THE AWFUL GRACE OF GOD

Wexler and Hancock (Nexus: The CIA and Political Assassination, 2011, etc.) use newly available documentation from the FBI and other sources to present their case for the role of religious terrorism and white supremacists in the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.

Cross-checking files from local offices with the central records and with the investigations conducted by the House Select Committee on Assassinations enables the authors to explore different elements of the events, which they argue might form the basis for a conspiracy case if followed up by the FBI and other agencies. The authors show that there were a series of prior assassination plots against King, and they argue there is reason to believe that James Earl Ray, who pleaded guilty to assassinating King, may have been the recipient of a bounty for the murder. Wexler and Hancock document the existence of a religious terrorist/white supremacist network made up of Rev. Wesley Swift's California branch of the Christian Identity church, J.B. Stoner and the National States’ Rights Party in Alabama and Sam Bowers’ White Knights of the Mississippi Ku Klux Klan. The authors write that these leaders desired to bring about King's death as the precipitator for a national apocalyptic race war. They show that the capabilities of these terrorists were systematically underestimated by law enforcement, not only because of J. Edgar Hoover's prejudices against King, but also because of the view that “redneck” KKK members were not capable of the sophistication required. Wexler and Hancock identify crimes they believe the network was involved in, such as the “Mississippi Burning” murders of civil-rights workers in the summer of 1964.

A timely study, not only because of ongoing Islamic terror threats, but also because of more homegrown activities like the attempt on Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords last year.