THE WASHINGTON POST 999 NATIONAL NEWS King Family Civil Suit Tries to Get at 'Truth' Memphis Trial Is First in Black Leader's Death (1/1 By SUE ANNE PRESSL Li• - • - reopened the swirling contradictions of that Washington Post Staff Writer turbulent era—and in a rather strange man- ner. MEMPHIS, Dec. 7—It has been the trial For one thing, the King family is being re- that never was, and the trial that will never presented here by William F. Pepper, the be. For the past three weeks, in a small Shel- lawyer for Ray who asserted the confessed by County Circuit courtroom, without fan- killer's innocence so vigorously in Ray's fi- fare and without much public notice, a jury nal years that Pepper is now often described has been trying to get to the bottom of one of as a conspiracy theorist. 20th-century America's most troubling puz- In 1997, the Kings joined with Ray and zles: Who was responsible for the assassina- Pepper in professing Ray's innocence and FILE R5010/55 Al MOUT -THT COMMERCIAL APCFAI tion of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.? some of Pepper's theories about the case. James Earl Ray, who pleaded guilty to the Those theories involve shadowy operatives Coretta Scott King hugs Coby Smith, who founded a black activist group that worked with her crime more than 30 years ago, then quickly who manipulated Ray, a petty criminal who husband Martin Luther King Jr., after he testified Nov. 16 in the wrongful-death case. recanted, died last year, insisting that he was was a prison escapee at the time, and reach innocent and deserved a trial. The closest to the highest levels of the U.S. government. Scott King, told jurors that her family need- the U.S. House of Representatives who thing to it may be unfolding in a wrongful- For three decades, Ray insisted he had been ed closure and as much information as they headed a congressional committee that - death lawsuit brought by the King family framed by a mystery figure he knew only as could accumulate. "This is not about mon- looked into the King murder in 1977-78, re- against Loyd Jowers, a former Memphis cafe "Raoul," who led Ray on a cloak-and-dagger ey," she said. portedly testified he was never convinced owner who boasted in recent years that he odyssey across North America in the Pepper said he does not know how much there was no Raoul. The committee conclud- conspired to kill the civil rights leader on months prior to the assassination. the Kings might receive if they win the suit, ed that Ray shot King. Ray's brother, Jerry, April 4, 1968. Another unusual aspect of the trial has but indicated the amount would be minimal carne to bolster the Raoul story, and Yolanda "First and foremost, I think information been the absence—and silence—of the and would be donated, perhaps to the gar- King, King's oldest daughter, said she pre- not available is now going to be on the re- once-garrulous defendant, due to illness. bage workers' union King was in Memphis tended her father was just out of town in the cord—now, there will be historical docu- Jowers, 73, who operated Jim's Grill, a block to support when he was slain. dark days after his death. mentation," said Martin Luther King III, from the Lorraine Motel where King was In succeeding days, Andrew Young, for- Local criminal court Judge Joe Brown— about what he described as "the first and on- shot, first spoke of his alleged involvement mer U.S. ambassador to the United Nations who has achieved a certain national fame of ly" trial into his father's death. "Our ob- to a network television news crew in 1993. and former mayor of Atlanta, testified that late with his syndicated television court- jective as a family is to search for the truth." He has changed certain aspects of his ac- he believed Jowers's story after speaking room show—also testified for Pepper that The case was drawing to a close as at- count since then, once asserting he received with him a year ago. Young said Jowers told he believes the rifle Linked to Ray was not torneys for each side prepared to make dos- $100,000 to help arrange King's slaying. him that King was shot by a gunman—a the weapon used to kill King. Brown presid- ing arguments on Wednesday. Although the trial has attracted surpris- Memphis police officer, Jowers claimed— ed over court hearings in 1997 involving the But whether the truth can ever be ex- ingly little national attention, it has paraded who fired from bushes behind the grill, then rifle. tracted from the morass of memories, opin- a series of famous and interesting characters handed the rifle to Jowers through a back And, in a scene that was both fascinating ions and admitted hearsay is a matter of de- before the jury of six blacks and six whites. door after the job was done. bate. At the very least, the civil trial has The first witness, King's widow, Coretta Walter Fauntroy, former D.C. delegate to See TRIAL, A7. Col. 3 NATIONAL NEWS WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 8,1999 71, King Family Suit Is 'Search for Truth' TRIAL, From A2 and tedious, James Earl Ray himself offered more than 300 pages of sworn testimony. Read over a two-day period by one of Jo- wers's attorneys, John Bledsoe, the state lira ment marked the first time Ray's version of .41,41 events—recorded in a 1995 deposition Ray or made in his own lawsuit against Jowers- •;e5e was offered to a jury. It included Ray's first m101. meeting with Raoul in 1967, whom he ini- tially thought could help him obtain the pass- IMO port and other identification he needed as a 1911i fugitive, he said, and ended with King's as- ;ND' sassination. Driving around downtown Memphis on rt: the evening of King's death—a city he had come to for the first time at Raoul's behest, in 4014. a white Mustang Raoul had instructed him to %Mr.: buy—Ray said he heard a news bulletin on LE PHO MAY ALAN SPEARMAN-1HE COMMERCIAL APPEAL the radio about the shooting. Dexter King, son of Martin Luther King Jr., takes the stand against a projection of a piece of "1 heard they were looking for a white man evidence in the civil case brought by his family in the death of his father. iauB in a white Mustang, and I thought I should get out of Dodge, so to speak," he said. He per travels under assumed names, he said, to overflow crowds at the courthouse, although, said he never saw Raoul after that. thwart spies who might break into his hotel talk shows on predominantly black Memphis. t Pepper, 61, an intense man, did not seem rooms. He has argued that King's blossoming radio stations have been abuzz with the pro- )01 disturbed that his showcase trial has gone stance against the Vietnam War—which he ceedings. largely unnoticed. "We have presented, 70 . bnE claims to have encouraged as an anti-war ac- Two Shelby County firefighters who spent.gum witnesses," he said, "and laid out an enor-. tivist—led to an assassination conspiracy in- their day off in court Monday, Michael Car- iifiwi mous range of proof never heard in a court- volving the Mafia, the Army, the FBI and the penter and Tony Johnson, said they attended,) room before." CIA. because of the deep respect they have for timi An American based in London whose ob- Outside the courtroom, Martin Luther King's impact on their lives as black men. But-Lao session with the case spans 20 years, Pepper King III said he has been disappointed by the they, too, seemed resigned. : Ildi laid out his theories in a 1995 book, "Orders news coverage, but not surprised. "There are "I think the people responsible for this to Kill: The Truth Behind the Murder of Mar- a number of issues some groups or forces do have so much power," said Carpenter, "the19116 tin Luther King." According to a 1997 profile not want out," he said. truth won't come out. Not in this court-,N in the Commercial Appeal of Memphis, Pep- Even locally, the trial has produced no room." r- .