Attention, all King-assassination conspiracy buffs: It's not the CIA, it's the CA!
ABC's Turning Point last week debunked important elements of a supposed conspiracy involving the Army, the Green Berets, and others in the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Conspiracy theorists interviewed included former Commercial Appeal reporter Stephen Tompkins and William Pepper, an attorney for James Earl Ray since 1986.
The CA said last week that the program "exposes flaws in Pepper's assertion that an Army Special Forces unit was stalking King in Memphis the day of the assassination." That's overly modest. Pepper's assertion was itself a push of the CA's unattributed assertion in its 6,200-word story of March 1993, alleging that Green Berets were in Memphis "carrying out an unknown mission" when King was killed. Three Green Berets denied that on Turning Point, as did an Army captain whom Pepper had conveniently pronounced dead.
Pepper surfaced in Memphis in January 1993, during the filming of a mock trial of Ray. Tompkins was at work on his own story, which the newspaper billed as a 16-month investigation. He left the newspaper shortly after the story was published.
At some point, the relationship between Tompkins and Pepper would seem to have changed from reporter/source to one of collaborators. The CA says Pepper paid Tompkins to "reinterview" some people. It's unclear when that relationship began, or whether any of those sources was paid. Now Tompkins and Pepper are in public disagreement over who vouched for what and who said what.
Of course there are plenty of others fanning the conspiracy fires, notably the King family. And if a judge orders retesting of Ray's rifle, as Circuit Judge Joe Brown has, then the rifle must be retested and the reasons explained.
The results, however, may be less interesting than revelations about the conspiracy theorists themselves.
If nothing else, U.S. District Judge Jon McCalla's finding last week of damages against the city and Mayor W.W. Herenton in the Wagner case firmly disproved one long-term contention of the mayor's -- namely, that he is "no politician."
In awarding $80,000 to Memphis Police Lt. Mike Wagner for the violation of his due process rights in a now famous "pepper gas" incident, and in holding Mayor Herenton personally liable for an as-yet-undetermined amount of punitive damages, Judge McCalla found Herenton's actions to be "racially motivated" and proclaimed that the mayor had "engaged in plainly unlawful conduct and acted with reckless and callous indifference" in administering summary discipline to Wagner.
The mayor quite evidently erred in this case -- just as former police director Melvin Burgess always said -- by trying to please a political constituency. We frankly don't regard Mayor Herenton as a racist of any stripe. But we're absolutely sure he's a politician. Maybe too much of one.
And now it appears he'll pay for it.