Multiple Gunmen?

The likeliest conspiracy theory concerning the assassination of JFK is also the most straightforward. Simply put, this theory holds that more than one gunman attempted to kill the president on that fateful day in Dallas.

Part of what makes this theory likely to be true is that it doesn’t attempt to get Lee Harvey Oswald off the hook for the death of JFK. Rather, this theory famously holds there was a second gunman situated somewhere (such as the grassy knoll) to make sure that JFK was good and dead.

The Mysterious Umbrella Man

A major reason we have all these JFK conspiracy theories is because of the Zapruder footage. This recording captures several details about the day that JFK was killed. And many have focused on the weirder details and what they might mean in terms of a larger conspiracy.

For example, the footage shows a man holding a black umbrella up. Because the day was very sunny, it’s easy to think that the umbrella played a role in the assassination (perhaps even giving someone the signal to shoot the president). The actual umbrella man, though, was Louie Steven Witt, and he has later claimed he was holding the umbrella up in protest of the president but not as part of any assassination plot.

The Rogue CIA Agent Theory

Given its secretive nature, the CIA is often imagined as being responsible for the assassination of JFK. Therefore, the CIA is at the heart of two persistent assassination theories, including one that involves an agent who had gone rogue.

The agent in question was named “Saul” by police officer Hugh McDonald. This cop believes Saul was hired by the Soviets to shoot JFK and that he did so from almost a building across the way from Lee Harvey Oswald. While this is an exciting theory, it opens up many other questions about whether Saul would have worked with Oswald or, inexplicably, if multiple people planned to kill JFK in the same way on that day.

Secret Service Slayer

One of the more basic theories about how JFK died is also pretty grim. Basically, the theory blames a gunshot coming from JFK’s own car rather than Lee Harvey Oswald’s perch.

Writer Bonar Manning put forth a theory that when Oswald took a shot at JFK, he missed. But the shot caused the car to brake, making a Secret Service officer lose his balance and accidentally discharge his weapon. Ultimately, this theory seems unlikely because nobody who was there offered any real corroborating evidence. Still, this theory would explain why the government engaged in so much secrecy surrounding the assassination.

CIA-sanctioned Murder

Not every assassination theory involving the CIA has a rogue agent at the center of it. In one theory, the CIA as an organization may have been behind it from the beginning!

Why, though, would the CIA want JFK dead? Some think that the CIA (largely right-wing) objected to JFK’s progressive ideas so much they wanted him dead. Others think that Oswald may have been on the CIA’s payroll, so even if he acted on his own, the CIA would want to cover up the details.

In a truly “meta” twist, others think the CIA are responsible for originally distributing different assassination conspiracy theories. Basically, if all of us focus on the many different possibilities of how JFK died, we are less likely to focus on the CIA’s potential involvement.

So, what REALLY happened?

These are just a few of the theories regarding how JFK was killed. So, big money question: how did JFK really die?

Despite all of the exciting theories, it seems Oswald is definitely to blame, though he could obviously be working with the CIA in some capacity. The CIA’s secrecy is obviously concerning, but one could argue that being secretive is part of their job description. Therefore, the secret agency keeping secrets is not, in and of itself, a smoking gun.

Still, filmmakers like Oliver Stone continue to shine a spotlight on potential CIA involvement. Between that and the improvements in forensic science, we may eventually get a more definitive answer about what role they did (or did not) play in JFK’s death. Ultimately, if they were able to kill JFK so easily, we’re more curious than ever why they had such a tough time assassinating Fidel Castro!