Given my age I guess I have grown up in the world of political conspiracies. It is almost a given if one pays attention. The very sad part is that many of the most egregious conspiracies attributed to the American government have actually been proven to be either true or to have a kernel of truth to them. I will probably write a missive at some point about those, but not today. Today, I am going to write about the three most written about and talked about conspiracies of my lifetime; the assassinations of John F. Kennedy, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Robert F. Kennedy.
We all know that there are literally whole libraries of books written about those assassinations with every kind of conspiracy given and we are not really anywhere closer to an answer to the reality than the day the assassinations occurred. So I will throw in my two cents, for all it is worth.
John F. Kennedy
I have read so darned many books and articles, as well as seen documentaries, with positive proof of who assassinated John F. Kennedy. Here it is as far as I can ascertain: it was a conspiracy between Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Fidel Castro, the CIA, the anti-Castro Cubanos who were betrayed at the Bay of Pigs, pro-Castro activists, the Soviet Union, Woody Harrelson’s father, the Mafia, Dallas Police Officers, Secret Service Agents, right-wing militia groups, right-wing members of the United States Military, and possibly, but not necessarily, Lee Harvey Oswald. To someone who thinks I forgot their pet conspiracy, I apologize for being remiss. And, of course, we must not forget that Lee Harvey Oswald was silenced by Jack Ruby, a “known associate of organized crime”.
The reality is, of course, the above is ludicrous. Who shot John F. Kennedy cannot be all of them. The only evidence, actual evidence is that Lee Harvey Oswald shot him, not forgetting the possible shots from the “grassy knoll”. But as to the shots; we all have some belief that they were long, long shots. They weren’t. If they were, in truth, shot by Oswald they were 53, 73, and 81 meters. That is not that far people. A person who has been trained to shoot can make those shots, they just can, despite the claims of all of the conspiracy theorists.
But here is the problem that causes all of the conspiracy theories to occur. From the moment the autopsy was performed by unqualified personnel, things started to fall apart. The investigation and reporting of the assassination is messed up. The Warren Commission was given the directive to close the case in a hurry and prove that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. This lead to shoddy, crummy investigation techniques, misdirection, failure to follow leads, and leaving questions unanswered. When they failed to completely and correctly follow up on issues, it let other people to do so, and they did. That allowed for the cottage industry to occur around them.
What do we know after all of these years? Not much more than we knew then. Even the new select committee on assassinations’ finding of a fourth shot being fired has now come under scrutiny and found wanting.
You know, in truth, there is no actual evidence that anyone besides Oswald was involved in the assassination to this day. Was there a coverup? Yes, I believe so. But the only real evidence of manufactured evidence and coverup seems to be of the CYA type. Sadly, we see the real issue may be that this is more an issue of poor investigation than anything else.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
In the case of Martin Luther King, Jr. there is not nearly as much talk of conspiracy surrounding his assassination. Obviously, there is some. This is inevitable even if there were no reason for it. In this case there is reason, albeit somewhat inoculous.
Most of the evidence, such as it is, is related to the oddity of James Earl Ray. With no visible means of income he did the following. Bought a new Ford Mustang, drove cross country, bought a rifle and a box of ammunition, drove to Atlanta, drove to Memphis, shot Martin Luther King, Jr., dropped the rifle with his fingerprints, drove back to Atlanta and pricked up his stuff, drove to Canada, flew to England, made a side trip to Portugal, went back to England, and was arrested at Heathrow attempting to fly to Brussels.
Now where did he get the money? How did he fund this odyssey? And why leave the rifle with his prints at the scene? Curious.
Do I have a theory? Not really, but it sure as hell smells to high heaven.
Oh, I have read some theories that point to CIA, FBI, and the like but they are all real short on facts so I do not give them much credence. A novel I read recently took the fact that Martin Luther King, Jr.’s famous “I’ve been to the mountaintop” speech was given less than 24 hours before his assassination. The writer used it as a story arc for a rather interesting supposition. It was a good read but the reality is that strange coincidences happen and I took the novel as just that, a novel.
Thus I do not know. I just find James Earl Ray’s actions so darned curious as to warrant this possibly not a done deal.
Robert F. Kennedy
Let me make one thing clear from the start: Sirhan Sirhan shot Robert F. Kennedy. That is a given. End of story. His purpose was to assassinate him and the result of his shooting was that Robert F. Kennedy died.
So where is the conspiracy? Simple. There might not be one, but we will never know. Why? The police did a piss-poor job of it again. They did not track down every gun in the room and there is published evidence of several bullet strikes that disappeared from all evidentiary record.
I am not even going to discuss the various conspiracy theories simply because most of them are supposition. The reality is that like all conspiracy theories, they are a figment of the failure of the investigators to do a proper job.
(Maybe next time I will discuss some other conspiracies – Jon-Benet Ramsey, anyone?)
