We’re back with even more insane conspiracy theories! Some might have seemed to be wild and even totally implausible at one time, and some even spent years totally obscured from the public, but all of these were eventually revealed – at least in part – to be true! And some of them are even stranger than fiction, from shady government scandals to aliens buried out in the desert, to ghosts at sea that started a war, and even a secretive meeting between some of the wealthiest people in the world – that involved strange rituals in front of a big stone owl?
! These are the Insane Conspiracy Theories That Turned Out to be True, Part Two! Let’s start with one that seems so obvious that it would almost be more surprising if it weren’t true, and that’s the theory that the government is watching your every move.
It’s hardly an overstatement to say that, in our modern, technology-driven world, you’re never more than a few feet from a camera, whether it’s part of a closed circuit system or even those that are found near roads designed to catch speeding drivers. But think about how many other places you’d find a camera; your smartphone’s got multiple, and your laptop or PC will likely have a webcam, to name just a few. What’s stopping the government from using these devices to spy on you?
Well, actually, nothing – in fact, it’s completely legal for them to do so. Mass surveillance is hardly a new innovation, as dystopian as the concept might feel. In the United States alone, there exist multiple federal law enforcement and intelligence agencies that serve the function of conducting surveillance over the population, like the National Security Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Central Intelligence Agency.
While this is often done in the name of security, to protect the public from the threat of acts of terrorism, surveillance on this scale is also a tool used to silence political dissent, often by targeting particular individuals and organizations. Although it generally requires exploiting software security vulnerabilities, the government can technically use cameras in your devices to spy on you. The FBI even has access to technology that can remotely access webcams without triggering the light that indicates the camera is active – and they’ve been able to do this for years!
Remote activation tools – known by the fitting acronym RATs – are a form of spyware that the FBI uses for criminal investigations. ‘Ratting’ is reportedly only done sparingly, but it’s hardly reassuring knowing that they can watch us without us being able to even tell. In 2013, a former contractor who had worked for the NSA leaked documents that exposed some of the extensive surveillance programs conducted by the NSA, FBI, and CIA.
The now infamous Edward Snowden revealed that massive swathes of data had been gathered by these agencies from sources, including social media websites and email exchanges, in order to form comprehensive profiles of US citizens based on their online activity. The leaks also highlighted the potential for governments to remotely access the cameras and microphones of personal electronic devices for these purposes. So, it’s not just hackers, stalkers, and other cyber criminals to be wary of when you’re perusing the internet; the government could be keeping an eye on you, too.
After all, having your own FBI agent watching you has long been a running joke online, featured in various memes. Ours is called Jonathon, and even though we can’t see him, we know he can see us – unsettling! From one tale of shady governmental overreach to an attempt to suppress political opposition that became so infamous, that its name has been immortalized in the conspiracy theory hall of fame.
It was 1972, and the several month-long build-up towards the next presidential election was already underway, with Republican President Richard Nixon running against Democrat candidate George McGovern. Little did the public know that a discovery was about to be made that threatened to upend the entire election process. And the President himself knew about it.
Several months before the election, Frank Wills, a security guard working at an office, apartment, and hotel complex in Washington DC, discovered that various locks around the complex had been tampered with. Suspecting a possible break-in, Wills called the police, who arrived and apprehended five burglars who had forced an entry into the offices of the Democratic National Committee. But this wasn’t about a score because these weren’t ordinary burglars.
While inside, they had intended to steal several important campaign documents and attempted to plant bugs to listen in on phone lines. Upon investigation, it was discovered that four of these five men were former agents of the Central Intelligence Agency and had been involved in actions taken against Cuban leader Fidel Castro. At the time, though, the press reported that the attempted burglars were Cubans, despite only three of them having Cuban heritage.
The fifth was a security chief for the Committee to Re-Elect the President, or CREEP for short. They had conspired with a former FBI agent who was a counsel for CREEP, as well as another high-ranking CIA officer who’d recently been appointed to the staff of the White House. As this tangled web began to unravel, it seemed to point to one man being at the center: President Nixon himself.
He made aggressive attempts to cover up the scandal and was believed to have even hired the five men in the first place. But this did little to prevent journalists from The Washington Post from uncovering his role in the conspiracy. This botched attempt at an act of blatant political sabotage was what ultimately led to the downfall of the Nixon administration, with almost seventy people being impeached as a result.
Nixon resigned from office in 1974 since Congress couldn’t impeach him if he were to step down; thus, he avoided facing criminal charges. The scandal would eventually be named after the hotel it started in: the Watergate complex. The Watergate Scandal forever changed US politics, leading many Americans to think more critically about their leaders – after all, if the President could use his power to attempt to cover up something like this and get away with it, then it didn’t exactly smack of being trustworthy.
As if mass surveillance and an administration trying to snuff out its opposition secretly weren’t enough government overreach for you, there’s an arguably darker conspiracy theory that turned out to be true. One that might have led to thousands of Americans being poisoned… by the government! A while ago, an alarming factoid was circulating on the Internet that, in 1926, the federal government had poisoned alcohol in an effort to discourage the public from drinking during Prohibition.
This was, of course, a real thing – well, Prohibition was, anyway – as between 1920 and 1933, it became illegal to sell, produce or even transport alcoholic beverages. But naturally, this didn’t stop people from buying, drinking, and often making their own booze. According to the claim, though, the government added poisonous substances to alcohol as a way to crack down on the number of people drinking it.
Apparently, this event caused an estimated ten thousand deaths before Prohibition was eventually ended in 1933. But the truth is a little more nuanced. The government wasn’t exactly sneaking into black market distilleries and emptying barrels marked with a skull and crossbones into the booze like a cartoonish supervillain.
In actuality, when the 18th Amendment was passed, bringing Prohibition into effect, this led to regulatory agencies encouraging measures to make alcohol used for industrial purposes undrinkable by adding lethal chemicals like methyl alcohol or wood alcohol to grain alcohol, making it poisonous. This wasn’t done to any alcohol that was intended for human consumption. Still, one of the ways that criminals tried to make money during Prohibition was by producing their own illegal booze to sell on the black market – and can you guess what they stole to use as a key ingredient?
Yep, the now-tainted industrial alcohol. While the government didn’t set out to purposely kill drinkers, it did seek to stop making industrial alcohol just so darn tasty to drink, leading to a number of alcohol poisoning deaths from those who bought booze from less than stellar brewers. From bad booze to Big Tobacco: did big cigarette companies really try to cover up the fact that smoking can kill?
It seems almost quaint that anyone would try to lie about that, especially if you’re used to seeing the often graphic ‘Smoking Kills’ PSAs on TV and similarly unpleasant warnings on packs of cigarettes to dissuade people from buying them. Or so that the companies making them can at least say they’re being honest about it. But back at the beginning of the 1950s, new evidence was emerging that seemed to show an indisputable link between smoking cigarettes and developing lung cancer.
Naturally, people knowing your product is deadly can be pretty bad for business; never mind the moral and ethical implications of slowly killing your consumers, tobacco companies had their bottom lines to worry about! As a result, they released A Frank Statement to Cigarette Smokers in January of 1954, an advertisement campaign designed to dispute the recent scientific studies that linked smoking with its dangerous effects on people's health. The tobacco industry’s campaign was intended to cast uncertainty on the recent scientific findings and not only sway consumer opinions on smoking but also undermine efforts by regulatory bodies to impose better guidelines on cigarette companies.
These then could have led to better standards and practices, potentially even making cigarettes less addictive and thus reducing the risk of causing further cases of lung cancer. The entire industry spent decades using PR strategies to knowingly deny the link between smoking and its serious negative health impacts, including refuting the scientific evidence that connected smoking with increased lung cancer cases in the USA and UK, misleading consumers into believing their products actually had benefits to their health. Refuted the potential harms of inhaling secondhand smoke, claimed that nicotine wasn’t addictive, and large cigarette corporations even established organizations designed to produce their own research that specifically aligned with the claims they made.
All while knowing that smoking does kill, in the interest of protecting their profits over public health. From no smoke without fire -or potentially fatal illness- to suspicions of a conspiracy within the world of sports. Accusations of cheating, bribery and rigging have been present in every major league for every sport in history, from football and basketball to even the boring stuff like fishing.
But if hidden weights and frozen supermarket fish fillets stashed in prize catches prove anything, it’s that sometimes these accusations are warranted. This was revealed to be the case with the Black Sox Scandal. In a pivotal championship bout of the 1919 World Series, American League champs, the Chicago White Sox, were playing the Cincinnati Reds, champions of the National League.
Over the course of a best-of-nine series, the Cincinnati Reds beat the White Sox five to three, crowning them the winners of that year’s World Series. But almost immediately after, rumors of an organized conspiracy among members of the Chicago White Sox began spreading. Eight players in particular were accused: the two pitchers, Eddie Cicotte and Claude ‘Lefty’ Williams, the team’s first baseman, Arnold ‘Chick’ Gandil; shortstop Charles ‘Swede’ Risberg, the Sox’s third baseman George ‘Buck’ Weaver, two outfielders including power hitter ‘Shoeless Joe’ Jackson and Oscar ‘Happy’ Felsch, as well as an infielder named Fred McMullin.
And yes, those are some of the best 1920s nicknames we’ve ever heard too. Although the suspicions of a conspiracy among these players died down as the following year’s season started, in September of 1920, a grand jury began to investigate the allegations, particularly as they pertained to gamblers invading the sport of baseball. Four of the accused players – Eddie Cicotte, Lefty Williams, Happy Felsch and Shoeless Joe Jackson – admitted that they threw the 1919 World Series in exchange for bribes.
Court records suggest that the players received between seventy and a hundred thousand dollars for the loss; however, following a public trial in 1921, the indicted players were acquitted thanks to insufficient evidence. Suspiciously, the original confessions from the players had disappeared from the grand jury’s files. All eight of the now dubbed ‘Black Sox’ were subsequently banned for life from continuing to play professional baseball.
Jumping from the Black Sox Scandal to Operation Snow White, did a crazed cult really try to scrub any unfavorable reports about them by sending out thousands of undercover agents to infiltrate government agencies? Well, if you know anything about the Church of Scientology, their questionable belief system, and their -allegedly- abusive practices, then this might not come as much of a surprise. We’re not looking to sully the good name of Mr Tom Cruise here at The Infographics Show, but if you’re -allegedly- part of a cult that -allegedly- has a torture chamber out in the California desert, then maybe it is not surprising that your ex-wife, Katie Holmes, and her daughter would start to think twice before hanging out with you.
During the seventies, the largest infiltration of the United States government in history took place. However, rather than coming from outside forces like opposing nations or even an invasion of body snatchers, it came from within the US. Covert agents from the Church of Scientology enacted what became known as Operation Snow White, wherein they installed wiretaps, stole documents, and used various other criminal means in an attempt to destroy anything bad about them and their founder, L.
Ron Hubbard, on record. You know, the exact kind of thing you do if your organization is entirely trustworthy and has nothing to hide, right? Gaining access to the likes of the IRS, the DEA, foreign embassies, and a total of 136 government agencies, these Scientology agents’ other primary goal was to protect the Church’s tax exemption status in order to avoid them having to pay millions in taxes.
The US government wasn’t about to stand for this, however and retaliated by sending 156 of their own agents on organized raids of various locations linked with Scientologists, uncovering evidence of the cult’s illegal actions against the government, as well as other entities they perceived as enemies of the Church. In December of 1979, eleven high-ranking figures within the Scientology cult, including L. Ron Hubbard’s wife, Mary Sue Hubbard, were arrested and received five-year prison sentences.
Hubbard himself managed to evade facing legal consequences for Operation Snow White; however, he would end up spending the remainder of his life in hiding from the authorities, considered to be an ‘unindicted co-conspirator’ for his hand in having members of his cult infiltrating the US government. From the weird things Scientologists do to some of the weird things Scientologists would probably believe, what’s all this about evidence of extraterrestrials being buried in a desert somewhere in New Mexico? Believe it or not, this one is completely real.
The video game adaptation of E. T. the Extra Terrestrial for the Atari 2600 was so infamously bad that it’s widely considered to be the worst video game of all time.
The game was such a commercial failure that Atari took drastic measures, burying hundreds of thousands of unsold game cartridges in a landfill in New Mexico. The total number, as verified by Atari officials, was around seven hundred thousand E. T.
s discarded in the mass burial site until 2014, when the New Mexico government, alongside companies like Microsoft, worked to excavate a fraction of the abandoned alien life – around thirteen hundred cartridges. Okay, you’ve got us; we cheated a little with that one. You were probably expecting us to talk about actual buried aliens.
In New Mexico, of all places? As if that would ever happen! But, indeed, little green or grey men and flying saucers have long been a mainstay of conspiracy theories.
For several decades, the idea of these outlandish theories ever being proven to be true seemed beyond the realm of possibilities, no matter how many The X-Files posters in college dorm rooms urged us to believe that the truth is out there. That is, until in 2023, NASA released information pertaining to their findings on what they called Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena or UAPs. Moving away from the popularised UFO – or Unidentified Flying Object – the UAP acronym used to refer exclusively to Unidentified Aerial Phenomena but was broadened to a more general term for objects detected in the air, sea or in space that defy an easy explanation.
NASA publicly outlined how it would be researching possible incidents of UAPs and vowed to be more transparent with information to the public. Most interesting of all, though, was the conclusion of their report, that there was “no reason to conclude” that aliens were behind the hundreds of UAP sightings that NASA had already investigated. But even though the report didn’t confirm that extraterrestrial life exists, NASA still has yet to deny that alien technology is potentially zipping around in Earth’s atmosphere.
We don’t know about you, dear viewer, but we here at the Infographics Show want to believe – life from other planets is more like the aliens in Close Encounters of the Third Kind than the Xenomorphs from the Alien franchise. Taking a step away from invaders to our planet to look at a US invasion of another country that could have been launched based on a complete fabrication… one involving ghosts? The Gulf of Tonkin Incident began on the 2nd of August, 1964.
It was an unprovoked attack by North Vietnamese torpedo boats against a pair of US Navy destroyers, the USS Maddox and Turner Joy of the Seventh Fleet. The crew of the Maddox, who had been involved in an intelligence gathering mission, found they were being approached by North Vietnamese torpedo boats and fired warning shots. The torpedo boats returned fire; a firefight broke out between them.
After calling in air support from a nearby aircraft carrier, the Maddox could ward off the attacking boats, and the Turner Joy was sent to provide reinforcements. Then, two days later, the US intercepted North Vietnamese communications that led them to believe another attack on their destroyers was being planned. Or at least, that was the story presented to Congress by the National Security Agency… On a stormy night, both the USS Maddox and Turner Joy were reportedly tracking multiple unidentified vessels that were rapidly approaching their positions, coming from different directions, and that these boats were somehow impossible to lock onto.
Still, both ships fired upon what they thought were more torpedo boats and called in more air support. Yet, planes flying at low altitudes could see no signs of enemy ships. Still, the seemingly ghostly vessels and unproven attacks led Congress to pass the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, which opened the floodgates for the direct involvement of the US military in the Vietnam War.
However, there was a striking lack of evidence that the allegedly unprovoked attacks even happened. The ‘Tonkin ghosts’ were thought to have been false radar images, with North Vietnam’s military commander, Vo Nguyen Giap, revealing that there had never been an attack on August 4th. It had all been an excuse by President Lyndon B.
Johnson’s administration for the US to expand its war against North Vietnam. The Gulf of Tonkin Incident was hardly the only maritime incident that officials went to great lengths to cover up. One that occurred in 1989 actually led to the deaths of forty-seven US Navy crewmen, with the Navy attempting to use thinly veiled homophobia to smear one of the victims who lost his life.
Aboard the battleship the USS Iowa, in the Caribbean Sea, off the coast of Puerto Rico, a live fire exercise went drastically wrong. An explosion occurred in the number two sixteen-inch gun turret, emanating from the center gun room. The blast was so devastating that it not only damaged the gun turret itself but, far worse, it claimed the lives of forty-seven crewmen.
Naturally, following the incident, exactly what went wrong had to be determined. But of the multiple investigations launched into the USS Iowa turret explosion, their conclusions seemed to conflict dramatically. According to the Navy, one of the crew members who had died in the explosion aboard the Iowa had been directly responsible and had deliberately caused the blast that killed his fellow crew members.
They claimed, and later leaked to the media, that Gunner's Mate 2nd Class Clayton Hartwig had been in a romantic relationship with another sailor and had then caused the explosion in the gun turret when their relationship had soured. However, there was no evidence that this had even happened or that Hartwig was gay in the first place. Their investigation seemed to be just trying to implicate gay people in the deaths of multiple people for no reason.
Stay classy, US Navy. When the media and the victims' families disputed the Navy’s findings, and the US Senate and House Armed Services Committee held inquiries into these conclusions, the Government Accountability Office, with the help of Sandia National Laboratories were then asked to conduct their own investigation. Did they uncover some secret plot by a gay crewman to enact an explosive murder self-destruction?
Of course they didn’t. Instead, a technical examination revealed that an excess of powder bags used in the gun turret’s breech had been rammed in at a higher speed than it was designed for. The powder had then ignited during loading, resulting in the explosion.
The Navy even conducted a test proving that an excess of powder was more likely to blame for the disastrous detonation. These new findings prompted the US Navy to reopen the investigation; however they still refused to accept accountability for any wrongdoing, despite the reports from the GAO and Sandia. They never apologized to Hartwig’s family and instead closed the investigation, saying that the cause of the explosion couldn’t be accurately determined.
That last conspiracy about lies told by the military got a little dour, but don’t worry – this next one might be just as bad! It’s about a harrowing testimony before Congress that described some truly heinous actions and that was instrumental in launching another armed conflict. How much do you want to bet it was completely made up?
On the 10th of October, 1990, a fifteen-year-old girl identified only as Nayirah gave a tearful testimony to Congress. In it, she recounted witnessing firsthand Iraqi soldiers taking fifteen babies out of incubators in a Kuwaiti hospital. The soldiers reportedly then left the newborn children on the ground to die.
This had been following the invasion of Kuwait by Iraq, which marked the beginning of the Gulf War. Nayirah’s testimony was widely publicised, and we do mean widely. It aired on 700 TV stations across the USA, with then-President George Bush Sr.
repeating the story almost verbatim at least ten times in the weeks following. All to sway public opinion in favour of the Gulf War, justifying the US’s position in backing Kuwait. Stop us when you figure out the twist of this one… The testimony by Nayirah was completely falsified.
Although it hadn’t been revealed to the public, her full name was Nayirah Al-Sabah, the daughter of the Kuwaiti ambassador to the United States, Saud Al-Sabah. Her falsified testimony had been orchestrated by an American public relations firm, Hill & Knowlton, as part of the Citizens for a Free Kuwait campaign on behalf of the Kuwaiti government. The CIA had even requested that Nayirah receive acting lessons before she testified before Congress.
Amnesty International initially corroborated the story about the supposed killings, but it was later discovered that, while some patients – including prematurely born babies – did die when Kuwait nurses and doctors fled during the Iraqi invasion, the troops had at no point stolen hospital incubators or intentionally left children to die. In response to the findings, there were subsequent accusations made against the Bush administration for attempting to manipulate the international human rights movement through the use of atrocity propaganda. As you’ve no doubt learned throughout this video, and the last part, the United States government is pretty much the undefeated world champion regarding conspiracies and cover-ups.
What can we say? It’s something we’re just so darn good at! Ready for another one?
Of course you are! Let’s turn the clock back a few decades; the fifties and sixties were a crazy time for conspiracy theories; in fact, you could argue that much of the public fascination with conspiracies came into its own. Exposing the top secret things the government doesn’t want you to know became something of a national pastime, and one of the craziest of all was codenamed Operation Northwoods.
In 1962, officials within the US Department of Defence had proposed a false flag operation that would see the Central Intelligence Agency carrying out acts of terrorism… against American citizens on American soil. . Additionally on the hit list were military bases in Miami and Washington, along with plans to destroy US ships as well as refugee boats coming into the States.
There were talks of hijacking planes and planting phony evidence to implicate someone else in these various acts of terror. The big question is why would the US government want to attack Americans? To make them afraid of Communism.
Oh, of course. A few years earlier, in 1959, Fidel Castro had come to power in Cuba. He allowed communists to form part of his new government, improving relations between Cuba and the Soviet Union.
Given the Cold War between the USA and USSR, Castro created concern among some within the US government and military. So, the goal of Operation Northwoods was to carry out attacks on innocent American civilians, as well as kill Cuban refugees, all while pinning these attacks on Castro and implicating the Cuban government. Ultimately, they wanted to paint a false image of the Cuban leader and misinform the American public in the hopes it would encourage the sentiment that the US should wage war against Cuba.
Perhaps most terrifyingly of all, Operation Northwoods was actually authorized by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, meaning the US almost came dangerously close to carrying out terror attacks on its own people in order to pin their deaths on Cuba. Fortunately, the operation was ultimately rejected by President John F Kennedy. Of all the things he’s remembered for, using his power to stop this absolutely heinous craziness was definitely one of his better decisions, so thanks for that one JFK!
When the government isn’t at the heart of conspiracies, it’s normally a nebulous, vaguely defined secret society secretly controlling the world through nefarious means. And the moment you hear someone arguing that such a group exists, be wary! Unfortunately, a lot of conspiracy theories that center around a shadowy organization like the Illuminati are usually just used by bigots to justify their very blatant and virulent antisemitic and racist worldviews.
The people who are really up to some shady dealings are the rich and powerful, especially big businessmen and CEOs. In particular, the members of the Bohemian Club. Every July since 1872, some of the world's wealthiest, most powerful and most influential figures head to a 2,700-acre campground in California.
This is the Bohemian Club, an elite, invite-only social club initially founded in San Francisco. And on the surface, they’ve got all the things that’ll raise your eyebrows, from a reported history of mysterious ceremonies, a top-secret guest list that’s previously included presidents, wealthy businessmen, and military officials, and a weird stone owl statue on their retreat in Sonoma County. For years, the secrecy surrounding the tight-lipped club and their getaways to Bohemian Grove in Monte Rio, California, has fanned the flames of many conspiracy theories.
Most of the stories revolve around the performance of pagan rituals and worship of that big stone owl that reportedly plays voice recordings of Walter Cronkite, who served as the anchorman for CBS Evening News for nineteen years and was also a Bohemian Club member. While this all sounds like it could just be wild speculation by conspiracy theorists, the club’s existence has been proven by several news organizations. Founded in 1892, the Bohemian Club was started by an all-male collection of artists, writers, lawyers, actors, and journalists from the San Francisco Examiner, all sharing interests in arts and culture.
It quickly received attention – and then funding – from wealthy businessmen, and since its inception, the club has expanded to include the likes of Clint Eastwood, Henry Kissinger, and even Presidents Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan. Even in the modern day, the Bohemian Club maintains a reputation for having predominantly the richest and most politically conservative men in the United States. However, they weren’t all gathering around an owl to perform human sacrifices or coordinate their efforts to maintain control of the world.
Since its founding, the Bohemian Club has held regular gatherings for members, allowing them to socialize, drink, and enjoy theatrical and musical performances. They inhabited various temporary locations in their early decades before establishing a permanent headquarters in the 1930s, over on Taylor Street in downtown San Francisco. They also host an annual summer retreat to Bohemian Grove, which is when things tend to get weird.
Robed figures are reported to sacrifice an effigy to banish all the worries of the gathered members. From there, things just tend to descend into a lot of drunken debauchery – really, the Bohemian Club is just an excuse for some of the wealthiest figures to act like a group of stereotypical frat guys. What happens in between is still a question many conspiracy theorists and people alike ask.
Want to know more? Check out “Insane Conspiracy Theories That Turned Out to be True. ” Or watch this video instead!
