American History

Pat Robertson

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href=" " imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" target="_blank"><img alt="A" border="0" figure="" on="" pat="" prominent="" religious="" right="" robertson="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj3vBvCOWiTFver3UV_A-7exny0SkkQBeMVFfuJW2C7c6FFD8Uylp6ub9zGD30MAI331OR97BpNSf4DiZe9KvGN20axKF2mFtSf575hejhfHOmowAVgadgOMAw5vAtzWZu36vZ2p1jwfNg/s1600/Pat-Robertson.jpg" the="" title="Pat" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Pat Robertson</td></tr> </tbody></table> A prominent figure on the religious Right, Pat Robertson, with his brand of conspiracy-infused politics, reached a wide audience in his bid for the presidency in 1988 and with the success of his controversial book The <a href=" " target="_blank">New World Order</a>, which has been accused of antisemitism. The son of a senator, Robertson purchased a Virginia television station in 1960, marking the beginnings of the Christian Broadcasting Network, one of the most important elements of the burgeoning evangelical media that was to become so important in the latter part of the twentieth century. When evangelicals also established the Christian Right at the end of the 1970s, Robertson played a relatively minor role, but the subsequent decline of its leading organization, the Moral Majority, and the impending end of the <a href=" " rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Reagan</a> years brought him to prominence following his decision to pursue the 1988 Republican presidential nomination. While he was unsuccessful, an important effect of his campaign was the creation the following year of the Christian Coalition. Concentrating much of its energies on opposition to abortion and homosexuality, the Coalition rapidly became a key component of the Republican Party and although it was to decline in the late 1990s (and Robertson to resign from its presidency in 2001), during the early years of the <a href=" " rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Clinton</a> administration it was a central force in the resurgence of conservatism. <table align="center" border="0"><tbody> <tr> <td align="center"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0849944147/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&linkCode=li3&tag=inamerican-20&linkId=c4bff3e3e87c4f8e3e99275c4b78c1d3" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0849944147&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=inamerican-20" /></a><img alt="A" border="0" figure="" height="1" on="" pat="" prominent="" religious="" right="" robertson="" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=inamerican-20&l=li3&o=1&a=0849944147" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" the="" width="1" /><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01IJD1N4G/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&linkCode=li3&tag=inamerican-20&linkId=c16a5d57a2733600877d0e3ffa9f91d4" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=B01IJD1N4G&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=inamerican-20" /></a><img alt="A" border="0" figure="" height="1" on="" pat="" prominent="" religious="" right="" robertson="" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=inamerican-20&l=li3&o=1&a=B01IJD1N4G" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" the="" width="1" /></td> </tr> </tbody></table> Shortly after the creation of the coalition, Robertson published a book in which he declared that in calling for a “New World Order,” President Bush was unknowingly carrying out the mission of a vast, global satanic conspiracy. In arguing this, Robinson claimed that a conspiratorial elite could be traced back to the eighteenth century, when a secret society, the <a href=" " target="_blank">Illuminati</a>, had plotted the <a href=" " rel="nofollow" target="_blank">French Revolution</a>. In the nineteenth century Illuminism had mutated into Marxism, while in the twentieth century the Bolshevik seizure of power in Russia had been secretly funded by European financiers. In later years, he argued, much of the work of the conspiracy was carried out by such organizations as the Council on Foreign Relations and the Trilateral Commission. Initially little noticed outside the evangelical milieu, The New World Order began to attract attention following a front-page attack in a 1994 issue of the prestigious New York Review of Books. Authored by Michael Lind, a former conservative, it argued that Robertson’s work was not the usual brand of evangelical Protestant theology but originated instead in “the underground literature of far-right populism.” He was supported by another former conservative, Jacob Heilbrunn, who convincingly demonstrated that Robertson had relied on material by the early-twentieth-century antisemitic conspiracist, Nesta Webster. The New York Review’s attack drew angry replies from Robertson and other conservatives. Subsequently, Robertson blamed a research assistant for introducing Webster’s material into his work and he continued to deny any suggestion that he held antisemitic views. A closer examination of both Robertson’s book and the writings of his critics shines a critical light on both sides of the argument. Robertson, while rightly pointing out his long record of support for Israel, had nonetheless produced a book that linked the Illuminati to the Rothschild family. Conversely, Lind, who had suggested Robertson’s writings were “far more bizarre and sinister” than the conspiracist writings of the <a href=" " target="_blank">John Birch Society</a>, missed both the Society’s praise for Robertson’s book and the strong links between what Robertson argued and what the Society had long believed. Having itself drawn on Webster’s work, the Society had also been accused of antisemitism, and while both have denounced claims that conspiratorial forces are Jewish in origin, it is understandable that critics should take them to be antisemitic. The situation is, however, more complicated, because conspiratorial claims that the hidden rulers of history are bankers, or Masons, or extraterrestrials might often be motivated by a racist view, but is not always necessarily so. If Robertson has had the misfortune to have his conspiracy theory attacked more for what it did not say than what it did, he has also been accused of being a secret adherent of the New World Order, rather than an opponent. In the 1980s, one conspiracy text with a considerable impact upon evangelicals was Constance Cumbey’s <a amzn-ps-bm-asin="091031103X" class="amzn_ps_bm_tl" data-amzn-link-id="2cf7acea78dcd416cb3b73e19f534f95" data-amzn-ps-bm-keyword="The Hidden Dangers of the Rainbow" href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Hidden-Dangers-Rainbow-Barbarism/dp/091031103X/ref=as_li_bk_tl/?tag=theconthist-20&linkId=2cf7acea78dcd416cb3b73e19f534f95&linkCode=ktl" id="amznPsBmLink_3176082" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">The Hidden Dangers of the Rainbow</a><img alt="A" border="0" figure="" height="0" id="amznPsBmPixel_3176082" on="" pat="" prominent="" religious="" right="" robertson="" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?source=bk&t=theconthist-20&bm-id=default&l=ktl&linkId=2cf7acea78dcd416cb3b73e19f534f95&_cb=1457781126909" style="border: none !important; height: 0px !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important; width: 0px !important;" the="" width="0" />, which, like Robertson’s later volume, saw the New Age movement as part of Satan’s attack on Christianity. In a later book, A Planned Deception, Cumbey suggested that Robertson’s announcement that he intended to provide live coverage of the Second Coming fitted well with a supposed New Age plan to launch a false Christ figure upon the world.

Pat Robertson

Pat Robertson A prominent figure on the religious Right, Pat Robertson, with his brand of conspiracy-infused politics, reached a wide au...

Rockefeller Family

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href=" " imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" target="_blank"><img almost="" alt="Associated" border="0" conspiracy="" every="" family="" from="" masa="" moder="" of="" populists="" rockefeller="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhX2bJXb5JUEEIUyyN681xwNO5e9bjcWPf1a-p-SrwcJLyzwJEbDAQCnSInHwpOXQ6y9_ssVPc_Cw3MrcAU-xkjGblFIDNpma9ZHd1r1GStPtZzAOaZ2Y8AhqHjmLIa9JgojX3PtjC0PBc/s1600/Rockefeller.jpg" the="" theory="" title="Rockefeller" to="" with="" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">John D. Rockefeller</td></tr> </tbody></table> Associated with almost every conspiracy theory from the masa of the Populists to the modern Trilateral Commission, Bilderbergers, and the Council on Foreign Relations, the Rockefeller family holds a unique place in U.S. conspiracy history. Even the powerful banker <a href=" " target="_blank">J. P. Morgan</a> and steel magnate Andrew Carnegie have not been the center of conspiracy theories as have focused on John D. Rockefeller, the founder of Standard Oil Company, although one conspiracy website refers to Andrew Carnegie—at one time, the richest man in the world—as a “Rockefeller stooge.” Rockefeller (1839–1937) was born in Richford, New York, and began working as a bookkeeper at age sixteen. Seven years later, he joined entrepreneur Henry Flagler and inventor Samuel Andrews to begin refining crude petroleum. The three incorporated the firm as Standard Oil Company in 1870, bringing in John’s brother William to join the company. Rockefeller emphasized cost-cutting and demanded that the “common man” have cheap kerosene, employing chemists to develop better methods of refining and to search out new ways to use petroleum by-products. <table align="center" border="0"><tbody> <tr> <td align="center"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0061237221/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&linkCode=li3&tag=inamerican-20&linkId=7379f66db7358d33ecce5f39e9730bf3" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0061237221&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=inamerican-20" /></a><img almost="" alt="Associated" border="0" conspiracy="" every="" family="" from="" height="1" masa="" moder="" of="" populists="" rockefeller="" src="//ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=inamerican-20&l=li3&o=1&a=0061237221" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" the="" theory="" to="" width="1" with="" /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0142001775/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&linkCode=li3&tag=inamerican-20&linkId=d8d3df2f75a081f47ebf6e44602d4fb7" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0142001775&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=inamerican-20" /></a><img almost="" alt="Associated" border="0" conspiracy="" every="" family="" from="" height="1" masa="" moder="" of="" populists="" rockefeller="" src="//ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=inamerican-20&l=li3&o=1&a=0142001775" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" the="" theory="" to="" width="1" with="" /></td> </tr> </tbody></table> Although Rockefeller bought out other refiners, creating for Standard Oil a near-monopoly position, consumer prices on kerosene plummeted—and continued to do so until the time of the Standard Oil breakup in 1911. The claims leveled against John D. Rockefeller and his descendants are so many and diverse as to defy easy categorization. Populist groups tended to ignore Rockefeller personally and attack his connections with the large (in their view, monopolistic) railroads. The critique of the railroads involved traditional concerns with price-fixing and monopolies, but also contained a criticism of “long-haul/shorthaul” price differentiation, in which large shippers, such as Rockefeller, received rebates not extended to those shipping over shorter distances. Other reform groups and “muckrakers” such as Ida Tarbell maintained that Rockefeller unduly pushed smaller competitors out of business and used ruthless pricing tactics in an attempt to “corner the market.” Rockefeller’s new mechanism for controlling multiple companies, called the trust, was viewed as fundamentally undemocratic and, with the Sherman Anti-Trust Act of 1890, was outlawed. That act, ironically, had the effect of driving companies from the inefficient trust structure into much more efficient vertical combinations, which in turn increased—rather than decreased—their power. A tither to his church all his life, Rockefeller had a fortune of nearly $1 billion, and gave away charitable contributions totaling $550 million through the Rockefeller Foundation, the General Education Board, the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research, and the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Memorial. These philanthropic organizations became the source of yet other conspiracy theories. The Institute for Medical Research, for example, has been accused of conducting a massive propaganda campaign to eliminate nondrug “holistic” treatments for diseases, in order to increase profits for the “Rockefeller-Farben combine.” In this theory, Rockefeller, through the Institute, hoodwinked the medical profession into adopting drug therapies by shaping the treatment of medical research in the universities. In 1952, Emanuel Josephson published Rockefeller, “Internationalist”: The Man Who Misrules the World, one of the first book-length conspiracy attacks on the Rockefellers. Josephson claimed that the Rockefeller family sought “to control all necessities from the time they are produced until they are consumed” (Josephson, 20). The foundations, in Josephson’s view, were only attempts to remain free of taxation, allowing the family to dominate U.S. Steel, Westinghouse, Republic Iron and Steel, and dozens of other U.S. companies. Not only did the family own stock in these companies, but they also, through marriage and appointments, dominated the boards of other important companies. Winthrop Aldrich, chairman of Chase National Bank, was John D. Rockefeller’s brother-in-law through Rockefeller’s marriage to the daughter of Senator Nelson Aldrich—one of the creators of the <a href=" " target="_blank">Federal Reserve System</a>. According to the theory, Rockefeller, Morgan, Paul Warburg, and other “internationalists” sought to use the Federal Reserve and the newly imposed income tax to control the U.S. economy and to then implement a socialist/Bolshevik agenda. The classic conspiracy book, None Dare Call It Conspiracy (1971) by Gary Allen and Larry Abraham, place Rockefeller, Warburg, and Morgan, as well as National City president Frank Vanderlip and financiers Bernard Baruch and Jacob Schiff, at the center of a world conspiracy through the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), which is directed, in turn, by the Rothschilds. Through the CFR, the Rockefellers controlled not only Standard Oil, U.S. Steel, Eastman Kodak, Xerox, IBM, and Firestone, but also dominated the media by owning or influencing NBC, CBS, Timemagazine, Life magazine, and all the major newspapers and publishing houses. Like most theories, Allen and Abraham only imply or infer a Rockefeller presence in this and other conspiracy networks. Not only did the Rockefellers play prominent—some would say “shadow”—roles in business, but they were also active in politics. John, Jr.’s son, Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller, worked in Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal administration, then held a number of appointed positions in the Eisenhower administration or on public commissions. He ran for the Republican nomination for president three times, and lost, before being named vice-president after Gerald Ford was sworn in to replace <a href=" " target="_blank">President Richard Nixon</a>, who resigned. Winthrop Rockefeller, the youngest of John, Jr.’s sons, was elected governor of Arkansas in 1966. Through the work of David Rockefeller (b. 1915), the son of John D. Rockefeller, Jr., and the head of the Carnegie Endowment for Peace in the 1950s, the family’s internationalist pursuits continued. David Rockefeller set up the Trilateral Commission in 1973 to promote cooperation in international matters. Through the influence of the CFR and the Trilateral Commission, the <a href=" " rel="nofollow" target="_blank">World Bank</a>, and the <a href=" " rel="nofollow" target="_blank">International Monetary Fund (IMF)</a>, the Rockefeller influence promoted “multilaterialism” and international lending as a means to destroy national sovereignty and produce a “<a href=" " target="_blank">one world government</a>.” The fact that David Rockefeller wrote a 1980 Wall Street Journal editorial attacking notions that he was the “mastermind of an international conspiracy” (Gilmour, 1) only served to convince conspiracy theorists even more of his guilt. Instead, theorists pointed to Rockefeller’s work with President Jimmy Carter’s national security advisor, Zbigniew Brzezinski, on a white paper dealing with international technology issues as clear evidence of his agenda. Thus, to the present, the name “Rockefeller” infuses virtually every major conspiracy theory except those dealing with UFOs and the <a href=" " target="_blank">Kennedy assassination</a>.

Rockefeller Family

John D. Rockefeller Associated with almost every conspiracy theory from the masa of the Populists to the modern Trilateral Commission, B...

Jack Ruby

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS034BsURfsT9fcjS7PB5YoywrGbXC6dg1tWmDVrYGuVd3O6pafVLYUjJW97Zttbxhv1gWRv8H6TmI5NiXB54zXHqXiXytv_7JsAQwuUU36BkDa9wsDp98L-iIH2IAJRS3CzS6isWdgPs/s1600/Jack-Ruby.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img a="" alt="eliminating" border="0" f="" for="" jack="" john="" need="" ruby="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS034BsURfsT9fcjS7PB5YoywrGbXC6dg1tWmDVrYGuVd3O6pafVLYUjJW97Zttbxhv1gWRv8H6TmI5NiXB54zXHqXiXytv_7JsAQwuUU36BkDa9wsDp98L-iIH2IAJRS3CzS6isWdgPs/s1600/Jack-Ruby.jpg" the="" title="Jack" trial="" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jack Ruby</td></tr> </tbody></table> On 24 November 1963, at 11:21 A.M., Jack Ruby fatally shot <a href=" " target="_blank">Lee Harvey Oswald</a>, eliminating the need for a trial for John F. Kennedy’s alleged assassin, and thereby entering the annals of conspiracy theory. To many Americans, Ruby’s act seemed instant evidence that Kennedy’s assassination was the work of a conspiracy. Ruby claimed he shot Oswald in order to prevent Jackie Kennedy from having to participate in a lengthy trial. He also noted his ire at the famous anti-Kennedy ad placed in the Dallas Morning News on the day of the assassination. Ruby feared the ad, signed by right-wing activist Bernard Weissman, would cause the public to blame the assassination on the Jews—to Ruby, Weissman’s name sounded “<a href=" " rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Jewish</a>.” Ruby’s activities between the time of the assassination and the Oswald shooting are well documented. Seth Kantor, a former Dallas journalist then working as a White House correspondent, claimed to have seen Ruby at Parkland Hospital shortly after the assassination. Ruby then closed his nightclub, the Carousel Club, for the weekend, and spent the rest of the day running around the city talking about the assassination. He bought sandwiches for the police, bringing them to radio station KLIF where he learned the police had already eaten. <table align="center" border="0"><tbody> <tr> <td align="center"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0000A7W19/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&linkCode=li3&tag=inamerican-20&linkId=5ef6804363357a0a303df5e59dc59786" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=B0000A7W19&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=inamerican-20" /></a><img a="" alt="eliminating" border="0" f="" for="" height="1" jack="" john="" need="" ruby="" src="//ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=inamerican-20&l=li3&o=1&a=B0000A7W19" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" the="" trial="" width="1" /><a href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1479135356/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&linkCode=li3&tag=inamerican-20&linkId=68c7f898292154ed338d5f2837f43607" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=1479135356&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=inamerican-20" /></a><img a="" alt="eliminating" border="0" f="" for="" height="1" jack="" john="" need="" ruby="" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=inamerican-20&l=li3&o=1&a=1479135356" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" the="" trial="" width="1" /></td> </tr> </tbody></table> He visited the police station anyway, talked with Kathy Kay, an employee of his at the Carousel, and stopped by the Dallas Times Herald. At 4:30 A.M on 24 November, he and his roommate, George Senator, took photographs of an “Impeach Earl Warren” billboard near a Dallas freeway. Later that morning, Ruby drove downtown to the Western Union office and wired $25 to Karen Carlin, another Carousel employee, at 11:17 A.M. Four minutes later, he headed to the nearby Dallas Police station, where Oswald was at that moment being transferred to the Dallas jail. Moving quickly through the crowd, Ruby shot Oswald once in the stomach. Ruby’s Biography Ruby was born Jack Rubenstein on 25 March 1911, in Chicago. His family was Orthodox Jewish, and Ruby’s Jewish identity emerged early on, as he participated in breaking up American Nazi Bund marches in Chicago. Dropping out of school after the sixth grade, Ruby spent his youth fighting and hustling on the streets. He was placed in a foster home for eighteen months beginning in 1923. In 1933, he left for <a href=" " rel="nofollow" target="_blank">California</a>, returning to Chicago in 1937. Between 1937 and 1943 he was union organizer for Scrap Iron Junk Handler Local 20467 in Chicago; the union’s books were later seized by the state of Illinois because of connections with organized crime (it has often been claimed that Ruby was more widely involved with organized crime in Chicago). He enlisted in the army air force in 1943, and was discharged in 1946. He moved to Dallas in 1947, to help his sister Eva run a nightclub. That same year, he changed his name to Jack Ruby. Between 1947 and 1963, Ruby ran a string of Dallas nightclubs. Eva’s Singapore Club became the Silver Spur in 1953, and Ruby invested in the Vegas Club, which he partly owned until his arrest. In 1959, Ruby acquired an interest in the Sovereign Club, on Commerce Street in downtown Dallas. When Ruby’s friend Ralph Paul became his partner, they changed the Sovereign’s name and format to a striptease joint called the Carousel Club. After his arrest for the Oswald killing, Ruby was tried and convicted by Judge <a amzn-ps-bm-asin="0595170234" class="amzn_ps_bm_tl" data-amzn-link-id="9e2975b427055ab35091b759c7dccd09" data-amzn-ps-bm-keyword="Joe B. Brown" href="http://www.amazon.com/Dallas-Jack-Ruby-Trial-Memoir/dp/0595170234/ref=as_li_bk_tl/?tag=epichistory-20&linkId=9e2975b427055ab35091b759c7dccd09&linkCode=ktl" id="amznPsBmLink_6358186" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Joe B. Brown</a><img a="" alt="eliminating" border="0" f="" for="" height="0" id="amznPsBmPixel_6358186" jack="" john="" need="" ruby="" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?source=bk&t=epichistory-20&bm-id=default&l=ktl&linkId=9e2975b427055ab35091b759c7dccd09&_cb=1483260974928" style="border: none !important; height: 0px !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important; width: 0px !important;" the="" trial="" width="0" />. San Francisco lawyer Melvin Belli defended him, making the case that Ruby suffered from psychomotor epilepsy, which affected his judgment. After the guilty verdict was returned on 14 March 1964, Ruby’s lawyers began an appeal, which culminated in Brown’s removal from the case. On 24 June 1966, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals reversed Ruby’s death sentence and granted him a change of venue. While this appeal continued, Ruby died of cancer on 3 January 1967, expiring in the same Parkland Hospital where Kennedy was taken. Though Ruby’s claim that he was injected with cancer is medically impossible, his Parkland doctor asserted that if his cancer had been detected earlier by Dallas jail physician John W. Callahan, it could have been treated, prolonging Ruby’s life. Ruby and Kennedy Conspiracy Theories Up until his death, Ruby offered flickering assertions that he was involved in a conspiracy, asserting in a television interview that his entire story had not been told. Ruby figures in every conceivable assassination conspiracy theory. In particular, his connections with organized crime have helped produce theories describing collusion between the Mafia and Cuban exiles, the CIA, or right-wing Texas militants. Ruby’s alleged Mafia ties begin with his youth in Chicago, where he supposedly ran errands for Al Capone, and continue through his union organizer work in the same city. Many of Ruby’s associates in Dallas are also linked to organized crime. For example, Paul Roland Jones, an associate of the Chicago Mafia who offered to bribe the Dallas Police Department, frequented Ruby’s Singapore Club during the late 1940s. In addition to these links, Ruby’s activity in the months before the assassination also indicates an organized crime connection. For example, according to Bell Telephone records, Ruby’s phone activity increased dramatically during this period, and many of these calls are to figures connected with organized crime. Ruby explained these calls as resulting from troubles with the American Guild of Variety Artists, the union to which Carousel Club performers belonged. Ruby also made several documented trips to Cuba between 1959 and 1963, supposedly on Mafia gun-running or narcotics errands. In addition to the Mafia connection, conspiracy researchers point to Ruby’s testimony before the Warren Commission, in which, among other strange notes, he repeatedly asks to be taken to Washington because his life is in danger. Ruby’s involvement in a conspiracy also surfaces elsewhere in the hearings. In his testimony, Marguerite Oswald’s lawyer Mark Lane infamously claimed that Ruby met with Weissman at the Carousel Club, along with J. D. Tippit, the policeman whom Oswald shot shortly after the assassination. Lane’s reference to Tippit carried weight because of Ruby’s close association with the Dallas Police Department. For example, he regularly hosted Dallas Police Department members at the Carousel Club, and sent policemen gifts of whiskey at Christmas. With fifty-one policemen guarding Oswald, researchers often assume that Ruby must have had inside help to fire such a close shot.

Jack Ruby

Jack Ruby On 24 November 1963, at 11:21 A.M., Jack Ruby fatally shot Lee Harvey Oswald , eliminating the need for a trial for John F. Ke...

Yalta Conference

Yalta Conference

Yalta Conference On 4–11 February 1945, Franklin Roosevelt , Winston Churchill , and Joseph Stalin convened secretly at the Black Sea r...

Salem Witch Trials

Salem Witch Trials

Salem Witch Trials The Salem Witch Trials (February to October 1692) comprise the largest witch-hunt in North American history. A keyno...

Skull and Bones Society

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> <a href=" " imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvxCXQs204vahPQDnrMrhv1V2ePbLZ7wu6ighQxrX57VmjQg_2vKtd38s5tcHOxkbl5BCrrSvIGvD1JJHQW-rPu-gPUfxR3Uj9z31UlSNOXjEnaZ0cbxTOP88ANDVPrAcCi6cBFTkoAS0/s1600/Skull-Bones.jpg" /></a></div> Including among its members both President <a href=" " rel="nofollow" target="_blank">George W. Bush</a> and Monty Burns from The Simpsons, the Skull and Bones may be the most powerful and most mythologized secret society left in the twenty-first century United States. Known as “the Order” to its initiates and housed in a windowless crypt known as “the Tomb,” the Skull and Bones is the oldest and most prestigious of Yale’s secret societies. Each year since its founding by <a amzn-ps-bm-asin="1258457822" class="amzn_ps_bm_tl" data-amzn-link-id="4496fff97815b2057df2d4ba7e936ccb" data-amzn-ps-bm-keyword="William H. Russell" href="http://www.amazon.com/William-Russell-Smith-Alabama-Works/dp/1258457822/ref=as_li_bk_tl/?tag=epichistory-20&linkId=4496fff97815b2057df2d4ba7e936ccb&linkCode=ktl" id="amznPsBmLink_3496336" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">William H. Russell</a><img alt="Including" among="" and="" bones="" border="0" both="" height="0" id="amznPsBmPixel_3496336" its="" members="" president="" skull="" society="" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?source=bk&t=epichistory-20&bm-id=default&l=ktl&linkId=4496fff97815b2057df2d4ba7e936ccb&_cb=1483257775692" style="border: none !important; height: 0px !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important; width: 0px !important;" width="0" /> and Alphonso Taft in 1832, fifteen juniors are selected, or “tapped,” to become members in their senior year. Given its almost frighteningly elite honor roll of members, and its long trail of rumors and exposés, the Skull and Bones has been said to run everything from the Bavarian Illuminati and the <a href=" " target="_blank">New World Order</a>, to the CIA and the East Coast establishment. But whatever conspiratorial designs one wishes to believe about this quite real secret society, the Skull and Bones has long fulfilled its critical role of, in Ron Rosenbaum’s words, “converting the idle progeny of the ruling class into morally serious leaders of the establishment.” <table align="center" border="0"><tbody> <tr> <td align="center"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0975290606/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&linkCode=li3&tag=inamerican-20&linkId=5500c94d0c50bc451d41ddc1e6267059" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0975290606&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=inamerican-20" /></a><img alt="Including" among="" and="" bones="" border="0" both="" height="1" its="" members="" president="" skull="" society="" src="//ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=inamerican-20&l=li3&o=1&a=0975290606" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1508684502/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&linkCode=li3&tag=inamerican-20&linkId=698afdb2812a5249a9673fba90c65e53" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=1508684502&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=inamerican-20" /></a><img alt="Including" among="" and="" bones="" border="0" both="" height="1" its="" members="" president="" skull="" society="" src="//ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=inamerican-20&l=li3&o=1&a=1508684502" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" width="1" /></td> </tr> </tbody></table> Secrets of “the Order” It is said that members are required to leave the room if they are ever asked about the Skull and Bones. Nevertheless, lists of its most illustrious members are readily available. They include political leaders such as the only president to become chief justice of the Supreme Court, <a amzn-ps-bm-asin="0700616748" class="amzn_ps_bm_tl" data-amzn-link-id="610124cbfce8fec2bad64cfa4562be89" data-amzn-ps-bm-keyword="William Howard Taft" href="http://www.amazon.com/William-Howard-Presidency-American-Hardcover/dp/0700616748/ref=as_li_bk_tl/?tag=epichistory-20&linkId=610124cbfce8fec2bad64cfa4562be89&linkCode=ktl" id="amznPsBmLink_6631129" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">William Howard Taft</a><img alt="Including" among="" and="" bones="" border="0" both="" height="0" id="amznPsBmPixel_6631129" its="" members="" president="" skull="" society="" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?source=bk&t=epichistory-20&bm-id=default&l=ktl&linkId=610124cbfce8fec2bad64cfa4562be89&_cb=1483257825995" style="border: none !important; height: 0px !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important; width: 0px !important;" width="0" />; Franklin D. Roosevelt’s secretary of war, Henry Lewis Stimson; and three members of the Bush clan: Prescott, George, Sr., and George W. Bush. Yale has long been the center of CIA recruitment, and a large segment of America’s foreign policy and intelligence establishment has been shaped by Bonesmen, including Kennedy’s national security advisor <a amzn-ps-bm-asin="0805090878" class="amzn_ps_bm_tl" data-amzn-link-id="48f1887a613795810a837b4b874ce37b" data-amzn-ps-bm-keyword="McGeorge Bundy" href="http://www.amazon.com/Lessons-Disaster-McGeorge-Bundy-Vietnam/dp/0805090878/ref=as_li_bk_tl/?tag=epichistory-20&linkId=48f1887a613795810a837b4b874ce37b&linkCode=ktl" id="amznPsBmLink_1322714" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">McGeorge Bundy</a><img alt="Including" among="" and="" bones="" border="0" both="" height="0" id="amznPsBmPixel_1322714" its="" members="" president="" skull="" society="" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?source=bk&t=epichistory-20&bm-id=default&l=ktl&linkId=48f1887a613795810a837b4b874ce37b&_cb=1483257850414" style="border: none !important; height: 0px !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important; width: 0px !important;" width="0" /> and his brother William, who was a leader of both the CIA and the Council on Foreign Relations; Hugh Cunningham, former director of Clandestine Services for the CIA; and Dino Pionzio, the CIA station chief in Chile during the overthrow of <a amzn-ps-bm-asin="0745333079" class="amzn_ps_bm_tl" data-amzn-link-id="cad778e7da67ab838f845ce598f2cbd5" data-amzn-ps-bm-keyword="Salvador Allende" href="http://www.amazon.com/Salvador-Allende-Revolutionary-Democrat-Lives/dp/0745333079/ref=as_li_bk_tl/?tag=epichistory-20&linkId=cad778e7da67ab838f845ce598f2cbd5&linkCode=ktl" id="amznPsBmLink_3145208" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Salvador Allende</a><img alt="Including" among="" and="" bones="" border="0" both="" height="0" id="amznPsBmPixel_3145208" its="" members="" president="" skull="" society="" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?source=bk&t=epichistory-20&bm-id=default&l=ktl&linkId=cad778e7da67ab838f845ce598f2cbd5&_cb=1483257878174" style="border: none !important; height: 0px !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important; width: 0px !important;" width="0" />. Skull and Bones members continue to be connected to every “insider” and potentially sinister international society, including the Bilderberg group and the Trilateral Commission. In the world of business, the Skull and Bones not only operates several major investment and law firms including Brown Brothers Harriman, but their members include Averell Harriman, Dean Witter, Harold Stanley, and Thomas Daniels, founder of ADM (a large agricultural company). Other prominent Bonesmen include TimeLife founder and media tycoon Henry Luce and conservative pundit William F. Buckley. Although its membership has been overwhelmingly of a WASP-Republican type, the Skull and Bones was openminded enough to tap its first African American member in 1949; its first Jewish members in the 1950s; and includes among its members the gay, socialist literary critic F. O. Mathiessen, anti-Vietnam activist <a amzn-ps-bm-asin="0664233007" class="amzn_ps_bm_tl" data-amzn-link-id="10282b060f7fb47de131f46a5d4ed379" data-amzn-ps-bm-keyword="William Sloane Coffin" href="http://www.amazon.com/Collected-Sermons-William-Sloane-Coffin/dp/0664233007/ref=as_li_bk_tl/?tag=epichistory-20&linkId=10282b060f7fb47de131f46a5d4ed379&linkCode=ktl" id="amznPsBmLink_1723348" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">William Sloane Coffin</a><img alt="Including" among="" and="" bones="" border="0" both="" height="0" id="amznPsBmPixel_1723348" its="" members="" president="" skull="" society="" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?source=bk&t=epichistory-20&bm-id=default&l=ktl&linkId=10282b060f7fb47de131f46a5d4ed379&_cb=1483257937683" style="border: none !important; height: 0px !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important; width: 0px !important;" width="0" />, and novelist John Hersey (author of Hiroshima and The Conspiracy). The rites of membership are among the Skull and Bones’ most coveted secrets. It remains largely a matter of conjecture whether or not the tapped are forced to lie naked in a coffin, or what lies behind the “<a amzn-ps-bm-asin="B00OEK0ZXY" class="amzn_ps_bm_tl" data-amzn-link-id="a9f0b1ebf816223eb49ab7456b4eec43" data-amzn-ps-bm-keyword="Mystery of 322" href="http://www.amazon.com/Episode-322/dp/B00OEK0ZXY/ref=as_li_bk_tl/?tag=epichistory-20&linkId=a9f0b1ebf816223eb49ab7456b4eec43&linkCode=ktl" id="amznPsBmLink_8812876" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Mystery of 322</a><img alt="Including" among="" and="" bones="" border="0" both="" height="0" id="amznPsBmPixel_8812876" its="" members="" president="" skull="" society="" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?source=bk&t=epichistory-20&bm-id=default&l=ktl&linkId=a9f0b1ebf816223eb49ab7456b4eec43&_cb=1483257976893" style="border: none !important; height: 0px !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important; width: 0px !important;" width="0" />” (322 is supposedly the society’s magic number, and also the number of the room that forms the inner sanctum). Yet stories of the confessional and intensely intimate nature of the initiation rituals have been widely confirmed. Initiation is said to consist of marathon sessions in which members tell their new brothers their life stories and provide, in excruciating detail, a complete record of their most private sexual experiences. The contents of the Tomb itself are also a source of mystery: it is widely believed that Skull and Bones possesses the skulls of Geronimo (procured by Prescott Bush) and <a href=" " rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Pancho Villa</a>, both of which have caused public controversy. Among the rumored perks of membership is a $15,000, no-strings-attached gift, plus a promise that members will receive an income for life. For fun and relaxation of the most exclusive kind, the Skull and Bones maintains a members-only island resort in the St. Lawrence River that is the site of their annual retreats. But more than their undergraduate bonding in the crypt, the real benefits of membership in the Order come after graduation, through the society’s vast network of connections and contacts within the U.S. ruling class. It is, of course, here that the Skull and Bones ceases to be an old and silly college fraternity and transmogrifies into what many believe to be a nearly omnipotent conspiracy. Barbarians at the Gates The Skull and Bones may have many traditions that remain secret, but this is not due to a lack of trying by curious and rebellious outsiders (referred to as “barbarians” by Bonesmen). The first “raid” of the Skull and Bones tomb occurred on 29 September 1876 when a small group, mockingly calling itself the “Order of the File and Claw,” managed to break into the “sanctum sanctorum.” Inside they found occult symbols, plenty of skulls and bones, portraits of the founders, and strange German slogans about death and such (from which <a href=" " target="_blank">John Birch Society</a> types have concluded that the Skull and Bones is, in fact, the second house of the Bavarian Illuminati). The second major rash of break-ins occurred nearly a century later as waves of radicalism and feminism swept over the Yale campus, leaving the impression that the Skull and Bones was simply a WASPish boys’ club irreparably in decline. John Pogue, the writer and producer of the 2000 film The Skulls, claimed to have infiltrated the Tomb during his days as a Yale student in the 1980s. And in the latest violation of its sacred rituals, a team of students armed with a night-vision camera and climbing equipment managed to capture videotape footage of the Skull and Bones’ melodramatic initiation rites, filled with shrieking and mock violence in which a member dressed up as George W. Bush can be heard saying, “I’m gonna kill you like I did Al Gore!” During <a href=" " rel="nofollow" target="_blank">George H. W. Bush</a>’s run for the presidency in 1988, Bob Woodward (a member of competing Yale secret society Book and Snake) managed to find several of Bush’s fellow Bonesmen who were willing to talk openly about “the Order,” including several (nonsexual) details of Bush’s life-story confessions. These members revealed that one of the two men who were killed when Bush’s plane was shot down in <a href=" " rel="nofollow" target="_blank">World War II</a> was a member of Skull and Bones, and that Bush grieved deeply for years with this knowledge. As the first oil baron turned CIA director to become president, Bush could not shake the establishment aura of Yale and the Skull and Bones, and during his reelection bid in 1992, the reactionary-populist Pat Buchanan accused Bush of “running a Skull and Bones presidency.” However, no such slights or loose lips could be found when it came time for the New Haven–born Texan George W. Bush to make his bid for the White House. In one campaign interview, George W. refused to publicly admit that he was a member and claimed not to know if the society still existed. However, it is widely rumored around the Yale campus that George W. had his 1968 class of Skull and Bones as guests in the White House shortly after the inauguration to thank them for their assistance and their silence. One can only imagine what they might recall from his “bright college years.” In 1991 another break-in of sorts occurred when the Skull and Bones engaged in a semipublic debate over the admission of women. Given the highly sexualized nature of the initiation rituals and the masculine bonding that members believe gives the Order its cohesion and loyalty, many members bitterly opposed the inclusion of women. However, the Bonesmen finally voted to admit women, with an as yet unknown modification to their rites and rituals. At the start of the twenty-first century, with a member in the White House, the Skull and Bones continues to recruit a mix of the well-bred (George W.’s daughter Barbara is certain to be tapped) with the most forward thinking and brightest campus leaders, thereby continuing to fulfill its self-ascribed mission of reproducing the U.S. ruling class.

Skull and Bones Society

Including among its members both President George W. Bush and Monty Burns from The Simpsons, the Skull and Bones may be the most powerful...

Assassination of Malcolm X

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href=" " imageanchor="1" rel="nofollow" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" target="blank"><img alt="The" assassination="" border="0" convicted="" malcolm="" men="" murder="" of="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ222kK6Dx8bjtgD-71j-XmysqtPYzZ6_4G2YzdtK4k125wdRfKoUgsftkGCPPJ2G43iCjBnyvZf47EWHQe8E7zp_8zLj_y__4XwXaQMgP2RM3W4P-ffY_HsAnFa43-9pVs-BtDi31y0E/s1600/Malcolm-x.jpg" subsequent="" three="" title="Assassination" trial="" x="" /></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Malcolm X</td></tr> </tbody></table> Malcolm X was assassinated on 21 February 1965 at the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem. The subsequent murder trial convicted three men, <a amzn-ps-bm-asin="1270525727" class="amzn_ps_bm_tl" data-amzn-link-id="0d2f2786b3e2e55788494dcfc5f47c8d" data-amzn-ps-bm-keyword="Talmadge Hayer" href="http://www.amazon.com/Talmadge-Supreme-Transcript-Supporting-Pleadings/dp/1270525727/ref=as_li_bk_tl/?tag=epichistory-20&linkId=0d2f2786b3e2e55788494dcfc5f47c8d&linkCode=ktl" id="amznPsBmLink_1423629" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Talmadge Hayer</a><img alt="The" assassination="" border="0" convicted="" height="0" id="amznPsBmPixel_1423629" malcolm="" men="" murder="" of="" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?source=bk&t=epichistory-20&bm-id=default&l=ktl&linkId=0d2f2786b3e2e55788494dcfc5f47c8d&_cb=1483257208416" style="border: none !important; height: 0px !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important; width: 0px !important;" subsequent="" three="" trial="" width="0" x="" />, Norman 3X Butler, and Thomas 15X Johnson. For most commentators (e.g., Breitman), Malcolm’s death left a number of questions unanswered. Not only did the trial fail to definitively answer who murdered Malcolm, it also failed to answer who sponsored the assassination. The prosecution team quickly assumed the involvement of the <a href=" " target="_blank" title=Assassination of Malcolm X>Nation of Islam</a> (NOI), and failed to track leads that did not match their assumptions. Focused solely on winning the case as they defined it, the prosecution worked with the circumstantial evidence they had without attempting to find hard facts or the real motive behind the assassination. To their discredit, the defense teams shared part of the blame; they failed to introduce evidence or raise questions that would seriously weaken the prosecution’s case. <table align="center" border="0"><tbody> <tr> <td align="center"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1782797017/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&linkCode=li3&tag=inamerican-20&linkId=4f1505a7dd8a25d696b1ab34b693f05f" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=1782797017&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=inamerican-20" /></a><img alt="The" assassination="" border="0" convicted="" height="1" malcolm="" men="" murder="" of="" src="//ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=inamerican-20&l=li3&o=1&a=1782797017" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" subsequent="" three="" trial="" width="1" x="" /><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345350685/ref=as_li_ss_il?ie=UTF8&linkCode=li3&tag=inamerican-20&linkId=f7136de0777c7c24f7efd14ca4214620" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="//ws-na.amazon-adsystem.com/widgets/q?_encoding=UTF8&ASIN=0345350685&Format=_SL250_&ID=AsinImage&MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&WS=1&tag=inamerican-20" /></a><img alt="The" assassination="" border="0" convicted="" height="1" malcolm="" men="" murder="" of="" src="//ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=inamerican-20&l=li3&o=1&a=0345350685" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important;" subsequent="" three="" trial="" width="1" x="" /></td> </tr> </tbody></table> Proponents of various theories have since attempted to solve some of the questions left unanswered, by positing the involvement of not only the Nation of Islam but also other groups with possible motives and means, including the Harlem Drug Lords, the New York Police Department (NYPD), the CIA, and the FBI. Harlem Drug Lords Theory As a staunch and vocal opponent of narcotics, Malcolm often warned audiences against using the “weapon of the white man.” Based largely on the personal recollections of one man (Farmer), this theory claims Malcolm’s assassination was nothing more than a battle over turf, as Harlem drug dealers did not want him driving away customers. The weakness of this theory lies in the fact that most of the evidence is anecdotal, and that Malcolm’s antidrug beliefs did little to curb drug use in Harlem, which continued to rise steadily in the early 1960s regardless of anything Malcolm said or did. NYPD Theory Theorists who believe the police played a direct role in the assassination often cite the issue of the “Second Man” as evidence (Norden). “The Second Man” refers to initial press reports that police arrested two suspects, Hayer and an unnamed individual. Subsequent stories failed to mention the capture of two individuals, but never corrected the error of the first reports. Proponents of the “Second Man” theory argue that the second individual was actually a police operative, and as soon as the police realized this, all evidence of a second arrest disappeared. While the unexplained disappearance of the “Second Man” looks suspicious on the surface, others explain it away as a simple error committed by the press trying to meet a story deadline. The “Second Man,” say some, could actually be Hayer himself. One officer arrested Hayer, but this officer gave him over to two other officers for transport. The press might have questioned the first officer and then the other two officers, unaware that there was in fact only one suspect. Once they realized their error, the press corrected the <a href=" " target="_blank" title=Assassination of Malcolm X>information</a> in their stories, overlooking the need to note the reason for the correction to their readers. More compelling is the argument that the police played an important indirect role in allowing the assassination to occur. Although the police claimed to have a special detail of twenty officers guarding Malcolm the day of the assassination, only George Roberts, one of Malcolm’s bodyguards and also an undercover agent, was actually in the ballroom itself. The rest of the detail were supposedly stationed in other rooms of the building and in the hospital across the street. By keeping such a low profile, none of the officers assigned to the detail was in any position to thwart the assassination attempt. In fact, the officers credited with capturing and transferring Hayer were not a part of the special detail, but were simply passing through the area at the time. While the police may or may not have been directly responsible for Malcolm’s death, they were clearly negligent in their duties. CIA Theory Some have argued that the CIA viewed Malcolm as a major threat to national security interests. In 1964, Malcolm’s travels in Africa sparked the interest of the government, specifically the CIA, who followed Malcolm and kept close tabs on his activities. One of Malcolm’s objectives while in Africa was to garner the support of the <a href=" " rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Organization</a> of African Unity (OAU). His attempts to lobby the OAU to pass a resolution strongly condemning the racial policy of the United States ultimately failed, but some suggest these attempts were a serious enough threat for the CIA to eliminate him. While in Cairo, Malcolm suffered a case of food poisoning and had his stomach pumped in a local hospital. Although no proof exists that the CIA placed poison in his food, speculation surfaced after his death that the CIA might have been involved. Internal CIA documents since released through the <a amzn-ps-bm-asin="1480176389" class="amzn_ps_bm_tl" data-amzn-link-id="024f413f4876a3a20fc609443acb86ee" data-amzn-ps-bm-keyword="Freedom of Information Act" href="http://www.amazon.com/Citizens-Guide-Freedom-Information-Privacy/dp/1480176389/ref=as_li_bk_tl/?tag=epichistory-20&linkId=024f413f4876a3a20fc609443acb86ee&linkCode=ktl" id="amznPsBmLink_2732168" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Freedom of Information Act</a><img alt="The" assassination="" border="0" convicted="" height="0" id="amznPsBmPixel_2732168" malcolm="" men="" murder="" of="" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?source=bk&t=epichistory-20&bm-id=default&l=ktl&linkId=024f413f4876a3a20fc609443acb86ee&_cb=1483257346824" style="border: none !important; height: 0px !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important; width: 0px !important;" subsequent="" three="" trial="" width="0" x="" /> indicate that the CIA had no direct role in any assassination attempts made on Malcolm X. In 1976, the CIA carried out an internal review of its files, and an in-house document dated 30 January 1976 concluded that the CIA only monitored Malcolm’s actions and never assumed any active role to stop him. Theorists question the truthfulness of such internal findings, but some question why the CIA would find it necessary to lie to itself eleven years after Malcolm’s death (Friedly). FBI Theory Malcolm X was still in prison when the FBI started its first file on him in 1953. He initially caught their attention when he claimed affiliation with the Communist Party in a letter. Although Malcolm was never a Communist, merely mentioning his involvement was enough for the FBI to monitor him as a security threat. Over the next decade, the FBI would collect thousands of documents in Malcolm’s file. Under <a href=" " target="_blank">J. Edgar Hoover</a>, the FBI was notoriously against the civil rights movement, which Hoover believed was a front for Communists. The FBI developed different tactics to discredit African American organizations and leaders, eventually beginning the Counterintelligence Program (COINTELPRO) to combat groups it viewed as threats to national security. Theorists point to two documents that suggest the FBI’s interest in discrediting Malcolm. The first is an internal memo dated 22 January 1969 that takes credit for the split between the <a href=" " target="_blank">Nation of Islam</a> and Malcolm X. Exactly how much influence the FBI had in the split remains unclear, but its role was probably minor. The second document, dated 4 March 1968, outlined COINTELPRO’s objective to “prevent the rise of a ‘messiah.’” The document confirmed the FBI’s fear that Malcolm might have developed into a messiah figure for the <a amzn-ps-bm-asin="1412999545" class="amzn_ps_bm_tl" data-amzn-link-id="aeffa728d9488437474ae8cd486e1e8b" data-amzn-ps-bm-keyword="African American community" href="http://www.amazon.com/African-American-Psychology-Africa-America/dp/1412999545/ref=as_li_bk_tl/?tag=epichistory-20&linkId=aeffa728d9488437474ae8cd486e1e8b&linkCode=ktl" id="amznPsBmLink_6627842" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">African American community</a><img alt="The" assassination="" border="0" convicted="" height="0" id="amznPsBmPixel_6627842" malcolm="" men="" murder="" of="" src="https://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?source=bk&t=epichistory-20&bm-id=default&l=ktl&linkId=aeffa728d9488437474ae8cd486e1e8b&_cb=1483257427108" style="border: none !important; height: 0px !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important; width: 0px !important;" subsequent="" three="" trial="" width="0" x="" />, but using these documents to show the FBI’s involvement in Malcolm’s assassination is highly problematic. No credible evidence exists that the FBI ever did anything more than attempt to discredit Malcolm (Carson). Nation of Islam Theory Although Hayer offered a surprise confession during the original trial, he did not indicate motive or identify the names of his coconspirators. His claim that Butler and Johnson played no role in the assassination was ignored. During the trial Hayer denied any affiliation with the Nation of Islam, but once in prison, he resumed his Muslim beliefs. In late 1977 and early 1978, Hayer offered two sworn affidavits, once again confirming the innocence of Butler and Johnson. With <a href=" " target="_blank">Elijah Muhammad</a>’s death in 1975, Hayer claimed he no longer felt it necessary to hide the identities of his fellow assassins, whom he identified as Brother Benjamin, Leon X, Wilbur X, and William X. The motive they all shared as NOI members was to silence Malcolm, the man dubbed by the NOI as “the chief hypocrite.” Malcolm threatened to spread not only the news of Muhammad’s adulterous relationships, but also the knowledge of the NOI’s rampant fiscal corruption. While the best evidence suggests that the NOI had the most plausible motive and was ultimately responsible for Malcolm’s death, no direct proof links the assassination to Elijah Muhammad or anyone higher up in the organization than the men who committed the crime. What is clear is that the harsh rhetoric used by various members of the NOI, such as statements made by Boston minister Louis X [Farrakhan], created a hostile environment for Malcolm, making his assassination a virtual certainty. Members of the NOI identified Malcolm as the enemy, and could easily infer that killing Malcolm was warranted and would be welcomed.

Assassination of Malcolm X

Malcolm X Malcolm X was assassinated on 21 February 1965 at the Audubon Ballroom in Harlem. The subsequent murder trial convicted three...