James Earl Ray did not Assassinate MLK

[reprehensor]

The State Seal in the Memphis Courtroom

James Earl Ray was effectively exonerated of the assassination of MLK, Jr. by Dr. William F. Pepper in a trial at The Circuit Court of Shelby County, Tennessee, 30th Judicial District at Memphis, in 1999. The trial, "Coretta Scott King, Martin Luther King III, Bernice King, Dexter Scott King and Yolanda King Vs. Loyd Jowers and Other Unknown Co-Conspirators", is commonly called "the Martin Luther King, Jr. Assassination Conspiracy Trial" and is referred to as such at The King Center website, where the transcript of the trial is posted.

FOUR DECADES OF DISINFORMATION

You probably recall the headlines... but wait... there weren't any. The trial was covered in its entirety by one independent journalist, and one reporter from outside of the country. About the only thing that the American public heard about the trial was some filtered coverage through CourtTV.

As the trial progressed over 3 weeks, mainstream news networks in this country ignored the trial. Studiously. They ignored testimony and evidence never before presented in a court of law. Many witnesses were called to testify, among them, William Schaap, co-publisher of Covert Action Quarterly. Pepper, acting for the King family, asked Schaap about the lack of media coverage;

Pepper: "...what is your explanation for the fact that there has been such little national media coverage of ... this trial and this evidence and this event here in this Memphis courtroom, which is the first trial ever to be able to produce evidence on this assassination -- what has happened here that Mighty Wurlitzer is not sounding but is in fact ... almost totally silent?

Schaap: Oh, but -- as we know, silence can be deafening. Disinformation is not only getting certain things to appear in print, it's also getting certain things not to appear in print. ... the first thing I would say as a way of explanation is the incredibly powerful effect of disinformation over a long period of time ... For 30 years the official line has been that James Earl Ray killed Martin Luther King and he did it all by himself ... for 30 years it's James Earl Ray killed Dr. King, did it all by himself. And when that is imprinted in the minds of the general public for 30 years, if somebody stood up and confessed and said: "I did it. Ray didn't do it, I did it. Here's a movie. Here's a video showing me do it." 99 percent of the people wouldn't believe him because ... it just wouldn't click in the mind. It would just go right to, "It couldn't be". It's just a powerful psychological effect over 30 years, of disinformation that's been imprinted on the brains of ... the public.

William Schaap has for several decades been studying the manner in which governments, and the US government in particular, have secretly used the media to put the spin on stories that the governement wants spun in a particular way. He qualifies as an expert on disinformation, and in his Memphis testimony he gives a history of disinformation in the US from WWI up to the late 1970s. I have been given access to original footage from the Memphis trial that hasn't seen the light of day in ten years, and I must say that Schaap's testimony is an 80 minute education in itself.

I have posted Schaap's testimony on YouTube. The first four parts will get you grounded in the history of disinformation, and the last four parts focus on the FBI's targeting of Martin Luther King for special treatment. This treatment included the fabrication of news stories to discredit the SCLC as a Communist vehicle, and psychological warfare directed at King, encouraging him to commit suicide. This was done by sending a cassette tape that allegedly captured Dr. King cheating on his wife, along with a threatening note. Seeing that the FBI, under the aegis of COINTELPRO, was willing to plant stories in the media that were false, it's not a stretch to imagine that the audio cassette, and other alleged audio recordings of Dr. King were fabrications. (For a more "establishment friendly version" of this event, see this recent CNN report.)

The Testimony of William Schaap on YouTube;
http://youtube.com/view_play_list?p=BA69081DC9C0AE84

CNN appears to be the waterboy for establishment spin on MLK these days. In this 1998 online story, typically regurgitating the same old story about Lone Nut, James Earl Ray, CNN refers to Ray as the "confessed assassin" of MLK;

http://www.cnn.com/US/9804/23/ray.obit/

Ray never confessed to the murder of MLK. He plead guilty, but it was an Alford plea. "North Carolina v. Alford... was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States affirmed on a 5-3 vote that there are no constitutional barriers in place to prevent a judge from accepting a guilty plea from a defendant who wants to plead guilty while still protesting his innocence. This type of plea has become known as an Alford plea, differing slightly from the nolo contendere plea in which the defendant agrees to being sentenced for the crime, but does not admit guilt.... courts must accept whatever plea a defendant chooses to enter, as long as the defendant is competently represented by counsel; the plea is intelligently chosen; and "the record before the judge contains strong evidence of actual guilt". Faced with "grim alternatives", the defendant's best choice of action may be to plead guilty to the crime, White wrote, and the courts must accept the defendant's choice made in his own interests."

More recently is this propaganda piece rolled out for the 40th anniversary, reinforcing the notion of the Lone Nut, and the verity of the assassin's rifle;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dre1mcglK1A

Here's what CNN doesn't tell you. The bundle dropped in front of a Memphis amusement shop and "discovered" by a Memphis police officer, was dropped before King was assassinated, according to the owner of the store. The slug removed from Dr. King's body has a different metallurgical composition from the other unfired rounds in the bundle. The scope on the rifle, (which the CNN reporter makes a little fuss about), was not zeroed in, and when test-fired, the rifle was inaccurate by several feet at about a hundred yards. A ballistics test conducted with the rifle indicates that the slug extracted from King's corpse was not even fired from the "evidence" rifle. The rifle is a pump-action rifle, and was not likely to have been rested on a window sill to shoot Dr. King, as alleged. This all according to the testimony of Judge Joe Brown, who has intimate knowledge of the alleged murder weapon.


Judge Joe Brown does not believe that this is the weapon that killed Dr. King

THE KING FAMILY

The King family was very pleased with the verdict reached by the Memphis jury, which read in part;

"In answer to the question did Loyd Jowers participate in a conspiracy to do harm to Dr. Martin Luther King, your answer is yes. Do you also find that others, including governmental agencies, were parties to this conspiracy as alleged by the defendant? Your answer to that one is also yes."


The beautiful and dignified, Coretta Scott King

Coretta Scott King: There is abundant evidence of a major high level conspiracy in the assassination of my husband, Martin Luther King, Jr. And the civil court's unanimous verdict has validated our belief. I wholeheartedly applaud the verdict of the jury and I feel that justice has been well served in their deliberations. This verdict is not only a great victory for my family, but also a great victory for America. It is a great victory for truth itself. It is important to know that this was a SWIFT verdict, delivered after about an hour of jury deliberation. The jury was clearly convinced by the extensive evidence that was presented during the trial that, in addition to Mr. Jowers, the conspiracy of the Mafia, local, state and federal government agencies, were deeply involved in the assassination of my husband. The jury also affirmed overwhelming evidence that identified someone else, not James Earl Ray, as the shooter, and that Mr. Ray was set up to take the blame. I want to make it clear that my family has no interest in retribution. Instead, our sole concern has been that the full truth of the assassination has been revealed and adjudicated in a court of law. As we pursued this case, some wondered why we would spend the time and energy addressing such a painful part of the past. For both our family and the nation, the short answer is that we had to get involved because the system did not work. Those who are responsible for the assassination were not held to account for their involvement. This verdict, therefore, is a great victory for justice and truth. It has been a difficult and painful experience to revisit this tragedy, but we felt we had an obligation to do everything in our power to seek the truth. Not only for the peace of mind of our family but to also bring closure and healing to the nation. We have done what we can to reveal the truth, and we now urge you as members of the media, and we call upon elected officials, and other persons of influence to do what they can to share the revelation of this case to the widest possible audience. I know that this has been a difficult case for everyone involved. I thank the jury and Judge Swearington for their commitment to reach a just verdict, I want to also thank our attorneys, Dr. William Pepper and his associates for their hard work and tireless dedication in bringing this case to justice. Dr. Pepper has put many years of his life, as well as his financial resources, into this case. He has made significant personal sacrifices to pursue the search for the truth about my husband's assassination.

TESTIMONY


Rev. James Lawson Testifies about the Rise of MLK as an International icon

A staggering amount of first-person testimony was brought to the attention of the jury in this case, much of it heard for the first time anywhere. It included testimony from associates of Dr. King, like the Rev. James Lawson, who continues to preach the value of non-violent protest to this day.

It also involved testimony from people who had never met Dr. King, but whose paths were intertwined, like the testimony of one Jack Terrell, (a man pressured by the FBI into NOT testifying during the Iran Contra scandal), a man who became involved in covert operations and was told by one of his colleagues about a covert team that was training with .306 rifles, and was ultimately dispatched to Memphis. However, their "mission" was cancelled as another arrangement to kill Dr. King was successful.

Terrell was too ill to appear in court, and gave his testimony via sworn video testimony;


Jack Terrell tells his tale

Pepper conducted the testimony in a devastating manner, which allowed the jury to reach a quick verdict. Pepper's opening and closing arguments are also posted on YouTube;

Pepper opening statement
http://youtube.com/view_play_list?p=2FAC077DA71CC8D6

Pepper closer
http://youtube.com/view_play_list?p=6CDDC2D378CC12CD


Dr. William F. Pepper


Pepper at work

Here is part of Pepper's closer;

Governmental agencies caused Martin Luther King to be assassinated... They caused this whole thing to happen. And they then proceeded with the powerful means at their disposal to cover this case up. This is a conspiracy... and that's a nasty word. People insult people in this country who use the word "conspiracy." Nowhere else in the world, as Bill Schaap told you, is it viewed that way. In Italy and France conspiracy is taken for granted because they have lived with it so much longer...

What we're asking you to do at this point in time is send a message. We're asking you to send a message, not just right a wrong. That's important, that you right a wrong and that you allow justice to prevail once and for all. Let it prevail. Let justice and truth prevail, else the heavens fall. No matter what, let it prevail. Let it come forward. We're asking you to let that happen. But in addition to that, we're asking you to send a message, send a message to all of those in power, all of those who manipulate justice in this country that you cannot get away with this. Or if you can get away with it, you can only get away with it for so long."

FORTY YEARS TOO MANY

The government lied. The government lies. The government uses its intelligence agencies and assorted assets to enact agendas that may or may not be in your best interest. Can there be any doubt that murdering Dr. King was not in the interest of Black Americans, or the poor, who he was beginning to see as the oppressed of the entire world?

Dr. King was murdered after he became a vociferous opponent to the Vietnam War and had plans to march on Washington and stay there with a virtual city of poor people until there was some change. How well do you think that idea went over in the halls of power and influence?

Please watch the videos I have posted, and read as much of the transcript of the trial as you deem relevant.
http://www.thekingcenter.org/news/trial.html#Transcript

Forty years of lies are forty years too many. James Earl Ray did not kill Dr. King, no matter how many times CNN, ABC, NBC, tell you that he did.

Think about Operation CHAOS, or think about The CIA and the Media.

The Mighty Wurlitzer played for Dr. King, and it wasn't a very pleasant song.

[Political Heretic]

1. Dr. King was mudered after he began to speak out agressively against encomic inequality in America.

[reprehensor]

61. DIGG this post!

http://digg.com/politics/40_Years_of_MLK_Disinformation_Comes_to_an_End

[beezlebum]

68. dugg

and kicked and rec'd

[JuniperLea]

2. Well done, reprehensor!

Another "conspiracy theory" proved true, afaic!

God bless Ms. King and her children for not letting this go until they got results.

K&R... bookmarked... now off to view the videos!

Thanks for this... really... we need more OP's like this!

[Selatius]

3. He was killed because he was a democratic socialist.

Towards the end of MLK's life, his message started to grow in terms of scope. In the early days, it emphasized the struggle against segregation, but towards the end it started broadening towards the fundamental question of social justice or economic justice. That is probably the final straw that led to his assassination. He talked about uprooting the old system entirely and replacing it. For people who profited off the old system, this was too much.

You can't talk about solving the economic problem of the Negro without talking about billions of dollars. You can't talk about ending the slums without first saying profit must be taken out of slums. You're really tampering and getting on dangerous ground because you are messing with folk then. You are messing with captains of industry… Now this means that we are treading in difficult water, because it really means that we are saying that something is wrong… with capitalism… There must be a better distribution of wealth and maybe America must move toward a democratic socialism.

-- MLK, Frogmore, South Carolina, November 14, 1966. Speech in front of his staff

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_luther_king

[Canuckistanian]

17. I never realized he made that quote. Very revealing.

I'm more inclined to believe that he was considered so 'dangerous' to the powers-that-be.

[Selatius]

26. When you think about it, he probably was the most influential socialist in American history.

America is built upon capitalism, not socialism. In light of that, yeah, he presented a potentially devastating threat to the people on Wall Street who were profiting off the war and off of people's misery in the slums. Today, he likely still is the most influential socialist. Nobody since him has come even close.

[ananda]

94. Thank you. I didn't realize..

.. that MLK was such a great socialist.

That made my day.

[H2O Man]

42. In his papers

from his university days, King made clear that he was a democratic socialist.

[fascisthunter]

48. That Is What I Consider Myself to Be: A Democratic Socialist

and I am proud to know I am in good company.

[Just-plain-Kathy]

54. I was just thinking the same thing. ...n/t

[redqueen]

62. Exactly. (nt)

[Ilsa]

99. This quote:

"Now this means that we are treading in difficult water, because it really means that we are saying that something is wrong… with capitalism… There must be a better distribution of wealth and maybe America must move toward a democratic socialism."

I wouldn't be too surprised if W* pulled the trigger himself if he had heard MLK say that.

Thank you to the OPer and Selatius for your wonderful posts.

[alfredo]

4. I think G Gordon Liddy was there that day.

[nichomachus]

5. Just part of the fascist takeover

All but the most deluded now agree that Lee Harvey Oswald didn't fire the shots that killed JFK.

There is overwhelming evidence that Sirhan Sirhan didn't fire the shots that killed RFK.

And anyone who cared to look into it is pretty sure that John Hinckley didn't fire -- no, couldn't have fired -- the shot that hit Reagan.

Also, Nixon's takedown, while Democrats took part, was engineered from the inside. Nixon was a lot of things, but he was probably slightly to the left of Bill Clinton:

Nixon started the EPA, extended the Clean Air Act, opened relations with China, set a goal for independence from foreign oil, introduced SSI for the disabled, launched the Minority Business Development Agency, signed the Occupational Safety and Health Act, and implemented the first federally-mandated affirmative action program.

It was absolutely essential to the fascists that he be stopped. When he was brought down, Gerald "Zero" Ford was installed and while he played with his putz in the oval office, the fascists flooded into government -- Cheney, Rumsfeld & Co. They have never left.

Corporate CEOs, along with Prescott Bush tried to set up a fascist dictatorship in 1934. They were discovered, and the plot was stopped. However, they weren't hanged, as they should have been. They went underground, but resurfaced with the mid-60s massacre of JFK, RFK and MLK. Since then, we've seen a slow-motion coup that is almost complete.

[lostnotforgotten]

24. Yes - For Al His Flaws Nixon Was Lightyears Ahead Of Mainstream Republicans

eom

[defendandprotect]

30. Well . . . the times were different. So was Eisenhower re the military ---

look at his warning.

[Art_from_Ark]

39. I just wonder why Eisenhower waited so long to make it

That was part of his Farewell Address, I believe, made in late 1960 just a few weeks before he left office.

[formercia]

41. He knew the danger

Back in those days, talking out of school could really shorten your life expectancy.

[RaleighNCDUer]

59. Yep. If he'd had an 'accident' we would have had President

Nixon much sooner, and they did not get along. He knew that Nixon was smart and paranoid and way too flawed to be a good executive, and didn't want the country saddled with that.

Eisenhower was our last good republican president (and that's not saying much).

[Name removed]

35. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[madrchsod]

46. you forgot-wage and price controls

[RaleighNCDUer]

60. Yep,

The damn socialist.

[DrDebug]

6. Excellent summary. Very much recommended

The King family have made a public statement that all those who are interested are urged to read the transcript of the 1999 trial which has been made available at: http://thekingcenter.org/tkc/trial.html

http://www.geocities.com/~virtualtruth/king.htm

© 1998, 1999, 2000 Jackson H. Day
Reference anything from these pages that you wish; the more sites that contain this material, the more it will enter into public consciousness and make a positive difference for change.

The Killing of Martin Luther King, Jr:
Assassination or Execution?

April 4, 1967, Riverside Church, New York City. Martin Luther King, Jr. condemns the Vietnam War and identifies the U.S. government as "the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today." The Riverside Church speech provokes intense hosility in the White House and FBI. Hatred and fear of King deepens in response to King's plan to hold the Poor People's Campaign in Washington, D.C., with an intent to shut down the nation's capital in the spring of 1968. (1)

Summer of 1967, Montreal, Canada. Three months after escaping from a Missouri prison, James Earl Ray meets a man named Raul in Montreal. Raul guides Ray's movements and gives him money for the Mustang car and a rifle. Ray later believed that this had been a set-up.(2)

March-April, 1968, Washington, D.C.. In the three weeks before the killing of Martin Luther King, Jr., FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover holds a series of meetings with "persons involved with the CIA and military intelligence in the Phoenix operation in Southeast Asia.(3)

March-April, 1968, Jim's Grill, Memphis, Tennessee. Jim's Grill, a Memphis restaurant whose back door opens onto the dense bushes across from the Lorraine Motel, is owned by Loyd Jowers.

Jowers is asked by Mafia-connected produce dealer Frank Liberto to help in the murder of King and is told there will be a decoy in the plot. Jowers is also told that the police "wouldn't be there that night." Liberto has courier deliver $100,000 for Jowers to hold at his restaurant. (4)

Meetings to plan the killing of King take place at Jim's Grill. Participants include: (5)

• Marrell McCollough, an undercover Memphis Police Department officer who was later a CIA employee.
  
• Earl Clark, a Memphis Police Department Lieutenant who died in 1987
  
• A third third MPD officer;
  
• two men Jowers did not know but thought were federal agents.

Raul is present at one of the meeting and brings a rifle for Jowers to hold.(6) The rifle is in a box.(7)

March-April, 1968. The 111th Military Intelligence Group based at Fort McPherson in Atlanta, Georgia had Martin King under surveillance, including wiretaps.( 8 )

April 3, 1968, Memphis Police Department.

MPD Captain Jerry Williams, who normally formed a security unit of black officers when King came to Memphis, is not asked to form a bodyguard, having been told that someone in King's entourage had asked for no security. (1999 court testimony of Williams)

Emergency tactical forces, in this case it was Tact 10, a group of four or five police cars with officers from the sheriff's and police department were round the Lorraine Motel until the afternoon before the killing. The afternoon of the 3rd they were ordered to be pulled back to the fire station on the periphery. (9)

April 3, 1968, Memphis Fire Station #2. Fire Station #2 is located across from the Lorraine Motel

After listening to King's "I've Been to the Mountain Top" speech at the Mason Temple, black firefighter and civil rights activist Floyd E. Newsum is told he is temporarily transferred away from Fire Station #2. Eventually he is told the transfer was ordered by the Police Department.(10)

Norvell E. Wallace, the only other black firefighter at Fire Station 2, also is temporarily transferred away. The officer ordering this tells Wallace that this is in response to Wallace having been threatened.(11)

April 4, 1968, the morning before the killing.

Carthel Weeden, captain of Fire Station 2, is on duty and is approached by two U.S. Army officers carrying briefcases who indicate they have cameras and state they want a lookout for the Lorraine Motel. Weeden shows them the station roof and leaves them at the edge of its northeast corner behind a parapet wall, from where the officers have a clear view of King's balcony and also can look down on the brushy area adjacent to the fire station.(12)

Members of the Army's 111th Military Intelligence Group, who had previously been associated with the Phoenix assassination program in Vietnam, are in Memphis and have been keeping King under 24 hour a day surveillance.(13) In addition to military intelligence agents, Army personnel present in Memphis include Green Berets.(14)

Bobbie Balfour, a waitress at Jowers' boarding house, was ordered not to deliver food to the second floor (where the staging area for the assassination was) on the day of the shooting.(15)

April 4, 1968, the afternoon before the killing.

Four tactical police units that had been patrolling the immediate vicinity of the Lorraine Motel are pulled back. Later, when MPD Inspector San Evans (now deceased) was asked why the units were pulled back, Evans said a local pastor associated with King had ordered it. The pastor, however, denied this.(16)

Ed Redditt, a black Memphis Police Department detective, is removed from his surveillance post at Fire Station 2. Redditt had been watching King and his party across the street. MPD Intelligence Officer Eli Arkin comes to Fire Station 2 to take Reditt to Central Headquarters, where he is met by Police and Fire Director Frank Holloman, a retired FBI agent who had been head of the FBI Memphis field office as well as appointments secretary for J. Edgar Hoover. Holloman tells Redditt that a secret service agent has just flown in from Washington with information about a threat on Redditt's life and orders him to go hom. Arkin drives him. As they arrive, they hear on the car radio about the King assassination.(17)

Frank Liberto was heard to say over the phone "Shoot the son-of-a-bitch when he comes on the balcony." This information was given to the police and FBI and forgotten about. Liberto had previously told Mrs. Lavada Addison, "I arranged to have Martin Luther King killed. His remark was confirmed by Addison's son, Nathan. Loyd Jowers claims that he had been approached by Mr. Liberto and asked to assist in the assassination. Jowers was to be contacted by a man named Raul, who would give him a gun. Jowers received the gun after the shooting.(18)

April 4, 1968, around 6 PM, 10 minutes before the killing. Guy Canipe, owner of the Canipe Amusement Company, observes a bundle being dropped in the Main Street doorway of his company, one block from the Lorraine. The bundle consists of a 30.06 Remington Gamemaster rifle and unfired bullets.(19)

April 4, 1968, a little after 6 PM, King is killed on Lorraine Motel balcony.

Marrell McCollough, now a CIA employee, but then an MPD intelligence agent who had infiltrated a Memphis community organizing group called The Invaders, is driving around with James Orange and James Bevel at the time King is shot. Immediately after hearing the shot, James Orange saw King's leg danglling over the balcony. (20) McCollough runs up the balcony stairs with King followers and kneels beside the body, seeking for a pulse, right after the shooting. (21)

Army Psyops teams photographed everything that happened at the Lorraine Motel that day. None of the film has ever been released to the public.(22)

April 4, 1968, a little after 6 PM: the sniper's shot from the brush.

Members of the U.S. Army 111th Military Intelligence Group "watched and took photos while King's assassin moved into position, took aim, fired and walked away."(23)

Olivia Catling, who lives a block away and who had walked down the street hoping to get a glimpse of King at the hotel, heard the shot which killed him and runs with her children to the corner of Mulberry and Huling Streets.(24)

Within 5-10 seconds of the shot, James Orange saw smoke smoke coming from the brush area on the opposite side of the street, and subsequently never doubted that the fatal shot was fired by a sniper concealed in the brush area behind the derelict buildings.(25)

From the brushy area adjacent to Fire Station #2, a person with his back toward mulberry street, moving rather fast and "wearing some sort of light-colored jacket with some sort of hood or parka" is seen by Solomon Jones, King's chauffer.(26)

Immediately after the killing, MPD Lieutenant Earl Clark gives a smoking rifle to Jowers at the rear door of Jim's Grill. Jowers does not see who killed King, but believes it was Clark, the MPD's best marksman.(27)

Olivia Catling observes a man in a checkered shirt run from an alley beside a building across from the Lorraine and jump into a green 1965 Chevrolet as a police car drives up behind him. Later,

Catling is convinced the running man is not James Earl Ray.(28)

Catling also hears a fireman standing alone across from the motel say to the police who drive up, "the shot came from that clump of bushes," referring to an overgrown area facing the Lorraine and adjacent to Fire Station 2.(29)

April 4, 1968, MPD respond to the shooting.

Catling observes the police ignore the man in the green 1965 Chevrolet and block off a streeet, leaving his car free to go the opposite way. "The Police...asked not one neighbor 'what did you see?'"(30)

James Orange's attempts to tell what he saw to the police who tell him to be quiet and get out of the way.(31)

April 4, 1968, after the shooting.

J.D. Hill, a member of an army sniper team in Memphis, has been assigned to shoot "an unknown target" and, following training for a triangular shooting, is with the sniper team taking up positions in a water tower and two buildings in Memphis when their mission is suddenly cancelled.

Hill realized the next day that the team must have been part of a contingency plan to kill King if another shooter failed.(32)

Snipers from the U.S. Army 20th Special Forces Group were present in Memphis during the shooting but did not participate " because the Mob contract was successful in killing Martin Luther King and framing James Earl Ray." (33)

April 4, 1968, night. Police "find" the 30.06 Remington Gamemaster that had been dropped in the Main Street doorway of the Canipe Amusement Company, one block from the Lorraine, and say it was dropped by Ray just before he jumped in his white Mustang and drove to Atlanta. Criminal Court Judge Joe Brown, who later presided over two years of hearings into the evidence, states, "It is my opinion ... that this is not the murder weapon ... 67% of bullets from my tests ... did not match the Ray rifle" Unfired bullets found with the rifle wrapped ina blanket are "metallurgically different" from the bullet taken from King's body. Rifle's scope had not been sited, therefore the Remington would have been impossible to properly aim.(34)

April 5, 1968, the Brush adjacent to Fire Station #2.

7 AM: Maynard Stiles, a senior official in Memphis Sanitation Department, receives call from MPD Inspector Sam Evans "requiring assistance clearing brush and debris from a vacant lot near the site of the assasination." Stiles assembles crew, goes to site, and cleans it up in a slow, methodical, meticulous manner under the direction of the police department. (Trial testimony, 1999).

8AM-9AM. James Orange notices that all bushes and brush on the hill were cut down and cleaned up. (James Orange, 1993 affidavit).

1969 The Ray Trial.

The State's main witness, Charles Stephens, was drunk at the time and was incapable of identifying anybody. Yet it was the affidavit of Charles Stephens that brought James Earl Ray back to this country from England. (35)

James Earl Ray pleads guilty to murder. Three days later, Ray fires his lawyer Percy Foreman and asks Judge Preston Battle for a new trial, something he unsuccessfully seeks for the rest of his life until his death in 1998.

1976-1978. D.C. Congressional Delegate Walter Fountroy chairs subcommittee of House Select Committee on Assassinations investigating the King assassination and discovers electronic bugs on his phones and TV set. When "Richard Sprague, HSCA's first chief investigator, said he would make available all CIA and FBI records, he became a focus of controversy and media attacks. Sprague was forced to resign. His successor made no demands on U.S. intelligence agencies. (Fountroy testimony, 1999 trial).

1978 William Pepper begins investigating King Assassination and becomes convinced Ray is innocent.

1995 William Pepper and British television producer Jack Saltman, working on independent investigations, locate Raul, living quietly with family in Nebraska US.

1995 William Pepper publishes Orders to Kill: The Truth Behind the Murder of Martin Luther King.

1997 King family contacts Pepper and after seeing his evidence is convinced and supports Ray's request for a new trial.

1997 Raul's family is visited by "the government" three times, and family believes government is watching over them and monitoring their phone calls, taking comofrt in the impression that they are being protected. (Barbara Reis of Lisbon Publico, interview with a family member of Raul).

1998 James Earl Ray dies. King family unsuccessfully asks President Clinton to establish a Truth and Reconciliation Commission comparable to South Africa's that would offer legal immunity in exchange for truth telling.

1998 Loyd Jowers makes a tape-recording of a two-hour-long confession at a meeting with Dexter King and Andrew Young. Young believes Jowers wants "to get right with God." Jowers denies knowing the plot's purpose was to kill King.

1998 King Family files wrongful death suit against Loyd Jowers, who had said he had been part of a conspiracy to kill King. Suit is called King v. Jowers and Other Unknown Co-Conspirators. To emphasize that the purpose of the suit is simply to get at the truth, the King Family asks only $100 in damages.

December 1999, 12 person jury (6 white, 6 black), rules that Jowers is guilty as charged; King was murdered by an intricate plot that included government agencies.

http://www.geocities.com/~virtualtruth/king.htm

[Ifonly]

22. How would you rate the way they pulled this off?

Good summary! Yup, I read the book "Orders to Kill: The Truth Behind the Murder of Martin Luther King" when it came out and even met William Pepper at an assassination convention. The guy is a hero in my opinion! So how would you rate the way they pulled off this conspiracy? I would give it a D. I don't think they did too good a job. I mean come on, throwing down the 'murder weapon' 10 minutes in advance? Give me a break! The people who took out JFK did a much better job. But I would love to see that mystery solved with as much resolve and clarity as Pepper did to this one. WOW!

[defendandprotect]

31. Interesting question . . . evidently there was the final team there. .. . just in case ---

I've recently heard that in the JFK coup that there might have been a bomb ready if the shots
didn't succeed --- ?

It also seems that someone fired too early, making it more obvious that JFK was hit from the front?

Lots of things go wrong in these coups --- that's why it's essential to first ensure that you
have the cover-up power in place --- LBJ was that as president and seemingly part of the coup.
Hoover, of course.

[DrDebug]

38. This was mainly a local team

Pepper did an amazing job, however this seems to have been a military group which set it up and created a local team consisting of MPD officers who could be trusted, however they were not professionals.

The core team at JFK is Operation 40 which already had years of experience failing to assassinate Fidel Castro and is a group with big names. JFK is filled with false leads as well which will obscure a detailed overview of what happened. Neither the media nor the political establishment has any intention of solving JFK to this level, because it most likely involved four Presidents, and we have the son-of thing as well. MLK only involves Nixon and Hoover who were already dead at the time.. Then again people who have studied JFK know that the overall story is known and has been known for a long time as well and is still being ridiculed and ignored.

I like the idea of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission with regards to JFK. And yes, that includes immunity for George H.W. Bush if he can tell the truth for the first time in his life...

[ooglymoogly]

87. self delete wrong place

Imo all the conspiracies were clumsy and their explanations for what happened in these many conspiracies were comical if so many people were not killed. We on the left have to face reality. Our pug govt. is willing and able to lie, steal and cheat and to murder anyone who gets in their way. They have the FBEye to do their dirty work and the pug owned media to cover it up, and that is a potent and almost unbeatable combination short of revolution. Big kick and Rec.

[LukeSkywalker]

32. James Earl Ray A Sexual Blackmailer???

I wonder if James Earl Ray was a blackmailer doing surveillance on the sexual exploits of someone's political enemies? We know the FBI was surveiling MLK for dirt... and then there is this bit I saw on www.crimelibrary.com:

"While in Birmingham, Ray claims Raoul ordered him to purchase some 8mm movie equipment through the mail, which Ray did. Correspondence between Ray and the camera company shows that a Super 8mm camera, projector, editing machine and a 20-foot remote control cable were sent to Ray during the month of September 1967. Ray was apparently unsatisfied with the camera and returned it. He asked for a refund to be sent to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. Ray also purchased a $245 Polaroid camera at the same time."

...

"Posner offers a more likely explanation for why Ray would buy the high-quality equipment. James had already talked to his brother Jerry about getting into the lucrative but still very underground porn business. Records showed Ray purchased a chemical compound that could allegedly turn a piece of glass into a two-way mirror through which he could surreptitiously film women."


From this site:
http://www.crimelibrary.com/terrorists_spies/assassins/ray/6.html

[Maestro]

92. Wow!

Excellent summary. Bookmarked!

[ancient_nomad]

7. Just an excellent post!

Thank you so much. Now off to read and watch.

[reprehensor]

89. If you only have time for one...

Watch William Schaap's testimony, it is literally almost unbelievable.

http://youtube.com/view_play_list?p=BA69081DC9C0AE84

Almost.

[flashl]

8. Excellent!

[Myrina]

9. K&R and let us never forget ...

... the kind of people who really run this country, and what they're capable of.

KKKarl is just Jr. Brownshirt Wanna-be compared to some of them. :(

[EFerrari]

10. K&R

[malaise]

11. Great post

Thank you.

K&R

[Ichingcarpenter]

12. Great Post- Thom Hartman is covering this story tomorrow which

He said will unload a bombshell with a guest. I didn't catch the rest of it.
I looked into the King Murder years ago and the 'Official story" stunk.

[seemslikeadream]

21. Thanks so much Ichingcarpenter

I will NOT miss that, will you post a heads up tomorrow as a reminder?

[defendandprotect]

27. Thanks for that --- I'll definitely be trying to listen to Hartman tomorrow --

[Ichingcarpenter]

75. The third hour of the Show today

he will discuss who and why 'they' killed MLK.

[applegrove]

13. Let the Kings Rest In Peace.

[JohnyCanuck]

14. "Ray did not kill Dr. King, no matter how many times CNN, ABC, NBC, tell you that he did"

Just blows my mind that the corporate media by their coverage (or lack of coverage) of this issue can be so obvious in showing us that they are not in the business of providing news and information but rather in the business of feeding the BULLSHIT to the mushrooms kept in the dark. And 90% of America doesn't have a fricking clue.

If they could assassinate MLK (and god knows how many others) and so easily get away with it, it makes a mockery of the so-called democratic process.

[redqueen]

65. IMO it makes a mockery of the citizens.

This information isn't locked up in a vault. It's not hidden. (Well, not in this particular case, at this point.) Only the individual can decide to actively seek information for themselves. We decide for ourselves what we will learn.

[onethatcares]

15. and Rev. Jeramiah Wright said in a speech,

"never let your history be written by someone else".

Quite by accident, I got to hear his speech about Dr. Martin Luther King, and about Malcolm X and I was totally enthralled. We see now who runs this country, those that write the history.

[Devlzown]

16. K&R

Thanks for this!

[Delphinus]

18. Another K&R -

and now time to read and view. Thanks!

[reprehensor]

97. If you only have time to watch one...

Watch William Schaap's testimony;

http://youtube.com/view_play_list?p=BA69081DC9C0AE84

And pass it around on other blogs/message boards, please.

It's 80 minutes you won't regret spending.

[Kurovski]

19. K&R&bookmarked. (nt)

[jeffrey_X]

20. Wow. Great post. Thanks for the summary.

K&R

[Orwellian_Ghost]

23. The Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. was an Act of State

A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death. . . .
We can no longer afford to worship the god of hate or bow before the altar of retaliation. The oceans of history are made turbulent by the ever-rising tides of hate. History is cluttered with the wreckage of nations and individuals that pursued this self-defeating path of hate.

--Martin Luther King, Beyond Vietnam Address delivered to the Clergy and
Laymen Concerned about Vietnam, at Riverside Church, NYC, 4/4/67

In his closing remarks on the last day of the trial, Dr. Pepper touched upon the underlying dynamics of what created the circumstances of Dr. King's execution:

Martin King, as you know, for many years was a Baptist preacher in the southern part of this country, and he was thrust into leadership of the civil rights movement at a historic moment in the civil rights movement and social change movement in this part of the country. That's where he was. That's where he has been locked in time, locked in a media image, locked as an icon in the brains of the people of this country.

But Martin King had moved well beyond that. When he was awarded the Noble Peace Prize he became in the mid-1960's an international figure, a person of serious stature whose voice, his opinions, on other issues than just the plight of black people in the South became very significant world-wide. He commanded world-wide attention as few had before him. As a successor, if you will, to Mahatmas Gandhi in terms of the movement for social change through civil disobedience. So that's where he was moving. Then in 1967, April 4, 1967, one year to the day before he was killed, he delivered the momentous speech at Riverside Church in New York where he opposed the war.

Now, he thought carefully about this war. . . . I remember vividly, I was a journalist in Vietnam, when I came back he asked to meet with me, and when I opened my files to him, which were devastating in terms of the effects upon the civilian population of that country, he unashamedly wept.

I knew at that point really that the die was cast. This was in February of 1967. He was definitely going to oppose that war with every strength, every fiber in his body. And he did so. He opposed it. And from the date of the Riverside speech to the date he was killed, he never wavered in that opposition. Now, what does that mean? Is he an enemy of the State? The State regarded him as an enemy because he opposed it. But what does it really mean, his opposition? I put it to you that his opposition to that war had little to do with ideology, with capitalism, with democracy. It had to do with money. It had to do with huge amounts of money that that war was generating to large multinational corporations that were based in the United States . . .

When Martin King opposed the war, when he rallied people to oppose the war, he was threatening the bottom lines of some of the largest defense contractors in this country. This was about money. When he threatened to bring that war to a close through massive popular opposition, he was threatening the bottom lines of some of the largest construction companies, one of which was in the State of Texas, that patronized the Presidency of Lyndon Johnson and had the major construction contracts at Cam Ran Bay in Vietnam. This is what Martin King was challenging. He was challenging the weapons industry, the hardware, the armament industries, that all would lose as a result of the end of the war. . . .

Now, he begin to talk about a redistribution of wealth, in this the wealthiest country in the world that had such a large group of poor people, of people living then and now, by the way, in poverty. That problem had to be addressed. And it wasn't a black-and-white problem. This was a problem that dealt with Hispanics, and it dealt with poor whites as well. That is what he was taking on. That's what he was challenging.

...

http://www.ratical.org/ratville/JFK/MLKactOstate.html">An Act of State



K&R

[BuyingThyme]

96. I read this book within the last month or so.

If this thread interests any of you, check out the book.

[JohnyCanuck]

25. I went to the CNN feedback page

http://www.cnn.com/feedback/cnntv/ and clicked on the link to submit a story idea. I suggested that since it was coming up on the 40th anniversary of the assassination, they should do a story on MLK assassination trial, especially as they had failed to cover the trial when it occurred in 1999. I told them the jury's verdict was being discussed on the internet and it made their 40th anniversary special (linked above in reprehensor's OP) look like the work of an uneducated, incompetent reporter or a government disinfo specialist. I then threw in, for their edification, a few snips from reprehensor's post. Of course, the bastards are so shameless, I figure some flunky will read it and bust a gut that some deluded fool out there really thinks he can make a difference just by giving CNN shit for spreading lies

[defendandprotect]

29. What's CNN . . . ????

Turn off the TV's . . . !!!

[JohnyCanuck]

36. True n/t

[defendandprotect]

28. Thank you! And bookmarked --- and will try to move the info around . . .

I knew of it because of Southern Poverty Law which kept us informed of the trial and the verdict.
But, until recently I wasn't aware that there was material available --
The Wm. Pepper tape was the first I knew of.

Yes -- I think we all have a responsibility to pass this info on and make sure that people do
know what really happened.

And thank you to the King family and all their work on this over many years.
Dangerous for them, I'm sure, at times.

And to Wm. Pepper Thank you --
Why don't we have people like him on the Supreme Court --- !! ????

[TTUBatfan2008]

33. J. Edgar Hoover...

was a racist, McCarthyist asshole. It seems as though all of our great leaders have been conspired against in their deaths. Who wants to bet that Lincoln's murder was arranged by some really powerful politicians from the South? And of course we know the conspiracy theories about JFK and LBJ. It's not JUST individuals carrying this crap out as the official government story tells us. There's always something else at work behind the scenes.

[autorank]

34. Thank you. What if...

...the closest people to John or Robert Kennedy testified under oath that the assassination stories were
all wrong? What if they stated this publicly whenever asked? That would blow people away.

The people you show, family members and political comrades, are united in their belief that this was a
larger conspiracy, a term that describes most major crimes. Their testimony won the day in court.

Where's the press? Where's the investigation?

Great stuff. K*R

[TTUBatfan2008]

37. And of course...

Dick fucking Cheney was quoted long ago saying that the neo-cons needed another Pearl Harbor to get their agenda accepted into the culture. It's pretty clear to me what has always gone on in this country. People like this do not care about murdering innocent people. It's all a game to get more power and make more money. That's all there is to it. Honestly, Pearl Harbor is about the only one I think was legit. Everything since then has had some kind of effing conspiracy behind it, including 9/11, Iraq War, and Katrina -- all in the last 7 years. It's just maddening.

[muryan]

40. judge joe brown?

the guy with the tv show....?

[BuyingThyme]

95. Yes.

[muryan]

101. i was unaware that at any point in time

he was actually relevant. You learn something new everyday i guess

[barbtries]

43. eh you made me late to work

watching schaap's testimony. riveting. i'll visit this thread later. i've known for some time that james earl ray did not kill king but this is good stuff. thanks for posting.

[formercia]

44. Song of Freedom

Bob Marley said it best:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7pAvbjChQM

Old pirates, yes, they rob i;
Sold I to the merchant ships,
Minutes after they took i
From the bottomless pit.
But my hand was made strong
By the and of the almighty.
We forward in this generation
Triumphantly.
Wont you help to sing
These songs of freedom? -
cause all I ever have:
Redemption songs;
Redemption songs.

Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery;
None but ourselves can free our minds.
Have no fear for atomic energy,
cause none of them can stop the time.
How long shall they kill our prophets,
While we stand aside and look? ooh!
Some say its just a part of it:
Weve got to fulfil de book.

Wont you help to sing
These songs of freedom? -

[H2O Man]

45. "Redemption Song"

This was his final message.

There is a great version by his son with the Chieftains. (It was the first song that my daughter learned to play.)

[formercia]

49. For your pleasure....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnJgIq48C9k

Ziggy Marley and the Chieftains 'Redemption Song.'

[H2O Man]

55. Thank you.

Beautiful.

[BrklynLiberal]

47. Government and truth in the same sentence...a true oxymron.

[Octafish]

50. 'An Act of State' (video)

Dr. Pepper address on You Tube:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-8419499993878733310&q=pepper+act-of-state&total=18&start=0&num=10&so=0&type=search&plindex=2

Thanks for another excellent post, reprehensor!

[maui9002]

51. An alternative viewpoint

Regarding both the King and JFK assassinations, I suggest to anyone who's interested that they read Gerald Posner's books "Killing the Dream" and "Case Closed". I admit I haven't read much about the King assassination conspiracy theories, but I had read a number of the books exploring the JFK assassination conspiracy theory (and watched Oliver Stone's movie) and personally I found Posner's book much more convincing. Posner even challenges the "evidence" others use to support the respective conspiracy theories in a way that I found compelling--there are always questions raised and unexplained factual scenarios in connection with an assassination, but these factors do not by themselves prove that a conspiracy was involved. I just find the evidence for Oswald and Ray acting alone, primarily because they were both misguided individuals who acted out their own twisted view of the world, far outweighs the evidence (mostly questions raised for which they are no ready answers) put forth by those who argue conspiracy. In any event, not trying to be controversial, and I'm aware that Posner's books have been critiqued by many (many of whom make a living on selling materials about the conspiracies), but they are books that should be read by anyone who's seriously interested in the truth about these assassinations.

And last night, CNN ran a story about the MLK assassination; not sure how balanced it was, since I saw only parts of it, but at least one segment addressed the King family's doubts about Ray being the assassin.

[reprehensor]

83. Posner is establishment, not altermative.

http://www.geocities.com/mdmorrissey/logical7

"Posner, who exposed himself to serious researchers as a government shill with his first book on the JFK murder (Case Closed), dismisses the entire trial as a farce, "a cynical scheme to give some official sanction to the discredited theory that the Kings enthusiastically endorse" as part of the "persistent effort of the Kings to help Pepper exonerate Ray and to charge instead that much of the federal government killed Dr. King." These references to a "discredited theory" and a "charge" come, mind you, at the very end of a 923-word article that makes no mention of the actual finding, which is neither a "theory" nor a "charge" but a verdict. Posner, as a lawyer, knows the difference, but he obviously does know want his readers to know, and cannot quote the 50 plain words of Judge Swearengen (see above) for fear of exposing himself too plainly as the legal farce, not the trial in which 12 jurors heard 70 witnesses in three and a half weeks of testimony and concluded unanimously that the US government was involved in a conspiracy to "do harm to" MLK.

The phrase "do harm" was used by the judge instead of "murder" because this was a civil suit, not a criminal trial, but there can hardly be any doubt that the harm done was to kill him. I say "hardly" because I also have no doubt that Posner--if he had thought of it--would not have hesitated to claim that this refers not to the murder but to the FBI campaign to discredit King before the murder. There was such a campaign, of course, but even the scantest glance at the trial transcript makes it clear that murder is meant, since Jowers was not involved in the FBI defamation campaign, but only in the murder.

Posner does apply his legal expertise to the distinction between civil and criminal trials in an attempt to discredit the evidence. This point was taken up by a number of other journalists as well. It's is a bit tricky, so let's look at it :

The civil standard is only a "preponderance of the evidence" as opposed to the more stringent "beyond a reasonable doubt" of a criminal trial. And in the four-week trial that just finished in Memphis, Pepper had a field day. With a hands-off judge who allowed almost everything to come into the record, coupled with an astonishingly lethargic defense offered by Jowers, Pepper essentially had an uncontested month to argue the theory set forth in his book.

Note the incoherence between the first sentence and the rest of the paragraph. I am not a lawyer, just an English teacher, but I can recognize that "preponderance of evidence" does not have to with the kind of evidence that is allowed, but with the certainty of the conclusions based on the evidence. Posner's implication is that the evidence produced in this trial, because it was a civil trial, is less reliable, less "evidential," less credible, less factual that it would be if it were produced in a criminal trial. This is absurd. It would mean that, say, 5 witnesses testifying that Joe Blow was wearing brown shoes at a certain time on a certain day is somehow less reliable, credible, factual, etc. than the same 5 witnesses testifying to the exact same thing in a criminal trial.

If Posner were honest, he would report that the Jowers verdict says that the US government was probably part of the conspiracy to murder MLK. This is less certain, legally, than saying it is beyond reasonable doubt (which could not be determined unless the US government was tried for murder). But it is still too much for Posner. He cannot allow it to stand that it was established in a court of law that the US government probably killed MLK. He knows that the public does not react so cavalierly to the notion of a civil suit being inconsequential, since in other cases they can result in penalties of millions of dollars, even though this one awarded only $100 to the King family. (Another possible approach for Mr. Posner, Esq.: Why, this suit only involed $100. It would be much more credible if the damages were $1 million!)

The truth of the Jowers trial, even with "probably," is suppressed completely, and the further implication is the evidence that convinced the jury of this (probable) conclusion was less reliable than if it had been a criminal trial. If he had said it this way, it would be a lie, so he says it indirectly. The fact is that the evidence is just as credible as it would have been in a criminal trial, even if the sum total of this evidence would have had to be greater to prove complicity (conspiracy).

Posner does not mention any of this evidence, because it would destroy the power of his innuendo, which is that the evidence is unreliable because it was presented in a civil trial. He cannot deny the testimonial evidence that African-American police officers and firefighters had been pulled from duty in the vicinity of King's motel room, that normal security had been withdrawn in the hours before the shooting, that the sniper's bullet had come from the bushes across from the motel room and not from the rooming house where Ray was, that the bushes were removed by the Memphis police and the FBI the morning after the shooting (thus sanitizing the crime scene), that two Army officers with cameras were positioned on the roof of the fire station, also across from the motel, during the shooting, that an Army sniper team had been sent to Memphis to shoot an "unknown" target on April 4 and were being transported to Memphis when their mission was suddenly cancelled (the back-up team), etc.

Of course you can argue about this evidence. Maybe the witnesses were all lying. But this is not the point, and even Posner doesn't try to imply that lying witnesses are more likely to be found in a civil trial than a criminal trial. He has to leave it at innuendo, because anything more specific would be an obvious lie. If the Army filmed the shooting from the fire station roof, the Army filmed the shooting from the fire station roof. This testimony would not become more credible in a criminal trial, which is what Posner wants us to believe."

[Christs4sale]

98. I agree with Reprehensor on Posner

Posner was given a chance to testify under oath at the civil suit and declined.


Posner uses Mark Glankler, Chief Investigator of the Shelby County District Attorney General's Office, as a major resource in writing Killing the Dream.

"...shared the inside story of his own extensive work, and without his cooperation, it would have been impossible to resolve many of the issues raised by the Ray defense team..."

Glankler's investigative team, who began the investigation in December of 1993, only interviewed two of the 25 material witnesses heard by the jury in the civil suit. His testimony at the civil suit is here: http://www.thekingcenter.org/news/trial/Volume10.html


Posner's book Case Closed relies heavily on Marina and Lee by Priscilla Johnson-McMillan. Just look at the end notes. Priscilla Johnson-McMillan was a "witting collaborator" of the CIA. See these articles:

http://realhistoryarchives.blogspot.com/2008/04/james-earl-ray-didnt-kill-martin-luther.html

http://www.webcom.com/lpease/collections/assassinations/jfk/pmcmil1.htm


Please read these articles on Gerald Posner and why he cannot be trusted:

http://www.ctka.net/pr798-posner.html

http://ctka.net/pr396-davy.html

http://www.assassinationweb.com/issue1.htm

Keep up the great work Reprehensor.



Christs4sale
Truthmove.org

[notadmblnd]

52. great post, Thanks

[Echo In Light]

53. Glad this "conspiracy" thread hasn't been 'dungeoned'

[Orwellian_Ghost]

56. kicking

[juno jones]

57. K&R!

Bookmarking to read later!

[yardwork]

58. kicking and recommending this entire thread.

So important.

[FourScore]

63. Why am I not shocked by this? n/t

[Deep13]

64. It was some OTHER guy on a nearby balcony with a rifle.

I don't know enough about this to be able to credit this story, but I will note a couple of points about the ballistics.

Any serious shock can knock a rifle scope out of alignment. Shooting it is the only way to tell if it is not aligned. Anyone can make a mistake on the trigger and cause it to miss. It may be that the scope was aligned to take a habital error by the owner into account. (Realigning a sight is easier than correcting bad shooting posture.) There is nothing about a pump-action rifle that precludes resting it on a window sill. A good shooter can hit a distant target without a rest.

[razors edge]

70. But can a shoooter

do any of these things ten minutes after ditching his rifle?

[Deep13]

78. I'm not willing to assume that happened.

Having a mock trial is not the best way to examine historical facts.

[razors edge]

102. where do you get "mock trial"?

[reprehensor]

74. More info.

The problem is that the State alleged that the dent in the windowsill was evidence that would be used against Ray in a trial, even though the evidence was proven to be unverifiable.

Here is further commentary from Brown;

"Amongst other things, I have read in the record the big to-do about the mark in the window sill at the boarding house where the rifle was supposed to be fired. Well, let’s talk about the rifle. It’s a 760 Remington Gamemaster, a pump action, just like a 12 gauge pump shotgun. There is very little call for this weapon in any other part of the country other than the eastern seaboard, where certain states forbid the use of semi-automatic weapons for deer hunting. It’s a fast action but it’s not as powerful a weapon. There’s a peculiar thing about this weapon ... if you’re attempting to use a rest when you shoot it—the weapon does not shoot where it is sited in. Any hunter will tell you that if you are attempting to use a rest to shoot game, you put your coat, your hat, your pack, something under the rifle barrel—and you do not allow the rifle barrel to touch hard wood, rock or anything else because your weapon will not shoot where you have sited it in to shoot. Assuming you’ve sited the weapon in. If anyone placed the weapon on that window sill, sufficient to cause an indentation in the window sill, you can guarantee that whatever they were shooting at would not have been hit. Because the weapon would not have hit where it was sited in to hit."

http://64.233.169.104/search?q=cache:kklXw9gWw7QJ:www.ctka.net/pr798-judge.html+james+earl+ray+rifle+window+sill&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=3&gl=us&client=opera

------------------------------------

See the testimony of James H. Lesar, here;
http://www.thekingcenter.org/news/trial/Volume4.html

Pepper summarizes this aspect on pp. 120-121 of his book, "An Act of State"
http://books.google.com/books?id=8Bk9he6d1j8C&pg=PA121&lpg=PA121&dq=the+dent+in+the+window+sill+was+not+made+by+the+rifle&source=web&ots=S4HP9vFakZ&sig=obdCmwHYBpH5ByzcDJvS5TJKfHY&hl=en

[Deep13]

80. Well, the dent wasn't necessarily caused by the gun.

That is an assumption that may or may not be true.

The 760 Gamemaster was (and is) available in a variety of calibers, most often .30-06. Any of them could kill a man from 200 years away, except maybe the 0.223 Rem. which would still be accurate and deadly to 100 yards. So saying it is not especially powerful is not accurate. Many hunters simply don't like Semi-autos or bolt-actions. Since lever guns only can use blunt, short-range ammunition, the only other alternative is the 760 pump-action.

What if the rifle was sighted-in on a hard surface? That error would be built into the alignment. What would explain not only the dent, but the apparent inaccuracy when test-fired.

[defendandprotect]

81. The gun was ditched 10 minutes before the shooting . . . .

The bundle dropped in front of a Memphis amusement shop and "discovered" by a Memphis police officer, was dropped before King was assassinated, according to the owner of the store. The slug removed from Dr. King's body has a different metallurgical composition from the other unfired rounds in the bundle.

A ballistics test conducted with the rifle indicates that the slug extracted from King's corpse was not even fired from the "evidence" rifle.


This was pointed out to you a number of posts ago ---

[hisownpetard]

66. K&R.

[Norrin Radd]

67. kr

[reprehensor]

69. Video: MLK: Beyond Vietnam -- A Time to Break Silence

http://therealnews.com/web/index.php?thisdataswitch=0&thisid=1281&thisview=item#

A Year to the day before his assassination, King gave this speech at the Riverside Church in New York

[stubtoe]

71. K'd, R'd and bookmarked - very, very glad to see this in GD.

(not stuck in the 9/11 dungeon)

[seemslikeadream]

72. Thom Hartman is covering this story TODAY

Thanks Ichingcarpenter :hi:

[kwassa]

73. Lee Harvey Oswald did it.

Everyone knows that.

[JohnyCanuck]

76. King family lawyer, William Pepper, gives his perspective

on MLK and the assassination. These two audio MP3 are of a 2003 speech by Pepper which was broadcast May 31, 2006 on KPFA Guns and Butter program. Click here for Part1 58min and Click here for Part2 56min (Part 2 includes Q&A session).

[AntiFascist]

77. K&R, this needs to be rated to the top in honor of Dr. King!

As I was listening to "the most trusted name in news" I was thinking that when it comes to governmental involvement they could only be trusted to spread the propaganda.

[pauldp]

79. Rest in peace Doctor King. Some day justice will be served. k&r

[defendandprotect]

82. Recommend --- and listening to Thom Hartmann ---

I think it's urgently important for everyone --- young and old -- to understand the political
violence that some part of our government/CIA/intelligence have engaged in all over the world --

Much of it is known . . .

Undoubtedly, there is still much that we don't know --

We are probably closer than ever right now to having total corruption of our executive branch.

[valerief]

84. When it happened, most of us didn't fall for the "lone gunman" theory.

We knew he was whacked. That's what gangsters do, and we have a gangster government. We have ever since they whacked JFK.

[greyghost]

90. Amen. Those of us who were alive back then must continue to

speak truth to power. This is a great thread.

[PeaceNikki]

85. Thank you for this.

No words.

[psychmommy]

86. thanks so much

this is going to take me a couple of days to get through. so much information. i didn't know, where was my head at? kids are still being taught that crap. not mine, not anymore. thank you again.

[reprehensor]

100. If you have limited time...

Focus on William Schaap's testimony;

http://youtube.com/view_play_list?p=BA69081DC9C0AE84

Quite an education.

[ooglymoogly]

88. One of the best and most cogent posts I have seen on DU

Imo all the conspiracies were clumsy and their explanations for what happened in these many conspiracies were comical if so many people were not killed. We on the left have to face reality. Our pug govt. is willing and able to lie, steal and cheat and to murder anyone who gets in their way. They have the FBEye to do their dirty work and the pug owned media to cover it up, and that is a potent and almost unbeatable combination short of revolution. Big kick and Rec.

[On the Road]

91. I Knew Abourt the Loyd Jowers Part,

but did not realize the the verdict included government agency involvement. Was the court more specific? Did they say it went as high as Hoover? I doubt such an order came from LBJ.

[Maestro]

93. Very informative post!

Thanks. :thumbsup:

[redqueen]

103. ...

:kick: