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Veddern pointed at the coin I still held “I was actually hoping you could tell me”

She didn’t reply

I slipped the coin back into my pocket “Tell us what you know”

He shrugged “Are you asking if he was a spy for us? The FBI had inforressive Labor Moveress of Racial Equality, and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee That’s how a lot of inside information made its way to Hoover’s desk I can say that I’ve never seen any report thaton Bishop’s Pawn, outside of Valdez’s blackmail, has ever surfaced” He pointed at the backpack “Until noas involved with both congressional investigations into the King assassination I’nized expert on that event, so I would know”

“Provided you’re telling us the truth,” she said

My gaze swept the plaza and the border streets People moved everywhere, as did cars, trollies, and horse-drawn carriages, the clip-clop of their hooves on the pave Veddern was definitely not here alone, so I was trying to assess any threats while Coleen held his attention Veddern was trying hard to be the guy on the white horse, but I wasn’t ready, just yet, to play the trust gaiven the two men who loitered toward the far end of the plaza, near Government House Definitely not tourists

I decided to do a little diverging myself

What I’d read last night was fairly specific on the lead-up to the assassination, but not so nized expert, “Did the FBI help Ray escape Memphis?”

“Why do you ask such a thing?”

I reiterated what so, “Ray fired the shot, then fled the rooet in his car and leave town He was carrying the rifle, rolled inside a bedspread, out on the street and saw a couple of Memphis police cars For once in his life he panicked and ditched the bundle in an entryway What he didn’t knoas that someone was inside that store, so the rifle was found quickly and that sa It should have been an easy matter to catch hi? You can’t outrun the radio?”

“I knohat you’re getting at It’s part of the official assassination file”

We listened as he explained that less than ten , the Me, driven by a well-dressed white , reports placed the Mustang heading north out of the city Then, thirty-five an to be heard across local CB radio A 1966 Pontiac was apparently in hot pursuit of a fast-fleeing Mustang The voice broadcasting the report said the Mustang was being driven by theThe Memphis police tried to establish tay communication with the Pontiac, but the voice on the other end would not reply The chase see on the east side of Me a run for the Tennessee hill country The Memphis police dispatched cruisers Roadblocks were erected The highway patrol alerted

And then things turned even stranger

The Pontiac’s driver reported over the radio that the Mustang was shooting at him and that his windshield had been hit The police asked if the driver could see the Mustang’s license plate and, for the first ti that close

Then the transmissions ended

Nothing more was heard from the Pontiac

“Reports from the official assassination file quote intervieith people who listened to the exchange on CB radio They all said the voice was incredibly cal fired at hiuy illing to risk going after the Mustang, but not willing to tell the police who he was Then there was the S- noticed on his own CB radio that the signal strength never di vehicle The signal stayed constant Thatfrom a stationary source”

“But no one paid attention to those details,” I said “They were all caught up in the ht they had the killer”

“That’s right”

I began to connect the dots hat I’d read “COINTELPRO uys weren’t stupid On the one hand they engineered the killing On the other, they sat back and allowed the rest of the FBI to organize the largest manhunt in history to find Ray”

“Which was easy for them to do,” Veddern said “Within the bureau only Oliver, Jansen, Lael, and Hoover knew about Bishop’s Pawn, and probably only Oliver and Hoover knew it all There have been countless investigations into King’s death Lots of innuendo Speculation Guesses But nothing has ever pointed to the FBI They did kno to keep a secret back then Hoover publicly proclai’s killer That was the reputation he’d forged for his bureau It’s what the public expected fro before the FBI ever closed in My God, he was on the run for two months But when you pick an idiot for a job, you have to expect idiocy, and that’s what they got”

“But why plead guilty?” I asked “Why didn’t Ray just rat them out?”

“Nobody knows He had a great defense for trial No discerniblehouse No prints found in the car he was driving No ballistics report that established the rifle was the murder weapon Even worse, an FBI accuracy test on the rifle showed it consistently fired both left and below the intended target Ray was not a uns The only eyewitness to place him at the scene was blind drunk at the time, and never made a positive ID until years later It was a defense lawyer’s dream”

Veddern pointed another finger my way

“Once the FBI publicly identified Ray as the killer, which was about teeks after the assassination, Hoover made sure the bureau focused on Ray, and Ray alone I’ve read every directive issued at that time The field offices were ordered to stay on Ray No conspiracy was ever investigated”

I knew soht before his trial, as sent to hie Wallace was elected president, he’d be pardoned Ray was a strong Wallace supporter and believed theuilty”

I could see that was news to him

“That actually makes sense,” Veddern said

“Three days later,” I continued, “his narcissistic personality took over and he recanted He realized that he was the man of the hour Everyone wanted to hear what he had to say So he talked And talked And talked So much that no one, other than conspiratorialists out to make a name for themselves, ever listened to him He became the perfect smoke screen”

“Yes he did,” Veddern said “In the decades since, the ationists, the Klan, coovernment, and the Memphis police have all been iering, though, that those files you have from Valdez are an entirely different matter”

His tone had grownwas ending His words were driving toward a point