Here are some of the most outrageous JFK conspiracy theories
More than half a century after the assassination of JFK, US President Donald Trump has said he will release thousands of classified documents about the investigation into his killing.
President John F. Kennedy was shot dead on November 22, 1963, as he travelled in an open-top car in Dallas, Texas.
Numerous investigations and commissions have been carried out into the assassination amid speculation that JFK’s murder was the product of a conspiracy.
In 1964 the Warren Commission concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald, who was arrested but later shot, acted alone.
But more than a decade later, despite agreeing with the Warren Commission that Oswald was responsible, the United States House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) found the Warren Commission’s report and the original FBI investigation were seriously flawed.
Subject to the receipt of further information, I will be allowing, as President, the long blocked and classified JFK FILES to be opened.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 21, 2017
Conspiracy theories continue to circulate, from the involvement of the CIA to a plot by Cuban exiles, with many people hoping the release of the files will finally shed some light on the world-famous case.
A 1992 law states that secret FBI and CIA files must be released on or before October 26, 2017 in a bid to silence conspiracy theorists, and so, ahead of their publication, here are some of the most bizarre claims about the killing.
The Driver Did It
One theory that keeps coming up is the Secret Service agent driving the limousine, William Greer, shot President Kennedy. Some people think footage shows him reaching back and shooting the then President in the head.
He has also been criticised for not speeding up after the initial shot, which struck Kennedy in the neck before the second bullet hit him directly in the head about five seconds later.
According to William Manchester, who interviewed Greer in The Death of a President, the driver said he told Jackie Kennedy: “Oh, Mrs. Kennedy, oh my God, oh my God. I didn’t mean to do it. I didn’t hear, I should have swerved the car, I couldn’t help it. Oh Mrs. Kennedy . . . if only I had seen in time.”
But while Greer may have felt some culpability over the shooting there is nothing to suggest he was part of a plot.
Greer died in 1985.
Jackie Kennedy Was Responsible
Some people have claimed that Jackie Kennedy was responsible for her husband’s death, possibly as part of a conspiracy that involved Texas Governor John Connally.
There is no actual evidence for this except what some people see as a puff of smoke near JFK’s head in the Zapruder film, which they argue could suggest Jackie shot the President.
Joe DiMaggio
According to another bizarre theory, baseball player Joe DiMaggio was behind the assassination of JFK in revenge for Kennedy allegedly ordering the death of his former wife Marilyn Monroe.
After his death, a book written by the reclusive baseball legend’s long-time lawyer and close companion Morris Engelberg, suggested he believed the Kennedy clan killed Monroe.
Rumours that Monroe, who allegedly enjoyed affairs with both JFK and his brother Robert, was killed by the Kennedys, hinge on the idea that she knew too much about their alleged Mafia links.
