Michael Eddowes (1903–1992)

Of the hundreds of conspiracy books spawned by the 1963 assassination of US President JF Kennedy, this absurd work ranks as one of the most bizarre. In it, Eddowes claimed that Kennedy was killed by a Russian KGB agent named "Alec" who was impersonating Lee Harvey Oswald. "Alec" supposedly replaced Oswald during the latter's stay in the USSR, and on coming to the US was able to fool Oswald's mother and brothers into thinking he actually was Lee. In his new, fake identity, "Alec" then assassinated Kennedy upon Krushchev's direct orders. While this may sound like the plot of a very bad movie, Eddowes was quite serious, and pursued it in this book in the face of much ridicule.

Astonishingly, in 1981 (six years after publication of The Oswald File), Eddowes somehow managed to convince the Texas courts to exhume LH Oswald's body for identification. Sure enough, dental records proved the body to be that of Lee Oswald, and Eddowes was forced to admit publically that he was entirely wrong. Eddowes' admission didn't last long however; within the year he was claiming that fake dental records had been provided by Lee Oswald's dentist to cover up the imposture -- making for an even more vast conspiracy. Eddowes died in 1992, and this bizarre episode will forever besmirch and overshadow any of his life's accomplishments.… (més)