The assassination of the John F. Kennedy was one of the most shocking and perplexing crimes the world has ever known.
Polls consistently show that the majority of Americans still do not believe communist Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in shooting dead the president on November 22, 1963.
So when Donald Trump last week released thousands of new documents from the so-called ‘JFK files’ – ostensibly the only remaining, undisclosed government papers on the assassination – historians, armchair experts and conspiracy theorists alike were sent into a frenzy.
The search for answers within that trove continues, and so far there have been few revelations.
But what the release has prompted in some quarters is a renewed discussion about two more recent attempts on a president’s life, namely that of Donald J. Trump.
In particular, it seems that basic questions still surround the shocking attack in Butler, Pennsylvania on July 13 last year, orchestrated by 20-year-old Thomas Crooks.
A second attempted assassination was foiled just two months later, on September 24, when a rifle belonging to Ryan Wesley Routh, 58, was spotted by Secret Service agents poking from shrubbery outside Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Last year, congressman Mike Kelly appointed as chair of a new task force set up to investigate both attempts on Trump’s life. And on December 10, before the end of the congressional session, his team published a slim, 180-page report.
Donald Trump is rushed offstage during after being shot in Butler, Pennsylvania
Ryan Wesley Routh, 59, following his arrest in Martin County, Florida, on September 15, after allegedly attempting to kill Trump
Now, in an interview with the Daily Mail, Kelly admits that report was insubstantial.
For his part, Kelly blames federal law enforcement for obstructing his task force’s investigation by refusing to hand over important information.
‘They’re very good at stonewalling and then dismissing people as conspiracy theorists. Well, if you answered our questions, we wouldn’t be having these different theories,’ he said.
Notably, Kelly’s report included a long list of outstanding evidence requests to the FBI, the Department of Justice, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Still undisclosed and surely important information includes: Thomas Crooks’s text messages, phone logs and emails, as well as any relevant witness interviews.
On March 6 this year, a frustrated Trump told reporters: ‘I want to find the answers.’
The president also claimed he would be getting a more detailed report ‘next week sometime’.
Two weeks on, the whereabouts of that requested ‘report’ remains unclear.
The White House referred inquiries from the Daily Mail to the Secret Service, who then referred requests to the FBI, who in turn referred us back to the White House… who declined to comment on the record about the report’s status.
Was Crooks on prescription meds and were his blood and tissue samples retained?
Trump assassin Thomas Crooks, 20
Republican Clay Higgins, who served on Kelly’s bipartisan congressional task force, spent hours on the case, even going to Butler to investigate.
Some of his biggest concerns have centered on Crooks’ autopsy and the swift release of his body to the family for cremation – just 10 days after he was shot dead by snipers.
Kelly’s report noted that the postmortem came up negative in tests for alcohol, illegal drugs and other controlled substances.
But Higgins says he still wants to know why tests weren’t carried out to test for prescription drugs in Crooks’s system.
‘It’s reasonable to suspect some kind of psychotic break. There are many longstanding studies worldwide that connect the dots between antidepressants and anti-psychotic drugs and bizarre behaviors that develop after someone has started ingesting these drugs,’ he told the Daily Mail.
Crooks’s father has denied his son had ever used illegal drugs, and claims Crooks was not known to have been prescribed any legal pharmaceutical medication.
Higgins also wants to know if the FBI retained blood or tissue samples from Crooks’s body that could be later re-examined.
If they didn’t, he says, they certainly should have.
‘This is not a normal crime, this guy almost killed the former and soon to be again president of the United States, this was not a normal investigation,’ Higgins added.
Why did he have multiple cell phones?
Media reports of the number of cell phones Crooks had in his possession have triggered a number of theories about his communications.
Some have indicated he may have had as many as five phones.
That is certainly intriguing, though Higgins does point out that many of us now have multiple phones, with the average American replacing theirs once every two to three years though rarely discarding old devices.
‘It can sound sinister, but I have multiple old phones in a drawer in my home, I don’t use them anymore, but they are there,’ he said.
In a similar way, Higgins says it is not exactly surprising that Crooks used encrypted services for his digital communications.
‘[It] doesn’t mean [people are] doing nefarious stuff, just because [they] use an encrypted text service,’ he said.
Did the FBI scrub his home of evidence?
An oft repeated claim about Butler is that no silverware was discovered in Crooks’s home.
None other than Elon Musk has chimed in, calling it a ‘weird house that’s got no cutlery.’
But is that true?
Rep. Eli Crane certainly thought so, memorably asking during congressional testimony last July whether the home had been unnaturally ‘scrubbed’ free of any evidence by the FBI.
Thomas Crooks’ home in Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, after the July shooting
But Higgins disagrees.
‘I’m satisfied that there was no effort to clean up or conceal anything in the Crooks home,’ he told the Daily Mail, pointing to photographs of the would-be assassin’s bedroom.
‘His room was normal, it was not super clean… it was just like a normal guy’s room with the exception of an ammo container made into a bomb,’ Higgins said. ‘That’s a big one.’
The truth about the ‘no cutlery’ claim is not clear and Crane did not respond to a request for comment.
Why did Crooks have no social media?
Any social media profiles owned by Crooks remain illusive – and, despite some reports of a discovered Discord account, no clarity has been offered on the record by officials.
It’s one of the biggest questions that remains to be answered about the case and one that the FBI refuses to share details about.
‘The FBI would not give us that data,’ Higgins admits.
What about the cell data link to Washington?
The Heritage Foundation Oversight Project, a prominent conservative think tank, has claimed to be able to trace the cellphone data of Crooks, his family and friends.
The group’s X account sensationally claimed on July 22 last year: ‘Someone who regularly visited Crooks home and work also visited a building in Washington, DC located in Gallery Place. This is in the same vicinity of an FBI office on June 26, 2023. Who’s device is this?’.
These limited details triggered speculation that someone in Washington or the FBI may have been connected to Crooks.
Podcaster Joe Rogan specifically brought this up with Elon Musk during a recent interview.
‘Did you see that there was some indications that there was a phone that had been traveling from outside the FBI offices in DC to where this kid lived … multiple times?’ Rogan asked Musk.
A remote detonator is seen next to Crooks’ phone in Butler on the day he was killed
Speaking to the Daily Mail, Republican Clay Higgins, of Louisiana, said he did not find the alleged cellphone data immediately concerning.
‘I do not see that as nefarious, just on the surface,’ he said. ‘I would have to look at the evidence.’
Higgins added that an extensive investigation on the data and the phone numbers involved would have to be conducted before any conclusions could be drawn.
‘Just the existence of possibly some commonly pinged cell phone numbers that may belong to federal employees, that doesn’t on its surface strike to me as nefarious,’ he said.
Why was CNN broadcasting live from Butler that day?
Joe Rogan has also raised the fact CNN was airing the Butler rally live on Saturday, July 13, as a point of possible contention.
‘You also know that CNN streamed it live, which I do not believe they did for any other rally, and certainly not for a rally that’s in the middle of nowhere in Pennsylvania… there’s a lot of weird s**t,’ Rogan has said.
‘It seems impossible but why? Could someone have tipped them off about the potential newsworthy event about to take place?’
Trump is rushed off stage after attempted assassination in Butler
Trump supporters duck for cover after the attempted Butler assassination (above)
Repeated questions along these lines about the network’s allegedly rare live broadcast of the rally finally triggered the cable news network to address the situation.
‘CNN provided live coverage of President Trump’s Butler, PA, rally in anticipation of news about his pick for Vice President,’ CNN’s public relations office said in a statement. ‘Any suggestion contrary to that fact is completely false.’
While Trump had, at the time, met with several possible vice presidential candidates, he ultimately waited until the Republican National Convention – which began two days after Butler – to announce J.D. Vance as his pick.
What was the motive, why hasn’t one been established and did Crooks act alone?
Typically, someone attempting something as radical as the assassination of a president or another political figure would have deep-seated and widely publicized motives for their actions.
Yet no clear motive has been estabished for Crooks. We know he lived in the Pittsburgh suburb of Bethel Park, about 35 miles south of Butler.
We also know he was a registered Republican but, in January 2021, he had made a $15 donation to a poltiical action committee that raises money for Democrats.
A picture of Crooks in Butler before shooting
In the days leading up to the rally, he made at least 60 Google searches with queries about the geography of Butler, but also about when and where the Democrat and Republican conventions would be held.
And FBI director Christopher Wray admitted that just one week before the shooting, he googled: ‘How far away was Oswald from Kennedy?’
Congressman Kelly remains convinced Crooks had no outside help and wasn’t motivated by a nefarious external player before the shooting.
‘If you look at all the, the assassinations that have taken place or been attempted but not successful, the people who were doing these actually thought they were patriots and they were doing something to save the country or save the world or whatever,’ he said.
‘I think the motive was somewhere in his mind, some voice in his head had convinced him and was talking to him about killing President Trump… and he came very close to doing that.’
Why did Secret Service allow Trump on the stage when there were concerns?
Crooks on the day of the shooting
The biggest unanswered question is why the Secret Service let Trump take the stage when there was active concerns about Crooks on the radio, Congressman Kelly says.
When looking over transcripts of communications that day, law enforcement and security people had identified him as a suspicious figure and he was discovered to have a range finder in his possession at the rally.
‘Why the hell did you let the president come out of the tent if you thought you had a suspicious person out there?’ Kelly asked. ‘And you never ever thought that maybe we should probably keep candidate Trump in until we actually locate this person.
Ultimately, both members of Congress said, it was up to federal law enforcement to be more transparent with the information they had so questions could be answered.
Higgins said that even though the task force was over, he would continue to seek answers to these questions.
Higgins said he was optimistic that FBI director Kash Patel and Attorney General Pam Bondi will be able to offer more details from the case.
Until then, investigators say, the conspiracies will only grow as the public tries to find the answer for themselves.
Federal law enforcement needs to be held to account
Congressman Kelly is optimistic about the unanswered questions from being properly addressed now President Trump was in charge.
‘The FBI was obstructive last year, now that’s all over, the FBI now and the DOJ now will give us anything we ask for, we’re in a new era in congress,’ he said.
‘Please don’t tell me that we’re being strange for having these conspiracy theories things when you made it possible at every turn,’ Kelly said.
Serious questions have been asked about police and secret service action in Butler
However, he remains concerned that with the change of government, former Biden officials who stonewalled the task force’s investigation could have hidden or destroyed evidence that implicated law enforcement in any way.
‘I don’t know what information is left. Once the executive office changed, all the personnel changed too… those people that we were talking to, most of that leadership is gone,’ he said.
However, fears remain that the complete truth about both assassination attempts won’t be known for at least a generation.
This would mean decades for the assassination attempts to fester, be reinterpreted, and for conspiracies to foment – until another maverick president decides to declassify everything.