The Assassination of Martin Luther King- An Act of State

[Jcrowley]

The Official Story

Martin Luther King was killed by a sniper on April 4, 1968, at 6:01 p.m. as he stepped onto the balcony outside the Motel Lorraine in Memphis, Tennessee. See the original New York Times news story on this day.

A small-time thief named James Earl Ray shot Martin Luther King from the bathroom of the flophouse across from where King was staying. Allegedly, Ray balanced on the edge of a bathtub, rested his rifle on the window sill, and fired a single shot that with trained-sniper perfection entered King in the head. No witness saw Ray shoot, although one claimed he saw a man leaving the bathroom around that time. A bag was found in front of a store near the rooming house, and the bag had a rifle sticking out of it. The rifle bore James Earl Ray's fingerprints.


James Earl Ray confessed in court to the crime, and was sentenced to life instead of being given the death penalty due to that confession.


The Problems with the Official Story


- Ray's confession was forced upon him by his lawyer, who threatened Ray with the Death penalty.

- Ray claimed he had purchased the rifle for a man he knew only as "Raoul".

- The bullet from King's body was never matched to the gun, despite a retesting of the rifle in 1997.

- James Earl Ray was not a trained sniper, nor is there any evidence that he practiced with a gun.


The man who supposedly identified Ray in the flophouse just after the shooting, Charles Stephens, was 1) too drunk to be able to make a solid identification and 2) repudiated his own identification when shown a picture of Ray on camera in a CBS special report. He denied the man in the picture (Ray) was the man he had seen at the flophouse. Stephen's uncooperative wife was put in a mental institution after disputing her husband's "ID" of Ray.

http://www.webcom.com/~lpease/collections/assassinations/mlk.htm

Recommended Books


Orders to Kill By William Pepper, Esq. Originally published New York: Carroll & Graf, 1995. The 1998 rerelease has a new foreward by Dexter King.


Martin Luther King: The Assassination By Harold Weisberg. New York: Carroll & Graf, 1993. Originally published as Frame-up (New York : Outerbridge & Dienstfrey, 1971.)


Murder in Memphis: the FBI and the Assassination of Martin Luther King By Mark Lane and Dick Gregory. New York: Thunder's Mouth Press, 1993. Originally published as Code Name Zorro. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1977.


Who killed Martin Luther King? The True Story by the Alleged Assassin By James Earl Ray. Washington, DC: National Press Books, 1992.

[Jcrowley]

1. COUNTERINTELLIGENCE PROGRAM

COUNTERINTELLIGENCE PROGRAM
BLACK NATIONALIST - HATE GROUPS
RACIAL INTELLIGENCE 3/4/68

<...>

GOALS
~~~~~
For maximum effectiveness of the Counterintelligence Program, and
to prevent wasted effort, long-range goals are being set.

1. Prevent the COALITION of militant black nationalist groups. In
unity there is strength; a truism that is no less valid for all its
triteness. An effective coalition of black nationalist groups might be the
first step toward a real "Mau Mau" in America,
the beginning of a true black revolution.

2. Prevent the RISE OF A "MESSIAH" who could unify, and
electrify, the militant black nationalist movement. Malcolm X might have
been such a "messiah;" he is the martyr of the movement today. Martin
Luther King, Stokely Carmichael and Elijah Muhammed all aspire to this
position. Elijah Muhammed is less of a threat because of his age. King
could be a very real contender for this position should he abandon his
supposed "obedience" to "white, liberal doctrines" (nonviolence) and embrace
black nationalism. Carmichael has the necessary charisma to be a real
threat in this way.

3. Prevent VIOLENCE on the part of black nationalist groups. This
is of primary importance, and is, of course, a goal of our investigative
activity; it should also be a goal of the Counterintelligence Program to
pinpoint potential troublemakers and neutralize them before they
exercise their potential for violence.

4. Prevent militant black nationalist groups and leaders from
gaining RESPECTABILITY, by discrediting them to three separate segments of
the community. The goal of discrediting black nationalists must be handled
tactically in three ways. You must discredit those groups and individuals
to, first, the responsible Negro community. Second, they must be
discredited to the white community, both the responsible community and to
"liberals" who have vestiges of sympathy for militant black nationalist
simply because they are Negroes. Third, these groups must be
discredited in the eyes of Negro radicals, the followers of the movement.
This last area requires entirely different tactics from the first two.
Publicity about violent tendencies and radical statements merely enhances
black nationalists to the last group; it adds "respectability" in a different
way.

5. A final goal should be to prevent the long-range GROWTH of
militant black organizations, especially among youth. Specific tactics to
prevent these groups from converting young people must be developed. <...>


TARGETS
~~~~~~~

Primary targets of the Counterintelligence Program, Black
Nationalist-Hate Groups, should be the most violent and radical groups and
their leaders. We should emphasize those leaders and organizations that
are nationwide in scope and are most capable of disrupting this country.
These targets, members, and followers of the:

Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC)
Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC)
Revolutionary Action Movement (RAM)
NATION OF ISLAM (NOI)

Offices handling these cases and those of Stokely Carmichael of
SNCC, H. Rap Brown of SNCC, Martin Luther King of SCLC, Maxwell Stanford of
RAM, and Elijah Muhammed of NOI, should be alert for counterintelligence
suggestions. <...>


J. Edgar Hoover

[seemslikeadream]

2. Little man vs big machine

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


Little man vs big machine
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7Mf9j8co70

[villager]

3. don't forget the police ordered King's "protection" to stand down

right before the "lone nut" assassinated him. And don't forget we know now there were U.S. Army hit squads in Memphis then....

[maveric]

4. MLK's children dont even beleive the James Earl Ray story.

Just another "Patsy" like Oswald and Sirhan.

[Malmo Blue]

5. Re: An Act of State

It wouldn't surprise me one bit if someone in government ordered the assasination of Dr. King.