I read it quite a while ago, but there is a Counterpounch article that sums up his thesis nicely:

An Act of State tells the story of how Martin Luther King was killed, not by James Ray, a bumbling patsy, but by a Memphis policeman in league with the Mafia, backed by soldiers — some armed with high-powered rifles, others with cameras to film the event — in a special Military Intelligence unit. The story is broad and deep and implicates high-ranking officers in all the American intelligence and security branches. And it stars Raoul, the assembly line worker now living under government protection. Raoul guided James Ray after his prison escape to a bathroom in a seedy Memphis hotel, above a greasy spoon cafe owned by a sad sack named Loyd Jowers, a creepy old white man having sex with Betty, a 16-year-old black girl. Betty, they say around Memphis, got hooked on drugs and had several illegitimate kids.

Pepper, who resides in Cambridge and spends his time practicing law in United States and the United Kingdom, assembles Jowers and Betty and about 70 other witnesses to make a convincing argument that Jowers and known and unknown members of the U.S. government conspired to kill MLK. Indeed, the argument convinced a jury of exactly that in a civil suit brought by the King family against Jowers and the U.S. government. The trial was held in Memphis in 1999, but the Department of Justice, as Pepper explains, buried the verdict beneath an avalanche of lies and distortions, with a little help from its friends in the media.

Additionally, didn’t Ralph Abernathy reveal a lot of King’s improprieties in one of his books? It might also make some good reading since he was close to King.

T-fan (#1) — Yes, I had considered a disclaimer. I decided against it thinking it could backfire — people’s curiousity would be piqued that otherwise might not read it. If anyone has ideas how this issue can be straddled let us know either with a comment or private email.

Good questions. This is one reason we need to give a condemned man the time-honored “last words” — and why they must be public. Why did we never get a direct statement from Timothy McVeigh? etc. The press has really let us down. I would love to see an interview with James Earl Ray using a live feed so it can’t be edited.

Franq — I would recommend Dyson’s book because, without trying to conceal it, he defends King’s behavior. Thus, you get the facts placed in the most sympathetic light imaginable short of outright obfuscation. Himself a left-wing extremist, he cannot be accused of being part of the “vast right wing conspiracy.” No one will accuse him of trying to bend the truth to besmirch a great man.

I’ve met the author in person and he has been involved with the case for many years.

Even supportive websites (support of MLK, jr.) point out that the suite from which King emerged and was shot had gained the local reputation of being the “King-Abernathy suite,” which would seem to lend credence to some of the charges mentioned above.

The other question is: why was the man shot? Was it the public assumption (someone or some group opposed to racial mixing), an angry relative of one of his conquests, or something more sinister (recall that he was being investigated for connection to the Communist Party).

The unexplained money, the unexplained death (apparently King’s own relatives supported JER’s attempt to get a new trial), and the allegations of a double-life leave the man swirling in mystery.