Assassinations Podcast

Author Andy Thomas joins the show once again this season, helping us to consider what might really have happened to David Kelly. The conclusion of the Hutton Inquiry was that the British weapons inspector had committed suicide, but there are many indicators that this was an unsound verdict. This is the last installment of our look at the case. To find out more about the people and music featured i...

Kelly’s death was looked into not by a coroner’s inquest but by a judge, Lord Hutton, who was specially appointed by the government. This meant evidence could be given in secret and witnesses protected from cross examination. The verdict raised more questions than answers, leading several doctors to question the plausibility of the claim that Kelly had committed suicide. Part 2 of 3. To find out m...

We begin our deep dive into the case of Dr David Kelly by considering the finding of the inquiry into his death in the summer of 2003: suicide. But were there any signs that the British biological weapons inspector, who found himself at the center of an almighty political and media storm, was suicidal? Were there aspects of his death, and the official investigation into it, that pointed to somethi...

Willie McRae’s campaigning work made him enemies, no doubt. But did he posses information so explosive that people would be willing to kill him? In the conclusion to our investigation, we consider just what McRae might have known. And we find out about an extraordinary revelation made in 2018, which, if true, would turn upside down the official investigation into his death. To find out more about...

Willie McRae led a remarkable life: a scholar, a naval officer, a lawyer, a politician, and an activist. Yet it is the strange circumstances of his death - and the dodgy investigation that followed - for which he is best known in his native Scotland. This is the first episode of a two-part investigation. To find out more about the people and music featured in today’s episode, visit the Assassinati...

Fred Hampton was a leading member of the Black Panther Party, a self-proclaimed revolutionary socialist organization, which was founded in 1966 in order to fight back against police brutality. Hampton’s death during a raid on his apartment by the Chicago police and the FBI was initially ruled a justifiable homicide; however, subsequent revelations posed the question - was he the victim of an assas...

A high-level Republican political consultant and media strategist, Michael Connell was killed in a plane crash in 2008. Officially an accident, many have claimed that Connell was killed to prevent him testifying in a lawsuit over alleged election fraud in the 2004 US presidential election. To find out more about the people and music featured in today’s episode, visit the Assassinations Podcast web...

Hour of the Assassin , the latest book by best-selling novelist Matthew Quirk, is a romp through a dangerous world of dark money, dirty secrets, political manipulation, and murder. Matthew speaks with Niall about his work, and his own experiences of life inside the Beltway. To find out more about the people and music featured in today’s episode, visit the Assassinations Podcast website, www. Assas...

When the Prime Minister of Sweden was murdered on a freezing cold sidewalk in Stockholm in 1986, a nation unused to political violence was thrown into a state of shock. But could it be that the truth of who lay behind the assassination is even more disturbing than anyone had imagined? To find out more about the people and music featured in today’s episode, visit the Assassinations Podcast website,...

This week’s episode is an interview with Andy Thomas, the author of a new book called Conspiracies: The Facts. The Theories. The Evidence . His book focuses on some of the most popular conspiracies of our times, including high-profile assassinations, and he asks why it is that people so often look for explanations that go beyond the official narrative. To find out more about the people and music f...

From the moment news of his death broke, theories abounded as to what happened to the controversial media magnate: heart attack, accident, suicide, or murder? Part 2 of 2. To find out more about the people and music featured in today’s episode, visit the Assassinations Podcast website, www. AssassinationsPodcast.com. While there, you can also check out our Bookstore, where we recommend some great...

Soldier, businessman, politician … spy? Robert Maxwell went by many names and wore many hats in the course of his flamboyant life. But did he meet his end at the hands of one of the intelligence agencies that he might have been working with? This is the first installment of a two-part investigation. To find out more about the people and music featured in today’s episode, visit the Assassinations P...

A militant activist during the Great Depression and a ruthless fixer inside the Teamsters Union, Jimmy Hoffa rose from humble origins to became one of the most powerful men in America. After serving time in prison, Hoffa fought to regain control of the union - even though it brought him into conflict with forces that seemingly “disappeared” him in 1975. To find out more about the people and music...

Though one man, Sirhan Bishara Sirhan, was convicted of the murder of Senator Robert F Kennedy, there were clear signs that others might have been involved. Yet the LAPD, prosecutors, and perhaps federal authorities as well, all focused on the lone shooter theory - even if that meant discounting other evidence. Part 2 of 2. To find out more about the people and music featured in today’s episode, v...

In the first of a two-part investigation, we look at the death of Robert F. Kennedy, who was killed in the summer of 1968 while campaigning to become the Democratic Party nominee for President of the United States. The man convicted of his murder was Sirhan Bishara Sirhan; however, there are some who believe that he was a brainwashed patsy playing a role within a larger plot. To find out more abou...

Season 6 commences on March 16th. For the next few months we will be exploring the stories of people whose deaths remain shrouded in mystery: murders unsolved, disappearances unexplained, and official verdicts cast into serious doubt. We begin our season with the assassination of Senator Robert Kennedy, who was shot to death in California during his run for the 1968 Democratic presidential nominat...

In the concluding part of this case, and the final episode of the season, we watch as Harvey Milk’s ceaseless campaigning finally sees him elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors - thanks in no small part to the help of Jim Jones and the People’s Temple. Within a year of his election, Milk was shot and killed by Dan White, a former political ally who went berserk in City Hall. avoid scan...

Harvey Milk wore many masks. As a gay man in postwar America, it was necessary to hide his true self in order to avoid scandal and possible ruin. But Milk’s chameleon-like ability to reinvent himself - sometimes from one extreme to another - was remarkable, and a key asset in his rise to become America’s first openly gay elected official. Part 1 of 2. To find out more about the people and music fe...

Bantu Stephen Biko was the foremost figure of the Black Consciousness Movement in apartheid-era South Africa. A determined opponent of white-minority rule, he was tortured to death by police officers in 1977. To find out more about the people and music featured in today’s episode, visit the Assassinations Podcast website. While there, you can also check out our Bookstore, where we recommend some g...

In the concluding part of our study of life and ideas of Mahatma Gandhi, we trace his long fight for freedom. Considered the father of the nation, he would only live in his liberated homeland for a matter of months before he was assassinated. To find out more about the people and music featured in today’s episode, visit the Assassinations Podcast website. While there, you can also check out our Bo...

Gandhi helped to end British imperial rule over India, leading a mass non-violent movement of civil disobedience, often in the face of brutal repression. Episode 1 of 2. To find out more about the people and music featured in today’s episode, visit the Assassinations Podcast website. While there, you can also check out our Bookstore, where we recommend some great episode-related books and reading...

A hero to the poor and dispossessed, a villain to the conservative ruling class, Emiliano Zapata became one of the most powerful leaders of the Mexican Revolution of the early 20th century. A farmer, a skilled horseman, and an effective military commander, Zapata fought to advance the rights of the common people against the depredations of the landed elite. To find out more about the people a...

In the fourth and final episode of our investigation into the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., we hear additional, extraordinary claims about just who - other than James Earl Ray - might have been behind this terrible crime. We follow a trail that leads us from the Lorraine Motel in Memphis all the way to the FBI headquarters in Washington, DC. To find out more about the people and mu...

In the third part of our investigation into the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., we consider the wealth of evidence that undermined the conviction and incarceration of James Earl Ray as the sole assassin. Despite confessing to the crime, Ray quickly recanted. By the 1990s, numerous witnesses had come forward to challenge the official version of events, leading members of the King family to b...

We walk with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. during his last day, as he campaigned alongside striking municipal workers in the city of Memphis, Tennessee. We witness his assassination and then we follow the international manhunt for the man who would be convicted of King's murder - James Earl Ray. But there was much, much more to this case than came out during the sentencing of Ray in 1969. Part 2 of...