From bigxc@firefly.prairienet.orgFri Jan 20 07:25:56 1995
Date: Thu, 5 Jan 95 19:06:53 CST
From: Brian Redman <bigxc@firefly.prairienet.org>
To: Multiple recipients of list <conspire@prairienet.org>
Subject: Conspiracy Nation -- Vol. 3 Num. 38


              Conspiracy Nation -- Vol. 3  Num. 38
             ======================================
                    ("Quid coniuratio est?")
 
 
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I received the following from a CN reader who wishes to remain 
anonymous. What I plan to do is post the entire document over a 
period of time, most likely in weekly installments. Here is part 8.
 
 +  +  +  +  +  +  +  +  +  +  +  +  +  +  +  +  +  +  +  +  +  +
 
CONSPIRACY: 
THE INVISIBLE SECOND RUNG OF GOVERNMENT 
 
An Investigation and Discussion of that Part of the United       
 States Government Which We Did Not Elect, Which Is Not
  Accountable, Which Is Unconstitutional, Which Is Engaged In
   Unlawful and Unconstitutional Activity, and Then Hides Behind
the National Security Act of 1947
 
 
PART I :
CITATION AND SUMMARY OF SOURCES
 
(continued)
 
 
32.  Ray, James Earl, Who Killed Martin Luther King?, Washington, 
D.C., National Press Books, 1992.  Ray is the alleged assassin of 
MLK and is "confined in River Bend Penitentiary in Nashville, 
Tennessee." Summary:  Documents strong circumstantial evidence 
that the FBI and Memphis Police were responsible for the 
assassination of MLK, and that Ray was framed, while "ballistic 
evidence and eyewitness accounts vindicate Ray."  Evidence was 
tampered with, destroyed, and concealed. Official investigations 
were used to simply rubber stamp preordained conclusions that 
supported the official party line.  Judges and witnesses were 
threatened, blackmailed, bribed, intimidated, told how to 
testify, illegally imprisoned, and murdered.  The media was 
misused and manipulated by the FBI.  The Senate Select Committee 
on Assassinations, the Department of Justice, and Judges 
knowingly allowed purjured testimony, placed bizarre limitations 
on the defendant's rights, lost entire files at convenient times, 
allowed violations of court orders to go without punishment, and 
rewarded clear violations of the defendant's rights by allowing 
them to go without consequences.
 
Two hours prior to the shooting, Memphis police withdrew the 
detail assigned to protect MLK.  Minutes after MLK was shot the 
murder weapon was found "packed neatly in a box, not something a 
killer is likely to do with a murder weapon when fleeing the 
scene. Ray was coerced into a guilty plea that was the product of 
fraud and deception.
 
The only supposed eyewitness, Charles Stephens, later recanted 
his testimony.  Another witness, James McCraw, witnessed 
Stephen's condition 2-3 minutes prior to the shooting.  Stephens, 
a known alcoholic, was so intoxicated that he could not get up, 
let alone walk, and certainly not accurately identify a fast 
moving target.
 
Numerous times Ray was told by FBI Agents, police, and 
prosecutors that unless he cooperated by giving a confession and 
self-incriminating statements, authorities might jail various 
members of his family.
 
Two judges, who had ruled in favor of Ray, mysteriously died of 
alleged heart attacks in their chambers while studying papers on 
the King murder case and giving due consideration to a real trial 
for Ray.
 
One of the phone numbers "Raoul" had given Ray was listed to a 
law enforcement officer.  Another was listed to a motel owned by 
mobster Carlos Marcello.  The man who made the connections 
between the Raoul phone numbers and their proper listing, and who 
then passed the information to Ray was found dead months later, 
allegedly a suicide.
 
Ray's letters to his lawyer were intercepted, copied, and 
forwarded to the prosecutor, as well as to the FBI.  This case of 
national interest had a bizarre 100-mile limit zone placed on 
Ray's legal right to subpoena.  Certain documents that were 
legally subpoenaed were never produced, nor did the judge ever 
address this contempt.
 
Two judges, in refusing Ray's request for a real trial, refused 
to address or refute Ray's arguments on their merit, but, instead 
hid behind judicial discretion and disregarded any and all points 
made.
 
The media cooperated in influencing public opinion in disallowing 
Ray a trial, including misuse of the media to print blatant lies 
and unsubstantiated innuendo (i.e., that Ray yelled racial 
epithets while watching TV in jail in 1963-64 prior to the MLK 
assassination; but there were no TVs in Ray's jail until 1970).
 
Ray's attorneys were never even admonished for entangling 
themselves in publishing contracts about the Ray case while Ray's 
trial was pending, an obvious conflict of interest.
 
The Senate Select Committee on Assassinations was "covered by a 
succession of writers selected by their various employers for 
their ability to integrate new information into the official 
version of the case without changing its essential conclusions, 
and without lending credence to any perspectives challenging the 
official line."
 
One judge labeled Ray "libel proof" (a practice rejected by the 
U.S. Supreme Court prior to the MLK case), virtually inviting the 
media to print fabrications about Ray.
 
In 1967 Ray found a "business card bearing the initials L.E.A.A. 
stuck down between the seats of [his car] just after Raoul had 
traveled with him."  Playboy magazine "claimed Law Enforcement 
Assistance Administration hadn't been created until August 1968.  
What Playboy didn't print was that there were two L.E.A.A. pilot 
projects in 1967, one in Newark, New Jersey and one in New 
Orleans. One of the phone numbers Raoul had given Ray was in New 
Orleans. It was later learned that a 15-year aide to Hefner had 
been convicted for conspiracy to distribute cocaine.  He 
supposedly committed suicide after being pressured by the 
government to implicate Hefner.
 
One of Ray's attorneys received $11,000 in consultation fees from 
a publisher, "even though the contract he had supervised 
specified that no participants would be paid for the interview."  
Further, "the Tennessee Supreme Court's Board of Professional 
Responsibility...saw nothing unethical in this attorney receiving 
money when he had agreed not to...."
 
Memphis officials and prosecutors destroyed and hid massive 
amounts of intelligence, documents, and evidence collected by the 
police department during the MLK assassination investigation.  
The media remained silent on the evidence destruction.
 
Anonymously a photo of Raoul with his correct identification was 
sent to Ray.  Ray forwarded it to his brother with a request for 
further investigation.  His brother made a copy and sent the 
original in a package back to Ray.  Ray received the package, but 
not the photo.  A few days later his brother was arrested.  Upon 
his release, he found that his house had been rifled and, among 
other things, his copy of the photo had been taken.  Later Ray 
identified the photo as being that of one of Raoul's cohorts Ray 
had seen in the restaurant beneath the flophouse where the 
assassination allegedly occurred.
 
Another witness in the Select Committee investigation died 
mysteriously and violently within one year of his involvement 
with the Committee.
 
A former FBI Agent made serious allegations involving unethical 
and criminal acts on the part of the Select Committee's 
congressional agents.  But, the Select Committee was allowed to 
conduct the investigation into these allegations against itself.  
The media blindly accepted the predictable results of that 
investigation.
 
The Committee knowingly allowed perjured testimony from Mr. Eist, 
a former Scotland Yard employee, to corroborate the official 
party line, yet would not allow Ray's attorney time to 
investigate the perjury.  The employee had been fired from 
Scotland Yard for participating in several jewel heists and for 
falsely claiming to have obtained confessions.  The Committee 
concealed that knowledge.  The Committee knew Eist was lying, as 
they had two FBI documents proving it.  Further, at the time of 
Ray's incarceration, Mr. Eist claims he told a reporter, but not 
his superiors about Ray's "admissions."  "One wonders why a 
policeman would tell a reporter and not his superiors about 
something so seemingly important, and why that reporter wouldn't 
rush the story into print."
 
During the Committee hearings, Ray's testimony had been 
interrupted to read Mr. Eist's claims.   Ray's attorney allowed 
the interruption on the condition that Ray would be allowed to 
come back to complete his testimony.  But when Eist appeared to 
testify in person, the Committee announced that it had 
"reconsidered" and would not bring Ray back to testify, a fact 
over which one of the Committee staff resigned in protest.  Yet, 
this testimony of Mr. Eist was cited by several members of the 
Committee as the primary factor leading them to conclude Ray to 
be the sole murderer.
 
The Committee also allowed perjured testimony from Ray's former 
attorney who made false claims against Ray.  When asked to 
substantiate his claim, he claimed he couldn't because Ray's 
entire file had been "lost" after giving the file to another 
attorney.  The other attorney denied losing the file.  But, none 
of this was investigated by the Committee.
 
The chairman of the Committee knew but filed to mention that 
Ray's former attorney had previously been involved with the 
billionaire Hunt family of Texas, and had been indicted, along 
with two of H. S. Hunt's sons, for obstruction of justice, 
illegal wiretaps, and conspiracy charges.  However, the case 
against Ray's former attorney was never concluded, but held in 
abeyance (for purposes that look suspiciously like strong-arming 
Ray's former attorney into corroborating the official party 
line).  However, none of this can be proven as the Justice 
Department says it has "lost" the file on this matter.
 
Canale, the MLK assassination prosecutor, wrote memos that verify 
that all negotiations and agreements to settle the case by a 
guilty plea were completed by December, 1968, prior to Ray ever 
even hearing about any proposal to plead guilty, and prior to 
defense having even investigated the case against Ray.  The 
political expediency was clear: Avoid a trial in which the 
release of FBI or Memphis Police files might embarrass any 
officials.
 
During the Committee hearings a media reporter offered Ray 
$220,000 and a parole if Ray would confess to MLK's murder.  This 
offer was captured on tape by Ray's attorney, the transcription 
of which is "eloquent proof that the prosecution had no 
admissions" or confessions from Ray incriminating himself.
 
During G. Robert Blakey's tenure as head of the Committee, he 
required all staff members to sign an agreement precluding them 
from publishing any information about the King case unless the 
House of Representatives or the CIA gave prior approval.
 
On the back of the L.E.A.A. business card was the name Randy 
Rosen with a Miami address, a man who was actually Randy 
Rosenson, a government informant.  When Ray mentioned this to the 
Committee, it "triggered a series of deceptive maneuvers designed 
to keep Rosenson under wraps."  Rosenson's lawyer had been G. 
Wray Gill, a criminal attorney whose clientele included Carlos 
Marcello.  Gill had also employed David Ferrie, a prior suspect 
in the JFK assassination.
 
The FBI had a long-running campaign against MLK.  J. Edgar 
Hoover's COINTELPRO (COunter INTELligence PROgram) against MLK 
included Hoover having "samples of his agents' handiwork sent to 
King's wife, in hopes of breaking up their marriage and weakening 
his stature among blacks."  A veteran FBI Agent, Arthur Murtagh, 
revealed that "he was asked to steal SCLC [King's organization] 
stationery and handwriting samples of top SCLC officials, 
presumably to forge incriminating notes and letters."
 
FBI Agents sent King a letter urging King to kill himself or risk 
exposure.  When King would visit friends, FBI Agents would call 
the Fire Department to falsely report a fire at that address to 
disrupt King.  The FBI ran a wiretapping operation on King 24 
hours a day.  The FBI put King's name "on a list of names of 
Americans to be rounded up and imprisoned in the event of a 
national emergency."  An FBI memo states, "(censored) stated to 
DeLoach that he was faced with the difficult problem of taking 
steps to remove King from the National picture...."
 
Frank Holloman, a former FBI Agent, was in charge of the Memphis 
Police and Fire Department when MLK was assassinated.  The only 
two black firemen stationed at the firehouse directly across the 
street from the Lorraine Motel (where MLK was assassinated) were 
transferred one day prior to King's assassination.  Four hours 
prior to the assassination, the one black detective assigned to 
protecting King was also removed from the scene.
 
When questioned about the transfer after the assassination, one 
black fireman was told it was because of unspecified threats on 
his life.  Holloman gave evasive, vague, unsubstantiated answers.  
The other black detective, Redditt, was given similar 
unsubstantiated answers. Holloman summoned Redditt to a meeting 
wherein every head of every law enforcement agency was present.  
"'It was like a meeting of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.  In this 
room, just before Dr. King was murdered, were the heads and 
seconds in command of I guess every law enforcement operation in 
this area you could think of.  I had never seen anything like it 
before.  The Sheriff, the Highway Patrol, Army Intelligence, the 
National Guard.  You name it.  It was in the room.'  Strangely, 
though, the two police guards ordered to protect Redditt's life, 
did not station themselves outside Redditt's home and stay in 
radio contact with each other and Redditt, where they could have 
provided some real protection. Instead, they went with Redditt 
inside his home, where they could watch Redditt, but not protect 
him.  'If someone threw a bomb in a window, those two officers 
would just have been two more casualties.  Then I really knew 
something was wrong.'  Three days later Redditt was ordered back 
to work with no more mention of the 'contract' on him."
 
After the assassination, there was an inexplicable thirty minute 
delay in getting the FBI into the MLK case.  There has also been 
no explanation why it took the FBI fourteen days to come up with 
Ray's identity after he left behind his radio labeled with his ID 
number, a fact that would have immediately tipped the FBI to 
Ray's escapee status.
 
Another suspicious element linking Raoul to the FBI and the FBI 
to the MLK murder is the fact that the first wave of wanted 
posters identified Ray as Eric Starvo Gault, the only name by 
which Raoul knew Ray.
 
Another fact casting suspicion is the memo from FBI Agent DeLoach 
to Hoover suggesting that the FBI "quietly sponsor" a book that 
would tell the "true story" of the King case, adding that he 
wanted to see the bureau advise a friendly newspaperman "on a 
strictly confidential basis" that Loretta Scott King and Ralph 
Abernathy were "deliberately plotting to keep King's 
assassination in the news by pulling the ruse of maintaining the 
King murder was definitely a conspiracy, and not committed by one 
man, in order to keep the money coming to Mrs. King...we can do 
this without attribution to the FBI and without anyone knowing 
that the information came from a wiretap."  (The FBI had 
maintained a wiretap a year after the assassination, despite the 
Attorney General's order to end such activity in 1966, in order 
to provide the bureau with ammunition to use against King's heirs 
and successors.)
 
Baetz, a Committee investigator, threatened a witness, Spica, 
with jail unless Spica cooperated by perjuring himself to support 
the official party line.  Spica stalled and then wore a wire to 
the next meeting with Baetz.  Baetz "began by saying the Select 
Committee knew it couldn't sell the public 'a goofy-ass story 
about a lone nut killing King....'  All Spica had to do was tell 
the Committee in public session" certain things to corroborate 
the official party line.  Spica stalled again.  At the next 
meeting with Baetz, "Spica handed [Baetz] a copy of the tape 
[from their last conversation] and told Baetz to get lost.  On 
November 8, 1979 Spica was murdered when his car exploded as he 
tried to start it.
 
A judge ordered Ray's attorney to first represent a material 
witness in the King case who was ordered jailed in order to later 
testify against Ray.  Later, the same judge ordered the same 
attorney to represent Ray, an obvious conflict of interest.
 
There was a hoax involving a second Mustang similar to Ray's 
immediately following the King assassination designed to draw the 
Memphis Police to another section of town, clearly an organized 
diversionary tactic.
 
The courts illegally muzzled and imprisoned Grace Stephens, the 
one witness who was an eyewitness to the true assassin and who 
was also willing to testify that her husband was too drunk to 
identify anyone. This illegal imprisonment lasted for 10 years 
with no legal representation and no visitors.
 
 
                   [...to be continued...]
 
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Aperi os tuum muto, et causis omnium filiorum qui pertranseunt.
Aperi os tuum, decerne quod justum est, et judica inopem et 
  pauperem.                    -- Liber Proverbiorum  XXXI: 8-9 

 Brian Francis Redman    bigxc@prairienet.org    "The Big C"
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    Coming to you from Illinois -- "The Land of Skolnick"        
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