THE MOST enduring American conspiracy theories involve a gunman who may or may not have existed and may or may not have been on a grassy knoll in Dallas’ Dealey Plaza on the afternoon of November 22, 1963. The assassination of President John F Kennedy, the subject of numerous speculative books and movies, all of which are rooted in some individual’s ironclad take on what happened, why it happened and who had a role in making it happen, will always be grist for the mill of those still dissecting that national tragedy. More than a few of those arguments dispute the Warren Commission’s conclusion that presumed killer Lee Harvey Oswald acted on his own rather than in concert with unidentified, shadowy figures.
On a more recent and lesser scale, a raft of conspiracy theories arose in the wake of the alleged August 10, 2019, jailhouse suicide of multimillionaire sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, whose list of celebrity acquaintances includes two presidents of the United States and even a member of the British royal family. As was the case when nightclub owner Jack Ruby fatally shot Oswald before he could go on trial, conspiracy theorists on all sides have conjectured whether Epstein’s death was actually a hit and, if so, ordered by whom?
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Boxing, with its blemished past dotted by nefarious power brokers and decisions that sometimes defy logic, has also provided conspiracy junkies with
