History Daily - Saturday Matinee: Conspiracy Theories, Cults, & Crimes

Episode Date: October 11, 2025

On today’s Saturday Matinee, we unspool our red string and head to the corkboard to attempt to make sense of the convoluted conspiracy surrounding the JFK assassination. Link to Conspiracy Theories, Cults, & Crimes: https://link.podtrac.com/rsv4qaly Support the show! Join Into History for ad-free listening and more. History Daily is a co-production of Airship and Noiser.Go to HistoryDaily.com for more history, daily.

Salku X, tapam we're again. Viser number, five vhietta, Arvauksia, Patheria. Palkintone X-Pengue G-K-Sacko,

Towsin'emps, a lottoe Rodecettest, Pover. Pistee-Coutta-X. Don't jay-kydista. My parents are Australian, making me a proud

first-generation American. came over in the early 70s, after the engineering firm my father worked for announced they were expanding to the U.S. and opening up new offices. Of course, moving to America was an exciting prospect for a young, childless Australian couple, so my dad eagerly volunteered. I don't think he even consulted my mother at the time, merely checked a box on a memo saying, yes, I would be interested in moving to the other side of the world and leaving everything I've known behind for a chance at uncertain reward and unfamiliar surroundings. After that, though, he promptly forgot about the whole thing. So he was a bit surprised when they accepted and told him to pack up for

the states, giving him the option of several cities, San Diego, Phoenix, Little Rock, Albuquerque, Oklahoma City, El Paso, and the one he ultimately chose, Dallas. My father liked Dallas because it seemed to be close to the middle of everything, which is a very practical and naive engineer's choice. But Dallas was also the only city on the list he'd actually ever heard of because of the JFK assassination. That's not a great recommendation for a city, of course. And for years after the death of President John F. Kennedy, Dallas was known as the city of hate.

But of course, it wasn't the city of Dallas that shot Kennedy. It was Lee Harvey Oswald, or so we've been told. Now, it was Lee Harvey Oswald. But that truth hasn't stopped hundreds of conspiracy theories from springing up over the years. The list of who hasn't been a suspect for the murder is likely shorter than the one who has. The CIA, the FBI, the KGB, the Secret Service, the mafia, the mafia, the Cubans, the John Birch Society, a French heroin syndicate. It could have been Jay Edgar Hoover, Lyndon B. Johnson, Aristotle O'Nassas, even George Herbert

Walker Bush, the scoundrel. So on today's Saturday matinee, we're sharing an episode of the podcast, Conspiracy Theory's Cults and Crimes, that dives into this tangled web to bring you a synopsis of the lunacy, and a reminder that fascination with a topic isn't the same as fact. I hope you enjoy. While you're listening, be sure to search for and follow conspiracy theories. Cults and Crimes. We put a link in the show notes to make it easy for you. Tapa. We'll get a yet. Five number, five vhietta,

arvokesia, poutelior. Palkintone X-BG-6, Sacko Auto, Towsin-omax. 10-weekquo-a-rata-counter in Coddoroteess, Pover.com, KautaX. Don't get back to the show, a super-quidist. Before we get back to the show, a super quick announcement. You've probably heard another super quick announcement recently that I'm hoping to hit the road with a History Daily Live show.

And I told you to go to historydaily live.com to sign up for info. But that form was broken, and some of you received an error message. It had something to do with a misconfigured SSL certificate causing a 301 redirect loop. And if you understand that, I should have come to you when setting it up. But it's working now better than ever. So if you've tried before and did get an error message, please head to historydailylive.com and let me know your home city so I can plan this tour. And if you haven't tried before, please head to historydailylive.com and let me know your home city so I can plan this tour. That's historydaily live.com. Let's make history live and in person, historydaily live.com.

This is Crimehouse. In 2025, the U.S. government announced it was releasing thousands of files related to the 1963. assassination of President John F. Kennedy. The world waited with bated breath to see what secrets might come to light. Ever since Kennedy's death, the public had wondered if there was more to the story than what the government concluded. Officials had repeatedly promised to release everything they knew, but never followed through. Now, maybe we would finally get the full picture. But the files were released, and there was nothing groundbreaking in them. nothing to point us to the truth, which meant there were two possibilities.

That they were being honest and Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone, or that the government was still hiding some critical pieces of information, and if that was the case, they must be protecting something or someone. From UFO cults and mass suicides to secret CIA experiments, presidential assassinations, and murderous doctors. These aren't just theories. They're real stories that blur the line between fact and fiction. I'm Vanessa Richardson, and this is conspiracy theories, cults and crimes,

a crime house original powered by Pave Studios. Every Wednesday, I'll explore the real people at the center of the world's most shocking events and nefarious organizations. These cases are wild, and I want to hear what you think. At the end of each episode, leave a comment wherever you listen. Be sure to rate, review, and follow so we can continue building this community together. And for early, add free access to every episode, plus exclusive bonus content, subscribe to Crime House Plus on Apple Podcasts.

Today, I'm discussing one of the most widely debated events in American history, the assassination of John F. Kennedy. In 1963, the 43-year-old president was shown. shot and killed in Dallas, Texas. According to the U.S. government, JFK's killer was one man working alone, Lee Harvey Oswald. But not everyone buys that explanation. Some believe there was a second shooter. Others are convinced it was an inside job by the CIA. Another theory points to organized crime, while some think his death was related to the Cold War. We're going to get into all these theories and more. I definitely have a favorite, but I'd love to know what you think. Once you listen

to the episode, leave a comment sharing what you believe really happened. Whatever the truth is, one thing is certain. The government is hiding something. And decades later, we're still asking, who really killed John F. Kennedy? And why? All that and more coming up. In November, 1963, 46-year-old John F. Kennedy was riding high. He was about halfway through his first term as president and already gearing up for re-election. He was confident he could win, especially in the wake of his latest political achievement. The year before, in October of 1962, Soviet nuclear missiles had been discovered off the coast of Cuba, close enough to strike almost anywhere in the U.S. All of a sudden, people were stockpiling supplies, tracking emergency news alerts. and preparing for the worst. In the wake of this discovery, Kennedy got on the radio and spoke directly to his constituents.

He promised the U.S. would come out unscathed. And he was right. Through some careful political maneuvering, he managed to convince Soviet Prime Minister Nikita Khrushchev to withdraw the missiles. Thanks to Kennedy's skillful diplomacy, the American people could rest assured they were safe. Now he hoped that they'd trust him

with the country's highest office once again. On November 22nd, 1963, Kennedy touched down in Dallas, Texas. He was on a two-day tour of the Lone Star State, and he really needed it to go well. Texas was historically Republican. If he could flip it Democrat, he was one step closer to a second term. The first lady, Jackie Kennedy, as well as Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson and his wife, Lady Bird, were there for extra support. So far, their trip.

had been a success. They'd had a big turnout at their first three stops in San Antonio, Houston, and Fort Worth. Now they were on to do the same in Dallas. When they arrived, they were met with an adoring crowd. Kennedy was scheduled to give a speech about 10 miles away from the airport. To keep the energy high, the group decided to travel there by motorcade. That way everyone could get a good look at the president. JFK and Jackie smiled and waved from the open convertible they shared with Texas Governor John Connolly and his wife. It was a sunny day, and there were thousands of people lined up to see JFK. But there was someone in the crowd with much darker intentions. At around 12.30 p.m., the procession entered downtown Dallas in an area known as Dealey Plaza. At that

very moment, three loud pops rang out. A team of Secret Service agents had been tailing Kennedy and his entourage. Between the sounds of cameras flashing and the raucous applause, they thought maybe it was a firecracker. Then the agents heard screaming and realized this was no light show. It was gunshots. They raced over to Kennedy's car and saw the president slumped over in the rear seat of the convertible. One agent, Clint Hill, hurled himself over the trunk. That's when he saw Governor Connolly had been shot in the leg, and Kennedy had been hit in the hell. head. The president was covered in blood. There were skull fragments and brain matter splattered across the back of the car, including on the First Lady. Agent Hill knew they needed to get Kennedy to a

hospital now. The driver rushed them to nearby Parkland Memorial. As soon as they arrived, medical staff raced out with stretchers. They hurried the president and the others inside while the Secret Service provided cover. For the next 20 minutes or so, doctors fought to to save President Kennedy and Governor Connolly. They were able to stabilize the governor, but sadly, Kennedy was too far gone. At 1 p.m., President John Fitzgerald Kennedy was declared dead,

which meant an assassin was on the loose in Dallas. FBI agents and Dallas police officers scoured Dealey Plaza looking for the killer. Many onlookers were still there, and witnesses claimed they heard, gunshots coming from two different locations. One was an area known as the grassy knoll, a large hilly field next to the road. The other was the Texas School Book Depository building within the plaza. The president's car had just passed the depository when the shots rang out. A group of

investigators ran to the grassy knoll, but they didn't find any evidence that a shooter had been there. At the same time, a pair of DPD officers headed to the book depository and began saying, sealing off the seven-story building. Before doing anything else, the officers rounded up all the employees and questioned them. No one seemed suspicious, so they let them go. After that, the officers searched the building. The first few floors were clear, but when they arrived at the sixth, they sensed something was wrong.

There was a stack of cardboard boxes sitting in front of an open window overlooking the motorcade route. The officers knew, this was where the authorities. assassin had fired from. They became even more certain when they looked through the boxes. Inside were three empty shell casings and a military-style rifle. They had the evidence and a possible murder weapon. Now they needed to track down a suspect. Just as they were deciding where to look next, the building manager burst onto the sixth floor. He'd realized something important. When the officers were questioning the employees, one person was missing.

24-year-old Lee Harvey Oswald. He was new, and he'd been on the sixth floor that day. It turned out Lee had left before the officers arrived. The manager didn't think anything of it at the time. Lee had seemed calm, too calm to have been the shooter. Now, the manager wasn't so sure. He gave the police Lee's address, and the officers booked it back to the station to alert their supervisors. To their surprise, Lee was already in the end of the office. He was already in the end of the office. He was in the interrogation room. It turned out he'd been arrested for shooting and killing another police officer after the assassination. And that wasn't all. Several witnesses had seen a man who looked just like him running through that part of Dallas after the president was hit. That, coupled with his suspicious

behavior at the book depository, sealed the deal. Officers were certain Lee was their man. They quickly alerted the FBI. Agents rushed to the station and when they learned who the suspect was, they were floored, because Lee Harvey Oswald had been on their radar for months. Somehow, Kennedy's killer had slipped right through their fingers. Taparming, weiss number, five vhietta,

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Koddyosotees. Power.com, X. Don't get chide. Lee Harvey Oswald was born in New Orleans in

1939, but it wasn't under happy circumstances. His father had died of a heart attack just two months

earlier. After that, his mother, Marguerite, had struggled to get by. She already had two sons,

adding a third only made things more difficult. Eventually she became so desperate that she brought them all to an orphanage. But in January, 1944, when Lee was four years old, she felt stable enough to take them home. For the next few years, they moved back and forth between Louisiana and Texas to live with relatives. Despite all the instability, Lee did okay in school and stayed out of trouble.

But in 1952, when Lee was 12 years old, a switch flipped. Marguerite had moved the family to New York City where her adult son lived. There, Lee struggled to make friends and began skipping school. His self-isolation soon escalated to violence. Once he threatened his aunt with a knife, other times he would hit his mom. Eventually, Marguerite sought professional help. In 1953, she sent the 13-year-old to a home for boys in the Bronx where he could undergo psychiatric treatment. But it wasn't enough. to save him. He continued to be antisocial and expressed violent fantasies, including killing people. Marguerite wasn't sure what to do. All she knew was his problems had started when they'd moved to New York. So she decided to bring Lee back to his roots. In 1954, she took him out of the home for boys, and the family went back to New Orleans. Once there, 15-year-old Lee showed slight improvement. He started going to school again, and even joined the Civil Air Patrol, an Air Force program that taught aerospace and emergency response skills to young people. It was too little too late, though. The truth was,

Lee was putting on a show. He was willing to pretend that he'd changed, but in reality, he didn't think he was the problem. Society was. The last few years, Lee had been reflecting on his childhood. He thought about all the hardships he and his family had endured. To him, he had it seemed like no matter where they lived or what his mother did for work, she couldn't make enough money to make ends meet. Eventually, he decided the issue was capitalism. This line of thinking led him to embrace communism. In his mind, people in countries like the Soviet Union were taken care of by their governments. His family didn't agree with him, though. Like most Americans at the time, they thought communism was evil. And the more he talked about it, the more they

shunned him. Lee felt like no one understood him. So when he was 17 years old, he decided to take control of his own fate. In 1956, he dropped out of high school and joined the Marine Corps, not because he was a patriot, but because he thought the military would provide him with more opportunities than traditional school. While in the Marines, Lee finally found something he was good at, firing a gun. He earned the title of sharpshooter, but his skills were and enough to make him friends. Even then, he was constantly preaching about communism to his fellow soldiers, praising the Soviet Union and the communist Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. Needless to say, it wasn't exactly a popular opinion. But Lee didn't care. He wasn't planning to be in the military

longer than he had to. In 1959, the 19-year-old was discharged and embarked on his next chapter. He said his goodbyes, not just to the Marines, but to the United States. States. In October of that year, he obtained a six-day travel visa to the Soviet Union. The Cold War was already in full swing, so this was a feat on its own. And the terms of his travel were heavily restricted. That didn't matter to Lee, though. He wasn't there to Citesy. As soon as he arrived in Moscow, he immediately applied for Soviet citizenship. He thought that living in the USSR was the fresh start he needed. If he became a citizen, the government government would give him a job and a place to live. His application was denied. However, the Soviet

government did eventually agree to grant him a work visa. That way he could stay on a year-to-year basis. They knew that the more Americans who defected to the Soviet Union, the better. And so, Lee was sent to the city of Minsk, where he was given a factory job and his own apartment. At first, Lee was ecstatic. This was exactly what he'd wanted. But over time, he started to realize that the Soviet Union wasn't the utopia he thought it would be. He worked long hours and made a lot less than managers and certain government workers. This wasn't the equality he'd been promised. Not only that, his life was strictly controlled.

Soviet citizens and people on work visas had to attend regular academic lectures, gymnastics practices, and even pick potatoes every Sunday. After two years, Lee was completely disillusioned. In 1961, the 22-year-old decided that the U.S. was the lesser of two evils and returned home. Lee moved in with his brother in Fort Worth, Texas, while he tried to get back on his feet. Pretty soon, he ended up in the same situation as before. Not only was he working long hours at a sheet metal factory, but the U.S. government was breathing down his neck. Shortly after he arrived in Fort Worth, Lee was approached by the FBI. They wanted to know if he was working undercover for the Soviet Union. Lee said he wasn't. He was furious they'd even ask. After some back and forth, the agents decided he was telling the truth and left him alone. That may have been a mistake. Despite Lee's anger at the Soviet government, he still believed in communism itself. He was desperate to be part of a community that understood him.

him. Soon, he found what he was looking for in nearby Dallas, Texas. A large group of Russian-speaking people was living there. Lee became friends with them and moved to the city in October of 1962, but that didn't exactly mean Dallas was a communist haven. At the time, a former army general named Edwin A. Walker was running for governor of Texas. Walker was very outspoken against communism and seemed to be gaining a lot of steam. Lee felt like he couldn't just sit by and watch. In early 1963, Lee purchased a revolver and a rifle with a telescope. The 23-year-old spent the next few months learning everything he could about Edwin A. Walker. By the time spring rolled around, he was ready to strike. On April 10, 1963, Lee tucked his rifle into his jacket

and made his way to Walker's Dallas neighborhood. He found a spot outside Walker's home where he could see through the window, but stay concealed. At some point, Walker sat down at his desk near the window, and Lee pulled the trigger. The glass shattered, but the bullet missed its target. Lee ran home, terrified that someone had seen him. When he calmed down, he decided to get out of town for a while. He went to stay with relatives in New Orleans. Texas authorities didn't connect Lee to the attack, which left Lee free to continue his communist crusade. While in New Orleans, he tried to form a branch of a pro-Castro organization called the Fair Play to Cuba Committee. Eventually, he attempted to move to Cuba, but just like the Soviet Union, they denied him.

At that point, Lee decided that if he couldn't get out of the U.S., he'd tear it down from the inside. With nowhere else to go, he returned to Dallas and moved his few belongings into a room at a boarding house. All he had were some clothes, his rifle, and a pistol. He began searching for a job, and on October 14, 1963, he got an offer from the Texas School Book Depository. He started working there two days later. About a month after that, on November 19th, local papers announced that President Kennedy was coming to town. They provided the exact route that the motorcade would take. Lee took note.

On November 22nd, he showed up for work at the depository. He was carrying a long, bulky package. He told coworkers there were curtain rods inside. Then he headed up to the sixth floor. A few hours later, President John F. Kennedy was shot and killed as his motorcade drove past the building. As soon as Kennedy was down, Lee started running. First to the boarding house to get his pistol,

then along the streets. It's not clear where he was trying to go, but at some point a police officer named J.D. Tippett saw him and thought he looked suspicious. Tippett had heard about the shooting and knew the suspect was on the loose. He attempted to stop Lee, but it was too late. Lee pulled out his gun and shot Tippett dead. After that, Lee kept running until he came across a movie theater.

He tried to hide inside, but employees called the police. When an officer arrived, Lee fired at him. Fortunately, he missed, and the officer was able to apprehend him. By 2.30 p.m., Lee was in an interrogation room where he remained for almost two full days. During that time, multiple detectives and FBI agents tried to get him to confess to murdering President Kennedy as well as Officer Tippett. He never did, but the authorities were convinced he was responsible. And when it came to the assassination, they didn't. think he acted alone. On November 24th, investigators wrapped up their interrogation. The Dallas

PD filed a complaint against Lee Harvey Oswald for, quote, furtherance of an international communist conspiracy to assassinate President John F. Kennedy. They'd learned about Lee's communist leanings, and they believed he was part of a much larger plot to kill the president of the United States. prosecutors didn't release this information to the public, though, probably because Lyndon B. Johnson, who was now president, didn't want them to. That's because the Kennedy administration had just restored a sense of safety in the wake of the Cuban missile crisis. If the public thought Lee was a communist plant, it might unleash yet another wave of chaos. Johnson wanted to avoid that at any cost, and so the police complaint was kept under wraps. but Lee had other plans. Before the interrogation was even finished,

Lee was charged with the murders of President Kennedy and Officer J.D. Tippett. Once it was finished, on the morning of the 24th, he was escorted to the county jail to await trial. When they led him out of police headquarters, a crowd of reporters was waiting outside. One journalist called out and asked Lee if he shot the president. Lee said, quote,

I'm just a patsy. In other words, Lee claimed he was a fall guy. He may have fired the bullet, but someone else put him up to it. His claim shocked the reporters and the public. It begged the question, if he was telling the truth, then who was really behind the assassination? The world would never know. Moments later, a man stepped out of the crowd and shot him in cold blood. Lee was fatally wounded and declared dead at the hospital. The shooter was identified as 52-year-old Dallas nightclub owner Jack Ruby. He was immediately taken into custody. Ruby claimed that he killed Lee in retaliation for the assassination, but the public wasn't convinced. It seemed like Ruby knew more than he was letting on. They wondered if he'd killed Lee to keep him quiet. But their questions would have to wait.

John F. Kennedy was laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery on November 25, 1963. Four days later, President Johnson established the President's commission on the assassination of President Kennedy. This became known as the Warren Commission, after Earl Warren, the Chief Justice at the time. Under Justice Warren, a group of four senators, a former CIA director, and a former diplomat, compiled over 500 pieces of witness testimony and over 3,000 reports from the FBI and Secret Service. Their goal was to piece together what really happened that day in Dallas. Investigators spoke to everyone who'd known Lee Harvey Oswald, including his family, friends, and former military supervisors. They even got their hands on Lee's journals and letters he'd sent over the years.

On September 24th, 1964, almost a year after Kennedy was killed, the team handed their findings over to President Johnson. The final report was almost 900 pages long. It concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald did, in fact, shoot President Kennedy and Governor Connolly, and it said he'd acted alone. According to them, he was not part of a larger conspiracy. The report outlined Lee's long-standing. support for communism. It detailed his attempts to defect to the Soviet Union and Cuba, and it revealed his attempt to assassinate General Walker just months before killing the president. That same year, Jack Ruby was found guilty of Lee's murder and sentenced to death. His lawyers appealed. Then in 1967, while awaiting retrial, Ruby died of cancer. For many people, this felt like the end of a long nightmare. the country could finally heal and move on.

They were wrong. Because the U.S. government's version of events wasn't the only side to the story. And soon, someone would drop a major bomb shell. Taparming, weiss number, five vhietta, arvokesia,

pouttellu, poveria. Palkintona X-B-G-6 Sacko Auto, In September 6thewa time to retkaiding code inozoitees Power.5.cotech. Don't jacquidist.

In September 1964, the U.S. government published the Warren Commission's findings. According to the report, Lee Harvey Oswald had acted alone when he assassinated President John F. Kennedy. Most Americans took the commission at face value,

but some were still skeptical. They just didn't believe that one man could pull off such a huge crime. Even so, they didn't have any evidence. It was just a feeling. However, it wasn't long until they got the proof they were looking for. During the motorcade procession in 1963, a store owner named Abraham Zabrooter had been in the crowd when the president was killed. He had a camera with him, and just so happened to film Kennedy's final moments. The footage was 26 seconds long, and government officials relied on it when putting together the Warren Commission. Based on the video,

they concluded that Lee had fired three shots total. The first one missed. The second one hit both Kennedy and Connolly, and the third hit the president in the head, killing him. The second shot led to something known as the single bullet theory, which was a key aspect of the Warren Commission. It stated that this one bullet caused all of Kennedy and Connolly's non-fatal wound, through a complex path. First, it entered President Kennedy's upper back and exited from his throat. Then it continued on to Governor Connolly,

who was sitting in front of Kennedy. It hit Connolly in the chest and broke one of his ribs before eventually lodging in his left thigh. Sopruder's film supported this theory. It was also how the government concluded that Lee had acted alone. But the bullet itself told a different story.

By 1967, the FBI had published photo evidence of the assassination, including an image of the bullet from Lee's second shot. It had been found on a stretcher at Parkland Memorial Hospital in the hallway where Kennedy and Connolly were treated. It was in pristine condition, which was strange. According to the single bullet theory, it had torn through two men's bodies and punctured 15 layers of clothing. It seemed like it should have been at least a little damaged or dirty. One man certainly thought so. In 1967, the hospital worker who'd found the bullet saw those images, and according to him, something didn't look right.

He spoke to an investigative reporter and said the bullet he'd found didn't look at all like the ones shown in the FBI images, which meant they could have switched it out. But why? It's a question that's hard to answer. One reason could be that the actual bullet had some kind of evidence on it that would contradict the Warren Commission's findings. Maybe something about its construction would show that it couldn't cause that kind of damage to both Kennedy and Connolly. Or maybe that it didn't come from Lee Harvey Oswald's gun.

Perhaps this second shooter used a different gun and a different bullet, and that his shot combined with Lee's is what caused so much damage to the victims. that was true, it meant the CIA either never recovered this other bullet or they were simply hiding it from the public. And several other details made people believe this was a possibility. Lee's final words were, I'm just a patsy. Several witnesses recalled seeing a shadowy figure on the grassy knoll near the motorcade. According to them, he was there around the time of the shooting. They wondered if this person was the second shooter. If Lee was working for someone, maybe this shadowy figure was, too. They wondered if they were both part of the same group,

one that shared Lee's radical communist beliefs. Remember earlier in 1963, Lee was visiting family in New Orleans? While he was there, he tried to get people to join a pro-Castro group he was part of. He spent days at a time passing out flyers and going on radio shows. people wondered if he'd also brushed elbows with some Castro supporters who wanted Kennedy dead. This theory goes back to what many consider to be Kennedy's worst blunder. Back in 1961, just a few months into his presidency, he worked with the CIA to overthrow Castro by infiltrating Cuba. This invasion became known as the Bay of Pigs, and it was a total failure.

Afterwards, Castro wanted revenge. According to this idea, he saw his opportunity in 1963 when Lee Harvey Oswald left New Orleans and tried to enter Cuba. Officially, he'd been denied entry. But some people wondered if that was just a cover story. Maybe they'd actually recruited Lee to assassinate Kennedy. And the shadowy man that was seen on the knoll was a Cuban assassin who was working with Lee to get it done. But there was another side of this theory, too. Some thought that Lee wasn't just working with Cubans who hated Kennedy, but those who also hated Castro.

When Castro first took power, many Cubans who opposed him fled to the U.S. Kennedy's administration enlisted over a thousand of those people in the Bay of Pigs invasion. When it failed, many survivors felt that Kennedy had sacrificed their fellow countrymen in vain. As this alternate theory goes, an anti-Castro Cuban was the other assassin. These theories still didn't explain why the CIA would have gone through such lengths to conceal a second shooter, but maybe they were just following orders from President Johnson. After all, he was adamant about keeping the public calm in the wake of the assassination. Still, there was another possibility.

The CIA had planted the bullet to protect itself. By the time the Bay of Pigs invasion failed in 1961, One, Kennedy was already taking a host of medications for a variety of health conditions. To manage all of his symptoms, he took up to 12 drugs at once. These included stimulants, anxiety medication, barbiturates, and painkillers. After the Bay of Pigs, he increased his dosages and seemed to be spiraling. In addition to all those drugs, Kennedy engaged in other risky behavior. He repeatedly cheated on his wife with other women.

including White House staffers, reporters, and sex workers. The CIA agents who witnessed this behavior became gravely concerned about Kennedy's ability to serve the country, and according to one theory, they wanted to stop him from doing any more damage, so they killed him. But there's another layer to this hypothesis, one that stems from a different Cold War event, the Cuban Missile Crisis. Back in 1962, it seemed like, like the Soviet Union was ready to declare nuclear war unprovoked and that Kennedy skillfully de-escalated things. But in the 1980s, the truth came out. In reality, the Soviets only put missiles outside Cuba because Kennedy had set some up in Turkey the year before, right

outside Soviet territory. This would have been during the same period when the CIA was concerned about his partying and substance abuse. In other words, Kennedy may have ended the Cuban Missile Crisis, but in the eyes of some, like the CIA, he also started it. And some people wondered if the CIA took the president out to protect the country. Still, none of these ideas about the CIA explained Lee Harvey Oswald's involvement. To answer that question, some people pointed to another powerful and secretive organization, the mob.

In 2007, CIA officials admitted that the agency had enlisted the mafia to try to kill Fidel Castro. Apparently, certain mafiosos had their own issues with him. Plus, they were skilled assassins. By the time this news came out, the American public was already aware that the CIA had tried and failed to kill Castro hundreds of times. It wasn't surprising that they'd gotten desperate enough to end up. asked the mafia for help. However, it did get some people thinking, maybe the mob wasn't able to help them kill Castro, but what if they did help them kill Kennedy? Before Kennedy was president,

he'd been in the Senate, while his brother, Robert, was the chief counsel for an important subcommittee. Both of them had fought against organized crime. Robert was the more aggressive one, but JFK supported his brother's goals. Their efforts led to the deportation, of a New Orleans mob leader named Carlos Marcello in 1961. Eventually, Marcello snuck back into the U.S. and swore to get revenge on the Kennedys. In 1962, the year before JFK was killed, Marcelo even told an associate, quote, If you want to kill a dog, you don't cut off the tail, you cut off the head.

Many took this to mean Marcelo either shot Kennedy himself or had someone else do it. someone like Lee Harvey Oswald. And it turned out, Marcello and Lee were in New Orleans at the same time. Not only that, but they had a mutual friend, Lee's former mentor from the Civil Air Patrol. According to this theory, Lee's mentor helped connect them and set Lee up as Marcelo's patsy. But there's an especially shocking twist to the mob theory. Some believe Lee's old mentor wasn't the one who recruited him. Jack Ruby did. Apparently, Jack had ties to the New Orleans mob, which is why some think that Marcello had him find a fall guy. And when Lee Harvey Oswald moved to Dallas and started spreading his communist beliefs, he became the perfect target.

And there's reason to think this might be true. Apparently, some witnesses saw Jack Ruby hanging around the Dallas police station after Kennedy's assassination. But before Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested, meaning he knew. knew it was going to happen, and was waiting to kill Lee before he could talk. Whatever actually happened, it's clear there's more to the story than what we've been told. With so much debate around the assassination, it's not surprising that the American people have continually asked the government to come clean about the truth. And the answers we've gotten so far aren't exactly satisfying. Even when more files were released in 2025, they didn't

really reveal anything groundbreaking. I've read excerpts, and to be honest, I feel like they didn't say much at all, but I'm curious if you've seen them. If you read the files, what did you think? Not just about the new information, but I'd love to hear your thoughts on the assassination in general. Because while many people think Kennedy's assassination was a conspiracy, it's hard to say which theory is the real one. All we know is that the government's official story isn't convincing. enough. In the decades since John F. Kennedy was killed, data shows the American public has become increasingly wary of the government. His death has given rise to an era of mistrust in the entire political process, and we're still feeling the effects today. While no leader is perfect,

some people wonder if Kennedy himself was a victim of government overreach. After all, he said himself, there is no room for secrecy in a free and open society, and the dangers of concealing the facts outweigh anything else. Thanks so much for listening. I'm Vanessa Richardson, and this is Conspiracy Theory's Cults and Crimes. Come back next week. We'll decode the episode together and hear another story about the real people at the center of the world's most notorious cults, conspiracies, and criminal acts.

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We'll be back next Wednesday. Conspiracy Theory's Cults and Crimes is hosted by me, Vanessa Richardson, and is a Crime House original powered by Pave Studios. This episode was brought to life by the Conspiracy Theory's Cults and Crimes team, Max Cutler, Ron Shapiro, Alex Benadon, Natalie Pritzowski, Marinelli, Sarah Camp, Sarah Bachelor, Sheila Patterson, and Michael Langsner. Thank you for listening. Christa.