On this day in conspiracies

In Hampton v. Hanrahan, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit reverses the dismissal of the plaintiffs' civil case, holding that the evidence could warrant a jury finding of a conspiracy, including a post-raid effort to obstruct and conceal.

Ray dies in prison of liver disease at 70, still insisting he was set up by a shadowy handler he called 'Raoul' and still seeking the trial he was never granted.

NATO aircraft bomb the headquarters of Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) in Belgrade during the Kosovo conflict, killing sixteen staff. Weeks earlier Dando had fronted a televised BBC appeal for Kosovo-Albanian refugees. The timing would later anchor a 'Serbian reprisal' theory.

El Mundo begins publishing articles questioning the unexploded Vallecas backpack as evidence, an opening move in what becomes a sustained 'theory of the conspiracy' pressed by parts of the right-wing press and commentators such as Luis del Pino and outlets including Libertad Digital and COPE.

Roquel Bain, 26, visiting from the Dayton, Ohio area specifically to look for the Pope Lick Monster, is struck by a train on the trestle and dies of blunt-force injuries and the fall. Her companion survives by clinging to the side of the bridge. The death draws national attention to the legend's real cost.