Not all conspiracies are just theories. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re looking at the most infamous assassination plots, successful and failed, that were later discovered to have been conspired by groups of people.
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00:00 "About 10 minutes after 10, Booth began to mount the stairs, leading up to the second
00:05 tier of boxes where you would find President Lincoln."
00:08 Welcome to WatchMojo.
00:09 Today we're looking at the most infamous assassination plots, successful and failed,
00:14 that were later discovered to have been conspired by groups of people.
00:17 "As the crowd tries to subdue Princip, the Archduke and his wife are left bleeding in
00:21 the car."
00:22 Alexei Navalny
00:23 "This is so smart, because even reasonable people, they refuse to believe, like, what?
00:29 Come on, poisoned?"
00:31 Of all the domestic critics of Vladimir Putin's government, political leader Alexei Navalny
00:35 is arguably the most prominent.
00:37 Few of his supporters were surprised when he became violently ill during a flight in
00:40 August 2020.
00:42 Doctors induced a coma and determined that Navalny had been poisoned by what was later
00:45 identified as a nerve agent.
00:46 "You knew in that moment that you'd been poisoned?"
00:49 "Yes."
00:50 "Quick thinking from the pilot saves his life.
00:53 Instead of flying on to Moscow, still three hours away, the plane diverts to Omsk."
00:58 The patient was soon evacuated to Germany, where he made a remarkable recovery.
01:01 Immediately, suspicions arose that this was an assassination attempt by the Russian government.
01:06 An international journalistic investigation later concluded that FSB operatives had indeed
01:10 surveilled and poisoned Navalny, among other dissidents.
01:14 Shortly after, Navalny returned to Russia and was promptly arrested.
01:17 In February 2024, the Russian Penitentiary Service reported that he died in prison.
01:22 In prison, Navalny complained about poor treatment and staged hunger strikes.
01:27 Despite being locked up, Navalny continued to be a vocal critic of the Kremlin.
01:32 Iran Chain Murders
01:33 By the end of the 1980s, Iran's system had accrued many prominent dissidents.
01:38 Among them was Health Minister Qasem Sami, who was murdered in what seemed like a random
01:42 act of violence in 1988.
01:44 Over the next decade, over 80 critics died in car accidents, robberies, and other incidents.
01:48 By the time an opposition party leader and four other people were murdered in a span
01:51 of two months, the public demanded an investigation.
01:54 18 supposedly rogue intelligence agents were ultimately prosecuted for orchestrating these
02:00 chain killings and assassination attempts.
02:02 Subsequent journalistic inquiries implicated state officials, resulting in severe retaliation.
02:07 Despite this, the revelations emboldened the reformist sentiments that the killings sought
02:11 to curb.
02:12 Even today, there are still controversial mysteries surrounding this 10-year operation.
02:16 Fred Hampton
02:17 Fred Hampton was murdered by his government.
02:21 But before that, he was a leader in a movement practicing a new kind of activism.
02:27 As deputy chairman of the Black Panther Party, Fred Hampton was a highly visible opponent
02:30 of the American status quo.
02:32 He was asleep in his apartment in 1969 when police engaged his security during a raid
02:36 for illegal weapons.
02:38 Hampton was injured in the crossfire, then shot twice in the head at point-blank range.
02:41 The next thing I remember was someone in our room checking Chairman Fred.
02:46 "Chairman, Chairman, wake up, wake up!"
02:48 Plaster was flying off the wall.
02:50 You could smell the cordite from the gunshot.
02:53 Several legal inquiries attributed Hampton and Mark Clark's deaths to the chaotic scene.
02:57 However, accusations of deliberate murder were later supported by the exposure of Cohen's
03:01 Elprah in 1971.
03:03 Authorities initially claimed that Panthers had opened fire on the police who were there
03:07 to serve a search warrant for weapons.
03:09 Evidence later emerged that told a very different story.
03:13 This FBI operation aimed at illegally undermining political movements was particularly interested
03:18 in the BPV.
03:19 Through the years, overwhelming evidence has suggested that the real purpose of the raid
03:22 was to assassinate Hampton.
03:24 The organizations responsible have yet to formally admit this.
03:28 Operation Nemesis Truly the Armenian Genocide was one of the
03:31 most heinous conspiracies of the 20th century.
03:33 An overwhelming number of historians say the Turkey's rulers committed genocide, that
03:39 its actions were a model for what Hitler did to the Jews.
03:43 The Turks, meanwhile, say their ancestors never carried out such crimes.
03:47 Nearly two years after the massacre, former Azerbaijani Prime Minister Vateli Honchovsky
03:52 was murdered.
03:53 Several other political figures of the former Ottoman Empire would be killed over the next
03:57 two years.
03:58 They gunned down leaders in Berlin, Rome, Tbilisi, Constantinople, and then they just
04:03 disappeared.
04:04 They did this for about two years, 1921, 1922, and gone.
04:09 Members of the Armenian Revolutionary Federation eventually took credit for these slayings
04:12 as retaliation against masterminds of the genocide.
04:15 Interestingly, only a few of the targets had been formally charged with the crime.
04:19 Named for the Greek goddess of retribution, Operation Nemesis continues to be scrutinized.
04:23 Turkey and Azerbaijan, whose governments do not recognize the Armenian Genocide, condemn
04:27 the campaign as terrorism.
04:29 In Armenia, however, the conspirators are officially recognized as national heroes.
04:33 Alexander Litvinenko Disillusioned with what he terms "Putin's
04:37 mafia state," Alexander Litvinenko, an organized crime specialist with the FSB, fled to the
04:42 UK, where he later became a naturalized citizen.
04:45 In his new home, Litvinenko continued to collaborate with British authorities to expose the Russian
04:49 mafia and reveal government corruption.
04:51 A few years later, Litvinenko was poisoned with radioactive material, which he succumbed
04:56 to.
04:57 But unlike most murder victims, he was able to give extensive interviews to British detectives
05:01 before he died.
05:02 Numerous conspiracy theories ensued as criminal investigations implicated multiple agents
05:07 with the Russian government.
05:08 The Litvinenko Justice Foundation spent years collecting hard evidence that they were acting
05:12 on direct orders from the FSB.
05:14 This incident ultimately deteriorated relations between the UK and Russia.
05:18 In 2021, the European Court of Human Rights formally recognized the Russian government's
05:22 responsibility for Litvinenko's murder.
05:25 The trail of polonium traces leads not just from London to Moscow, but directly to the
05:34 door of Vladimir Putin's office.
05:38 Operation Condor
05:39 The Cold War was an era of political upheaval throughout the world.
05:42 Some of the most brutal upheaval came under the quietest influence by powerful states.
05:47 Seven South American countries were particularly wrought by dictatorial uprisings and political
05:52 assassination through the 1970s and 80s.
06:04 This escalated with the official initiation of Operation Condor in '75.
06:08 As early as 1968, however, the US government began covertly assisting regime changes to
06:13 strengthen relations with nearby nations and suppress left-wing movements.
06:17 The systems this inspired in no way resembled the pro-democracy image of American diplomacy.
06:30 Decades of declassification and investigation have linked tens of thousands of deaths, including
06:34 assassinations to the CIA.
06:36 The end of these dictatorships would not be the end of the US-backed terror.
06:40 Abraham Lincoln
06:41 April 15, 1865 was one of the most shocking days in American history.
06:54 Actor and Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth snuck into Ford's theater and fatally
06:58 shot President Abraham Lincoln.
07:00 It turns out, this murder went beyond a political gesture.
07:03 After Booth's death in pursuit, eight people were tried on suspicion of plotting the assassination.
07:08 The immense trial revealed that George Atzerodt, David Herold, and Lewis Powell attempted to
07:13 simultaneously kill the Vice President and Secretary of State.
07:16 They believed this would destabilize the Union enough to reignite the concluding Civil War.
07:30 These men, alongside Mary Surratt, whose guilt is still in dispute, were convicted and executed
07:35 for the ultimately failed plot.
07:37 Surratt was the first woman sentenced to death by the US government.
07:40 History now mostly remembers Booth's tragically successful part.
07:44 Operation Wrath of God
07:45 In 1972, the Palestinian militant group Black September kidnapped 11 Israeli participants
08:00 in the Munich Olympics.
08:01 None of them survived the crisis.
08:03 Afterwards, suspected conspirators in Black September and the Palestine Liberation Organization
08:08 were killed around the world.
08:19 Following the discovery of evidence in 1973 that indicated the innocence of one victim,
08:24 an investigation uncovered Operation Wrath of God.
08:27 Prime Minister Golda Meir personally sanctioned these Mossad-coordinated assassinations in
08:32 response to the Munich Massacre.
08:42 The intelligence also led to Operation Spring of Youth, a bloody raid of PLO leaders' homes
08:47 in Lebanon.
08:48 These campaigns revealed the efficiency of Israeli intelligence but simultaneously provoked
08:52 retaliations and tarnished Israel's political reputation.
08:56 The full scope of Operation Wrath of God remains a mystery.
08:59 Franz Ferdinand
09:00 On June 28, 1914, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand was riding
09:06 through Sarajevo when Gavrilo Princip shot him and his wife dead.
09:14 It was a chance encounter but not an entirely coincidental one.
09:18 Princip was part of a six-man team that failed to hit Ferdinand's motorcade earlier that
09:21 day.
09:25 Their weapons were later linked to the Serbian nationalist group, the Black Hand.
09:29 The conspiracy might have involved even more parties.
09:31 Their ultimate objective was to compromise Austro-Hungarian rule over Bosnia and inspire
09:36 South Slavic unification.
09:37 The assassination only escalated the empire's conflicts with the regional authorities, especially
09:42 as the Archduke was a staunch peace advocate.
09:44 His death ultimately became the catalyst for World War I.
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10:18 July 20th Plot Of the over 40 assassination attempts made
10:21 on the leader of the Nazi regime, the loftiest came from within.
10:34 On July 20th, 1944, a briefcase planted in Adolf Hitler's headquarters exploded, but
10:39 only caused minor injuries to him as it was moved at the last moment.
10:49 Thus ended years of planning by hundreds of people, mostly from the military.
10:53 Their intention was to frame the Nazi party for the bombing, then overthrow the government
10:57 in Operation Valkyrie.
10:58 The plot's motivation, however, is still disputed.
11:00 Some conspirators were disillusioned by the Third Reich's atrocities, while others merely
11:04 sought to resolve World War II in Germany's favor.
11:07 Either way, their failed operation came closest to killing Hitler, before he did the deed
11:11 himself nine months later.
11:13 What do you think of these and other proven conspiracies?
11:15 Join the discussion in the comments.
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