This American Life: #570: The Night In Question
October 25, 2015 12:51 PM - Subscribe

Twenty years ago, the prime minister of Israel was assassinated. The killer was a lone gunman, Israeli and Jewish, just like the prime minister. Lots of witnesses saw it happen; the assassin confessed immediately, that night, and has never recanted. But today, oddly, lots of people don't believe it happened that way. And a question hangs over the country: did this act change the fate of the nation?
posted by ellieBOA (3 comments total)
 
Classic, well produced TAL.

I bet that no one believes there was a cover up would be swayed by this though. They didn't linger super long on the actual forensic testing or the qualifications of the tester.

I like the joke about how most Israeli's look like they're ready to go to the beach at any given time.
posted by latkes at 4:27 PM on October 25, 2015


This was really fascinating. I was young in the 90's when this incident happened, so I was only passingly aware of it. The response by the right seems so calculated, and I can see the same thing happening here.
posted by glaucon at 10:17 AM on October 27, 2015


Perhaps it's too much to expect from a weekly radio program with a small staff - but I wish someone had dug a little further into the circular hole in the clothes story. My natural sympathies are not at all aligned with the conspiracy theorists, but a clean hole punched through two layers of clothing seems really weird. Weird enough it's hard not to wonder if it was staged by metaconspirators.

It's a shame the followup to suggesting it was caused by ER surgical equipment wasn't an interview with people who worked in Israeli trauma centers at the time. That it was something other than a bullet is the bit that's relevant to the story, but it's hardly a satisfying answer.
posted by eotvos at 12:11 PM on November 2, 2015


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