We can't really remember the whole middle part, due to blacking out in anger every time we try to read it.
How long do you think it takes conspiracy theorists to turn nasty after a national tragedy? A year? A month? "They emerged immediately," says Pozner. First on the scene was Jonathan Lee Riches, an ex-con infamous for filing countless frivolous lawsuits. In a YouTube video posted two days after the shooting, he argued that Lanza had been mind-controlled by the Illuminati. "[He] left voice mails for Nancy Lanza [Adam's mother, whom he murdered] and Ryan Lanza [Adam's brother] on December 14. On December 16, Riches descended upon Newtown and pretended to be a relative of Adam Lanza. He got arrested, but he made videos right away about how it was a conspiracy to take away civil liberties."
Riches was soon arrested for violating parole, but he was only the vanguard. Merely glancing around the internet, it's not hard to come across examples of Sandy Hook conspiracy theory "tourism." We found an "inquisitive couple" that visited Newtown a little over a month after the shooting and were shocked to find that people didn't want to talk to them (clearly a sign of a cover-up!). Another theorist's website says they visited in 2014 to argue that the entire town is fake. Shit, why stop there? Maybe the entire USA and its history are an elaborate charade intended to deprive 300 million people of their gun rights.
David Ryder/Getty Images News/Getty Images
1466 Comments