Conspiracy?

What really happened in Roswell, New Mexico in the summer of 1947? Did a flying saucer crash in the vast desert scrubland? The initial Army Air Force press release claimed they had recovered a flying disk. But a day later, the story dramatically changed--now they called it a weather balloon! In 1987, secret documents surfaced indicating the existence of the "Majestic 12"--an elite group of scientists and military and intelligence officials, allegedly brought together by President Harry Truman. Did the MJ-12 truly exist? If so, did these men forever trivialize the most talked-about UFO event in history, as well as all UFO sightings thereafter?

A mysterious, stark terrain, 90 miles north of Las Vegas, goes by many names: The Box, Paradise Ranch, Groom Lake, Watertown Strip, and Dreamland. But most refer to the region as Area 51. Since the late 1950s, an array of UFO sightings has been reported above its skies. In 1989, revelations of Las Vegas resident Bob Lazar brought Area 51 to national attention. Lazar claimed to possess amazing inside information, but he wasn't the first to state that something strange was going on. Those who discount Lazar's theories think the government kept its activities from the general public for a more plausible reason. The base, built at the Cold War's height, housed testing of cutting-edge aviation technology. The cloak of secrecy was to keep the Soviet Union in the dark, not the American public, and experts expostulate that the government perpetuated these theories to disguise its real activities.

On April 4, 1968, a sniper gunned down Martin Luther King Jr. as he stood on a motel balcony in Memphis, Tennessee. Charges of cover-ups and government complicity were heard almost immediately. Several versions have passed for the "truth" of King's assassination--from the "official" story in '68 with small-time criminal James Earl Ray as lone assassin; Ray's later assertion that he was framed by "Raul", the true killer; to the '78 House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) report that claimed Ray acted on behalf of a conspiracy. And there's a theory that federal government agencies were out to get King--and they had greater motivation to do so than James Earl Ray.

April 14, 1865--Actor John Wilkes Booth shot President Lincoln in the back of the head at a Washington theater. Days later, Wilkes died in a standoff, and eventually, eight Southern sympathizers were tried for conspiracy. This much we know to be true. But many conspiracy theories arose--pointing to the Confederacy, the Union, and even the Catholic Church! Once again, new theories have sprung up, based on recently found documents and forensic technology. Historian Edward Steers Jr. connects Booth to the Confederate Secret Service in Montreal, which indirectly links him to Jefferson Davis and the Confederate government; while biographer Charles Higham places Booth in a larger conspiracy. Historians, biographers, and researchers, who take issue with Steers and Higham, counter their arguments here.