The "Key" is purportedly a synopsis of Roberts' documents that presents a chronicle of interlocking conspiracies, including claims that world events since the 1950s were shaped by suppressed information, the names of supposed shooters of President John F. Kennedy, and suggested connections between a number of political assassinations which occurred within a relatively short time frame.
Roberts, known only to Stephanie Caruana and conspiracy theorist Mae Brussell, purportedly began gathering information in the file when Howard Hughes stole his invention for processing synthetic rubies, hence the title "Gemstone".
[2] According to Gerald Carroll, Roberts was born in New York State on October 27, 1919, and died of lung cancer in San Francisco on July 16, 1976.
Gunderloy wrote that the original Gemstone File was simply a list of contributors to Committee to Re-elect the President (CREEP), while the subsequent versions gradually linked various figures of the Watergate and Kennedy eras.
According to the documents, Lee Harvey Oswald was a patsy in the JFK assassination plan and was linked to the Central Intelligence Agency, and to Mafia connections in New Orleans, with Jimmy Fratianno, Johnny Roselli, and Eugene Brading as the real shooters.