Officials treated graffiti found on the Washington Monument on February 19. (Photo by Christina Sturdivant)

Before messages with conspiracy theories were marked on D.C. memorials over President’s Day weekend, similar writing popped up in Boston.

National Park Service spokesperson Mike Litterst said he’s been made aware of graffiti with messages like “Jackie shot JFK” left on a utility pole in Boston that was shared on Twitter last month. And U.S. Park Police spokesperson Anna Rose says that her officers have reached out to the Boston Police Department as part of their investigation.

A WTOP listener told the news outlet that he spotted what looked to be the same graffiti on a mailbox while vacationing in Boston over President’s Day weekend. And a photographer told NBC Washington that he took a photo of similar messages near the Boston Tea Party ships and museum on Thursday, “but the vandalism had been there all week.”

Maisha Miraj, a spokesperson for the Boston Police Department, said she doesn’t have a count of how many of these writings are in the city or when exactly they occurred because no one has reported them directly to police.

In the District, NPS and U.S. Park Police officials announced at a press conference on Tuesday that someone tagged the Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument, World War II Memorial, and a utility box at the intersection of 15th Street and Jefferson Drive SW.

The markings also include phrases such “blood test is a lie… leukemia, cancer and HIV” and references to the September 11th terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.

Litterst told reporters that because the messages were similar in context and handwriting, he believes that the same person is responsible for all of the D.C. tags, which were written using a permanent marker.

Police will charge the suspect with vandalism, and the graffiti is not being classified as a hate crime, said Rose, adding that officials will use surveillance video, among other things, to gather leads and identify a suspect.

Since the press conference, Litterst told DCist that officials have also found the messages on the D.C. War Memorial, a utility box near Roosevelt Island, and on a stop sign near the Sylvan Theater—so there are “at least eight around D.C., as there may be more that are found.”

Filed Under: boston, conspiracy theories, graffiti, lincoln memorial, memorials, park police, vandalism, washington monument, world war ii memorial,