*THE RAY/KING RIFLE ©:Joe Brown

(5/2/18)

*RESPONSE: MLK Questions:

10/6/2013

(Note: Officer Ed Reddick)

The following is restricted with permission to use granted 2018 to the intended recipients only for purposes of 'Academic Research'. ALL Intellectual Property Rights and Copyrights otherwise reserved and retained by Judge Joe Brown (Joseph B. Brown, Jr.).

In brief:

The FBI claimed they couldn’t match the ballistics of the death bullet with Ray’s rifle.

On execution of my orders to test Ray’s rifle, it turned out that it wasn’t even close to being the murder weapon.

The death bullet reflected very peculiar ballistic characteristics. There was a very uncommon weapon with a special barrel that did. The XM21 matched those characteristics precisely. The Army Marksmanship Unit had made 60-63. The FBI received 5 on Invoice, late Dec 1967. The Military wanted them back and demanded that they be returned. Accordingly, a late April ‘68 Inventory conducted by the FBI concluded that only 4 were still to be found in their custody. The whereabouts of the missing rifle was claimed to be a mystery.

The fatal shot was fired by a two-man team from the dormitory of the Fire Station across from the Lorraine Motel. There was an (were) inside collaborator(s). The shot was NOT fired from either ‘the’ flop-house nor from the ‘bushes’.

Memphis Police Detectives concluded that Ray wasn’t the shooter; wasn’t in town.

In re info request on MLK assassination :

1) Though i have read it at great length, I do NOT have current access to any so-called 'FBI firearms report': such as purports to have this status should be in the state's record of the case in the Criminal Clerk's Office, 30th Judicial Circuit of TN at Memphis, Shelby Co., 201 Poplar Ave, 38103. Access would most probably require a court order. It should be noted that the initial 'Trial' Judge, the late, Honorable Preston Battle,* considered the report to be entirely unsatisfactory and issued an order requiring that 'the rifle' be retested. It was never complied with. The State's written opposition to my ordering this retest included the following language: "The State objects to the rifle being retested on the grounds that it may become damaged and PREVENT IT FROM BEING RETESTED IN THE FUTURE." As part of the context of the events, it should be noted that F.B.I. Director Hoover ordered ALL auditory and visual surveillance of MLK to be curtailed completely—for the first time since he'd initiated it—a little shy of 48 hours before his killing.

A) THE report itself appears to be fraudulent and is contrived: there was NO effort to get a 'match ID' of fatal projectile removed from MLK’s body/sample projectile fired from 'Ray's rifle'. The samples were fired into 'target' media that consisted of cut-up note/legal pads (cardboard, note paper and staples, all) that would effectively remove/destroy fine striations that would enable a 'positive' and conclusive ID. All they obtained was a 'generic' type ID (i.e. showing that death projectile and test samples were consistent with having been fired from a weapon with generically 'similar' rather than 'identical' characteristics).

B) The projectile removed from the body of MLK was cut into six (6) pieces [3 jacket and 3 of the 'lead' core] by the F.B.I. and was declared by them to be incapable of 'ballistic' analysis. On the other hand, a metallurgical analysis of the 'core' was done independently with the result that it was determined to be inconsistent with the remainder of the recovered material (i.e. the metallurgical characteristics of the four (4) recovered, unfired cartridges allegedly found w/the Remington 760 Game Master [i.e. 4 'live rounds' in the rifle magazine] and a supposedly 'fired', empty cartridge case in the chamber thereof. This 'metallurgical' analysis seems to have been done by a field office of the F.B.I. and apparently generated a great deal of ire in the D.C. Office [based on F.B.I. memoranda recovered under the Freedom of Information Act and as submitted (perhaps inadvertently) in the case]. These memoranda should be in the case file in the Clerk's Office.

C) Neither do I have a copy of the HSCA report. A large part of this is public record record published in the 'Congressional Record' series and is available upon tender of request and fee. It is NOT of much value in my opinion as a consequence of its primary reliance upon flawed/fraudulent information furnished by the F.B.I.

2) My personal theory is that MLK was murdered by a two (2) man team of capable operatives. Perhaps they were professionals operating 'off the record' but with official though 'off the record' sanction. F.B.I. memoranda available through the U.S. Center for Assassination/Assassination Attempt Records Review and Repository Washington D.C. suggest this as well as the motivation** ^ ***

3) The most obvious origin for the shot is the firehouse (dormitory):

A) It should be noted that several hours elapsed from the point when MLK was initially to have left the Loraine Motel and traveled to the home of Rev. Billy Kyles for dinner. The departure was continuously delayed over those intervening hours for several different reasons that can be discerned****

B) Due to the time and interminable delays, a would-be 'shooter' would have been required to have kept himself and his weapon concealed from view for quite a period of time:

i) The open nature of the 'bushes' and the surrounding area certainly tend to preclude this location from consideration:

ii) Likewise, an open lavatory in a public 'flop-house' doesn't commend itself.

iii) An examination of the toilet in question reveals that as a 'shooting' point it puts a prospective gunman in such an unstable and precarious position as to be precluded from being the origin of the fatal shot.

iv) At the time the fatal shot was fired, shooting MLK from the window in question was an impossibility.*****

C) Amongst all the possibilities, the fire station offers a controlled environment and concealment from which to take a carefully set-up shot. It also offered the actual shooting team an opportunity to simply leave their equipment in situ and make a leisurely exit. Collaborators, most likely with the appearance of 'officials', would then retrieve the equipment later.

D) It should be noted that the fire station Chief at the time offered the recent statement that two days prior to the shooting, two government officials/employees climbed (w/him) to the top of the fire station tower and took a long look around. Strangely, he offers that "they did not come back up here again" which does not preclude them being elsewhere in or about the station when the tragic events unfolded the day after.

E) The firehouse dormitory/cafeteria offered a stable seat and secure rifle rest/observation position from which to take the fatal shot. The shooter/observer team would have been located well inside the large upper window area and would have been invisible to passers-by if there were no bright interior lighting turned on. Likewise, they would've been able to use heavy tables to support sand bags and seats that would've made a very stable shooting position. Various methods of external radio and ground-line communication would have commended themselves to the activity. Especially in light of the special characteristics of the weapon that appears to have been used, the enclosed nature of the place would have provided excellent sound attenuation and 'venting' of the pressure wave from firing; there were a connected series of apertures/doors that gave witnesses the false impression that the shot 'came from the bushes' etc., where the shock wave vented. The effects of echo should not be discounted.

4) Irrespective of the contemporaneous layout of the station house, the shot would've originated on an upper (2nd flr) level where there is an expanse of clear glazing (i.e. windows) on the side of the station facing the Loraine Hotel. At the time if the shooting, one or another of the windows would have been open sufficiently [just partially] to have provided the narrow gap needed for the shot to have cleared. The shot would've been taken from well inside the interior to the extent of several yards or feet and NOT with the barrel etc of the weapon extending outside as per typical Hollywood portrayals of such things. The 'Sionics' suppressor would've made a sufficient reduction in the decibel level of the shot to have obviated the need for hearing protection for any involved personnel.

5) The shooter would NOT "…have stood" nor his 'spotter'.°* Both would've been seated and the rifle itself—along with his accomplice's 'spotting scope'—would've been secured on a steady rest: most likely something like sand bags, bipod or benchrest set up for the rifle and a tripod for the spotting scope. Both would have been rather finely laid in the direction of the target's anticipated position and left there until the quarry's appearance was known to be imminent. The process is much the same as shooting African Leopard from a 'blind'. The composition of the firehouse staff/personnel at the time was likely to have been simpatico with the project as a matter of perceived patriotism and attitude toward race; appeal to such seems to have secured the necessary silence. The time period contemporaneous with these events is replete with organizational ‘silences’ associated with homicidal notoriety.

6) The distance discrepancies between the firehouse, bushes and the flop-house would normally be of small consequence; well within the typical 'pointblank' range of a .30 cal. Center fire rifle of .308 Winchester/7.62x51 mm NATO or older .30-'06 caliber [also firing what is technically a .308in/7.62 mm bullet]. Ordinarily, this would be of small consequence. By 'pointblank' it is inferred that the shooter has only to aim directly at his target and his shot will strike—during the course of its trajectory—from an inch or so low relative to his point of aim, starting from about twenty-five yards away to around two or three high between a hundred and two-hundred yards and then drop down to perhaps three to five inches low way out to about three hundred to three hundred fifty yards. This would depend on the particulars of the individual rifle/load combination, e.g. barrel length, weight of the bullet, the propellant charge, ballistic coefficient of the bullet, idiosyncrasies of the individual rifle, etc.. With a soft point expanding bullet such as that removed from MLK's body, the shooter would simply hold for the middle of the upper chest and he would administer a non-survivable wound, even if his target were standing next to a state of the art trauma center. Note that a shot from ‘the bushes’ as recounted by witnesses would have presented an upward trajectory angle for the shot to have struck MLK. His actual wound characteristics makes this unlikely.

7) now we get to the crux of the matter: the deformed bullet (judging from an evidence photo of the intact bullet) that was purportedly removed from MLK's body did not expand to the degree one might expect from any of the ranges involved (i.e. flop-house, fire-station etc.). That is a personal opinion based on my observations as a hunter. What was actually demonstrated is consistent with bullet performance from a rifle/load similar in nature to what we have here—on first but mistaken impression—when the target is a 150-250 lb soft skinned mammal some three hundred yards or so from the shooter. This is a distance rather in excess to any of the alternative distances involved in the MLK assassination. The 'why' of it is consistent with the shot that was actually taken. i.e. Instead of a torso shot, why the almost flubbed head shot that was actually taken? MLK was struck at a downward angle in the right upper cheek; the bullet continued at a downward angle, shattering upper and lower molars; passed through the tongue, then exited between the lower jaws. It re-entered MLK's body as it struck the clavicle, traveling under the skin over the right shoulder; down at angle across the rear of the right shoulder between the skin and the right scapula; across the back and lodged on the left side between the skin of the back and the left scapula. The bullet never entered the interior of the torso/thorax. It is not an unusual quirk for a bullet to do this. Had his carotid artery not been nicked, it is probable that MLK would have survived the ordeal. Why then the marginal head shot in lieu of a solid, non-survivable torso shot? The head is on a flexible neck and moves around a lot in contrast to the balance of a target's body.

Albert Einstein to the rescue. Energy = Mass x Velocity Squared. At 2500—2750 ft/sec. muzzle velocity, a 147—180 gr. .30 cal (7.62 mm) bullet will have something in excess of a ton of muzzle energy at one hundred yards and slightly less that that ton at two-hundred. On the other hand, a .30 cal. bullet (of the above weights) moving just at the speed of sound is going to be behaving essentially like a small caliber pistol round such as a 7.63 Torkarev or perhaps the larger 9x19mm NATO favored the world over. The set up of the rifle that my opinion suggests was used to kill MLK produces sub-sonic velocities (1125+ fps) that minimize 'sound signature'. This is an entirely different proposition and a torso hit at the alternative ranges involved becomes survivable.

8) For a number of reasons, it is my opinion that MLK was shot with an XM21, an M14 with a significant amount of hand work and fitting and re-barreled with a special stainless steel item produced by the U.S. Army Marksmanship Unit (the AMU, initiated by President Eisenhower). The rifling twist for this special barrel was 1x11.25 or one complete revolution of the bullet every 11.25 inches of barrel length. The Remington 760 Game Master had the factory standard 1x10 twist for .30-'06 [the standard was 1x12 for .308 Winchester (7.62x51 mm NATO)]; all typical of the era.The AMU had reportedly made somewhere around 60-63 barrels with such characteristics circa 1967 for converting M14's to XM21's. the standard sight was a variable Redfield scope of 3X—9X converted to facilitate distance ranging by the Leatherwood Co. (or a special night vision scope as an alternative). There was also a sound (signature) suppressor affixed to the weapon that was manufactured by a company known as 'Sionics'. The particulars are as follows:

A) 7.62 NATO cal., M14 (XM21) rifle with Sionics suppressor/Starlight night vision scope [or Leatherwood ARTS (auto ranging telescopic sight)(Redfield 3x9)] SCIONICS suppressor for M14 = M14SS-1 (XM21)].

B) SCIONICS suppressor:

Tube: 12.75" long, 1.665" outside dia.: bore = .375":

C) M14 front sight and flash-hider removed (scope = primary sight).

D) Outer tube (i.e. of suppressor unit) = .090"dia.; made of 6061 T6 aluminum alloy; anodized flat black: internal parts and rear retainer collar = phosphated 4130 steel, sealed and aligned with a Teflon washer. Earliest (i.e. prototypes) had a spring loaded back pressure relief valve at the rear of the can chamber (i.e. suppressor). At this stage steel baffles were used, then superseded by Inconel (to better resist heat degradation). Ultimately, the valve was succeeded by a pressure relief port (there were incidental problems with longevity when operating weapons equipped with these particular devices in a full auto mode; this typically occurred when mounted on weapons systems other than the XM21 since that weapon was only issued in semi-auto mode). Most suppressor units were rated for semi-auto use only.

E) In re Production and Distribution of Suppressor Units and M14/XM21 rifles:

Almost all production was delivered to U.S. Army (Ft. Bennington GA; Rock Island Arsenal); some to USN (San Diego CA); some to Aberdeen Proving Center MD. A few 'Scionics' units (records suggest only 5) went to the F.B.I. along with a like number of M14SS-1/XM21's; delivered late December 1967. At the time there was some concern expressed about the F.B.I. acquiring these weapons systems and questions raised as to what they would be used for as the bureau had no applicable mission requirements at the time (e.g. no Hostage Rescue Unit).

F) DATA, illustrative:

Speed of sound at sea level @ 68F° = 1,127 fps (average) and slower as it gets colder. It might be noted that this is the apparent velocity of the bullet that was removed from MLK. e.g. As a comparison, a typical 9x19mm NATO pistol/submachine gun round has an avg muzzle velocity of circa 1250fps for a 115 gr bullet.

Sub-sonic 5.56 NATO and 7.62 NATO rounds were costly in those days (i.e. circa 1967-70) @ approximately 32¢/round: cases were partially filled w/epoxy to take up space; early examples had Cream of Wheat (the cereal), cotton, nitrated paper mixed w/cotton. These early fillers performed badly and the overall ballistic performance (i.e. accuracy) was deemed poor until an epoxy filler was adopted.The 7.62 NATO was packed in 20 round boxes boxes marked "subsonic". Sales were limited. This is most likely the ammunition used to slay MLK. This is another circumstance that illustrates the problems inherent in a situation where a head shot is an imperative.