How to Read the JFK Assassination Files

Re:How to Read the JFK Assassination Files by indubitable on Friday October 27, 2017 @01:32AM (#15565941)

I would be surprised if the releases containing anything especially new, but the government most certainly maintains incriminating information on themselves. For instance we now know that the FBI discovered compromising information on MLK and tried to black mail him into suicide. [1] They also discovered his infidelity through surveillance and contacted his wife again trying to damage his character. This was all well documented and maintained for decades after it had happened. If you want death and murder, there's things like US involvement in Operation Condor [2] which was long speculated but finally fully verified by documents declassified under Clinton. And there are countless other examples.

Releases staggered by decades come with great plausible deniability. Is the FBI today responsible for what the FBI of the past did to MLK? If anything relevant was revealed, I'd expect the modern versions of the involved agencies to be the first condemn those actions. Whether that's genuine or not is practically impossible to know. But it's almost certainly sufficient to ensure they'll never face any meaningful consequences for their actions.

[1] - https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2014/11/fbis-suicide-letter-dr...

[2] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Condor#U.S._involvem...

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:How to Read the JFK Assassination Files by kirillseva on Friday October 27, 2017 @03:04AM (#15566283)

Didn't know about MLK blackmail. Reminds me of what happened to Hemingway. [1] Sometimes when you have paranoia it doesn't mean that you're crazy.

[1] - https://stevehuff.net/2015/07/02/ernest-hemingways-justified...

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:How to Read the JFK Assassination Files by kelukelugames on Friday October 27, 2017 @01:59AM (#15566046)

If King's affairs are real then why are they not more widely known? I haven't seen any conclusive evidence other than Hoover's letter.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:How to Read the JFK Assassination Files by indubitable on Friday October 27, 2017 @10:08AM (#15568387)

I'd imagine mostly because it's not really relevant, and the media at the time wasn't the tabloid circus that it is today.

Among King's lovers was Georgia Davis Powers, first black senator of Kentucky, who wrote about their affair. According to her for instance she slept with him the night before he was assassinated at the Lorraine Motel. She was climbing into the ambulance to go with him until another individual reminded her of how inappropriate it would be. These are some pretty specific claims coming from a reputable source with 0 motivation to lie, that could be easily falsified.

The letter also mentions another lover by name and implies there was an attached audio recording of King with the classy phrasing, "Lend your sexually psychotic ear to the enclosure..." That audiotape is set to be publicly released in 2027. And then there is the bio of Ralph Abernathy, King's successor at the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the man King described as "the best friend I have in the world." Within his bio he discussed King's (and his own) regular infidelities.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:How to Read the JFK Assassination Files by zeveb on Friday October 27, 2017 @01:56PM (#15570709)

Because we like to imagine that our heroes are perfect. Martin Luther King, Jr. was an heroic defender of civil rights for blacks; he also cheated on his wife & plagiarised. His misdeeds don't make his deeds any less great, but … we don't like to think about them.

[ Parent | on HN ]