Agent Says Assassinations Inquiry Testimony Supplied :1
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Agent Says Assassinations Ray Plotted New Inquiry Testimony Supplied :1 ilt F _ • ST. LOUIS (UPI) — A man it-mtifv- said at a news conference_ Break, NBC Says ing himself as an undercover acer.: for read the Baetz-su?plied answers WASHINGTON 1:1"1') — la.,es Earl the House Select Committee or Assam 9 into the record and the steriog nations says one of the panel's ravt -apher Ray, serving a 99-year sentence for the —ap- apparently took it down as my own. ; do tors supplied hurt with answers to Live murder of Martin Luther King Jr., plot- not believe that the members of Con- the committee. ted another attempt this spring tc break gress on the committee "thou that their Oliver Patterson said vesterda:. be out of the Brushy Mountain prison in staff is functioning in this fashion-" has worked for the FBI since 197: and Tennessee. NBC News reported today. Patterson. who said he is a salesman Ray was recaptured last year after for the last several months worked for from St. Louis, said he did not remember escaping from the prison for three days. the congressional committee in its hives- ' tigation of the ac,...cination of the Rev_ most of the questions. However. he said Plans for the second escape bid were Baetz told him to "say something nice Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. intercepted by the House Assassinations about .1.9." when the questions concern- Patterson said he met with committee Committee when Oliver Paterson, a ed J.B. Stoner, a white supremacist attorneyF. to give a deposition of his congressional informant, stole letters Patterson said the FBI recruited him from Ray to his brother, Jerry Ray. NBC undercover work with Jerry Ray. broth- to gather information from Jerry Ray. er of ,lames Earl Ray, who pleaded guilty said_ "I continued to carry out to killing King. that assign- Patterson found the letters, along ment for approximately three years," he with a map of the prison, in Jerry Ray's "During that testimony ! was asked said. toilet kit while he was sharing a Wash- questions by a lawyer for the committee He said his activities included illegal ington hotel room. with him. NBC said. named Michael Ebernardt and or several wiretaps of conversations with Rey. NBC said Patterson pocketed the let- occasions I was handed writer answers stealing letters and other documents ters and map. photocopied what be had to the questions by Conrad Baetz. a saff from Ray anti try-mg to get a hair sample stolen. and mailed the copies to the investigator for the HSCA." Pare-SOP from Ray. Assassinations Committee. The committee turned the evidence over to Tennessee authorities. Ray Needs Psychiatric Testing, Kershaw Says James Earl Ray will be the major wit- NASHVILLE (UPI) — Jack Kershaw, been in prison for 10 years. about eight of ness when the committee begins its pub- former attorney for James Earl Ray. said that in solitary. That alone would be lic hearings next week on King's murder. Yesterday the convicted killer or Dr. grounds for giving him a test to see if his (Warden Storiney Lane confirmed Martin Luther King Jr. "definitely does personality. his emotions have been -that he received information within the need psychiatric aid." affected" past few months that Ray might be plot- Kershaw said the last thing" he did . By such a psychiatric test. ting another escape. for Ray as an attorney was to file a pet- there might be some chance of penetrat- (l don't remember exactly when it ton asking that Rev "have the benefit of ing the big question of what are or what was I got the information that Ray might a preliminary psychiatric evaluation test were the big motives of James Ear! be planning another escape." Lane said. a . He took h as an offense and Ray," said Kershaw. "It was somewhere in the last three or was insulted." said Kershaw. "Bin the He said he still believes "there is too four months. The TBI was handling it man definitely does need psychiatric aid much evidence that Ray did not act But we didn't do anything special here. and I can't understand why no coin has alone for me to ignore the possibility" of We just went about our usual precautions ever seen to it that he had this help:- a conspiracy in the slaying. with Ray.") He said he could not comment in de- tail because of his client-attorney reie- tionship with Ray, but added. "Tm not saying he's crazy at all. "I'm just saying there are legal grounds for giving him a psychiatric evaluation test My worn. toe man has .