William F. Pepper will be speaking in Bethesda, Maryland and Washington, D.C. next week.  Please call the numbers listed to confirm before hitting the road!

• March 4th:  Barnes & Noble (4801 Bethesda Ave./Info 301-986-1761), Author Event, 7:30pm
• March 6th:  George Washington University (Info 202-277-7322), Author Event, 7pm
• March 7th:  Politics & Prose (Info 202-363-7663), Author Event, 7pm (click here for location directions)

William F. Pepper is a long-time friend of the King family.  He represented the family in a civil trial where conspiracy to assassinate Martin Luther King, Jr. was affirmed.  During the trial, the mainstream media dealt with the case with caution.  Once conspiracy was affirmed, coverage became all the more obscure and nearly non-existent.  His latest book, An Act of State:  The Execution of Martin Luther King, presents the most up to date evidence and perspective on the case.  The mainstream media has virtually ignored the book.  But CSPAN2's Book TV did tape his Jan. 28th San Diego appearance (see below for video).  

According to Pepper, King's plan to bring hundreds of thousands of people to camp in a long-term protest in the nation's capital was deeply troubling to our nation's military and select leaders.  With resources deployed in Vietnam, Pepper contends that Washington's power elite didn't feel there was sufficient military and national guard on hand in the event large-scale revolt erupted in Washington, D.C.  In Pepper's view, this proved to be the proverbial final straw.

The cheapest place to buy the book online is Buy.com (qualifies for free shipping in the U.S.)

Multimedia:

• CSPAN2 Book TV coverage:  click here (or mp3 of the audio track for download here since CSPAN2 archive is "live" only for a limited among of time;  if you need a stream version of the file, click here)
• KPFA (Pacifica) Morning Show Interview, Feb. 17, 2003 (streaming mp3) (download)
• KPFA (Pacifica) Morning Show Interview, Jan. 28, 2003 (streaming mp3) (download)
• Feb. 4, 2003 Modern Times Books appearance via TUC Radio
• Feb. 20, 2003 BlackOp Radio Interview (streaming mp3) (download)

Additional information:

• Verso published the book:  Verso description page
• Book Tour schedule
• Book Review by David T. Ratcliffe (with additional references)
• Mark Gabrish Conlan for Zenger's Newsmagazine
• Douglas Valentine in CounterPunch
• The closing arguments from the court trail, which Pepper considers to be a good summary of the case, are located on the King Center website:  click here.

"For a quarter of a century, Bill Pepper conducted an independent investigation of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.  He opened his files to our family, encouraged us to speak with the witnesses, and represented our family in the civil trial against the conspirators.  The jury affirmed his findings, providing our family with a long-sought sense of closure and peace, which had been denied by official disinformation and cover-ups.  Now the findings of his exhaustive investigation and additional revelations from the trial are presented in the pages of this important book.  We recommend it highly to everyone who seeks the trough about Dr. King's assassination." -- Coretta Scott King

William F. Pepper:

Len Osanic from Vancouver-based BlackOp Radio covered the William F. Pepper presentation at Western Washington University, Feb. 26, 2003.  Here's a picture of Mr. Pepper.  Others are located here.  I don't have the audio from the talk, but an interview with Pepper on BlackOp Radio is linked above.