The more interesting event to me is that the balance of evidence on MLK’s assassination shows that he was murdered in an operation coordinated between the FBI and the Memphis police and mafia.
To those downvoting because they think this comment is baseless:
"The Loyd Jowers Trial (officially the King family vs. Loyd Jowers and other unknown co-conspirators) was an American civil suit brought by the family of Martin Luther King Jr. against Loyd Jowers, following his claims of a conspiracy in the assassination of the civil rights leader in 1968. The jury would eventually decide in 1999 that there was a conspiracy perpetrated by Jowers and other conspirators."
Regardless of the merits of the MLK assassination conspiracy theory, this trial definitely discredits the theory more than it helps. It's clear that it was designed to be a public spectacle. Jowers had continuously changed his story prior to this trial. The FBI certainly didn't pay the equivalent of nearly a million present-day dollars to a random restaurateur, to help them kill a completely unguarded civilian.
Claiming he was unguarded conveniently ignores some very relevant details. Like the fact MLK was guarded by a contingent of black Memphis policemen every time he visited Memphis. On the visit he was murdered, those policemen were pulled from that guard duty for reasons never explained.
There’s a very good podcast, The MLK Files, investigating the conspiracy surrounding his killing - one of those black policemen was interviewed on the podcast, along with many other people.
Some other inconvenient facts about his assassination are the facts that the rifle claimed to be used in the killing is physically incapable of firing the bullet that killed MLK, a fact recorded in the FBI ballistics report along with a note that the gun should never be re-tested.
The other interesting fact is the man convicted of the killing adamantly denies pulling the trigger, but acknowledges being part of the conspiracy- which is why he pled guilty. Prior to the killing he escaped from jail, and was provided a fake US passport by other conspirators to help him smuggle items from Canada to the US.
And this is only scratching the surface, there is so much more documented information on the killing, like the relationship between Hoover’s #2 and his known relationship with the Dixie Mafia that dominated Memphis at the time.
Since you seem to have a familiarity with Jowers, I’d encourage you to listen to the podcast. Jowers testimony is discussed, but it is far from the only piece of evidence examined. It’s not even the main evidence cited, there are a lot of other witnesses whose testimony was never examined or who were threatened into silence.
> Some other inconvenient facts about his assassination are the facts that the rifle claimed to be used in the killing is physically incapable of firing the bullet that killed MLK, a fact recorded in the FBI ballistics report along with a note that the gun should never be re-tested.
These are the sorts of facts that would heavily benefit from a reputable citation. The closest thing to your assertion on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_F._Kennedy_assassination_... is that it'd be hard to sight because of some missing metal shims, which may've been lost while in FBI posession rather than in Oswald's.
The gun in the FBI’s possession was the correct caliber but had the wrong rifling - it could not have fired the bullet they claimed it to.
In a later appeal Ray’s lawyers argued that the bullet didn’t match the gun, and attempted to have that sustained in court. The government witness was questioned by the judge. This judge was removed from the case shortly after questioning the government witness because he “lost his impartiality”. The new judge in the case threw out the motion without any explanation.
Here is that same judge explaining that he believes Ray did not kill King - he also claims the Memphis Homicides Unit official report on the case come to the same conclusion, that Ray did not kill MLK:
https://youtu.be/HcJ_szc3TEA
In reading over the case, you should note that Ray was never tried in open court, despite his many attempts to do so.
Also notable is from the testimony of the store owner who sold Ray a gun, which Ray came back later to return for another, claiming he was told it was the “wrong gun.” It was wrong in the sense that it was the wrong caliber to match the rifle used to kill King, but the conspirators didn’t realize it was also the wrong rifling.
Again, this is only a very small sample of the massive amounts of evidence that points towards a conspiracy.
Since you sound interested I’d encourage you to listen to the MLK Tapes podcast, they examine all available evidence and weigh the credibility of every piece, with the balance of probability being that MLK was murdered by Memphis’s Dixie Mafia with assistance from the FBI and the Memphis Police Department.
So they sued the guy claiming the conspiracy existed, not the government, because the government would have mounted a real defense? That trial sounds like a farce, as the two parties were in agreement and just wanted that conclusion on the record.
