Everybody in the Western world who was alive at the time, knows where they were when President John F Kennedy was shot.

It was a Friday – as is today’s anniversary of the events that happened in Dallas 50 years ago – and I was on a train from Durham to Manchester. I was a district reporter for the Northern Echo and was heading home for the weekend.

I stepped onto the platform at Piccadilly and saw a host of newspaper sellers with special editions of all the national papers. The headlines were stark: Kennedy Assassinated.

It was one of the few global news stories to make such an impact, aided by the technology of the day that made the reporting of world wide news instant.

The death of the President launched a billion words, thousands of articles and books, films, television documentaries and countless conspiracy theories.

Fifty years on a Gallup Poll reveals that 61% of Americans still believe others were involved, besides Lee Harvey Oswald, the accused assassin who was murdered before he could stand trial.

At the time, Kennedy’s election had been greeted with the same fervour as Barack Obama’s: it was seen as a breakthrough, putting in charge of the country, a young dynamic Democrat who wanted to impose civil rights and help the poor. The reality was a little different: Kennedy was a serial philander and not a particularly effective president.

Being assassinated brought sainthood. Who knows how his presidency would have been viewed if he hadn’t been shot? Who knows whether his death was a conspiracy?

It was a time of assassinations.

In April, 1968, Martin Luther King was shot and killed in a Memphis motel. In June the same year, Kennedy’s brother Robert, was shot and killed in a hotel in California during his campaign to become president. Neither event had the same global impact but both produced a raft of conspiracy theories.

James Earl Ray, the alleged assassin of Martin Luther King, was sentenced to 99 years after pleading guilty under what he claimed was duress. He forever afterwards unsuccessfully campaigned for a trial by jury and said he was a scapegoat. He died, still incarcerated, in 1998.

The King family were among many who believed him and they obtained a 1999 civil court ruling that the assassination had in fact been the result of a conspiracy involving the US government.

I did my own research in 1986 and wrote the novel The Dark Apostle about the killing and what might have happened. It was published worldwide, including the US, and I received a fan letter from a chap in Hollywood. He had bought two copies and sent one to James Earl Ray.

Wow, I thought. I wondered what had been Ray’s reaction to the book and my theories? I immediately wrote back: “What did James Earl Ray say about the book?” and then waited hopefully for a reply.

A blue flimsy airmail letter duly arrived and I ripped it open in excitement. The fan had written: “James Earl Ray said thanks.”

No great insights. Just thanks for the book.

Ah well, Ray never was very bright but I still believe he was a patsy.Caption: An assassination that has stayed in the global memory.