Effects of a Conspiracy to Kill the President, in the Modern Day

There have been accusations of conspiracies involving the assassination of JFK and the assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan since they occurred. Of course these aren't true; Oswald acted alone, as did Hinckley. But we do have an example of an actual conspiracy to kill a president in the Lincoln assassination, in which Booth and his compatriots conspired to kill Lincoln, as well as other US government officials. What ensued was a massive man hunt and millions calling for blood, and accusations flying left and right.

So what would be the effect were there to have been actual conspiracies to assassinate President Kennedy or Reagan?
 

Wolfpaw

Banned
So what would be the effect were there to have been actual conspiracies to assassinate President Kennedy or Reagan?
The Warren Commission was filled with some pretty non-objective characters and the HSCA officially stated that the Commission had failed to properly follow up on and/or investigate the possibility of a conspiracy.

Trafficante and other high-up mobsters also had some interesting things to say about the whole Kennedy thing *cough*Ruby*cough*, but the last thing anybody wanted to do was publicly drag the Mafia into the whole mess.

Of course, when we wonder on how the conspiracies will effect things, we have to understand the conspiracies themselves.

Who was involved/implicated? Why? etc.
 
Last edited:
The Warren Commission was filled with some pretty non-objective characters and the HSCA officially stated that the Commission had failed to properly follow up on and/or investigate the possibility of a conspiracy.

Trafficante and other high-up mobsters also had some interesting things to say about the whole Kennedy thing *cough*Ruby*cough*, but the last thing anybody wanted to do was publicly drag the Mafia into the whole mess.

Of course, when we wonder on how the conspiracies will effect things, we have to understand the conspiracies themselves.

Who was involved/implicated? Why? etc.

I agree. Read "JFK and the Unspeakable". With recently uncovered documents and accounts of eyewitnesses whom the Warren Commission deemed unimportant, the book is the most serious and well cited expose of the CIA's involvement probably ever.

I've done a lot of research on this subject and my opinion is that it would be foolish not to admit that the CIA had at least something, at most everything to do with Kennedy's assassination.
 
The HSCA was the most ignorant, cockeyed investigation into the assassination. You know the magical, damning evidence? Supposedly more than 3 bullets were heard on a tape recording. Those turned out to be echoes. And then they assume this and this happened with the Mafia and everything based on no solid evidence other than suspicion.

Oswald acted alone. He was a lonely little Commie outsider. He barely had any friends, certainly no close ones, and he was the one that purchased the gun that killed officer Tippet and the rifle that killed president Kennedy. He was not a "patsy"; he only said that because he was lying to save his own ass. He shot President Kennedy, ran out of the building, shot Officer Tippet on the way (which I think was because he was afraid they were trying to arrest him), and ran into a theater. When they finally got him, he screamed "This is it!" and tried to shoot off his gun. He was not a CIA or FBI man or Mafia man, nor involved in anything with any organization or plot to kill the president other than himself, and himself alone.

Similarly, Ruby wasn't mob connected. He was a strip club owner. He liked to think he was big sh*t, but he wasn't. He wasn't in the mafia, and any of the mob guys that went around him didn't think anything of him. He wanted revenge on Oswald because he thought it was something he should do; he paced around his office frantic one night talking about how Jackie would be living without a husband and how the Kennedy children would grow up without a father. He went down there thinking if he saw Oswald, he was going to shoot him. And he did see Oswald, and he did shoot him. It wasn't on mob order, or anyone's orders, it was him. A stroke of fate both in him killing Oswald, and the circumstances of it were also a stroke of fate. Oswald was actually delayed slightly in getting out to the van that would carry him, I believe because he wanted to change his clothes. Had he not done that, Ruby would have missed him. So unless Oswald had a split personality which wanted to take himself out by changing his shirt just long enough for a strip club owner to get there and revenge murder him, that doesn't support a conspiracy.

Seriously, as people who know AH, you all should be aware more than most about how random history is and how much just occurs randomly and on a whim. I know people wanna think a great man can only be taken out by a great plot, but that's not how it works. Our world isn't that stable and plotted.

And for anyone who says it was the CIA, seriously, the government can't even cover up breaking into an office building. How the fudge do they cover up killing the President? And why would they kill one, especially one that thought the CIA was cool? Never underestimate the incompetence of a bureaucrat.
 
Last edited:
Back to the subject matter at hand, I think that there would a more or less instant discrediting of whatever group conspired to kill the President, or more likely the kinds of political groups that inspired them. Let's say, for the moment, that Kennedy had been killed by some group of ultraconservative John Birch supporters, as opposed to a communist ex-defector. You know, people ideologically in agreement with the people who passed around "Wanted for Treason" posters. I'm presuming the idea here is a small conspiracy, of around four or five at the most people involved. I think the fact that there was a conspiracy, or at least two different shooters, would be very clear relatively quickly, depending on how many shots end up being fired. I'm presuming a two gunman scenario because that's the difference most OTL Kennedy conspiracy theories are predicated on. Very rarely do you here a conspiratorial single gunman scenario, though they do exist. Anyway, back to the point. A conspiracy would probably have some degree of advanced planning involved. And more likely than not, someone in the conspiracy would be able to drive, which Oswald couldn't. So, there's a good chance at least some of the members of the conspiracy will be able to leave Dallas. Again I presuming a great deal of convergence, so bear with me. I think there's a high chance that at least one of the gunman is going to leave evidence of himself behind, which can probably be traced back to him relatively quickly. There would probably be some kind of national fixation approaching a sense of panic during the initial manhunt. One of the members would be arrested, he breaks under interrogation. Through extradition the other members of the plot are quickly arrested. When it becomes clear precisely why these people killed the President, you'd have an almost instant discrediting guilt by association effect going on I'd suspect for ultra conservative groups in the United States. The "Dallas Five" are quickly convicted, and the assassins themselves receive the death penalty. Goldwater might have to do damage control to disassociate his brand of conservatism from the "Dallas Five" but in the midst of the anti-Bircher backlash, I think Goldwater would probably stay out of alt-1964, while stressing his condemnation of Kennedy's killers. That means that Johnson crushes Nelson Rockefeller in the general election. I suspect that in this world the Kennedy assassination, aside from its historical impact, is something like a very early version of the Oklahoma City bombing. It would a demonstration that ultra conservative political paranoids can be dangerous. Also, if he plays his cards right, and he isn't permanently, and entirely unfairly, scarred by some guilt by distant association, you might just see a Goldwater Presidency somewhere down the line, since he isn't going to be the candidate in 1964. I'm not sure how plausible my scenario is, since it assumes some degree of competence among the conspirators, which isn't guaranteed.
 
Anyone who actually buys a conspiracy theory surrounding JFK needs to read Vincent Bugliosi's "History Reclaimed". It effectively debunks every conspiracy theory seriously discussed, and is a slam dunk vindication of the Warren Commission.

Let me also add my take on this:

1)Conspiracy theorists never allow for anything to go wrong, and always assume that their complicated conspiratorial schemes work perfectly. This may hold up on paper, but not in the real world.

2)People who think ANY agency of the federal government was involved need to seriously consider the government's demonstrated lack of ability to keep secrets (Iran Contra, Watergate, Wikileaks, etc.) and their demonstrated ability to fuck up covert operations (Watergate again, Bay of Pigs, Iran Hostage Rescue, etc.).
 
Top