Browse Conspiracy Theories

The July 20, 1993 death of Deputy White House Counsel Vincent Foster in Fort Marcy Park, Virginia, officially ruled suicide by five separate investigations. Conspiracy claims allege murder by the Clintons or a cover-up of connections to Whitewater or Hillary Clinton.

The July 16, 1999 crash of a small aircraft off Martha's Vineyard piloted by John F. Kennedy Jr., killing him, his wife Carolyn Bessette, and sister-in-law Lauren Bessette. Conspiracy claims allege assassination by the Clintons, a senior Kennedy family cabal, or staged disappearance — the latter a QAnon staple.

The long-documented relationship between Panamanian dictator Manuel Noriega and the US Central Intelligence Agency, including his role as a paid CIA asset (1967-1988) while simultaneously trafficking cocaine, running intelligence operations, and aiding US anti-communist operations in Latin America.

The false claim that the April 15, 2013 Boston Marathon bombing was staged by the US government or involved "crisis actors" rather than being conducted by the Tsarnaev brothers. The real bombing killed 3 people and injured 260+.

The US military's use of Agent Orange herbicide in Vietnam (1961-1971) and the decades-long effort by the VA and chemical manufacturers to deny connections to veteran illnesses — cancers, type 2 diabetes, Parkinson's, peripheral neuropathy.

The October 2, 2018 assassination of Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey. The US Intelligence Community's February 2021 declassified assessment concluded Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman approved the operation.

The 2014-2019 lead contamination of Flint, Michigan's drinking water following a cost-saving switch from Detroit water supply to the Flint River, and the systematic suppression of evidence by state officials.

A satirical movement launched in 2017 by Peter McIndoe claiming that all birds in the United States were exterminated by the CIA between 1959-2001 and replaced with surveillance drones. Designed as parody, it was widely shared without the satire being recognized.

The claim that Earth is hollow, with inner surfaces, inhabitants, or openings at the poles. Versions include the 17th-century scientific proposal by Edmond Halley, 19th-century Symmes Hole theory, and 20th-century Nazi/UFO-adjacent versions.

The false claim, most prominently promoted by Alex Jones and Infowars, that the December 14, 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut was staged by "crisis actors" to justify gun control legislation. The shooting killed 20 first-graders and 6 adults.

The claim, based on a 1984 packet of allegedly leaked documents, that President Truman in 1947 established a secret committee (Majestic 12 or MJ-12) of 12 scientists and military officers to study recovered UFO craft from Roswell.

The claim, popularized by British writer David Icke from 1999 onward, that a race of shape-shifting reptilian humanoids from Alpha Draconis secretly rule the Earth by posing as political and royal elites including the British Royal Family.

Claims that the US Air Force HAARP (High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program) facility in Gakona, Alaska is used for weather modification, earthquake generation, or mass mind control.

TWA Flight 800 (Boeing 747) exploded and crashed off Long Island on July 17, 1996, killing all 230 aboard. The NTSB ruled the cause was an ignition of flammable fuel-air vapor in the center wing fuel tank. Claims of a Navy missile strike or terrorist attack have persisted.

Claims that a secret US military base at Camp Hero in Montauk, New York ran experiments on time travel, mind control, teleportation, and contact with extraterrestrials from 1971 to 1983.

The claim that the antiparasitic drug ivermectin is an effective COVID-19 treatment being suppressed by pharmaceutical companies, regulators, and hospitals to protect vaccine profits.

Claims that Denver International Airport (opened 1995) houses an underground New World Order bunker, hosts occult murals, and that its dedication capstone contains coded Freemason messages.

A fabricated antisemitic text, first published in Russia in 1903, claiming to document a Jewish plan for world domination. Extensively proven a forgery — plagiarized from Maurice Joly's 1864 Dialogue aux enfers entre Machiavel et Montesquieu (a satire about Napoleon III, not Jews).

The false claim that the MMR vaccine causes autism, originating in a fraudulent 1998 study by Andrew Wakefield published in The Lancet, which the journal formally retracted in 2010 after investigation revealed data manipulation and undisclosed financial conflicts.

The 1997 death of Diana, Princess of Wales in a Paris car crash has spawned decades of conspiracy theories alleging assassination by British intelligence, the Royal Family, or other state actors — most forcefully championed by Mohamed Al-Fayed, father of Dodi Fayed who died in the same crash.

The claim that the US Navy conducted an October 1943 experiment at the Philadelphia Naval Shipyard that made the destroyer USS Eldridge temporarily invisible and teleported it to Norfolk, Virginia — with horrific effects on crew members.

The phenomenon where large groups of people share a vivid but false memory of historical events, objects, or media — coined by researcher Fiona Broome in 2009 after noticing many people falsely remembered Nelson Mandela dying in prison in the 1980s.

A sophisticated computer worm discovered in 2010 that sabotaged centrifuges at Iran's Natanz uranium enrichment facility — later confirmed to have been developed jointly by the US (NSA/CIA) and Israel (Unit 8200) under Operation Olympic Games.