COINTEL PRO
& the Death of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Martin Luther King Truth Committee
In 2007, Leutrell Osborne Group (LOG) formed an activist committee, Martin Luther King Truth Committee, to further investigate the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and report its findings to the global community by the 40th anniversary of his death, April 4, 2008. This project is a continuance of work in this arena by Leutrell Osborne, Sr., who is a recognized authority on the subject. Mr. Osborne is available for interviews on this topic, as well as other political commentary on national and global affairs.
The committee is the outgrowth of LOG's past support of the re-opened investigation on the assassination of Dr. King, Jr. BMCIA asks one question: "Is the identification of the assassin of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as or more important than resolving many of the racial issues that top the news today?" The answer of the Committee is, "Definitely. The nation and world still await an answer that satisfies." There are lingering doubts about the guilt of alleged assassin James Earl Ray, even among his own family.
The committee is the outgrowth of LOG's past support of the re-opened investigation on the assassination of Dr. King, Jr. BMCIA asks one question: "Is the identification of the assassin of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. as or more important than resolving many of the racial issues that top the news today?" The answer of the Committee is, "Definitely. The nation and world still await an answer that satisfies." There are lingering doubts about the guilt of alleged assassin James Earl Ray, even among his own family.
Did COINTEL PRO & CIA "Back Pocket Agents" Kill Rev. King, Jr.? By Iona Miller
Annapolis, Md. July 9, 2010. COINTEL PRO is the acronym used by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for one of the FBI's domestic intelligence operations called Counter Intelligence Program. Leutrell Osborne, Sr. former CIA Spy Manager and CI officer likes to tell it like it is. He renames it "domestic dirty tricks" because the FBI clandestine intelligence operation was not a Counter Intelligence (CI) operation but a Covert Action (CA) domestic dirty tricks operation aimed at US citizens and Native Americans.
The FBI used domestic CA operations from 1956 thru 1971. Their stated motivation at the time was "protecting national security, preventing violence, and maintaining the existing social and political order." However, the evidence below disputes that mis-information.
Osborne's experienced opinion is that five very important insights need to be understood regarding past Government led “dirty tricks’ and illegal activities.
1. From 1956 to the early 1970s, the secret domestic intelligence operations of the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC) for the most part were performed without the upper level political leaders of the US Government knowing the truth. In other words, persons conducting these domestic activities even fooled them. Thus most of the campaign was unknown to the upper echelons like the Presidents and Attorney Generals while the key elements of the IC deployed dirty trick specialists from the FBI, CIA, Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) against so-called enemies of the state such as dissidents, the peace movement, and made secret war on select individuals and groups, particularly Blacks and Native Americans. 2. The FBI was not alone in doing these dirty deeds. Other members of the National Intelligence Community (NIC) collaborated and conducted the dirty tricks along side the FBI’s COINTEL PRO.
3. COINTEL PRO was not a Counter Intelligence operation. It was a Covert Action Intelligence operation equal to if not better than what CIA could perform.
4. Most of the so-called adversaries were not really “bad” people but the nature of dirty trick operations by the US Government made these persons appear “dirtier” than they were.
5. Several CIA components performed illegal domestic dirty tricks intelligence activities in concert with the FBI’s COINTEL PRO. As an IC activity, COINTEL PRO “neutralized” and fabricated threats against individuals and organizations. The NIC activities sowed distrust and disinformation utilizing a controlled system of informants and provocateurs against various individuals and organizations.
COINTEL PRO was unconstitutional clandestine activity meant to shape and manipulate the sociopolitical landscape by preventing or disrupting the exercise of First Amendment rights and advocacy. They wanted to suppress speaking, teaching, meeting, writing and publishing. Vigilante-style domestic covert action and propaganda was used against American citizens.
Agents infiltrated, manipulated and disabled organizations, conducted “dirty tricks” psychological warfare, used the legal system, warrant less break-ins, stalking, assaults and beatings for harassment. They inflicted physical, emotional and economic damage, and did not stop short of using assassinations to “neutralize” their adversaries. http://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/cointelpro/churchfinalreportIIIa.htm
Some of the main objectives of the secret so-called counter intelligence program COINTEL PRO were to prevent the rise of a “black messiah.” The Black Panthers, NAACP, Malcolm X, and Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. as well as other Black nationalists were heavily surveilled. Andrew Young made the statement that he and Dr. King, Jr. knew that the government surveilled them and he commented about a mike even being discovered.
In Oslo for the Nobel Peace Prize, Dr. King, Jr. himself on the day after the ceremony while attending the the US Ambassador’s reception for him told Leutrell Osborne, Sr. that he knew that the Government was watching him and his people in the USA. The legacy of this domestic spying continues today in the lies and continued persecution of political targets, such as former Black Panther, Mumia Abu-Jamal.
Osborne wonders why over forty years after the fact, CNN (April, 2008), validates disinformation by pointing the finger at James Earl Ray, restating the lies about the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Neither James Earl Ray nor Loyd Jowers did the killing but both had dirty hands, according to Osborne.
The King family brought a civil suit against Jowers because they refused to believe Ray was the killer. A jury determined the plot included “governmental agencies.” Pepper argued in Orders to Kill (1995) that King was the victim of an elaborate plot involving the Mafia, the FBI, the CIA, military intelligence - and the highest levels of the U.S. government.
“In an unlikely alliance, the King family was represented in the [Memphis wrongful death] case by William Pepper, who had been Mr. Ray's lawyer. The King family maintains that Mr. Pepper's version of the assassination is the one that gets at the real truth behind Dr. King's death, not the official version with Mr. Ray as the gunman. Mr. Pepper said federal, state and Memphis governmental agencies, as well as the news media conspired in the assassination.”http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E04EFDC1631F93AA35751C1A96F958260
Why doesn’t media get the truth and point the fingers in the correct directions at COINTEL PRO and organized crime? The 2008 CNN documentary continues pointing at James Earl Ray and Loyd Jowers. But the bullet has never been linked to Ray’s rifle. http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2008/black.in.america/. After more than 40 years, we need to focus on telling the truth of King’s untimely death. The full story still hasn’t been told.
Truth At Last (2008) is a book by James Earl Ray’s older brother John Larry Ray, claiming there is forensic evidence that exonerates his brother. He also says Ray was inducted into the CIA, then used as a patsy. He blames “white America,” but the perps may be fewer in number. The government is not the country.
"Martin Luther King Jr. was a man admired by millions, but my brother didn't kill him," John told the New York Daily News. "I believe my brother was not only misused by conspirators within our government but also greatly misconstrued as a 'racist' and a 'murderer' by
the media." http://www.globepequot.com/special/whokilledmlk/
Gary Revel was commissioned in 1977 to go undercover To find the King killers. Since then, he has not been fired, decommissioned, told the job was done, nor been paid. The stark reality is that the King killers have not yet been found. But the only officially appointed undercover investigator of the MLK assassination, Revel doesn’t mince words – he names names: Lyndon Baines Johnson, J. Edgar Hoover, Vito Genovese, Santo Trafficante Jr., Sam Giancana, Meyer Lansky, Joseph Colombo, Frank Costello, Don Carlo Gambino, Joseph Bonnano, Paul Castellano, Carlos Marcello, and the CIA's E. Howard Hunt. http://leutrellosborne.50megs.com/whats_new.html
Revel previously advised Osborne about information that might lead to solving other related deaths to the assassination of King. When Osborne learned about the deaths of people associated with the investigation of King such as the two judges and six FBI Special Agents (SAs), Osborne said "There has to be fire where there is smoke."
Revel laid out these details to Osborne: Two of the judges in Tennessee, who were planning to give James Earl Ray the trial he never had, died of heart attacks just before their plans could be put into place. Six FBI officials, all of which were to testify before the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA), were prevented from doing so because of their deaths. Revel said deaths of these FBI SAs could be more significant than what many realized because all six of these FBI SAs were identified to Revel as being important witnesses for the HSCA. "Is it likely that the stress of the planned testimony really brought on heart attacks to three of these people?" questioned Revel.
Osborne knows of eight people who died or were killed within a 6-month period. All eight were directly related to Revel’s investigation of the King assassination. When including other deaths during that year that were official suicides, accidents or deaths under unusual circumstances related to the work of the HSCA then a judicious person has to pause for thought. There is truth yet to be learned about unknowns who were directly involved in the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. as well as the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Presidential Candidate Robert F. Kennedy, and Malcolm X. http://leutrellosborne.50megs.com/whats_new.html
Osborne is emphatic: “Let me frame one of the most important insights into the events surrounding the assassination of Dr. King, Jr that I, Leutrell "Mike" Osborne, Sr., am able to state as of 040910. First ignore every mention of COINTELPRO as a counter intelligence operation of the FBI. COINTEL-PRO was not CI.
"The FBI led domestic dirty tricks intelligence operation known by the acronym COINTEL PRO was a Covert Action intelligence operation equal to if not better than one led and directed by the CIA Clandestine Service Spy Masters that I worked with in the past."
“This may be the most important insight I have for you to understand. CA as I define it included both assassinations and collaboration with intelligence operation resources such as organized crime and international hit persons. That is the way CA used to be even though there are rules of the game that tend to state that the US Government doesn't participate in such activities today. We are discussing the past."
“Further, it is enlightening that much of the COINTELPRO or COINTEL FACTOR (as I prefer to call it) was not performed so that neither the White House nor the Attorney General knew in advance what was taking place. This observation is based on my research and reading so-called official documents. “
“Further many of the DOJ and FBI post investigations in my opinion confused matters and did not include persons doing the investigation who had a paradigm of a CIA Spy Master like me and others who understand the protocols and downside of CA intelligence operations. Plus many departments and agencies in the Intelligence Community collaborated both wittingly and unwittingly during the COINTEL FACTOR in the dirty tricks against US citizens, especially Blacks and Native Americans.”
“One more point and I will hold for now. Also discount the mis-information about James Earl Ray and the true COINTEL FACTOR professionals mostly out of the FBI and some of the US Army intelligence organizations on the contrary there used Loyd Jowers being the assassins. Perhaps the only true link is the coordinator and agent handler known as Raul.”
“In my opinion Raul had the attributes of a person trained by Spy Masters but Raul is not what I call a Case Officer, per se. However, he has the attributes that tend to resemble a "trained agent or asset who knows how to handle agents" or people like Ray and Jowers in this case. During my life I have been blessed to meet people who have first hand knowledge of COINTEL PRO and the related events concerning the assassination of Dr. King, Jr.”
Gary Revel suggests, based on his personal interviews of James Earl Ray, that there were several “Raul’s” or “Raoul’s” and all were covers. Revel’s opinion from deep within his own investigation winds up countering Pepper’s theory and naming former CIA officer and White House Watergate secret agent E. Howard Hunt once again holding the bag. Hunt died in January, 2007. Revel notes, "there are many Hunt and Sturgis like characters around still today. They can be hired or conscripted into killing people by more powerful people like President Lyndon Baines Johnson and FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover. Their roles in the killing of MLK were important but did not make the crime. If it wasn't or hadn't been them it would be or would have been others."
Osborne disagrees strongly, counting Hunt out of the still-shadowy picture of the hidden truth of the assassination. All agree there was a dark marriage of organized crime and clandestine government behind the trigger and media manipulation after the fact, including contemporary depictions. Osborne even wonders if CNN isn’t under “adversary control.” But then what 3-lettered acronym organizations aren’t? Perpetual suspicion, even of one another, goes with the territory.
According to Attorney Brian Glick in his book War at Home, the FBI used four main methods during COINTELPRO:
1. Infiltration: Agents and informers did not merely spy on political activists. Their main purpose was to discredit and disrupt. Their very presence served to undermine trust and scare off potential supporters. The FBI and police exploited this fear to smear genuine activists as agents.
2. Psychological Warfare From the Outside: The FBI and police used myriad other "dirty tricks" to undermine progressive movements. They planted false media stories and published bogus leaflets and other publications in the name of targeted groups. They forged correspondence, sent anonymous letters, and made anonymous telephone calls. They spread misinformation about meetings and events, set up pseudo movement groups run by government agents, and manipulated or strong-armed parents, employers, landlords, school officials and others to cause trouble for activists.
3. Harassment Through the Legal System: The FBI and police abused the legal system to harass dissidents and make them appear to be criminals. Officers of the law gave perjured testimony and presented fabricated evidence as a pretext for false arrests and wrongful imprisonment. They discriminatorily enforced tax laws and other government regulations and used conspicuous surveillance, "investigative" interviews, and grand jury subpoenas in an effort to intimidate activists and silence their supporters.
4. Extralegal Force and Violence: The FBI and police threatened, instigated, and themselves conducted break-ins, vandalism, assaults, and beatings. The object was to frighten dissidents and disrupt their movements. In the case of radical Black and Puerto Rican activists (and later Native Americans), these attacks—including political assassinations—were so extensive, vicious, and calculated that they can accurately be termed a form of official "terrorism."
The FBI also conducted "black bag jobs",[4] which were warrantless surreptitious entries, against the targeted groups and their members.
GARY REVEL LINKS - http://www.garyrevel.com/news2.xml
The FBI used domestic CA operations from 1956 thru 1971. Their stated motivation at the time was "protecting national security, preventing violence, and maintaining the existing social and political order." However, the evidence below disputes that mis-information.
Osborne's experienced opinion is that five very important insights need to be understood regarding past Government led “dirty tricks’ and illegal activities.
1. From 1956 to the early 1970s, the secret domestic intelligence operations of the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC) for the most part were performed without the upper level political leaders of the US Government knowing the truth. In other words, persons conducting these domestic activities even fooled them. Thus most of the campaign was unknown to the upper echelons like the Presidents and Attorney Generals while the key elements of the IC deployed dirty trick specialists from the FBI, CIA, Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) against so-called enemies of the state such as dissidents, the peace movement, and made secret war on select individuals and groups, particularly Blacks and Native Americans. 2. The FBI was not alone in doing these dirty deeds. Other members of the National Intelligence Community (NIC) collaborated and conducted the dirty tricks along side the FBI’s COINTEL PRO.
3. COINTEL PRO was not a Counter Intelligence operation. It was a Covert Action Intelligence operation equal to if not better than what CIA could perform.
4. Most of the so-called adversaries were not really “bad” people but the nature of dirty trick operations by the US Government made these persons appear “dirtier” than they were.
5. Several CIA components performed illegal domestic dirty tricks intelligence activities in concert with the FBI’s COINTEL PRO. As an IC activity, COINTEL PRO “neutralized” and fabricated threats against individuals and organizations. The NIC activities sowed distrust and disinformation utilizing a controlled system of informants and provocateurs against various individuals and organizations.
COINTEL PRO was unconstitutional clandestine activity meant to shape and manipulate the sociopolitical landscape by preventing or disrupting the exercise of First Amendment rights and advocacy. They wanted to suppress speaking, teaching, meeting, writing and publishing. Vigilante-style domestic covert action and propaganda was used against American citizens.
Agents infiltrated, manipulated and disabled organizations, conducted “dirty tricks” psychological warfare, used the legal system, warrant less break-ins, stalking, assaults and beatings for harassment. They inflicted physical, emotional and economic damage, and did not stop short of using assassinations to “neutralize” their adversaries. http://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/cointelpro/churchfinalreportIIIa.htm
Some of the main objectives of the secret so-called counter intelligence program COINTEL PRO were to prevent the rise of a “black messiah.” The Black Panthers, NAACP, Malcolm X, and Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. as well as other Black nationalists were heavily surveilled. Andrew Young made the statement that he and Dr. King, Jr. knew that the government surveilled them and he commented about a mike even being discovered.
In Oslo for the Nobel Peace Prize, Dr. King, Jr. himself on the day after the ceremony while attending the the US Ambassador’s reception for him told Leutrell Osborne, Sr. that he knew that the Government was watching him and his people in the USA. The legacy of this domestic spying continues today in the lies and continued persecution of political targets, such as former Black Panther, Mumia Abu-Jamal.
Osborne wonders why over forty years after the fact, CNN (April, 2008), validates disinformation by pointing the finger at James Earl Ray, restating the lies about the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Neither James Earl Ray nor Loyd Jowers did the killing but both had dirty hands, according to Osborne.
The King family brought a civil suit against Jowers because they refused to believe Ray was the killer. A jury determined the plot included “governmental agencies.” Pepper argued in Orders to Kill (1995) that King was the victim of an elaborate plot involving the Mafia, the FBI, the CIA, military intelligence - and the highest levels of the U.S. government.
“In an unlikely alliance, the King family was represented in the [Memphis wrongful death] case by William Pepper, who had been Mr. Ray's lawyer. The King family maintains that Mr. Pepper's version of the assassination is the one that gets at the real truth behind Dr. King's death, not the official version with Mr. Ray as the gunman. Mr. Pepper said federal, state and Memphis governmental agencies, as well as the news media conspired in the assassination.”http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E04EFDC1631F93AA35751C1A96F958260
Why doesn’t media get the truth and point the fingers in the correct directions at COINTEL PRO and organized crime? The 2008 CNN documentary continues pointing at James Earl Ray and Loyd Jowers. But the bullet has never been linked to Ray’s rifle. http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2008/black.in.america/. After more than 40 years, we need to focus on telling the truth of King’s untimely death. The full story still hasn’t been told.
Truth At Last (2008) is a book by James Earl Ray’s older brother John Larry Ray, claiming there is forensic evidence that exonerates his brother. He also says Ray was inducted into the CIA, then used as a patsy. He blames “white America,” but the perps may be fewer in number. The government is not the country.
"Martin Luther King Jr. was a man admired by millions, but my brother didn't kill him," John told the New York Daily News. "I believe my brother was not only misused by conspirators within our government but also greatly misconstrued as a 'racist' and a 'murderer' by
the media." http://www.globepequot.com/special/whokilledmlk/
Gary Revel was commissioned in 1977 to go undercover To find the King killers. Since then, he has not been fired, decommissioned, told the job was done, nor been paid. The stark reality is that the King killers have not yet been found. But the only officially appointed undercover investigator of the MLK assassination, Revel doesn’t mince words – he names names: Lyndon Baines Johnson, J. Edgar Hoover, Vito Genovese, Santo Trafficante Jr., Sam Giancana, Meyer Lansky, Joseph Colombo, Frank Costello, Don Carlo Gambino, Joseph Bonnano, Paul Castellano, Carlos Marcello, and the CIA's E. Howard Hunt. http://leutrellosborne.50megs.com/whats_new.html
Revel previously advised Osborne about information that might lead to solving other related deaths to the assassination of King. When Osborne learned about the deaths of people associated with the investigation of King such as the two judges and six FBI Special Agents (SAs), Osborne said "There has to be fire where there is smoke."
Revel laid out these details to Osborne: Two of the judges in Tennessee, who were planning to give James Earl Ray the trial he never had, died of heart attacks just before their plans could be put into place. Six FBI officials, all of which were to testify before the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA), were prevented from doing so because of their deaths. Revel said deaths of these FBI SAs could be more significant than what many realized because all six of these FBI SAs were identified to Revel as being important witnesses for the HSCA. "Is it likely that the stress of the planned testimony really brought on heart attacks to three of these people?" questioned Revel.
Osborne knows of eight people who died or were killed within a 6-month period. All eight were directly related to Revel’s investigation of the King assassination. When including other deaths during that year that were official suicides, accidents or deaths under unusual circumstances related to the work of the HSCA then a judicious person has to pause for thought. There is truth yet to be learned about unknowns who were directly involved in the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. as well as the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Presidential Candidate Robert F. Kennedy, and Malcolm X. http://leutrellosborne.50megs.com/whats_new.html
Osborne is emphatic: “Let me frame one of the most important insights into the events surrounding the assassination of Dr. King, Jr that I, Leutrell "Mike" Osborne, Sr., am able to state as of 040910. First ignore every mention of COINTELPRO as a counter intelligence operation of the FBI. COINTEL-PRO was not CI.
"The FBI led domestic dirty tricks intelligence operation known by the acronym COINTEL PRO was a Covert Action intelligence operation equal to if not better than one led and directed by the CIA Clandestine Service Spy Masters that I worked with in the past."
“This may be the most important insight I have for you to understand. CA as I define it included both assassinations and collaboration with intelligence operation resources such as organized crime and international hit persons. That is the way CA used to be even though there are rules of the game that tend to state that the US Government doesn't participate in such activities today. We are discussing the past."
“Further, it is enlightening that much of the COINTELPRO or COINTEL FACTOR (as I prefer to call it) was not performed so that neither the White House nor the Attorney General knew in advance what was taking place. This observation is based on my research and reading so-called official documents. “
“Further many of the DOJ and FBI post investigations in my opinion confused matters and did not include persons doing the investigation who had a paradigm of a CIA Spy Master like me and others who understand the protocols and downside of CA intelligence operations. Plus many departments and agencies in the Intelligence Community collaborated both wittingly and unwittingly during the COINTEL FACTOR in the dirty tricks against US citizens, especially Blacks and Native Americans.”
“One more point and I will hold for now. Also discount the mis-information about James Earl Ray and the true COINTEL FACTOR professionals mostly out of the FBI and some of the US Army intelligence organizations on the contrary there used Loyd Jowers being the assassins. Perhaps the only true link is the coordinator and agent handler known as Raul.”
“In my opinion Raul had the attributes of a person trained by Spy Masters but Raul is not what I call a Case Officer, per se. However, he has the attributes that tend to resemble a "trained agent or asset who knows how to handle agents" or people like Ray and Jowers in this case. During my life I have been blessed to meet people who have first hand knowledge of COINTEL PRO and the related events concerning the assassination of Dr. King, Jr.”
Gary Revel suggests, based on his personal interviews of James Earl Ray, that there were several “Raul’s” or “Raoul’s” and all were covers. Revel’s opinion from deep within his own investigation winds up countering Pepper’s theory and naming former CIA officer and White House Watergate secret agent E. Howard Hunt once again holding the bag. Hunt died in January, 2007. Revel notes, "there are many Hunt and Sturgis like characters around still today. They can be hired or conscripted into killing people by more powerful people like President Lyndon Baines Johnson and FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover. Their roles in the killing of MLK were important but did not make the crime. If it wasn't or hadn't been them it would be or would have been others."
Osborne disagrees strongly, counting Hunt out of the still-shadowy picture of the hidden truth of the assassination. All agree there was a dark marriage of organized crime and clandestine government behind the trigger and media manipulation after the fact, including contemporary depictions. Osborne even wonders if CNN isn’t under “adversary control.” But then what 3-lettered acronym organizations aren’t? Perpetual suspicion, even of one another, goes with the territory.
According to Attorney Brian Glick in his book War at Home, the FBI used four main methods during COINTELPRO:
1. Infiltration: Agents and informers did not merely spy on political activists. Their main purpose was to discredit and disrupt. Their very presence served to undermine trust and scare off potential supporters. The FBI and police exploited this fear to smear genuine activists as agents.
2. Psychological Warfare From the Outside: The FBI and police used myriad other "dirty tricks" to undermine progressive movements. They planted false media stories and published bogus leaflets and other publications in the name of targeted groups. They forged correspondence, sent anonymous letters, and made anonymous telephone calls. They spread misinformation about meetings and events, set up pseudo movement groups run by government agents, and manipulated or strong-armed parents, employers, landlords, school officials and others to cause trouble for activists.
3. Harassment Through the Legal System: The FBI and police abused the legal system to harass dissidents and make them appear to be criminals. Officers of the law gave perjured testimony and presented fabricated evidence as a pretext for false arrests and wrongful imprisonment. They discriminatorily enforced tax laws and other government regulations and used conspicuous surveillance, "investigative" interviews, and grand jury subpoenas in an effort to intimidate activists and silence their supporters.
4. Extralegal Force and Violence: The FBI and police threatened, instigated, and themselves conducted break-ins, vandalism, assaults, and beatings. The object was to frighten dissidents and disrupt their movements. In the case of radical Black and Puerto Rican activists (and later Native Americans), these attacks—including political assassinations—were so extensive, vicious, and calculated that they can accurately be termed a form of official "terrorism."
The FBI also conducted "black bag jobs",[4] which were warrantless surreptitious entries, against the targeted groups and their members.
GARY REVEL LINKS - http://www.garyrevel.com/news2.xml
Leutrell "Mike" Osborne, 26 year veteran CIA Case Officer and Counter Intelligence expert like many African-Americans are somewhat familiar with the now deceased Director of Domestic Intelligence for the FBI, William Sullivan. Most of those who know of him also know that he was killed a week before he was to testify before the House Select Committee on Assassinations in 1977. What can be learned of his career comes from his autobiography (that was completed and published after his untimely death), FBI files, news articles, and press accounts. One thing that rises out of the fog is that Mr. Sullivan directed the 'Destroy King Squad' This was a Covert Action Intelligence Operation whose mission was to destroy the effectiveness of Martin Luther King Jr. If assassination was an authorized tool in their tool-belt then they surely completed their assignment. This squad was part of a larger operation acronymed COINTEL PRO for Counter Intelligence Program.
Mr. Osborne's knowledge of Bill Sullivan's operations goes far beyond what most know because of his special opportunities to learn of such things as a CIA Case Officer. Even with this special insight still Leutrell has been asking others for more information. One of those he asked was Gary Revel, a special investigator on the King case. Gary had met William Sullivan in 1977 during his investigation of MLK's murder and saw a different side of the man than most. Like the little known fact that William Sullivan became sickened with the FBI's abuse of the basic human rights of others and challenged J. Edgar Hoover the day before he was locked out of his office in 1972. Shortly after that he resigned. Gary remembers that Sullivan had challenged J. Edgar and said 'either you go or I go' and subsequently Sullivan left.
Another important detail of William Sullivan's life is that a few months before he was to testify before the HSCA he met at least one person, and most likely others, providing information and files that would be the basis of a real investigation designed to find the real killers of King. This also happened in 1977 and because of the government's tampering and interfering with the evidence in the case it is likely that the evidence is lost and will never surface again. Special Investigator Gary Revel's home was ransacked once and then during an eviction all his files on the King case disappeared.
William Sullivan's goal was to testify before the public HSCA hearings and lay his cards on the table so to speak. He was going to give the committee and the American people the truth about J. Edgar Hoover's hatred of Martin Luther King Jr. as well as his hatred for President John Kennedy and Presidential Candidate Robert Kennedy. Sullivan's knowledge of how the FBI worked with the CIA when it came to J. Edgar driven plans to neutralize the human rights activities of African-American leaders and their supporters was unique. This knowledge and the evidence he was prepared to present would have given the HSCA the direction it needed to truly uncover and prosecute the perpetrators of the JFK and MLK assassinations. It is no wonder that those who had the most to lose if the truth came out were not unhappy to hear of his 'accidental murder' The official record says that Robert Daniels mistook William Sullivan for a deer while deer hunting and shot and killed him before Bill could make his revelations public.
Mr. Revel says he is still trying to unravel the bizarre happenings of that year. His brother, his cousin's husband, William Sullivan and 5 other FBI or former FBI officials who could have been valuable to his investigation died mysteriously or were simply killed during that year. Sullivan and the other 5 were scheduled to testify before the committee. Donald Kaylor was a fingerprint expert who had worked on the JFK assassintion evidence. Alan Belmont and Louis Nicholas were both special assistants to J. Edgar Hoover. JFK assassination document examiner and expert James Cadigan was another. J.M. English, an expert on the rifle that supposedly killed President John F. Kennedy and was head of the FBI Forensic Sciences Laboratory was also dispatched. Those who travel to a place beyond reason and continue to try to defend the official stories of lone assassins and thorough investigations simply haven't gotten it yet. When there are so many coincidences any reasonable personwill just know that something is amiss.
Mr. Osborne, who recently associated with the Gary Revel Martin Luther King Jr. Assassination Investigation is looking further into the William Sullivan, Donald Kaylor, etc. quaqmire. He also is interested in the whereabouts of E. Howard Hunt on April 4, 1968. That was the day that an artist's drawing of a man coming out of the bathroom, from which the shot that killed MLK was possibly fired, resembled Hunt. E. Howard Hunt or a remarkable look-alike was in the Dealy Plaza in Dallas Texas on November 22, 1963. He was also a member of the Watergate Burglars. Special Agents that work in special operations for Presidents and such may well end up doing a number of jobs that are similar because they are very good at doing them. Is it possible that Hunt was in Dallas and then in Memphis to protect the target rather than participate in their demise. If that was the case then he didn't succeed at his assignment these times.
CBS Reporter Bill Stout's interview of the prosecution's only eye-witness putting James Earl Ray at the scene when the shooting of MLK took place is another note-worthy case buster. Charles Stephens was the witness and the prosecution had said that he identified James Earl Ray as the shooter. That identification was based on Charles Stephens supposedly seeing James Earl Ray leave the bathroom shortly after the shot was fired. Bill Stout showed Charles a picture of James Earl Ray and asked if Ray was the man he had seen leaving the bathroom. Stephens said no, James Earl Ray wasn't the man. This is in a CBS news recorded interview. A 30:06 Remington rifle found on the sidewalk in the vicinity of the crime was touted by the FBI as the murder weapon that belonged to James Earl Ray.
To this day, after numerous attempts with various experts in the field including the FBI's own, the bullet that killed Martin Luther King Jr. has not been matched to that rifle. These and many other glaring problems in the case against James Earl Ray has former CIA Case Officer Leutrell Osborne and many others including United States Government Legislators starting to ask questions. So much so that one Congresswoman, Cynthia McKinney has submitted a bill to the House Reform Committee to re-open the Martin Luther King Jr. assassination case. Representative McKinney comes from the 4th District of Georgia and is known for her tenacity and courage. She will need both and the support of all Americans who want to know the truth about Martin Luther King's murder if this bill even gets out of the House Reform Committee. One thing that history tells us about this entire matter is that it is a deadly business. Without an outcry from the American people it will be deadly again and Cynthia McKinney's bill will die in the House Reform Committee.
LEUTRELL OSBORNE INTERVIEWS GARY REVEL http://www.garyrevel.com/jr/index.html/news/
Veteran CIA Case Officer Interview of Martin Luther King Assassination Investigator Gary Revel
Release Date: Wednesday April 19, 2006
During a recent interview of Gary Revel by Leutrell Osborne, Sr., astonishing new facts surfaced about the 1977 assassination investigation of Martin Luther King, Jr. The following text was taken from that interview.
Osborne: What was the setup in 1977?
Revel: In 1977, I was investigating the Martin Luther King Jr. assassination. I worked with and for attorneys Jack Kershaw, Mary Kershaw, and Mark Lane in a unique arrangement with and for the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA). At that time, I operated undercover.
Osborne: How did the song called They Slew the Dreamer develop out of investigating the King case?
Revel: After meeting James Earl Ray and hearing his story I learned enough to know that Ray did NOT shoot King. There were others involved in King's death so I began my own investigation. During that time, I wrote the song, They Slew the Dreamer, about Dr. King. I recorded the song in Nashville, Tennessee at the famed Acuff-Rose recording studios. Acuff-Rose was the top country music publisher in the world. They had hundreds of top ten pop and rock songs as well as Country. Some of my songs had been signed by their ASCAP branch, called Milene Music Inc. Included was the song They Slew the Dreamer.
Osborne: What happened after the song was recorded?
Revel: The record was released not long after it was recorded during the summer of 1977. It was released on Jack Kershaw's Rebel Records label as a single. Soon afterwards a negative story with a large picture of the record sleeve appeared on the front page of the local afternoon newspaper, The Nashville Banner. Under the record sleeve which prominently displayed my name and the name of the record was a picture of a T-Shirt with Ray's image and the words 'I Didn't Do It'. Included was an editorialized caption that read, 'James Earl Ray Promotion Gimmicks'.
Osborne: How was airplay and record sales affected by the news story?
Revel: After story came out, promotion of my record by Acuff-Rose came to an immediate halt. All the planned airplay promotion was pulled. My calls to radio stations promoting my song were not well received. The lack of interest was not only for that song but all other songs I released over the next several years. All Nashville recording artists who had indicated earlier of an interest in my songs suddenly reversed their interest. A songwriter needs others to record his songs as well as himself if he is to be successful. The folks at Acuff-Rose that worked with me included Roy Acuff, Wesley Rose, Johnny Erdelyan, and Roy Acuff Jr. They were disappointed in the Federal Government's interference in the music business but were helpless to remedy the situation.
Osborne: What is your opinion today of how this all came about?
Revel: I believe the editorialized front page story was a secret Federal Government operation active in my investigation of the King murder. These operations include other murders, or so-called accidental deaths of several people within a 6-month period. These people were closely associated with me or they were scheduled to testify before the HSCA.
Osborne: If so, why didn't they kill you too?
Revel: One of the things I learned early in this case was that knowing a little would get me killed but knowing more than others knew would keep me alive. That is why I worked fast to gain knowledge about this case. During the late 1960's and into the 1970's highly classified Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) intelligence files were inadvertently release and were accessible for limited research. The things that could be learned from those files provided me enough intelligence to avoid serious problems. I was lucky to have access to those files early in my investigation.
Osborne: With the knowledge out that you were investigating the case of Dr. King and with mysterious deaths occurring, were you concerned about your own safety?
Revel: As I worked undercover, there was no public knowledge that I was investigating the case of Dr. King. My cover was that I was a Nashville songwriter, a business associate and friend of Jack and Mary Kershaw. Writing and recording songs was a natural development due to my friendship with Jack. Most of the publicity was about the case. previously I had a couple of single record releases, Little Did We Know and Peanut Man prior to They Slew the Dreamer. Both of the previous songs were on Jack's Rebel label, as well, so it did not appear that I was involved other than as a songwriter and recording artist. Somebody, an editor or publisher or both at the Nashville Banner, effectively destroyed the commercial success of my music with that one front page story. After years of investigation, study, and research I can only conclude that it was the Federal Government behind it.
Osborne: What evidence do you have today that Federal Government types were operating in or around your investigation?
Revel: A friend and business associate, Robert Barr, a CPA from Nashville told me that FBI Special Agent Vern Gauby was investigating my interest in the King case. One of the methods Gauby used was to visit with Barr. During casual conversations, he would bring up my name and ask questions related to my investigation. Bob was a friend of Jack Kershaw and was one of very few people aware of my work.
The FBI office in Memphis only recently told me that Special Agent Joseph H. Trimbach oversaw the investigation related to my interest in the King case. Much later, I learned of the FBI Method of Operating (MO) related to evictions. After Gauby retired from the FBI he worked for the City of Nashville, Tennessee and reportedly used residential and business evictions to exercise control for political purposes. Within a few months after the demise of the commercial prospects for my song, I too, was evicted from my apartment. During the chaos of moving, files related to my investigation disappeared.
Osborne: Did you ever try again to get your song out?
Revel: In 1979 I released an album titled Revel on my own Star City Records Inc. label. The song, They Slew the Dreamer, was included on that album. Dave Cavanaugh of Capitol Records in Hollywood had a copy of the album. Cavanaugh asked me to come back to Hollywood where we could sign a deal giving Capitol the rights to release and distribute the album on one of their labels. In February of 1980 I moved myself with my family to Hollywood where I had lived from 1969-1972. There I delivered the stampers (metal plates used to manufacture records) for the album to Cavanaugh at Capitol Records. He told me he would quickly put the deal together. I did not hear back from him right away. Weeks passed before I started to enquire about our project. My calls were not returned. Eventually his secretary told me he had gotten sick shortly after our meeting. My deal was sidetracked but she would talk to Cavanaugh to check when it could be finished. Weeks turned into months then one day I called. I was told he was dead. When I asked if I could come to pick up my stampers I learned that they had been lost.
Osborne: There are reports that you are getting radio airplay on your songs. What has happened lately that seems to be changing for you and your music?
Revel: A few years back Sony bought the Acuff-Rose music company including the songs I had written in the 1970's. They Slew the Dreamer is one of those songs. Now most of the songs from the Star City Records Inc. are on a CD album called Deep Mountain Lake. I released that on my own label, Jongleur Music. All the songs are all published by Sony/ATV Milene Music based in Nashville, Tennessee, which is owned by Sony/ATV BMG now.
Osborne: Is your work on the King case and your work with your music motivated by your desire to sell records or is there something else going on?
Revel: I know of no songwriter or recording artist who would touch this subject matter by assuming it would help their music career. I wrote the song from a desire and an inspiration to share truth with others. The fact that the song is finally getting played on the radio is partially due to growing knowledge by the public of the King assassination case. The more the public learns about the truth the harder it is for the Federal Government to lie about it.
Osborne: It has been said that you are a former Naval Intelligence Officer and once Naval Intelligence always Naval Intelligence. Are you still working for the Federal Government yourself? Is this just window dressing for operations by the Feds?
Revel: If I were still working undercover I would simply lie and say, 'No, I don't work for the Federal Government." In fact, in a de facto way I am still working for them. They commissioned me in 1977 to find the King killers. Since then, I have not been fired, decommissioned, told the job was done, or any thing else. Neither have I been paid. The stark reality is that the King killers have not yet been found.
However, the lyrics in They Slew the Dreamer were written in 1977 but will ring true eternally. The Federal Government continues to say that HE slew the dreamer, referring to James Earl Ray. I made it clear in 1977 that I didn't believe that and that instead of He, I wrote They Slew the Dreamer. This was not a welcome concept to my government then and is not today. That is why there continues to be real fear within our government and the business world concerning my recording. I can say that if I am still working for the Federal Government, it is in a bizarre and complicated kind of way. Should I do my job well enough, then individuals that are still alive could go to federal prison for conspiracy in the murder of Martin Luther King Jr.
Mr. Osborne's knowledge of Bill Sullivan's operations goes far beyond what most know because of his special opportunities to learn of such things as a CIA Case Officer. Even with this special insight still Leutrell has been asking others for more information. One of those he asked was Gary Revel, a special investigator on the King case. Gary had met William Sullivan in 1977 during his investigation of MLK's murder and saw a different side of the man than most. Like the little known fact that William Sullivan became sickened with the FBI's abuse of the basic human rights of others and challenged J. Edgar Hoover the day before he was locked out of his office in 1972. Shortly after that he resigned. Gary remembers that Sullivan had challenged J. Edgar and said 'either you go or I go' and subsequently Sullivan left.
Another important detail of William Sullivan's life is that a few months before he was to testify before the HSCA he met at least one person, and most likely others, providing information and files that would be the basis of a real investigation designed to find the real killers of King. This also happened in 1977 and because of the government's tampering and interfering with the evidence in the case it is likely that the evidence is lost and will never surface again. Special Investigator Gary Revel's home was ransacked once and then during an eviction all his files on the King case disappeared.
William Sullivan's goal was to testify before the public HSCA hearings and lay his cards on the table so to speak. He was going to give the committee and the American people the truth about J. Edgar Hoover's hatred of Martin Luther King Jr. as well as his hatred for President John Kennedy and Presidential Candidate Robert Kennedy. Sullivan's knowledge of how the FBI worked with the CIA when it came to J. Edgar driven plans to neutralize the human rights activities of African-American leaders and their supporters was unique. This knowledge and the evidence he was prepared to present would have given the HSCA the direction it needed to truly uncover and prosecute the perpetrators of the JFK and MLK assassinations. It is no wonder that those who had the most to lose if the truth came out were not unhappy to hear of his 'accidental murder' The official record says that Robert Daniels mistook William Sullivan for a deer while deer hunting and shot and killed him before Bill could make his revelations public.
Mr. Revel says he is still trying to unravel the bizarre happenings of that year. His brother, his cousin's husband, William Sullivan and 5 other FBI or former FBI officials who could have been valuable to his investigation died mysteriously or were simply killed during that year. Sullivan and the other 5 were scheduled to testify before the committee. Donald Kaylor was a fingerprint expert who had worked on the JFK assassintion evidence. Alan Belmont and Louis Nicholas were both special assistants to J. Edgar Hoover. JFK assassination document examiner and expert James Cadigan was another. J.M. English, an expert on the rifle that supposedly killed President John F. Kennedy and was head of the FBI Forensic Sciences Laboratory was also dispatched. Those who travel to a place beyond reason and continue to try to defend the official stories of lone assassins and thorough investigations simply haven't gotten it yet. When there are so many coincidences any reasonable personwill just know that something is amiss.
Mr. Osborne, who recently associated with the Gary Revel Martin Luther King Jr. Assassination Investigation is looking further into the William Sullivan, Donald Kaylor, etc. quaqmire. He also is interested in the whereabouts of E. Howard Hunt on April 4, 1968. That was the day that an artist's drawing of a man coming out of the bathroom, from which the shot that killed MLK was possibly fired, resembled Hunt. E. Howard Hunt or a remarkable look-alike was in the Dealy Plaza in Dallas Texas on November 22, 1963. He was also a member of the Watergate Burglars. Special Agents that work in special operations for Presidents and such may well end up doing a number of jobs that are similar because they are very good at doing them. Is it possible that Hunt was in Dallas and then in Memphis to protect the target rather than participate in their demise. If that was the case then he didn't succeed at his assignment these times.
CBS Reporter Bill Stout's interview of the prosecution's only eye-witness putting James Earl Ray at the scene when the shooting of MLK took place is another note-worthy case buster. Charles Stephens was the witness and the prosecution had said that he identified James Earl Ray as the shooter. That identification was based on Charles Stephens supposedly seeing James Earl Ray leave the bathroom shortly after the shot was fired. Bill Stout showed Charles a picture of James Earl Ray and asked if Ray was the man he had seen leaving the bathroom. Stephens said no, James Earl Ray wasn't the man. This is in a CBS news recorded interview. A 30:06 Remington rifle found on the sidewalk in the vicinity of the crime was touted by the FBI as the murder weapon that belonged to James Earl Ray.
To this day, after numerous attempts with various experts in the field including the FBI's own, the bullet that killed Martin Luther King Jr. has not been matched to that rifle. These and many other glaring problems in the case against James Earl Ray has former CIA Case Officer Leutrell Osborne and many others including United States Government Legislators starting to ask questions. So much so that one Congresswoman, Cynthia McKinney has submitted a bill to the House Reform Committee to re-open the Martin Luther King Jr. assassination case. Representative McKinney comes from the 4th District of Georgia and is known for her tenacity and courage. She will need both and the support of all Americans who want to know the truth about Martin Luther King's murder if this bill even gets out of the House Reform Committee. One thing that history tells us about this entire matter is that it is a deadly business. Without an outcry from the American people it will be deadly again and Cynthia McKinney's bill will die in the House Reform Committee.
LEUTRELL OSBORNE INTERVIEWS GARY REVEL http://www.garyrevel.com/jr/index.html/news/
Veteran CIA Case Officer Interview of Martin Luther King Assassination Investigator Gary Revel
Release Date: Wednesday April 19, 2006
During a recent interview of Gary Revel by Leutrell Osborne, Sr., astonishing new facts surfaced about the 1977 assassination investigation of Martin Luther King, Jr. The following text was taken from that interview.
Osborne: What was the setup in 1977?
Revel: In 1977, I was investigating the Martin Luther King Jr. assassination. I worked with and for attorneys Jack Kershaw, Mary Kershaw, and Mark Lane in a unique arrangement with and for the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA). At that time, I operated undercover.
Osborne: How did the song called They Slew the Dreamer develop out of investigating the King case?
Revel: After meeting James Earl Ray and hearing his story I learned enough to know that Ray did NOT shoot King. There were others involved in King's death so I began my own investigation. During that time, I wrote the song, They Slew the Dreamer, about Dr. King. I recorded the song in Nashville, Tennessee at the famed Acuff-Rose recording studios. Acuff-Rose was the top country music publisher in the world. They had hundreds of top ten pop and rock songs as well as Country. Some of my songs had been signed by their ASCAP branch, called Milene Music Inc. Included was the song They Slew the Dreamer.
Osborne: What happened after the song was recorded?
Revel: The record was released not long after it was recorded during the summer of 1977. It was released on Jack Kershaw's Rebel Records label as a single. Soon afterwards a negative story with a large picture of the record sleeve appeared on the front page of the local afternoon newspaper, The Nashville Banner. Under the record sleeve which prominently displayed my name and the name of the record was a picture of a T-Shirt with Ray's image and the words 'I Didn't Do It'. Included was an editorialized caption that read, 'James Earl Ray Promotion Gimmicks'.
Osborne: How was airplay and record sales affected by the news story?
Revel: After story came out, promotion of my record by Acuff-Rose came to an immediate halt. All the planned airplay promotion was pulled. My calls to radio stations promoting my song were not well received. The lack of interest was not only for that song but all other songs I released over the next several years. All Nashville recording artists who had indicated earlier of an interest in my songs suddenly reversed their interest. A songwriter needs others to record his songs as well as himself if he is to be successful. The folks at Acuff-Rose that worked with me included Roy Acuff, Wesley Rose, Johnny Erdelyan, and Roy Acuff Jr. They were disappointed in the Federal Government's interference in the music business but were helpless to remedy the situation.
Osborne: What is your opinion today of how this all came about?
Revel: I believe the editorialized front page story was a secret Federal Government operation active in my investigation of the King murder. These operations include other murders, or so-called accidental deaths of several people within a 6-month period. These people were closely associated with me or they were scheduled to testify before the HSCA.
Osborne: If so, why didn't they kill you too?
Revel: One of the things I learned early in this case was that knowing a little would get me killed but knowing more than others knew would keep me alive. That is why I worked fast to gain knowledge about this case. During the late 1960's and into the 1970's highly classified Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) intelligence files were inadvertently release and were accessible for limited research. The things that could be learned from those files provided me enough intelligence to avoid serious problems. I was lucky to have access to those files early in my investigation.
Osborne: With the knowledge out that you were investigating the case of Dr. King and with mysterious deaths occurring, were you concerned about your own safety?
Revel: As I worked undercover, there was no public knowledge that I was investigating the case of Dr. King. My cover was that I was a Nashville songwriter, a business associate and friend of Jack and Mary Kershaw. Writing and recording songs was a natural development due to my friendship with Jack. Most of the publicity was about the case. previously I had a couple of single record releases, Little Did We Know and Peanut Man prior to They Slew the Dreamer. Both of the previous songs were on Jack's Rebel label, as well, so it did not appear that I was involved other than as a songwriter and recording artist. Somebody, an editor or publisher or both at the Nashville Banner, effectively destroyed the commercial success of my music with that one front page story. After years of investigation, study, and research I can only conclude that it was the Federal Government behind it.
Osborne: What evidence do you have today that Federal Government types were operating in or around your investigation?
Revel: A friend and business associate, Robert Barr, a CPA from Nashville told me that FBI Special Agent Vern Gauby was investigating my interest in the King case. One of the methods Gauby used was to visit with Barr. During casual conversations, he would bring up my name and ask questions related to my investigation. Bob was a friend of Jack Kershaw and was one of very few people aware of my work.
The FBI office in Memphis only recently told me that Special Agent Joseph H. Trimbach oversaw the investigation related to my interest in the King case. Much later, I learned of the FBI Method of Operating (MO) related to evictions. After Gauby retired from the FBI he worked for the City of Nashville, Tennessee and reportedly used residential and business evictions to exercise control for political purposes. Within a few months after the demise of the commercial prospects for my song, I too, was evicted from my apartment. During the chaos of moving, files related to my investigation disappeared.
Osborne: Did you ever try again to get your song out?
Revel: In 1979 I released an album titled Revel on my own Star City Records Inc. label. The song, They Slew the Dreamer, was included on that album. Dave Cavanaugh of Capitol Records in Hollywood had a copy of the album. Cavanaugh asked me to come back to Hollywood where we could sign a deal giving Capitol the rights to release and distribute the album on one of their labels. In February of 1980 I moved myself with my family to Hollywood where I had lived from 1969-1972. There I delivered the stampers (metal plates used to manufacture records) for the album to Cavanaugh at Capitol Records. He told me he would quickly put the deal together. I did not hear back from him right away. Weeks passed before I started to enquire about our project. My calls were not returned. Eventually his secretary told me he had gotten sick shortly after our meeting. My deal was sidetracked but she would talk to Cavanaugh to check when it could be finished. Weeks turned into months then one day I called. I was told he was dead. When I asked if I could come to pick up my stampers I learned that they had been lost.
Osborne: There are reports that you are getting radio airplay on your songs. What has happened lately that seems to be changing for you and your music?
Revel: A few years back Sony bought the Acuff-Rose music company including the songs I had written in the 1970's. They Slew the Dreamer is one of those songs. Now most of the songs from the Star City Records Inc. are on a CD album called Deep Mountain Lake. I released that on my own label, Jongleur Music. All the songs are all published by Sony/ATV Milene Music based in Nashville, Tennessee, which is owned by Sony/ATV BMG now.
Osborne: Is your work on the King case and your work with your music motivated by your desire to sell records or is there something else going on?
Revel: I know of no songwriter or recording artist who would touch this subject matter by assuming it would help their music career. I wrote the song from a desire and an inspiration to share truth with others. The fact that the song is finally getting played on the radio is partially due to growing knowledge by the public of the King assassination case. The more the public learns about the truth the harder it is for the Federal Government to lie about it.
Osborne: It has been said that you are a former Naval Intelligence Officer and once Naval Intelligence always Naval Intelligence. Are you still working for the Federal Government yourself? Is this just window dressing for operations by the Feds?
Revel: If I were still working undercover I would simply lie and say, 'No, I don't work for the Federal Government." In fact, in a de facto way I am still working for them. They commissioned me in 1977 to find the King killers. Since then, I have not been fired, decommissioned, told the job was done, or any thing else. Neither have I been paid. The stark reality is that the King killers have not yet been found.
However, the lyrics in They Slew the Dreamer were written in 1977 but will ring true eternally. The Federal Government continues to say that HE slew the dreamer, referring to James Earl Ray. I made it clear in 1977 that I didn't believe that and that instead of He, I wrote They Slew the Dreamer. This was not a welcome concept to my government then and is not today. That is why there continues to be real fear within our government and the business world concerning my recording. I can say that if I am still working for the Federal Government, it is in a bizarre and complicated kind of way. Should I do my job well enough, then individuals that are still alive could go to federal prison for conspiracy in the murder of Martin Luther King Jr.
Jack Kershaw Is Dead at 96; Challenged Conviction in King’s Death
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/24/us/24kershaw.html?_r=1
By DOUGLAS MARTIN Published: September 24, 2010
Jack Kershaw, who represented James Earl Ray as he fought to overturn his conviction in the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., arguing that Ray was an innocent participant in a conspiracy led by a mysterious figure named Raul, died Sept. 7. in Nashville. He was 96.
His death was announced by the League of the South, an organization Mr. Kershaw helped found that tries to keep the spirit of the Confederacy alive.
Mr. Kershaw, who was also a sculptor, was best known in his hometown for creating a 27-foot equestrian statue of the Confederate general Nathan Bedford Forrest, a founder of the Ku Klux Klan. Unveiled in 1998, it was erected in a private park along Interstate 65.
The monument, offensive to many, drew criticism, but Mr. Kershaw did not shy from offending. “Somebody needs to say a good word for slavery,” he once told The Times-Picayune of New Orleans.
Mr. Kershaw’s principal brush with history came in representing Ray in 1977 in the killing of Dr. King in Memphis in 1968. On the advice of another lawyer, Percy Foreman, Ray had pleaded guilty in a Tennessee state court to being Dr. King’s sole murderer. If he had been convicted at trial, he would have received an automatic death sentence. Instead, he was sentenced to 99 years in prison.
Ray, a career petty criminal, soon argued that he had been coerced into pleading guilty. Without specifics, he blamed a man he identified only as Raul, whom he said he had met in Montreal. Ray denied shooting Dr. King but said murkily that he might have been “partially responsible without knowing it.”
Mr. Kershaw pushed this vague conspiracy claim. He accompanied Ray to interviews with investigators from the House of Representatives’ Select Committee on Assassinations, which was looking again at the killings of Dr. King and President John F. Kennedy. Mr. Kershaw persuaded the committee to conduct further ballistics tests on the rifle and the bullet that killed Dr. King. The tests were said to be inconclusive.
Mr. Kershaw told the panel in May 1977 that on the day of Dr. King’s killing, April 4, 1968, Ray was working for Raul, and that Raul had told him to go out to a movie that afternoon. (Dr. King was shot shortly after 6 p.m. as he stood on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel.) Instead, he said, Ray went to have a spare tire fixed. The lawyer could not produce a witness.
An article in The New York Times the next month repeated Mr. Kershaw’s contention that Ray was guilty only of having “bought a gun for what he thought was a gun-smuggling operation.”
In June 1977, Ray and five other inmates escaped from a Tennessee high-security penitentiary, only to be caught days later. Mr. Kershaw argued that the escape required help from outsiders and that this was further evidence of a conspiracy.
But Ray grew disenchanted with Mr. Kershaw after he persuaded Ray to be interviewed by Playboy magazine and submit to a lie-detector test for the article. The results indicated that Ray was lying when he said he did not kill Dr. King and that he was telling the truth when he denied he was part of a conspiracy. Playboy said the results proved “that Ray did, in fact, kill Martin Luther King Jr. and that he did so alone.”
The last straw came when Ray learned that Mr. Kershaw had accepted $11,000 from Playboy. He fired Mr. Kershaw and replaced him with Mark Lane, a lawyer, author and conspiracy theorist.
John Karl Kershaw was born in Missouri on Oct. 12, 1913, and moved to Old Hickory, Tenn., as a child. He attended Vanderbilt, where he played football and graduated with a geology degree; became a building contractor; and earned his law degree at the Nashville Y.M.C.A. Night Law School.
Mr. Kershaw left no immediate survivors. His wife, the former Mary Noel, died in 1989.
REVEL'S DISCLAIMER -
Jack Kershaw was never a member of the KKK. I am not now nor have ever been a member of KKK. I have fought for truth and justice in the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and President John F. Kennedy most of my life. Sometimes the press will be used to tarnish a person's reputation because of their political power or their stand on truth and justice.
African American families lived on property Jack and Mary Kershaw owned in Tennessee for many years. He often bought food for them when they would lose their jobs or need help. They would eat dinner with him and his wife, and me, occasionally in his house in Nashville, Tennessee. I was born in Lower Alabama and I know racist people and I knew people, when I was young, who were in the KKK and I assure you Jack Kershaw had none of the characteristics or qualities of any person who would have been a member of the KKK. His life was about truth, justice, beauty and helping out the less fortunate. He has been misquoted in the press and some writings that have been, and that may be in the future, attributed to him in the future are completely false.
Jack Kershaw also sculpted Joan of Arc. It is a magnificent statue over 20 foot tall and is a tribute to the good she did.
General Nathan Bedford Forrest formed a group to help the homeless freed slaves and others who had lost everything during the Revolutionary War. That group became the KKK but what it became was not what he had originally intended. He tried to disband the entire thing when he saw the direction more violent and hate filled men were taking it. The KKK we know of today is not the KKK he was part of originally.
Jack and his peers have done much to benefit society as a whole. To learn more about him and my work on the MLK assassination case you could go to my wordpress blog, http://garyrevel.wordpress.com/ or you could pick up my MLK Assassination Investigation news feed at http://www.garyrevel.com/news2.xml
Also there is an article telling more about his association with 'The Fugitive Poets' and their contributions to the advancement of civilization at http://www.garyrevel.com/news/jack_kershaw.html .
When we read history we must remember it is written by people, many of whom have an agenda to cause others to believe a lie. Don't believe everything you read but seek wisdom in all things and live daily to be the best you can be and to help your fellow human beings be the best they can be.
Should you have any questions please let me know.
Signed: Gary Revel [email protected] 254 698-3450
Jack Kershaw, who represented James Earl Ray as he fought to overturn his conviction in the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., arguing that Ray was an innocent participant in a conspiracy led by a mysterious figure named Raul, died Sept. 7. in Nashville. He was 96.
His death was announced by the League of the South, an organization Mr. Kershaw helped found that tries to keep the spirit of the Confederacy alive.
Mr. Kershaw, who was also a sculptor, was best known in his hometown for creating a 27-foot equestrian statue of the Confederate general Nathan Bedford Forrest, a founder of the Ku Klux Klan. Unveiled in 1998, it was erected in a private park along Interstate 65.
The monument, offensive to many, drew criticism, but Mr. Kershaw did not shy from offending. “Somebody needs to say a good word for slavery,” he once told The Times-Picayune of New Orleans.
Mr. Kershaw’s principal brush with history came in representing Ray in 1977 in the killing of Dr. King in Memphis in 1968. On the advice of another lawyer, Percy Foreman, Ray had pleaded guilty in a Tennessee state court to being Dr. King’s sole murderer. If he had been convicted at trial, he would have received an automatic death sentence. Instead, he was sentenced to 99 years in prison.
Ray, a career petty criminal, soon argued that he had been coerced into pleading guilty. Without specifics, he blamed a man he identified only as Raul, whom he said he had met in Montreal. Ray denied shooting Dr. King but said murkily that he might have been “partially responsible without knowing it.”
Mr. Kershaw pushed this vague conspiracy claim. He accompanied Ray to interviews with investigators from the House of Representatives’ Select Committee on Assassinations, which was looking again at the killings of Dr. King and President John F. Kennedy. Mr. Kershaw persuaded the committee to conduct further ballistics tests on the rifle and the bullet that killed Dr. King. The tests were said to be inconclusive.
Mr. Kershaw told the panel in May 1977 that on the day of Dr. King’s killing, April 4, 1968, Ray was working for Raul, and that Raul had told him to go out to a movie that afternoon. (Dr. King was shot shortly after 6 p.m. as he stood on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel.) Instead, he said, Ray went to have a spare tire fixed. The lawyer could not produce a witness.
An article in The New York Times the next month repeated Mr. Kershaw’s contention that Ray was guilty only of having “bought a gun for what he thought was a gun-smuggling operation.”
In June 1977, Ray and five other inmates escaped from a Tennessee high-security penitentiary, only to be caught days later. Mr. Kershaw argued that the escape required help from outsiders and that this was further evidence of a conspiracy.
But Ray grew disenchanted with Mr. Kershaw after he persuaded Ray to be interviewed by Playboy magazine and submit to a lie-detector test for the article. The results indicated that Ray was lying when he said he did not kill Dr. King and that he was telling the truth when he denied he was part of a conspiracy. Playboy said the results proved “that Ray did, in fact, kill Martin Luther King Jr. and that he did so alone.”
The last straw came when Ray learned that Mr. Kershaw had accepted $11,000 from Playboy. He fired Mr. Kershaw and replaced him with Mark Lane, a lawyer, author and conspiracy theorist.
John Karl Kershaw was born in Missouri on Oct. 12, 1913, and moved to Old Hickory, Tenn., as a child. He attended Vanderbilt, where he played football and graduated with a geology degree; became a building contractor; and earned his law degree at the Nashville Y.M.C.A. Night Law School.
Mr. Kershaw left no immediate survivors. His wife, the former Mary Noel, died in 1989.
REVEL'S DISCLAIMER -
Jack Kershaw was never a member of the KKK. I am not now nor have ever been a member of KKK. I have fought for truth and justice in the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and President John F. Kennedy most of my life. Sometimes the press will be used to tarnish a person's reputation because of their political power or their stand on truth and justice.
African American families lived on property Jack and Mary Kershaw owned in Tennessee for many years. He often bought food for them when they would lose their jobs or need help. They would eat dinner with him and his wife, and me, occasionally in his house in Nashville, Tennessee. I was born in Lower Alabama and I know racist people and I knew people, when I was young, who were in the KKK and I assure you Jack Kershaw had none of the characteristics or qualities of any person who would have been a member of the KKK. His life was about truth, justice, beauty and helping out the less fortunate. He has been misquoted in the press and some writings that have been, and that may be in the future, attributed to him in the future are completely false.
Jack Kershaw also sculpted Joan of Arc. It is a magnificent statue over 20 foot tall and is a tribute to the good she did.
General Nathan Bedford Forrest formed a group to help the homeless freed slaves and others who had lost everything during the Revolutionary War. That group became the KKK but what it became was not what he had originally intended. He tried to disband the entire thing when he saw the direction more violent and hate filled men were taking it. The KKK we know of today is not the KKK he was part of originally.
Jack and his peers have done much to benefit society as a whole. To learn more about him and my work on the MLK assassination case you could go to my wordpress blog, http://garyrevel.wordpress.com/ or you could pick up my MLK Assassination Investigation news feed at http://www.garyrevel.com/news2.xml
Also there is an article telling more about his association with 'The Fugitive Poets' and their contributions to the advancement of civilization at http://www.garyrevel.com/news/jack_kershaw.html .
When we read history we must remember it is written by people, many of whom have an agenda to cause others to believe a lie. Don't believe everything you read but seek wisdom in all things and live daily to be the best you can be and to help your fellow human beings be the best they can be.
Should you have any questions please let me know.
Signed: Gary Revel [email protected] 254 698-3450