Nation IN BRIEF : TENNESSEE : Ray’s Attorneys File Affidavit on Slaying

Betty Spates, a former Memphis restaurant worker, has implicated a man other than James Earl Ray in the 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. The affidavit filed in Nashville, Tenn., by Ray’s attorneys implicates Loyd Jowers, who has already told a national television audience that Ray wasn’t the assassin. Spates formerly worked at Jowers’ Memphis restaurant, Jim’s Grill. “Based on everything I know, James Earl Ray was not the person who shot Dr. King,” Spates said in the affidavit. “Other persons have tried to get me to change my story, saying that if I did so I would benefit financially. I have refused to do so, and will continue to refuse.”