by Matt Agorist, The Free Thought Project:
(Covert Action Magazine) Conventional wisdom holds that James Earl Ray was a deranged white supremacist who killed Martin Luther King, Jr., on April 4, 1968.
Research carried out by King family attorney William F. Pepper determined, however, that King was really killed in a conspiracy coordinated by FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover.
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William F. Pepper, joined by members of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s family at a news conference in Atlanta in 1999. He represented them in a wrongful-death suit against a man they claimed had hired a retired police officer to kill Dr. King. [Source: nytimes.com]
Pepper died in April. He is the focus of a new film by John Barbour, with Len Osanic, A Tribute to William Pepper, that was screened on July 30 at American University at the 12th Annual Whistleblower Summit in Washington, D.C.
Barbour is a Canadian-born comedian, actor and TV host who directed two documentary films on Jim Garrison, the New Orleans District Attorney who uncovered a conspiracy to kill John F. Kennedy that involved elements of the CIA.
![Filmmaker John Barbour speaks at film screening at American University at 12th Annual Whistleblower Summit in Washington, D.C. [Source: Photo courtesy of Jeremy Kuzmarov]](https://thefreethoughtproject.com/.image/c_limit%2Ccs_srgb%2Cq_auto:good%2Cw_696/MjA5NDk1NjY4NjUyMjU0ODcw/word-image-70847-3.webp)
Filmmaker John Barbour speaks at film screening at American University at 12th Annual Whistleblower Summit in Washington, D.C. [Source: Photo courtesy of Jeremy Kuzmarov]
In introducing his film, Barbour said that Pepper and Garrison should be regarded, along with Abraham Lincoln, as among the greatest lawyers in U.S. history.
A Tribute to William Pepper begins by detailing the friendship that developed between Pepper and King after Pepper wrote an article in the countercultural magazine Ramparts in 1967 about the use of napalm in Vietnam called “The Children of Vietnam.”
![[Source: ratical.org]](https://thefreethoughtproject.com/.image/c_limit%2Ccs_srgb%2Cq_auto:good%2Cw_500/MjA5NDk1NzAwMzI3NzAzNzIx/word-image-70847-4.webp)
[Source: ratical.org]
King had been vacationing in Jamaica when he read Pepper’s article. He could not hold down his lunch and openly wept because he was so disturbed by the photographs that Pepper took of children who had been burned by napalm.
Afterwards, King began speaking out eloquently against the Vietnam War.
King called the U.S. government and Pentagon the greatest terrorist organization in the world, and ran for President with anti-war activist Benjamin Spock on the ticket of the Peace and Freedom Party.
![Dr. King and Benjamin Spock, left, march against the Vietnam War. [Source: si.edu]](https://thefreethoughtproject.com/.image/c_limit%2Ccs_srgb%2Cq_auto:good%2Cw_500/MjA5NDk1NzM1NDkyNjgzNDE0/a-group-of-men-walking-in-a-street-description-au.webp)
Dr. King and Benjamin Spock, left, march against the Vietnam War. [Source: si.edu]
King’s strong stance against the Vietnam War made him a target for assassination. Government authorities were terrified about his plans to lead an encampment on Washington demanding an end to the Vietnam War and transformation of the U.S. economy.
According to Barbour, Pepper initially believed that Ray was behind King’s assassination, though he changed his view after interviewing Ray in Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary in Tennessee in 1977 for five hours with attorney Mark Lane and King confidante Ralph Abernathy.
![James Earl Ray after his arrest. [Source: pbs.org]](https://thefreethoughtproject.com/.image/c_limit%2Ccs_srgb%2Cq_auto:good%2Cw_640/MjA5NDk1NzcwMTIwODU3MjM4/a-person-looking-at-a-bag-description-automatical.webp)
James Earl Ray after his arrest. [Source: pbs.org]
![Loyd Jowers [Source: en.wikipedia.org]](https://thefreethoughtproject.com/.image/c_limit%2Ccs_srgb%2Cq_auto:good%2Cw_255/MjA5NDk1Nzg4OTExMzM4NjY1/loydjowers.webp)
Loyd Jowers [Source: en.wikipedia.org]
After the interview, Pepper began working to try to get Ray a new trial and arranged for a mock re-trial in 1999 where the mock jury found Ray not guilty after seven hours of deliberation.
Pepper’s first major breakthrough occurred in the early 1990s when he got Betty Spates, a waitress at Jim’s Grill located behind the Lorraine Motel, to admit that the owner of the grill, Loyd Jowers, had participated in King’s killing.
Spates said that Jowers snuck out of the grill on April 4, 1968, around the time of King’s death, and came back muddied and looking “white as a ghost” and broke down the rifle that was used in King’s assassination.
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