Donald Trump's decision to launch a probe into the "real" circumstances surrounding the assassination of JFK comes after decades of suspicion around the official version of events. In one of his first actions after taking office, Trump signed an executive order to set up a task force to investigate the assassination. As he scrawled his signature, he noted how "a lot of people have been waiting for this for years, for decades".
Some of the theories are considered "absolute insanity", a term used by Cuban leader Fidel Castro after he was accused of carrying out the hit. However, other rumours seem more plausible, like the possibility of former marine Lee Harvey Oswald acting with another party to take out the president. According to the official reports, Oswald positioned himself on the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository building in downtown Dallas to lay in wait for Kennedy. As the motorcade passed by, Oswald let off a volley of rounds, pumping two bullets into the president, one going through his throat and the other through his head.
Oswald was apprehended, but two days later he was being transferred between jails when Jack Ruby walked in to the basement of Dallas Police Headquarters and shot him dead. A later inquiry into the assassination, known as the Warren Commission, ruled that Oswald was solely responsible, and there was no evidence of a conspiracy. Earlier today, while announcing the creation of a new task force, MAGA star Anna Paulina Luna said from her preliminary work, "I believe that there were two shooters.".
But this theory has been around for years, with some believing that Oswald was framed, or that there was a second gunman firing at the same time. This speculation was largely fuelled by witnesses who said they saw shots coming from a different direction. This was further supported by the "magic bullet" puzzle. The third bullet took a trajectory which meant it would've been highly unlikely to have come from where Oswald was located. The bullet struck the president from behind and exited his body through his throat before hitting Texas Governor John Connally Jr, who was also in the vehicle.
Another theory that has been around just as long is an angry mobster pulling the trigger, or ordering someone to do so. The star in this story usually Carlos Marcello, boss of the New Orleans mafia, who was deported to Guatemala when Kennedy took office. Robert Kennedy, JFK's brother, was the US Attorney General with the responsibility of tackling the mafia, which was incredibly powerful at the time.
Marcello did not stay away for long, and while returning, he is said to have threatened the life of the president and even confessed to the crime in a jailhouse confession. Further evidence conspiracy theorists point to include a trip that Oswald made to New Orleans before the killing and the fact that his killer, Jack Ruby, had ties to the mob. Many who distrust the official version of events point the finger at the US government, though they aren't usually crystal clear on who in the government was responsible. One theory claims that it was Kennedy's vice president and presidential successor, Lyndon Johnson, who was so hungry for power that he ordered the hit solely to take the top spot.
In 1961, Kennedy's administration launched an invasion of Cuba to overthrow the thorn in America's side, Fidel Castro's government, in a plan that failed spectacularly. The botched military operation put the CIA and Kennedy on rocky terrain, with theorists believing that tension continued to build after the failed assassination attempt against Castro. In 2017, unsealed documents showed how the CIA and JFK's administration had dreamed up a number of whacky ideas to take out the Cuban revolutionary. One was by laying explosives in a sea shell, or contaminating his diving suit.
Fidel Castro himself has also been the subject of suspicion, with some believing he may have found a way of ordering the hit after the Americans tried to kill him. Even Johnson believed this idea, throwing his support behind them during two TV interviews. However, Castro said the allegations were "absolute insanity", adding that it would've been far too risky as America would have responded brutally should it have found out.
