William F. Pepper
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William Francis Pepper (born August 16, 1937) is a U.S. lawyer formerly based in
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
who is most noted for his efforts to prove government culpability and the innocence of
James Earl Ray James Earl Ray (March 10, 1928 – April 23, 1998) was an American fugitive convicted for assassinating Martin Luther King Jr. at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968. After this Ray was on the run and was capt ...
in the
assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. Martin Luther King Jr., an African-American clergyman and civil rights leader, was fatally shot at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968, at 6:01 p.m. CST. He was rushed to St. Joseph's Hospital, where he died at 7 ...
Pepper has also been trying to prove the innocence of
Sirhan Sirhan Sirhan Bishara Sirhan (; ar, سرحان بشارة سرحان ''Sirḥān Bišāra Sirḥān'', born March 19, 1944) is a Palestinian Jordanian man who was convicted for the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy. Kennedy, a United States Sena ...
in the
assassination of Robert F. Kennedy On June 5, 1968, Robert F. Kennedy was shot by Sirhan Sirhan shortly after midnight at the Ambassador Hotel, Los Angeles. He was pronounced dead at 1:44 a.m. PDT the following day. Kennedy was a senator from New York and a candidate in ...
. He is the author of several books, and he has been active in other government conspiracy cases, including the 9/11 Truth movement, and has advocated that
George W. Bush George Walker Bush (born July 6, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 43rd president of the United States from 2001 to 2009. A member of the Republican Party, Bush family, and son of the 41st president George H. W. Bush, he ...
be charged with war crimes.


Early life

He was born in
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
. Pepper received a B.A. and M.A. from
Columbia University Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
, and studied abroad at the
London School of Economics , mottoeng = To understand the causes of things , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £240.8 million (2021) , budget = £391.1 millio ...
, Ed.D. from the
University of Massachusetts Amherst The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst, UMass) is a public research university in Amherst, Massachusetts and the sole public land-grant university in Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Founded in 1863 as an agricultural college, it ...
, and J.D. degree from
Boston College Law School Boston College Law School (BC Law) is the law school of Boston College. It is situated on a wooded campus in Newton, Massachusetts, about 1.5 miles from the university's main campus in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. With approximately 800 studen ...
.Boris Lurie Art Foundation
"Dr. William F. Pepper."
Retrieved November 5, 2010.
He was admitted to the Bar in 1977.


Prominent cases


Martin Luther King cases

Pepper has stated
Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist, one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968 ...
contacted him after seeing his photo essay, ''The Children of Vietnam'', which was published in the January 1967 issue of ''
Ramparts magazine ''Ramparts'' was a glossy illustrated American political and literary magazine, published from 1962 to 1975 and closely associated with the New Left political movement. Unlike most of the radical magazines of the day, ''Ramparts'' was expensively ...
.'' It depicted victims of
napalm Napalm is an incendiary mixture of a gelling agent and a volatile petrochemical (usually gasoline (petrol) or diesel fuel). The name is a portmanteau of two of the constituents of the original thickening and gelling agents: coprecipitated al ...
in
Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...
. Pepper, who supported the Communist cause, later wrote "it was not then clear to Dr. King that Ho-Chi Minh’s reverence for Jefferson, Lincoln, and American democracy, as he idealized it, made him the legitimate father of a unified Vietnam" Pepper later claimed that his conversation with King contributed to King's more adamant position against the
Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...
, and that he was present at King's
Riverside Church speech "Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break Silence", also referred as the Riverside Church speech, is an anti–Vietnam War and pro–social justice speech delivered by Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1967, exactly one year before he was assassinated. T ...
on April 4, 1967, in which King publicly attacked the war.
James Earl Ray James Earl Ray (March 10, 1928 – April 23, 1998) was an American fugitive convicted for assassinating Martin Luther King Jr. at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968. After this Ray was on the run and was capt ...
pleaded guilty to King's assassination but soon recanted his confession. Pepper, who was Ray's last attorney, has postulated that Ray was not the shooter but was framed by the
FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and its principal Federal law enforcement in the United States, federal law enforcement age ...
, the
CIA The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian intelligence agency, foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gat ...
, the
military A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...
, the
Memphis Memphis most commonly refers to: * Memphis, Egypt, a former capital of ancient Egypt * Memphis, Tennessee, a major American city Memphis may also refer to: Places United States * Memphis, Alabama * Memphis, Florida * Memphis, Indiana * Memp ...
police, and organized crime figures from
New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster.
; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...
and
Memphis Memphis most commonly refers to: * Memphis, Egypt, a former capital of ancient Egypt * Memphis, Tennessee, a major American city Memphis may also refer to: Places United States * Memphis, Alabama * Memphis, Florida * Memphis, Indiana * Memp ...
. Pepper represented James Earl Ray in a televised
mock trial A mock trial is an act or imitation trial. It is similar to a moot court, but mock trials simulate lower-court trials, while moot court simulates appellate court hearings. Attorneys preparing for a real trial might use a mock trial consisting ...
where Ray was found not guilty. Pepper's appeals to higher courts, and even the Supreme Court, failed. According to Pepper, "It looked like we were at the end of the road and then I came up with an idea, 'Well, look, why don't we try to have a real trial on television?" A mock trial was broadcast on HBO. The television jury found Ray not guilty. King's youngest son,
Dexter King Dexter Scott King (born January 30, 1961) is an American civil rights activist and the second son of civil rights leaders Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King. King is also the brother of Martin Luther King III, Bernice King, and Yolanda ...
, met with Ray on March 27, 1997, at the Lois M. DeBerry Special Needs Facility. King subsequently said, "In the name of truth and justice, our family is calling for a trial, a trial James Earl Ray never had. ... I don't think his trial—if he is granted a trial—will necessarily give us the unequivocal proof, but at least in regard to new evidence, we will know more than we do now." In June 1997, Pepper appeared on ABC's ''Turning Point''. He discussed the theory from his book ''Orders to Kill: The Truth Behind the Murder of Martin Luther King Jr''. This theory that held that a hit team from the 20th special forces group was to kill King if a police sharpshooter failed. This group was supposedly led by a man named Billy Eidson, whom Pepper claimed had since been killed in a cover up. Eidson was then brought on camera and refused to shake Pepper's hand. Eidson brought a $15 million lawsuit against Pepper's publisher which was later settled for an undisclosed amount. Following Ray's death, Pepper represented the King family in a
wrongful death Wrongful death claim is a claim against a person who can be held liable for a death. The claim is brought in a civil action, usually by close relatives, as enumerated by statute. In wrongful death cases, survivors are compensated for the harm, l ...
lawsuit - A lawsuit is a proceeding by a party or parties against another in the civil court of law. The archaic term "suit in law" is found in only a small number of laws still in effect today. The term "lawsuit" is used in reference to a civil actio ...
, ''"King family vs.
Loyd Jowers Loyd Jowers (November 20, 1926May 20, 2000) was an American restaurateur and the owner of Jim's Grill, a restaurant near the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, where Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968. For the first 25 years after ...
and other unknown co-conspirators"''. During a trial that lasted four weeks, Pepper produced over seventy witnesses. Jowers, testifying by deposition, stated that James Earl Ray was a
scapegoat In the Bible, a scapegoat is one of a pair of kid goats that is released into the wilderness, taking with it all sins and impurities, while the other is sacrificed. The concept first appears in the Book of Leviticus, in which a goat is designate ...
and not involved in the assassination. Jowers testified that Memphis police officer Earl Clark fired the fatal shots. On December 8, 1999, the Memphis jury found Jowers responsible, and also found that the assassination plot included "governmental agencies." The jury took less than an hour to find in favor of the King family for the requested sum of $100.


Robert F. Kennedy assassination

On February 22, 2012, Pepper and co-counsel Laurie Dusek filed a court brief in District Court in Los Angeles claiming that a second gunman fired the shots that killed
Robert F. Kennedy Robert Francis Kennedy (November 20, 1925June 6, 1968), also known by his initials RFK and by the nickname Bobby, was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 64th United States Attorney General from January 1961 to September 1964, a ...
, and petitioning for the release of their client
Sirhan Sirhan Sirhan Bishara Sirhan (; ar, سرحان بشارة سرحان ''Sirḥān Bišāra Sirḥān'', born March 19, 1944) is a Palestinian Jordanian man who was convicted for the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy. Kennedy, a United States Sena ...
. Pepper believes that Sirhan, who claims to have no memory of the shooting was programmed under hypnosis to shoot and provide a distraction from the actual gunman who got away. Hypnosis expert Harvard Medical School professor Daniel P. Brown concluded that Sirhan did not act under his own volition and knowledge at the time of the shooting. He was a real " Manchurian Candidate". ABC News said the story had all the makings of a great conspiracy theory. Sirhan Sirhan was again denied parole on February 10, 2016. On March 30, 2016, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals denied a further appeal launched by Pepper, noting the appellant has not shown that "jurists of reason would find it debatable whether the petition states a valid claim of the denial of a constitutional right and that jurists of reason would find it debatable whether the district court was correct in its procedural ruling."


Bibliography


Articles


"The Children of Vietnam."
'' Ramparts'', vol. 5, no. 7 (Jan. 1967), pp. 45–68. Photographs and text by William F. Pepper. Preface by
Dr. Benjamin Spock Benjamin McLane Spock (May 2, 1903 – March 15, 1998) was an American pediatrician and left-wing political activist whose book '' Baby and Child Care'' (1946) is one of the best-selling books of the twentieth century, selling 500,000 copie ...
.


Books


''The Self-Managed Child: Paths to Cultural Rebirth.''
New York:
Harper & Row Harper is an American publishing house, the flagship imprint of global publisher HarperCollins based in New York City. History J. & J. Harper (1817–1833) James Harper and his brother John, printers by training, started their book publishin ...
(1973). .
''Sex Discrimination in Employment: An Analysis and Guide for Practitioner and Student''.
Charlottesville: Michie Co. (1982). .
''Orders to Kill: The Truth Behind the Murder of Martin Luther King, Jr.''
New York:
Carroll & Graf Carroll & Graf Publishers was an American publishing company based in New York City, New York, known for publishing a wide range of fiction and non-fiction by both new and established authors, as well as issuing reprints of previously hard-t ...
(1995). . * ''An Act of State: The Execution of Martin Luther King''. New York:
Verso ' is the "right" or "front" side and ''verso'' is the "left" or "back" side when text is written or printed on a leaf of paper () in a bound item such as a codex, book, broadsheet, or pamphlet. Etymology The terms are shortened from Latin ...
(2003). . * ''The Plot to Kill King: The Truth Behind the Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.'' New York:
Simon & Schuster Simon & Schuster () is an American publishing company and a subsidiary of Paramount Global. It was founded in New York City on January 2, 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. As of 2016, Simon & Schuster was the third largest publ ...
(2016).


References


External links


Official website
* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pepper, William F. 1937 births Living people Lawyers from New York City Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. American legal writers American political writers American male non-fiction writers American conspiracy theorists Columbia University alumni Alumni of the London School of Economics University of Massachusetts Amherst College of Education alumni Boston College Law School alumni Assassination of Robert F. Kennedy 20th-century American lawyers 21st-century American lawyers