Conspiracy: History’s Greatest Plots, Collusions and Cover-Ups (24 page)

A
CASE OF FOUL PLAY?
After the assassination, many troubling facts surrounding the event came to light. For example, the limousine that the President had been travelling in was taken away and cleaned up directly after the shooting, rather than being preserved so that forensic examinations could take place. Also, Kennedy's body should have been inspected by the local coroner according to Texan law, but it was immediately taken to Washington instead. Moreover, the area in which the assassination had taken place, The Dealey Plaza, should have been sealed off by police. The place where Oswald worked, the Texas School Book Depository, should have been closed off also. However, in the event neither place was secured, so vital clues to what really happened might well have been lost. And later, important pieces of evidence were found to be missing, such as the hat that Governor Connally was holding in his hand when he was shot, and the cufflink from his shirt. More shockingly, photographs of Kennedy's autopsy also disappeared.

Much of this, of course, could be put down to official incompetence but, after the assassination, there were so many anomalies surrounding the event that a host of conspiracy theories arose to explain what had actually happened. Some of these – like the idea that Kennedy masterminded his own suicide – are difficult to credit. Others, however, such as the theory that right-wing elements of the American establishment wanted Kennedy out of the way, and therefore arranged the shooting, do not seem altogether implausible.

T
HE RIVAL STRIKES
One of the most compelling theories regarding the assassination of Kennedy concerns his political role. At the time, the Cold War had preserved an uneasy truce between the two superpowers, the USA and the USSR, and many thought that it played an essential part in preserving the status quo and preventing nuclear war. In some quarters, Kennedy was seen as a loose cannon, a young idealistic president who could not be relied upon to maintain a strong stance in the face of Soviet aggression. The Cuban Missile Crisis, in which the USSR and the USA had come close to an all-out nuclear conflict, had shown how important it was to maintain a balance between the two sides and what the consequences of any change in the status quo might be.

American foreign policy at the time – which later turned out to be disastrous – was to escalate America's "anti-communist" involvement in Vietnam. Kennedy had shown signs of pulling back from the conflict by recalling United States forces and questioning the scale of human losses that would inevitably ensue. Thus, Kennedy was beginning to be seen as a liability within the political establishment. Conversely, his Vice President, Lydon B. Johnson, appeared to offer a safe pair of hands. He was older, more pragmatic and apparently impervious to the liberal currents running through America during the 1960s.

When Johnson took over, he immediately sent troops back to Vietnam and stepped up anti-communist political propaganda in the United States. The speedy change in foreign and domestic policy confirmed to some observers that the political establishment were behind Kennedy's killing. Oswald was thought to be a decoy figure, a pro-communist who had been hired to shoot the President so that Johnson could take over. The extent of Johnson's personal involvement in the plot remained unclear, but some believed that he had arranged the shooting himself. It also transpired that shortly before he died Kennedy had been thinking of removing Johnson from office, mainly because the Vice President was the subject of four criminal investigations (all of which were dropped after he became the new President). Johnson had more than enough motive to arrange the assassination, it seemed.

M
AFIA MADNESS
Another theory was that President Kennedy was killed by the Mafia. The Kennedy regime had made it a priority to crack down on organized crime and high-level Mafia leaders were being prosecuted for illegal activities such as gambling, drug running, racketeering and pimping. There was particular resentment among some Mafia bosses, as they had directed Mafia-linked organizations, such as workers' unions, to run campaigns supporting Kennedy's election. Because they expected to be protected from prosecution once he was in power, so the theory goes, Kennedy's war on organized crime was seen as a betrayal and so he was gunned down in revenge.

It was significant that Jack Ruby, who shot Oswald, had worked for Al Capone as a young man and had continued to be part of the world of organized crime.

According to this theory, Oswald was hired to shoot the President so that it would seem that a communist had done the deed. Oswald was then shot by Ruby, who was posing as a loyal citizen. In this way, Oswald's testimony would not be heard and it would not emerge that it was the Mafia, and not the communists, who had shot one of America's most popular presidents.

Finally, commentators noted that prosecutions of Mafia organizations returned to their normal level after the assassination of Kennedy.

A CIA
PLOT
?
Not only the Mafia but the CIA had strong reasons to get Kennedy out of the way. Once in office, Kennedy infuriated the agency by refusing to back the Bay of Pigs invasion in Cuba, which was part of a plot to overthrow the Communist leader Fidel Castro. Kennedy sacked the Director of the CIA, Alan Dulles, and there were constant run-ins between the President and the agency, especially after the failed invasion of Cuba.

The CIA worked very closely with the Mafia, and both organizations saw it as mutually beneficial to oust Castro from Cuba. The CIA's motive was to rid the United States of their closest communist neighbour and the Mafia's motive was to win back control of the organized crime business in Cuba, which they had quickly lost when Castro took control.

Several top Mafia men, aided by the CIA, plotted to assassinate Castro. Thus, Kennedy's perceived reluctance to support their anti-Cuban stance was a constant source of irritation to the CIA and the Mafia.

T
HE
FBI
BOSS
The head of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover, was also suspected of plotting Kennedy's assassination. There was a good deal of mutual animosity between Hoover and the Kennedy clan. Hoover and Johnson, on the other hand, were the best of friends. Hoover was coming up to retirement age and he knew that Kennedy would let him go whereas Johnson, by contrast, would keep him in. Commentators noted that after Johnson became president, he did indeed retain Hoover's services as head of the FBI – "for life".

T
HE OTHER CONTENDERS
There are many other theories regarding the culprits in the Kennedy assassination: some of them simple, others labyrinthine. First, there are the "economic issue" conspiracy theories. For example, some think that the oil barons wanted the President dead because he had changed the tax laws regarding oil, which would lose them enormous profits. Others suppose that officials of the US central bank, the Federal Reserve, were worried by the President's plans to stop the counterfeiting of money by backing the currency with precious metals.

Then there are the "political issue" hypotheses. Castro was behind the assassination, it has been said, as a response to the constant attempts by United States agents to murder him. Another theory is that followers of the South Vietnam President, Ngo Dinh Diem, ordered the assassination in revenge for his death after the United States plotted a coup against him. Others say that Kennedy was a puppet of the Soviet Union, which then turned against him.

The following theories are more implausible, in the eyes of most people. The first one states that Kennedy was killed in order to avenge the honour of Jacqueline Kennedy, to whom he had been unfaithful on many occasions. Another suggests that Aristotle Onassis ordered Kennedy's murder, along with his friends in the secret Illuminati cabal. Finally, some people imagine that Kennedy did not die at all, but that the whole event was somehow stage-managed to look as though he did. To support this theory, an exchange of bodies would need to have taken place at the autopsy.

Whatever the truth of the matter, some people consider that the Warren Commission's initial findings were questionable and that there were strong pressures to rid the country of a president that threatened to shake up the status quo, both within the government and outside it. Perhaps President Kennedy acted through inexperience and recklessness, as some critics believed, or maybe he had made a serious moral commitment to rid the US of the atmosphere of distrust and fear that had built up as a result of the Cold War, both in terms of domestic and of foreign policy.

For many, Kennedy's death was seen as a tragedy. Whatever his personal failings, he stood as a symbol of hope for a better, more peaceable world, not only for America but for many other countries too. On the day he was killed there were hundreds of troops flying back from Vietnam on his express orders. Had he gone on to withdraw entirely from Vietnam, the Vietnamese and the American public might have been spared one of the most appalling wars in recent history. No wonder, then, that so many intelligent, committed political analysts refuse to let the matter drop and continue to ask to this day: who shot JFK?

At first sight it seemed simple enough. A famous movie actress, whose career was on the skids, took an overdose and died. She had enjoyed a famously turbulent love life and she had a history of suicide attempts. A sad but familiar end to a celebrity's life. That's what the coroner's verdict would ultimately conclude.

An open and shut case? Not really. From the very start there were worrying circumstances. When Monroe's body was found, where was the glass of water she would surely have needed if she had swallowed an overdose of sleeping tablets? And why did her body look as if it had been neatly arranged – quite unlike the usual posture of overdose victims? Why the delay in calling the police and the ambulance? Could it have been to do with the phone calls she made and received on the last evening of her life, including one to the actor and Kennedy intimate Peter Lawford? And was it true that Robert Kennedy, younger brother of President Jack Kennedy, had been seen driving his car away from her house that night?