Don’t Reopen the Case, Open Investigation Files

Thirty years after Martin Luther King Jr. was gunned down in Memphis, many people still believe that James Earl Ray didn’t pull the trigger, despite strong evidence that Ray was the gunman. His fingerprints were on the alleged murder weapon, he was at the crime scene and he confessed. A congressional probe conducted by mostly liberal Democrats with no political axes to grind concluded that Ray killed King.

The biggest reason why many people are quick to buy the conspiracy theory is the government itself. The FBI and army intelligence still have not answered many questions about the secret war they waged against King from the late 1950s to his murder on April 4, 1968.

The King family--which absolved Ray and demands that the case be reopened--and those who sincerely want to get to the truth would be better served by campaigning for the FBI and Congress to open files on the King assassination ordered sealed for 50 years.

The FBI and other government agencies would still not be absolved of their disgraceful, destructive and illegal campaign against King. The climate of suspicion and hostility they created toward the civil rights movement made it possible for Ray to murder King. And ultimately, they must share some of the blame for that.