King of the World, Master of Delusion

With the possible exception of 9/11, few events in the Grand American Narrative have attracted or generated as much controversy, speculation, rumour, fevered imagination, contrived analysis, or misinformation, disinformation and counterfactual hypothesising as the assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy (JFK). Was it actually Lee Harvey Oswald (LHO) who masterminded and perpetrated the hit on his ‘Pat Malone’? (Spoiler alert: No it wasn’t! Now let’s move on.)

Or was LHO a patsy for others? If we accept indeed there were “others”, it begs some very basic, crucial questions: Who conceived of the hit on JFK, and why? Who was involved in its elaborate planning and orchestration, and the even more complex, and never-ending cover-up? Who had the motive, the means and the opportunity?

Moreover, given the monumental logistical undertaking required, how was the collective understanding to proceed arrived at in the first instance by all those involved? And how was it planned, coordinated and executed without leaving substantial evidence to point to the actual perpetrators, facilitators and sponsors? Further, how is it possible that all attempts thus far to establish the real facts have been criminally derailed and/or terminated with extreme prejudice despite the overwhelming evidence there was a conspiracy?

It is precisely because the Single Bullet/Lone Nutter narrative from the off was so far-fetched the ongoing speculation surrounding the assassination is unlikely to peter out anytime soon. With the number of books alone written about the subject enough to fill your average Presidential Library, by that loose metric alone — 9/11 aside — it is probably still the Mother of all Modern Conspiracies.

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