Copyright 2000 Daily News, L.P.
Daily News (New
York)
June 10, 2000, Saturday SPORTS FINAL EDITION
SECTION: NEWS; Pg. 10
LENGTH: 501 words
HEADLINE:
WORLD & NATIONAL REPORT FEDS REJECT CONSPIRACY IN ASSASSINATION OF KIN G
BODY:
WASHINGTON - Justice Department investigators
yesterday rejected allegations that conspirators aided James Earl Ray - or had
him framed - in the 1968 assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.
The new probe - ordered by Attorney General Janet Reno 18 months ago -
found no evidence to support allegations from former Memphis bar owner Loyd
Jowers and former FBI agent Donald Wilson, and earlier from Ray himself, that a
mysterious Raoul, or others, participated in a plot to kill the civil rights
leader.
The panel urged that the matter be put to rest.
"We
found no credible evidence to support allegations of any conspiracy to kill Dr.
King involving Jowers, Raoul, the Mafia, Memphis police officers, figures
involved in the Kennedy assassination, federal agents, U.S. military personnel
or African-American ministers close to Dr. King," said Barry Kowalski, head of
the investigation and one of the department's leading civil rights prosecutors.
The investigation did not convince some people close to the case. The
Rev. Jesse Jackson, who was with King when he was shot, told CNN he still
believes other people assisted Ray. The King family declined to comment.
APMIA search OKd
WASHINGTON - The U.S. and North Korea agreed yesterday
to resume a joint effort to locate and recover the remains of thousands of
American servicemen unaccounted for from the Korean War. The first search
mission is scheduled for June 25, the 50th anniversary of the outbreak of the
war. The Pentagon estimates more than 1,500 U.S. servicemen might have been
killed in the initial search area. Gormley concedes TRENTON - State Sen. Bill
Gormley has conceded the Senate GOP primary race to U.S. Rep. Bob Franks.
Gormley came within a few thousand votes of Franks Tuesday and conceded Thursday
night. He vowed to work hard for Franks against Democratic nominee Jon Corzine,
who defeated former Gov. Jim Florio. Estate-tax repeal
WASHINGTON - House Republicans, joined by dozens of Democrats at odds with
President Clinton, passed a bill to repeal inheritance taxes by 2010.
Supporters said they were acting to prevent taxes from ruining family
farms and small businesses, but detractors decried it as a costly giveaway for
the rich. Clinton promised to veto the bill, citing revenue losses of
$750 billion in the decade after repeal is fully in
place. Singed, he retires
ALBUQUERQUE - The park superintendent
who was suspended after approving a prescribed burn that blew out of control and
rolled through Los Alamos last month, destroying hundreds of home, is retiring.
Bandelier National Monument superintendent Roy Weaver has taken
responsibility for the decision to start the burn on May 4. He said he believed
conditions had been just right for the annual regimen of burning brush to stave
off a potentially disastrous fire - and said he would do it again. "If I knew
this would happen, I wouldn't," he said. "But we made the best decision we could
with the information we had at the time."
LOAD-DATE: June 10, 2000