ONLY ON WWAY: Professor talks JFK assassination documents, conspiracies

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — Classified documents about the assassination of President John F. Kennedy are expected to be released tomorrow.

But could they hold the missing pieces?

“To me there are so many possibilities about what happened with JFK and the assassination” UNCW Professor David Bollinger said.

Possibilities that may or may not be uncovered with the release of the secret documents. But where do these theories come from?

“Their explanations are incomplete, they leave holes in their explanations. They won’t continue to answer further questions, and out of that conspiracy theories pop up. And JFK is classic,” Bollinger said.

UNCW Professor Bollinger finds conspiracy theories so interesting he teaches a class on them.

“It’s such a big part of our popular culture. I mean it’s just huge and it has to be studied, it has to be looked at,” Bollinger said.

One student taking the class is writing a paper on the JFK murder.

He said he signed up to take the rhetoric of conspiracy because it was something unique.

“I didn’t really expect to see something like that because normally it’s like other types of course like art and music or random things like that, but yeah conspiracy theories were interesting,” student Matthew Floyd said.

Professor Bollinger said he is curious to see what the files might reveal.

“I think it will be helpful. There will defiantly be some cool things in there, but again I just don’t see it flipping the world upside down,” Bollinger said.

He also said people enjoy the mystery behind conspiracies.

“This notion of realizing that sometimes things are not as they seem,” Bollinger said.

The President hasn’t made clear whether he’ll allow the full release or block certain files from being published.