JFK Assassination 50th Anniversary: 10 Conspiracy Theories You Haven’t Heard

John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, was assassinated 50 years ago on November 22 by a deranged lone gunman named Lee Harvey Oswald … or so the story goes. But according to a Gallup poll conducted in April, six-tenths of Americans still believe that multiple people were involved in a conspiracy to kill President Kennedy.

Here are some of the more intriguing discrepancies and theories surrounding the last successful assassination of an American president.

1. Eugene B. Dinkin, Army Cryptographer, Warns of Assassination Weeks in Advance; Placed in Psych Ward

Eugene B. Dinkin, a cryptographic code operator stationed in Metz, France, in 1963, predicted an attempt on JFK’s life in Texas weeks before it happened. He attempted to warn the White House, journalists, and diplomats that President Kennedy was in mortal danger. In an excerpt of his story taken from Bloody Treason by Noel Twyman, Dinkin learned:

…that a conspiracy was in the making for the ‘military’ of the United States, perhaps combined with an ultra right wing economic group.

Dinkin soon heard rumors that he was going to be placed in a psych ward. He went AWOL and fled to Geneva, Switzerland, and told his story to the editor of the Geneva Diplomat. This was confirmed by a letter from the CIA in the Warren Commission Report, the official investigation behind the assassination. But the letter was repressed until 1976. Unfortunately for Eugene B. Dinkin, he was repressed, too. Nine days before JFK’s assassination, he was captured and put in a psych ward. You can read more about Dinkin here.

2. JFK Was Killed by the Federal Reserve Banks

Ever wonder how the super-rich always seem to stay super rich? All the money of the United States is built on debt, meaning the United States is perpetually paying interest on its own currency. The Federal Reserve of the United States is a privately owned institution with 10 board members, and the interest we pay goes right into these board members’ pockets.

You’re probably very familiar with some of these people’s family names: Lehman, Goldman, Sachs, and J.P. Morgan just to name a few. President Kennedy wanted to change this. Before he was assassinated, President Kennedy created $4 billion of non-interest-bearing money with Executive Order 11110.

Interestingly, shortly after he was assassinated, his second-in-command and soon President Lyndon B. Johnson, recalled Executive Order 11110 and all debt-free notes. You can read more about JFK’s debt-free money and the history of the debt money here. JFK was the last American president to oppose the central banking institution.

3. Hale Boggs, Warren Commission Dissenter, Disappears in Alaskan Wilderness

Democratic House Majority Leader Hale Boggs was never happy with the the Warren Commission’s “magic bullet” theory. In fact, he was an outspoken critic of the theory even while serving as a member of the Warren Commission. It is widely speculated that he continued his digging into the truth behind JFK’s death long after the Warren Commission, and some believe he may have gotten too close to something. Boggs disappeared on a flight from Juneau to Anchorage during the election season of 1972. No wreckage or body was ever found.

An interesting side note: Boggs is the father of TV and public radio journalist Cokie Roberts. You can read more about Hale Boggs here.

4. The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) Doesn’t Apply to JFK’s Assassination

The Freedom of Information Act was reluctantly signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson on July 4, 1966. Since then many amendments have been made to FOIA, but none so eyebrow-raising as this: all the files on JFK’s assassination fall under different rules.

The President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992 requires that all the information surrounding JFK’s assassination be publicly released 25 years after the date of enactment of the Act, which should be October 26, 2017. However, there’s a specialty clause to this: All the information should be publicly released unless the serving President of the United States decides that more postponement is necessary to protect “national security.” As of today, there are 50,000 pages of government documents that have yet to be released regarding the assassination. You can read more about the JFK Assassination Records Collection Act of 1992 here.

5. JFK’s Wounds Were Surgically Altered to Corroborate the Lone Gunman Theory

One of the Warren Commission’s main arguments for a lone gunman was an autopsy report that said the two bullets hit JFK from behind, from the direction of the Texas School Book Depository, where evidence placed Lee Harvey Oswald. But the autopsy report contradicts what doctors at Parkland Memorial Hospital said after they tried to save the president’s life following the shooting. The doctors and a nurse claim that the entrance wounds were from the front. Dr. Malcolm Perry, who treated JFK, was quoted as saying:

…there was an entrance wound below the Adam’s apple.

Other inconsistencies between the hospital’s initial reports and the autopsy report mar the credibility of the investigation. So was JFK’s body surgically altered after he was pronounced dead to help incriminate Lee Harvey Oswald? You can read more about it here.

6. Six Weeks Prior to the Assassination, JFK’s Driver Suddenly Died

Exactly six weeks before President Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, his regular Secret Service limo driver, Thomas Shipman, died of a sudden heart attack at Camp David. Shipman died on October 14, 1963. The above newspaper clipping was printed on October 16, 1963, giving a period of two days for an autopsy. Obviously, no toxicology tests were done.
This interesting detail becomes more insightful when one realizes that the death of Shipman cleared the way for William Greer to become JFK’s limousine driver while in Dallas. Conspiracists have long cited the video below as evidence that Greer was involved with the plot.

In it, you can see Greer braking upon the first shot, giving time for the shooter to aim the head shot that would kill Kennedy. Some have even claimed that Greer was the shooter, pointing out a possible gun in his hand. You can read more about Shipman’s mysterious death and Greer here.

7. The Death of Dorothy Kilgallen

Dorothy Kilgallen was an American journalist who eventually became known for her coverage of conspiracy theories. After JFK’s assassination, Kilgallen became interested in the inconsistencies surrounding his death — so much so that infamous FBI director J. Edgar Hoover began a file on her.

One of Kilgallen’s biggest accomplishments surrounding the JFK assassination was her ability to get a private interview with Jack Ruby, the man who shot and silenced Lee Harvey Oswald before he could face prosecution. Kilgallen also obtained and released a then-classified report of the Warren Commission’s interrogation of Jack Ruby. This obviously upset a lot of government officials.

A few days prior to her death on November 8, 1965, Kilgallen confided in friends that she had found something about the JFK assassination that would “blow the JFK case sky high.” She then told friends that she was in fear for her life.

Not long after, Kilgallen was found dead in her Manhattan apartment from an overdose of alcohol and barbiturates. She had never suffered from any sort of addiction. You can read more about Kilgallen here.

8. The Magic Bullet Switcheroo By Arlen Specter

Arlen Specter was a member of the Warren Commission. His major contribution to the Warren Commission was the “single bullet theory,” dubbed “magic bullet theory” by critics, which claimed that the bullet that killed Kennedy also hit and wounded Texas Governor John Connally, who was riding in the same vehicle.

As an investigator for the Warren Commission (appointed by later president, then Representative Gerald Ford), Specter had access to all the materials surrounding the JFK assassination. This is alarming because one of the hospital employees who found the magic bullet on the day of assassination claims that the bullet Specter presented from the FBI records does not match the one found. Specter would have had ample opportunity to switch the bullets.

Specter’s reward for the single bullet theory? Thirty years in the Senate. You can read more about Specter here.

9. Secret Service Was Told to Stand Down Minutes Before JFK’s Limo Entered Dealey Plaza, Where He Was Assassinated

In the alarming video above, you will see what happened minutes before JFK was assassinated. His Secret Service detail, assigned to guard the president by acting as human shields, was called off by agent-in-charge Emory P. Roberts minutes before JFK’s limousine entered Dealey Plaza. The two Secret Service agents are perplexed as to why they are being called off, shrugging off Roberts not twice, but three times. They finally obey Roberts and hop in the follow-up car. Minutes later, JFK has been shot twice.

Emory P. Robert was later promoted to Inspector of Secret Service Headquarters by Lyndon B. Johnson.

10. The American Coup d’État?

For further information on the conspiracy theories surrounding the assassination of JFK, The Dark Legacy series on YouTube is a great place to start. The documentary goes into further detail about the possible motives behind an assassination and cover-up. You might even come across a family name that still holds heavy prominence today: Bush.