Who shot JFK?  6 conspiracy theories
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Who shot JFK?  6 conspiracy theories
It's been decades after the death of President John F. Kennedy but many still believe conspiracy theories surrounding his assassination.
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Who shot JFK?  6 conspiracy theories It's been decades after the death of President John F. Kennedy but many still believe conspiracy theories surrounding his assassination. Check out this story on USATODAY.com: http://usat.ly/1c6c86V
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Who shot JFK?  6 conspiracy theories
USA Today Network Ashley M. Williams , USA TODAY Network Published 10:32 a.m. ET Nov. 21, 2013 | Updated 8:52 a.m. ET Nov. 29, 2013
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Fifty years after Kennedy’s assassination, USA NOW host Carly Mallenbaum talks about the different conspiracy theories surrounding the tragedy. (USA TODAY, USA NOW)
President John F. Kennedy and first lady Jacqueline Kennedy at Love Field in Dallas.
(Photo: John F. Kennedy Library and Museum)
Five decades after the death of President John F. Kennedy, many still don't agree with the official record that Lee Harvey Oswald was the lone gunman in his assassination. Here are some of the most talked about conspiracy theories surrounding his death:
PHOTOS: Texas then and now
1) The CIA
The Central Intelligence Agency may have played a role in his death. The motive? The CIA was upset about the changes being made within the agency after the failed Bay of Pigs invasion . The CIA also did not want Kennedy to discharge CIA agents for disagreeing with him. Other theories pin the assassination on a rogue cell of the CIA or an agency contract killer gone rogue.
The theory of forensic historian Patrick Nolan, whose book CIA Rogues and the Killing of the Kennedys asserts four high-level agents planned the shooting and three fired four shots in Dallas that day.
2) The Mafia
One theory asserts that the Mob was angry with efforts by brother Robert Kennedy, who served as Attorney General during the Kennedy administration, to crack down on organized crime. Another involves a theory that the Mafia was working with anti-Castro exile groups that were trying to take down JFK.
 (Photo: Photo: AP)
3) The Soviets
The Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 gave the Soviet security agency KGB very good reasons not to like Kennedy.  A version of the theory also suggests that Oswald, an ex-Marine who tried to defect to the Soviet Union in the late 1950s, was acting as a KGB operative.
READ: Ex-Secret Service agent opens up about JFK's killing
4) Lyndon Johnson
Author Craig Zirbel argues that Vice President Johnson was motivated by political gain to organize Kennedy's assassination. Kennedy and Johnson had many political differences and personal issues. (Johnson may have been taken off of the Democratic ticket for Kennedy's re-election in 1964).
MORE: Conspiracy theorist points finger at LBJ
The argument goes that Johnson's financial scandal and desire to be president served as possible reasons. Since Kennedy was visiting Texas, Johnson's home state, supporters of this theory say it seems logical that Johnson could been involved. His associates also controlled many of the trip's details.
 (Photo: AP)
HONORING JFK: Obama, Clinton Pay Tribute
5) Two shooters
The idea that there could have been a second shooter has been discussed often in intellectual circles. Some believe the shooter was hiding on a grassy knoll behind a picket fence that was located to the right of JFK's vehicle. Oswald could have fired a first shot from his perch in the Bookstore Depository, and then a second shooter fired.
6) The debunked umbrella man theory
Bill O'Reilly reported for WFSB that a man fired a dart from the tip of his umbrella at JFK. Theorists believed the umbrella man shot Kennedy in the neck. The theory was debunked in the late 1970s.
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