30 Famous Conspiracy Theories From the US

3. Martin Luther King Jr. was tragically assassinated in Memphis, but some think there is more to the story.

On April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. walked onto his balcony from room 306 at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, and was shot. The bullet entered through King’s right cheek, breaking his jaw and several vertebrae as it traveled down his spinal cord, severing his jugular vein and major arteries in the process, before lodging in his shoulder. The leader of civil rights died at the Memphis Hospital aged only 39 years old. A year later, the killer, James Earl Ray, was captured and arrested at London’s Heathrow Airport while he was trying to depart the United Kingdom for Angola, Rhodesia, or apartheid South Africa, he subsequently pleaded guilty. Even so, many people, including King’s own children, do not believe that Ray acted alone.

Many claim that the FBI or Ku Klux Klan were involved in his assassination and suspect that Ray was framed, according to the NPR. The US Department of Justice investigated the death on three different occasions. In 1979, the United States House Select Committee on Assassinations, while re-examining both the killing of JFK and MLK stated “The committee concluded that there was a likelihood of conspiracy in the assassination of Dr King.” but there is no hard evidence supporting this conclusion.

4. Roswell, New Mexico, is a famous center for UFO-focused conspiracy theories.

On July 4, 1947, Mac Brazel went to his sheep pasture in Roswell, New Mexico, and found some strange objects, such as metallic sticks, foil reflectors, and paper scraps. Since he didn’t know what the objects were, he called the local sheriff, George Wilcox, who then called RAAF Major Jesse Marcel at Roswell Army Air Force base nearby. Marcel brought Lt Colonel Sheridan Cavitt and Master Sergeant Bill Rickett to the ranch where more pieces were picked up and quickly taken away in armored trucks.

A few days later, the Roswell Daily Record published an article entitled “RAAF Captures Flying Saucer on Ranch in the Roswell Region,” which triggered conspiracy theories that would last to this very day. Many assumed that the fragments found in the field came from an alien ship due to their apparent other worldly properties, although officials said they were from a broken weather balloon. Years later, it was revealed that the devices were part of a classified military project called Project Mogul, which was aimed to eavesdrop on the Soviet Union. Although many still content this to be another smokescreen designed to hide the truth.