Dr King ‘knew of plot’

Press, 16 August 1978, Page 8

Dr King ‘knew of plot’

NZPA-Reuter Washington Dr Martin Luther King’s' closest friend has told Con-i gressional investigators he) believes conspirators were; behind the assassination of the civil-rights leader 10 years ago. Dr Ralph Abernathy, his [heir as head of the Southern (Christian Leadership Confer- , ence, said Dr King had i apparently known “from some source” of the impending murder bid. He told the House of Representatives Assassinations Committee at the start of public hearings . into the murders of Dr King and President John Kennedy that he had no independent evidence of a plot. ) But he cited the fact that Dr King’s convicted killer, James Earl Ray, had been able to travel undetected for two months after the shooting at a motel in Memphis, Tennessee, in April 1968. Ray was captured in London.

“I believe very firmly that it was a political conspiracy, an attempt to kill the American dream, the fulfilling of the dream of whites and blacks,” said Dr Abernathy.

Earlier, discussing the day Dr King died, he said: “Many people felt that he had a premonition or maybe some knowledge. I think he received some word from some source that he was going to be assassinated.” Dr King had appeared nervous and even frightened shortly before his death, Dr Abernathy said. The panel will today question Ray, who is now serving a 99-year prison term. Ray has hinted at a plot by talking of other "guilty men.”