As is the norm following the passing of any major celebrity nowadays, the Internet is rampant with conspiracy theories surrounding the death of movie star Paul Walker of "Fast and Furious" fame.
Walker was killed with friend Roger Rodas on Nov. 30 when the car they were driving burst into flames. Investigators believe the car was speeding at least 90 mph in a 45 mph zone when it reportedly hit a light pole and tree.
Prominent among the imaginative schemes is that Walker was killed as a blood sacrifice by the so-called Illuminati, an alleged shadowy group described as an elitist cabal that yields enormous global influence.
Another claim, based on a difficult-to-see video showing the moment of crash impact, is that Walker was killed by a drone strike. That unsupported theory is contested by a second video.
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Another wild conspiracy circulating on forums is that Walker's death was "predicted" by the "Family Guy" television show.
Some theorists home in on aspects of Walker's death that, they claim, have occult, ritualistic or symbolic significance.
Drone
One popular claim is the drone strike rumor. The allegation is based on a video released by TMZ.com showing the final moment of the crash.
The video seems to show some sort of reflection just before Walker's car exploded into flames, prompting cyber claims that an object such as a missile struck the car.
Others have pointed to the lack of tire marks in photos of the crash site as evidence of a supposed missile strike.
Paul Joseph Watson at InfoWars.com, a site known for jumping on other assassination conspiracy theories, called the Walker drone theory a "baseless conspiracy" that "discredits real evidence of political assassinations."
The site reports the object in the video is "almost certainly" the light pole Walker's car struck just before the explosion.
Daniel Worku of the Las Vegas Guardian Express, meanwhile, focuses on the condition of a tree next to where Walker's car finally stopped before exploding.
However, CNN last week broadcast security footage it obtained appearing to show Walker's vehicle knocking down a tree and pole before coming to its final rest at a second tree, perhaps indicating the car was slowed down before its final stop.
No mystery object can be seen in the CNN footage prior to the final impact.
CNN reports its footage shows the car emitted smoke for about 60 seconds before the final big explosion, apparently debunking the claims of an instant strike by a drone.
'Death predicted'
Another debunked Internet claim is that Walker's death was first reported by TMZ.com two days prior to the actual car crash. That claim was based on fabricated reports edited on Internet forums.
One far-fetched YouTube assertion suggests "Family Guy" actually foretold Walker's death by car crash.
The claim stems from a death in an episode aired two weeks ago in which the dog character Brian was run over by a car.
YouTube user Paul Gardiner makes the correlation to Walker because, he asserts, "Brian was Paul Walker's actor's name in 'The Fast & The Furious,' and it was, I believe, like about a week and a half ago, right?"
Gardiner claims "these types of things always tend to be predicted by the media and the industry."
One central factor glaringly missing from many of the conspiracies is an actual motive to murder Walker.
Enter the conspiracy site GodLikeProductions.com, which claimed without any evidence that Walker and Rodas were killed "shortly after they discovered a conspiracy to supply victims of Typhon Haiyan with a prototype permanent birth control drug hidden in medicinal supplies and food aid."
Illuminati, occult symbolism
One trend among the fringes of YouTube is that Walker was killed by the so-called Illuminati as part of an unexplained scheme to create a New World Order.
Some baselessly claim Walker's death was payback for his starring, 13 years earlier, in "The Skulls," a movie about conspiracy theories surrounding Yale University's Skull and Bones student society.
Like scores of other creative users, YouTube user TheGroxt1 says the hour of Walker's death, 3:30 p.m. Pacific, was deliberately timed to correspond to the 33 degrees of Freemasonry.
YouTube user Zhib Rhan notes Walker's car eventually crashed and rested at what appears to be the tip of a pyramid formed by the shape of an adjacent parking lot. The pyramid is a prominent symbol in Illuminati lore.
Rhan may not have noticed, but he could have thrown into his tale that the ocular street also forms the shape of an eye, also a major theme of Illuminati conspiracies, referring to the so-called All Seeing Eye.
YouTube user "Occult Sin" purports to have "100 percent proof Paul Walker was killed by the Illuminati."
Among the user's self-proclaimed concrete evidence is that Wikipedia states Walker acted in a total of 33 movies, pointing, like others, to the symbolic significance of the number 33 in Freemasonry.
Not to be outdone, Youtube User "The Master Music," meanwhile, sees an occult meaning in the license plate of the car in which Walker was killed.
The user claims the plate number of 7CCY590 corresponds to 406 in Jewish "gematria," or numeric equivalency. He claims 406 has occult meaning.
The number, the YouTube user relates, is the Jewish numeric equivalent for the Hebrew name for Metatron, an archangel in Jewish tradition.
The Talmud says Metatron received 60 "strokes with fiery rods" before being transformed into an angel, similar to Walker's fiery death, the imaginative user claims.
Not pointed out is that thousands of other words also have the numeric equivalent of 406.
In addition, "gematria" was designed specifically for the Hebrew language and thus may not apply to English letters, or letters mixed with numbers, such as license plates.
"The Master Music" suggests Walker's co-star, Vin Diesel, was in on the Illuminati conspiracy when he mourned Walker as "an angel up in heaven" while addressing a crowd that had gathered at the crash site.