Wildest JFK conspiracy theories as Trump set to launch recordsdata – from UFOs to Illuminati
With Donald Trump preparing to release more than 80,000 pages of files relating to the assassination of US President John F. Kennedy, we look at some of the wildest conspiracy theories
The assassination of John F. Kennedy is set to go under the microscope once again with Donald Trump preparing to release more than 80,000 pages of information.
JFK was shot while travelling in an open-top car with his wife Jackie on a visit to Dallas, Texas, with events of that tragic day on November 22, 1963, and the reasons behind them, the subject of intense debate ever since.
Trump has promised that his administration will make unredacted files available to the public later on Tuesday for the first time ever.
Speaking about the release, he said: “People have been waiting for decades for this
“We have a tremendous amount of paper. You’ve got a lot of reading. I don’t believe we’re going to redact anything.”
The official conclusion was that Lee Harvey Oswald was the sole perpetrator of JFK’s murder. But that hasn’t stopped a series of increasingly bizarre conspiracy theories taking hold in the public consciousness.
Here we take a look at some of the most outlandish.
Was it the work of a lone gunman?
The official 1964 investigation into the assassination of the 46 year old President, known as The Warren Commission, identified 24 year old ex-marine Oswald as the only assassin.
It concluded that he fired three shots from his rifle at 12.30pm from a sixth-floor window of the Texas School Book Depository building, as JFK’s car passed through Dealey Plaza in Dallas. The first bullet missed its target, the second – the infamous ‘magic bullet’ – struck the president in the back, exited through his throat, then injured Texas governor John Connally, shattering his wrist and ending up in his thigh.
The third bullet delivered the fatal blow to Kennedy’s head. Most subsequent formal investigations have supported the ‘lone killer’ theory.
After allegedly fleeing and shooting another police officer in Dallas on the same day, Oswald was apprehended but was shot dead by 53 year old nightclub owner Jack Ruby two days later, before he could stand trial.
The theory of multiple shooters?
This idea gained traction after Oliver Stone’s 1991 film JFK, which starred Kevin Costner as District Attorney Jim Garrison. Many people are convinced that more than one shooter was involved.
Sceptics question the intricate path of the so-called ‘magic bullet’, which was reportedly discovered on Connally’s stretcher, who was also injured.
Paul Landis was a Secret Service agent on the scene at the time and asserts that he found a bullet behind JFK’s seat and placed it on the president’s stretcher. He speculates that it might have fallen onto Connally’s stretcher when they were next to each other at the hospital.
If there was no magic bullet, was Connally struck by a separate bullet?
Were additional bullets fired as audio evidence implies – or from the front rather than the back – as the renowned Zapruder film might suggest?
Would Oswald have had enough time to fire them in a few seconds anyway?
There were also witness reports of shots fired from a grassy knoll near the murder scene. And why did Kennedy’s brain later go missing.
A 1979 House select committee determined there was probably a conspiracy to kill JFK.
A CIA plot?
Following the shooting, police detained three seemingly homeless men behind the grassy knoll.
Strangely, they were clean-shaven and well-dressed, sparking a theory that they were actually CIA hitmen.
And was a man photographed holding an umbrella on a sunny day genuinely a protestor as he claimed?
Kennedy is believed to have pledged to dismantle the CIA, following their embarrassment over the failed 1961 Bay of Pigs operation to overthrow Cuban leader Fidel Castro. The agency was also responsible for selecting JFK’s Dallas route, failing to properly inspect it and withholding evidence.
Additionally, former director Allen Dulles conveniently served on the Warren Commission.
Did The VP Do It?
On that fateful afternoon, as JFK’s lifeless body was transported back to Washington DC, Vice-President Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in as the next president, standing beside Jackie Kennedy who was still clad in her blood-stained pink dress.
The theory that LBJ orchestrated Kennedy’s murder stems from speculation that he was about to be dropped from Kennedy’s re-election ticket or was conspiring with FBI chief J Edgar vacuum and business magnates. A woman’s assertion that she was LBJ’s mistress and heard him threatening Kennedy at a party has been dismissed by experts.
A Cuban Or KGB Target?
The US had attempted to assassinate Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro, and one theory – seemingly endorsed by LBJ – suggests that this was Castro’s retaliation. Others, including a former CIA head, suspect the Soviets were responsible.
Humiliated by Kennedy during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, they theorise that the Soviets either hired or brainwashed Oswald to execute the assassination. Oswald was a known communist sympathiser who had spent time in the USSR and was married to a Russian woman.
A Mafia Hit?
Some theorists suggest that JFK was assassinated by the mob, as his brother Robert, who was the US attorney general at the time, was cracking down on organised crime. Several mafia groups have claimed responsibility, and former hitman James Files even confessed to being the second gunman on the grassy knoll.
Jack Ruby, the man who killed Oswald and later died in prison for the murder, is also believed to have had connections to the Mafia.
A UFO Cover Up?
One of the more outlandish theories suggests that JFK was murdered to prevent him from discovering the truth about UFOs. This theory emerged because he was shot just 10 days after allegedly sending a classified memo to the CIA demanding answers.
Something Else?
Other theories propose that JFK was taken out by the ‘military industrial complex’ or a clandestine society known as the Illuminati, both of which were concerned that JFK would put an end to the profitable Vietnam War.
There are also theories suggesting that the limousine’s driver was responsible, or that a stray bullet from Secret Service agent George Hickey accidentally caused JFK’s death.
The most bizarre theories include claims that Jackie Kennedy herself shot her husband, or that baseball legend Joe DiMaggio arranged JFK’s assassination, believing that the Kennedys were behind the death of his ex-wife Marilyn Monroe in 1962.
