Wherever they actually came from, the bullets fired at John F Kennedy that fateful November afternoon seem to have torn a hole in the fabric of reality itself. Nothing has ever been the same since.

The assassination of JFK was soon followed by the fatal shootings of his brother Robert and civil rights activist Martin Luther King, both by an implausible-sounding ‘lone nut’ with a grudge and a gun. Similarly, Brian Jones, Jim Morrison, Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin all appear to have breathed their last under mysterious circumstances.

The deaths of Pope John Paul I, from a massive heart attack after only 33 days in office, and of Italian financier Roberto Calvi, intimately involved with Vatican fiscal affairs through the Banco Ambrosiano and later found hanging by the neck under Blackfriars Bridge, remain subjects of intense speculation.

Suspicions have also been raised over the tragic end of Marilyn Monroe and more recently, Princess Diana. Conspiracy, for those prepared to sift through the facts of such cases, is ultimately about getting away with murder.

Since Watergate, the suffix ‘gate’ has been added to any scandal where people are suspected of malign collusion. 'Irangate' revealed a US government prepared to trade in guns and drugs with some pretty unsavoury overseas regimes. While 'Whitewatergate' and 'Lewinskygate' gave President Clinton’s second term in office a couple of diversions, to say the least.

As for Elvis, if you ever visit Graceland, take a close look at the inscription on the King’s gravestone in the Garden of Meditation and you’ll see that his name has been spelt incorrectly. A second ‘a’ has been added to Aron, making it the final resting place of one 'Elvis Aaron Presley'. A small matter, perhaps, but enough to raise doubts in some people’s minds about whether Elvis Aron Presley ever actually died at all. Did he somehow manage to fake his own death? What surprising revelations might some future Presleygate uncover?

Read on …