| Show NATIONWORLD The Salt Lake Tribune A21 Sunday January 19 1992 Who Killed King? Assassin Says He'll Prove It Was fRaouT If Given Retrial THE ASSOCIATED PRESS NASHVILLE Tenn — James Earl Ray will awaken on Monday's Martin Luther King holiday in his cell a concrete cube with no bars and a glass slit for a window Then he'll go to work Behind 12-fo- razor wire ot fences at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution the man serving 99 years as King's assassin will xesuuie hi3 quest to prove he is innocent a claim he repeats in a new autobiography and in a prison interview ' He's speaking the truth he says and it can set him free While once he escaped from prison by hiding in a bread truck Ray now combs the prison law library for a legal way out He's filed a string of bwsuits seeking investigative documents to build bis case for a trial and is shopping for a judge who will order one Once in court he vows to prove he was a dupe of a mysterious middleman named "RaouT in one of the most spectacular murder conspiracies of the century Ray's new book Who Killed Martin Luther King? makes a case that his original guilty plea was coerced and that he was never cat anything more than "a claim of innocence — sense that he's biding some of what he closed-circu- Harold Weisberg a writer and former congressional investigator who has amassed an 80000-pag- e private archive of King probe documents said he once asked Ray while helping him prepare for a hearing who his handlers had been "He said 'I won't get out by putting somebody else in' " Weisberg recalled Among the things he does discuss is his guilty pfea He entered it he says only after being sub a ts this sentiment is not new He registered it before he left the courtroom i Then-U- S i James Earl Ray ZD n I 1 A) 7i 5 P' 4 4L 1 mm nrh: it1 pi i l 1 5 i SKIS 0Q0TS BirJOIIIGS POLES ROSSIGIIOL y f ALL SKI EQUIPMENT yJ ALL SKI APPAREL PARKAS 3-in- K2 DYMASTAR Louis-base- King was "The government was part of a conspiracy either directly or indirectly to assassinate him" says the Rev Jesse Jackson The comment by Jackson who was among those with King when he died comes in a foreword to Ray's bock written at the publisher's request Jackson adds: "No thoughtful person after reviewing the evidence can believe that this one man James Earl Ray — who had bungled virtually everything he had ever tried including criminal activity — acting alone killed Martin Luther King" Ray Jackson says "may or may cot have been part of the conspiraWhere I do agree with cy James Earl Ray is that he deserves a full and fair trial and the American people deserve to know the truth" ' The question is posed in capital letters on his book's cover: Who killed Martin Luther King? But what is Ray's answer? The book's 285 pages only hint at answers: Meyer Lansky and others in organized crime? Shadowy individuals at the ether end of Louisiana phone numbers he was given by "Raoul"? FBI officials? ' Many who have interviewed Ray — including those who believe his r Mi H -- WHITE STAG HEAD BLACK ICE PROFILE X ? and other top names! f7 (91 ALL STEPPERS AND EVERY HOME GYM IN STOCK! EXERCISE BIKES TUNTURI MARCY PRO FORM B LI I 1 Choose from assorted models with the latest Selection includes models from MARCY and PRO FORM all designed to give you a complete workout! s features to help you shape up fast at home! NIKE REEBOK ADIDAS EAST WEST Al!0 STREET HOCKEY GEAR ALL WOMEN'S PRINT AEROBICWEAR 20T0300FF 0 ALL HOCKEY AND 50 FIGURE SKATES r SAVE UP TO $35 SELECTED TOP NAME SPORT SHOES FOR r U AHD WOMEN ri:cE : 0RIG7999T019S PROFILE and more! TO ! 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Clark" Wilt' Sg Jfam W WW Ramsey Clark had said immediately after the shooting that a lone assassin killed King there was no evidence of a conspiracy But even as he pleaded guilty Ray told the judge: "The only thing that I have to say is that I can't agree with Mr There was a conspiracy concluded the House Select Committee on Assassinations nine years later In 1978 its report based on a investigation said Ray d shot King but that a St of racial bigots conspiracy was behind the killing The committee also concluded that no federal state or county agency was involved in King's killing — exonerating the FBI whose campaign of spying on threatening and attempting to discredit 1TC 't V it n Jr's In his new book Ray now calls - '-- trial" r The Rev Martin Luther King the court proceeding a sham but - r reer criminal" civil-righ- new rv-- I !M two-bi- untiring travels to the flash movepoints of the ment won him the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 — and in early April 1963 took him to Memphis where sanitation workers most of them black were striking for better pay and an end to discrimination He stirred a crowd with a speech that's memorized by children now declaring "I've been to I'm not fearthe mountaintop ing any man" After spending much of April 4 planning yet another demonstration he prepared for dinner then stepped onto his balcony at the Lorraine Motel As King stood alone there at 6:01 pm a single rifle shot struck him in the head "It's all over" an aide cried moments later Investigators tracing aliases and following leads across continents arrested Ray in London in June Within a year of the assassination on March 10 1969 Ray pleaded guilty to King s killing jected to solitary confinement for months in a cell with constant surveillance by TV cameras and bright lights kept on 24 hoars a day Compounding this "midnight sunstroke" as he calls it were threats that his brother and father could be prosecuted if be did not cooperate he says He denies that avoiding the death penalty was his motive for the plea Whether or not his book holds significast revelations Ray said "The main thing now is that a lot of people are starting to demand a knows I f 1 9 1110 E Ft 566-245- 2557 North Main 773-15- H 8 Bountiful 20 West 500 South 292-72S- Sunset Union Blvd 4 Park City Orem Holiday Viiiane Mai! 1230 South Stats 643-692- 2 225-950-0 No rainchecks Sale now through Jan Layton 1072 Layton Hilts Mall 546-284- 4 u — --(-fa t i:-- V j Oqdta 2S09 Washington Blvd 621-225- 1 Lccsn iSs'North Main ' ' i A! 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