And Jowers, he agreed that he had participated in it, he had helped plan it, he'd taken 100,000 dollars from Frank Liberto, but he was not the shooter. That she saw Jowers run in the backdoor of his place with a rifle still smoking. The witnesses that we found very clearly said - and it took me 25 years to get Betty Spates to finally say what she had been holding out over all those years. We found that there was an eight-man sniper unit. Our investigation, which went on over, well, now, 30 years, although I've drawn a line under it basically. I agree with what Joe Brown is saying in terms of ballistics. It took the jury 59 minutes after 30 days of trial to find 70 percent liability on behalf of the government. Judge Brown testified as a witness at that - in those proceedings, with respect to the ballistics. PEPPER: Several lawsuits went on for 30 days, and there were 70 witnesses. But it's interesting, because not only did you represent James Earl Ray, you were also the attorney for the King family in a civil lawsuit in which James Earl Ray was exonerated. You have done extensive investigations yourself. Pepper, I would imagine that you agree with most of what Judge Brown has said. The people that took this shot were professionals.ĬORLEY: Mr. King was shot, the FBI never conducted any ballistic tests. They had rehearsed this at some great length a few weeks prior to this. There was a two-man team that shot him from the firehouse tower. King was shot with an M-21, which is a specially accurized(ph) edition of the M-14 semi-automatic weapon that the military used. Now, I'm going to tell you what my investigation over the last ten years has revealed. There were about 82 barrels custom-made that had that rate of rifling twist and it certainly wasn't the one that James Earl Ray was using. King's body has a one and 11 inch rate of rifling twist, which is very odd for that time, 1968. The only factual basis they had to tie Ray in with the case was his so-called rifle. It was a motion - a petition for post-conviction relief. So, all of these things evolved over a period of years, and we were so fortunate to get Judge Joe Brown, because we knew Judge Brown was prepared to look at the evidence and let it take us wherever it would lead.ĬORLEY: Well, in 1997, I was actually in Memphis at the hearing where you were presiding, Judge, and you heard an appeal, but at that point, you. Eventually, a man called Lloyd Jowers came forward when he was very close to dying, and he actually thought he may be indicted at that point, and he came forward.Īnd he indicated everything that he knew, which involved him taking the gun from the shooter, having the assassination planned in his own cafe, named the Memphis police officers who were present there. The crime scene was destroyed the next morning. There was never - as Judge Brown is an expert in this field - there never was an adequate ballistics identification or matching of the throw-down gun to the death slug. There were witnesses who saw smoke rising from the brush right after the shooting. PEPPER: It took about 30 years, but gradually, over a period of time, people came forward with evidence that were not prepared to talk earlier and had never been interviewed by the Select Committee on Assassinations. What are the accounts that you were able to gather that kind of contradict the conclusions of the committee that investigated Dr. Pepper, during any assassination, I think conspiracy theories abound. And that was the reason that a private investigation had to begin.ĬORLEY: Mr. I think here was a time when we all hoped that that committee would come down with answers to some hard questions. I mean, Congressman Stokes is 30 years out-of-date. Our government is the pits these days, from top to bottom. Judge BROWN: Typical Congressional incompetence, that's the way I look at it. What do you make of his continued support for the House Committee report? Judge JOE BROWN (Judge, Author of "An Act of State: The Execution of Martin Luther King"): Thank you.ĬORLEY: You heard the interview that we had with Louis Stokes. WILLIAM PEPPER: (Attorney for James Earl Ray) Thank you. The judge in that case in the late 1990s was Joe Brown. With the support of the King family, Ray sought a new trial. King's assassination, he recanted and insisted throughout his life that others were involved. We are going to continue our conversation about the King assassination.
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