Our Conspiracy of the Week series continues, and this time round we're taking a look at one of the most widely-believed conspiracy theories to have ever existed. There are thousands of people, not just in America but across the world, who believe that there is no way we've been told the truth surrounding the assassination of former President of the United States, John F. Kennedy. What will go down in the history books is the version of events as told by the government at the time, and subsequently the authorities and the media. But, could there actually be another few dozen layers to one of the most tragic events in American history?
The assassination of JFK - what we've been told
President Kennedy was in the midst of a political trip on Friday November 22, 1963, at the time of his murder, hoping to smooth over Democratic Party tensions between two party liberals and the conservative John Connally. He was travelling through downtown Dallas, Texas in a presidential motorcade with the Connallys at 12.30pm Central Standard Time, at which point he was shot once in the back, with the bullet exiting via his throat, and once in the head.
Taken for emergency medical treatment to Parkland Hospital, the President was pronounced dead just 30 minutes after his arrival, at just 46 years of age, and 1,036 days in office.
Lee Harvey Oswald was subsequently arrested for Kennedy's assassination, as well as the murder of police officer J.D. Tippit, having shot the President dead from the Texas School Book Depository where he worked as an order filler. He always denied having carried out the assassination, instead claiming to be a patsy for the murder, but was shot dead by Jack Ruby on November 24 before he could face a trial.
Ruby was arrested and convicted following the murder of Oswald, before successfully appealing the death sentence he had been handed. Before a new trial date was set however, he became ill and died of cancer on January 3, 1967.
What do the conspiracists say?
There's no wonder an abundance of conspiracies grew out of this assassination, because of Oswald's own claims of being set up for the slaying, and his subsequent murder at the hands of Ruby.
It's hard to pin down one single conspiracy that does the rounds, as there have been so many. The majority of them however include accusations of the CIA, the Mafia, Cuban Prime Minister Fidel Castro, the KGB, or sitting Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson being involved. Sometimes, a number of these organisations or individuals are even said to have collaborated on the plan to murder the President.
A number of inconsistencies and exclusions of evidence have been pointed out by researchers in the years since JFK's assassination, with United States Senator and Senate Select Committee on Intelligence member, Richard Schweiker telling author Anthony Summers in 1978, that he "believe[d] that the Warren Commission [the official body investigating the assassination] was set up at the time to feed pabulum to the American public for reasons not yet known, and that one of the biggest cover-ups in the history of [America] occurred at that time."
Richard Buyer would go on to claim that many witnesses whose statements suggested a conspiracy were ignored by the Warren Commission, or even intimidated following their speaking out. Jim Marrs would lend credence to these claims in his book Crossfire, which gave accounts of several people who said they were intimidated by FBI agents or anonymous individuals into altering or suppressing information they had.
So, could there have been a cover-up?
Of course there could have. It would have been an incredibly hard thing to pull off, however. For a start, there would have had to have been the involvement of pretty much every government body in America, as well as all of the authorities.
Roscoe Drummond said it best in 1966, when he wrote in his column: "If there was a conspiracy to cover up the truth about the assassination, it would have to involve the Chief Justice, the Republican, Democratic, and non-party members of the commission, the FBI, the CIA, the Secret Service, the distinguised doctors of the armed services - and the White House - a conspiracy so multiple and complex that it would have fallen of its own weight."
What do you think?
NEXT TIME: The Roswell incident
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