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This answer may contain sensitive images. Click on an image to unblur it.Answering: Who is the worst serial killer?—————————————————-8 of History’s Most Notorious Serial KillersUPDATED: JAN 7, 2020ORIGINAL: JUL 18, 20178 of History’s Most Notorious Serial KillersThese are history’s most infamous serial killers.BARBARA MARANZANIFrom the widow who became known as “Lady Bluebeard” and the man who inspired Psycho to the British doctor who killed in the hundreds and the handsome slaughterer whose charm proved lethal, get the facts on some of history’s most infamous serial killers.1. Harold Shipman: “Dr. Death” who killed 218 patientsDr. Harold Shipman, nicknamed “Dr. Death” after his horrific killing spree came to light, was sentenced to life in prison after killing over 200 patients. (Credit: Greater Manchester Police via Getty Images)One of history’s deadliest serial killers was a married family man who managed to squeeze in 218 credited murders (and as many as 250) while working as a popular British physician. Harold Shipman began his murderous spree in 1972, and it’s believed he killed at least 71 patients while working at his first practice, and double that number at a second practice he joined after butting heads with colleagues who found him arrogant, brusque and overconfident.Finally, in 1998, both a local undertaker and another doctor noticed the unusually high number of cremation certificates Shipman had signed off on. They also noticed striking similarities in the recently-deceased patients themselves; the majority were elderly women who were found sitting up and fully clothed, not in bed as would usually be the case with the gravely ill. Despite these clues, this initial investigation was shoddily handled, allowing Shipman to kill three more times.Shipman’s luck ran out later that year, when the daughter of his final victim, lawyer Kathleen Grundy, claimed he’d not only killed her mother, but had also tried to create a new, fake will, naming him as her sole beneficiary. Unlike his earlier victims, Grundy had not been cremated, and an autopsy revealed lethally high levels of diamorphine (the drug Shipman used for most of the killings). He was formally charged with 15 murders, and was convicted and sentenced to life without parole in 2000. Shipman died in 2004, after committing suicide in his cell. He never admitted to any of the killings.2. Belle Gunness: She married to killMurderer Belle Gunness who killed up to 15 men for their insurance. (Credit: Bettmann/Getty Images)The woman who became known as the “Lady Bluebeard” immigrated to America from Norway in 1881, settling in Chicago where she married a fellow Norwegian immigrant. The couple had four children (two of whom died young) and ran a candy store. By 1900 the store had mysteriously burned down, and Gunness’ husband was dead. Although both happened under suspicious circumstances, Gunness was able to collect multiple insurance policy payouts allowing her to purchase a farm in La Porte, Indiana.She quickly remarried, and just eight months later her second husband died. Gunness claimed that he’d received a fatal burn from scalding water and had been hit on the head by a heavy meat grinder. While an inquest was held, no proof of foul play could be produced, leading to another hefty insurance payout. She then began placing newspaper advertisements in search of a third husband, with the requirement that potential suitors had to visit her Indiana farm. Several prospective suitors made the trek, only to disappear forever–just one made it out alive, after reportedly waking up to see a sinister-looking Gunness standing over him.Nobody knows for certain just how many people Belle Gunness murdered, but it seems she herself met a grisly end. In February 1908, a fire devastated the farm. Amongst the wreckage were the bodies of Gunness’ remaining children and the decapitated corpse of a woman. Although officials identified the remains as Gunness’, doubt quickly spread, as the body was much smaller than the tall, heavyset Belle. The search for her missing head (which never turned up) led to the gruesome discovery of almost a dozen bodies, including the missing suitors and several children. Ray Lamphere, a former farmhand that she had fired a few years earlier and later claimed was threatening her life, was arrested and tried for the crimes, but was only convicted of arson. Belle’s true fate remains unknown, although unverified “sightings” continued for decades after her death.3. Ed Gein: The inspiration behind PsychoSerial Killer Ed Gein sitting in back of police car after being arrested. He supposedly murdered 11 people, eviscerating them and hiding body parts in his house. (Credit: Frank Scherschel/The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images)The man whose macabre and horrific acts helped inspire Psycho, Silence of the Lambs and The Texas Chain Saw Massacre grew up in an isolated area of Wisconsin. He was an abused child of an alcoholic father and a puritanical and domineering mother who instilled in her son a pathological fear of both women and sex. When his father, brother and mother died within a 5-year period, he was left alone at the family farm, where he eventually cordoned off parts of the house turning it into a shrine, of sorts, to his mother.Thirteen years later, local police arrived at the farm, following up on a tip regarding missing hardware store owner Bernice Worden. They discovered Worden’s headless corpse hanging upside down from the rafters. Their search of the property revealed a hall of horrors that included human body parts turned into household items such as chairs and bowls, faces used as wall hangings and a vest made up of a human torso. Many of these gruesome items were from already-dead bodies that Gein had stolen from their graves, but he had murdered one other woman in addition to Worden. He claimed that he was using the body parts to assemble a new version of his beloved mother. Gein was diagnosed with schizophrenia and declared unfit for trial. A decade later, he was convicted of one of the murders, but was declared insane at the time of the crime. He spent the rest of his life in a mental hospital.4. John Wayne Gacy: He performed as a clown at children’s partiesJohn Wayne Gacy was charged with committing 33 murders. Gacy was later executed by lethal injection. (Credit: Tim Boyle/Des Plaines Police Department/Getty Images)To most of his suburban Chicago neighbors, John Wayne Gacy was a friendly man who threw popular block parties, volunteered in local Democratic politics and often performed as a clown at local children’s parties. But Gacy, who had already served a stint in prison for sexually assaulting a teenaged boy, was hiding a horrific secret right beneath his neighbors’ unseeing eyes.In 1978, when a 15-year-old boy who had last been seen with Gacy (whose construction business the teenager was hoping to work for) went missing, police obtained a search warrant for Gacy’s house. There they found a class ring and clothing belonging to several young men previously reported missing. In a 4-foot crawl space beneath the house, where a penetrating odor was present, they were shocked to find the decomposing bodies of 29 boys and teenagers that Gacy had raped and murdered. Gacy’s ex-wife had complained about the odor for years, but Gacy had chalked it up to moisture-causing mildew. Law enforcement also came under criticism, as the family members of several of the victims had previously pointed to Gacy as a possible suspect. In addition to the bodies found at his house, Gacy admitted to killing several additional men, disposing of their bodies in a nearby lake. His attempts at presenting an insanity defense failed, and he was convicted on 33 counts of murder and executed by lethal injection in 1994.5. Jeffrey Dahmer: He committed his first murder at 18Jeffrey Dahmer at his initial appearance at the Milwaukee County Circuit Court, where he was charged with four counts of first-degree intentional homicide, July 26, 1991. Dahmer was arrested after police found the body parts of 11 men in his Milwaukee apartment. (Credit: AP Photo/Charles Bennett)Jeffrey Dahmer committed his first murder in 1978, when he was just 18. He would go on killing until his arrest in 1991, after an African American man escaped his clutches and hailed down police near Milwaukee, Wisconsin. When the victim led police back to his captor’s apartment, they discovered photographs of dismembered bodies, the severed heads and genitalia of several other men and a tub full of acid that Dahmer had used to dispose of some of his 17 victims.Dahmer had lived a shiftless life, dropping out of college and the Army and living with various family members before being kicked out by his grandmother and settling in the Milwaukee apartment. Three years before his 1991 arrest—and with several murders already under his belt—Dahmer was convicted of drugging and sexually molesting a young teenager. After serving only a year, he was released and continuing his killing binge, which focused almost entirely on young men of color.Dahmer’s sensational trial, featuring lurid descriptions of his eating the body parts of some of his victims and admissions of necrophilia, renewed the world’s interest in serial killers. In 1992, Dahmer was sentenced to 957 years in jail, but was killed by a fellow inmate just two years later.6. Ted Bundy: The first televised murder trialTheodore (Ted) Bundy in Leon County jail as the indictment charge is read, charging him with the murders of two FSU students at the Chi Omega house. (Credit: Bettmann/Getty Images)Handsome, well-educated and brimming with charm, Ted Bundy seemed the unlikeliest of serial killers. Which made his decade-long, multi-state killing spree all the more surprising—and to some, appealing. Born to an unwed, teenaged mother, Bundy never learned his father’s identity and was raised believing that his grandmother was actually his mother (and his mother actually his sister).Following a difficult adolescence, Bundy graduated from the University of Washington—and soon embarked on his murderous spree, killing his first victim in Seattle in 1966. Focusing primarily on attractive college co-eds, Bundy committed a series of murders across the Pacific Northwest. He continued on to Utah and Colorado, killing several more women before being arrested. Despite being convicted of kidnapping, he managed to escape police custody not once, but twice, while awaiting trial in Colorado. He moved to Florida, where he killed several members of a sorority and his final victim, a 12-year-old girl who he raped and murdered.When Bundy was finally apprehended while driving a stolen car a week after his last murder, his trial quickly became a media sensation. It was the first murder trial to be fully televised, and featured Bundy front-and-center acting as one of his own defense attorneys. He became a media star, welcoming journalists to his cell, receiving letters of admiration from lovelorn fans (and even marrying one of them) and providing an endless list of clues about additional murders he may have committed, in the hopes of delaying his execution. It didn’t work; he was executed in the electric chair in 1989, with the true number of his victims unknown.7. Jack the Ripper: There are over 100 possible suspectsA scene from the film ‘Jack The Ripper’, 1959. (Credit: Paramount/Getty Images)In 1888, London’s Whitechapel district was gripped by reports of a vicious serial killer stalking the city streets. The unidentified madman lured prostitutes into darkened squares and side streets before slitting their throats and sadistically mutilating their bodies with a carving knife. That summer and fall, five victims were found butchered in the downtrodden East End district, sparking a media frenzy and citywide manhunt. A number of letters were allegedly sent by the killer to the London Metropolitan Police Service (also known as Scotland Yard), taunting officers about his gruesome activities and speculating on murders to come.Without modern forensic techniques, Victorian police were at a loss in investigating the Ripper’s heinous crimes. After taking his final victim in November, the killer seemed to disappear like a ghost. The case was finally closed in 1892, but Jack the Ripper has remained an enduring source of fascination. The most popular theories suggest that the killer’s understanding of anatomy and vivisection meant he was possibly a butcher or a surgeon. Over 100 possible suspects have been proposed.8. H.H. Holmes: A pharmacist who built a “murder castle”American pharmacist and convicted serial killer Herman Webster Mudgett, better known by his alias H.H. Holmes. (Credit: Chicago History Museum/Getty Images)H.H. Holmes spent his early career as an insurance scammer before moving to Illinois in advance of the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair to work as a pharmacist. It was there that Holmes built what he referred to as his murder “castle”—a three-story inn that he secretly turned into a macabre torture chamber. Some rooms were equipped with hidden peepholes, gas lines, trap doors and soundproofed padding, while others featured secret passages, ladders and hallways that led to dead ends. There was also a greased chute that led to the basement, where Holmes had installed a surgical table, a furnace and even a medieval rack.Both before and during the World’s Fair, Holmes led many victims—mostly young women—to his lair only to asphyxiate them with poisoned gas and take them to his basement for horrific experiments. He then either disposed of the bodies in his furnace or skinned them and sold the skeletons to medical schools.At the same time, Holmes worked insurance scams—collecting money from life insurance companies. Holmes was finally caught when one of his co-conspirators tipped off the police after Holmes failed to deliver his pay-out. Holmes was eventually convicted of the murders of four people, but he confessed to at least 27 more killings before being hanged in 1896.

Had Lee Harvey Oswald survived and gone to court, I believe his trial would have given us a very different view of the facts surrounding the assassination of Pres. John F. Kennedy. With the entire machinery of the U.S. Government invested in prosecuting Oswald, and the high temper of the time, winning his acquittal likely would have been quite difficult. But Attorney Mark Lane showed very early on that a competent attorney with full powers of discovery could have succeeded. And the facts that have come out ever since raise a real question as to whether a judge or grand jury would even have allowed Oswald's prosecution to go to trial. That's because, thanks to the determined efforts of certain dogged researchers, and the advent of the Internet, which allows investigators far more easily to compare research notes, the evidence that has surfaced in the 53 years since the assassination points more and more to Oswald’s innocence and the existence of a wider conspiracy reaching deep into the government, designed to install Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson in the presidency.Whether Oswald's testimony would have incited Americans to go to war -- well, it's amusing to see other comments pooh-poohing the idea, but that was, after all, the argument that Kennedy's successor, Lyndon B. Johnson, repeatedly made. Claiming the incident could lead to World War III, LBJ appealed so strongly to Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren's sense of patriotism that it reportedly brought Warren to tears, causing him to swallow his misgivings and to lead what became the Warren Commission. More about that in a moment, because it's a key to understanding the cruel hoax played on history and the American people. Sadly, if the true facts of the case were to incite the American people to war, it would likely be to a civil war, which may explain why remaining evidence in the case--so much has been destroyed--remains under seal at the National Archives, ostensibly due to reasons of national security.Let's first make a cursory examination of the case against Oswald. Lee Oswald had no apparent motive for killing Kennedy. It made no sense that he should first try to assassinate someone on the political right (Gen. Edwin Walker) and then on the political left (Pres. John F. Kennedy). If Oswald was the mean-spirited doctrinaire Marxist the FBI made him out to be, and with the whole world hanging on his every word, then why didn't he crow over the assassination? Instead, he assured his wife, brother, the head of the Dallas Bar Association, and the police of his innocence, and proclaimed to the world he was just a patsy.It does appear that Oswald had some prior knowledge of the plot. But then, so did Elizabeth Cole, Christian David, Richard Case Nagell, Gary Underwood, Rose Cheramie, Gerry Patrick Hemming, Joseph Milteer, Felipe Vidal Santiago, PFC Eugene B. Dinkin, Wayne January, and Anton Erdinger, among others. Not to mention Vice President Johnson, already ducking low in his car seat just after the motorcade turned onto Elm Street, a printed copy of the Oath of Office in his pocket.More sad than amusing is how so many of the commenters here still cling to the long-discredited Warren Report. At the risk of sounding patronizing, it's as though they simply accepted the Report as holy writ handed down from on high, and they're still trying to defend its orthodoxy.As Pennsylvania Senator Richard Schweiker, the co-chairman of the Church Committee report titled “The Investigation of the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy: Performance of the Intelligence Agencies,” summarized his views of the Warren Commission report many years ago:“I think that the report, to those who have studied it closely, has collapsed like a house of cards, and I think the people who read it in the long-run future will see that. I frankly believe that we have shown that the [investigation of the] John F. Kennedy assassination was snuffed out before it even began, and that the fatal mistake the Warren Commission made was not to use its own investigators, but instead to rely on the CIA and FBI personnel, which played directly into the hands of senior intelligence officials who directed the cover-up.”Schweiker, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, stated that senior U.S. intelligence officials directed a cover-up in the assassination. Let that sink in for a moment. What were they hiding -- foreign intelligence involvement or their own agencies' involvement? Schweiker also famously said that the handprint of intelligence was all over Oswald's record.The FBI had tracked Oswald’s movements since at least 1960, when FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover warned the State Department that someone seemed to be impersonating Oswald, then in the Soviet Union aa part of a CIA phony defector program. A gung-ho Marine who enlisted at age 17, Oswald was obsessed with the idea of becoming a double agent. He worked as a radar operator at Atsugi Naval Air Station in Japan, which had responsibility for CIA’s U-2 overflights of the Soviet Union — and, we now know, the People’s Republic of China. The government trained him in Russian and gave him an honorable discharge. Just three days later he departed for St. Petersburg. The hope was that the KGB would recruit Oswald to spy for it in the United States. When the KGB didn’t take the bait, Oswald returned to the United States, at State Department expense, and walked into a job at a graphic arts company that processed highly classified photography from Cuban overflights for the USG. The FBI paid him $200/month to pretend to be a Communist sympathizer in order to help it identify potentially pro-Castro Cubans, reporting to FBI Agent Guy Bannister. Oswald also became part of a plot led by American Cancer Society President Dr. Alton Ochsner to develop a cancer virus for the USG’s use in assassinating Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. Oswald’s former Civil Air Patrol instructor David Ferrie and several others were involved in the plot, as was Judyth Vary Baker, a brilliant young cancer researcher recruited by Ochsner straight out of high school.Baker worked out of Ferrie’s kitchen, where her job was to use lab rats to create the most virulent cancer virus possible. An anti-Castro agent was supposed to inject Castro with the virus, designed to work even more effectively once Castro’s immune system was damaged by x-rays. If Oswald traveled to Mexico City in October 1963 at all, it appears to have been for the purpose of handing off the virus to a Cuban contact, a contact who never showed. Ochsner removed Baker from the program and cut short her young career when she objected in writing to his use of Angola State Penitentiary inmates as guinea pigs in testing the virus. After Baker and Oswald became lovers, Oswald confided to Baker that he was trying to foil an assassination plot against Kennedy.Oswald stated repeatedly that he admired Kennedy and his family. He may have been the FBI informant, named "Lee," who Secret Service Agent Abraham Bouldin said had tipped off the government to the plot against Kennedy's life in Chicago two weeks before Dallas. A note from “A. Hidell,” an Oswald alias, reportedly had warned Dallas Police Department of a plot against the president but disappeared after the FBI conducted a post-assassination sweep of Dallas PD offices. The “threat note” said to have been received from Oswald by FBI Agent James Hosty likely warned of a threat against the president. If it had threatened the FBI to stay away from Oswald’s wife, as Hosty claimed, then why is it that Hosty destroyed the note on his supervisor’s orders? He likely did so because the note tended to exonerate Oswald at a time when FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover was determined to portray Oswald as the lone gunman.Not only did Oswald have no motive, but he didn’t have the means. No reliable evidence connected him to the Mannlicher-Carcano, including the doctored backyard photos and the shipment to a post office box belonging to one "A. Hidell," on the basis of a money order that was never even deposited. Never deposited! A Dallas PD paraffin test indicated he hadn't fired a rifle that day. The 14-year old witness in the Edwin Walker shooting saw two men fleeing, and neither looked like Oswald. The caliber of the bullet found in Walker’s wall did not match that from the Mannlicher-Carcano. The pistol he allegedly used to kill Officer Tippett couldn’t even fire due to a bent firing pin. Some witnesses to Tippett’s slaying saw two men.Oswald also didn’t have the opportunity. Reliable eyewitness testimony showed he wasn't on the Sixth Floor of the Texas School Book Depository at the time of the assassination. Dallas PD Officer Marrion Baker found him drinking a Coke in the second floor lunchroom just 90 seconds after the shooting. Oswald’s prints were never found on the gun until after two FBI agents planted Oswald’s palm print on it during a visit to his cadaver in the funeral home.Johnson handpicked the Warren Commission in order to stave off a Congressional investigation and reassure the American people that no conspiracy was afoot, despite the testimony of witnesses who saw multiple gunmen. The Commission relied on the FBI, which cherrypicked the evidence and ignored, manipulated, discarded or otherwise suppressed anything that didn't fit the desired narrative of Oswald as the lone gunman. It was a Procrustean Bed, where the truth is stretched or cut away as much as editorial license requires in order to make the pieces of the government’s narrative fit, out of "patriotic duty." After all, what's a few white lies if they help to prevent World War III, as LBJ intimated? Like the FBI investigation, its true purpose was to deflect suspicion from the one man with the greatest means, motive and opprtunity to kill the president, which was Lyndon B. Johnson.Johnson and the Kennedy Brothers hated each other. Johnson had blackmailed his way onto Kennedy’s ticket in 1960, using a dossier on Kennedy provided him by his close friend and next-door neighbor of 17 years, J. Edgar Hoover. Kennedy had to retract his offer of the vice presidency to Missouri Senator Stuart Symington. With the help of his campaign manager John Connally, Johnson had cheated his way into the Senate by stuffing the ballot box in Precinct 13. He was profoundly corrupt, taking a slice of every major government defense contract that came before him, and, as Senate Majority Leader, he ensured that all such contracts would continue to move through him by taking the unprecedented step of having himself appointed Chairman of a Senate Armed Services subcommittee. With the help of his personal hitman Malcolm Wallace, Johnson plotted numerous political murders in order to cover up his corruption. But all was coming to an end for Johnson in November 1963. Kennedy was just beginning to campaign for re-election. He planned to replace Johnson in 1964 with Terry Sanford of North Carolina. Life Magazine, fed dirt on Johnson by Robert Kennedy’s Justice Department, was about to publish an exposé of Johnson’s ties to the Bobby Baker scandal in its December 1 edition, At the time of the assassination, Johnson was just one step away from political humiliation and criminal charges.Anti-Soviet military hawks seeking war in Vietnam, Texas oil tycoons fearful of losing the oil depletion allowance, CIA officials fired by Kennedy over the Bay of Pigs debacle, mafiosi angered by Kennedy’s war on crime, Secret Service agents scandalized by Kennedy’s private behavior, jealous husbands cuckolded by Kennedy, etc. — Johnson knew Kennedy’s many enemies in and outside the government and presented himself as their champion.Working with the Mafia, and with the complicity of certain members of the military and the Secret Service, elements of CIA murdered Kennedy. Hoover then led the FBI in framing Oswald for the crime. The Warren Commission relied wholly on the FBI investigation for its own conclusions. The CIA strategy designed to defend the Warren Report, and laid out in Document 1035-960, seeks to discredit skeptics as “conspiracy theorists.” Thanks to the penetration of our media by the CIA, via Operation Mockingbird, and the CIA's penetration and discrediting of the Jim Garrison investigation, this strategy succeeded to such a degree the Kennedy Assassination is now regarded as the Third Rail of American journalism.Attorney General Robert Kennedy and First Lady Jackie Kennedy were the first conspiracy theorists. Bobby immediately (and correctly) suspected the involvement in his brother’s murder of Operation Mongoose members involved in anti-Castro plotting. Jackie immediately suspected LBJ and Secret Service collusion because she had witnessed how Secret Service Agent William Greer had stopped the limo until the fatal shot and only then sped away. French Intelligence concluded LBJ was behind the murder, as did the Kremlin. Several members of the Warren Commission itself made private statements disavowing its conclusions. And Lyndon Johnson was recorded at least twice as saying he suspected a conspiracy. Those who dismiss the evidence of conspiracy in JFK’s assassination seem to ignore the fact that LBJ himself was a tinfoil hat type, and that the very people in the best position to know all believed in the existence of a conspiracy.Oswald could not have been fairly convicted. He had no motive, means or opportunity. He was denied minimum standards of due process. He had asked a dozen times to be represented by Attorney John Abt of New York. He did tell Dallas Bar Association President H. Louis Nichols that he might accept his offer to find a different attorney, but he first wanted to see if Abt would take his case. He was never allowed to contact him. His police line-up was a farce. The single prison phone call to which he was entitled--he tried to call a retired Army intelligence officer--was deliberately prevented by the government from being connected. His interrogations went unrecorded. Lots of red flags there.But Oswald's murder by Jack Ruby was surely our first strong indication of conspiracy. Of course, what looked like a gangland hit to silence a potentially problematic witness was quickly explained away as the misguided but well-meaning act of another Lone Nut. Never mind the dozen different witnesses who said Oswald knew Ruby. They must have "been mistaken," including the dancer who said Ruby had introduced Oswald to her as “my friend Lee, from the CIA.”Silvia Odio claimed she'd met Oswald with two anti-Castro Cubans some weeks before, but she, too, must have "been mistaken," even though she never sought publicity, her sister confirmed the visit, and she'd written to her father of the meeting shortly afterward.Strange how the government never mentioned that Ruby was a gun runner to Cuba, helped spring Mob boss Santos Trafficante from a Cuban prison, and was once hired to work on the staff of then-Congressman Richard Nixon, as a favor to -- get this --then-Senator Lyndon Johnson! LBJ had wanted to exempt "Jacob Rubenstein" from having to testify before the House Un-American Activities Committee. Americans know all about the latest Kardashian drama, but I guess the U.S. media just didn't find that little tidbit newsworthy enough to report.Ruby didn't receive a hero's treatment or a presidential pardon. Instead, he was sentenced to death. That's when he began to hint broadly in prison that Johnson was behind the assassination. Said he to reporters:“Everything pertaining to what’s happening has never come to the surface. The world will never know the true facts, of what occurred, my motives. The people had... that had so much to gain and had such an ulterior motive for putting me in the position I’m in, will never let the true facts come above board to the world.”Asked by a reporter, “Are these people in very high positions, Jack?” Ruby replied, “Yes.”Ruby didn't stop there. He also told a gathering of reporters: "Gentlemen, I want to tell the truth, but I cannot tell it here. If you want a fair shake out of me, you have to take me to Washington." When a reporter asked him to expand on that statement, Ruby replied: “When I mentioned about Adlai Stevenson, if he was vice president – there would never have been an assassination of our beloved President Kennedy.” When the reporter persisted, Ruby responded: “Well, the answer is the man in office now.”Of course, the “man in office now,” was then Lyndon B. Johnson.After a jail cell injection, Ruby publicly charged that the USG had just given him cancer. People said Ruby was just paranoid, but, sure enough, within just a few weeks he was dead from a previously-undiagnosed and particularly virulent form of cancer.The case against George H.W. Bush is stronger than the case against Lee Oswald. Poppy Bush was in Dallas Nov. 22, 1963. He had been recruited to CIA directly out of Yale and been heavily involved in the logistical planning for the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba. Bush was CIA liaison to the Cuban-American community, and many of the hitmen recruited for Dealey Plaza were Cuban-Americans with a grudge against JFK. Dallas PD temporarily detained Bush and mafioso James Braden as persons of interest after they were identified as "suspicious" at the Dal-Tex Building immediately after the assassination. Bush can be seen in a photo of the scene just after the assassination. The second floor of the Dal-Tex Building, where a CIA front company was renting offices, was a very likely sniper site. Its low trajectory and field of vision were almost ideal. Bush has given conflicting accounts of his actions and whereabouts that day. Despite the solemnity of the event, he couldn't help a wide, momentary grin during his eulogy for Pres. Gerald Ford as he recounted how the crime committed in Dallas was by a “lone, deranged gunman." Trained interrogators would recognize Bush's grin as a "micro-expression" betraying his true inner feelings. Bush also once cryptically remarked “if the American people knew what we’d done, they’d chase us down the street and lynch us.” Maybe it's time Americans take him at his word.We now know the Zapruder Film was altered, and we even know how, by whom, where, and when. A government-led conspiracy is implicit in the altering of the film. Consequently, this so-called "time-clock" of the assassination isn't reliable. First of all, Zapruder insisted he filmed the motorcade at 24 frames per second. The FBI claims it was filmed at only 18 frames per second, giving the government the opportunity to excise a quarter of the frames from the beginning. The fact that police emergency lights in the film flash erratically, instead of at a set periodicity, proves frames were excised. Superhuman movements, magically disappearing and reappearing motorcycle escorts, a completely immobile crowd of spectators in the foreground, splice marks, and other anomalies also prove the film was altered. Eyewitness testimony -- including of those who claim to have seen a different, longer version -- would suggest that what was excised were the overly wide limo turn, LBJ ducking low in his car, the limo's pause behind the Stemmons Freeway sign, Agent Greer's stopping of the limo in the kill zone demarcated by two yellow hash marks painted on the curb, and the nature of the mortal head shot. Why would the government need to alter the film at all, except to mask evidence of a conspiracy?In fact, the film gives additional proof of conspiracy, because it shows the mortal shot as driving JFK back and to the left. Not just that, but looking carefully at the margins of the film, we find that beginning at Frame 232, we can actually see the reflection of a sniper firing on the motorcade from atop the County Records Building. The shot that ricocheted off the pavement and struck James Tague in the cheek left a bullet mark aligning, not with the TBSD, but with the County Records Building, which might explain why the mark was quickly cemented over. With millions of pot holes still lining our roads, why the rush to re-pave this artifact of the assassination except to destroy evidence, and why would the government destroy evidence unless it was to hide a conspiracy?The monumental dereliction of the Secret Service and its immediate destruction of evidence certainly smacked of foreknowledge and conspiracy. Set aside how the night before many of the agents were out carousing at a strip bar until nearly daylight and a dozen other lapses. We've now seen how agents were waved off of the bumper of the presidential limo just before the last turn onto Elm Street. Even in the altered version of the Zapruder Film, we've seen how Agent Greer slowed down the limo. We have the photographic and expert eyewitness testimony about the bullet hole in the limo's windshield, from the front, despite the efforts of the Secret Service to destroy the evidence immediately by sending the car to Ford Motor Company for a complete makeover. What about the Secret Service's removal of the president’s body, by force, to Washington, preventing Texas authorities from conducting the investigation, as required by Texas law?And even the Warren Report noted the presence, in the vicinity of the Grassy Knoll and TBSD, of mysterious men flashing Secret Service credentials, even though the Secret Service said it had no other agents in the area. Isn't that an indication of a conspiracy? One of LBJ's personal attorneys, Barr McClellan, relates in his book, “Blood, Money & Power: How L.B.J. Killed JFK,” how he became convinced that the head of his law firm, Edward Clark, was a key organizer of the conspiracy to kill Kennedy. Clark's firm represented LBJ's business interests. McClellan claims a law partner, Martin Harris, was told by Clark that during a visit to Johnson Ranch, LBJ had given him instructions and an envelope containing the full outline of Kennedy’s personal security Secret Service policy manual. Convicted killer James Files, who eventually confessed to being a Grassy Knoll gunman, claims he witnessed Jack Ruby pass Secret Service credentials to mafia gunman Johnny Roselli at a Dallas pancake house the day before the assassination. Later called to testify about the assassination to the Congress, Roselli disappeared, his dismembered body later recovered from a metal drum floating in Florida's Inland Waterway.The forensics evidence indicates JFK was killed by a shot from the front, possibly the South Grassy Knoll, not from the direction of Oswald and the Texas School Book Depository Building. We've all heard of the Magic Bullet Theory and seen computer simulations and other demonstrations purporting to prove it, but they're sleight of hand to hide the fact that the trajectories never really align. A key exhibit is the photo of Warren Commission staffer Arlen Specter supposedly demonstrating with a stick how the shot lined up, but a closer look at the suit jacket of the agent portraying Kennedy will show the stick several inches away from the circled bullet wound. The jacketed bullet supposedly passed through bone and tissue yet emerged virtually "pristine." More bullet fragments were removed from Gov. Connally's wrist alone than was missing from the Magic Bullet. And, unlike that Bullet, the shot that blew out JFK's brains was frangible.Then, of course, there's the medical evidence. A small wound in JFK's throat, identified by doctors at Parkland Hospital as having come from the front, was used by them to start a small incision for a tracheotomy. But by the time the body was examined and photographed for autopsy, the wound had taken the ragged appearance of an exit wound. The shot in JFK's back, earlier probed by two FBI agents who found it was shallow, instead was presented by CDR Hume at the Bethesda Navy Hospital autopsy as the entry wound for the "exit" wound in the throat, even though he never probed it. The angle didn't line up with the Sixth Floor of the TBSD, so artists weren't allowed to see the body; they were TOLD what to depict in their inaccurate autopsy drawings, just as Commission staff misrepresented the location of the wounds in order to expound the Magic Bullet theory. The small entry hole near JFK's hairline was sutured before the autopsy. The large hole in the back of JFK's head, attested to by everyone/everyone at Parkland, simply disappeared. Hume burned his autopsy records.Why were multiple sets of x-rays taken, except to help CDR Hume locate, and remove, bullet evidence? A peer-reviewed article by Dr. David Mantik explained how stereoscopic examination of the cranial x-rays, using optical density measurements, showed that an artifact was used to give the appearance that the back of the cranium was still intact. Mantik's study also revealed that a 6.5 mm bullet fragment that had mysteriously appeared in JFK's skull x-rays -- apparently to implicate Oswald and "his" Mannlicher-Carcano -- was a forgery. It had been created by means of using photographic double exposure to superimpose the fake bullet onto Kennedy's x-ray, probably by Dr. John Ebersole, the Assistant Chief Radiologist at Bethesda. Many of the x-rays that were taken are now missing. The duty log page concerning the taking of the x-rays was burned, on the order of Ebersole.Dr. Mantik's results were replicated by other researchers. This is science, not conjecture. Isn't tampering with evidence an indication of possible conspiracy? Oswald couldn’t have done it. Oswald was dead.At Bethesda Naval Hospital, one of those with his own film of the autopsy was LCDR William Bruce Pitzer. Just as he was retiring from the Navy to accept a job offer with CBS Television, he was found dead in the hospital by a gunshot wound. A pistol lay by his side. Suicide was the ruling. His family didn’t believe it but was pressured by the Office of Naval Intelligence to say nothing. Years later, a conscience-stricken Lt. Col. Daniel Marvin informed Pitzer's widow how, as a Green Beret those many years before, he’d turned down a pitch by CIA to assassinate her husband before he could “pass secrets to the enemy.”Who was this enemy? The American people, apparently. Why else is it that 53 years after the assassination, so much of the evidence in the JFK assassination remains under seal at the National Archives for reasons of national security? Is the USG really still protecting its “sources and methods,” or does it simply not want the American people to know the truth behind the assassination?It’s a matter of record that various people impersonated Oswald in Mexico City. How is the impersonation of Oswald in Mexico City proof of anything if not a conspiracy? It could only have been organized by people with knowledge of the CIA’s surveillance of the Soviet and Cuban diplomatic compounds — in other words: the Soviet regime, the Cuban regime, the Mexican government, or the U.S. government. The CIA station in Mexico City transmitted to the FBI the evidence tending to incriminate Oswald and destroyed its recordings of the impersonator shortly afterward, when, in fact, it had been advised by CIA headquarters on October 10 that the impersonator didn't match Oswald's description. That destruction of evidence and transmission of false evidence wasn't by the Soviets, Cubans or Mexicans. It could only have been achieved inside the CIA station in Mexico City. How is it that the USG has no photos of Oswald entering the Soviet and Cuban embassies when CIA had both under 24/7 camera coverage?The phone system in Washington, DC, went down at virtually the exact time as the assassination. Coincidence? We're told it was system overload. Was it just coincidence that most of the Cabinet was on the other side of the world and that a brigade of the 82nd Airborne was en route to the United States? Was it coincidence that rightwing arch-reactionary and Kennedy-hater Air Force Lieutenant General Curtis LeMay just happened to be away on a hunting trip to Canada and that someone called a news service that very morning to ask about a report his plane had crashed? Once the news of the successful assassination was relayed to him, LeMay rushed back to Washington in time to smoke a (celebratory?) cigar while watching the president's autopsy. An awful lot of coincidences, but it’s hard to imagine it was just coincidence that the nuclear codes were absent from all B-52 crews patrolling our skies that day. Oswald couldn't have accomplished that. Nor could the Mafia, the Cubans, the Soviets or anyone other than elements very high within the U.S. Government.The Sunday London Times hired an actuary to test the likelihood that 17 material witnesses had died of unnatural causes in the first three years following the assassination. It concluded the odds against it at 100,000 trillion to one. And that was before the congressional investigation brought a new wave of such deaths, such as Roselli's and several others. Coincidence!One needn't give full credence to the views of LBJ's mistress of over 20 years, or to Billie Sol Estes' sworn affidavit, or to E. Howard Hunt's confession, or to Marita Lorenz' open court testimony, or to LBJ's personal attorney's allegations, or to the identification of Malcolm Wallace’s fingerprint at the TBSD snipers nest, or to James Files’ confession, to conclude that LBJ was behind, or in the least acquiesced to, the assassination. So much circumstantial evidence suggests it, such as the ducking in his car and carrying the Oath of Office. The photo of the century might be the one they never show you, where immediately after taking the oath next to Kennedy's shocked widow, Johnson shared a wink and smile with his protégé and alleged criminal accomplice Texas Cong. Albert Thomas.Although he supposedly feared a Cuban or Soviet conspiracy, it's telling that Johnson didn't raise the military alert level. Neither did the Joint Chiefs, although the U.S. Commander in the Pacific did, on his own authority. It's also telling that the Joint Chiefs had completely reversed Kennedy's Vietnam policy by the end of the very first business day after his assassination.Only a high-level USG conspiracy can explain the cover-up of Oswald's intelligence record, the multiple gunmen, the surreptitious pre-autopsy surgery, the doctoring of the Zapruder Film, the falsification of the autopsy record, the withholding of the nuclear codes, etc. The Cubans couldn't have done it, nor the Soviets, nor the Mob. Only the USG, but then, its highest offices were now in the hands of the conspirators. That conspiracy continues, perpetuated by bureaucratic inertia, institutional self-protection, and enabled by the compartmentalization of information, but also by the fact that some of the conspirators went on to exercise great power and influence, which persist to this day.Still don’t believe me? Then ponder this for a moment. Murder and treason have no statute of limitations, Castro is dead, the USSR collapsed 27 years ago, diplomatic relations with Cuba are fully normalized, and yet following up on the murder of the POTUS by an alleged Castro sympathizer isn't even on the bilateral agenda. The murder of a POTUS by a potential Cuban agent, no diplomatic relations with Havana all these years, and yet when the USG finally gets its first chance to follow up on investigative leads in the killing of the POTUS, it doesn't bother? Anyone who's ever worked for the USG should find that telling, very telling indeed.Oswald had no motive for killing Kennedy, but Johnson certainly did, and so did the Military-Industrial Complex of which Pres. Dwight Eisenhower had warned in his Farewell Address. Eisenhower was not a paranoid. Indeed, history is already proving that on Nov. 22, 1963, the MIC became what today is termed the “Deep State.” The Deep State has secretly ruled Amerika ever since. But that secret is finally coming out. I invite all patriotic Americans to research my assertions, correct any inaccuracies, but, most of all, take a fresh look at the new evidence and draw your own conclusions.

How many signers of the Declaration of Independence owned slaves? <=copied from this websiteSo not about voting rights or freedom it was about pure greed!How many of the signers of the Declaration of Independence owned slaves?41 of the other 16 some were involved in some form of transatlantic trade ( type unknown) or were in correspondence with known slave owners in the West Indies.Button GwinnettLyman HallWilliam HooperJoseph HewesJohn PennEdward RutledgeThomas HeywardThomas Lynch, JrArthur MiddletonJohn HancockSamuel ChaseWilliam PacaThomas StoneCharles Carroll of CarrolltonGeorge WytheRichard Henry LeeThomas JeffersonBenjamin HarrisonThomas Nelson, Jr.Francis Lightfoot LeeCarter BraxtonRobert MorrisBenjamin RushBenjamin FranklinGeorge TaylorJames WilsonGeorge RossCaesar RodneyGeorge ReadWilliam FloydPhilip LivingstonFrancis LewisLewis MorrisRichard StocktonJohn WitherspoonFrancis HopkinsonJohn HartAbraham ClarkJosiah BartlettWilliam WhippleStephen HopkinsMatthew ThorntonAll research was done by the 8th Grade students at Chardon Middle School in Chardon, Ohio during October, 2014.The students were surprised to find that the internet could not offer a satisfactory answer to an important question:How many of the signers of the Declaration of Independence owned slaves?Convinced that they could discover the answer and eager to contribute to world's knowledge, they became historians.SIGNERSLAVES?EVIDENCE #1EVIDENCE #2Adams, JohnNOIn letters from 1819, 1820 and 1821, late in his life, John Adams and slavery views became more obvious as he condemned the practice as "an evil of colossal magnitude" and worried about the effect slavery would have on the nation in the future. For John Adams, slaves were human beings and fully deserved the rights ordained by God that all men were granted. John Adams And SlaveryDid John Adams own slaves? No, and not only because of his family's moderate wealth. Adams was morally opposed to slavery and refused to employ slaves.Source: Acsesed on 10/17/14 John Adams And SlaveryAdams, SamuelNO"Sam Adams and Thomas Paine did not own slaves: Source accessed on 10/16/2014 Which Founding Fathers owned slaves? - Answers“Another patriot and firebrand, Sam Adams, said that "no slave shall live under my roof," and freed the two he inherited from marrying his second wife”SOURCE: Accessed on 10/19/14http://www.thefreedomtrail.org/educational-resources/article-rise-and-fall-of-slave-trade-part2.shtmlBartlett, JosiahYES“Some of the slaves who fought in the war never received their freedom, including Peter Bartlett, the slave of well known congressional delegate and signer of the Declaration of Independence, Josiah Bartlett. Source: accessed on 10/16/14. The First American Army: The Untold Story of George Washington and the Men behind America's First Fight for Freedom [Bruce Chadwick] on google books.Braxton, CarterYES“Braxton acquired large amounts of land and numbers of slaves, and he both cultivated and traded tobacco.”SOURCE: Accessed on 10/16/14Braxton, Carter (1736-1797)“...owned more than 12,000 acres and about 165 slaves during the 1770s and engaged in large-scale tobacco planting…”SOURCE: Accessed on 10/16/14Braxton, Carter (1736-1797)Carroll, Charles of CarrolltonYES“It was actually the employment of over three hundred slaves that caused Charles Carroll more difficulty because he expressed personal discomfort at the notion of human slavery.”SOURCE: Accessed on 10/19/14Charles Carroll of Carrollton | The Society of the Descendants of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence“At the time of his death, he owned over two hundred slaves just on his Doughoregan Manor plantation in Anne Arundel (now Howard) County, Maryland.”SOURCE: Accessed on 10/19/14 http://www.examiner.com/article/charles-carroll-of-carrollton-signer-of-the-declaration-of-independence-and-slaveownerChase, SamuelYES"Recieved L125.0.0 legact from his grandfather 1770. Property in Annapolis valued at L 969.13.4 including 5 slaves and 268 oz. plate. 1783. SOURCE: Accessed on 10/14/2014 http://msa.maryland.gov/megafile/msa/speccol/sc3500/sc3520/000200/000235/pdf/chasenotes.pdfClark, AbrahamYES“In February, 1786 the Jersey legislature passed a bill sponsored by Clark for “An Act to prevent the Importation of Slaves . . . , and to authorize the Manumission of them under certain Restrictions and to prevent the Abuse of Slaves.” Even though Clark owned three slaves, and did not provide for their release until both he and Sarah died, this act was an important recognition by the legislature and Clark, as Bogin noted, that “slavery involved ethical considerations.”.”SOURCE: Accessed on 10/16/2014Abraham Clark | The Society of the Descendants of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence“In 1786, before leaving the State Legislature, Clark, who was a slave-owner, sponsored a bill titled “An Act to prevent the Importation of Slaves . . . , and to authorize the Manumission of them under certain Restrictions and to prevent the Abuse of Slaves.” Though the bill passed, Clark’s slaves were only freed upon his wife’s death in 1804.” SOURCE: Accessed on 10/16/2014Biographical Sketches of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence representing New JerseyClymer, GeorgeNO"Among the expected glories of the Constitution, next to the abolition of Slavery was that of Rum…”SOURCE: Accessed on 10/16/14cotknorwalk.org -&nbspcotknorwalk Resources and Information.“Committee Assignments: Committee of Assumption of State Debt, Committee of Slave Trade.”SOURCE: Accessed on 10/18/14Delegates to the Constitutional Convention: George ClymerElery, WilliamNO“At this time, he was a judge of the Supreme Court of Rhode Island and made strong efforts to have slavery in the United States abolished, supporting the resolution made by Rufus King.”SOURCE: Accessed on 10/19/2014William ElleryDuring this time William vocally advocated the abolition of slavery…Still, and continuing on, the slavery was a sore spot and not one that Ellery was afraid to affront…”SOURCE: Accessed on 10/19/2014On William ElleryFloyd, WilliamYES“When Floyd reached his 20th year, his father and mother died within 2 months of each other, and he inherited their large estate on Long Island along with the responsibility of caring for his brothers and sisters. Six years later he married. His bride helped care for the family and assisted in managing the farm, for which slaves supplied most of the labor.”SOURCE: Accessed on 10/16/2014General William Floyd House.Franklin, BenjaminYES“Franklin owned two slaves, George and King, who worked as personal servants, and his newspaper, the Pennsylvania Gazette, commonly ran notices involving the sale or purchase of slaves and contracts for indentured laborers. “Source: Accessed on 10/16/2014Benjamin Franklin . Citizen Ben . Abolitionist“Franklin did not publicly speak out against slavery until very late in his life. As a young man he owned slaves, and he carried advertisements for the sale of slaves in his newspaper, the Pennsylvania Gazette.”Source: Accessed on 10/16/2014Benjamin Franklin's Anti-Slavery Petitions to CongressGerry, ElbridgeNO"Mr. Elbridge Gerry [MA] thought we had nothing to do with the conduct of the states as to slaves, but ought to be careful not to give any sanction to it." Accessed 10/16/2014 AccountSupporthe ultimately refused and rejected to sign the Constitution because it did not include a bill of rights.SOURCE: Accessed on 10/18/2014Constitution of United States of America 1789Gwinnett,ButtonYESHe acquired slaves to work the plantation and build him a house. “SOURCE:Accessed on On May 13, 2011http://derrickjeter.com/2011/05/13/founding-fathers-friday-button-gwinnett/The Times presented an idyllic image of how “Mr. Keys arrives by plane to his own landing strip and lives in Button Gwinnett’s remodeled house, putting his guest in converted slave quarters.” Interestingly, the Keys never built a landing strip and Button Gwinnett never lived in the house that bears his name. Guests stayed in cabins built in the style of slave quarters.”SOURCE:Accessed on July 6, 2009 10:47 a.m.http://www.coastalcourier.com/archives/15071/Hall, LymanYES“He became the owner of a small plantation north of the Midway Meeting House on the Savannah-Darien highway.”Source. Accessed on 10/16/2014Lyman Hall | The Society of the Descendants of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence"for he then purchased a fine plantation on the Savannah River, not far from Shell Bluff, and furnished it with a considerable number of negro slaves, and all animals, implements, and provisions requisite for its proper cultivation." Accessed on 10/16/2014 http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~galiber3/bios/hall2.htmlHancock, JohnYESHancock's family lived comfortably, but only owned one slave to help around the house. John was sent to live with his aunt and uncle after the death of his father in 1744.John Hancock | Facts, Early Years, Life, Death & PoliticsHis father was a reverend who made a comfortable living; the family even owned one slave.John Hancock: Facts, Biography & History | Study.comHarrison, BenjaminYES“I also give to my dear Wife the use of all my tract of land whereon I now live called Berkley, with all the Slaves thereon” Said Benjamin Harrison in his will.SOURCE: Accessed on 10/16/14William HARRISON“I give unto my son Benjamin and his heirs forever all the negroes he has of mine in his possession at Hard Labor”Benjamin also said this in his will.SOURCE: Accessed on 10/16/14William HARRISONHart, JohnYES“On his prosperous plantation Hart had many cattle, sheep, swine, horses and fowl, and he also owned four slaves.”SOURCE: Accessed on 10/16/14John Hart | The Society of the Descendants of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence“On his prosperous plantation Hart had many cattle, sheep, swine, horses and fowl, and he also owned four slaves.”Hewes, JosephYES“While Hewes was raised as Quaker, he was indeed also a slave owner and a supporter of slavery.”SOURCE: Accessed on 10/15/14Joseph Hewes - First "Secretary of the Navy" and Signer of the Declaration of Independence“A 1779 inventory signed by Hewes, as well as a 1780 newspaper account of his estate sale, both indicate that Hewes owned slaves.”SOURCE: Accessed on 10/15/14http://www.hollandlodge.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/2014_09_The_Holland_Herald.pdfHeyward, Thomas Jr.YES“During his absence, he suffered greatly in respect to his property; his plantation being much injured by a party of marauders, and all his slaves seized and carried away. Some of his slaves were afterwards reclaimed; but one hundred and thirty were finally lost, being transported, as was supposed, for the benefit of the sugar planters on the island of Jamaica.”Thomas Heyward, Jr.“Also during this time he suffered greatly in respect to his property; the British injured his plantations and a band of marauders, his slaves seized and carried away, some of which were afterwards recovered.”Thomas Heyward Jr. | The Society of the Descendants of the Signers of the Declaration of IndependenceHooper, WilliamYESThe decision--which side to support -had no neat and simple answer.When the Britsh evacuted Wilimington in November 1781.Willam Hoopers slaves acted in different ways.http://www.learnnc.org/lp/editons/nchist-revolution /1917.Hopkins, StephenYES“In a clear statement on the morality of slavery, Rhode Island’s Stephen Hopkins manumits his slave, Saint Jago Hopkins, because slavery is a violation of God’s will. Rhode Island would not abolish slavery through gradual emancipation until 1784..”SOURCE: Accessed on 10/16/2014Four Years Prior to Signing the Declaration, R.I.’s Stephen Hopkins Declares His Slave’s Independence (SOLD)“In 1772, Hopkins was again elected to the general assembly. He freed his slaves in 1773 and the following year he sponsored a bill that prohibited the importation of slaves into the colony.”SOURCE: Accessed on 10/16/2014http://virtualology.com/StephenHopkins.com/Hopkinson, FrancisYES“Like a number of the other signers, Hopkinson was also a slaveholder.”SOURCE: Accessed on 10/17/2014Francis Hopkinson and the Constitution“This is a list of 167 slaves from General Francis Hopkins”SOURCE: Accessed on 10/18/14http://www.glynngen.com/slaverec/hopkins_F.htmHuntington, SamuelNo“Huntington also was a proponent of abolishing slavery.”SOURCE: Accessed on 10/16/2014http://www.nga.org/cms/home/governors/past-governors-bios/page_connecticut/col2-content/main-content-list/title_huntington_samuel.html“I am this day honoured with your letter of the 12th. of January, accompanied with a number of Copies of the Constitution of the Pennsylvania Society for promoting the abolition of Slavery, and the relief of free Negroes unlawfully held in bondage; and the laws of Pensylvania which related to one of the Objects of their Constitution, as also a Copy of Thomas Clarksons excellent Essay upon the Commerce and Slavery of the Africans; which several Pamphlets I receive with pleasure and request You to accept my grateful Acknowledgments for the same.”SOURCE: Accessed on 10/14/2014http://franklinpapers.org/franklin/framedVolumes.jsp?vol=45&page=497Jefferson, ThomasYES“A new portrait of the founding father challenges the long-held perception of Thomas Jefferson as a benevolent slaveholder”The Dark Side of Thomas Jefferson“Jefferson drafted the Declaration of Independence, wrote the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, and founded the University of Virginia. Yet, over the course of his life, Jefferson owned 600 people.”The Paradox of Liberty: Slavery at Jefferson’s MonticelloLee, Francis LightfootYES“The year 1750 was painful for Francis and his younger siblings while their older brothers were still in England: Both parents died that year when Francis turned 16. The children inherited a combination of land, money, slaves and company stock for land speculation in the Ohio River valley.”SOURCE: Accessed on 10/18/2014Francis Lightfoot Lee | The Society of the Descendants of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence“Lee was a signer of the Declaration of the Independence, a slaveholder, and a leading figure in the Virginia gentry at the time of the Revolution.”SOURCE: Accessed on 10/18/2014A Visit to “Menokin”Lee, Richard HenryYES“As a young adult, Richard Henry Lee decided to rent out many of his inherited slaves as well as his inherited lands hoping to support his family on the proceeds while devoting his professional efforts to politics.”SOURCE: Accessed on 10/16/2014 Richard Henry Lee“Richard Henry Lee, Virginia, owned slaves but sought to end the slave trade and considered slavery to be evil.”SOURCE: Accessed on 10/18/2014From Slave Patrol Militias to School ShootingsLewis, FrancisYES“From other passages in the book, we know that Francis Lewis definitely did own enslaved Africans.”SOURCE: Accessed on 10/18/14(page 67, paragraph 6) New York and SlaveryThey also owned slaves, and in The City of Alexandria, several manumitted slaves gave Charles Lewis name as their former owner.”SOURCE: Accessed on 10/18/14http://richmondthenandnow.com/Charles-and-Ambrose-Lewis.htmlLivingston, PhilipYES“When Robert died, Philip Livingston inherited six of the twelve slaves listed in his father's will (9).”SOURCE: Accesed on 10/16/14First Endowed Professorship“Philip Livingston, slave trader and slave owner.”SOURCE: Accessed on 10/16/14George Bush's Slave Trading Kin - NYC ExhibitLynch Jr. , ThomasYESMy kinsman who signed as “Thomas Lynch Jr” owned slaves and a plantation as well. He did not free his slaves afterwards.“Thomas Lynch Jr owned slaves and a plantation as well. He did not free his slaves afterwards”.Source accessed on 10/15/2014http://mariannsregan.com/slaveholders-among-the-founders-part-3-of-3/McKean, ThomasNO“He augmented the rights of defendants and sought penal reform, but on the other hand was slow to recognize expansion of the legal rights of women and the process in the state’s gradual elimination of slavery.” SOURCE: Accessed on 10/16/14 http://explorepahistory.com/hmarker.php?markerId=1-A-274Copy of Thomas Mckean“Thomas Mckean was born in 1734 in Delaware, and he died in 1817 at the age of 83 and did not own slaves.”SOURCE: Accessed on 10/19/14Middleton, ArthurYES“Arthur's plantation had begun to make money. By 1720, his estate consisted of over 5000 acres and he owned over 100 slaves.”SOURCE: Accessed on 10/16/12014http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part1/1p282.html“By 1720, the estate consisted of over 5,000 acres and Middleton owned over 100 slaves”SOURCE: Accessed on 10/16/2014http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Middleton_(1681%E2%80%931737)Morris, LewisYES“With the uncles death in 1691, Lewis Morris, at the age of twenty, inherited the New York and New Jersey estates, a major interest in mills and iron works, sixty-six slaves, and extensive personal properties.” SOURCE: Accessed on 10/19/2014 http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/1919535?uid=3739760&uid=2&uid=4&uid=3739256&sid=21104857957857“Soon after, more than a thousand acres of woodland, all located on navigable water, were burned, his house was ransacked, his family driven away, his livestock captured, his domestics and tenants dispersed, and the entire property laid waste and ruined.”SOURCE: Accessed on 10/19/14http://virtualology.com/virtualmuseumofhistory/hallofusa/declarationofindependence/LewisMorris.com/Morris, RobertYES“Morris did own slaves eight generations ago, as did Benjamin Franklin and other prominent Philadelphians. Robert Morris and Thomas Willing also "engaged in the slave trade" as a side business to their shipping and property investments, said Morris, a software consultant.”SOURCE: Accessed on 10/16/14http://www.ushistory.org/presidentshouse/news/inq061205.htm“He owned slaves that worked as servants in his home.”SOURCE: Accessed on 10/16/14http://kids.laws.com/robert-morrisMorton, JohnYESChartSOURCE: Accessed on 10/19/14http://library.uncg.edu/slavery/petitions/owship-byowner.aspx?pID=94829&s=2¨Speaker Isaac Norris was a slaveowner, as were Chester County Legistlators, John Morton, Joshua Ash, Joseph Gibbons, and Isaac Wayne.¨SOURCE: Accessed on 10/16/2014Nelson, Thomas Jr.YES“Thomas Nelson, Jr., a rich planter-merchant who at one time owned more than 400 slaves, was one of the most active of the Virginia patriots.”SOURCE: Accessed on 10/16/14http://www.adherents.com/people/pn/Thomas_Nelson.html“When Thomas Nelson’s father died, Thomas received 20,000 acres of land and over 400 slaves.”SOURCE: Accessed on 10/15/14http://kids.laws.com/thomas-nelsonPaca, WilliamYES“ William B. Paca, a signer of the Declaration of Independence and a Maryland governor. Juliana and her husband lived on Wye Island in Queen Anne's County, where she had inherited the Wye Plantation. John also inherited Wye Hall from his father, who had owned the other half of the island. The census recorded 117 slaves on their Wye Island property in 1800, and 100 slaves in 1810.” SOURCE: Accessed on 10/16/14http://msa.maryland.gov/megafile/msa/speccol/sc5400/sc5496/029900/029983/html/029983bio.html“Census: Wm. Paca, head of household 1790, Queen Anns County, MD; 2 males over 16 and 92 slaves.” SOURCE: Accessed on 10/16/14http://familytreemaker.genealogy.com/users/h/i/l/Garrick-D-Hill/WEBSITE-0001/UHP-0200.htmPaine, Robert TreatNOAccording to the “Slaveholders among prominent Founding Fathers” chart found on http://britannica.com, Robert Treat Paine was a non-slaveholder.SOURCE: Accessed on 10/15/2014http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1269536/The-Founding-Fathers-and-Slavery“Just a few weeks later on April 14, 1775 the first anti-slavery society in America was formed in Philadelphia. Paine was a founding member.”SOURCE: Accessed on 10/15/2014http://www.constitution.org/tp/afri.htmPenn, JohnYES“One son of a 'servant' named, Virgil, was sold in 1733 (16 years after William Penn's death) to Thomas Penn by Joseph Warder thus providing evidence that the Penn family had never given up the ownership of slaves.”SOURCE: Accessed on 10/16/14http://www.cems.uwe.ac.uk/~rstephen/livingeaston/local_history/Penn/Penn_family_part_1.html“There have been claims that he also fought slavery, but that seems unlikely, as he owned and even traded slaves himself and his writings do not support that idea.”SOURCE: Accessed on 10/16/14http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_PennThis states that John Penn’s dad trades slaves against what the Quakers had thought at the time, influencing John.Read, GeorgeYES“State: Delaware (Born in Maryland)Age at Convention: 53Date of Birth: September 18, 1733Date of Death: September 21, 1798Schooling: Religious AcademyOccupation: Lawyer, Public Security Interests, Lending and Investments, Planter and Slave holder”SOURCE: Accessed on 10/19/2014http://teachingamericanhistory.org/static/convention/delegates/read.html“Of the 55 delegates to the Constitutional Convention, 49% owned slaves.” George Read was one of these delegates.SOURCE: Accessed on 10/19/2014How many of America's founding fathers were slave owners?Rodney, CaesarYESCaesar Rodney was a slaveholder of about 200 slaves on a plantation of about 1,000 acres. 14 year after his death his slaves were freedByfield, Caesar Rodney’s, 800-acre prosperous farm was worked by slaves. With the addition of other adjacent properties, the Rodneys were, by the standards of the day, wealthy members of the local people.Ross, GeorgeNO“That year he also undertook negotiations with the Northwestern Indians on behalf of his colony, and took a seat as vice-president of the first constitutional convention for Pennsylvania.”SOURCE: Accessed on 10/19/2014http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/signers/ross.htm"Quaker opposition to slavery and the concept of individual liberty that grew out of the colonies’ crisis with Great Britain inspired the foundation of the Pennsylvania Abolition Society (PAS) in 1775…By 1820, only 200 slaves remained in the state, but those black Pennsylvanians who were now indentured servants still did not enjoy complete freedom throughout the 18th and 19th centuries.”SOURCE: Accessed on 10/16/14http://pacivilwar150.com/Understand/SlaveryandFreedomRush, BenjaminYES“Though still a slave owner himself, Rush decided to dedicate himself to the cause of his "black brethren."SOURCE Accessed on 10/16/2014http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part3/3p458.html“Though still a slave owner himself, in 1788, he also promised freedom to his slave, William Grubber.”SOURCE Accessed on 10/16/2014http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Benjamin_RushRutledge, EdwardYES“He became a leading citizen of Charleston, and owned more than 50 slaves.”SOURCE: Accessed on 10/16/14http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Edward_Rutledge“Edward had started a law firm with Charles Cotesworth Pinckney. The firm had taken off and made the two men very successful. It wasn't long before Rutledge was one of the leading citizens in Charleston, and owned quite a bit of land and almost 50 slaves.”SOURCE: Accessed on 10/15/2014http://www.revolutionary-war.net/edward-rutledge.htmlSherman, RogerNO“Mr. Roger Sherman [CT] was for leaving the clause as it stands. He disapproved of the slave trade; yet, as the states were now possessed of the right to import slaves, as the public good did not require it to be taken from them, and as it was expedient to have as few objections as possible to the proposed scheme of government, he thought it best to leave the matter as we find it.”SOURCE: Accessed on 10/16/14AccountSupport“He also became involved in the anti-slavery movement, and in one of his early cases defended a runaway slave owned by Henry Clay.”SOURCE: Accessed on 10/16/14http://www.fjc.gov/history/home.nsf/page/tu_amistad_bio_baldwin.htmlSmith, JamesNO"I would suggest that there were numerous, and not simply one signers who never own slaves. Must be included John Adams and James Smith of Pennsylvania." Source: http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=h-high-s&month=0309&week=b&msg=E5uCV1zGiWW3IKFaJYTu2w&user=&pw=.Stockton, RichardYESHe was also a slave owner who didn’t free his slaves, in spite of being the father-in-law of Benjamin Rush, one of the most prominent anti-slavery advocates of the revolutionary era. http://stocktonat40.blogspot.com/2010/02/that-which-we-call-stockton-by-any.html accesed on 10/16/2014Richard Stockton of the Class of 1779, a trustee from 1791 to 1828 and the first citizen of Princeton, reputedly owned several slaves, freeing one in 1823 (Princetonians: 1776-1783)http://www.princeton.edu/mudd/news/faq/topics/slavery.shtml accesed on 10/16/2014Stone, ThomasYES“Stone's original plan was to build a small, modest home for him, his wife, and their two daughters but before the house was completed, his father died and five of his younger brothers and sisters came to live with him at Haberdeventure creating the need for larger living quarters. During the 1780s, the Haberdeventure slave plantation probably supported about 25 to 35 people including a number of slaves.”Source: Accessed on 10/16/2014http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Stone_National_Historic_Site“It is likely that the Haberdeventure plantation supported a community of 25 to 35 people during Thomas Stone's ownership, including slaves and Stone's extended family.”Source Accessed on 10/16/2014http://somd.com/links/culture/historic-sites/thomas-stone-national-historic-site-1500.phpTaylor, GeorgeYES“George Taylor died in February 1781, His estate included two slaves, Tom, who was sold for 280 bushels of wheat…”SOURCE: Accessed on 10/19/2014http://www.dsdi1776.com/signers-by-state/george-taylor/“This little house soon became his world. Here, with his two slaves Tom and Sam, Taylor lived out the last year of his life.”SOURCE: Accessed on 10/19/2014http://articles.mcall.com/1984-07-15/news/2436116_1_george-taylor-iron-furnace/3Thornton, MatthewNO"Two signers of the Declaration of Independence, George Taylor of Pennsylvania and Matthew Thornton of New Hampshire had been white servants. Accessed 10/16/2014. http://books.google.com/books?id=FwhqKQbUn9cC&pg=PA9&lpg=PA9&dq=Signer+Matthew+Thornton+on+slavery&source=bl&ots=dIFELew-jj&sig=qQWCqDYet48XQU3MQWNbvX0_ZpE&hl=en&sa=X&ei=831JVLXUOYKNyATR5YGoAQ&ved=0CFIQ6AEwCA#v=onepage&q=Signer%20Matthew%20Thornton%20on%20slavery&f=false.Walton, GeorgeNOTo discourage the English class society, strict rules required every man to work his own land: no slavery, no large grants of land, no rum.http://www.dsdi1776.com/signers-by-state/george-walton/“George Walton played a leading role not only in the movement topersuade Friends to free their slaves but also in the confrontation.”Source: Accessed on 100/16/14http://file:///home/chronos/u-83bff9799b28be0e6a053d3211e6951887297ba3/Downloads/upso_Search_Results%20(1).pdfWhipple, WilliamYES“William Whipple was a slave owner. He married Catherine Moffatt and they lived in her father's mansion on the river in downtown Portsmouth, today one of the city's surviving historic houses. The slave quarters, where Prince, his cousin (or brother) Cuffy, and others most likely lived, can still be seen today.”SOURCE: Accessed on 10/16/2014http://esperstamps.org/aa10.htm"General Whipple was attended on this expedition by a valuable negro servant named Prince, whom he had imported from Africa many years before.”SOURCE: Accessed on 10/15/14http://www.whipple.org/william/declaration.html#PrinceWilliams, WilliamNO***** Upon arriving at congress, he was too late to vote for independence, but he did get a chance to sign the Declaration of Independence. He continued to serve on different committees until the end of the war.SOURCE:Accessed on 10/16/2014http://www.revolutionary-war.net/william-williams.htmlA man of naturally ardent temper, he threw himself vehemently into the struggle for independence, wielding a vigorous pen and drawing generously on his purse in support of military activities. During a great part of the Revolutionary War he was a member of the council of safety, and expended nearly all his property in the patriot cause. He abandoned his business and went from house to house soliciting private donations to supply the army. Williams also made frequent speeches to induce a larger enlistment. Throughout the war, his house was open to the soldiers in their marches to and from the army, and in 1781 he gave up his dwelling to the officers of a detachment that was stationed for the winter in Lebanon. SOURCE: Accessed on 10/16/2014http://virtualology.com/WilliamWilliams.com/Wilson, JamesNO“Slavery, or an absolute and unlimited power in the master over the life and fortune of the slave, is unauthorized by the common law . . . . The reasons which we sometimes see assigned for the origins and the continuance of slavery appear when examined to the bottom to be built upon a false foundation. In the enjoyment of their persons and of their property, the common law protects all. ”SOURCE: Accessed on 10/16/2014http://westillholdthesetruths.org/quotes/author/james-wilson“He argued that the slave trade clause would in fact allow for the end of slavery itself. In speeches he made the subtle shift from the "trade" to slavery, and since most of his listeners were not as legally sophisticated as Wilson, he was able to fudge the issue. Thus, Wilson told the Pennsylvania ratifying convention that after ‘the lapse of a few years... Congress will have power to exterminate slavery from within our borders.’”SOURCE: Accessed on 10/16/2014http://abolition.nypl.org/essays/us_constitution/3/Witherspoon, JohnYES“Witherspoon was a slave owner.At the time of his death in 1794, his estate includedtwo slaves,”Source accessed on 10/15/2014http://people.hofstra.edu/alan_j_singer/docket/docket/11.1.17_John_Witherspoon_Preacher_and_Patriot_by_Raymond_Frey.pdf“ John Witherspoon, president of the College of New Jersey from 1768-1794, owned slaves. Indeed, Varnum Lansing Collins notes that the inventory of Witherspoon's possessions taken at his death included "two slaves . . “source Accessed on 10/15/2014http://libguides.princeton.edu/c.php?g=84056&p=544524Wolcott, OliverYES“ Oliver Wolcott, the Connecticut born Secretary of the Treasury, wrote to his wife that this palace "cannot be kept in tolerable order without a regiment of servants."Source: Accessed on 10-16-14http://bobarnebeck.com/slavespt5.html“The following is a letter freeing his slave: Deed of Emancipation… And that my said servant, whom I now make free as aforesaid, may be known here-after by a proper cognomen, I hereby give him the name of Jamus.”Source: Accessed on 10-18-14http://wolcottmilitarymen.blogspot.com/2011/08/oliver-wolcott-1726-1797.htmlWythe, GeorgeYES“A young member of his family, on discovering that Wythe had conditionally willed part of the family property to his slaves, decided to enlarge his own share by poisoning them with arsenic.”SOURCE: Accessed on 10/16/2014http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/signers/wythe.htm“Freeing his own slaves earlier at “Chesterville,” Wythe wrote this opinion on a slavery dispute in 1806, “….freedom is the birthright of every human being….”SOURCE: Accessed on 10/16/14http://www.dsdi1776.com/signers-by-state/george-wythe/