JFK Assassination Conspiracy Theories

Claim: President John F. Kennedy's assassination in Dallas on November 22, 1963, was not the act of a lone gunman (Lee Harvey Oswald) but a plot involving the CIA, the Mafia, Cuban exiles, the Soviet Union, or Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson.

Origins: Public distrust grew after the Warren Commission's 1964 report concluded Oswald acted alone. Skeptics questioned the "single bullet theory," the Zapruder film's depiction of Kennedy's head movement, and Oswald's own murder by Jack Ruby two days later, which prevented a trial.

Why it persists / status: Unlike many theories on this list, this one has partial institutional traction: a 1979 House Select Committee on Assassinations concluded a "probable conspiracy" existed, based on disputed acoustic evidence later challenged by the National Academy of Sciences. Most historians and forensic experts still support the lone-gunman conclusion, but the case remains one of the few conspiracy theories taken seriously by mainstream researchers due to genuine ambiguities in evidence and long-classified government files (many released in 2017–2023).

Impact: Fueled deep public distrust of U.S. government institutions that persists to this day.