Monday, October 13, 2014YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- That didn’t take long. When a larger-than-life political figure like Jim Traficant unexpectedly dies, conspiracy theories always follow -- and this one is off and running on the Internet.
American Free Press, the virulent far-right organization that promotes itself as “your underground source for uncensored news,” posted an article Oct. 11 with this headline: “Was Jim Traficant Murdered?”
Traficant died Sept. 27 at age 73 from injuries he suffered Sept. 23 in a tractor accident at his family’s farm in Greenford.
The article (CLICK HERE), written by Pete Papaherakles, sets forth a scenario bound to intrigue those who subscribe to the conspiracy theories that American Free Press promotes on its website.
It begins by noting there is “no immediate evidence suggest[ing] Jim was the victim of foul play, but a pathologist wants to examine all possibilities before releasing final ruling on cause of death.” But the article goes on to question how the tractor that crushed Traficant flipped over, the conflicting details reported by local news organizations, and the individual who called 9-1-1. “The people who directly witnessed the incident are being suspiciously light-lipped about what occurred,” it claims.
American Free Press has long promoted Traficant -- most fervently in a book it published -- “Target: Traficant. How They Set Up & Took Down Jim Traficant. After leaving prison, Traficant wrote about international conspiracy theories in commentaries published at the AFP website.
Wrote one reader in response to the article speculating on the cause of Traficant’s death: “Of course he was murdered. He was recorded months earlier on video stating that he would probably be killed, and he was. We must demand law enforcement explore the possibility that Jim was asphyxiated by agents of a foreign power, who then posed his body to look like an accident.”
Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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