Remembering Martin Luther King

By James O’Neill*

Tuesday 19^th January was the anniversary of the birth of Martin Luther King, who was assassinated on 4 April 1968.  Our local mainstream media noted the fact of the US public holiday commemorating his birth, but in an all too familiar pattern ignored the relevant historical evidence.

King was the third of the major assassinations of prominent American political leaders in the 1960s.  He was preceded by John F. Kennedy on 22 November 1963 and Malcolm X on 21 February 1965; and succeeded by Robert F Kennedy on 6 June 1968.

Excluding Malcolm X, there were a number of common characteristics of the other three victims.  An alleged perpetrator was identified, charged, and in two cases convicted and sentenced to prison.

In all three cases the alleged killers were not the actual killers.  Notwithstanding what is now compelling evidence, the mainstream media completely ignore that evidence.  Instead, we get the mindless repetition of what might reasonably be called the official story.

The general public is very familiar with the names, chronologically of Oswald, Ray and Sirhan, but is for the most part oblivious to alternatives, either individuals or organisations.

All four victims had an outstanding characteristic in common.  They all posed a serious threat to the status quo, what Peter Dale Scott aptly calls the “Deep State”.

As we are noting the anniversary of the birth of Martin Luther King I want to briefly examine the historical record as it illustrates many wider points that are relevant today.

King was shot at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis Tennessee on 4 April 1968.  He was 39 years old, the same age as Malcolm X when he was killed, and younger than Robert Kennedy (42) and John Kennedy (46) when they were killed.  The man charged with King’s murder was a long time loser named James Earl Ray.  He pleaded guilty to avoid the death penalty, and spent the rest of his life trying to get the conviction overturned.

Sirhan, almost certainly a mind control victim, and still in prison, was convicted of the fatal shooting of Robert Kennedy.  The unchallenged evidence was that Sirhan was two to three metres in front of Kennedy.  According to the coroner’s report, the fatal shot was to the back of Kennedy’s head from someone holding a gun no more than a few centimetres from Kennedy’s head.

Shades of Oswald!  Oswald never stood trial, being murdered two days after John Kennedy’s assassination while in Police custody.   The now irrefutable evidence is that John Kennedy’s fatal shot came from the front (the underpass) although Oswald was alleged to have been on the 6^th floor of the Texas School Book Depository Building behind Kennedy.

The mainstream media have systematically suppressed the forensic and ballistic evidence in both Kennedy assassinations to this day.

The King case had a unique twist however, although again one would struggle to know about it relying on the mainstream media.  Thanks to the tireless efforts of the King family and their attorney William Pepper, a civil suit was brought by the King family against Lloyd Jowers and unknown co-conspirators alleging the defendant’s responsibility for King’s murder.

The civil trial was held in Memphis Tennessee in November – December 1999.  It lasted four weeks.  The jury heard from seventy witnesses.  The jury took just one hour to find in favour of the plaintiffs.  The trial Judge then apportioned responsibility according to the evidence he had heard.

The precise degree of responsibility is not the important point here.  The important finding of the jury was that King was killed as the result of a conspiracy.  The members of the conspiracy included Jowers (the owner of a bar near the motel and who disposed of the murder weapon); the mafia; the State of Tennessee; the US Army and the city of Memphis.

Only two reporters, in itself astonishing given the plaintiffs and the subject matter, covered the trial.  One was a reporter from the local Memphis newspaper.  His editor refused to print the copy he submitted.  The other was James Douglass, later the author of one of the seminal books on the John Kennedy assassination.

Jowers appeared on ABC Prime Time Live in December 1993 and admitted the details of the conspiracy.  Among the relevant details were that Ray was a scapegoat and that the actual shooter was Lieutenant Earl Clark of the Memphis Police Department.  The US Army provided backup snipers in nearby buildings.

The local, State and Federal government agencies all had a role in the subsequent cover-up, destruction of evidence, and the killing of witnesses.  The parallels with the Kennedy assassinations are strikingly obvious.

King was a danger to the establishment, as were, in various ways, the Kennedy brothers and Malcolm X.  The preferred resolution of potential problems of the Deep State and its agents is to kill the individual.  This eliminates a specific threat and acts as a warning to others, both at home and abroad.

Has anything changed since the 1960s?  In many areas obviously, a great deal.  But in some respects nothing at all.  Governments still go about their murderous business.  Inconvenient people are removed, one way or another.  And the mainstream media fulfills its long-standing role of pretending that none of this happens.

Were it not for the dedicated persons like William Pepper (who is also acting in the Sirhan case) and the alternative media, we probably would still believe in lone nut assassins and other fairy tales.

*Barrister at Law.  He may be contacted at joneill@qldbar.asn.au