Editor’s notes: no conclusions from me... just really odd... and someone needs to ask more good questions and get more answers. That’s going to take someone far more knowledgeable of the events than me.
***
Why was John MacArthur at the MLK murder
scene hours after the assassination?
"On the night Martin Luther King was assassinated, John Macarthur claims that he was in Jackson, Mississippi in the office of Charles Evers along with John Perkins and some others. Being concerned about John Macarthur's safety in the wake of the assassination, these men 'escorted' him out and then a decision was made to go to Memphis, Tennessee 'to see what happened.'
"Why would John Macarthur, a white man supposedly fearing for his safety in Jackson, Mississippi, decide to make a very long drive (210 miles) at night right to the King assassination crime scene in Memphis where one would reasonably presume there would be far more danger to his safety given the anger, rioting, etc.?
"But were John Macarthur, John Perkins, and Charles Evers in Jackson, MS at the moment MLK was assassinated? Could they have already been in Memphis when MLK was shot?"
"It certainly doesn't make sense that Macarthur, fearing for his safety in Jackson, would then drive 210 miles at night to Memphis. And though I would imagine it had been reported that MLK had been shot at the Lorraine Motel, how would Macarthur know to enter the boarding house across the street from this motel before that news was made public? And how and why would he been given access to that important crime scene? (It has since been proven in court that no shots were ever fired from this boarding house.) Then Macarthur states that the Lorraine Motel crime scene was unguarded that evening which enabled these three men to just enter in to view MLK's blood first-hand. This notion is absurd since the crime scene was barricaded within 2 minutes of the assassination (according to court testimony) and throughout the night. See the picture below of police guarding the Lorraine Motel that fateful evening. "
***
In A Retrospective on 40 Years: John MacArthur with Rick Holland, John Macarthur of Grace Community Church is quoted as follows:
"… So they took me. And in those days the police weren’t nearly as
protective, forensics hadn’t developed to what they had and they didn’t
necessarily protect crime scenes. So we went to the motel, up to the landing,
saw the blood where Martin Luther King had been shot just hours before by James
Earl Ray. I actually went to the little building opposite the motel, went up on
the second floor, stood up on the toilet and looked out the window where James
Earl Ray had shot him. And I was there at that very, very, very crucial time…"