Widening Search

The search for Martin Luther King's killer spread in ever-widening circles. FBI and police investigators ran down leads in Memphis and Mexico, in Atlanta and Birmingham, in Dade County, Fla., Hamburg, Ark., and a dozen other localities.

Although the authorities attempted to maintain the strictest secrecy, some interlocking fragments of the investigation fell into place. One FBI agent allowed that "hundreds" of individuals were being checked. One name that surfaced--apparently because of an FBI slip--was that of Eric Starve Gait, 36, of Birmingham. The FBI put out an advisory to police, requesting that Gait be located though not arrested. When word leaked out in Dade County, the FBI rescinded the request but continued to ask questions at Gait's last known address, a Birmingham rooming house.

Same day in Atlanta, the FBI impounded a white 1966 Mustang bearing Alabama tag number 1-38993 and registered in Gait's name. It had been parked near a public-housing project since the morning after King's assassination. The killer is believed to have escaped in a white Mustang, and the FBI clearly thought that this was the assassin's car. It had been bought in Birmingham for $2,000 cash.

However, to make an overnight trip from Memphis to Atlanta--382 miles--in so conspicuous a car being sought by police would be almost as bold a move as the shooting itself. Adding to the confusion was a new report that there had been two white Mustangs parked near the rooming house on Memphis' South Main Street, the origin of the single fatal bullet.

Memphis, in fact, was shipping more conjecture than cotton last week. Although Attorney General Ramsey Clark had theorized that the assassin acted alone, rather than as part of a conspiracy, someone had sent false radio reports to Memphis police headquarters in the minutes immediately after the shooting. The messages could have been designed to divert police attention from the killer's escape route.

We're Struggling. The FBI also had the Remington .30-'06 pump-action rifle that someone had obligingly dropped outside the South Main Street rooming house. The FBI traced it to Birmingham--where it had been sold the day before the slaying--but whether it was really the murder weapon was uncertain. Clark initially hinted that a ballistic test had yielded positive results. Subsequent reports that the unjacketed slug had been too badly mashed for a definite comparison to be made went undenied. Whether the palm and thumbprints, thought to be the assassin's, were of any help was also kept secret. Other rumors died quickly, such as the one that had a Memphis police officer under secret arrest. Said Assistant Police Chief U. T. Bartholemew: "We're struggling."

For several days, Ramsey Clark made faintly optimistic predictions. But after a week, he said: "Agents are working around the clock pursuing every lead. Physical evidence is very substantial. While it remains impossible to predict when the killer will be arrested, I remain hopeful it will be soon." If, indeed, several persons plotted King's death, chances of solving the crime are enhanced simply because prospects of a blunder multiply. And one of them might be tempted to try to collect the $100,000 reward for the triggerman.

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