Conspiracy+Theories

Abraham Lincoln and John Kennedy Conspiracy //Thesis Statement: The assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Abraham Lincoln were supposly a coincidence, but due to the common traits that these men had and their deaths, America went through a peroid of paranoid and believed in conspiracy theories.//

Abraham Lincoln was an important figure during the Civil War. As the president of the United States, Lincoln fought to save the Union and fought for slaves rights.As the South broke away from the Union, many Southers began to view Lincoln as a tyranny. That's what led people like John Wilkes Booth to kill him. Lincoln was the first American president to be assassinated. This was shocking to the American people and due to his death, many Americans did not feel the same about politics. They thought the government should not be trusted.
 * Civil War-**


 * Assassin:** John Wilkes Booth. A stage actor from the South who was outraged of the North's victory in the Civil War. He worked with many conspirators in order to kill Lincoln. His first idea was to kidnap Lincoln in exchange of the release of Conferdate soliders.
 * [[image:booth.jpg width="384" height="677" align="left"]]

Place:** During the time of the assassation, Ford's Theatre was playing Our American Cousin. Abraham was with his wife and two guests. Grant, general of the Northern Army, planned to go with Lincoln though changed his mind before the event.

-Size small and easy handling -It was accurate on short distances.
 * Weapon**: Philadelphia Deringer. Created by Henry Derringer, a famous gun inventor.


 * Quote:** "Almost every family who kept a photograph album on the parlor table owned a likeness of John Wilkes Booth of the famous Booth family of actors. After the assassination Northerners slid the Booth card out of their albums: some threw it away, some burned it, some crumpled it angrily".


 * Theories**: Johnson was involved.


 * Many years later....**

John Kennedy was an important figure during the Cold War era. He fought for civil rights and helped America avoid a nuclear war with the Soveiet Union. During the Cold War, the period of hope shifted into a period of paranoid and a distrust in the government. American began to develop an intense interest with Kennedy assassination in order to conterbalance their loss of a president. Americans blamed several parties like the CIA, the mafia, the FBI, and Fidel Castro and his government. Even with the Sercet Service, JFK was shot and prove to the American people that a presdient can still get assassianted.
 * Cold War-**

Weapon:** Carcano Rifle. Created by the Italians. It was a bolt-action gun that was pefect for long distance. It's range could reach up to 600 ft.
 * Assassin:** Lee Harvey Oswald. Former United States Marine who killed John Kennedy for unknown reasons. One theory is that Oswald had deep hatred for the United States. He had many connections with the Soviet Union and married a Russian. He was then killed on live televison.
 * Place:** Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas.
 * [[image:Plaza.jpg width="517" height="316"]]

Grassy Knoll-Place in which three bullet shots were heard causing people to believe that the true assassin was there. Oswald was too poor a marksman to make the shots, so other people were involved His death led to the Vietnam War and the 1960 which was a decade when things went out of control. His death still impacts many people today and many people still wonder who killed John F. Kennedy.
 * Theories**: Single-Bullet Theory-The bullet could have not killed JFK.

Author:** Harold Cox
 * Primary Source #1** : **Mourning population: Some considerations of historically comparable assassinations
 * Affiliation:** Indiana State University

The public's reaction to the Lincoln and Kennedy assassinations are compared and contrasted. The immediate psychological reaction of the public following both assassinations was crying, loss of appetite, inability to sleep, nausea, nervousness, and sometimes anger. The group reaction was similar to that of expressive crowds in which there is a desire to be with someone and in these cases to share the emotions of grief and bereavement. Both assassinations were followed by a search for witches in which the U.S. public felt that a master plot or conspiracy had led to the death of the presidents. The death of a powerful public figure in both assassinations created considerable anxiety in a public forced to recognize how thin the thread is that ties each of us to life.


 * Primary Source #2:** **Joachim Joesten , //How Kennedy Was Killed// (1968) **

For the plot to kill President Kennedy to have a maximum chance of success, it was necessary to draw him out of an environment where he was ordinarily well-protected, such as Washington, and lead him to a place where the security apparatus could be effectively neutralized. Dallas was just such a place, for there the police force was in the hands of an organisation (The Citizens Council) determined to get rid of the liberal, progressive, peace-minded Chief Executive. In all of the United States, there was no city where Kennedy had more powerful and active enemies. Not only the local police force, but also the regional bureaus of the FBI and the Secret Service were headed by persons hostile to him. In Dallas there was, to use the favorite LBJ term again, a 'consensus' that Kennedy was a president the nation could do without and that Lyndon B. Johnson would make a fine successor. And out of that consensus developed the conspiracy.

p. 116-117 of Recollections of Abraham Lincoln 1847-1865 by Ward Hill Lamon (Lincoln, University of Nebraska Press, 1994).
 * Primary Source #3:**

"About ten days ago, I retired very late. I had been up waiting for important dispatches from the front. I could not have been long in bed when I fell into a slumber, for I was weary. I soon began to dream. There seemed to be a death-like stillness about me. Then I heard subdued sobs, as if a number of people were weeping. I thought I left my bed and wandered downstairs. There the silence was broken by the same pitiful sobbing, but the mourners were invisible. I went from room to room; no living person was in sight, but the same mournful sounds of distress met me as I passed along. I saw light in all the rooms; every object was familiar to me; but where were all the people who were grieving as if their hearts would break? I was puzzled and alarmed. What could be the meaning of all this? Determined to find the cause of a state of things so mysterious and so shocking, I kept on until I arrived at the East Room, which I entered. There I met with a sickening surprise. Before me was a catafalque, on which rested a corpse wrapped in funeral vestments. Around it were stationed soldiers who were acting as guards; and there was a throng of people, gazing mournfully upon the corpse, whose face was covered, others weeping pitifully. 'Who is dead in the White House?' I demanded of one of the soldiers, 'The President,' was his answer; 'he was killed by an assassin.' Then came a loud burst of grief from the crowd, which woke me from my dream. I slept no more that night; and although it was only a dream, I have been strangely annoyed by it ever since."

Video: New Orleans district attorney Jim Garrison investage the assassination of JFK. media type="youtube" key="Sfyp_dy--gA" height="344" width="425"

Abraham Lincoln was elected to Congress in 1846. John F. Kennedy was elected to Congress in 1946. Both men were elected in years ending in 46 and were 100 years apart....
 * Is there a relationship bewteen the assassinations of Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy?**

Abraham Lincoln was elected in 1861. John F. Kennedy was elected in 1961. Both men were elected in years ending in 61 and were 100 years apart.

Abraham Lincoln was assassinated on Good Friday, April 14, 1865. John F. Kennedy was assassinated on a Friday on November 22, 1963. Both men were assassinated on a Friday....

Lincoln had a secretary named Kennedy. Kennedy had a secretary named Lincoln. Both men had secretaries of the opposite president.

Abraham Lincoln's vice president was Andrew Johnson. John Kennedy's vice president was Lyndon B. Johnson. Both vice presidents end in Johnson.

Lincoln's name has 7 letters Kennedy's name has 7 letters 7 name letter

Andrew Johnson was born in 1808 Lyndon Johnson was born in 1908 Years end in 08

Both men were next to their wifes.

Shortly after Lincoln was shot the telegraph system went down Shortly after Kennedy was shot the telephone system went down

America went through a peroid of paranoid after the death of Lincoln and Kennedy. The assassination caused so much pain and suffering that led many Americans to believe in conspiracy theories and distrust the government.


 * Work Citation:**

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