As I have written here previously, we visited the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis back in 1999. The museum is housed within the former Lorraine Motel, where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was gunned down 41 years ago tomorrow evening.
This morning, I heard on the news that LIFE magazine has posted a gallery of never-before-published photos by Henry Groskinsky titled “The Night MLK Was Murdered: A Photographer’s Story” on their website.
This, in turn, got me thinking once again about one of the most haunting stories I have ever heard anywhere.
Martin Luther King’s last days
In 1993, NPR anchor Liane Hansen traveled to Memphis and the museum, and she spoke with the Rev. Samuel “Billy” Kyles, at whose home Dr. King had planned to eat dinner that evening.
Rev. Kyles’ vivid and moving recollection of that April 4th absolutely devastated me, and I ordered a CD copy of the segment from NPR which I still own. Unfortunately, NPR no longer provides an online audio file of that piece.
Rev. Kyles and Rev. Jackson were the only ones in King’s entourage not wearing neckties on 4/4/’68, which later added to suspicions about them when a military sharp shooter said in his deposition they had orders not to shoot anyone who was not wearing a tie. His testimony did not match other sworn testimony in several instances, and for some reason he blurted out in court the words “I moved away so he could have a clear shot.” “Oh that’s not what he meant,” his defenders say… But he said it. The entire story is told in “An Act of State,” by William Pepper. James Earl Ray did not kill Rev. King. A conspiracy of federal and local officials schemed and worked with Mafia personnel to do the dirty deed and cover it up by framing Ray.