KING CONSPIRACY UPDATE

By Jack E. White

For years, conspiracy theorists who believe that the U.S. government plotted the murder of Martin Luther King Jr. have focused on Merrell McCullough, an undercover Memphis, Tennessee, policeman who was seen crouching beside King's body moments after the civil rights leader was shot at the Lorraine Motel 29 years ago last week. According to the theorists, McCullough was a secret U.S. agent who helped cover up the plot by pointing toward the flophouse from which the FBI maintains James Earl Ray fired the fatal shot, leading police away from a brushy area across the street where several witnesses saw a man who they believe may have been the real assassin. Last week TIME confirmed from U.S. government sources that McCullough has in fact been a CIA agent since at least 1974. McCullough denies being on any intelligence agency's payroll at the time of the murder and, for that matter, being part of any assassination conspiracy.

--By Jack E. White