By Rit Carter

On Sept. 24, 1964, The President’s Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy (The Warren Commission) presented its 888-page final report to President Lyndon B. Johnson. 

The report concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in the assassination of President Kennedy. Within weeks of its release, conspiracy theories began to appear, most notably from a little-known New York attorney and social justice activist named Mark Lane. Lane would publish three books on the assassination, appear on TV, go on a speaking tour, produce two documentaries and co-write a screenplay based on the assassination called Executive Action.

Following Lane’s death in 2016, it was reported he had a relationship with the KGB wherein the spy agency provided him funding and “leads” about the assassination. A former KGB agent wrote they went so far as to finance Lane’s research without his knowledge.

Since 1964, it is estimated that over 2,000 books have been published about the assassination, most of which proclaim that a plot to kill the president existed. One book even theorizes that while on patrol less than an hour after the assassination, Dallas Police Officer J.D. Tippit, who Oswald also killed less than a mile from his boarding home, was part of a conspiracy.

This book’s author also pushed the idea that CBS newsman Dan Rather was tipped off about the plot to kill Kennedy. And if that was not enough, the author claims shots were fired from the Dal-Tex building (across the street from the School Book Depository), there was a diversionary shot, and Jack Ruby orchestrated the entire Tippit shooting.

Despite several government inquiries, which determined Oswald to be the murderer of Kennedy and Tippit, alternate theories persist as to who committed the crime. Among the possible perpetrators were the CIA, FBI, Mafia, Soviet Union, the military-industrial community, Cuba, Right-Wing Activists, and Lyndon Johnson, a theory promulgated by Roger Stone. Yes, the Roger Stone.

Despite some absurd theories, there is little question that the Warren Commission found itself plagued with problems.

• The commission was created only one week after the assassination, and the commissioners, some of which had conflicts of interest, were chosen solely by President Johnson. 

• Leads were not pursued, such as what was Lee Harvey Oswald doing in Mexico City with Russian and Cuban spies just weeks before the assassination.

• The CIA and FBI hid, destroyed, misplaced, and purposely did not share documents and information with the commission.

• Commissioner Gerald R. Ford, a congressman from Michigan at the time and future president, was, in fact, an informant for the FBI about the Warren Commission, advising them secretly on the commissions’ progress and their avenues of pursuit.

• The autopsy was hurried at the behest of the Kennedy family, resulting in the wounds not being thoroughly examined.

• Chief Justice Earl Warren, based on a request of the Kennedy family, did not allow commission staff lawyers to access the autopsy photographs or X-rays.

Other mistakes and oversights crippled the investigation, creating an environment for conspiracies.

Today, 61 percent of Americans believe others besides Lee Harvey Oswald were involved in the assassination of President Kennedy. As a result, it is now the Rossetta Stone of conspiracies. It has led to an industry of conspiracies such as the moon landings being faked, the world being flat, and the Lochness Monster and Bigfoot being real.

For Unidentified Flying Objects (UFO) Enthusiasts, in 1947, a UFO crashed in a desolate area in Corona, N.M., a small town just outside Roswell. In Rachel, Nev., there is Area 51, a secret military base that houses a UFO and an extraterrestrial.

If you enjoy falsely reported deaths, you have Jesse James, John Wilkes Booth, and Amelia Earhart. 

And this is just the old-school stuff.

Today, there is a legion of new conspiracies with armies of true believers, such as 9/11, Birtherism, Pizzagate, QAnon, COVID, the Big Lie, the Clinton Death List, the Bush Death List, and mass shootings with crisis actors.

That is only a fraction which raises the question, “If half of these are true, how can the government function and maintain itself if it must protect all these secrets and lies?”

With every conspiracy comes the distortion of history, the clouding of facts, and the monetizing of lies. Ultimately with any of these schemes, there is a profit motive to sell books, t-shirts, DVDs, magazine articles, movies, coffee cups, digital downloads, and documents and photos, no matter how grainy.

Currently, the Jan. 6 committee hearings are near their end. Regardless of their findings, conspiracies about the 2020 election will continue for decades. Over time, just like the Kennedy assassination, the theories will become more desperate, elaborate, and far-fetched.

It’s only a matter of time before an election conspiracy spills into Bristol. Someday, a candidate, suffering the bitter sting of an election loss, will claim their defeat was not a rejection of their ideas but an unspecified plot.

Perhaps election deniers will conspire with a local candidate to create a giant smokescreen for no purpose other than to cast doubt and exploit small nicks in the system to be a chasm.

There was a time when this would be considered silly.

Two years ago, Cheryl Thibeault lost to Britney Barney for a city council seat in District 3 by a razor-thin margin of 1,613 to 1,608. There was no talk of a vast conspiracy or a fixed election. To Cheryl’s credit, she regrouped, ran again, and defeated Britney in 2021.

There were other years where the margin of victory dictated mandatory recounts in Bristol, including 1969, 1975, 1976, and 1979 when Lynn Rossi lost a tight race to Ann Degnan for a city council seat by 11 votes.

Did Mrs. Rossi take to the airwaves of WBIS and speak of a vast conspiracy? Did she allege voting machines changed votes, mail-in votes were fraudulent, election workers were corrupt, dead people voted multiple times, or a satellite changed votes?

Nope.

Instead, she remarked, “Ann is a fantastic person, and the district will have a good representative.”

She later ran for the city council in 1983 and won.

Due to all of these alleged conspiracies, no longer can prospective candidates be asked simply about potholes and tax policy. They must be interrogated about the 2020 election results and other conspiracies because there is a gullibility test they must now pass.

Voters have the right to know if office seekers believe every two-bit scheme in their Facebook feed. It gets to their credibility and legitimacy.

If a candidate is a conspiracy plot bender based on what they read on social media, how can they be entrusted to negotiate with the opposing party to craft laws? Will they believe the data presented, or will that be considered conspiratorial, especially if it comes from someone who does not share their political views?

Reason and critical thinking are being replaced with paranoia by peddlers of disinformation who know better.

Politicians should be impervious to the fray. Instead, some fully participate, seeking contributions and donations based on stories they know to be false. And that’s the difference between a mere politician and a leader.

Until leaders emerge and political charlatans continue to seek office and win, trouble is afoot. Oddly, our undoing will not result from a foreign adversary but our own doing, which is the real conspiracy.

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