Larry Hancock

John, some very interesting links - anyone doing serious reading on this subject will find that Birdsong and his Highway Patrol units were actually functioning more as a state Army than anything else, they could be brought in essentially as a special action force independent of local law enforcement and in several instances were used in just that way. I imagine it is surprising for many readers today to find a highway patrol force being used as they were.....and Birdsong did indeed act much more like a military commander. Apart from essentially paramilitary deployment of the highway patrol, the following from one of your links is even more surprising: "An example: Some collegians and two of their teachers got off a bus on July 5, 1961, in the semitropical antebellum river town of Natchez, which is in the southwestern corner of Mississippi, sitting on great bluffs, at a bend in the river. Billy had been sheriff of Adams County a year and a half then. The students and their two faculty chaperones were from Adelphi College in New York, and they were traveling on an interstate carrier out of New Orleans. From nearly the moment they stepped into the Trailways bus terminal at 5 p.m., they were watched. Even though Natchez was a tourist town, famous for its plantation "pilgrimages," site of the South's oldest slave-owning cotton aristocracy, they would have been watched: They were suspiciously young, traveling in a group, northern accents. But even more so in this case, since right away they'd begun asking impertinent questions about the terminal's segregated waiting rooms. That evening, Sheriff Billy Ferrell sent a Teletype under his special teletypewriter number, NTZ-44. He sent it to General T. B. Birdsong, commander of the Mississippi Highway Patrol (he used to be a colonel, but now he was a general), and also to the director of the Mississippi State Sovereignty Commission, which was a state-sponsored and tax-supported agency whose charter was to spy on the civil rights movement. The Sov-Com was based in Jackson, the capital city, two and a half hours away. this afternoon on a bus from new orleans la seven white males and females combined entered this city and county. . . . these subjects have been constantly under surveillance since their arrival by officers this department. they have mailed two letters since their arrival. It was clear from the wire and from typed reports written in subsequent days by investigators of the Sov-Com that the desk clerk at the Eola Hotel had listened in on the group's phone calls and had reported to the sheriff. It was clear the postmaster was in on it, and so, too, the editor of the local newspaper, with whom the travelers naively thought they might arrange an appointment. subjects told desk clerk at local hotel that they was exchange students touring the country to find out all local customs prior to their shipment to overseas countries, the wire said. The authorities in Jackson wired back to Billy: ok will advise all consern. The collegians and their teachers left town on a bus the next morning. They were headed toward Little Rock, Arkansas, via Vicksburg, Mississippi. It was known they intended to stay at either the Albert Pike or the Marion Hotel in Little Rock. The constabularies up there would be alerted that a Barbara Wexler (w/f, address 14 grange lane, levittown, new york) and a Gail Yenkinson (w/fm, same add) and an Emilio Rivera (same add and supposed to be a proffessor at this college), along with the others, were on their nosy way." Stu and I ran across highway patrol intelligence activities all over the place - and the extent to which they had networked not only local law enforcement but others as described in the above excerpt is frightening. We live in a time when there is a lot of fear of federal intelligence collection but I can tell you that state and even local community intelligence networks can be equally invasive and when they do it there is nobody to turn to and absolutely no oversight. As a further example, one related to Memphis, in AGOG we explore an incident where a Mississippi Democratic Freedom party meeting was penetrated by intelligence informants from the Highway Patrol, the FBI, and from a Congressional committee. It became clear that the highway patrol had informants in a number of black political organizations (but didn't care about the Klan), that could be said for the Congressional committee as well. What could be said at least was that the FBI had informants in both the black groups and the Klan. And of those three groups, it was the Congressional committee head who again and again proved to be putting a massive, sensational spin on the informant information - in some cases far worse than Director Hoover, whose agents had to investigate and deconstruct the Congressional statements. When you have that sort of thing going on it shows you are really in big trouble. -- Larry

John, we do include an appendix in AGOG where we write about the military intelligence context at some length, especially about the role of the 114th MIG group. That stuff was quite mysterious for a long time but there have been some very good historical studies about the growth of the domestic mil intel program, not only in response to antiwar activities but also given the tasking of the military in response to the major urban riots and protests starting in the middle of the decade. Like the FBI domestic programs, its strong stuff - and having lived through it, I can say virtually nobody had the least comprehension of the weight of resources that were brought into play. As to Dulles, its fascinating but as I recall, actually RFK requested that he do some survey work in the south in regard to the civil rights situation and he did prepare a report. Quite amazing that RFK would call on him, at least to me. On a side note, in regard to the FBI, the FBI eventually generated an actual report for the State of Mississippi showing how many state and local law enforcement officers were active Klan members....a very long and scary list. As to Birdsong, the name is familiar but I can't bring up any recollection of what happened with him eventually. -- Larry

Greg, I have gone though one batch of 112rh files and as you are likely aware Col Jones (who was actually not the operations officer for the 112th but rather G2, a position calling for lots of report reading) stated when interviewed that his message of November 22 relating Oswald to the Hidell name was based in 112th Oswald file documents which had been received from the its Regional office in New Orleans. The file included material from Oswald's leafleting at the WASP as well as local agent reports. I'm going to check my Lancer CD on the 112th to see if those documents are included there, they are not in my paper files - but I sent all the major documents to Lancer for production onto the CD. It seems to me that Col. Jones based his communications of Nov. 22 simply on seeing both names in the Oswald file. Now comes the embarrassing part, I have a distinct memory of seeing at least one memo from New Orleans where there is speculation as to whether or not Oswald and Hidell might be one and the same person, basically as a ploy (perhaps not strictly an alias). When I read it I recall thinking that somebody in NO was on the money, although it was more speculation than a firm conclusion. Unfortunately that's only a memory, its not something I wrote about and hence nothing I would have filed away in paper, simply a memory. Possibly some of the NO specialists like Jim or Joan might recall it - or perhaps its just a faulty memory of mine. So, I won't actually dish up the crow for myself quite yet, but I'm getting the ketchup ready... Larry

Ian, I've got a bunch of documents from the 112rh including everything we could find related to weapons thefts and investigations plus the various spot reports and materials from Nov. 22. As far as Oswald, his file with them started in their New Orleans office when one of their agents picked up a brochure from Oswald's leafleting near a Navy ship. Their file included certain NO FBI office memos including ones speculating on Hidell and Oswald, and Hidell being an alias. That's what seems to have triggered their communication on Oswald to Dallas. PD. From what I've learned over time in regard to how secret the FBI keeps its informant files, I very much doubt that the 112th would have been informed if Oswald had been supplying info or even if he was being monitored as a dangle. The Bureau is very good at keeping informant files separated from "personality" files and they have multiple tiers of informant, prospective informant, etc classifications so that they can skirt the issue if asked by other agencies. Again, I would suspect that normal office files in Dallas or NO or the file that was sent Hosty would have nothing about Oswald as any class of source or informant, that would be secured in the separate counter intelligence, subversive, informant files which were compartmentalized even within the offices - which of course is exactly where the Oswald file in NO was described as found when Oswald requested an FBI agent come meet him after his arrest. -- Larry

John, as to your first question, AGOG is the result of Stu and I revisiting the MLK assassination - it begins with our inquiry into a host of documents, many not collected into the MURKIN headquarters file, about a series of plots and planned attacks against Dr. King. It goes on to examine the people and network behind that and the possibility that elements of it were connected to the murder in Memphis. You can see the details at the book web site: http://www.theawfulgraceofgod.com/ We do explore the broader scope of Cointelpro in the book although its certainly not the focus; we also detail the dramatic escalation of domestic military intelligence activities during the period as well as CHAOS. I would certainly agree that Cointelpro White Hate was only a part of the picture and not nearly as pervasive as the complex of government activities spanning the gamut from white hate through black hate to the anti war movement. There are some very good books on the subject, but I doubt a great many people have read them - one of the most revealing for me was James Davis's Spying on America / The FBI's Domestic Intelligence Program. As to Dulles's role, the answer would be not that much, on the other hand I've taken more of a look at Angleton's role and covered some of that in Nexus; of course at times it gets really hard to separate Angleton's official role from all his vest pocket agenda's and activities. -- Larry

Ian, there was a meeting about gun running on the morning of Nov 22 and Ellsworth was invited, Army intelligence and the DPD were all over the Terrell armory theft, Masen's involvement, the Fort Hood connection etc. Its very probable that Ruby was acting as a middleman in the armory theft and its also possible that looking for weapons trade going to the Cuban exile shoppers in Dallas was on Oswald's watch list. Fortunately we now have documents and research by some diligent folks on all this. Ellesworth was working one end via Masen and had no idea that the 112th was all over it based on informant information on Cuban exile gun prospecting in Dallas... If you happen to have SWHT check out chapters 11 and 12 for details. Chapter 11 sort of gives the gist of it with a Ruby quote - "Cuba, the guns, New Orleans, everything!". It was all very much on Jack's mind. -- Larry

John, as to the "fully rooted out", that was indeed an overstatement but I would say the details of the MIBIURN files I've seen and especially other details of the extensive informant files developed by the MIBURN initiative do identify a great number of members of the network involved in those crimes- although only a portion of them were successfully prosecuted. But the tremendous escalation in number of informants certainly did handicap them. In AGOG we note information about secret burial sites Alabama and Mississippi and networks of people like parts truck drivers who shuffled weapons and explosives around a mufti-state area while doing their "day jobs".. I certainly don't want to make it sound like a total success as even some of the White Knight inner circle members stayed operational to a certain extent but Bowers successor was nothing like Bowers and the organization as a whole was never the same again. Which of course doesn't mean that their beliefs changed or their cause went away - after some of the key Swift people founded Aryan Nations - and it goes on and on...

And I need to point out that Dan was very likely into this topic long before Stu and I arrived to study it in the context of the plots against MLK. As a side note to this article, its worth noting that the intensive Mississippi Burning FBI initiative i(an initiative Hoover was literally forced into by the President) was effective and eventually did fully root out the people behind the Neshoba country murders and neutered much of the network behind them. However, another brutal murder of a black military officer in Georgia was never solved nor was the network there "busted". The effectiveness of the full court FBI press in Mississippi testifies to a huge amount of manpower and effort, including some local law enforcement who jumped in after they themselves were targeted for murder by the White Knights. I'd recommend Don Whitehead's Attack on Terror for anyone who would really like to study the subject. -- Larry

Tommy, Oswald was being used as an intelligence dangle by both CIA and FBI, he was dangled in front of many types of people in New Orleans, in Mexico City and in Dallas....that included a variety of folks on both sides of the Cuban scene - anti Castro folks and pro Castro double agents. There is evidence of him providing information directly to the FBI and other indications that he was being monitored at more of a distance and in a very compartmentalized fashion by CIA officers. Eventually, in Dallas, he continued to be dangled in front of the same types of folks and in that role was a perfect, unwitting, patsy, since he had no real mission other than to maintain those sorts of contacts - observation and monitoring was left to the pros. He was quite literally hijacked by the conspiracy. He was also impersonated as part of the set up - if you look closely you find per-assassination appearances at a number of locations up and down Main street as well as out by the Trade Mart. If he had not been at the TSBD, he could have been set up elsewhere. Of course this is the sort of question that's impossible to deal with in any detail on forums - but since you asked - Oswald was there because it was convenient to his role - and once he was there, the set up went into play - check the Yates impersonation story for one of the more significant part of the set up, putting him outside the TSBD with a rilfe length package and making remarks about the Carousel Cub and the possibility of someone shooting JFK when he comes to Dallas. I'd also like to add a couple of comments that I really think are worth considering - it seems to me that we sometimes equate a good plan with tight, long range planning - when actually good operational plans evolve and allow for flexibility. And it's also tempting to look at what happened in an event and assume that it was all part of the plan - in reality, we can only know part of what happened and we have no way of knowing the total plan. I know that's probably not going to prevent anyone from driving themselves nuts trying to dope out the finite tactical details of the Dallas operation, but at least I tried... -- Larry

Thanks Anthony, actually that's even more frustrating - since Caro is obviously aware of Burris then he certainly should have come across the mystery of that last minute flight to Dallas. Burris' explanation implies a major policy issue between JFK and Johnson about to erupt over a clash on international affairs. If that were true it should have been very significant to Caro....if not....well the trip still should have been very significant to Caro.... Actually there are a number of memos from Burris to Johnson on international affairs available for the period, which would have been grist for Johnson's international policy stance, then there is the whole backchannel thing on Johnson's trip to Vietnam where he massively undercut JFK - against direct orders. I was a big fan of Caro's early work specifically because he was willing to dig deep - looks to me like he may have missed some real opportunities when he got this far...

Good suggestions Len, actually Stu has just visited several Congresspeople this week and will be active in DC this summer on several fronts. On the King family, that gets much more complex. First off, we are told that generally the family opposes release of the HSCA records due to the information collected by Hoover on Dr. King, material that was specifically collected and packaged to destroy not only his effectiveness but his reputation and relationship with his family....that would be in the King FBI personality files. Our response to that is that the HSCA files are categorized and what we need are investigative files, informant files, suspect files - materially having nothing to do with Dr King per se. Those categories could be pulled and released without dipping into the files relating directly to Dr King himself. Of course their are other issues including the legal representatives of the King family and where they may stand with advice on the issue. There is another element in play though and that would be the support of the family in backing a Justice move to re-invigorate the civil rights cold case effort by adding Dr. King to the list of such cases - his murder is not on it now as it is officially considered as solved with Ray's confession to the Memphis court and his sentencing. Given that time and resources are running out on the cold case initiative, this would be a major service by the family to all those other families who still have not reached closure on the crimes of the period. So to answer your question, we are pursuing both avenues, but the second is particular difficult because we ourselves have no particular access to the King family and that's making it very difficult to even register or proposals or deal with their concerns. We're on it though....its just particularly challenging for us... and that's probably all I better say about this subject at present.

The HSCA interviews and files are being held by the House; they could actually be released in full or in part by action of the Clerk of the House. What that takes is not exactly clear. Certainly a resolution or probably even a motion would do it. Its even possible a caucus group or individual house member could request release. The "personality" files we need on certain of the individuals should be at FBI HQ but cannot be released until the person dies or without there permission, which is not happening so no quick answer there. Field office files on several of the individuals would be invaluable but the responses to our request are that a good number of them have been destroyed based on standard destruction schedules. Others are still in the FOIA queue...some of our FBI requests are still one to three years out according to the notices we have been given. The quick solution would be to get Justice to declare the King murder a civil rights cold case and for them to call up the files and follow out some of the leads we suggest in the book. We are working on that but obviously our leverage as two private individuals is ....well lets just say its an up hill battle. In any event, we have a load of FOIA requests still in the queue and we won't even know how all those turn out for a couple of years...fortunately Stu is a lot younger than I am....

Also, responding to Jim on another thread made me recall some lines from the book I mentioned on Iran. In The Eagle and the Lion, James Bill makes the following remarks: "Johnson basked in the spotlight of power and was always impressed by those who maintained power monopolies in their own lands. The more power, pomp, and circumstance, the more impressed Johnson was. The shah of Iran, therefore, was an extremely attractive and important figure to Johnson...the shah was an ally...a tough one at that... ...."toughness" was important to LBJ , whose foreign policy rested ultimately on a ""mythical Alamo Syndrome" that guided America's actions in places like the Dominican Republic and Vietnam" Earlier Bill has stated that JFK considered the shah a corrupt and petty tyrant and considered attempting to force his abdication...his descriptions of JFK and RFK's views on the shah are diametrically opposed to Johnson's views and illustrate the differences between the two administrations cleanly. Those remarks about pomp, power and the Alamo syndrome seem so right on to me, and such a clear distinction between JFK and Johnson that I wonder if Caro captures the spirit of Bill's observations in discussing or comparing the two men and the two administrations?

I'm curious as to whether or not the book mentioned Howard Burris' association with LBJ or his role as Johnson's aide circa 1963? Beyond that, if Caro was unaware of or does not mention the rather mysterious last minute flight down to Texas by Burris at the time of the assassination, it suggests that Caro wasn't really digging....if he does and has a good explanation I'll be excited to hear it. Burris' own explanation would have suggested a high level international affairs confrontation between Johnson and JFK, at the ranch, something dramatic enough so Burris remarks should have hit Caro's radar. -- Larry

Len, both Tarrants and Ainsworth were considered outsiders to a certain extent, that was their real value. Part of the pattern by that time was to use such outsiders as most of the WK inner circle was under heavy FBI pressure and to some extent under surveillance. Tarrants and Ainsworth were described as "Swift's People". However, while there are certain incidents that would have made them suspicious of Tarrants as a potential informer, we find nothing like that for Ainsworth and when you get into the details of the attack you find she was a last minute substitution. Probably collateral damage but certainly none of the guys in the know aborted it to save her either... As to the quote, I don't think either of us have a solid opinion although I personally don't think Nelson was a person to make something like that up out of whole cloth, especially when he did nothing with it but mention it.. Stu did talk to Nelson about it - and we were amazed he didn't follow up on that thread with more questions, but apparently that was just not the story Nelson was writing. Nelson was going down hard on the FBI and the sting - that was his total focus. It remains an open question for us. It's very possible that Tarrant's HSCA testimony might help clear it up or certain of his FBI files, unfortunately we can't get to either at present.

We do Len, actually both brothers remained in Mississippi and there is no indication that any action at all was taken against them by their fellows or that they were at any particular risk. It was known locally that Tarrants had been set up in the bombing and a call came into law enforcement from an informant actually signaling he was on his way to the residence being targeted. Not only the two brothers but other inner circle members who would have been potential inner circle members in a position to make such a call all remained locally in Mississippi, some remaining active and none under any apparent risk.

Len, not sure who you meant was off the mark, as I said earlier, at the time of the King assassination, the main field office that was investigating the bombings that Tarrants was engaged in (Jackson) definitely had not identified him as their primary suspect or even as the major terrorist figure in Mississippi that he was at the time. As a side note, the bombing in which he was almost killed and Kathy Ainsworth was, was also a set up and was being leaked to local law enforcement by White Knight informants - another possible sign that Tarrants himself was being suspected of being a risk to the group and may have been viewed that way even prior to the King assassination.. However you really have to get into the details of the Bureau's operational mode to understand why one office (Atlanta or Birmingham) might have him as a primary King suspect when another office (Jackson) would not. There is no way this sort of complexity can be dealt with on a forum so I'm afraid I would have to refer you to the book for that dialog. I'm happy to answer questions from readers either by email, on my blog or on forums but there is no way I would attempt to replicate the level of detail AGOG here....

Dan, I certainly have to plead guilty to absentmindedness but its also probably aggravated by the number of subjects I've wrestled with over the past few years, often at the same time. First there was JFK, and then JFK on multiple tracks from the actual assassination through the coverup to related subjects like national security. Then there was a whole book on Johnson which I decided to pass on and what remained ended up as a couple of essays posted on this forum. Then the RFK thing which again ended up in a series of essays on MFF....and which I am returning to now in an extended fashion even as Stu and I continue on MLK aftter AGOG. At the same time we were finishing AGOG I also did Nexus - on the CIA and political assassination and that took me in a host of other directions. And on each and every one of these I had help and assistance from a bunch of researchers, some who wanted to be named and some who most definitely did not. I try to keep it all straight because several of them help/helped on multiple subjects. But obviously I fail rather embarrassingly at times. All of which is no excuse per se but perhaps establishes a bit of context. Sometimes I can't remember my relatives names either. All of which is why I do write essays and books because I just can't operated reliably off the top of my head and need to get things down in writing. I hope this at least offers some explanation to you and others who I may sometimes seem to misremember or even totally forget; its not intentional, I'm sure it can be really annoying though. Sorry to see you go, in truth there seems to be very little MLK interest here and in other places. I'll just slog on though, its pretty much what I do. Your advice is appreciated but I'm afraid I'm already in deep in a variety of swamps. -- Larry

Len, your first question gets into one of the real mysteries we are still researching (our book is not a "we have all the answers" book, its more "hey, look at this stuff that didn't get really investigated, it deserves some serious attention - this should be considered an open case" book). At the time Tarrants was being seriously investigated as one of the first suspects he had officially not been identified as even a significant terrorist - we have have that directly from FBI officers involved in his eventual capture. In fact they are as puzzled by the question as we were. We suspect that the plotters, who appear to have begun to mistrust him as a possible FBI informant, may have set him up before the fact by leaking a report to one of the Bureau field offices that he had obtained a rifle in California and was going after King. Unfortunately the field office files in question have largely been destroyed, his central file is unavailable since he is still living and the HSCA files that might have been collected are still being retained until the clerk of the house orders them released. On your second question, we suspect the same group of people who after the assassination appear to have passed a second series of leaks through known FBI informants fingering Tarrants for being involved in the attack in Memphis. This set of leaks occurred shortly after Tarrants had been taken into custody, after Ray was in custody and at a time when none of the bad guys could have known what and how much either might disclose. If nothing else the leak would have poisoned anything that Tarrants might say and we know from other leaks that the bad guys were really concerned about that. -- sorry if that is a bit vague, its really a very complex story, Larry

The FBI showed a series of mug shots to the gun shop owner, all were local folks with the exception of Thomas Tarrants. When the FBI traced "Galt" to California, they went there also showing Tarrants photo trying to figure out if he was "Galt". We go into considerable detail in the book on this because it may well be that Tarrants was being set up easy as an alternative patsy or to divert the investigation. Unfortunately some of the files we need to resolve it are still not available and others appear to have been routinely destroyed. Its a long story and includes Tarrants possession of a 30.06, as documented in FBI reports. What is clear is that in the very earliest days following the murder, Tarrants was being investigated in multiple places as a primary suspect - although all the other information available shows that the FBI had not yet even identified him as a major terrorist with the White Knights of Mississippi, that would come later. Like I said, its a long story but the particular 30.06 in question is of great interest - especially because at least one source reports Tarrants saying that he obtained a gun to kill King in California....something that Tarrants now adamantly denies.

As far as I know both the rifles purchased in Birmingham were brand new weapons, direct from the mfg...have seen no sign of them coming though any channel rather than standard commercial distribution. On the other hand, there are other 30.06 weapons that could relate to Memphis that most definitely came through White Supremacist channels. The owner of one of those guns was actually one of the very first suspects shown by the FBI in the Birmingham store, well before Ray had been identified. We've also discussed the originally belted, military ammo which appears to have come from some source than the Birmingham store.

Dan, certainly that's embarrassing, especially since you are in the acknowledgements pages in the book. My only excuses are that a) as I turn 65 I have to admit that both my short term and long term memory does fail me, that's one reason I don't often post things off the top of my head on forums and the way you posed your comment truly made me that that perhaps you were a different person than we had the dialogs with on the book. Its quite possible that I'm not quick enough these days for such remarks, I suppose the good news is that both witticisms and sarcasm can slide right past without me noticing. This seems to be a poor day for good if uniformed intentions on my part... My sincere apologies for the failure in memory - certainly I had no evil intent, purely a mistake on my part. I'd much prefer you stayed around to discuss the subject given your obvious abilities. But if an apology doesn't do it, thanks again for all the help, the work on MLK is far from done; we had hoped to open things up more but at this point that's beginning to look about as difficult as expecting any form of compromise in the US Congress. -- again, my apologies, Larry

Dan, that's pretty much what The Awful Grace of God is all about - Stu and I spent a bit over 5 years on it (and still have about four years of FOIA's in process) - so if you do want to look into it that might give you a bit of a start. Actually there was some white supremacist activity in Canada and there were Canadians involved with the National States Rights Party, some traveling to Birmingham for mentoring and connections it appears. Stu probably has more information on the Canadian connections if you wanted to pursue that. I've probably said all I can think of to say on the rifle thread in terms of talking specifically about the rifle directly associated with Ray. There's a bunch more to say about 30.06 weapons in general - although at this point most of the MLK past discussion seems to immediately divert to the possibility of a shooter at another location. What is interesting is that it immediately goes off in two tracks ie.. Other scenarios include Ray's which has somebody else shooting from the rooming house and framing him and an alternative track that has Ray in the rooming house and someone shooting from a location close to it, leaving him holding the bag (hey, I just couldn't resist that one). There a lot of iterations of this mix, some books present all of them. I'm not sure it would be that productive to wade into all that here, but one issue that is pretty interesting and might be worth discussing is the fingerprint issue - which Professor Melanson really did good work on and which actually has some headroom to do more solid work by submitting existing prints (many of which were left unidentified - shades of the TSBD) to the FBI computerized matching system.

The basics certainly suggest to me that there was no well thought out plan to shoot from the Lorraine, it would have been no great problem to check out the layout of the building in advance and for that matter to get Ray in there days or a week before, probably with an actual room facing the Lorraine. To me it appears that Ray is coming in cold, with none of the advance planning he demonstrated in certain of his earlier crimes such as the store robberies. Even his purchase of binoculars only that afternoon suggests a lack of preparation. Perhaps his commandeering the bathroom was not that great a risk, stashing the gun under the tub...interesting idea but if so we still have the single loaded round issue? And he's still leaving fingerprints. If he had not taken a load of personal effects, including his radio, into the place, if he had worn gloves and then just left the rifle in the bathroom with them, he could have been out and gone no sweat. So....I'm still thinking what we see is Ray acting without much forethought and little plan other than hauling stuff into the place for an overnight or longer stay, taking in the rifle and ammo and then taking over the bathroom after that....with no real idea of how long he is going to be in there....now that might be OK for some binocular surveillance, for one thing to see if he can identify Dr. King at that distance. I can see ducking out to get the gun and loading one round after the first appearance on the balcony. Still not sure I see him staying in there with one round in a weapon even if he could stash it under the tub and just taking the chance that nobody takes note when they come in and take a seat facing the tub. All in all, still doesn't sound like any sort of real plan for assassinating a major public figure - I've seen pick up ball games with more structure.

I think Daniel's point about the bathroom is a good one. Ray truly was a pretty cautious type and waiting in a bathroom with a rifle and the door locked for an hour or more.....in the common bathroom for a full rooming house...would make him the focus of some attention. The alternative would be a plan which has him locate himself in the bathroom and figure that when he sees Dr. King he will run next door for the rifle....but by that time there might be a line of unhappy folks outside the bathroom door. Just doesn't sound like a real plan. ........on a side note, that long wait in the bathroom seems to argue against any structured time table for the shooting. A compromise might be that Ray was simply observing the motel, with or without binoculars - up to the point where he saw Dr King just standing still on the balcony and talking...and then deciding to take the shot. Seems to me the fact that the shot was made on Dr. King's second appearance argues for that. On Len's point about the gun purchase, our view is that Ray was "loosely coupled" to the real plotters and made his own decision on the first gun, only to check in and be told something different. It's even possible that Ray wa given a gun type but to save money went for something cheaper (he had looked at 30.06 weapons earlier) and then was told in no uncertain terms what type of gun he had to have. I am open to the fact that Ray initially reacted after the shooting and thought taking the gun and his stuff was a good idea but changed his mind by the time he hit the street.....but again, that supports the "spontaneous" scenario rather than something well planned (or even not very well planned). Our problem with all this, to be repetitive, is that we cannot know what the real "plan" was vs. what actually seems to have happened.