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.