10+ Conspiracy Theories That Turned Out to be True

In 1894, a Jewish French army officer, Alfred Dreyfus, was convicted of selling secrets to Germany and shipped to a prison island. His family and a growing group of supporters swore he’d been framed. Much of France disagreed, often hatefully. The real traitor was still free.

Army officer Georges Picquart discovered the real spy was another officer, Ferdinand Esterhazy. Writer Émile Zola publicly accused the army of a cover-up. Then, in 1898, a major admitted forging evidence against Dreyfus and killed himself. Dreyfus was finally cleared in 1906.