Local investigator uncovered evidence in MLK assassination
Story By: Andy Koen
Source: KOAA
Published Thu Apr 03, 2008, 07:09 AM MDT
Updated Thu Apr 03, 2008, 07:51 AM MDT
Forty years ago Friday, televisions across the country broadcast the news of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. On that day, John Billings was a college student in Memphis working at Saint Joseph's Hospital where Dr. King died.
Like many Americans, Billings long believed that King was killed by James Earl Ray, an escaped convict who'd confessed to the shooting. However, later in life, Billings' opinion of the case changed dramatically.
Nearly 20 years after the shooting, Billings was working as a private investigator in Memphis when he was hired by British attorney William Pepper to investigate Ray's case for a mock trial. Ray was never given a criminal trial because of his guilty plea, despite making multiple requests to have that plea revoked. Pepper wanted to use the mock trial to uncover evidence in the shooting that might force an actual trial.
"Kenny and I got the money to do the first real investigation that's ever been done to James Earl Ray," Billings said.
In the course of their investigation, Billings uncovered evidence that suggested Ray played a much smaller role in the assassination than first thought. When the mock trial took place, Ray was acquitted. The trial was well documented and broadcast by HBO. As a result, speculation of a government conspiracy in the assassination became widespread.
"Our whole goal was to someday have a new trial, a real trial, to bring all this out, and of course the state of Tennessee and our government wasn't about to have that," Billings said.
Ray died in prison in 1998 while serving a 99 year sentence. He never received a criminal trial. The following year, the King family won a wrongful death suit against "Loyd Jowers and Other Unknown Co-conspirators" for the 1968 assassination. William Pepper represented the King family and used evidence uncovered by Billings in the case.
In June of 2000, the US Justice Department released “Investigation of Recent Allegations Regarding the Assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Again Billings’ evidence is cited.
Billings currently works as a private investigator in Colorado Springs. He's recently been hired to work for the defense in a double homicide case in Pueblo.
