BOOKING KING'S KILLER • • ...Or Maybe Ayn Fleming? of Dr. ers are politicians, bureaucrats, Was the murderer self-styled intellectuals who are Martin Luther King Jr. a man evil and must be destroyed. Galt , influenced by two characters in denounces mysticism and glori- 1 contemporary fiction—one a glo- fies reason. His gospel is aboli- I rified individualist who hates so- ti-m of the income tax, an end to ciety and the other an Ian Flem- foreign aid and of social welfare ing arch villain? legislation. At the end, as Galt The name of the man listed on and his cohorts fly to their At- the registration card of the lantis they see New York writh- white Mustang car linked to the ing in its last convulsions. slaying is "Eric Slarvo Galt." Ernst Stavro Blofeld is the The FBI has been unable to find inuch-less philosophical villain an,thing to indicate that any. of "Thunderball" and two other sueh a person exists. Fleming novels. Ili Ayn Rand's 1937 novel, "At- If the man who murderL a las Shrugged," the leader of King was influenced by tie tiny minority of people de- scribed as able, creative and ul- views of the fictional characters tra-conservative is "John Galt," or even just concocted an alia. And in some of Ian Fleming's from a combination of th James Bond stories, the leading names, an investigator migh enemy of the status quo is called An artist's unofficial concep- draw the conclusion that the fu tion of Galt. gitive is a man of some educe "Ernst Stavro Blofeld." tion or affinity for reading. Per- Ayn Rand's novel begins with John Galt?", sons who claim to have seen the the quote: "Who is version is that the competent suspect, before and after the but the character remains hid-' men of the world are vanishing April 4 assassination, describe den from the reader for over while the greedy incompetents him as neatly dressed and half the book, at %%bleb time he are taking over. The disappear.; well-spoken. appears and delivers a scorch- ance of the competent "objecliv- There is sonic speculation that irfg denunciation of society that Las" is part of their plot against; he is a professional killer, rather runs sonic 80 pages of mono- the looters and parasites be- than an "amateur." But fediral lque. Icause the able men are cow! winced society must collapst:l investigators studying the miryte '.the literary "Galt" lives in details of the case say th !re the United States of the future in before there can be a healthy' more ce social order. is no reason to put wh'xh the economy is myster- dem in one idea than the other. iously declining. Eiss Band's To the fictional Galt, the loot-

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