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- death lawsuit brought by the family

King Family Civil Suit Tries to Get at 'Truth'

Memphis Trial Is First in Black Leader's Death

Washington Post Staff Writer By be. For the past three weeks, in a small Shel-

20th-century America's most troubling puz- that never was, and the trial that will never fare and without much public notice, a jury

by County Circuit courtroom, without fan-

crime more than 30 years ago, then quickly has been trying to get to the bottom of one of tion of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.?

about what he described as "the first and on- against , a former Memphis cafe cord—now, there will be historical docu- zles: Who was responsible for the assassina- owner who boasted in recent years that he

thing to it may be unfolding in a wrongful- conspired to kill the civil rights leader on recanted, died last year, insisting that he was

innocent and deserved a trial. The closest April 4, 1968.

jective as a family is to search for the truth." not available is now going to be on the re- ly" trial into his father's death. "Our ob- mentation," said Martin Luther King III,

torneys for each side prepared to make dos- ions and admitted hearsay is a matter of de- tracted from the morass of memories, opin- bate. At the very least, the civil trial has ing arguments on Wednesday.

MEMPHIS, Dec. 7—It has been the trial

"First and foremost, I think information

The case was drawing to a close as at-

James Earl Ray, who pleaded guilty to the

But whether the truth can ever be ex-

SUE ANNE PRESSL

L

NATIONAL NEWS

i

• - • -

(1/1

as a conspiracy theorist.

lawyer for Ray who asserted the confessed

killer's innocence so vigorously in Ray's fi- turbulent era—and in a rather strange man-

ner. reopened the swirling contradictions of that

some of Pepper's theories about the case. presented here by William F. Pepper, the "Raoul," who led Ray on a cloak-and-dagger

shot, first spoke of his alleged involvement framed by a mystery figure he knew only as For three decades, Ray insisted he had been nal years that Pepper is now often described once-garrulous defendant, due to illness. who manipulated Ray, a petty criminal who Those theories involve shadowy operatives Pepper in professing Ray's innocence and $100,000 to help arrange King's slaying. was a prison escapee at the time, and reach

odyssey across North America in the from the Lorraine Motel where King was been the absence—and silence—of the to the highest levels of the U.S. government. Jowers, 73, who operated Jim's Grill, a block a series of famous and interesting characters

months prior to the assassination.

count since then, once asserting he received He has changed certain aspects of his ac- to a network television news crew in 1993.

ingly little national attention, it has paraded

before the jury of six blacks and six whites.

In 1997, the Kings joined with Ray and

For one thing, the King family is being re-

Another unusual aspect of the trial has

The first witness, King's widow, Coretta

Although the trial has attracted surpris-

Scott King, told jurors that her family need- husband Martin Luther King Jr., after he testified Nov. 16 in the wrongful-death case.

Coretta Scott King hugs Coby Smith, who founded a black activist group that worked with her

and would be donated, perhaps to the gar-

and former mayor of , testified that

could accumulate. "This is not about mon- ed closure and as much information as they

bage workers' union King was in Memphis ey," she said.

with him a year ago. Young said Jowers told

the Kings might receive if they win the suit, who fired from bushes behind the grill, then Memphis police officer, Jowers claimed— door after the job was done. but indicated the amount would be minimal to support when he was slain.

handed the rifle to Jowers through a back mer U.S. ambassador to the United Nations

he believed Jowers's story after speaking

him that King was shot by a gunman—a

Pepper said he does not know how much

In succeeding days, , for-

Walter Fauntroy, former D.C. delegate to

looked into the King murder in 1977-78, re- the U.S. House of Representatives who

headed a congressional committee that

carne to bolster the Raoul story, and Yolanda ed that Ray shot King. Ray's brother, Jerry,

dark days after his death.

tended her father was just out of town in the who has achieved a certain national fame of late with his syndicated television court- there was no Raoul. The committee conclud- King, King's oldest daughter, said she pre- ed over court hearings in 1997 involving the portedly testified he was never convinced

he believes the rifle Linked to Ray was not room show—also testified for Pepper that

See the weapon used to kill King. Brown presid-

rifle.

Local criminal court Judge Joe Brown—

And, in a scene that was both fascinating

TRIAL,

A7. Col.

F

ILE R5010/55 Al MOUT -THT COMMERCIAL APCFAI

THE WASHINGTON POST

3 8,1999 NATIONAL NEWS WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 71, King Family Suit Is 'Search for Truth' TRIAL, From A2

and tedious, himself offered more than 300 pages of sworn testimony. Read over a two-day period by one of Jo- lira wers's attorneys, John Bledsoe, the state .41,41 ment marked the first time Ray's version of or events—recorded in a 1995 deposition Ray •;e5e made in his own lawsuit against Jowers- m101. was offered to a jury. It included Ray's first meeting with Raoul in 1967, whom he ini- IMO tially thought could help him obtain the pass- 1911i port and other identification he needed as a ;ND' fugitive, he said, and ended with King's as- sassination. rt: Driving around downtown Memphis on the evening of King's death—a city he had 4014. come to for the first time at Raoul's behest, in %Mr.: a white Mustang Raoul had instructed him to LE PHO MAY ALAN SPEARMAN-1HE COMMERCIAL APPEAL buy—Ray said he heard a news bulletin on the radio about the shooting. , son of Martin Luther King Jr., takes the stand against a projection of a piece of iauB "1 heard they were looking for a white man evidence in the civil case brought by his family in the death of his father. 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 )01 Pepper, 61, an intense man, did not seem rooms. He has argued that King's blossoming radio stations have been abuzz with the pro- disturbed that his showcase trial has gone stance against the Vietnam War—which he ceedings. . bnE largely unnoticed. "We have presented, 70 claims to have encouraged as an anti-war ac- Two Shelby County firefighters who spent.gum iifiwi witnesses," he said, "and laid out an enor-. tivist—led to an assassination conspiracy in- their day off in court Monday, Michael Car- 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,) timi room before." CIA. because of the deep respect they have for 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-