, the Soviet Union and Communist leaders blamed the assassination on an 'ultra-right' coup plot. This sounds conflicting to me.

According to Wiki, Lee Harvey Oswald was a former U.S. Marine who defected to the Soviet Union in October 1959 and lived there until June 1962. He returned to the States and shot Kennedy and police officer J.D. Tippit, and was subsequently killed by nightclub owner, Jack Ruby. Oswald was trained to shoot a rifle and scored 212 in December 1958, slightly above the requirements for sharpshooter. He was court-martialed for accidently shooting himself in the elbow with a 22 and then fighting with a sergeant. He supposedly learned Russian. He was given a hardship discharge on September 11, 1959. After traveling to Russia, he defected, renouncing his U.S. citizenship. He subsequently married a Russian woman and had a child with her. He obtained a visa to get her into the U.S. with him. Obviously, he liked Russia and communist ideals. He was seen going to the 6th floor of the Texas School book Depository 35 minutes before the assassination. He obviously knew how to shoot a rifle and was on the scene at the right time. The question is: was he working for the KBG or was he working for
The FBI? That sounds conflicting to me. Personally, I would link him to Castro, rather than the Russians. He seemed fascinated with Cuba. I think he would have been a poor choice for an assassin, especially by the KBG. He was not very stable and could have gone either way. If the KBG could have been connected to the assassination, it would have meant war. There is a supposed memo from the Director of the CIA that identifies Oswald as a CIA agent. Was he? That's a good question. Why would they use a turncoat to do it?

The military-industrial complex being involved doesn't make sense. The only way I could see this being a possibility is the fact that Kennedy wanted to pull out of Vietnam, which would have struck an economic blow the industries that supply the military. It seems like a stretch to me because if it were proven, the companies involved would have been in big trouble.

Did LBJ arrange JFK's assassination to become president? That's a wild claim. The theory is based on the only forensic print lifted from the sniper scene. It belonged to Malcolm Wallace, a long time friend of Johnson. The other evidence for this is that Johnson's mistress claimed that he told her that he had JFK killed. The theory also goes this way: Kennedy reluctantly picked Johnson for vice president because J. Edgar Hoover, the FBI head, was a closet homosexual and was blackmailed by the mob and big oil into threatening Kennedy to pick Johnson or else he would reveal Kennedy's meth addiction and his womanizing activities. There are two truths here: one is that Hoover was a homosexual and that Kennedy was a womanizer. Everybody was aware of JFK's affair with Marilyn Monroe and that Jackie knew about it. Then there is Clint Murchison's connection. Clint was a Texas oil millionaire who entertained big politicians and businessmen in the Hotel Del Charro in La Jolla, California. This location was where organized crime, the FBI chief, big oil money and political power barons could mingle. The mob had photographic evidence of Hoover's homo activities. Keep in mind that homosexuality was kept undercover then. The problem is that Attorney General Robert Kennedy had declared war on the mob, putting Hoover in precarious position. He was forced to get Johnson on the ticket with Kennedy. Johnson hated the Kennedys and had promised to do something about them. Supposedly, Johnson was complicit in at least nine murders. Are you sure his name isn't Putin?

The Federal Reserve was implicated in Kennedy's assassination because of Presidential Executive Order 11,110, which supposedly went over the Fed by permitting the issuance of silver certificates in lower denominations as long as the Fed had enough silver to back them. The truth is that the order only authorized lower denominations but didn't create authority to issue them. Obviously, there was tension between Kennedy and the Federal Reserve not only about this but other issues, but I can't see it leading to a plot to assassinate him.

The idea that Kennedy was assassinated to prevent him from revealing the truth about UFO sightings is one that I like. Supposedly, JFK was attempting to uncover what the U.S. Government knew about UFO's just ten days before his assassination. Actually, this conspiracy tries to lump Marylyn Monroe's death to her involvement in this. In a top-secret memo written on November 12, 1963, the president ordered the CIA director to brief him on all their UFO data. This memo has led to the conspiracy theory that the CIA had him killed to make sure that secret UFO information wouldn't be leaked out. There are several reasons that Kennedy wanted to know about UFO's. He obviously had an interest in space travel. He was responsible for the Apollo mission to the moon even though he never saw its conclusion. And, like most presidents, including Clinton and Bush, he wanted to know what secrets the CIA had. This aggravates me because it seems too ridiculous. Surely, the UFO information isn't so amazing that the CIA would kill a president to keep it hidden. Why Kennedy? I'm sure that Eisenhower wanted to know about UFO's. I wished that this were true, but there's little evidence for it.

Was there a plot to kill Kennedy? I believe that there was. The evidence that there was a second shooter is based on investigation of audiotapes and movie film taken at the event by Abraham Zapruder. It doesn't help that the entire autopsy and forensic investigation were bungled by ineptness. The idea that the evidence was tampered with casts doubt that won't go away. There is doubt about the number of shots fired, the trajectory of the bullets, the effect on Kennedy's brain, the fact that Oswald was killed before he could testify and the suspicious deaths of everyone involved, especially Jack Ruby, the man who shot Oswald. I'm not going to go into the excruciating details concerning this evidence. There have been many books written about it. I just hate the fact that none of the information about the assassination is unequivocal. Kennedy's assassination was either a tragic historical event or the most outrageous plot in the history of the United States. Take your pick.

Thanks for reading.