The Mammoth Book of Conspiracies by Jon E. Lewis

Author:Jon E. Lewis [Lewis, Jon E.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Social Science, Conspiracy Theories
ISBN: 9781849017305
Google: wYQ4AAAAQBAJ
Amazon: 0762442719
Publisher: Running Press
Published: 2012-02-15T08:00:00+00:00

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Ray was a two-bit petty criminal, who somehow funded an escape to England with a false passport.

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He was not a trained sniper, but pulled off a difficult single shot to assassinate King. And the bullet from King’s body was never matched to the supposedly responsible rifle.

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The drunk who identified Ray as a denizen of the flophouse recanted when sober.

Although the 1977 House Select Committee on Assassinations disbelieved Ray’s claim that he was a guiltless patsy, it did allow the “likelihood” that Ray did not act alone. The Select Committee noted further that FBI files “revealed approximately 25 Klan-related leads” in the King assassination, but that the passage of time, conflicting testimonies, and a lack of cooperation from witnesses meant that the leads should be discounted. But two of these leads were always suggestive. First, was the evidence of diner waitress Myrtis Hendricks. The Select Committee recorded:

2. In an interview with an agent of the Dallas FBI field office on April 22, 1968, Myrtis Ruth Hendricks, accompanied by Thomas McGee, maintained she had overheard discussions of a conspiracy to kill Dr. King. Hendricks said that while working as a waitress at John’s Restaurant in Laurel, Miss., on April 2, 1968, she heard the owner, Deavours Nix, say he “had gotten a call on King”. Nix was then head of intelligence and the grand director of the Klan Bureau of Investigation for the White Knights of Ku Klux Klan of Mississippi (WKKKKOM) the most violent Klan organization during 1967 and 1968. Hendricks said that on April 3, 1968, she saw in Nix’s office a rifle with a telescopic sight in a case, which two men put in a long box in the back of a 1964 maroon Dodge. Hendricks alleged that on the following day Nix received a phone call announcing Dr. King’s death before the news was broadcast on the radio. Hendricks left Laurel shortly after Dr. King’s death to join her boyfriend, Thomas McGee, in Texas.

The Bureau had independently confirmed that John’s Restaurant was a gathering place for known Klan members and that members had been there on April 3 and 4, 1968. Nevertheless, it found no corroboration of the Hendricks rifle story. The committee’s review of FBI files concerning the White Knights’ activities uncovered informant information similar to the Hendricks’ allegation. In addition, statements attributed to Samuel H. Bowers, the imperial wizard of the WKKKKOM, in John’s Restaurant on April 5, 1968, raised the possibility of his involvement in the assassination. As a result of this information and an indication that it was not developed further in the FBI investigation, the committee pursued the lead.

Myrtis Hendricks denied the substance of her allegation when contacted by the committee. While admitting that she had worked for Nix, she said she was afraid of her former boyfriend, Thomas McGee, but refused to elaborate further. The committee’s attempt to interview FBI informants who had furnished relevant information was unsuccessful. The informants were either unavailable or uncooperative.

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