Editing Gerald Posner (section)

=== ''Killing the Dream'' ===
As controversial and talked-about as ''Case Closed'' was Posner's 1998 ''Killing the Dream: James Earl Ray and the Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.'' (Random House). The book concluded that confessed assassin, [[James Earl Ray]], killed Martin Luther King Jr. acting alone, likely for the hope of collecting a racist bounty for the murder.<ref name="Bernstein">{{cite news |last=Bernsteain |first=Richard |author-link=Richard Bernstein (journalist) |date=April 22, 1998 |title='Killing the Dream': Ray Was King's Lone Assassin |url=https://www.nytimes.com/books/98/04/19/daily/posner-book-review.html |newspaper=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=December 14, 2014}}</ref> Among other portions of his book, Posner tracked down for the first time the mysterious "Raoul", fingered by James Earl Ray as the mastermind of a conspiracy to kill King and to frame Ray. After setting out to settle Ray's Raoul story, Posner challenged as a hoax the widely printed conspiracy story that Green Beret snipers from the 20th Special Forces Group were in Memphis on the day of the assassination.<ref name="Bernstein"/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://mcadams.posc.mu.edu/parnell/killing.htm|title=Killing the Dream: A Review|access-date=October 6, 2016}}</ref><ref name="ReferenceA">{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/books/98/04/26/reviews/980426.26lewist.html |title=Beyond a Shadow of a Doubt|first=Anthony|last=Lewis|date=April 22, 1998| work=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref>

''Killing the Dream'' was the largest private reinvestigation of the King assassination in 30 years.<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/longterm/mlk/memphis/memphis.htm |title=The Truth About Memphis|first=Gerald|last=Posner|date=1998| newspaper=[[The Washington Post]] }}</ref> As was ''Case Closed'', ''Killing the Dream'' was widely praised and embraced by the mainstream press, and among the national broadcasts that featured the book included CBS' ''[[48 Hours (TV program|48 Hours]]'', ''Charlie Rose'' and ''TODAY''.{{citation needed|date=June 2017}}  Richard Bernstein in ''The New York Times'' wrote that the book was "the most comprehensive and definitive study of the King assassination to date.&nbsp;... He [Posner] has rendered a valuable service by putting the King murder under his magnifying glass. One finishes this book reassured that no dark secrets remain, that no unexplained details need bedevil the national composure."<ref name="Bernstein"/> Two-time Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and columnist, [[Anthony Lewis]], in ''[[The New York Times Book Review]]'', said: "With ''Killing the Dream'', he [Posner] has written a superb book: a model of investigation, meticulous in its discovery and presentation of evidence, unbiased in its exploration of every claim. And it is a wonderfully readable book, as gripping as a first-class detective story."<ref name="ReferenceA"/><ref>"Writing in the clear, forceful manner of a reporter in total command of his facts, Posner has produced&nbsp;... the definitive account of a landmark event." ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'', April 1998</ref><ref>"Prodigiously researched and painstakingly detailed. ''Savannah Morning News'', May 1988</ref><ref>"Combining fresh reporting with a careful review of the investigation, and using the common sense that is a scarce commodity in this field, Posner does for the King assassination what he did for the JFK killing in his book, 'Case Closed.'" ''[[USA Today]]'', April 1988</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=CNN - Books: Reviews -"Killing the Dream" - April 27, 1998 |url=http://edition.cnn.com/books/reviews/9804/27/killing.the.dream.cnn/index.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20021117104110/http://edition.cnn.com/books/reviews/9804/27/killing.the.dream.cnn/index.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=November 17, 2002 |access-date=2024-08-02 |website=CNN}}</ref><ref>"Posner's 'Killing the Dream; is a state-of-the-art review and reconsideration of everything that's known about Ray and the events that led up to King's assassination." "New 'leads' in King case invariably go nowhere," by David J. Garrow, ''The Atlanta Journal and Constitution'', Perspective Section, March 29, 1998, pp. C1–2.</ref>

On the other hand, conspiracy theorists bristled at ''Killing the Dream'', criticizing Posner for in part basing it on "a psychological evaluation of James Earl Ray, which he [Posner] is not qualified to give, and he dismisses evidence of conspiracy in King's murder as cynical attempts to exploit the tragedy".<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.umsl.edu/~thomaskp/mlk.htm|title=Martin Luther King|access-date=October 6, 2016}}</ref> William Pepper, Ray's final defense attorney, repeatedly dismissed Posner's book as inaccurate and misleading.  

Dexter King, one of Martin Luther King's sons, also criticized it.<ref>William F. Pepper. ''An Act of State'', rev. ed. (2008), Synopsis, by Mark K. Jensen, Scribd.</ref>  In 1999, the King family, represented by Pepper, brought a civil lawsuit in which a jury found evidence of a conspiracy involving [[Loyd Jowers]], the owner of a restaurant near the assassination site. In response to that verdict, Posner told ''The New York Times'', "It distresses me greatly that the legal system was used in such a callous and farcical manner in Memphis. If the King family wanted a rubber stamp of their own view of the facts, they got it."<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/12/09/us/memphis-jury-sees-conspiracy-in-martin-luther-king-s-killing.html | work=[[The New York Times]] | first=Emily | last=Yellin | title=Memphis Jury Sees Conspiracy in Martin Luther King's Killing | date=December 9, 1999}}</ref>