William F. Pepper
Carroll and Graf, New York, 1995, but distributed in the UK by WWM at £21.00
Tony Frewin mentioned this book in his survey of the JFK and related literature in Lobster 31. It deserves more than that. William Pepper is an American lawyer with an office in London as well as the United States. Recently I met a client of Pepper’s, and in the course of the conversation I said, ‘Of course, Pepper’s basically solved the King case.’ ‘That’s what Bill says,’ said his client. Well, Pepper’s right; and it must be absolutely galling – unimaginably galling – to have solved one of the major assassinations of the 20th century and have virtually no notice taken of the event.
Pepper was a friend of Martin Luther King’s in the 1960s and worked closely with him in some of his campaigns. After King’s murder he drifted away and took little interest in the case. A decade later he was asked to interview James Earl Ray and became fascinated by the story. Orders to Kill is an account of his involvement in the continuing investigation from 1978 to the present day. Pepper provides a participant’s view of all the major events in the case, from the half-hearted 1978 House Select Committee investigation through to his obtaining in 1993 a confession of involvement in the shooting from Lloyd Jowers, the owner of Jim’s Grill, a cafe next to the rooming house from which James Earl Ray was supposed to have fired. (Jowers hid the assassination weapon after the shooting.) It is a remarkable story of tenacity and courage – and a riveting read.