Martin Luther King Jr. Special Edition
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January 19, 2000
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THE VERDICT IS IN O N THE KING ASSASSINATION
B y E dward S pannaus
1 • •
In a verdict which sent panic
through the combined cover-up ap­
paratus o f the U.S. Justice Depart­
ment and the establishment news
media, a jury o f 12 ordinary citizens
in Memphis found that a far-reach­
ing conspiracy was responsible for
the 1968 assassination o f Dr. Mar­
tin Luther King - forever dispelling
the “lone assassin” theory.
The verdict came in a wrongful-
death suit, filed last year by the fam­
ily of the slain civil rights leader.
The principal defendant in the suit
was Loyd Jowers, a retired Mem­
phis businessman who has said that
he hired the actual killer o f Dr.
King. The suit was also brought
against other “unknown co-conspira­
tors.” Jowers stated publicly in 1993
that James Earl Ray did not shoot
Martin Luther King, but that he,
Jowers, had hired a gunman, and that
he had been paid $100,000 to facili­
tate the assassination. Jowers also
stated that he had hired the actual
killer o f Dr. King. The suit was also
brought against other “unknown co­
conspirators.” Jowers stated pub­
licly in 1993 that James Earl Ray did
not shoot Martin Luther King, but
that he, Jowers, had hired a gunman,
and that he had been paid $100,000
to fa c ilita te th e assa ssin a tio n .
Jowers also stated that he had been
approached by a man named “Raoul”
who gave him a rifle - which was the
rifle used to frame Ray.
King family attorney William
Pepper argued to the jury that the
assassination was the product o f a
multi-level conspiracy, involving the
Memphis Police Department and
local mafia types on the street level,
and involving the U.S. Army intelli­
gence agencies, the FBI, and the CIA
on the federal level. Pepper is the
author o f a 1995 book, “Orders to
Kill,” which documented the role of
military intelligence, the FBI, and
others in the assassination plot.
Yes, Virginia, There is a Raoul
At the center o f the conspiracy is
“Raoul” - the shadowy figure who
was the actual controller o f James
Earl Ray, the drifter who was set up
as the patsy in the assassination.
Although the anti-conspiracy theo­
rists have always denied that Raoul
ever existed, Pepper proved the ex­
istence o f Raoul during the trial, and
presented testimony that Raoul’s
family had stated that they are under
U.S. government protection.
Although Pepper did not
develop this aspect during the trial,
Raoul was in fact linked to the Brit­
ish
in te llig e n c e -sp a w n e d
“Permindex” assassination bureau,
which was prominently implicated
in the 1963 assassination o f Presi­
dent John F. Kennedy.
Last year, a former FBI
agent disclosed that he had found
two scraps o f paper in the car aban­
doned by Ray after the assassina­
tion, which had money figures on
them and c o n ta in e d the nam e
“Raoul.” One o f the pieces o f paper
was a page o f the Dallas, T exas phone
directory with the number o f the
night club in Dallas which had been
owned by Jack Ruby, the low-level
mobster who shot and killed Lee
Harvey Oswald, the comparable
patsy in the JFK assassination.
Seventy Witnesses
The jury heard testimony from
70 witnesses, including:
•K ing’s widow, Coretta Scott
King, and one o f King’s sons, Dex­
ter King.
James Earl Ray’s brother, who
said that his brother had told him
that Raoul framed him.
•Memphis criminal court Judge
Joe Brown, who had ordered tests
on the rifle used to implicate James
Earl Ray; Brown testified that this
was not the murder weapon, saying
that it “could not have hit the broad
side o f a bam .’
•Memphis Fire Department Cap­
tain Carthel Weedon, who testified
that he had put two Army psycho­
logical operations operatives on the
roof of the firehouse close to the
assassination site, who had photo­
graphed everything. Weedon had
never been interviewed by any law
enforcement investigator.
■Former Congressm an W alter
Fauntroy, who said that if the inves­
tigation conducted by the House
Assassinations Committee in 1977-
78 had taken longer, “We may have
gotten to the bottom o f everything.”
Fauntroy said he was never satisfied
with the Com m ittee’s conclusion
that there was no Raoul.
Media Attacks King Family
W ithin days o f the verdict in
Memphis, the major news media let
loose a vile stream o f invective
against Pepper and the King family.
The Washington Post cabled the trial
a “sham,’ it termed the verdict “dis­
credited” and called attorney Pep­
per “a conspiracy theorist,” and ac­
cused the King family o f “self-de­
ception and an abuse o f the legal
system.” It called the effort to re­
write the story o f King’s death a
“deceit o f history” comparable to
denying the Holocaust.
The Post also ran an op ed by
professional conspiracy-debunker
Gerald Posner, who called the trial a
“cynical sham,” and threatened the
King family that if they persist, this
will only “permanently damage their
credibility.”
The New York Times published
an op ed by former Justice Depart­
ment official Nathan Lewin, who
argued that the verdict was worth­
less because the defendant Jowers
didn’t defend himself; Lewin lied
that the King family didn’t call
Jowers as a witness where they
could have cross-examined him. (In
fact, Jowers had agreed to testify,
and later reneged, advising the King
family and their lawyer that he would
assert his Fifth Amendment privi­
lege and refuse to testify.)
Pepper Responds
None o f the editorials or op ed
writers dealt with the evidence ac­
tually presented over the four weeks
o f trial. Nor could they. They sim­
ply hoped that, through repetition
o f their lies, they could convince
the public that the trial was ridicu­
lous.
Asked about these smears by
EIRNS, attorney Pepper retorted,
“Why didn’t the jury find it ridicu­
lous?
“The jury heard all this evidence,
and no matter what they say, they
cannot deny the fact that a jury heard
this evidence, and a jury disagrees
with them ” - referring to the news
media. “And a jury disagreed with
them in about an hour’s time, after
four w eeks o f testim ony. T hat
speaks for itself.”
Pepper said that the jury was
about evenly split between blacks
and whites, and that it was eco­
nomically mixed, “ranging from
bankers to day workers.” And their
verdict was unanimous.
EIRNS asked Pepper about one of
the arguments presented in media,
that the jury heard just a one-sided
presentation.
“Well, what is the other side?”
asked Pepper. “I’d be anxious to
know what the other side is to tes­
timony about how he put soldiers
on the roof who photographed ev­
erything. And they buried the pho­
tographs. W hat’s the other side to
that?”
“ I could go through 70 w it­
nesses” with the same kind o f argu­
ment, Pepper said. “The other side
was Jow ers’s defense counsel, and
he tried everything he could to get
this case thrown out, he made a
motion for a mistrial when Jowers
was absent, he made a motion for a
directed verdict at the end o f the
proof, on insufficiency, he made a
motion for a mistrial when Jowers
was absent, he made a motion for a
directed verdict at the end o f the
proof, on insufficiency, he made a
motion on the statute o f lim ita­
tions, they did everything they could
to have the case thrown out; the
judge denied everything. You don’t
read that in the papers.”
P e p p e r p re se n te d th e K ing
fam ily’s case in the Memphis civil
suit in nine “sections,” staning with
Dr. K ing’s background, then mov­
ing into the local weapon, and the
broader conspiracy which reached
in to the higher levels of the U.S.
government. One section was on the
“cover-up” - involving the govern­
ment and the news media.
Pepper told EIRNS that the
coverups range from murder (that of
a taxi driver, who saw the actual
shooter coming down off the wall
and getting into a Memphis police
car, and who was killed the same
night), to attempts to bribe James
Earl Ray or to kill him, and news
media information.
Pepper put an expert witness on
the stand who testified for two hours
about the history of government use
o f the media, and how the govern­
ment had distorted and put out propa­
ganda in this case, including fabri­
cated articles. “Having done all that,”
Pepper said, “I was convinced that
there was no way the media was going
to give any kind of favorable cover­
age. That’s not what they do.”
The King fami ly was not dismayed.
“I think that this is history being cre­
ated,” said Dr. King’s son Dexter
afterthe verdict. “Anyone who would
question whether the truth would
come out, this is the last form o f
democracy that’s still alive, where
you have independent jurors render­
ing a verdict. So, we’re very happy.”
This article had appeared in the
December 20,1999 issue of the Fed­
eralist and has been reprinted by per­
mission from their news agency,
EIRNS.
(Above) On Thursday, March 27, 1997, Martin Luther King's son Dexter met with James Earl Ray in his
Nashville prison. Ray's attorney, William Pepper, had urged Dexter King - who believes that a massive
government conspiracy killed his father - to meet the confessed killer. During their meeting, Ray denied
killing Dr. King. I believe you, and my family believes you,' said Dexter.
(Below) In the late 1970s, when Ray appeared before the House Select Committee on Assassinations,
he was represented by Mark Lane, a caustic conspiracy buff who had earlier written a book contending
that Ray was a patsy.
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