We know you’ve heard of them. Maybe you even believe one or two of them…or all of them. But then maybe you’re a skeptic and don’t believe in any. Hi, I’m Leah.
I’m Phil. And I’m Steve. We found so many intriguing Conspiracy Theories that we are filling two episodes with them. This is Season Five, Episode 5: CONSPIRACY - PART 1
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INTRO AND STORIES |
Whether you are a believer, a doubter, or somewhere in between, you are most likely aware that there are hundreds of conspiracy theories all around. You can hardly open an app or be on social media without being confronted with a wide variety of conspiracy theories ranging from the downright silly to some that are quite alarming.
According to the Oxford English Dictionary the phrase conspiracy theory is defined as an explanation for an event or situation that asserts the existence of a conspiracy by powerful and sinister groups when other explanations are more probable. While the phrase “Conspiracy Theory” was first used in print in 1909, the concept has been around for centuries.
An article in a professional journal called link.springer.com written by a gentleman named Gabriel Andrade takes a deep dive into this phenomenon. According to Mr. Andrade, conspiracy theories have been around as long as people have been on the earth. He cites evidence in the writings of the ancient Greeks and Romans which are rife with the idea of sinister plots. In addition, anthropologists have noted the existence of believers in conspiracy theories among peoples of all cultures worldwide. Even hunter-gatherer groups hold to pet conspiracy theories. Quoting from Mr. Andrade’s article, “It is well established that conspiracy theories have deep psychological bases that are present in all human beings.” He further notes that conspiracy theories find fertile ground among people who have a distrust of government or authority figures or other forces that are perceived to be beyond their control.
We had originally planned to have just one episode covering Conspiracy Theories but we found this to be such fertile ground that we are going to stretch it into two parts. However, we are going to steer away from the current political scene other than to say that conspiracy theories are common tools of political candidates on both the left and the right. The media often picks up these theories and runs with them because they attract interest. We would like to encourage our listeners to use caution and reason before you accept wild assertions as truth. A good dose of skepticism might keep you from being caught up in something that you would later regret.
The JFK Assassination
Perhaps the modern era of conspiracy theories began with the assassination of President John F Kennedy on November 22, 1963. Most likely you are familiar with the images of this day. On a bright sunny morning the president’s plane lands at Dallas Love Field. The handsome president and his beautiful wife are greeted by cheering crowds. As his motorcade travels through downtown Dallas the large crowds are cheering wildly. Texas governor John Connely and his wife Nellie are seated in the jump seat of the limousine just in front of the Kennedys. “You can’t say Dallas doesn’t love you, Mr. President,” said Nellie Connely. “No, you certainly can’t,” replied the president. Just exiting the downtown canyon of buildings, the president's open limousine makes a very slow left turn in front of a warehouse called the Texas Schoolbook Depository. Suddenly shots ring out and the president is hit. Texas governor John Connely is also hit. The limousine picks up speed and heads to Parkland Hospital. Soon after arrival the president is pronounced dead. Vice President Lyndon Johnson, who was riding just two cars behind the president, was rushed to Love Field and was waiting aboard Air Force One. Kennedy’s casket is brought aboard the plane, and then Johnson takes the oath of office with his wife standing on one side of him and Mrs. Kennedy on the other side.
Back in downtown Dallas an employee of the Texas School Book depository named Lee Harvey Oswald shoots and kills a police officer who had stopped him for questioning. A few minutes later Oswald is arrested inside a movie theater. That evening the Dallas Police named Oswald as their prime suspect in the assassination. Two days later Oswald was being transferred from the city jail to the county jail when he was shot and killed by nightclub owner Jack Ruby. That event was caught live on national television.
The incredible happenings of that weekend some sixty years ago is permanently etched in the memories of all who lived through them. Television news was just coming into its prime at the time, and this allowed the nation and even the world to share in the tragedy of these astonishing events. In the weeks following the assassination President Johnson tasked Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren to head a commission to investigate the event. After months of reviewing thousands of pages of documents and evidence the Warren Commission reported that their findings were that Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone gunman and that he acted alone in assassinating Kennedy.
Almost immediately people began questioning these findings. As one member of Congress put it, “On one hand you have the president of the United States. On the other you have that horrible little man. It just doesn’t seem to balance.” People were primed to believe that sinister organized forces were behind the assassination.
Keep in mind that the 1960s was the height of the Cold War. When it was revealed that Oswald had defected to Russia in 1959 and had married a Russian woman before defecting back to the U.S in 1961, it fueled theories that Russia was behind the assassination.
Cuba was also a popular target of theories as Oswald had been seen as representing an organization called Fair Play for Cuba. This was just one year after the failed Bay of Pigs operation when U.S. forces attempted to topple Castro from Cuba’s leadership. Just a couple of months before the assassination, Oswald had traveled to Mexico City and attempted to meet with officials at the Cuban and Russian embassies. (They refused to meet with him).
Then there was the Organized Crime theory. The nightclub owner Jack Ruby did maintain some loose contacts with Chicago underworld figures, so when he shot Oswald, it fueled the belief that Kennedy was killed by organized crime operatives who hired Oswald, and that Ruby killed him to silence his testimony. During the Kennedy administration, Attorney General Robert Kennedy, the president’s brother, had come hard against organized crime rings.
Numerous other theories involved the FBI, the CIA, and the arms production industry. As time passed the conspiracy theories just seemed to grow and grow. The Vietnam War and the Watergate incident in the early 1970s fostered more distrust in government among Americans which further fueled the conspiracy theories. One wild theory suggested that Lee Harvey Oswald was actually a body double. This led to his grave being exhumed in 1981. (He was actually in there.)
In 1993 a book called Case Closed by a journalist named Gerald Posner painstakingly examined every known conspiracy theory involving the Kennedy Assassination. According to Posner, each theory consisted of random points with no lines holding them together. “Between the points there are no connections, and you are left holding a handful of sand,” said Posner. He points out the erratic behavior of Oswald in the years leading up to the assassination which would make him an extremely poor choice for a hired assassin. He also states that Oswald had been working at the Texas Schoolbook Depository for less than a month and had heard about the job from a neighbor two doors down. He even carpooled to work with this neighbor.
Posner also traces Ruby’s movements during the weekend of the assassination. Ruby loved the Kennedys and was described by his employees as being terribly distraught that the assassination had occurred in Dallas. He kept saying, “Poor Mrs. Kennedy, she’s going to have to come back here for the trial.” He hadn’t slept in two nights and was somewhat disheveled on the morning that he stopped by the post office to mail an advance payment to one of his employees before wandering into the police department basement at the exact moment Oswald was being transferred. “You shot my president you S.O.B.” he yelled as he rushed forward, pulled a pistol, and fired directly into Oswald’s abdomen. He later told investigators that he thought he’d be hailed as a hero.
Posner’s conclusion was that Oswald acted alone. “He may have been trying to impress someone like the Cubans, but they were not behind the assassination,” he said.
That same year on the 30th anniversary of the assassination President Bill Clinton, a huge Kennedy admirer, went on television and announced that, based on everything that had been made available to him, he was convinced that Oswald acted alone. Respected newsman Dan Rather concurred. “I had the complete resources of CBS News at my disposal to find the conspiracy, but there was no conspiracy to find.”
In spite of these straightforward announcements, a recent survey conducted by NBC News found that only 38% of Americans believe that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. Public skepticism has continued to fuel conspiracy theories about the Kennedy Assassination to this day.
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Denver International Airport
Denver, Colorado is a beautiful city that sits at the base of the front range of the Rocky Mountains. Throughout most of the 20th Century, the city was served by Stapleton Airport which began operations in 1929. As the size of aircraft and volume of air traffic grew, the aging airport was unable to keep up with the increasing demands. (Fun Fact, Die Hard II was filmed at Stapleton Airport). Civic leaders knew that a new airport was badly needed.
In the late 1980s a site for a new airport was selected from the expansive wheat fields that stretched to the east of the city. As the area was largely flat and unhindered by topical terrain, city leaders decided, “Let’s make it really big!” OK, that’s not a direct quotation, but rather our Remnant Stew fun summary of their thoughts. In fact, DIA is still the largest airport by size in the United State measuring some 53 square miles or 137 square kilometers.
One of the features of Denver International Airport is that the runways are over 3 miles long, twice as long as most major airport runways, and the terminal is situated at the mid-point. This allows for arriving planes to coast to a stop at the terminal, and then Departing planes to take off also from near the terminal, This cuts down on the plane’s taxiing time and saves a considerable amount of fuel.
Another planned feature of DIA was a snazzy new automated baggage handling system that would scan your luggage tag and automatically send your bag to the correct gate.
After delays of more than a year and running some 2 billion dollars over budget, Denver International finally opened its doors and runways to the flying public on February 28, 1995. One of the reasons for the delay was that the state-of-the-art automated baggage system failed spectacularly. This expensive system which required miles of tunneling under the terminals was such a disaster that by 2002 it was completely abandoned. Well, today those abandoned tunnels are just part of the many conspiracy theories that surround Denver International Airport.
According to an article in the Denver Post, the CT is that the massive amounts of money poured into the baggage tunnel system were actually used to construct a deeper set of tunnels and bunkers. These tunnels would be used to house billionaires and elite politicians in the event of a global disaster. It is also believed that evidence of aliens and/or lizard people is kept hidden secretly in these tunnels. This theory has been fueled by a construction contractor who reportedly saw the entrances to the tunnels.
The existence of the tunnels has also fueled speculation that the airport was actually financed by a secret organization. They point to a capstone that covers a time capsule which is to be opened in 2094. This capstone contains symbols which many claim are associated with the Freemasons, an organization which is laden with its own Conspiracy Theories. The capstone also mentions something called the New World Airport Commission, an organization that doesn’t appear to exist. These elements, according to the CT enthusiasts, point to the existence of a secret government organization which will spring into action as soon as a calamity hits.
According to an article in Mental Floss, other elements of the DIA CTs include that the runways are in the shape of a swastika, that lizard people have been videoed lurking in the tunnels, and that artwork within the airport depict scenes of apocalyptic chaos.
Surprisingly, the management team in charge of DIA has encouraged and embraced at least some of these wild stories. Heath Montgomery, the senior public information officer for DIA told the Post, “We decided a few years ago that rather than fight all of this and try and convince everybody there’s nothing really going on, let’s have some fun with it.” Most of the theories are so laughable and easily disproved that DIA is happy to weaponize them as marketing tools. That, in turn, translates to an estimated “hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars” in free publicity, Montgomery said.
In 2016 the airport set up a museum style exhibit which detailed elements of the most notable theories. These include a fake alien skull that was made by airport employees. CT theme parties have also been held, and Montgomery notes that baggage handlers often don lizard masks when they know that reporters are touring the building.
One contributing factor to the airport’s CT is the artwork contained within the terminal. These include two large 28-foot-long murals in the baggage claim area by artist Leo Tanguma. The murals are titled Children of the World Dream of Peace, and they depict what Tanguma claims are scenes of environmental stewardship which followed times of war and pollution. However, that interpretation makes sense only if you view the murals from right to left. CT enthusiasts read the mural from left to right and claim that it predicts an impending apocalyptic disaster.
Also contributing to the CT is the true account of the airport’s mascot, a gigantic blue horse statue named Mustang which rears menacingly near the airport’s entrance. This evil looking horse rises 32 feet into the air and features piercing red neon eyes. Dubbed Blucifer by the local population, the statue became infamous when in 2006 a piece of its head broke off and killed Luis Jiminez, the artist who created it.
So what are we to make of the DIA CTs? The writers of the Denver Post article said that they were given access to investigate anything that they wanted. They explored the abandoned baggage tunnel and reported that the electric and plumbing infrastructure all ended at the end of the tunnel with no evidence of extension to potential lower levels. No evidence can be located of the supposed contractor or his testimony concerning the entrance to bunkers. They found that the New World Airport Commission was actually the committee that planned the opening day festivities. One of the markings on the capstone did come from the Freemasons, the rest turned out to be Navajo markings. Oh, and those Nazi runways? Well, a look at an overhead photograph shows what reporters described as “a lumpy, misshapen and largely interpretive swastika, at best.”
The article concludes that people with vested interests in sowing doubt about the airport find no excitement in discovering that there’s a mundane explanation for all these theories. If the airport and its backers had spent decades and billions of dollars hiding elaborate secrets, why jeopardize that work by putting so many obvious clues in plain sight? They end with a final quote by Heath Montgomery, “You show people the tunnels and explain the symbols, you lose. You clam up and deny it, you lose. So that’s why we’ve started to have fun with these, because people are going to believe what they believe, regardless of hard evidence.”
The Election of 1824
As mentioned earlier, conspiracy theories are not a new phenomenon. According to an article in Smithsonian magazine (Smithsonian.org), the 1820s and 30s was a period rife with conspiracy theories. It all began innocently enough 200 years ago with the election of 1824. It may be hard for Americans to believe now, but in the 1816 and 1820 presidential elections, both won by James Monroe, there was only one political party, the Democratic Republicans. This is the forerunner to the current Democratic party today. But in the years after the 1820 election, infighting within the party caused a split.
During the 1824 election there were no less than four viable candidates running for president. These were Andrew Jackson from Tennessee, John Quincey Adams, son of the second president, John Adams, from Massachusetts, William Crawford of Georgia, and Henry Clay of Kentucky. When the votes were tabulated, Andrew Jackson had 99 electoral votes, J Q Adams had 84, Crawford had 41, and Clay had 37. However, to win the election, a candidate had to have a majority of the electoral votes which in this case was 131. Since none of the candidates had a majority, the election was thrown into the House of Representatives. In accordance with the Twelfth Amendment to the Constitution, The House was directed to choose the president from the top three vote getters. That eliminated Clay who then immediately threw his support behind Adams. Adams won on the first ballot and was named President Elect.
Almost immediately, Adams nominated Henry Clay to be the Secretary of State. Though they didn’t use the term Conspiracy Theory, Jackson and his supporters began howling about a “Corrupt Bargain” between Adams and Clay. Although Adams and Clay denied any collusion, Jackson’s supporters were not convinced. Virginia Senator John Randolph gave a speech on the Senate floor that was so vitriolic and stinging that Clay challenged him to a duel to defend his honor. The two met on a field in Alexandria, Virginia on April 8, 1826. They both fired their first shot and missed. Clay fired a second shot that also missed. Randolph fired his second shot into the air. Then he and Clay met in the middle and shook hands. Though the duel was over, the persistent charge of wrongdoing dogged the Adams Administration throughout his term and also played large in the 1828 election.
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Adams and Jefferson Deaths
Another event during the early 1800s, totally unrelated to the election, was also the source of questions of collusion. We mentioned this during our S2E4 called Positively Presidential. The nation prepared to celebrate its 50th birthday on July 4, 1826. Massive celebrations were held throughout the country. Several of the founding fathers were still alive including John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and James Monroe. However, Adams and Jefferson were in failing health.
On the evening of July 3, at his home in Virginia, Jefferson was confined to his bed and sinking rapidly. At 11:00 p.m. he whispered to his aid, “This is the 4th?” The aide didn’t have the heart to tell him that it wasn’t quite yet the 4th, so he nodded his head in assent. “Ah” breathed Jefferson with a look of satisfaction and fell asleep. The next day, July 4th, shortly before 1:00 p.m. he ceased to breathe.
A few hundred miles away in Massachusetts, Adams woke up at dawn and a servant asked him, “Do you know what day this is?” Adams responded, “Oh yes, it’s the glorious 4th of July. God bless it. God bless you all” then he fell into a deep sleep. Shortly after noon he woke briefly and exclaimed, “Thomas Jefferson survives!”, and then he died.
The coincidence of both Adams and Jefferson’s death on the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence came as an astonishing surprise to many Americans. Too astonishing, some thought. And you will never guess who one of the most vocal doubters was; that same Virginia Senator John Randolph!
Randolph asserted that physicians had conspired to keep the two great men alive until the anniversary. “Mr. Adam’s death was euthanasia indeed, and what’s more, they have killed Mr. Jefferson too!” You can see how the first assumed conspiracy from 1824 made it convenient to leap to the second one two years later. Even unrelated conspiracy theories can build on one another.
Though Randolph did have some followers, most Americans saw the two deaths as a sign of divine intervention and a nod to God’s blessing on the nation. Daniel Webster wrote, “This striking and extraordinary coincidence is evidence that these men’s lives had been gifts from Providence to the United States; and offers proof that our country and its beneficiaries are objects of His care.”
It has been noted that people who are near death can rally themselves to hold on until they see a loved one or reach an important anniversary or milestone. As Adams, age 90, and Jefferson, age 83 were the only two signers of the Declaration of Independence who went on to become president, most scholars today believe that it is likely they both prolonged their lives themselves in order to celebrate the important anniversary.
The Election of 1828
Well, now back to the J Q Adams and Andrew Jackson dispute. In 1828 Jackson ran against Adams and continued to bring up the Corrupt Bargain from four years before. The Adams supporters began a conspiracy theory of their own. They claimed that if Jackson lost, the popular military general was conspiring in a coup to overthrow the government and set himself up as leader. This theory was even encouraged by Jackson’s own supporters. How effective this tactic was is uncertain. Adams administration was mired with problems, and he was relatively unpopular. Jackson garnered 178 electoral votes to Adams’ 83.
Jackson served two terms as president from 1829 to 1837. Numerous conspiracy theories circulated around his entire time as president as well. Among these was the theory that the Masonic Lodge was pulling the strings behind the government. This led to the development of the Anti-Mason party in 1832. Another conspiracy theory involve Jackson’s belief that the 2nd National Bank, the bank where U.S. treasury funds were held, had used their influence to support J Q Adams in 1828. Jackson then removed all government funds from this bank which threatened its collapse.
And one final CT from this era involved Jackson’s vice president Martin Van Buren. When Van Buren ran for president in 1836 his opponents asserted that Van Buren was a practicing Catholic and was going to place the United States under the authority of the Pope. The attacks didn’t work and Van Buren, who was a member of the Dutch Reformed Church, won the election of 1836.
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Lewis Carroll Was Jack The Ripper
If I were to say the name Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, would you know who I was talking about? What if I told you that he wrote several poems and stories that you are all familiar with? He was born in England in 1832 and lived in that country until his death in 1898. He is better known by his pen name, Lewis Carroll. Yes, he wrote the famous story Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland as well as Through the Looking Glass. He was well noted for his word play incorporated in his fantasy poems like Jabberwocky and Hunting of the Snark. But was there more to his wordplay than meets the eye?
From an article from inthehub.com we learn about a writer named Richard Wallace who in 1996 published a book in which he proposed that the mild-mannered English poet was actually the notorious murderer known as Jack the Ripper. Thomas claims that Carroll committed the murders with the assistance of his friend Thomas Bayne. This was the premise of Thomas’ book Jack The Ripper, Light-Hearted Friend.
As conspiracy theories go, this is one of the wackiest. Carroll did live in the area where the murders were committed, but was on holiday in a different part of the country when four of the murders were committed. His handwriting also didn’t match the written notes that were sent by the killer. Wallace states that Carroll’s friend Bayne wrote the notes. But the really strange parts of this theory concern what Wallace maintained were anagrams from Carroll’s writing.
For example, here are a few lines from Carrol’s story The Nursery Alice.
So we went to the cook, and we got her to make a saucer-full of nice oatmeal porridge. And then we called Dash into the house, and we said, “Now, Dash, you’re going to have your birthday treat!” We expected Dash would jump for joy; but it didn’t, one bit!
Wallace, using the same letters turn them into this:
Oh, we, Thomas Bayne, Charles Dodgson, coited into the slain, nude body, expected to taste, devour, enjoy a nice meal of a dead whore’s uterus. We made do, found it awful--wan and tough like a worn, dirty, goat hog. We both threw it out. –Jack the Ripper
Wallace made similar refiguring of Carrol’s writings to come up with even more nefarious messages relating to Jack the Ripper. However, after an article promoting his book appeared in Harper’s Magazine, a pair of astute readers gave Wallace the same treatment that he had given Carroll. They turned this phrase:
This is my story of Jack the Ripper, the man behind Britain’s worst unsolved murders. It is a story that points to the unlikeliest of suspects: a man who wrote children’s stories. That man is Charles Dodgson, better known as Lewis Carroll, author of such beloved books as Alice in Wonderland.
Into this (before I read it please remember that the most sensational murder at the time involved OJ Simpson and his wife, Nicole Brown)
The truth is this: I, Richard Wallace, stabbed and killed a muted Nicole Brown in cold blood, severing her throat with my trusty shiv’s strokes. I set up Orenthal James Simpson, who is utterly innocent of this murder. P.S. I also wrote Shakespeare’s sonnets, and a lot of Francis Bacon’s works too.
With that, Wallace’s work was immediately discredited. In an exhaustive study by casebook.org Lewis Carroll was voted the least likely out of 22 candidates to be Jack The Ripper.
Project Sunshine
As I am perhaps the most skeptical person I know when it comes to conspiracy theories, I thought I would be big about it and talk about a CT that wound up having some substance. A recent article from readersdigest.com titled 12 Conspiracy Theories that turned out to be true caught my attention. In reading the article, most of the theories mentioned were a bit light on substance, but a couple are worth bringing forth here.
This one involves body snatching by the U.S. Government. Yes, you heard that correctly. In the 1950s it became rumored that the U.S. Government was digging up human bodies and carrying them off for research.
Many of you saw the hit movie Oppenheimer which involved producing and testing the atomic bomb. In the years after WWII the U.S. Government and some of our allies continued testing atomic bombs in the western part of the U.S. as well as in Australia. In the early 1950s sheep and cattle ranchers in the testing areas began reporting deaths and abnormalities among their herds. Quoting one report, “freak animals have been born, cattle have died mysteriously, and weird plant life has appeared following radiation contamination." Testing on the affected animals showed high concentrations of Strontium 90 which is a fission product of atomic and hydrogen bombs.
Well, according to a government report that wasn’t released until 1995, officials became concerned that human populations might also be affected. Thus in 1951 the Atomic Energy Commission launched Project Sunshine. The object of this secret initiative was to “harvest” human tissue from the affected areas to measure the impact of exposure to bomb fallout. Of special interest to researchers was the tissue of children as it would not have evidence of tobacco smoke or other harmful contaminants that impact adults. Thus, researchers scanned local newspapers for announcements of the deaths of children in areas near where testing had occurred. Then, sometime either before or soon after the child had been buried, fingers, toes, and even arms of the deceased child were “recovered” for research. All this was done without the consent of the child’s parents. The project was kept secret, “in the interest of national security.” Now I understand why some people have a distrust of the government.
Part of that information came from an article by Sue Roff in a paper released by Dundee University Medical School in Scotland.
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O U T R O |
Phil here reminding you to check out our Facebook and Instagram pages @RemnantStewPodcast. Drop us an email at StayCurious@RemnantStew.com just to say hi or to let us know about any topics you would like to hear us cover in an upcoming episode.
Remnant Stew is part of Rook & Raven Ventures and is created by me, Leah Lamp. Steve Meeker researches and writes each episode that we then host together. Our audio producer is Phillip Sinquefield. The Oddity Du Jour is brought to you by Sam Lamp. Theme music is by Kevin MacLeod with voiceover by Morgan Hughes. Special thanks goes out to Judy Meeker. For a complete list of sources for this episode please see this episode’s transcript, there’s a link in the show notes.
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Until next time remember to choose to be kind…AND ALWAYS STAY CURIOUS!
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#RSPSeason5 #NewStew #RemnantStew #BeKindStayCurious #StewOnThis #StewHeads #Oddity #Strange #Bizarre #weirdhistory #Conspiracy #ConspiracyTheory #JFKAssassination #DenverInternationalAirport #DenverAirportConspiracy #LewisCarroll #JackTheRipper #ProjectSunshine
https://www.britannica.com/event/assassination-of-John-F-Kennedy/Conspiracy-theories
https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=2315
https://lithub.com/on-the-time-lewis-carroll-was-accused-of-being-jack-the-ripper/
https://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=80970&page=1
https://www.sehd.scot.nhs.uk/scotorgrev/documents/project%20sunshine%20%20slippery%20slope.pdf
https://www.rd.com/list/conspiracy-theories-that-turned-out-to-be-true/
