That latter is how birther activist, lawyer, and dentist Orly Taitz took the news. “Perfect timing!” Taitz exclaimed on her site. “Our court hearing is scheduled to start in just a few hours. Major networks are supposed to be there with cameras rolling. Suddenly, Obama announces that the body of Osama Bin Ladin [sic] is found and we need to prepare for a possible terrorist act.” She cited a rumor that bin Laden had been killed years ago and his corpse kept on ice, ready to be rolled out when a diversion was needed. The theory has been around for years, but promptly popped up again on May 1, when Alex Jones posted it on his site, InfoWars, also noting that it “follows the release of a highly suspicious birth certificate.” Soon, people like Taitz and Jones had a name: the deathers.

Andy Martin, who is as close as a movement like the birthers comes to having a founder, says conspiracy peddlers like Taitz and Jones are ridiculous. He wants to redirect them to his new movement, which he prefers be called the doubters…

Instead, Navy SEALs shot him, saying he was resisting—a story Martin points out keeps changing—and a story he finds patently ridiculous, anyway. “An old man with kidney problems? A 10-year-old with karate could have taken him.” Instead, Obama ordered him killed, Martin says. Sometimes, Martin implies political motives: Obama didn’t want a messy trial, Martin says—“he wanted the bonus without the onus.” Other times, Martin implies motives that are vaguely sinister: “You have to ask who he’s covering for, if they had interrogated him, what he would have dropped in addition to those hard drives.”