April 28, 2023
James Earl Ray
Following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., the FBI placed his alleged assassin, James Earl Ray, on its “Top Ten Most Wanted” list. In the posting, the word “conspiracy” was mentioned. It led to unintended consequences and laid the groundwork for the belief that King was the target of a plot organized by the Johnson administration and the FBI.
By Mel Ayton
In 2019 a group of “concerned citizens” was formed, calling themselves the Truth and Reconciliation Committee (TRC). The membership included numerous Hollywood celebrities such as Oliver Stone, Alec Baldwin, and Martin Sheen, as well as Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and MLK’s nephew Isaac Newton Farris Jr. The TRC promoted the idea that President Kennedy, his brother Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X were assassinated as the result of conspiracies organized by the government and then covered up. King’s convicted assassin, James Earl Ray, they alleged, was not the real killer of the Civil Rights leader.
On the night of November 29, 1988, near the impoverished Marlborough neighborhood in south Kansas City, an explosion at a construction site killed six of the city’s firefighters. It was a clear case of arson, and five people from Marlborough were duly convicted of the crime. But for veteran crime writer and crusading editor J. Patrick O’Connor, the facts—or a lack of them—didn’t add up. Justice on Fire is OConnor’s detailed account of the terrible explosion that led to the firefighters’ deaths and the terrible injustice that followed. Also available from Amazon
