10 Disturbing Assassination Conspiracies Theories

#10: They Never Caught John Wilkes Booth

The assassination of Abraham Lincoln is remembered as one of the darkest moments in 19th century America. The man behind the trigger that fateful night at Ford's Theatre in DC was a one-time aspiring actor turned disgruntled Confederate supporter, John Wilkes Booth. So the mainstream story goes, Booth fled the scene immediately after the shooting, and holed up for days, including at a barn in Virginia. He was eventually tracked down, the barn was set ablaze, and Booth was shot in the neck, and killed. However, for decades there have been persistent rumours that, actually, Booth didn’t die. That either the man in the barn was a lookalike, or that he simply escaped and was never found again. It’s even said that he lived for decades afterwards, under a slew of new names, and mostly in Texas.

#9: Marilyn Monroe Was Murdered

According to the official line, Mailyn Monroe died of a barbiturate overdose at her Los Angeles home, on August 4th, 1962. According to a multitude of conspiracy theories, however, there’s a lot more to the story. Rumours have invariably swirled that Monroe - who was one of the most famous people on the planet at the time - was targeted and killed due to her ties with John and Robert Kennedy. In some versions, Robert Kennedy is said to have orchestrated her death, to avoid the scandal that would break if Monroe ever spoke out. In others, it was the CIA, FBI, or both that ultimately murdered Marilyn, because she had come to know too much about what should’ve been state secrets.

#8: Jeffrey Epstein Was Murdered

The financier, Jeffrey Epstein, was arrested in 2019 on charges relating to sex trafficking and abuse of minors. After just over a month in jail, he died in his cell, with it reported that he took his own life. But, in the years since, huge doubt has been cast over exactly how and why he died, via multiple conspiracy theories. It’s known that Epstein was connected with many wealthy and influential people - from celebrities to politicians. Therefore, it’s said that Epstein - who was alone in his cell at the time of his death - was killed. The guards who should’ve been checking him on the night of his death reportedly fell asleep at their desks; the cameras that should’ve been monitoring his cell allegedly malfunctioned. For some, if Epstein was killed, then it was on the orders of one of many other high-profile figures who may have been implicated in whatever Epstein might’ve said during trial.

#7: Anastasia Survived

For more than 300 years, the Romanovs ruled Imperial Russia. But their reign ended with the revolution in 1917. And, in 1918, the Romanov family line was quashed forever in one of the most brutal and notorious hit jobs ever executed. Nicholas II, his wife Alexandra, their five children, and a number of their household were led to the basement of Ipatiev House, where they’d been staying under Bolshevik guard. Here, they were shot and killed by a band of revolutionaries, in a bloody and frantic execution said to have taken more than 20 minutes to complete. But, as per one of the most enduring conspiracy theories of the twentieth century, it’s said that one of the Romanov children, Anastasia, actually didn’t die, and somehow escaped. If true, it’s impossible to imagine how disturbing the experience must have been for the former Grand Duchess, who was just 17 at the time.

#6: The Vatican Killed the Pope

John Paul I was also known as the Smiling Pope and the September Pope. The first was simply a nod to his general demeanor… the second, though, refers to the shockingly short length of his papacy. He sat as head of the Catholic Church for just 33 days in 1978, from August 26th until his sudden death on September 28th. He was deemed to have had a heart attack in bed. However, alternative theories point to his death being a targeted killing, most likely tied up in now-confirmed corruption at the time involving the Vatican Bank. It’s said that John Paul I became aware of several corrupt officials and archbishops, who then killed him off in a bid to cover their tracks and maintain control of the finances. Officially speaking, this has never been confirmed… but the whispers have never truly disappeared.

#5: Courtney Love Killed Kurt Cobain

On one of music’s darkest days, the Nirvana front man, Kurt Cobain, took his own life on April 8th, 1994. But for many, there were elements to his death that didn’t (and don’t) add up. As a result, there have been conspiracy theories that Cobain was murdered, rather than had killed himself. The counter story first erupted within days of his passing, with the Seattle broadcaster Richard Lee being the first to make the claim of homicide. There are alleged inconsistencies in the toxicology reports, in the police reports, and in the nature of his shotgun wound. Perhaps most notoriously of all, it’s alleged that the note that Kurt Cobain left was doctored, particularly toward its close. Ultimately, one conspiracy hits an extremely disturbing tone, with it said by some that Cobain’s wife, Coutney Love, may have had a hand in what happened. All official police investigations maintain, however, that Cobain did die by his own hand.

#4: Sirhan Sirhan Mind Control

The death of Senator Robert Kennedy, on June 5th 1968, is another with multiple alternative theories attached to it. For one, his son (and serving politician) Robert Kennedy Jr. went on record in 2018 with his belief that the wrong man had been charged with the murder. Nevertheless, Sirhan Sirhan was convicted in 1969, and sentenced first to death and then to life imprisonment. He certainly at least fired shots in the melee that ultimately killed RFK. Sirhan has always maintained, however, that he remembers nothing of the incident… and here’s where an especially unsettling claim comes into play. According to the Manchurian Candidate Hypothesis, Sirhan may have been brainwashed (or psychologically programmed) by another entity to shoot Kennedy, before he was made (via mind control tactics) to forget the whole thing. The other entity, according to the hypothesis, was America’s own CIA.

#3: MLK Was Killed by the US Government

History has it that it was James Earl Ray who gunned down the figurehead of the civil rights movement, Martin Luther King Jr., on April 4th 1968. But, many - including members of the King family - have for years said that Ray, while he may have been generally involved in a plot against MLK, was merely a scapegoat. Instead, there are theories that King was killed on orders either from the mafia, or from the US government. In 1993, a restaurant owner named Loyd Jowers appeared on ABC’s “Prime Time Live”, claiming that he had been directly involved in a multi-faceted conspiracy to kill King, suggesting that the assassination was really carried out by Lieutenant Earl Clark of the Memphis Police. James Earl Ray died in prison in 1998, while a civil trial in 1999 found that he had been framed for the murder.

#2: Diana Was an Inside Job

Diana, Princess of Wales, died in the early hours of August 31st, 1997, following a devastating car crash in a tunnel in Paris on the evening of August 30th. Her partner, Dodi Fayed, also died in the crash, as did her driver, Henri Paul. Her bodyguard, Trevor Rees-Jones, was the only survivor, but he suffered such traumatic head injuries that he recalls nothing of what happened. Officially, it was a tragic accident. But the conspiracies surrounding Diana’s death are huge. For one, it’s been alleged that Paul, the driver, may have been bought and controlled by any number of secret service agencies. For another, it’s been claimed that MI6 was at the heart of the matter, and that the staging of Diana’s death mirrored a known plot to assassinate the President of Serbia, Slobodan Milošević, in the early 1990s. As for motive, conspiracists suggest that the British Royal Family were so incensed by Diana’s relationship with the non-Christian Dodi Fayed, that the orders came from within.

#1: The Magic Bullet

President John F. Kennedy was infamously killed on November 22nd, 1963, while riding in an open-top motorcade through Dallas, Texas. The official line is that Lee Harvey Oswald was the man who took the shot, before Oswald himself was quickly killed by Jack Ruby. But, of course, that version of events has never been universally accepted. The so-called “magic bullet” is at the heart of the mystery, with it deemed that no single, fatal bullet could have travelled in quite the same way as the Warren Commission concluded. As such, there have been claims of multiple shooters, from multiple locations, including one on the notorious “grassy knoll”. An array of apparent bystanders have also been implicated over the years - such as the "umbrella man”, who conspiracists believe was there only as a signal for a possible team of waiting assassins. As for who was really controlling events on that day, there have been countless allegations over the years, from the CIA to Cuba to the KGB.


Which of these assassination conspiracy theories do you find most unnerving? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!