Former Secretary of State and 2016 Democratic Party presidential nominee Hillary Clinton has become the target of insinuations and allegations that she is in some way connected to the so-called suspicious deaths of no less than four people in the past month. But this is a road well traveled by Clinton and her husband, former president Bill Clinton, both of whom have been accused of being involved in the deaths of individuals before, not to mention orchestrating cover-ups and character assassinations through their “Arkansas Mafia” to protect their political power and name. But if Hillary Clinton is an obvious link in the deaths, why has there been no major media coverage? Where is the outrage and the calls for justice like those heard from her detractors when someone mentions emails or Benghazi?

Snopes.com, the fact-checking, urban legend-debunking website, posted its investigation August 10 into the internet conspiracy theory claims that presidential candidate Hillary Clinton was in some way connected to the deaths of four individuals, all supposedly investigating her or able to provide condemnatory evidence against her in some manner, all apparently silenced by Clinton to keep them from divulging said information that could potentially derail her shot at the presidency. The deaths have been deemed suspicious because of their timing (so close together and during the run-up to the 2016 presidential election) and, of course, due to the individuals supposed knowledge of the former secretary of state’s various alleged wrongdoings.

But as Snopes points out, the claims against Hillary Clinton appear to be a continuance of the ongoing “Clinton body count” conspiracy theories that have plagued the Clintons since their days as the First Family of Arkansas. In fact, not only do the claims fall apart under close scrutiny, some of the supporting “facts” about the dead individuals themselves were misleading or untrue. To make matters worse, the initial claim (via Morning News USA, among others) that the deaths occurred within a month was exaggerated; the deaths occurred over a six-week period.

The claims were as follows.

Former United Nations diplomat John Ashe died in June 2016 under “suspicious” circumstances. He was scheduled to testify in US District Court about the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton on June 22.

Democratic National Committee (DNC) staffer Seth Conrad Rich was shot in the back and killed just after 4 a.m. in Washington, D.C. on July 10, 2016. He was allegedly set to talk with the FBI concerning 2016 Democratic primary fraud on July 10.

Author Victor Thorn, who wrote tell-all books about the Clintons, was found dead from a single gunshot wound on August 1.

Shawn Lucas, lead attorney in the anti-DNC fraud case against Hillary Clinton, was found dead at his home on August 8.

Upon closer investigation, the deaths were found to be not all that suspicious.

John Ashe was thought to have died of a heart attack but it was later found that a weight-lifting accident had contributed to his untimely death. But the former diplomat wasn’t set to testify against Hillary Clinton; he was scheduled to engage in pre-trial meetings that pertained to corruption charges against himself.

Staffer Seth Conrad Rich was indeed shot and killed in DC. Authorities say the leading theory was that he was killed in a botched robbery. He was shot in the back twice. Police say nothing was taken, but evidence, which was not disclosed, indicated robbery was the motive for the shooting. Snopes noted that there was nothing to substantiate claims that Rich was on his way to meet with the FBI at 4 a.m.

Author Victor Thorn, according to authorities, was the apparent victim of a single gunshot wound to the head, an apparent suicide.

Shawn Lucas was found dead in a bathroom at his home. The medical examiner’s report on the manner and cause of death is still pending, according to Heavy. However, he was not the lead attorney in the anti-DNC case as internet rumors would have it. He was the process server who delivered the papers notifying the DNC of a pending lawsuit that alleged election fraud against them for their alleged favoritism of Hillary Clinton over Vermont senator Bernie Sanders in the 2016 Democratic primary process. (Snopes also asked what would be the credible rationale for having a process server killed.)

There are reasons why established media outlets like the New York Times, the Associated Press, CNN, and even Fox News shy away from conspiracy theories such as these. They’re incredibly fact-free and based almost purely on conjecture and speculation driven mostly by who the people were in relation to what their vocation was, their relatively young ages at the times of their respective deaths, and outright falsifications about connections to Hillary Clinton (and, in this particular crop among the “body count,” the DNC). Just summary due diligence on the stories find the conspiracy theories lacking.

But as the list of names grow longer and the claims are heard and assimilated by an uninformed populace, their newsworthiness presents in the need to educate and illuminate the conspiracy theories for what they are — unsubstantiated, misleading, and reckless to the point of character assassination. There are those who distrust and detest, for whatever reasons, Hillary Clinton (and, by extension, husband Bill) and continue to readily believe any and all the negative news leveled at the presidential candidate. At the very least, exposition reporting can be helpful in ensuring that the distrust and detestation is not ill-informed.

[Photo by Mark Wilson/Getty Images]