That isn't what the article says though. And no one believes EVERYTHING that governments etc say, of course they lie - only this time they didn't.
Your attitude is common though and I don't blame you for not looking as I understand that you would find it challenging. When theories (conspiracy...
Who knows? If I was being cynical I'd say probably not. 'All political careers end in failure' as Enoch Powell (I think) said. Also I think there's a limit as to how much 'good', or 'bad', a single politician can do on their own, even popular and charismatic ones.
My wife's aunt (a native New Yorker) met him as well when she was a schoolgirl in the early 1960s. They heard he was staying in a hotel near where they lived, so they bunked off school and snuck in to the hotel. It says a lot for the security of the time that not only where they able to hang...