Former FBI agent claims bureau played a role in shooting plot
On April 11, 1968, 25-year-old FBI agent Don Wilson was getting irritated at the hesitation of his fellow agent and a police officer to examine the abandoned white Ford Mustang parked in front of the Capital Homes housing projects in Atlanta.
The car belonged to James Earl Ray, wanted for shooting Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. in Memphis on April 4.
The officers went back and forth as Wilson, who noticed that the passenger side door was ajar, nudged it open.
What fell out would forever change his opinion of who shot Martin Luther King, Jr.
“Instant panic engulfed me, and I thought, ‘Well, I’ve compromised the crime scene of the investigation of the killing of Martin Luther King,'” Wilson said.
What Wilson had stumbled upon was an envelope containing several documents written by Ray that he would later learn added many links and players into the FBI’s investigation of the murder. Among those the documents connected were a mystery man known as “Raul” and the FBI itself.
Wilson’s 2013 book “Evidence Withheld” details the events of that day along with the aftermath. It also explains why Wilson was suspicious of the FBI even before King was killed.
The road to the book’s publication was a difficult one for Wilson. He decided to seriously pursue writing it about two and a half years ago, after a health scare provided some motivation.
“My thoughts centered on this [book] for some unknown reason,” he said.
After early interest was shown from publishers, including Penguin, Random House, the fervor waned. One by one, publishers backed out of their talks with Wilson, who said that one publisher cited “government concerns” as their reason.
Upset but not surprised by this, Wilson self-published “Evidence Withheld,” giving him the control to tell his story in his own words.
“Hundreds of books have been written about the assassination; this book…is the only book that I’m aware of that is actually presented with quote unquote hard physical evidence or tangible things written by people responsible for the murder of King,” Wilson said.
The mess of speculation surrounding King is part of the reason Wilson ultimately decided not to testify during the 1999 civil case to consider the possibility of a King assassination conspiracy.
At first, Wilson said he was moved hearing King’s Wife, Coretta Scott King, ask for a trial for Ray on TV. He knew the envelope he found decades ago was just the evidence she needed.
“I felt like she was talking directly to me because I knew that I had the necessary evidence to secure a trial and all that had to be done was to have it be laboratory tested,” Wilson said.
Talks followed between Wilson and Ray’s attorney, William Pepper, and King’s son, Dexter King. In his book, Wilson describes preparation for the trial as a series of setbacks and delays.
It ended in a civil case that allowed for – in Wilson’s opinion – untrustworthy witnesses and weak evidence. He decided to avoid the proceedings.
“I just didn’t want to be associated with what I knew was something that was without value whatsoever,” he said.
“Evidence Withheld” documents many events in between the assassination and civil case and background on Wilson’s experiences as a young agent. He portrays the FBI then as an organization with a racist agenda permeated with a culture of fear by its first director, J. Edgar Hoover.
Wilson said his goal is to shatter the idea that King was killed by a rogue gunman, something he said is already a shaky premise to many.
“In every survey that I’ve ever seen or read, the overwhelming majority of Americans don’t for a minute believe that theory,” he said.
Wilson hopes readers come away at least considering the possibility that the FBI and CIA, along with help from at least one member of King’s camp, conspired to kill the civil rights leader.
Another misconception Wilson wants to correct is that the FBI targeted King because of his civil rights agenda. Instead, he believes it was King’s speaking out on economics and against the Vietnam War that drew the FBI’s attention.
“Anyone that was influential even then and today that tinkers with the class structure economically or the society may find themselves confronted with a problem,” Wilson said.
Reflecting on the 50th anniversary of King’s “I Have a Dream” speech this August, Wilson said he believes racial equality could have advanced much further had King been alive today.
“I think absolutely because his posture really followed that of Gandhi and that was protest by nonviolence and change by nonviolence,” he said.
Wilson has finished “Evidence Withheld II,” which contains more information on the King assassination, and hopes to have it published by January 2014.
He is also working on publishing a series of novels, the first two of which are titled “Seduction by Deceit” and “Seduction by Death.” They center on a soldier of fortune working in security for an oil company.
Evidence Withheld
Book is available online at amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com
