Open the Files on King Killing

James Earl Ray has gone to his grave apparently without telling all he knew about what happened in Memphis on April 4, 1968. Ray confessed to murdering Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. but later recanted and never got the trial he sought. His death on Thursday does not dispel the ghosts that haunt the case.

Tossing aside some of the more far-fetched conspiracy theories, questions remain: Reports that confidential informants tipped the FBI to a conspiracy before the assassination have never been put to rest. After the murder, did someone help Ray--a prison escapee, penny-ante criminal and drifter--get to Toronto, Portugal and eventually to London, where he was arrested for a bank robbery in June of 1968?

These questions might have been answered by the Memphis police or a federal investigation; they might have been resolved by the U.S. Committee on Assassinations 10 years after King’s death. They were not.

The federal committee concluded Ray was the killer but that he might have received help from others. The records of that investigation have been sealed by Congress until the year 2029, ostensibly to protect the innocent from possible defamation. But is there no way to protect them while also giving Americans the facts they deserve to know? This slaying was not only a crime but a key event in the civil rights movement and American history. Why wait so long? The secrecy only compounds speculation.

Disclosing the contents of the key government records on King and the assassination would require an act of Congress. Some privacy issues would have to be addressed, but the sealed documents surely hold answers--and lessons--for America and for history. They should be divulged.