Will Trump’s Declassification Solve Martin Luther King Jr, Kennedy Murder Mysteries?

Last Updated:January 22, 2025, 17:51 IST

Trump plans to declassify documents related to the assassinations of 1960s: The US could never stop speculating about the incidents. The real-life drama became a topic of many a movies, shows and investigative articles and books

(From left) Martin Luther King Junior, John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy. (News18/AP File)

In what may end years of intrigue, US President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to de-classify the documents related to the assassination of US President John F Kennedy, Senator Robert Kennedy, and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

“In the coming days, we are going to make public remaining records related to the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, his brother Robert Kennedy, as well as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and other topics of great public interest," Trump said at a rally in downtown Washington on Sunday.

Even though the official investigations have concluded, the US never got all answers and hence could never stop speculating about the incidents in the 1960s. The real-life drama entered reel, making it a topic of many a movies, shows and investigative articles and books.

Here’s a look at the three assassinations and the conspiracy theories around them:

NOVEMBER 22, 1963: JOHN F. KENNEDY ASSASSINATED

John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, was shot dead while riding in a presidential motorcade through Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas on November 22, 1963. Lee Harvey Oswald, a former U.S. Marine, was arrested for shooting at Kennedy from the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository.

However, American nightclub owner Jack Ruby shot Oswald dead in the basement of Dallas Police Headquarters on live television two days later.

Ruby was found guilty and sentenced to death, but his conviction and death sentence were overturned on appeal. He was granted a new trial, but he was diagnosed with cancer, and died of a pulmonary embolism on January 3, 1967.

The probe

In 1964, the Warren Commission concluded that Ruby acted alone and killed Oswald on impulse for the Kennedy assassination. The FBI, the Dallas Police Department, the United States Secret Service, and the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) all supported this conclusion.

The conspiracy theories

From the involvement of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Mafia, Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson, Cuban Prime Minister Fidel Castro, to the KGB, conspiracy theorists have explored the assassination from every angle.

A look at the key ones:

Multiple gunmen theory: Witnesses reported hearing shots from the grassy knoll area in Dealey Plaza, suggesting a second shooter. This theory gained traction after the 1979 HSCA concluded that Kennedy was “probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy" based on acoustic evidence that was later challenged. The trajectory of the bullet called as the “magic bullet" theory hinted at a possibility of multiple shooters.CIA: According to theorists, the CIA allegedly wanted Kennedy dead because of his perceived lack of support for Cold War strategies.Mafia: The Kennedy administration’s crackdown on organised crime, led by Attorney General Robert Kennedy, which many thought angered the Mafia and led to them getting rogue CIA agents to carry out the assassination.Soviet or Cuban government plot: Some believe the Soviet government orchestrated the assassination for U.S. Cold War policies or that Kennedy’s opposition to Fidel Castro and the CIA’s repeated attempts to overthrow him led to revenge.Military-industrial complex: JFK’s push to de-escalate tensions with the Soviet Union and his intent to withdraw troops from Vietnam may have threatened the interests of defense contractors and military leaders. Some point to President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s farewell address, where he warned of the growing power of the military-industrial complex.Lyndon B. Johnson’s role: Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson allegedly had personal and political reasons to want Kennedy out of the way.Cover-up theories: There were numerous theories on suppression of evidence and deaths of witnesses under suspicious circumstances, fueling speculation about a larger cover-up.

APRIL 4, 1968: MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. ASSASSINATED

Martin Luther King Junior, an American civil rights activist, was fatally shot at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968. James Earl Ray, a fugitive from the Missouri State Penitentiary, was arrested on June 8, 1968, at London’s Heathrow Airport, extradited to the United States and charged with the crime. On March 10, 1969, he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 99 years in the Tennessee State Penitentiary. He later made many attempts to withdraw his guilty plea and to be tried by a jury, but was unsuccessful. Ray died in prison in 1998.

The conspiracy theories

The conspiracy theories around the assassination suggest the involvement of the U.S. government, the mafia, and Memphis police:

In 1993, Loyd Jowers, an American restaurateur and the owner of Jim’s Grill, a restaurant near the Lorraine Motel, alleged that the assassination was part of a conspiracy involving the U.S. government, the mafia, and Memphis police.The King family believes that James Earl Ray was a scapegoat for the assassination. Ray was identified from fingerprints on the gun he left behind. Martin Luther King III had said, “That weapon was not the weapon. You’re going to kill somebody and then drop the gun right there?" In 1999, the King family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Jowers for $10 million.Ray claimed that a blond Cuban handler named “Raoul" directed him to buy the rifle used in the assassination.

JUNE 5, 1968: ROBERT KENNEDY SHOT AT

On June 5, 1968, Robert F. Kennedy was shot by Sirhan Sirhan at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California. He was pronounced dead the following day.

Sirhan, a Palestinian who held strong anti-Zionist and pro-Palestinian beliefs, testified in 1969 that he killed Kennedy “with 20 years of malice aforethought". He was convicted and sentenced to death. Due to People v. Anderson, his sentence was commuted to life in prison in 1972 with a possibility of parole. His parole request has been denied numerous times.

The conspiracy theories

Sirhan Sirhan: Immediately after his arrest, Sirhan told his captors that he’d made the decision to kill Kennedy only three weeks earlier, reports the Israeli news organisation Haaretz. “On the radio, he had heard a speech delivered by the candidate during a visit to a synagogue, in which Kennedy promised to arm Israel with dozens of warplanes, calling it the lesson he’d learned from the Six-Day War a year earlier."The second shooter: Los Angeles County Coroner Thomas Noguchi maintained that Kennedy was shot from behind and at a closer range, which witnesses said Sirhan could not have done.Security guard as second shooter: Eugene Cesar was the security guard who was standing behind Robert F. Kennedy when the presidential candidate was assassinated. Cesar was standing directly behind Kennedy and gave “different versions of his movements" – and different accounts of when he drew his gun.Hypnosis: Though Sirhan admitted at his trial in 1969 that he shot Kennedy, he claimed from the start that he had no memory of doing so. Sirhan’s lawyers have explored whether he was “hypnotised to begin shooting his gun" when given a certain cue.CIA: In 2006, filmmaker Shane O’Sullivan stated that while researching a screenplay based on the hypnosis theory, he uncovered a “new video and photographic evidence" suggesting that three senior CIA operatives were behind the killing.

THE DECLASSIFICATION

Classification is the administrative process by which the federal government controls how executive branch officials handle information whose potential public exposure is deemed likely to damage national security. Any documents containing that information are supposed to be marked, and only officials with proper security clearances — and a “need to know" — are permitted to see them or be told of their contents.

The legal basis for the classification system comes from the president’s constitutional authority as commander in chief. Outside of a deliberate process, a president personally effectuating the declassification of information normally happens just by saying something publicly, or even posting it on X.

Presidential declassification allows the executive branch to make once-secret information public, but it is a powerful tool with significant implications for governance, public trust, and accountability.

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News explainers Will Trump’s Declassification Solve Martin Luther King Jr, Kennedy Murder Mysteries?