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ORDERS TO KILL -- THE TRUTH BEHIND THE MURDER OF MARTIN LUTHER KING |
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Chapter 31: Chronology 1995 WOULD HAVE BEEN DR. KING'S sixty-sixth year. Now, nearly eighteen years after I began this journey, I set out in chronological order the details of how and why I believe he was assassinated. *** As EARLY AS 1957 the FBI identified the SCLC as a potential target for communist infiltration. In 1962 the bureau established a COMINFIL file on the organization and Dr. King, and in 1963 it increased its attention. A wide range of COINTELPRO activities was used in an effort to harass, discredit, and demoralize Dr. King. Through 1964 the focus of the government's activity was aimed at discrediting and removing him from any position of prominence or leadership in the civil rights movement. By early 1965, however, they were no longer dealing with just a black Baptist preacher, for on December 10, 1964, Dr. King was a Nobel Peace Prize winner with international stature. The strategy became redirected toward his elimination. It is now clear that two attempts to kill Martin Luther King took place in 1965. There may have been others. The 20th SFG was present during the early stage of the Selma-to-Montgomery march which began on March 21, 1965. One of the members of a sniper team in that unit, J. D., briefly had Dr. King center mass before he turned away. The second attempt was in September 1965, when an effort was made to involve Louisville police officer Clifton Baird. It was only because Baird tape-recorded and disclosed the actual approach, which emanated from named Louisville police officers who were collaborating with FBI agents from the Louisville field office, that it became known. *** ELECTRONIC SURVEILLANCE CONTINUED on Dr. King. In the fall of 1966 Acting U .S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark refused to grant the bureau permission to bug and wiretap Dr. King. However, J. Edgar Hoover had access to army intelligence and ASA surveillance which had vastly more resources. In addition, the CIA's Office of Security was developing its own file. From the beginning of 1967 until his assassination on April 4, 1968, King was subjected to a massive blanket of surveillance through the army MIG network and the ASA. The often daily reports were shared with FBI director Hoover (who had also seconded a trusted agent, Patrick Putnam, to Yarborough's staff) and with CIA director and USIB chairman Richard Helms. ACSI Yarborough appeared to be the bridge not only between Hoover and Helms but also between army intelligence and each of the other national intelligence entities. From early 1967, King tied civil rights, peace, and economic justice together. While H. Rap Brown, Stokely Carmichael and others advocated a more violent response, they were seen as fringe figures with relatively small followings. Dr. King spoke to and bridged the poor and the middle classes, blacks, whites and Hispanics, the young generally and students in particular. His base was broad and his credibility as a moral leader (despite the FBI's dirty tricks and smear campaigns) was unequalled. During this time every record of every meeting involving government intelligence officials reflects the conclusion that he was the enemy -- a dangerous revolutionary controlled by communists. At the top, against all reason, there were no doubts, no second thoughts, and only minimal dissent in the ranks. His antiwar speech in Los Angeles on February 25 -- which focused on the Vietnamese casualties -- advocated teaching, preaching, and demonstrating, yet the ACSI's counterintelligence analysis incredibly called it' 'a call to armed aggression by negroes against the American people." Four hours later, the 111th MIG at Fort McPherson, in Atlanta, had two black agents ready to infiltrate the SCLC. Jim Harrison, the SCLC controller, had already become a deep cover FBI informant under the control of special agent Al Sentinella. Other informants were run by special agent Art Murtagh of the Atlanta field office. ACSI Yarborough, CIA director Helms, and the FBI's Hoover became increasingly alarmed as Dr. King increased the pressure on the administration during 1967, even considering running as a potential presidential candidate. When in June, during the AMA national convention in Chicago, Director Hoover met with fellow gambler, friend, and political ally Texas oil billionaire H. L. Hunt (whose daily syndicated Life Line radio programs frequently attacked King) , Hoover said he thought a final solution was necessary. Only that action would stop King. Other attempts to assassinate Dr. King originated during this period, apparently involving elements of organized crime for the first time. A meeting was held at the Blue Note Lounge in Jackson, Mississippi. Joe "Buck" Buchanan, a paraplegic involved in various Dixie Mafia criminal activities throughout the South, including New Orleans, offered a $50,000 murder contract. Present at the meeting were Tim Kirk and one of the Tiller brothers. The contract came out of New Orleans directly from Carlos Marcello and was eventually picked up by Red Nix of Tipton County, Tennessee, who was given a car and a gun to enable him to stalk and shoot Dr. King. *** IN RESPONSE TO HEIGHTENED tensions throughout the country, the 20th SFG was mobilized on June 12 with a unit being sent to Tampa. Warren, a sniper, was a member of one of the 20th SFG alpha teams run by the 902nd MIG and sent to that city (the 902nd MIG was attached directly to the ACSI's office). Riots continued in Tampa from June 12-June 16. On June 15, Raul Pereira became a naturalized American citizen. On June 16, in the midst of the escalating turbulence, Marrell McCollough, a discharged black soldier, was brought back on active duty. Assigned to the 111th MIG, he was deployed to the Memphis Police Department to engage in undercover work. In July and August 1967, Gardner's aide of the 902nd MIG met with Eric S. GaIt, an employee of U.S. defense contractor Union Carbide with top secret security clearance. Also sometime in mid July, James Earl Ray, who following his escape in April had worked his way to Montreal, somehow obtained and began to use the name Eric S. Gait as an alias. In 1967, Warren participated in the delivery of weapons to New Orleans. The equipment was stolen from his 20th SFG Camp Shelby training base and the theft was organized by a master sergeant. The deliveries were made to Marcello's associate Zippy Chimento on property owned by the New Orleans Mafia leader. Army intelligence/CIA operative Jack Youngblood was also present on occasion. During this time Raul Pereira and his cousin Amaro were receiving some of these weapons at the Port of Houston which were shipped by water from New Orleans. Raul and Amaro also met during this time with Carlos Marcello in Houston. *** RIOTS BROKE OUT ACROSS the country that summer, with the most serious explosions taking place in Newark and Detroit (where Warren was also deployed). Despite contrary intelligence reports, Martin Luther King was branded as the source of the disruptions and as being under the control of foreign communist elements. In response, Generals Yarborough (ACSI) and Blakefield (USAINTC), and CIA director Helms pushed a new domestic Special Operations Group (SOG) into high gear. Projects CHAOS and MERRIMAC focused on spying upon dissenting citizens and infiltrating the ten major peace and civil rights organizations, including NCNP whose preparations for a national convention scheduled for the Labor Day weekend were well under way. In August, James Earl Ray, who was now using the alias Eric S. Galt, had meetings with Raul in the Neptune Bar on West Commissioners Street in Montreal. He entered into discussions with Raul, who said he could provide him with money and travel documents in exchange for James's assistance in certain smuggling activity. Desperate for money and a way to Europe, James agreed, and finally left Montreal around the end of August to travel to Birmingham where he was to meet up with Raul. Raul gave James a New Orleans telephone contact number. On August 31, Dr. King delivered a forceful keynote address opening the NCNP convention at the Palmer House in Chicago. A "Black Caucus" which appeared to come out of nowhere was formed, and arriving black delegates were forcibly brought under its control. The group, which appeared to be dominated by urban blacks (the provocateurs were later identified as Chicago Blackstone Ranger gang members and other inner-city thugs) was led by an unknown political cadre and immediately took on a disruptive policy. I received word of their intention to kidnap Dr. King and hold him until a range of their demands was met. King's exit was quickly organized immediately after he spoke. In retrospect, this was exactly what the provocateurs wanted. King was a bridge, he had the ability to bring people together. His presence was therefore contrary to the interests of the government provocateurs who only wanted to break up the convention and defeat its purpose. They succeeded. On that last day of August the National Security Agency (NSA) was formally brought into the recently formed SOG loop of the combined intelligence agency effort to counter the ever-growing antiwar/economic justice forces. Following a meeting with Yarborough, the NSA launched Operation MINARET to monitor international cable traffic and assist the efforts of the ACSI counterintelligence section to identify foreign governments helping "black radicals" and antiwar groups. *** IN EARLY SEPTEMBER Yarborough learned about the plans for a massive antiwar demonstration to be addressed by Dr. King on October 21 at the Pentagon. He began to prepare for the confrontation by increasing surveillance and developing a program of infiltration of antiwar groups. The government's worst fears were realized in the October 21 demonstration. The sight of masses of people attacking the citadel of American power not only appalled but, because of their impotence, humiliated the senior government and military officials who observed them. They believed that there was every possibility that what they viewed as a revolutionary force might not be consistently contained, particularly in light of the depletion of available trained forces in CONUS due to the war. Secretary McNamara asked Chief of Staff Harold Johnson what he was going to do about the rising emergency. Johnson turned and asked the same question to his ACSI -- Yarborough. The shock of the demonstration reverberated throughout official Washington, and at a senior level the decision to form and use a specialized 20th SFG alpha team was clearly made. On October 23, Gardner, following a request from the ACSI's office, received the roster of the 20th SFG and selected the eight-man Memphis team which was to become Alpha 184. *** MEANWHILE, in Birmingham Raul gave James money to buy the Mustang and asked James (who was puzzled by the request) to buy some photographic equipment which he ordered by mail from a Chicago company. Since Raul may have been involved in pornography in Houston, this could explain why he wanted the equipment, or it may have been simply to make it appear that James was involved in stalking activity. James was keeping in touch occasionally with Raul. Following his instructions he went to Mexico, arriving on October 7. He remained there until he went to Los Angeles on November 19. As he cleaned out his car before crossing the border, he discovered the L.E.A.A. business card with the name and address of Randy Rosen(son) written on it. As James made his way to California, units of the 20th SFG containing specialized sniper teams were deployed to recon cities that the army contended might "explode" next spring and summer. The teams were ordered to make street maps, take aerial photos, establish communications nets, command posts, sniper sites, and operational plans. In autumn and early winter of 1967 some of the members of the 902nd MIG's Alpha 184 team were practicing daily for their mission at a site near Pocatello, Idaho. The "shoot" was from a triangular formation, and during these sessions at least, though this seems to have ultimately changed, three shooters were practicing. In autumn 1967, James's relationship and activities with Raul were on hold. Raul, however, knew how to contact him (through L.A. general delivery) and James had the New Orleans telephone contact number. In early December James was instructed by Raul to travel to New Orleans. This he did, sharing the driving with Charlie Stein, a briefly known acquaintance. During that visit to New Orleans, James met with Raul. Raul told him that he would be needed for another gunrunning job into Mexico and that he would contact him in a few months' time. *** ON DECEMBER 4, in Atlanta, as President Johnson was meeting with the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Martin Luther King announced the formation of SCLC's Poor People's Campaign with demonstrations planned for Washington, D.C., in the spring. On January 10, an increasingly nervous president ordered Chief of Staff Harold Johnson to "use every resource" under his command to defuse the anticipated spring civil disturbances. Around this time another approach to the mob was made. A contract was offered to kill Dr. King, previous efforts having been unsuccessful. Minor gangster Myron Billet attended a meeting in the small town of Apalachin, New York, a favorite mob meeting place. Though most of the time was spent on other matters, three government agents (from the CIA and FBI) offered one million dollars to Carlo Gambino and Sam Giancana to arrange for the killing of Dr. King. The offer was not accepted. The agents indicated that it would be placed elsewhere. Presumably Marcello, whose operative Red Nix had failed to carry out the earlier contract, was approached, since he eventually came back into the frame and turned to members of his organization in Memphis to finally complete this contract. *** ON FEBRUARY 12, the day the Memphis sanitation workers went out on strike, the 111th established a' 'special security detachment" to be under the direct control of the ACSI, General Yarborough, for "immediate deployment" in emergencies. Ten days later on February 22, an informant of the 111th MIG reportedly indicated that Martin Luther King would become involved in supporting the strikers. This was almost a month before he actually came to Memphis. Three days later, a 20th SFG recon team entered Memphis, coming in through the Trailways bus terminal. One of their tasks was to map egress routes in the northern section of the city. On February 28 Hoover's seconded FBI agent Patrick Putnam met with the 902nd MIG's Gardner and CIAB director Colonel Van Tassell. *** ON THE WEEKEND of March 15 James was instructed by Raul to leave Los Angeles and drive to New Orleans where he would receive further instructions. At this time Memphis produce man Frank Liberto asked Loyd Jowers to repay a "big" favor. Jowers, who had been alerted earlier by another mutual acquaintance, was told by Liberto that the brush area behind his Jim's Grill was to be used as a sniper's lair for the assassination of Dr. King, who would at some time in the next three to four weeks be staying at the Lorraine Motel which was directly opposite the brush area. A gun would be provided. Jowers was told that the police would not be there. A patsy was also going to be provided and Jowers would be handsomely paid. Liberto explained that the money came out of New Orleans. Also on that March 15,J. Edgar Hoover met one-on-one with the 902nd MIG's Gardner, who was the coordinator of the military mission. It is clear that by March 15, not only had the die been cast but various wheels had been put in motion so that the assassination would be carried out in Memphis during the course of Dr. King's visits to that city in support of the strikers. On the next day, Saturday, March 16, the massacre of civilians began in the village of My Lai, Vietnam, and Senator Robert Kennedy announced his candidacy for the presidency on an antiwar platform. Dr. King addressed the powerful California democratic state council on that day and on the following Sunday, March 17, as ASA agents listened, he discussed on the telephone the arrangements for his travel from L.A. to Memphis, where he was scheduled to address a strikers' rally on Monday evening (March 1 at Mason Temple.) Dr. King flew to Memphis and addressed nearly 15,000 people. 111th MIG agent Marrell McCollough was in the audience. King promised to return to lead the march which was planned for March 22. He then went to the Lorraine Motel where he met with local leaders, after which he went to the Rivermont Hotel where the four-man black detective team led by Jerry Williams provided security all night. During this stay he was electronically surveilled and the phones in his suite were tapped and monitored by ASA agents, with the assistance of Jim Smith of the MPD special services/intelligence bureau. On March 22 the planned march to Memphis was cancelled due to a heavy snowstorm and rescheduled for March 28. Also on March 22 James arrived in New Orleans, a day late. Raul had already gone to Birmingham with instructions for James to meet him there at the Starlight Lounge, the next day. They met and at Raul's insistence set out immediately for Atlanta. In Atlanta Raul told James to stay close to the rooming house because he might be needed quickly to go on a trip to Miami. He also asked James to leave the side door open so that he (Raul) could come and go without being seen. *** IN BIRMINGHAM, on March 22, 20th SFG second in command Major Bert E. Wride conducted a two-hour briefing on the Memphis situation and plans. At the same time, President Johnson announced that General Westmoreland had been replaced by General Creighton Abrams, as commander of the Vietnam forces. At 7:30 a.m. on March 28 in Camp Shelby, 20th SFG Alpha 184 team captain Billy R. Eidson was given his orders on the Memphis deployment. Later that day, the rescheduled march was broken up by provocateurs and Dr. King was led to the Rivermont Hotel by an MPD motorcycle officer, even though he had reservations at the Peabody Hotel. He was given his usual suite, making it possible once again for his activities and conversations to be monitored by the waiting ASA agents. The disruption of the march placed the army on "full alert focus" in Memphis. George C. Moore of the FBI's Division Five (counterintelligence) sent a Memphis field office report to Yarborough and then late that afternoon Moore went over to Falls Church, Virginia, to meet with Gardner of the 902nd MIG. The day after the aborted march, Dr. King tried to bring things together in a meeting with the Invaders who he tended to believe (incorrectly) were responsible for the previous day's violence. The session at the Rivermont was overheard and taped by ASA agents who cabled the transcripts to the Pentagon. They learned that King was personally determined to return to Memphis and complete his march on Friday, April 5. That same day, March 29, Raul, whom James hadn't seen for over five days, returned and announced that the gunrunning operation was set. He said they had to leave immediately for Birmingham. Once there, he instructed James to buy a rifle at the Aeromarine Supply Store. When James came back with a .243 caliber Raul told him to arrange to exchange it for a 30.06, which James did the following day. Before departing, Raul instructed James to meet him on April 3 at the New Rebel Motel in Memphis and bring the gun with him. *** ON MARCH 29, even as Dr. King was addressing the problem of provoked violence in Memphis, various congressmen and senators delivered scathing attacks on him. The media picked up the theme. On that day the FBI prepared a draft article for placement through "cooperative" sources, taking Dr. King to task for leading a violent march and also for staying at white-owned hotels. It urged him to stay at the "fine Hotel Lorraine." The combination of the bureau and the press (articles appeared across the country) was formidable. Subsequently, a decision to stay at the Lorraine was made. Around this time Jowers received a regular produce delivery from the Liberto-controlled M. E. Carter produce company which contained in the bottom of the box the sum of $100,000 in cash, which had been delivered from New Orleans. Considering Jowers's role this appears to be a lot of money and raises the possibility that Jowers may also have been disbursing funds under instructions to designated MPD and possibly other officials. During this period Jowers was visited on two occasions by Raul, who discussed details of the proposed hit with him. On March 31, while Martin King preached at the Episcopal Cathedral in Washington, D.C., his aides Andrew Young, James Orange, and James Bevel flew to Memphis to begin preparations for the march. Their meeting that evening in the Lorraine with the Invaders was overheard by ASA agents. At some point the reservation for Dr. King's room was changed from a cloistered secure room (202) to a highly exposed one (306). *** ON THE MORNING OF APRIL 3, Dr. King arrived in Memphis where he was met not by the usual security team of black detectives, but by a specially formed group of white detectives who had never before been used as a security detail for Dr. King. They would be removed late that afternoon and were not formed the next day. This was significant. The black detectives had been assigned to protect Dr. King on previous visits. Now, during a visit when the tension in the city and hostility toward him was at an all-time high, the special black security team was not formed. Shortly after King arrived at the motel, checking into room 306, Psy Ops officers Reynolds and his partner Norton were met around noon (when the firemen on duty had begun their afternoon -- noon to 5 p.m. -- nap) by fire station 2 Fire Captain Carthel Weeden, who provided them with an observation post on the flat roof on the east side of the fire station, overlooking the Lorraine. Hourly surveillance reports on activities at the motel began to be transmitted to 111th MIG agents stationed in the IEOC inside the MPD's central headquarters. Soon after the SCLC group arrived in Memphis that morning, one of their number, controller Jim Harrison, the deep cover FBI informant inside SCLC, called the Memphis SAC Robert Jensen, in order to check in and tell him that he was in town with the group in case he was needed for anything. Also on this day, in the back of the fire station, MPD intelligence bureau officer Detective Ed Redditt and patrolman Willie Richmond surveilled all activity going on at the motel. The TACT units were pulled back on the orders of Inspector Sam Evans who controlled those units. TACT 10, which had used the Lorraine as its base, was ordered out of the immediate area of the Lorraine Motel. Its new base, beginning on April 4, was to be the fire station. This pullback constituted a further removal of a security force from the immediate area of the Lorraine. On April 3, James, transporting the Aeromarine rifle, checked into the New Rebel Motel where he was joined by Raul late that evening. At that meeting Raul told James to meet him at Jim's Grill at 3:00 p.m. the next afternoon and wrote the address down for him. Raul left, taking the rifle with him. Sometime around this time a rifle connected with the assassination scenario may have been stored on the premises of a Liberto business located within blocks of the Lorraine. Martin Luther King, whose room was under constant eye-to-eye MPD and 111th MIG surveillance as well as electronic surveillance by ASA agents, went that evening (April 3) to address an overflow crowd at Mason Temple in the presence of an 111th MIG team and 111th MIG/MPD undercover agent Marrell McCollough. At the request of the MPD, between 10 and 11 p.m. that evening the only two black firemen at fire station 2 -- Floyd Newsom and Norvell Wallace -- were ordered not to report to their regular station the next day, April 4. Their new assignments were to fire stations in distant parts of the city. It appears likely that Newsom and Wallace were removed because they were potential witnesses who could not be controlled. *** ON APRIL 4, Captain Eidson began briefing his Alpha 184 team at 4:30 a.m. at Camp Shelby. They were shown target acquisition photos of the Lorraine Motel and their target .., Dr. King and Andrew Young, who were described as enemies of the government. Young was a target as he was viewed as potentially the most effective successor of those likely to pick up the torch. No firing was to occur until the order was given by Eidson. Each member of the team was told where to go when they arrived in Memphis. They would be met and taken to their prearranged positions. Within thirty-five to forty minutes they were on their way. Shortly after in Memphis, Loyd Jowers got ready to open up Jim's Grill for the day and began to prepare, as usual, for the breakfast crowd. He told Bobbi Smith not to follow her usual routine of taking breakfast upstairs to recuperating rooming house tenant Grace Walden. Presumably this was because the area was to be used for some staging activity for the operation. At 10 a.m., even as the Alpha 184 team drew nearer to Memphis, ACSI Yarborough and USAINTC commander Blakefield left the Pentagon for what was to be a nearly four-hour meeting at Bailey's Crossroads with senior CIAB officers and others. At 2:10 p.m. the meeting broke up and they returned to the Pentagon. At the fire station Reynolds and Norton climbed back up to their surveillance perch on the roof and continued the routine established the day before, passing reports along to the MPD-based agents of the 111th MIG. The 111th MIG and ASA agents were also in place from early morning in the immediate area of the Lorraine. Also in position was the MPD surveillance team (Redditt and Richmond) in the rear of the fire station. *** SOMETIME in late morning Jowers was visited by Raul who gave him a rifle to hold, saying he would pick it up later. Jowers dutifully put it on the shelf under his counter. Dr. King got up late that morning. There was an SCLC executive staff meeting set for the afternoon and a court hearing on the city's application to enjoin the march was scheduled for that morning. Andy Young had been assigned the task of attending the hearing and reporting back. Sometime after he left, MPD chief MacDonald took up a position near the Butler Street entrance to the Lorraine, walkie-talkie in hand. In Memphis, Captain Billy Eidson introduced Warren and Murphy to Lieutenant Eli Arkin of the MPD intelligence bureau. Arkin reportedly told them that their assistance was essential to save the city that Dr. King's forces were preparing to burn down. They then met up with their contact around 1:00 p.m. Warren named him and said he believed he was a CIA agent. They were taken to their perch on top of the Illinois Central Railroad building where they assumed a state of readiness. In the course of the afternoon Captain Eidson put Warren on the radio with MPD inspector Sam Evans who described the layout of the Lorraine. He also advised them that "friendlies would not be wearing ties." (The only government agent we have identified who was physically close to Dr. King at the time of the killing was Marrell McCollough who was not wearing a tie. It is also interesting to note that James was wearing a tie although Raul, reportedly, was not.) [Inspector Evans (whose son Sam Jr. is currently an investigator for attorney general Pierotti's office) was a significant MPD senior officer and a link between the army and civilian operations. Jowers had been told by Liberto that no police would be around at the time of the killing. Evans was in charge of MPD special services including the emergency TACT units, and on April 3 he ordered the TACT units in and around the area of the Lorraine Motel to pull back. The closest unit -- TACT 10 -- moved its base from the Lorraine to the fire station, thus providing the civilian shooter with more of an opportunity to escape. Also Evans's introduction to Warren by the alpha team's CO Captain Billy Eidson, clearly placed him in the loop regarding the army operation.] Around this time J. D. and his partner were met by their contact officer and taken to their perch on the Tayloe Paper Company water tower. James, having run some errands earlier that morning, made his way downtown to look for Jim's Grill where he was to meet Raul in mid afternoon. On the way, he stopped to change a slowly leaking tire, which made him late. James arrived on South Main Street and after going to the wrong bar eventually entered Jim's Grill. Not seeing Raul inside, he retrieved his car and finally parked it in front of Jim's Grill around 3:30 p.m. By that time Raul had shown up in the grill. He instructed James to rent a room in the rooming house upstairs which he did under the name of John Willard, although Raul had initially wanted James to rent the room using the Galt alias. James was dressed in a dark suit with a white shirt and tie and looked out of place. Raul was also wearing a dark suit and light shirt but was not wearing a tie. Loyd Jowers pretty much followed his routine most of the day, except for meeting with Raul and spending time out in the back brush area behind Jim's Grill. Raul sent James to purchase binoculars and then instructed him to bring his bag upstairs to the room. James also carried a bedspread up to the room in case he had to sleep there since he didn't want to sleep on the one provided. By this time all of the preparations for James to be set up were completed. He had rented the room which was to be the staging area, brought some of his physical possessions into it so that they were available to be planted, and purchased a set of binoculars which could be used to support the allegation that he was surveilling the motel. *** AROUND 4:00 P.M. Andrew Young returned from court and joined the SCLC meeting in room 306. Between 3:00 and 4:00 p.m. MPD intelligence bureau lieutenant E. H. Arkin met with Phillip R. Manuel (former army counterintelligence officer and investigator for the U.S. Senate Committee on Permanent Investigations). Manuel had been in Memphis for a couple of days. Sometime after 4:30 p.m. Arkin appeared at fire station 2 and ordered Redditt to go with him to central police headquarters. Between 5:00 and 5:30 p.m. at a headquarters conference room filled with military brass, the Director of Police and Fire Frank Holloman ordered Redditt to go home for his own protection, indicating that there had been a threat on his life. Redditt resisted but was finally driven home by Arkin, who had already learned that the threat was bogus. Around 4:40-4:45 p.m., a man in a dark blue windbreaker drove up South Main Street in a white Mustang with Arkansas plates and parked it just south of Canipe's in front of the billboards and just north of the parking lot driveway. He sat in the car for some time and then eventually got out and entered the rooming house, going up to room 5-B where he would join Raul. This white Mustang driver was clearly not James, who was dressed in a suit and tie on that day. Sometime late that afternoon Raul visited Jowers again in the grill. This time he picked up the rifle he had left earlier. He carried it into the back of the grill and apparently upstairs to James's room. Around 5:00 p.m. James Latch answered the phone in the LL& L office and handed it to Frank Liberto. An agitated Liberto yelled at the party on the other end of the phone, "I told you not to call me here, shoot the son of a bitch when he comes on the balcony." He then told the caller that he should collect his money from his (Liberto's) brother in New Orleans after he had finished the job. The sum mentioned was $5,000. It appears that Liberto was speaking to the shooter, who may have been Raul. Meanwhile, also around 5:00 p.m. or shortly afterward, Invader Big John Smith arrived at the Lorraine Motel. Passing through the lobby on his way to a meeting room, he noticed a number of MPD officers around the motel, particularly officer Caro Harris. When he came down from the meeting about thirty minutes later (5:30-5:45 p.m.) the officers, including Harris, had all disappeared. By this time, then, all security had been stripped away from Dr. King's immediate area. In contrast, massive surveillance units were in place. Three rooms at the Lorraine, including Dr. King's room, 306, were bugged and the telephones tapped. Eye-to-eye physical surveillance was in place from units on Butler and Huling Streets and photographic surveillance was in process from the roof of the fire station. Also still in place were the Alpha 184 sniper teams. *** SOMETIME AROUND 5:15 P.M. Raul gave James $200 and told him to go to the movies as he wanted to meet alone with a gunrunner. Raul also told James to leave the car, as he would be using it later. Instructed to return in two to three hours, James left the rooming house around 5:20, got a quick bite to eat, and then remembered the flat spare tire. Deciding to try to have it repaired, he went looking for a gas station. He drove north on South Main for two blocks and then at Vance Avenue turned right at about 5:50-5:55 directly in front of two Jim's Grill customers (Ray Hendrix and William Reed) who were walking to their hotel -- Clarks Hotel. Between 5:30-5:50 p.m., with James out of the way, the shooter was in the brush area with the murder weapon, where he was joined by Loyd Jowers. The two began to watch the motel, waiting for Dr. King to come outside. Meanwhile, another person waited in room 5-B, prepared to take the bundle containing the rifle James bought and other items of his downstairs to plant them. Also at 5:50 p.m., as J. Edgar Hoover was settling in at his favorite Washington eating and drinking place (Harvey's Restaurant), ACSI Yarborough was en route to attend a reception for the Chinese Ambassador at 3225 Woodley Road N.W. Back in Memphis, around 5:45-5:50 p.m., Redditt's surveillance partner Richmond observed the hurried departure of the Invaders from their motel rooms 315 and 316. Some left in Charles Cabbage's car and others departed on foot.Soon after they left, Richmond observed Reverend Billy Kyles knock on the door of room 306. He saw Dr. King answer the door, speak briefly with Kyles and then go back inside, closing the door behind him. Right around then, the 111th MIG undercover agent Marrell McCollough drove into the parking lot of the Lorraine with SCLC's Jim Orange and Jim Bevel. Shortly afterwards the SCLC staff meeting broke up. Reverend Kyles was on the balcony some fifteen to twenty feet north of Dr. King's room. The exiting staff members left Dr. King's room quickly and headed for their rooms to freshen up in preparation for the soul food dinner planned at Reverend Kyles's home. A minute or two before 6:00 p.m. Dr. King came out on the balcony, leaned on the railing, and began to talk to people in the group right below him in the parking lot, one of whom was Andy Young. Betty Spates had entered the grill just before 6:00 p.m., coming across the street from the Seabrook Wallpaper Company looking for Jowers. She made her way back into the kitchen, noting that the kitchen door, which was always open or at least ajar, was closed. Jowers was nowhere to be seen. As Dr. King stood at the railing at 6:00 p.m. he was center mass in J.D.'s sights. J. D. waited for the order to fire. At the same time Andrew Young, who was standing in the motel parking area, was also held center mass in Warren's sights. Unknown to either army sniper, the civilian shooter was also "drawing a bead" on Dr. King from the brush area, with Loyd Jowers kneeling nearby. At exactly 6:01 the shooter fired and his bullet struck Martin King in the side of the face. The impact rocked him back and then he fell where he had been standing. As the impact rocked Dr. King backward and he began to fall, Reynolds snapped four or five shots catching Dr. King as he fell. Norton then swung his camera from the direction of the parking lot of the Lorraine to the left, focusing on the brush area to catch the shooter lowering his rifle and leaving the scene. After dropping the gun on the ground, the shooter scrambled through the brush and down the wall. Jumping down onto Mulberry Street he ran north to Huling and went around the front of a waiting MPD car to get into it on the passenger side. The car then drove quickly away, heading north on Mulberry Street. Paul, the Yellow Cab driver of car number 58, who was picking up a fare at the Lorraine, saw the shooter coming over the wall and into the police car and immediately reported it to his dispatcher over his radio. Meanwhile Loyd Jowers had picked up the murder weapon which had been left on the ground by the shooter and began to run back to the rear door of his kitchen. Inside, Betty, hearing a shot and seeing the back door open, went to it and looked out. Jowers was then about ten to fifteen feet away, coming toward her. She stepped back and he ran into the building. He was white as a ghost, out of breath, and his hair was in disarray. The knees of his trousers were muddy. In the kitchen he turned to her and said plaintively, "You wouldn't ever do anything to hurt me, would you? She replied, "You know I wouldn't Loyd." In front of her, he quickly broke down the gun into two or three pieces and covered it with a cloth. He left the kitchen, stepping quickly behind the counter under which he placed the gun on a shelf, pushing it back out of sight. Immediately after the shot, 111th MIG agent Marrell McCollough raced up the stairs to reach the fallen Dr. King and knelt over him, apparently checking him for life signs. Very close to the time of the shot, a person dressed in a dark suit exited James's room 5-B, went down the stairs, out of the building, and dropped the bundle in the recessed doorway of Canipe's store. He then got into the Mustang just south of Canipe's and drove away, going north on South Main Street. *** IN THE FIVE MINUTES immediately following the shooting (TTH+6), Warren and Murphy on the Illinois Central Railroad building and J.D. and his partner on the water tower were ordered by Captain Billy Eidson to disengage and proceed to their respective preassigned egress routes. Sometime thereafter Reynolds and Norton made their descent from the roof of the fire station. MPD officers Joe Hodges, Torrence Landers, and Carroll Dunn, having penetrated the thick brush at the rear of the rooming house, found what appeared to be a fresh set of large footprints. One was 13-1/2 inches long and the other nearly 14 inches. They were at the top of the alley which ran between the buildings and pointed in the direction of the door at the end (which led to the basement and also into the grill). No proper search was conducted of the basement of the rooming house. Dr. King was rushed to St. Joseph's Hospital. James, returning to the rooming house area, saw a policeman blocking traffic on South Main Street. Constantly aware of his fugitive status, he headed south out of the area, intending to call his New Orleans contact number in order to learn what had happened. When he heard on the radio that Dr. King had been shot and that the police were looking for a white man in a white Mustang, he decided to head straight for Atlanta. Inexplicably no all points bulletin (APB) and no signal Y (blocking exit routes from the city) were issued by the MPD. Within half an hour after the killing, a hoax CB broadcast took place depicting a car chase on an outward egress route in the northern end of the city. (Remember that the Alpha 184 recon team had on February 25 mapped egress routes in that section of the city.) Yellow Cab driver Paul dropped his Lorraine fare off at the airport and reported what he had seen, first to another Yellow Cab driver, Louie Ward, and then to three MPD officers. He was subsequently also interviewed that evening by the police at the Yellow Cab offices on South Second Street. Paul reportedly died late on the night of April 4, either falling or being pushed out of a car on the Memphis Arkansas bridge. On the evening of Apri14, H. L. Hunt was called by J. Edgar Hoover and advised to pull off the air all anti-King Life Line radio programs being aired in the next twenty-four hours. Hunt immediately summoned John Curington to his home and gave him the assignment of organizing a group of secretaries to make the radio station calls. Hunt began feverishly working on an anti-King book on the day after the assassination, only to abruptly abandon the project. In the course of the rest of the evening, Dr. King was pronounced dead at St. Joseph's and his friends paid their last respects. In performing the autopsy the coroner would strangely fail to trace the path of the bullet in Dr. King's body. The death slug was removed in one piece from Dr. King's back where it came to rest just under his left shoulder blade. MPD officers, often accompanied by FBI agents, began to take statements from witnesses in the area, and the rifle, death slug, and items found in the bundle in front of Canipe's were sent off to the FBI laboratory for forensic examination. *** VERY EARLY THE NEXT MORNING, in response to a request from the MPD, Memphis Public Works deputy director Maynard Stiles assigned two supervisory workers Dutch Goodman and Willie Crawford (remember non supervisory workers were on strike) to go to the rear of the rooming house where under MPD supervision they cut the brush to the ground. The tall hedge which ran between the fire station and the parking area immediately adjoining the rooming house was also cut to the ground. A large tree branch between the bathroom window and the Lorraine may also have been cut down sometime after the killing, thus eliminating an apparent obstacle to a clear shot from the bathroom window. The MPD investigation was aborted almost from the outset, taken over and controlled by the FBI, even though the murder was a state and not a federal crime. Though detectives conducted numerous interviews, glaringly obvious leads and significant witnesses were ignored, and the drunkenness of the state's main witness, Charlie Stephens, was concealed. The investigation files were also clearly sanitized. Where, for example, are: the interviews conducted of Yellow Cab driver Paul; the photographs of the bullet removed from Dr. King's body; the photographs of the scene of the crime as it was at the time, before the bushes at the back of the rooming house and the hedge between the parking lot and the fire station had been cut down? Loyd Jowers opened the grill the morning after the shooting after driving Bobbi to work. On the way he told her about finding a gun out back which he said he had turned over to the police. Sometime in late morning he lifted the lid of a box and showed Yellow Cab driver James McCraw the rifle he had hidden under his counter within a minute or two immediately after the shooting. A scope was also in the box but it was not attached to the rifle. Jowers told McCraw that this was the rifle which had been used to kill Dr. King and that he had found it out back and was going to turn it over to the police. It seems that Jowers was already beginning to construct a cover story. *** OBVIOUSLY IT IS TOO MUCH of a coincidence for the Alpha 184 army snipers and the "civilian" assassin to have been there independently taking aim at Dr. King at the same moment. The whole arrangement: the manipulation of Martin Luther King into the exposed balcony room; the stripping away of security and potential witnesses who could not be controlled; the provision of a patsy; the positioning of massive surveillance and a sniper team; the provision of local intelligence and logistical assistance; the restriction of the investigation by FBI control; the ignoring of leads and evidence begging for attention; the alteration of the scene of the crime could only have been possible with the knowledge and cooperation of the FBI, army intelligence, the ASA, the 20th SFG, elements of the ACSI's office, the CIA, the mob, and senior officers of the MPD. Further, we know from Warren's orders that the White House, the Secretary of Defense, the FBI, and officials of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, among others, were aware of the Memphis army deployment. The relationship between the army and the civilian assassination operations is further revealed by James's use of the alias of Eric S. Galt. Galt, holding top secret clearance, was at the time involved in another covert operation (Project MEXPO) with the same unit (the 902nd MIG) which carried out the Memphis deployment and coordinated the 111th MIG, ASA, and 20th SFG forces on- site. In fact, Gardner of the 902nd MIG himself selected the eight-man Alpha 184 sniper team. It clearly appears that the hit was to be carried out by the civilian contract killer with the army snipers there as backup shooters if the contract shooter could not make the shot or if he failed to kill King. How two snipers shooting from different locations could take out both King and Young and still pin the shooting on James Earl Ray is difficult to reconcile until one remembers that the initial plan appeared to be to shoot at a moving target in a car. Because of the movement of the car and the fact that bullets would be deflected back and forth inside, it would be virtually impossible to determine the origin of the shots. The army snipers were surprised that their targets Dr. King and Andy Young were outside of their rooms in exposed positions just before six p.m. Not believing their luck, they quickly got them in their sights and waited for the order to fire. They were amazed when this did not come. While particular senior level officials must have been aware of the whole picture, the lower level participants only knew what their particular roles were. Thus, the army snipers knew nothing of the local subcontract and Warren assumed when King was shot that it was one of their snipers who had fired too early. Similarly, the civilian operatives were unlikely to have known about the military presence. Even if the fiction of the lone assassin James Earl Ray could not be sustained there was at the next level, already in place, an officially deniable local contract and assassination operation ostensibly carried out exclusively by organized crime. As to organized crime, the mob would not be involved without being paid. Though it appears that the payment was organized from official sources, unvouchered and thus untraceable funds would have been used. In one sense the killing itself was the easy part. The difficulty in such operations is how to cover up the truth and keep it covered up so that the official involvement does not surface. In order to accomplish this, strict control must be exercised over any investigation. Such control characterized the original FBI-directed MPD investigation and the subsequent Justice Department and HSCA investigations. It is important to realize that much of the subsequent cover-up activity took place after a number of key officials in 1967-68 had gone from the scene. Director Hoover died in 1972. Lyndon Johnson did not run for reelection and died in 1973. H. L. Hunt passed away in 1974 and by then Richard Helms, army chief of staff General Harold Johnson and ACSI General William Yarborough were long gone from the official positions they held at the time. Gardner faded away and eventually disappeared. Finally, in the years following the events of April 4, 1968, two members of the Alpha 184 team (Captain Billy Eidson and 2nd Lieutenant Robert Worley) died or were killed, leaving Warren and Murphy in no doubt that a cleanup operation was under way. They left the country. A third member -- the central communications operator -- also went into hiding in Canada, and a fourth, J. D., was also killed some years later. The exception, however, was outside of government where Carlos Marcello, though in prison for part of the time, remained active in running his New Orleans criminal enterprise and the same Memphis Godfather continued to be his main man in Memphis. Produce man Frank C. Liberto also continued to "take care of business" in that city with the Godfather's blessing, until he died in 1978, the year he admitted his role in the killing to the Whitlocks. The point is that insofar as the government is concerned, the personalities -- heinous though many of them were -- changed, but a consistent policy of covering up the truth by the use of every possible means (including further murders) was continued. In every sense the cover-up has been institutionalized, and is not dependent upon the actions of particular individuals who were involved and determined to protect themselves. *** JAMES EARL RAY ABANDONED the Eric S. Galt alias, and after going from Atlanta to Canada, fled to England using the name Ramon George Sneyd. Media coverage, often using FBI-planted stories, generally depicted him as a racist, violent, cold-blooded killer, who had dealt in and used drugs. This coverage would continue beyond his conviction. The public image of James was not the only one being molded by the mass media. It would also consistently record and remember Dr. King's pre-1966 Southern civil rights work, ignoring his formidable commitment to end the war and economic injustice at home. James was ultimately arrested on June 8, extradited to the United States on July 19, arriving in Memphis around 3:00 a.m. Only hours before, when tipped off about Ray's return, Memphis produce man Frank Liberto flew to Detroit. After James's capture all FBI work on the case ceased. At no time in the pretrial period or since was the defense allowed to test the rifle or the bullets in evidence. James found himself housed in oppressive conditions, with his lawyers (first the Haneses and then Percy Foreman) being paid pursuant to a contract with an author who he gradually came to believe was providing information to the FBI. James would eventually be coerced into pleading guilty by his second lawyer, Percy Foreman. It finally emerged that at least by 1977-78, Foreman apparently knew Raul and had no doubt that his former client was innocent. The day after the guilty plea hearing, the FBI put in motion the production of an official version of the case. The author proposed was Gerold Frank, whose book did indeed become the official version. The case was closed. Three days after the guilty plea James petitioned the court to set aside his plea and grant him a trial. He was denied relief and has been seeking a trial ever since. * * * SOMETIME IN 1969 OR 1970 on separate occasions Amaro Pereira and Felix Torrino independently told Cheryl that Raul had assassinated Martin Luther King. *** IN 1971 writer William Sartor, who had begun to focus on the involvement of Carlos Marcello and the Libertos in the assassination, died mysteriously in Waco, Texas, the night before he was to interview a significant witness. Twenty-one years later an autopsy report was finally obtained and it appeared that he had been murdered. A homicide investigation was opened. In the early 1970s Marrell McCollough, then working for the CIA, returned to Memphis as part of a covert operation directed against certain antiwar activity in that city. In 1974, Raul, in a rage, admitted to Cheryl in the presence of Amaro, Torrino and others that he was Dr. King's assassin, confirming what Amaro and Torrino had told her years earlier. In 1976, in response to public outcry over the FBI's COINTELPRO excesses against Dr. King, the Justice Department began an investigation of the FBI's investigation of the assassination. In a report issued on January 11, 1977, the Justice Department found nothing wrong with the "technical competence of the investigation," and also found no new evidence which called for an investigation by state or federal authorities. In 1977 author William Bradford Huie scheduled a small private meeting with James's lawyer Jack Kershaw. It was held in Nashville with two strangers present who may well have been federal agents. Huie asked Kershaw to take an offer to James of a sum of money, a pardon, and a new identity, if James would admit guilt. Only the federal government could arrange the deal Huie proposed. James rejected the offer out of hand, and it was later repeated by Huie in a tape-recorded and transcribed conversation with James's brother Jerry. The HSCA investigation itself constituted the next cover-up. Early on, Richard Sprague, who had indicated his determination to acquire all relevant CIA and FBI and other intelligence files, was summarily removed. He was even escorted under armed guard from his office in the Capitol, presumably because they were afraid that he might remove sensitive documents which the committee would not want revealed. Under the new chief counsel Robert Blakey, no threat was posed to the interests of the intelligence community or the FBI. The committee undertook a tightly controlled investigation which focused on closing doors rather than following up leads, and sealing files, which incredibly included James's lawyer Art Hanes's trial file. Then, the "dirty tricks" activity of Oliver Patterson was deplorable, as was the refusal to seriously investigate and follow obvious leads pointing to the involvement of organized crime in the killing. Equally reprehensible was the HSCA's irrational adherence to the Alton bank robbery as a source of money for James when he was never a suspect and was not charged and in fact was not involved. By HSCA's King subcommittee chairman Walter Fauntroy's own admission, the HSCA knew at least about some of the 111th MIG surveillance activity and yet this significant and dramatic information was buried. The HSCA also clearly knew about the FBI's plan in 1977 to kill James when he was on escape but never mentioned it. In addition, staff investigators had admitted that they knew that Raul existed and that they knew who he was, yet in the final report they denied his existence and said that if he did exist he was one of James's brothers. With all of this information, counsel Blakey was still prepared to unequivocally state that the HSCA had found no evidence of any involvement on the part of any agency of the U.S. government and the HSCA postulated an incredible conspiracy theory which purported to involve James with some St. Louis individuals without a shred of evidence that he had ever met with them or even knew of their existence. Conveniently the alleged conspirators were dead at the time of the investigation. *** DURING THE TIME that the HSCA investigation was in operation, there was a series of efforts to silence James Earl Ray prior to his testifying in public in August 1978. It is important to note that there have been efforts to silence James at critical times during the history of the case. James Earl Ray was supposed to have been killed before he could be captured. One official source (Herbert) said that the reason the Galt alias and its tie to the 902nd MIG was never considered a problem, was because James was to have been killed, either in Memphis or in Africa. There would obviously have been concern in official circles about what James might testify to at his trial. This was taken care of by the orchestration of his guilty plea. Then, in June 1977, James escaped with others from Brushy Mountain Penitentiary and all the indications are that he was not supposed to return alive. He was no sooner over the wall (the nearest guard tower was curiously unmanned at the time ) and into the hills behind the prison when a large SWAT team (upwards of thirty FBI snipers) took up position in the area. The function of snipers is not to apprehend. It is to kill. On the day of the escape Governor Ray Blanton received a call from HSCA chairman Louis Stokes who told him that HSCA staff believed that the FBI went to the area with instructions to kill James. The governor immediately went to the prison and ordered the agents to leave. Some years later when the federal agents controlling Arthur Baldwin discussed Ray with him, Baldwin said they made it clear that on that occasion James was not meant to be brought back alive. The escape, Baldwin understood, was staged for the purpose of killing James and putting an end to the problem. James's luck held up once again. He was actually captured by a prison guard. The plan failed. The next attempt to close the case once and for all by eliminating James arose in the autumn of 1977. The Mafia Godfather in Memphis told Art Baldwin that if he (Baldwin) could clean up the problem he would be very amply rewarded. He told him that the people in New Orleans found Ray's continued visibility worrying -- they wanted the problem to be over. The Godfather felt an obligation because the "screw up" happened in his town and area of responsibility. Baldwin approached Tim Kirk with whom he said he had worked on some other matters. They met and discussed the problem but it went no further. Some months later (in June 1978), Baldwin spoke by telephone with Kirk who by then was in the Shelby County Jail. Though Baldwin was offered $50,000 to get the job done, he told Kirk that the contract price was $5,000. Kirk became suspicious because of Baldwin's known ties to federal agents and let James's lawyers in on the plot. If Kirk knew that the Godfather had put out the contract, he never let on. The third and final attempt, of course, involved an offer made to Baldwin by his FBI control agent some six or seven months after the Godfather's approach. It was first set out during a car journey to Nashville, and Baldwin subsequently overheard it being discussed by agents involved in the prosecution of Governor Ray Blanton. Baldwin backed off because he could not get satisfactory answers to material questions. Though promised lifelong immunity from all prosecution, Baldwin increasingly began to suspect that he, and possibly the other person who would be working with him, would not survive the operation. *** IN 1980, Cheryl and Bob, following the advice of Houston attorney Percy Foreman (who seemed to know Raul) and in fear for their lives, left Houston and resettled in another state where Bob had family. *** IN 1989 JAMES'S latest appeal for a trial based on a clear violation of his Sixth Amendment rights was denied by the Supreme Court of the United States. Frustrated in the courts, the 1993 Thames/HBO teletrial provided an opportunity for at least some of James's case to be put to the public. Even then, however, cover-up attempts continued. The rooms of the television trial jury were visited and "inspected" by "technical staff' of the FBI from Washington, during the week prior to the jury's arrival. In addition, rooms on the same floor were reserved in the name of William Sessions (then director of the FBI) for himself and four agents. Cover-up by interference with the jury or some members of it, appeared to be the order of the day in mid January 1993. This failed. *** BETWEEN 1993 AND 1995 the most recent cover-up has been successfully orchestrated at the local level by Shelby County District Attorney General John Pierotti. The appearance of Wayne Chastain before a grand jury was blocked in contravention of the right of a citizen under Tennessee law. Then, of course, the American media would not break the story of Loyd Jowers's involvement and his application for immunity, necessitating the breaking of the story in the London Observer. Following the Observer story, when ARC's Prime Time Live program aired the television admissions of Loyd Jowers, they were totally ignored by CBS, NBC, and even ARC news itself as well as the overwhelming mass print media throughout the nation. Despite Pierotti admitting that he would be derelict in his duty if he did not investigate the new evidence, he never talked to Jowers and the public reports from his office distorted the actual statements of James McCraw and Bobbi Smith. Subsequently, the attorney general's office ignored Nathan and Lavada Whitlock's statements about the local Mafia contract and Louie Ward's attempt to tell about the man his fellow cab driver Paul saw coming down over the wall and getting into a police car right after the shooting. Finally, the attorney general's office has blocked every attempt to allow material evidence of James's innocence to be put on in court, as well as continuing to prevent the testing of the rifle (which twenty-seven years after the crime has yet to be independently tested by the defense). Further, the federal government continued to be unhelpful. My appeal to Attorney General Janet Reno guaranteeing federal civil rights indictments if she formed a grand jury, was met with brush-offs. So, the cover-up is alive and well in the State of Tennessee and the United States, and consequently, throughout the world. Its effectiveness continues to be a testament to the comprehensive efficiency of senior law enforcement officials and the general collaboration of the mass newspaper, magazine, and television and radio broadcast media. *** HOWEVER, an innocent man remains in prison and the case will not go away. In the spring and summer of 1995 Raul appears to have been located. On July 5, 1995, he was served with a summons and complaint and made a co-defendant in James Earl Ray's civil action against Loyd Jowers, Raul, and others. Though James has to date been denied a trial in the criminal courts, new arguments will soon take place in Judge Brown's court and the civil action is moving forward and will shortly come to trial. The investigation also continues. Some questions will likely always remain unanswered, but as new evidence inevitably comes to light the history of the assassination will continue to be rewritten.
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