Rating: 
Summary: Conspiracy Buffs Should Get A Life!
Review: You will notice that all the preceding negative reviews of this book share one thing in common: THEY DON'T REFUTE ONE PIECE OF EVIDENCE. One reader went so far as to say a jury composed of people like you and I avenged Pepper! Gimme a break! So what! When does a jury receive the unbelievably detailed, researched and straightforward accounting that this book provides.
Conspiracy lovers don't like books like this because they have nothing to refute the evidence with other than speculation and testimony from questionable sources.
The author's tone is never mean or hateful...I wish I could say the same for this book's detractors.
Rating:
Summary: Another Home Run
Review: Gerald Posner does it again. As in CASE CLOSED, he has stripped away the myths and presented the facts in a clear, easy-to-read style. He has proven that there truly is no hard evidence to support a conspiracy in the MLK assassination. The buffs will continue to attack him because they know he's right and he is a genuine threat to their credibility and financial gain. The King family should read this book.
Rating: 
Summary: Definitive Study of the Martin Luther King Jr Assassination
Review: Oliver Stone, meet your nemesis, Gerald Posner. As the director of "JFK" may well know, Posner has made his reputation debunking fashionable conspiracy theories. His previous book "Case Closed" proved definitively that, Stone's fanciful drivel aside, lone lunatic Lee Harvey Oswald killed John F. Kennedy, aided only by chance and a U.S. Marine's sharpshooting skill. Not one to shy from controversy, Posner now turns his attention to another 60s hero laid low tragically young by another assassin's bullet. Conspiracy theories about MLK's death have long been fashionable among the African American community; of late even King's family have bought into the notion that James Earl Ray was innocent. Posner once again sifts through the facts and speculation and concludes that Ray was the lone assassin. In reviewing the case, Posner brings to light a surprisingly complete picture of the assassin's life. Ray grew up in a dirt poor family of criminals and cut his teeth on petty crimes before settling into his life's calling as a robber. His increasing tendency toward violence and continued brushed with the law finally resulted in a long prison sentence. Ray escaped prison and set his sights on one more criminal goal, one guaranteed to make him a hero amongst the underworld--the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. Posner takes the reader through the events of that terrible day in 1968, weaving a masterful tragedy made more tragic by those unwilling to lay the blame for this hideous crime where it belongs: squarely on the shoulders of James Earl Ray. Posner delivers yet again, and in so doing shines the light of truth on an incident almost submerged in the murk of paranoia and denial. I only hope that Coretta Scott King and the rest of her family take time to read this book. While nothing can dim their sorrow, they could at least gain some measure of comfort in knowing that King's murderer was brought to justice.
Rating: 
Summary: American Jury Dismisses Posner as Liar
Review: After a month of trial from November to December 1999, a jury of twelve ordinary Americans, people like you and me, ruled on evidence presented to them. Evidence which was powerful and which proved that Ray didn't kill Dr King. Posner's book is clearly based on the 'investigation' which the Tennessee Attorney General's office conducted. The lead investigator was called to the stand to testify and he was read a list of twenty witnesses who had testfied for at the trial and who had given infomation very pertinent to the death of Dr King. He had not interviewed a single one, nor had Posner when he set pen to paper and wrote this sinful book which was fully discredited when the jury vindicated Pepper's conspiracy stance. Posner has put together a shameful book based on little research. His book concludes that Ray killed King so I'm happy to say that the jury rejected this and so should you. Reject this book and read a real account or visit www.thekingcenter.com for the trial transcript which provides details of the actual trial.
Rating:
Summary: Another Posner Deciever
Review: I hoped Gerald Posner would stay away from "the real world" after publishing the ridiculous and idiotic "Case Closed." But now I am enfuriated to see him smear one of the most significant and memorable and sad events of American history: The assassination of Martin Luthor King Jr. This is a book that cleverly decieves the mind with some clever lies. It is impossible to believe that James Earl Ray, a low-life criminal, would kill someone like King knowing full well, the consequences. The evidence, by my opinion, strongly suggests that J.Edgar Hoover, one of the most vicious racists in power, was behind King's murder. Hoover had the motive and capabilities to order King's killing. Posner doesn't know history as well as he thinks he does. He looks like a rookie, a smart alec compared to true investigators like Robert Groden, Mark Lane, and the great filmmaker, Oliver Stone. Posner is a puppet, a messenger boy for the conspirators. He might be doing their work for them without even knowing it. As he demonstrated with "Case Closed," Posner doesn't understand the workings of power and needs to just write fiction novels instead of passing his work for the truth. I urge readers to read this idiotic piece of work without accepting everything in it. Look deeper into the mud and you will find the truth. Posner will probably follow this garbage with a book about how Sirhan Sirhan alone killed Bobby Kennedy, or how Arthur Bremer alone shot George Wallace. I shudder to think what society's way of thinking or acceptance of official information would be, if they believed Posner's dangerous, stupid, blind, and decieving work.
Rating:
Summary: Solid examination of Ray's motives and fantasies
Review: The book traces Ray's path from prison to Memphis, undermining Ray's ever-changing "Raoul" conspiracy story along the way. By the end of the book, there seems no reason to doubt Ray's guilt. Posner, unlike the paranoid-schizos offering their one-star reviews below, recounts Ray in all his lifetime criminal glory, as a bootlegger, holdup man, and virulent racist with pretentions to grandeur. It's a sad but true fact that a lone, motivated gunman can alter history--see Mark David Chapman, John Hinkley (almost), and, yes, Lee Harvey Oswald. The book isn't as enjoyable as Posner's take on the Kennedy assassination, CASE CLOSED, perhaps because Ray's conspiracy claims always seemed transparently self-serving. Also, Ray lived long enough to concoct multiple variations on his timelines and stories, and Posner is forced to try and account for them. It gets tiresome, especially after Ray has exhausted whatever credibility the reader may extend him. Posner's critique is so convincing that I'm sure the conspiracy industry will label him a co-conspirator. I hope Posner wears the badge with pride.
Rating:
Summary: There's No Accounting For Human Behavior
Review: When James Earl Ray died, he took to his grave our last hope of ever knowing what truly happened to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. that April day in 1968. Yet, had Ray lived into his 90's, there's no certainty that he would ever have changed his pattern of piling lie upon embelishment upon fantasy. That he was a liar, a thief, and a racist seems beyond doubt, as does the general opinion that he pulled the trigger and killed perhaps the greatest figure of the 20th Century. However, it can't be denied that questions linger. Sure, Ray did the shooting....but did he act alone? Gerald Posner tackles this controversy in KILLING THE DREAM. Like his other works, CASE CLOSED (examining the JFK assassination) and MENGELE (where he exposed what really happened to Nazi doctor Josef Mengele), DREAM is thoroughly researched and compellingly told. In fact, where it's most effective is as a biography of James Ray, an antisocial petty thief and would-be pornographer preying on the fringes of society before firing the shot that ensured his desired recognition and everlasting infamy. The narrative documents Ray's troubled childhood, his almost sociopathic difficulties in relating to others (particularly women), and his life-long clash with societal norms. It also documents effectively the most well-known conspiracy theories....among which are constructs that even King's own family supports. And this is where KILLING THE DREAM enters the realm of controversy. One by one, Posner examines and debunks each of these theories--unfairly, according to his critics (particularly angry are those who support the speculations of Ray's lawyer William Pepper). In the end, Posner concludes that Ray most likely acted alone--something nobody who suspects a conspiracy wants to hear. In spite of this, his conclusions seem carefully weighed and in no way "unfair." There are a few snags in the book. Dr. King himself is merely sketched--I would have liked to have seen a more full-blooded portrait of this honorable man (though I guess I could turn to Taylor Branch for that); too, I would liked to have seen a more thorough discussion as to why King's family is so supportive of Pepper--and the ramifications OF that support. But I am very pleased that Posner admits his difficulty in articulating an ultimate motivation for Ray's horrific action; this just goes to show that, in spite of our desires for definitive understanding, there's no accounting for human behavior.
Rating:
Summary: shoddy journalism
Review: I would not be commenting on this paltry polemic if Posnor hadn't misconstrued statements I made in my book, The Phoenix Program, in order to support his revisonist theory. Specifically, in his book Orders To Kill, Dr Pepper refers to a paassage in my book in which I cited an allegation that military intelligence officers photographed Dr Martin Luther King's assassin in the act of shooting King. Dr Pepper suggests that two men, one named Warren and the other named Ed, were members of the military intelligence team that photographed King's assassination. In his book, Orders to Kill, Posnor claims that I fed the names Warren and Ed to Dr Pepper. He bases this claim on the unrelated fact that there are two men in my book with those same names. I want it to be known that Posnor's allegation is ludicrous and utterly false, and an example of the type of shoddy journalism he practices in an attempt to bury the truth along the peacemakers. Beware of Posnor, he is but a propagandist for the lunatic fringe on the Far Right.
Rating:
Summary: Read Pepper instead
Review: The so-called 'facts' have been coloured by the author's bias (ultimately he wants to prove that Ray was a mad lone gunman, which borders on naive stupidity). Forget about this - read 'Orders to Kill: The Truth Behind the Murder of Martin Luther King, Jr' by William F. Pepper, Dexter Scott King, instead, which is much more compelling. Pepper was a former associate of King who later became Ray's lawyer.
Rating:
Summary: Proves a theory by excluding all contrary evidence
Review: I would not have wasted my time commenting about this paltry polemic if Posner hadn't twisted, to his own partisan purposes, comments I made in my book, The Phoenix Program. Specifically: in Orders To Kill, Dr William Pepper cited my book as the basis for his theory that US Army intelligence agents may have photographed King's assassination and buried the evidence in order to protect the real murderers. Dr Pepper also, apparently, suggested that King's assassins were named Warren and Ed. Using garbled grammar in a weak attempt to refute Dr Pepper, Posner notes that in The Phoenix Program I mentioned a man named Warren (probably a reference to Warren Milberg, a CIA officer who ran the Phoenix Program in Quang Tri Province) and a man named Ed (probably a reference to Ed Murphy, an enlisted man in military intelligence in Central Vietnam). This is a glaring example of Posner's lack of investigative skill and integrity, and his total reliance on innuendo and speculation. Dr Pepper never asked me about Warren Milberg or Ed Murphy. Futhermore, to suggest that Dr Pepper believes these men killed Dr Martin Luther King is not only ludicrous and illogical, it is scandalous and amateurish. As any decent investigator knows, you can dissemble the facts to fit any predetermined conclusion. Posner did it in Case Closed, and became the darling of America's fascists. In his woefully written and ill-conceived Killing The Dream, he has reasserted himself as the loopy lapdog of those who wish to bury the truth along with America's peacemakers. The reader is more likely to get unbiased facts from The National Enquirer. Reader beware. Douglas Valentine (Redspruce@aol.com)
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