Who Killed Dr. Martin Luther King Jr?

part 2

Interview with King family attorney William F. Pepper by Joe Martin

(continued from Nov/Dec 2003 issue)

How did your investigation unfold?

Early on, there were a number of items that warranted attention. Loyd Jowers, an ex-cop, owned Jim's Grill, the back of which provided a view of the Lorraine Motel [the assassination site], and specifically King's room, number 306. James McCraw, a taxi driver, had mentioned that Jowers had showed him a rifle the very morning after the shooting. This rifle was hidden under the counter in the restaurant. Jowers claimed that he had found it right out back. McCraw would later reveal to a friend that he was ordered to dispose of the weapon by Jowers, which he did by throwing it from the Memphis-Arkansas Bridge into the Mississippi River. However, he never admitted this under oath. But it is likely that the murder weapon lies forever sunk in the silt of the Mississippi. McCraw also had some interesting things to say about Charlie Stevens, the state's chief witness, who claimed to see James Earl Ray running down the hallway of the rooming house above Jowers' establishment moments after the gunshot. A little before the assassination, McCraw had gone up into the rooming house to pick up Stevens, a known heavy drinker, for a taxi ride, and found Stevens drunk and slumped on his bed. McCraw also observed that the shared bathroom on that floor of the rooming house, the one from which James was alleged to have fired the fatal shot, was vacant. McCraw left without his drunken fare. This all transpired a few minutes before 6 p.m. King was shot at 6:01.

What about John McFerrin?

John was very active in civil rights work in the Memphis area in 1968, and he had been beaten up and shot at for his efforts. He was in a produce company's store the afternoon of King's death. The store was owned by Frank Liberto, a man with reputed Mafia connections. At that moment, Liberto was on the phone. He did not know McFerrin was nearby enough to overhear. Liberto growled into the phone, "Shoot the son of a bitch when he comes on the balcony." He also discussed an amount of money and where to go to pick it up. McFerrin was astonished to learn an hour later that King had been slain. He went to the authorities with his story and was essentially ignored. There were other people close to Jowers, to the crime scene, who knew facets of what had happened. I wanted to be able to get James Earl Ray what he deserved, a fair trial. But I was not getting far with that, despite all this mounting evidence.

So you went forward with an unscripted mock television trial in which you were able to lay out a lot of your cogent arguments.

Yes, that was an HBO event in 1993. I actually presented only a fraction of my overall evidence at that time. Yet the jury, after seven hours of deliberation, concluded that James was innocent. It did not get a lot of publicity, and James was still no closer to getting a real trial. But in many ways, it was this TV trial that really helped reopen the case.

James had been saying for years that he had been framed by a man named "Raul" with whom he was associated at the time of the assassination. In 1967, when he was on the lam, James met Raul in a bar in Montreal, Canada. Raul involved Ray in some smuggling acvtivities. In April of 1968, James was again employed by Raul, and Raul was directing James' movements. Authorities had always dismissed James's story of Raul as strictly a fantasy or maybe con job. But after the TV. trial, others who knew Raul started to come forward. One strange revelation was that Percy Foreman, James Earl Ray's second lawyer, actually knew Raul. Now, I too know who Raul is. And he's still alive and living just outside New York City.

Jowers himself was becoming more vocal by 1993.

Yes he was. On ABC's Prime Time Live in December 1993, Jowers completely cleared Ray of any involvement in the crime. Jowers admitted that he had had hired the actual shooter, who was not Ray. Frank Liberto had provided $100,000 to facilitate the assassination. Jowers also stated that Raul appeared at the restaurant and had dropped off a rifle as part of the assassination scheme. By the way, there was hardly any media coverage of this astounding admission, not even on ABC News!

Where does the military enter this picture?

In 1993, a Memphis newspaper, the Commercial Appeal, ran a piece that was the result of an eighteen-month-long investigation into the activities of army intelligence and its monitoring of civil rights organizations. The reporter was Steve Tompkins. He concluded that army intelligence had followed King and were conducting this surveillance right up to his assassination. The army worked closely with J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI. Hoover, of course, hated King and considered him a Communist stooge. Army surveillance of black organizations throughout the United States had apparently been going on since the end of the First World War. The army believed that African Americans were particularly susceptible to Communist propaganda and manipulation. I got a hold of Tompkins and asked him if he would tell me what role the army intelligence operatives were playing in Memphis on the day of King's death. Also, I wanted to know, if possible, who these people were. Steve did not reveal any names, but he told me that he had come to believe that certain highly specialized army personnel were in place that day to do more than just spy.

Are you saying these operatives killed King?

No, but they were the backup. I have concluded that Martin was killed by an expert sharpshooter from the Memphis Police Department. He fired from the shrubbery in back of Jim's Grill, not from the bathroom window of the rooming house. Then, he tossed the rifle to Jowers, who hid it in his restaurant. It was all very quick. As a result, there was no need to implement the backup plan, so the army snipers were dispersed hastily. Martin died an hour later at Saint Joseph's Hospital. Incidentally, the very next morning all of the shrubbery in back of Jowers' place was cut down and hauled off.

And now James Earl Ray is dead.

Yes, James never got his trial. But Martin's family agreed to pursue the civil trial, which resulted in a thorough airing of all of our evidence. Four thousand pages of trial testimony can be viewed on the King Center's website. Never before had such a legal proceeding occurred whereby, under oath, mounds of testimony and evidence were brought forward in the matter of a major political figure's murder. It is a valuable case history which reveals, for all who care to look, the truth behind the assassination of one of our greatest Americans. It demonstrates the murderous workings of a shadow government. It shows that, if you don't go along with those forces, and if they consider you a threat, they will find ways to get rid of you. And the mainstream media, increasingly consolidated and uncritical, plays along. At present, I fear that fascism is encroaching on America. It is critical that we resist this right-wing momentum. And it is critical that we celebrate the legacy of Martin Luther King, that we understand the terrible truth of his assassination, and that his memory be honored by our resolve to make justice and peace a reality, and to create and make manifest the experience of genuine economic democracy for every citizen of our republic.

Ed. note: Maybe We, the People, can demand a bit more of our elected officials than simply making sure King's name is on street signs...visible yet forgotten. More information on the trial can be found at www.thekingcenter.org. Click on "news and information" and then "Memphis Assassination Trial Transcripts and Information. Above interview was originally published in Real Change newspaper of Seattle.

WWW Washington Free Press