‘It splintered our sense of reality’: how JFK’s assassination spawned 60 years of conspiracy theories

The murder of the US president left millions convinced their government lied and covered up. Decades on, it continues to twist the truth about everything from Covid to G5 to Trump's defeat at the polls

On 22 November 2021, a crowd of 100 or so people gathered in Dealey Plaza in Dallas, the site of John F Kennedy's assassination 58 years before. They were convinced that JFK's son, John F Kennedy Jr, was about to return, to take his place as vice-president alongside a reinstated Donald Trump, to battle the satanic paedophile cabal that had taken over Washington. Some even waved Trump-Kennedy 2024" banners. Never mind that JFK Jr died in a plane crash in 1999: these people were credulous enough to believe the QAnon conspiracy theory.

When JFK Jr failed to materialise, they promised he would appear at the Rolling Stones' concert in Dallas that night. Some also reckoned JFK Jr would be accompanied by other not-really-dead figures, including Robin Williams, Michael Jackson and a 104-year-old JFK.