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Official conclusions about the events leading to Dr. King’s death are flawed at best. They have every appearance of an attempt to mask evidence of government participation in the conspiracy to murder and rob our country of a great leader and visionary. It is no secret that the civil rights movement incensed J. Edgar Hoover, director of the FBI. Hoover insisted, “King is the most dangerous man in America – a moral degenerate.” Hoover perceived the civil rights movement as an extension of the “dread specter of communism.” Cartha DeLoach headed the FBI’s relentless harassment of Dr. King and it is well documented that the FBI, through COINTELPRO, engaged in several illegal investigations of many black leaders. They actively participated in the violent suppression of the Black Panthers. In a letter to Dr. King, they tried to convince him to commit suicide or face ruin at the release of the so-called “sex” tapes they acquired during their surveillance of his activities. On one hand, it is easy to point an accusatory finger at a government that routinely veils its more sinister activities under the guise of “national security.” Equally, it is far too easy to accuse conspiracy theorists of being paranoid. There are more questions than answers surrounding King’s death. The racial climate in the late 60’s was extremely tense. Violent attacks against blacks were breaking out everywhere in support of segregation and an overall suppression was in effect by the old school white elitists. Dr. King’s vision of racial harmony and nonviolent policies offered hope and conviction to blacks suffering at the hands of institutionalized racism. He delivered his message with a passion and eloquence that remains unmatched today. Although he was met with much opposition, Dr. King was reaching people of all races and they began to share in his vision of a better nation. As a diplomat for peace, Dr. King challenged social injustice anywhere. He was called to Memphis to assist a group of striking sanitation workers. On March 28, 1968, Dr. King led 6,000 protestors on a march through downtown Memphis. Tragically, the march degenerated into rioting and some black youths engaged in looting. One 16-year-old was killed and over 50 people were injured. Dr. King himself barely escaped injury and was devastated and disheartened by the ugliness of the event. Memphis papers criticized Dr. King for leaving the scene. They also questioned why he patronized the Holiday Inn while in Memphis instead of a black-owned establishment like the “fine Motel Lorraine.” Author Michael Newton suggests that the editorials were taken verbatim from an FBI press release. If indeed the jabs were intended as bait, they were successful. In an attempt to try and remedy the damage done to the movement, Dr. King decided to return to Memphis. The date was set for April 4. He and his entourage booked rooms in advance at the Motel Lorraine. Allegedly, on April 2, an “advance security man” showed up at the motel with a request to change Dr. King’s ground floor room to a room on the second floor. The room’s only access was through an exposed balcony, essentially rendering any security ineffective. On April 4, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King was shot dead on the second floor balcony of the Motel Lorraine. Aides rushed to his side and one, believed to be Marrell McCullough, pointed to the bathroom window of Bessie Brewer’s boarding house. On Main Street, witnesses saw someone run out of the boarding house, toss a bundle containing a 30.06 Remington rifle and some personal effects into the doorway of an adjacent amusement company, and then speed away in a white Mustang. It was not until April 19 that FBI agents announce that the owner of the bundle is none other than small-time petty criminal James Earl Ray. He had checked into the boarding house under the alias John Willard. Unable to find a motive for Ray, the FBI decided he simply hated blacks. This was echoed in the press and another “lone gunman” theory was advanced to a gullible and eager public. Attorney Percy Foreman convinced Ray to plead guilty to the murder. For James Earl Ray, it meant that he would avoid the electric chair. For the government, it meant avoiding a trial and an in-depth investigation. Days later with his new lawyer, Mark Lane, Ray tried to recant his guilty plea, claiming he was coerced by threats to prosecute his family. He claims, “I personally did not shoot Dr. King, but I may have been partially responsible without knowing it.” Ray defends that he was duped into a gunrunning scheme by a character named “Raoul.” It was Raoul that instructed him to check into the boarding house for the purpose of conducting an arms deal. The Remington was a “sample rifle” and the Mustang provided. A researcher into the enigma surrounding the assassination, Philip Melanson, suggests Raoul may have been long time criminal Jules Ricco Kimble, a.k.a. “Rolland.” Associated with New Orleans mob boss Carlos Marcello and the KKK, Kimble admits to knowing Ray and has confessed to participating in the conspiracy to murder Dr. King. Kimble, currently serving two life sentences for racketeering and murder, claims he divulged the entire story to the FBI, that Ray was a patsy, and the real assassins were a team of seven CIA agents, three of whom were dressed like Memphis police, and of those three, one took a shot at King from below the bathroom window of the boarding house. Orders were issued to withdraw Dr. King’s normal police protection the day before the shooting despite numerous death threats. Black officer Edward Redditt was told of a death threat against his life and pulled from the scene. Redditt later acknowledged this as part of the master conspiracy to murder Dr. King. Redditt also later recalled that Director of the Memphis Police Department Frank Holloman’s office was swamped with various military personnel just hours before the assassination. The only eyewitness to identify Ray as the person running down the hall brandishing a rifle was boarding house resident Charles Quitman Stephens. But other boarding house residents insist that Stephens was a drunk and in no condition to render valid eyewitness testimony. However, Stephen’s wife, Grace, was in the hall and she was sober. She refused, against intense government pressure, to finger Ray. Grace Stephens was later committed to a mental institution. Ray, petty thief with no known source of income, managed to make it from Tennessee to Toronto, Canada, to London, to Portugal and back to London again before Scotland Yard apprehended him trying to get into Belgium. He was extradited back to the United States. How did Ray, a small time criminal elude the FBI and possess the means necessary to travel abroad with such ease? In his possession were fake passports and I.D.s that according to Kimble, were supplied by CIA identity specialists. Leading the investigation for the FBI into the assassination is none other than former adversary to Dr. King, Cartha DeLoach. He determines unequivocally that James Earl Ray is the “lone gunman.” And the book was considered forever closed. Thirty four years later, we are still asking the same questions. James Earl Ray, before his death, petitioned eight times in state and federal court for a reopening of his case and was turned down every time. New evidence has cast doubt on the FBI’s claim that Ray’s 30.06 hunting rifle was actually the murder weapon. Dr. King’s family asked that Ray be granted a new trial in which all of these lingering questions would be brought into the spotlight. However, some believe this call to retry Ray was an attempt to further undermine King – they worried a new investigation would surface the alleged King “sex tapes” and could be exploited to further eclipse the great work Dr. King accomplished in his lifetime. In August 1998, Attorney General Janet Reno ordered a federal investigation of the King assassination after meeting with King’s widow, Coretta Scott King, and two of their children. A wrongful death suit was brought and took place in November of 1999. On Wednesday December 8th 1999, a jury of six whites and six blacks in Tennessee's Shelby County District Court took three hours to find that Martin Luther King Jr. was murdered by conspiracy, not by a lone-nut assassin. But the US government will file no charges. More articles on the trial and the conspiracy: Crime Library: James Earl Ray: The Man Who Killed Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., by Mark Gribben |
