Conspiracy Nation -- Vol. 3 Num. 38

("Quid coniuratio est?")


I received the following from a CN reader who wishes to remain anonymous. What I plan to do is post the entire document over a period of time, most likely in weekly installments. Here is part 8.

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CONSPIRACY:
THE INVISIBLE SECOND RUNG OF GOVERNMENT

An Investigation and Discussion of that Part of the United States Government Which We Did Not Elect, Which Is Not Accountable, Which Is Unconstitutional, Which Is Engaged In Unlawful and Unconstitutional Activity, and Then Hides Behind the National Security Act of 1947

PART I :
CITATION AND SUMMARY OF SOURCES

(continued)

32. Ray, James Earl, Who Killed Martin Luther King?, Washington, D.C., National Press Books, 1992. Ray is the alleged assassin of MLK and is "confined in River Bend Penitentiary in Nashville, Tennessee." Summary: Documents strong circumstantial evidence that the FBI and Memphis Police were responsible for the assassination of MLK, and that Ray was framed, while "ballistic evidence and eyewitness accounts vindicate Ray." Evidence was tampered with, destroyed, and concealed. Official investigations were used to simply rubber stamp preordained conclusions that supported the official party line. Judges and witnesses were threatened, blackmailed, bribed, intimidated, told how to testify, illegally imprisoned, and murdered. The media was misused and manipulated by the FBI. The Senate Select Committee on Assassinations, the Department of Justice, and Judges knowingly allowed purjured testimony, placed bizarre limitations on the defendant's rights, lost entire files at convenient times, allowed violations of court orders to go without punishment, and rewarded clear violations of the defendant's rights by allowing them to go without consequences.

Two hours prior to the shooting, Memphis police withdrew the detail assigned to protect MLK. Minutes after MLK was shot the murder weapon was found "packed neatly in a box, not something a killer is likely to do with a murder weapon when fleeing the scene. Ray was coerced into a guilty plea that was the product of fraud and deception.

The only supposed eyewitness, Charles Stephens, later recanted his testimony. Another witness, James McCraw, witnessed Stephen's condition 2-3 minutes prior to the shooting. Stephens, a known alcoholic, was so intoxicated that he could not get up, let alone walk, and certainly not accurately identify a fast moving target.

Numerous times Ray was told by FBI Agents, police, and prosecutors that unless he cooperated by giving a confession and self-incriminating statements, authorities might jail various members of his family.

Two judges, who had ruled in favor of Ray, mysteriously died of alleged heart attacks in their chambers while studying papers on the King murder case and giving due consideration to a real trial for Ray.

One of the phone numbers "Raoul" had given Ray was listed to a law enforcement officer. Another was listed to a motel owned by mobster Carlos Marcello. The man who made the connections between the Raoul phone numbers and their proper listing, and who then passed the information to Ray was found dead months later, allegedly a suicide.

Ray's letters to his lawyer were intercepted, copied, and forwarded to the prosecutor, as well as to the FBI. This case of national interest had a bizarre 100-mile limit zone placed on Ray's legal right to subpoena. Certain documents that were legally subpoenaed were never produced, nor did the judge ever address this contempt.

Two judges, in refusing Ray's request for a real trial, refused to address or refute Ray's arguments on their merit, but, instead hid behind judicial discretion and disregarded any and all points made.

The media cooperated in influencing public opinion in disallowing Ray a trial, including misuse of the media to print blatant lies and unsubstantiated innuendo (i.e., that Ray yelled racial epithets while watching TV in jail in 1963-64 prior to the MLK assassination; but there were no TVs in Ray's jail until 1970).

Ray's attorneys were never even admonished for entangling themselves in publishing contracts about the Ray case while Ray's trial was pending, an obvious conflict of interest.

The Senate Select Committee on Assassinations was "covered by a succession of writers selected by their various employers for their ability to integrate new information into the official version of the case without changing its essential conclusions, and without lending credence to any perspectives challenging the official line."

One judge labeled Ray "libel proof" (a practice rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court prior to the MLK case), virtually inviting the media to print fabrications about Ray.

In 1967 Ray found a "business card bearing the initials L.E.A.A. stuck down between the seats of [his car] just after Raoul had traveled with him." Playboy magazine "claimed Law Enforcement Assistance Administration hadn't been created until August 1968. What Playboy didn't print was that there were two L.E.A.A. pilot projects in 1967, one in Newark, New Jersey and one in New Orleans. One of the phone numbers Raoul had given Ray was in New Orleans. It was later learned that a 15-year aide to Hefner had been convicted for conspiracy to distribute cocaine. He supposedly committed suicide after being pressured by the government to implicate Hefner.

One of Ray's attorneys received $11,000 in consultation fees from a publisher, "even though the contract he had supervised specified that no participants would be paid for the interview." Further, "the Tennessee Supreme Court's Board of Professional Responsibility...saw nothing unethical in this attorney receiving money when he had agreed not to...."

Memphis officials and prosecutors destroyed and hid massive amounts of intelligence, documents, and evidence collected by the police department during the MLK assassination investigation. The media remained silent on the evidence destruction.

Anonymously a photo of Raoul with his correct identification was sent to Ray. Ray forwarded it to his brother with a request for further investigation. His brother made a copy and sent the original in a package back to Ray. Ray received the package, but not the photo. A few days later his brother was arrested. Upon his release, he found that his house had been rifled and, among other things, his copy of the photo had been taken. Later Ray identified the photo as being that of one of Raoul's cohorts Ray had seen in the restaurant beneath the flophouse where the assassination allegedly occurred.

Another witness in the Select Committee investigation died mysteriously and violently within one year of his involvement with the Committee.

A former FBI Agent made serious allegations involving unethical and criminal acts on the part of the Select Committee's congressional agents. But, the Select Committee was allowed to conduct the investigation into these allegations against itself. The media blindly accepted the predictable results of that investigation.

The Committee knowingly allowed perjured testimony from Mr. Eist, a former Scotland Yard employee, to corroborate the official party line, yet would not allow Ray's attorney time to investigate the perjury. The employee had been fired from Scotland Yard for participating in several jewel heists and for falsely claiming to have obtained confessions. The Committee concealed that knowledge. The Committee knew Eist was lying, as they had two FBI documents proving it. Further, at the time of Ray's incarceration, Mr. Eist claims he told a reporter, but not his superiors about Ray's "admissions." "One wonders why a policeman would tell a reporter and not his superiors about something so seemingly important, and why that reporter wouldn't rush the story into print."

During the Committee hearings, Ray's testimony had been interrupted to read Mr. Eist's claims. Ray's attorney allowed the interruption on the condition that Ray would be allowed to come back to complete his testimony. But when Eist appeared to testify in person, the Committee announced that it had "reconsidered" and would not bring Ray back to testify, a fact over which one of the Committee staff resigned in protest. Yet, this testimony of Mr. Eist was cited by several members of the Committee as the primary factor leading them to conclude Ray to be the sole murderer.

The Committee also allowed perjured testimony from Ray's former attorney who made false claims against Ray. When asked to substantiate his claim, he claimed he couldn't because Ray's entire file had been "lost" after giving the file to another attorney. The other attorney denied losing the file. But, none of this was investigated by the Committee.

The chairman of the Committee knew but filed to mention that Ray's former attorney had previously been involved with the billionaire Hunt family of Texas, and had been indicted, along with two of H. S. Hunt's sons, for obstruction of justice, illegal wiretaps, and conspiracy charges. However, the case against Ray's former attorney was never concluded, but held in abeyance (for purposes that look suspiciously like strong-arming Ray's former attorney into corroborating the official party line). However, none of this can be proven as the Justice Department says it has "lost" the file on this matter.

Canale, the MLK assassination prosecutor, wrote memos that verify that all negotiations and agreements to settle the case by a guilty plea were completed by December, 1968, prior to Ray ever even hearing about any proposal to plead guilty, and prior to defense having even investigated the case against Ray. The political expediency was clear: Avoid a trial in which the release of FBI or Memphis Police files might embarrass any officials.

During the Committee hearings a media reporter offered Ray $220,000 and a parole if Ray would confess to MLK's murder. This offer was captured on tape by Ray's attorney, the transcription of which is "eloquent proof that the prosecution had no admissions" or confessions from Ray incriminating himself.

During G. Robert Blakey's tenure as head of the Committee, he required all staff members to sign an agreement precluding them from publishing any information about the King case unless the House of Representatives or the CIA gave prior approval.

On the back of the L.E.A.A. business card was the name Randy Rosen with a Miami address, a man who was actually Randy Rosenson, a government informant. When Ray mentioned this to the Committee, it "triggered a series of deceptive maneuvers designed to keep Rosenson under wraps." Rosenson's lawyer had been G. Wray Gill, a criminal attorney whose clientele included Carlos Marcello. Gill had also employed David Ferrie, a prior suspect in the JFK assassination.

The FBI had a long-running campaign against MLK. J. Edgar Hoover's COINTELPRO (COunter INTELligence PROgram) against MLK included Hoover having "samples of his agents' handiwork sent to King's wife, in hopes of breaking up their marriage and weakening his stature among blacks." A veteran FBI Agent, Arthur Murtagh, revealed that "he was asked to steal SCLC [King's organization] stationery and handwriting samples of top SCLC officials, presumably to forge incriminating notes and letters."

FBI Agents sent King a letter urging King to kill himself or risk exposure. When King would visit friends, FBI Agents would call the Fire Department to falsely report a fire at that address to disrupt King. The FBI ran a wiretapping operation on King 24 hours a day. The FBI put King's name "on a list of names of Americans to be rounded up and imprisoned in the event of a national emergency." An FBI memo states, "(censored) stated to DeLoach that he was faced with the difficult problem of taking steps to remove King from the National picture...."

Frank Holloman, a former FBI Agent, was in charge of the Memphis Police and Fire Department when MLK was assassinated. The only two black firemen stationed at the firehouse directly across the street from the Lorraine Motel (where MLK was assassinated) were transferred one day prior to King's assassination. Four hours prior to the assassination, the one black detective assigned to protecting King was also removed from the scene.

When questioned about the transfer after the assassination, one black fireman was told it was because of unspecified threats on his life. Holloman gave evasive, vague, unsubstantiated answers. The other black detective, Redditt, was given similar unsubstantiated answers. Holloman summoned Redditt to a meeting wherein every head of every law enforcement agency was present. "'It was like a meeting of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. In this room, just before Dr. King was murdered, were the heads and seconds in command of I guess every law enforcement operation in this area you could think of. I had never seen anything like it before. The Sheriff, the Highway Patrol, Army Intelligence, the National Guard. You name it. It was in the room.' Strangely, though, the two police guards ordered to protect Redditt's life, did not station themselves outside Redditt's home and stay in radio contact with each other and Redditt, where they could have provided some real protection. Instead, they went with Redditt inside his home, where they could watch Redditt, but not protect him. 'If someone threw a bomb in a window, those two officers would just have been two more casualties. Then I really knew something was wrong.' Three days later Redditt was ordered back to work with no more mention of the 'contract' on him."

After the assassination, there was an inexplicable thirty minute delay in getting the FBI into the MLK case. There has also been no explanation why it took the FBI fourteen days to come up with Ray's identity after he left behind his radio labeled with his ID number, a fact that would have immediately tipped the FBI to Ray's escapee status.

Another suspicious element linking Raoul to the FBI and the FBI to the MLK murder is the fact that the first wave of wanted posters identified Ray as Eric Starvo Gault, the only name by which Raoul knew Ray.

Another fact casting suspicion is the memo from FBI Agent DeLoach to Hoover suggesting that the FBI "quietly sponsor" a book that would tell the "true story" of the King case, adding that he wanted to see the bureau advise a friendly newspaperman "on a strictly confidential basis" that Loretta Scott King and Ralph Abernathy were "deliberately plotting to keep King's assassination in the news by pulling the ruse of maintaining the King murder was definitely a conspiracy, and not committed by one man, in order to keep the money coming to Mrs. King...we can do this without attribution to the FBI and without anyone knowing that the information came from a wiretap." (The FBI had maintained a wiretap a year after the assassination, despite the Attorney General's order to end such activity in 1966, in order to provide the bureau with ammunition to use against King's heirs and successors.)

Baetz, a Committee investigator, threatened a witness, Spica, with jail unless Spica cooperated by perjuring himself to support the official party line. Spica stalled and then wore a wire to the next meeting with Baetz. Baetz "began by saying the Select Committee knew it couldn't sell the public 'a goofy-ass story about a lone nut killing King....' All Spica had to do was tell the Committee in public session" certain things to corroborate the official party line. Spica stalled again. At the next meeting with Baetz, "Spica handed [Baetz] a copy of the tape [from their last conversation] and told Baetz to get lost. On November 8, 1979 Spica was murdered when his car exploded as he tried to start it.

A judge ordered Ray's attorney to first represent a material witness in the King case who was ordered jailed in order to later testify against Ray. Later, the same judge ordered the same attorney to represent Ray, an obvious conflict of interest.

There was a hoax involving a second Mustang similar to Ray's immediately following the King assassination designed to draw the Memphis Police to another section of town, clearly an organized diversionary tactic.

The courts illegally muzzled and imprisoned Grace Stephens, the one witness who was an eyewitness to the true assassin and who was also willing to testify that her husband was too drunk to identify anyone. This illegal imprisonment lasted for 10 years with no legal representation and no visitors.

[...to be continued...]


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Aperi os tuum muto, et causis omnium filiorum qui pertranseunt. Aperi os tuum, decerne quod justum est, et judica inopem et pauperem. -- Liber Proverbiorum XXXI: 8-9

Brian Francis Redman bigxc@prairienet.org "The Big C"

Coming to you from Illinois -- "The Land of Skolnick"