Remembering: The Plot to Kill King

William Cullen Bryant wrote in 1874: "Truth crushed to earth shall rise again”. This was a favorite quote of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Dr. William Pepper points to it as his own north star in his stunning finale to 37 years of investigating the murder of Dr. King: The Plot to Kill King: The Truth Behind the Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

In 1999, after 20 years of investigation, Pepper, with the full support of the King family, successfully brought a civil suit for wrongful death against Loyd Jowers and other unknown parties. After 30 days of trial and 70 witnesses, the jury deliberated less than 1 hour before finding in favor of the plaintiffs. Judge Swearington apportioned liability as follows: 30%—defendant Loyd Jowers, 70%—all other co-conspirators, including state, federal, and city agencies and officials.

Over the next 17 years many additional witnesses came forward and Pepper documents the new evidence in The Plot to Kill King. The case has been solved completely including who actually pulled the trigger and how Dr. King was finally put to death on his hospital bed.

The silence of the mainstream media regarding the civil trial and the three books Pepper penned has been broken only to give lazy, misinformed critics, forums to dis-inform the public and attack Pepper and the King family. Pepper responds to the mouthpieces of the official—James Earl Ray did it alone—lie with the methodical and devastating presentation of evidence.

As stunning as The Plot to Kill King is, it is equally dumbfounding that so few people seem to be even aware that there is any controversy regarding Ray’s initial plea of guilt and the findings of the House Select Committee on Assassinations. I brought this up recently with three black elders in Milwaukee: a politician, an historian and a talk show host, and none of them were aware of the civil trial or the work of Dr. William Pepper.

This is disconcerting to say the least because, if we look at the issues of poverty, unjust wars, the rise of the military/security/industrial complex and the lack of accountability in government that King fought against, we can see that nothing has changed. What has happened to the legacy of the man who spoke truth to power when most people now don’t know the truth about how he was murdered, and those that do remain silent or actively suppress the truth with disinformation and lies of omission?

Pepper sets the stage by recounting the scope of civil unrest across the country in 1967, the fear that King’s planned People’s March against Washington engendered in the powers that be, and their efforts to surveil and disrupt the civil rights and anti-war movements. He explains with irrefutable evidence, including eye witness accounts, the connections between the Military, CIA, FBI, Mafia, State of Tennessee, Memphis Police Department and local participants in the murder. Their carefully laid out plot perfected techniques used in the assassination of John Kennedy and again in the assassination of Robert Kennedy: strip security, make last minute changes to put the target in the desired location, setup the patsy, suppress information, control the investigation, intimidate witnesses, destroy evidence, fabricate evidence and finally, secure media cooperation in memorializing a false narrative.

I discussed King’s murder, and other instances where the government has clearly lied to the people, with a friend and he responded simply: “I don’t want to live in your world!” Is this the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr? One of the best human beings that ever lived was executed by The State, and nobody wants to know it and deal with the consequences?

“For my part, whatever anguish of spirit it may cost, I am willing to know the whole truth; to know the worst and provide for it.” Patrick Henry