Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia was found dead at a Texas ranch on Saturday and conspiracy theories about his death have already emerged, with many believing that he was murdered by President Barack Obama. However the theories have gained a near level of credibility now that a former Washington D.C. homicide commander has weighed in on the controversy.
His death was first reported by The San Antonio News-Express on Saturday. The report indicates that Scalia, who was 79, died of natural causes. He was invited to the remote Cibolo Creek Ranch to attend a party, but was discovered dead in his room after the owner of the ranch, John Poindexter, went to check on him after noticing that he hadn't come down for breakfast yet.
Scalia's personal doctor, Brian Monahan, has since chimed in about the death, revealing that Scalia had a history of heart problems, high blood pressure. In fact, his health was already was in such bad shape, that he reportedly was too weak to undergo a recent surgery, according to The Daily Mail.
Despite that, due to the nature of his death, especially since no autopsy was scheduled and the hours it took to find a justice of the peace, a flurry of conspiracy theories about what occurred have emerged.
One such theory came from Infowars radio host Alex Jones who posted a now-deleted video on Facebook where he expressed his belief that Scalia was assassinated by the Obama Administration.
"My friends, it's Saturday night, this is an emergency transmission," Jones said in the video that can be viewed here. "The question is, was Antonin Scalia murdered? And the answer to that is, has the Bill of Rights and Constitution been murdered? Has it been reported that members of the Supreme Court have been blackmailed? Yes, it has."
"When they kill somebody, they say, 'it appears to be natural causes, nothing to see,'" he continued. "And I wish it was natural causes, but man, my gut tells me no. And if this is an assassination, this signifies that they are dropping the hammer."
However, it's one thing to have a well-known conspiracy theorist question Scalia's death, but its another thing to have William O. Ritchie, the former head of criminal investigations for the D.C. police, question it as well.
"As a former homicide commander, I am stunned that no autopsy was ordered for Justice Scalia," he wrote on Facebook over the weekend.
"You have a Supreme Court Justice who died, not in attendance of a physician," Ritchie continued. "You have a non-homicide trained U.S. Marshal tell the justice of the peace that no foul play was observed. You have a justice of the peace pronounce death while not being on the scene and without any medical training opining that the justice died of a heart attack. What medical proof exists of a myocardial Infarction? Why not a cerebral hemorrhage?"
Ritchie continued to question the U.S. Marshals who decided that Scalia died by natural causes without conducting a thorough post mortem, according to The Blaze.
"How can the Marshal say, without a thorough post mortem, that he was not injected with an illegal substance that would stimulate a heart attack," he wrote.
"Did the U.S. Marshal check for petechial hemorrhage in his eyes or under his lips that would have suggested suffocation," Ritchie continued. "Did the U.S. Marshal smell his breath for any unusual odor that might suggest poisoning? My gut tells me that there is something fishy going on in Texas."
