The Top 5 John F. Kennedy Assassination Conspiracy Theories

PHOTO: The presidential motorcade travels through Dallas a few moments before John F Kennedy was shot.Library Of Congress/Getty Images
The presidential motorcade travels through Dallas a few moments before John F Kennedy was shot.


In 1964, a year after the president's death, the President's Commission on the Assassination of President Kennedy, better known as the Warren Commission, concluded that Kennedy was killed by a single gunman, Lee Harvey Oswald, who acted alone and not part of a conspiracy.





quicklist:1 title: The Soviets Did It text: The Soviets seem like an obvious choice if you're looking for a dark hand behind Kennedy's assassination.



quicklist:2 title: The Mafia Did it text: This much we know is true, the CIA had contacts with organized crime families to discuss assassinating the president. Only the president was Cuba's Fidel Castro, not Kennedy.

The mob was heavily invested in casinos and other lucrative investments in Cuba before Castro's communist revolution, according to one iteration of the theory. Kennedy botched the Bay of Pigs invasion, ending any hopes of American organized crime returning to Cuba and enraging the mafia.

Furthermore, the mob did not like Kennedy's crusading younger brother Attorney General Robert Kennedy, and hoped the younger brother would lose his influence if his brother was killed.




quicklist:3 title: The Cubans Did It text: Given that U.S. agents tried to assassinate Cuban President Fidel Castro numerous times, the theory goes, Castro decided he would repay the honor and try to assassinate Kennedy.


"Kennedy was trying to get to Castro, but Castro got to him first," Johnson told ABC News in 1968.

Both the Warren Commission and the House Committee on Assassinations cleared the Cubans of any involvement and when Castro was interviewed by Bill Moyers in 1977 he called the theory "absolute insanity." media: 20613928

quicklist:4 title: Lyndon Johnson Did It text: Who had the most to gain from killing Kennedy? Lyndon Johnson, the man who became president.



quicklist:5 title: The CIA Did It text: In nearly every theory that involves American conspirators, be they wealthy industrialists or tough-as-nails mafiosi, one group is routinely represented – the CIA.



In its 1978 report, the House Select Committee on Assassinations found that there was no indication that Oswald "had ever had contact with the Agency." media: 20613979