Killing Camelot: 50 Years Later

I’m one of those people that read everything they come across related to the JFK assassination.  More books and articles have been printed about Kennedy than any other crime in history.  For various reasons a lot of people do not believe Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone.  Shortly after the Warren Commission released their findings, 1/3 of Americans didn’t believe it drew the correct conclusions.  In the following years that number has grown exponentially.   I love a good conspiracy and this case has an  endless number of theories.  To mark the 50^th anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination we’ll take a look at some of the plausible, and not-so-plausible conspiracies.

Around 12:30 pm on November 22, 1963 President Kennedy rode through Dallas, Texas with his wife Jackie, Texas Governor John Connelly, Connelly’s wife, a secret service agent and a driver.  As the motorcade approached Dealey Plaza shots rang out and the gathered crowd fled or tried to find cover.  That much is fact.  It seems that everything else that happened is up for debate, depending on who you talk to.  

Thanks to the Warren Commission’s report (which was headed by Allen Dulles, former head of the CIA who had been fired by Kennedy) Americans were told that Lee Harvey Oswald, a loner who had at one  point defected to Russia, acted alone and fired the famous shots from a third floor window of the Texas School Book Depository.  Two days later while being escorted by police officers Oswald was shot by nightclub owner Jack Ruby.  Oswald died hours later at Parkland hospital, the same hospital President Kennedy had been taken to. 

That’s how the history books recorded the events, but an entire culture of Kennedy conspiracy subscribers are out there and believe there is more to the story.  They believe a larger conspiracy was behind the death of Kennedy.  We could spend days writing about inconsistencies in the investigation and pointing out why the official story doesn’t add up, but instead we’ll take a look at some of the conspiracy theories that have been put forth over the last half-century.

The Cubans Did It

CIA agents tried, unsuccessfully, to assassinate Fidel Castro as many as eight times.  They even involved the Mafia in the plots. Castro may have felt he was in a kill-or-be-killed situation.  A former agent of the Cuban secret service, G2, gave an interview in which he affirmed the Cubans sought out Oswald after he was recommended by the Russian KGB.  The mother of all cover-ups ensued, with the new Johnson administration fearing the public’s reaction if they found out Cuba killed Kennedy.  In a strange twist, German film maker Wilfried Huismann insists that JFK’s brother and Attorney general Robert Kennedy was responsible for arranging one attempt on Castro’s life.  Huismann says the same man Robert Kennedy recruited to kill Castro was also responsible for hiring his brother’s killer.

The Mafia Did It

We see the same players over and over in Kennedy conspiracies.  The Mafia and the Cubans make the most regular appearances, along with the CIA. The mob wasn’t a fan of Robert Kennedy’s crusade against organized crime. They also had interests in casinos in Cuba.  It’s interesting to note that Jack Ruby, who shot Lee Harvey Oswald, was known to have Mafia connections.  Ruby’s involvement and death in jail warrant their own conspiracies (another time, another blog).

The CIA Did It

Pick any conspiracy theory you want and the CIA will be in there somewhere.  They’re an easy target since their operations are so secretive.  There is much debate as to who exactly was on the intelligence agency’s payroll and the possibility that evidence was covered up or destroyed by the CIA.  One of the major disagreements President Kennedy had with the CIA, strangely enough, was over their policy on assassinating foreign leaders.  This theory is so widely spread that the CIA has a page on it’s website discrediting it. 

The Russians Did It

The Russians were still sore over the Bay of Pigs fiasco, so when this Oswald kid moved to their country with the right “I hate America” attitude, the KGB pounced.  Some say Oswald was a Manchurian candidate, programmed by the Soviets to kill the president. Others go as far as to blame the KGB for the murder of Mary Pincho Meyer, a former mistress of JFK who may have been killed for knowing too much.  Meyer was shot execution-style while walking in Georgetown.

LBJ Did It

Vice President Lyndon Johnson had the most to gain from Kennedy’s death.  He became the most powerful man in the world. Some conspiracists say Johnson was financially backed by rich tycoons who would be better served by LBJ.  In recent years there have been rumors of audio tapes on which Jackie Kennedy says she believes Lyndon Johnson had a part in her husband’s death.  Some believe Johnson was aided by future-president George HW Bush, but more on that soon.

LBJ sworn in aboard Air Force One alongside Jackie still in her bloodstained suit

The Illuminati Did It

What list of conspiracies would be complete without including the shady group of powerful people who secretly run the world?  It’s believed by some that JFK’s father, Joe Kennedy, was part of the Illuminati bloodline and his connections got his son elected to the presidency.  When JFK’s policies weren’t to their liking, they turned on him. If you run the world from the shadows, surely you could have someone killed and cause enough confusion to keep them guessing.  

The Israeli’s Did It

President Kennedy refused to allow Israel to build nuclear weapons. Strike one.  David Ben-Gurion, the Israeli Prime Minister at the time believed Joe Kennedy to be anti-Semitic and had sided with Hitler.  Strike two.  A leading promoter of this theory: Muammar Gaddafi, at least until he was killed by rebels.  Foul tip.  Johnson’s reversal of the nuclear policy is seen as evidence that the assassination achieved its goal. Strike three.

The Limo Driver Did It

There is a small contingency that believes the limo driver shot the president.  There’s a frame in the Zapruder film that most people see as the sun reflecting off the car, but those few assert is the muzzle flash of the driver’s gun. Plenty YouTube videos are out there both supporting and debunking this theory.

UFO Cover-Up

In an effort to dig up as many theories as we could on the assassination we came across this one.  The CIA is the boogeyman in this scenario also.  Kennedy sent a letter to the agency demanding information on UFO investigations.  This reportedly prompted the director to send a memo saying, "As you must know Lancer (JFK's secret service codename) has made some inquiries regarding our activities, which we cannot allow."

The Badge Man

Adherents to this theory cite the Moorman Polaroid photo.  They  claim to see a man in uniform who has just fired a gun standing behind a wall on the infamous grassy knoll.  Skeptics simply see light reflecting off litter.  You decide:

Original shot. The Badge Man is seen in the circle on the left

Enhanced Badge Man or pareidolia in foliage.

The Umbrella Man

According to this theory in addition to being shot with bullets, a bystander also shot Kennedy with a poison dart from an umbrella.  As weird as it is, a man holding an umbrella did open and close it repeatedly as the presidential motorcade passed by.  Others claim the act was a signal to the shooter(s) that the target was in place.  A man came forward years after the assassination claiming to be the Umbrella Man. He claimed the act was a form of protest against former British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain and JFK's father had been the US Ambassador to Britain at the time.  Oddly, standing near the Umbrella Man is another person who has came to be known as the Dark Complected Man.  He holds his fist in the air just as the umbrella is pumped and shots ring out.  In the ensuing frenzy both men calmly sat on the curb and seemed to take in the chaos. 

DiMaggio Did It

It's well known that JFK had an affair with actress Marilyn Monroe.  Monroe's husband, Joe DiMaggio, had the money and the motive to hire a hitman to take out Kennedy.  Some conspiracy theorists believe Joltin' Joe became so obsessed with the idea that the Kennedys had his ex-wife killed that he took out a contract on the commander in chief, possibly hiring Lee Harvey Oswald.  DiMaggio's lawyer and longtime friend Morris Engelberg wrote that the Yankee Clipper wholeheartedly believed Monroe was killed because she knew too much about the dark side of Camelot.

 

Storm Drain Shooter

The trajectory of the bullets that were fired that day in Dealey Plaza have been debated for half a century.  Many believe a nearby storm drain provided the only possible location for the shooter to have been.  In a 2007 interview Tony Gambino, of the New York Gambino mob family, contended that’s exactly what happened, and claimed there was involvement from both the government and the Vatican.  

Jackie Did It

Yes, there are conspiracy theorists out there who believe the First Lady pulled the trigger that day in Dallas.  They say Jackie concealed the gun in a Lamb Chop puppet she had been given along with a bouquet of flowers then used extreme stealth to fire the gun in the middle of the gathered crowd.  Her motive?  Jealousy over her husband’s extramarital activities, her desire to be with Aristotle Onassis, or she was a sleeper CIA agent and evidence was tampered with to cover up her involvement. 

There’s one more theory we want to cover, but it warrants its own post.  There’s just too much information to fit it all in.  Stay tuned, as we uncover the motives and evidence that George Herbert Walker Bush was responsible for the assassination of JFK!

Believe, not beLIEve

While conversating with some friends, it was brought to my attention that I had became a skeptic.  My writing was cited as Exhibit A.  “You used to be a believer like me man, but you aren’t now.”  Without thinking I backed up my position, pointing out the countless charlatans who fabricate the paranormal to make a buck (I hope they are tormented by relentless poltergeists for eternity).  But the longer I sat there, the longer it kept simmering.  Had I became a total skeptic?  I would rip apart almost any proposed reality, questioning every detail until there was nothing left of it.  I was jaded.

I’ve spent years looking for proof of the supernatural.  I’ve absorbed all the most obscure knowledge I could come across.  I’ve came away from some places with what I feel is proof of something ELSE.  But I realized I had come to analyzed such events from so many different angles that eventually I would find something that couldn’t be 100% ruled out and begin to doubt the things I saw for myself.  “I really am a skeptic aint I?”

The room was in agreement.  It was a sad realization for me.  It took the possibility of some magic being left in the world away.  There’s that hint of something Else often enough to keep hoping for it.  I wondered if it was that I had quit Looking for the spooky.  The Skeptic dismissed away any possibility.  That’s not what the spooky is about.  Somewhere in the patterns, hoaxes, and prophecies there’s that thing…you can’t quite put your finger on it, but it’s there.  

My grandmother sent me to a friends house to get her some fresh apples a few days ago.  She peeled them and put them in the freezer for fried apples during the winter.  Sitting at the kitchen table I mentioned remembering her telling me as a child that if you peeled the whole apple without breaking it and threw it over your shoulder, the peel would land on the floor in the shape of the initial of the person you would marry.  A devout Christian woman all her life, she smiled and said “Do you know what I always got when I did it?”  I knew the answer by her smile.  “S for Short.”  When I tried it then the peel landed in what could only be interpreted as a question mark.  I have a picture to Prove it.  

Was my mamaw saying that apple peels are a surefire way to divine your future?  Nope.  She was just acknowledging those funny things that happen.  Can’t quite put your finger on it, but there could be a little magic in the world.  Magic could mean many things, and all those things could be the same one thing.  That’s the question isn’t it? 

Magic.  Spooky.  SuperNatural.  God.  Allah.  Great Cosmic Joker.  Déjà vu curtsey of a divine trickster.  Every culture has their own way of explaining away those things that they can’t put their finger on and can’t explain.  When you try to explain it some kind of mental aphasia keeps you from proving it. Those mystery things.  They come up with mythologies and religions to explain them.  Certain patterns repeat and make them that much more mysterious.  But the key is that they acknowledge something that is beyond their ability to explain.  

The pursuit of That unknown is what the Medicine Show’s all about.  Digging and searching for that which cannot be explained.  There should be a balanced duality between the Believer and the Skeptic.  There’s no point in searching for the Truth is we won’t believe we’ll ever find it.  A healthy dose of skepticism helps rule out the obvious but believing in Something is what fuels the universe.  My name is Mandy and I’m a recovering Skeptic.  Believe, not beLIEve. 

Papua New Guinea's Fine Young Cannibals

In a world filled with taboos few even come close to cannibalism.  The act of consuming human flesh is viewed today as abhorrent and unforgivable.  Early explorers sailed the world and returned home with tales of savages eating their enemies.  There have been cases, such as the infamous Donner Party, where people resorted to cannibalism in order to survive.  A case from Papua New Guinea last month made headlines, not only because it involved cannibalism, but also because the cannibal was the young victim’s father.

Early last month in the island nation of Papua New Guinea, north of Australia, two boys reported witnessing more than just a murder to authorities.  The boys had climbed a tree near a settlement in Lea.  From their perch they saw a man dragging what turned out to be his 3-year-old daughter into a clearing and began biting her neck.  The boys told officials they were spotted and the father, Rex Eric, laughed at them while he continued to eat the flesh and suck the blood of the child. The father was quickly arrested.

While this story may seem horrific among today’s headlines, it isn’t all that uncommon in such areas. The past couple years have witnessed a rash of vigilante violence in Papua New Guinea.  29 individuals who were members of a cannibal cult were arrested last July for the murders of seven men suspected to have been witchdoctors. The cult members ate their brains, and made soup with their penises.  In February the town of Mount Hagen witnessed a 20-year-old woman tortured and killed by the townspeople after she was suspected of practicing witchcraft.  

Responding authorities watched helplessly as a mob of nearly all the town’s citizens poured gasoline on Kapari Laniata and burned her alive.  Firemen and police officers who tried to intervene were attacked and ran off by the mob.  Leniata was accused of sorcery after a young boy in the village fell ill and died.  Her brutal death attracted attention from the United Nations.  Even more recently a former schoolteacher was decapitated by an angry mob after being accused of using witchcraft to kill a colleague.

There is a widespread belief in witchcraft and sorcery in Papua New Guinea, especially in rural and isolated areas, and recent years have seen an increase in black magic-related crimes.  In 1971 the country passed the Sorcery Act which criminalizes the practice of witchcraft and recognizes the use of sorcery as an acceptable defense in murder cases.  Suggestions have been made, by the United Nations human rights office among others, to repeal the Sorcery Act as a solution to vigilante witch hunts. Amnesty International has also gotten involved in the crisis.

Papua New Guinea natives

The current law distinguishes between “innocent sorcery,” such as healing methods, and “forbidden sorcery,” which carries a sentence of up to five years.  Broken down, the crime is not practicing magic, but doing so with harmful intent.  False accusations of sorcery can land you up to a year, and possession of sorcery “tools” can also get you a year.  Sources inside the country say while the number of headlines have risen lately, the actual number of witchcraft-related crime has actually decreased, although the actual number of deaths each year may be in the hundreds.  Very few, if any Sorcery Act cases are ever tried in court, but some feel it’s criminalization fuels the public’s view that it is punishable.

To civilized nations practices of witchcraft are laughed off, but in lesser developed regions, such as Papua New Guinea, sorcery and cannibalism play a big role in the cultural history.  People have eaten other people all throughout history, for a number of reasons.  History, legends, mythology and fairy tales are filled with tales of humans eating humans.

Neanderthals are believed to have practiced cannibalism. Some anthropologists think our early history saw humans practicing ritual cannibalism.  Ancient Australian Aborigines are thought to have consumed any opponent killed in battle.  The Bible tells the story of a pact between two mothers to kill and eat their children (2 Kings 6:25-30). During Europe’s Great Famine of 1315-1317 cannibalism was frequently reported among the starving population.  War has seen soldiers resorting to cannibalism often.  It was reported during the First Crusade, in China during the Tang Dynasty, and throughout the history of Mesoamerica to name a few.   

The Aztecs practiced exocannibalism, the practice of members of one group consuming the members of another group.  This form of cannibalism was used to show tribal power and to scare off invading armies.  Often those consuming the flesh believed in doing so they were acquiring the knowledge and skills of those they ate.  Conversely the consumption of members of ones own group is known as endocannibalism and is often associated with ritual burial ceremonies.  Mortuary cannibalism is thought to be the most widely practiced form of endocannibalism, excluding murder to only consume those already dead. It was not uncommon for tribes to practice a mix of these types of cannibalism, along with others, such as cannibalism for survival and consumption for taste or nutritional value.

The Iroquoian Indians of North America believed sacrificing and consuming the bodies of their enemies would please their war god and allow them to absorb the person’s spirit, empowering them with their enemies’ attributes.  Stories of cannibalistic tribes in Africa still persist today, often involving organ trade on the black market as well.   Cannibalism took its name from the Carib Tribe of the West Indies.  Early Spanish explorers encountered what they described as savage natives who ate the bodies of their dead enemies.  The history of the South Pacific islands are filled with tales of cannibalism.  Fiji used to be known as the “Cannibal Isles.”

Other than being a major taboo for most people, the practice of cannibalism brings with it the risk of contracting a disease known as Kuru.  It has been described as the human equivalent of mad cow disease.  The name comes from a native word that means “to shake,” referring to the symptom of body tremors. It is also referred to as “the laughing disease” because sufferers are prone to pathological bursts of laughter. 

Kuru was first noted among the Fore tribe of Papua New Guinea in the 1950s.  Investigations into the regional epidemic found the disease rose from eating human flesh, especially the brain.  An infectious protein, prion, causes the illness which has no known cure and usually causes death within one year.  The following video shows a native suffering from kuru and may be disturbing to some viewers:

 

When Lost Creek researchers first came across this story it was very timely.  Our team was simultaneously involved in putting together a haunted house for our local community center, and sadly, the Medicine Show was neglected.  We plan to pump out several more new blogs in the very near future that were began but had to be pushed to the back burner in order to meet our community obligations.  Hopefully this hiatus has given these ideas time to simmer and will be more in depth than they originally would have been. Stay tuned for the next stops along the journey.