Reviews
"Melanson . . . has done an exhaustively thorough job on the still-mysterious King assassination. After following Melanson's meticulous pursuit of seemingly every lead in the case--including interviews with the men whose names were used as aliases for alleged killer James Earl Ray--there can be little doubt in the reader's mind that neither of the two official versions of what happened could have been the whole truth. The first was the ever-popular notion of the lone killer: Ray. The second, propounded by a clearly inept congressional investigation a decade after the 1969 shooting, was that an ill-defined racist conspiracy was behind the assassination. What seems unarguable is that Ray, a petty criminal, could not have killed King unaided. There are too many improbabilities--the source of his carefully chosen Canadian aliases, the identity of the "fat man" who brought him a "letter" in Toronto during his escape, the odd setup at the rooming house from which the shot was fired. It is Melanson's thesis that there was high-level intelligence involvement, probably by the CIA, which was violently alarmed by King's anti-Vietnam stance."- Publishers Weekly, "Melanson provides startling evidence that seems to implicate elements of the American intelligence community in the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Arguing persuasively that James Earl Ray could not have acted alone and that he did not act in concert with a group of white supremacists, the author amasses data indicating that Ray was the pawn of a sophisticated network of conspirators who condemned King as a dangerous radical and a Communist threat to national security. What also emerges is a painstakingly documented indictment of the original FBI investigation and the 1978 report of the House Select Committee on Assassinations. Another credible assassination theory sure to arouse widespread interest."- Reference Books Bulletin, "The assassination in April 1968 of Martin Luther King Jr. by James Earl Ray, a recent escapee from prison with limited financial resources and competence and no apparent political or racial convictions, inevitably raised questions of a conspiracy. Melanson disputes both the FBI's conclusion of a lone assassin and the findings of the Special House Committee on Assassinations that a right-wing St. Louis-based conspiracy might have supported Ray. Instead, Melanson, who has written extensively on political assassinations, suggests 'a much more sophisticated conspiracy executed by persons possessing the kind of expertise generally found within intelligence circles.' The author, however, provides no evidence to document either the direct or indirect involvement of intelligence officials. His thorough research into relevant, accessible primary sources, supplemented by interviews with many of the principals, at best raises questions about the contrasting conclusions cited above. Melanson's thoughtful criticisms and speculations, nonetheless, will be of interest to students of the King assassination and of political assassinations in general. Community college, undergraduate, and political libraries."- Choice, "This book is very intriguing, for we know that this is not all to the case. Melanson's writing shows the great amount of research and time put in, making this work another addition to the history of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. S.W.S." The West Coast Review of Books, "The assassination in April 1968 of Martin Luther King Jr. by James Earl Ray, a recent escapee from prison with limited financial resources and competence and no apparent political or racial convictions, inevitably raised questions of a conspiracy. Melanson disputes both the FBI's conclusion of a lone assassin and the findings of the Special House Committee on Assassinations that a right-wing St. Louis-based conspiracy might have supported Ray. Instead, Melanson, who has written extensively on political assassinations, suggests 'a much more sophisticated conspiracy executed by persons possessing the kind of expertise generally found within intelligence circles.' The author, however, provides no evidence to document either the direct or indirect involvement of intelligence officials. His thorough research into relevant, accessible primary sources, supplemented by interviews with many of the principals, at best raises questions about the contrasting conclusions cited above. Melanson's thoughtful criticisms and speculations, nonetheless, will be of interest to students of the King assassination and of political assassinations in general. Community college, undergraduate, and political libraries." Choice, "Melanson . . . has done an exhaustively thorough job on the still-mysterious King assassination. After following Melanson's meticulous pursuit of seemingly every lead in the case--including interviews with the men whose names were used as aliases for alleged killer James Earl Ray--there can be little doubt in the reader's mind that neither of the two official versions of what happened could have been the whole truth. The first was the ever-popular notion of the lone killer: Ray. The second, propounded by a clearly inept congressional investigation a decade after the 1969 shooting, was that an ill-defined racist conspiracy was behind the assassination. What seems unarguable is that Ray, a petty criminal, could not have killed King unaided. There are too many improbabilities--the source of his carefully chosen Canadian aliases, the identity of the "fat man" who brought him a "letter" in Toronto during his escape, the odd setup at the rooming house from which the shot was fired. It is Melanson's thesis that there was high-level intelligence involvement, probably by the CIA, which was violently alarmed by King's anti-Vietnam stance." Publishers Weekly, "This book is very intriguing, for we know that this is not all to the case. Melanson's writing shows the great amount of research and time put in, making this work another addition to the history of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. S.W.S."- The West Coast Review of Books, "Melanson provides startling evidence that seems to implicate elements of the American intelligence community in the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Arguing persuasively that James Earl Ray could not have acted alone and that he did not act in concert with a group of white supremacists, the author amasses data indicating that Ray was the pawn of a sophisticated network of conspirators who condemned King as a dangerous radical and a Communist threat to national security. What also emerges is a painstakingly documented indictment of the original FBI investigation and the 1978 report of the House Select Committee on Assassinations. Another credible assassination theory sure to arouse widespread interest." Reference Books Bulletin
