 Yesterday, as you no doubt heard in the news, the Assassinations Committee of the House of Representatives began its first formal investigation hearings into the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Tomorrow in Washington, James Earl Ray, convicted in the assassination of Dr. King, will be testifying. We're going to be hearing a lot in the days ahead from the usual coalition of black leaders and lawyers representing James Earl Ray, suggesting that he was not in fact guilty alone, that he was part of a larger conspiracy to kill Dr. King. Well, NBC News correspondent Don Harris has been looking into these claims, and this morning here on today, he has this report. Under the terms of the law, James Earl Ray is guilty of killing Martin Luther King Jr. In March of 1969, he entered a guilty plea and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. At the trial, the district attorney told the court that he had a witness who saw Ray run from this bathroom from which the killing shot was fired down this hallway toward the stairs. Outside the building, and just a few feet down the street in front of this door, a bundle was discovered. In the bundle, there was a rifle with one fired cartridge casing in the chamber. Ray's fingerprints were on the rifle, and it was of the same caliber as that used in the assassination. Two in the bundle were several other items, including binoculars and some clothing that belonged to James Earl Ray. Ray acknowledges that he was in Memphis, that he bought the rifle, that the other items in the bundle were his, and even the fact that he rented a room in the boarding house, number five, just down the hallway from the bathroom from which the shot was fired. Now, James Earl Ray says he did not kill Martin Luther King, that though he didn't know it at the time, he was involved in the conspiracy, but that he didn't pull the trigger. Two men to whom Ray had written letters denying he was the assassin went to visit Ray in prison last week. The Reverend Jesse Jackson, who was on King's SELC staff and traveling with him in Memphis, and the Reverend James Lawson, who organized the marches in Memphis in 1968. After they had talked to Ray, I asked if they believed he was the killer. I do not. I have profound doubt that he killed Dr. King. I am convinced that he was not involved alone. We went with Reverend Lawson back to Memphis, Tennessee, walked again through the neighborhood where King was killed. We went to talk to some witnesses that Lawson believed could prove Ray was not the killer. We have witnesses who say that James Earl Ray was not in the boarding house or in the bathroom when the shot was fired. The witness who could testify that Ray was not the man in the bathroom said Lawson was Grace Walden. When King was killed, she lived in the room next to the bathroom from which the shot was fired. It was her common law husband, Charlie Stevens, who told police that he saw Ray run from the bathroom. Grace Walden says Stevens was lying. Charles Stevens was a junkie who couldn't see his own face like no one else's. But you could see the man pretty good. Yes. Was the man James Earl Ray? No. Several witnesses agree with Grace Walden that Charlie Stevens was drunk at the time of the shooting. But both Grace Walden and Charlie Stevens have told different stories at different times. Walden said in a statement made on the night of the shooting that the man she saw run from the bathroom was a white man, not much taller than she is. She reportedly told the FBI she saw nothing. Now she says, Charlie picked James Earl Ray here. I don't think the man looked anything like him. First place to think he was a nigger. You think the man you saw was a nigger? She was destroyed by the state of Tennessee as a witness. James Earl Ray's attorney says the contradictions in Grace Walden's statement are understandable because of the heavy dosages of drugs she was given at a mental hospital. Lane says Grace was put into a mental institution and kept there for nine years because she refused to identify Ray as the man in the bathroom. The hospital records show that when she was placed in the institution they decided that she probably should be kept there until after the trial of James Earl Ray. That's some medical diagnosis. There were other witnesses, Reverend Lawson and Mark Lane thought we ought to talk with. We now have three, the affidavits of three Memphis witnesses who saw him at the gasoline station approximately between the hours of 5.15 and 6.30. Ray's lawyer showed us transcripts of taped conversations with two people who said they saw Ray at a service station at the time of the murder. But when we attempted to talk with those witnesses we found that one had died of natural causes a few days ago. The other denied ever making such a statement or that he'd ever seen James Earl Ray. Still, there is that taped conversation. The third no one could find, not Reverend Lawson, not Ray's attorney and not us. Reverend Lawson and Jesse Jackson and a number of other people still believe James Earl Ray should have a new trial. They believe there was a conspiracy to murder Martin Luther King and that the FBI was somehow involved. The many memos and strategies of the FBI to disrupt, to destroy, and I'm using words from their memos, the civil rights movement to neutralize and destroy the character of Dr. King and so forth. So that at least in my own mind I suspect that the FBI had some involvement in the death of Dr. King and the assassination of Dr. King. Really, Reverend Lawson? They had, by all means, the best motive. Mark Lane says that his client, James Earl Ray, had no motive, that Ray is not a racist. Reverend Lawson, incidentally, agrees. Lane said that Ray had been forced by law enforcement officials to enter a plea of guilty. In fact, if you would ask James Earl Ray today, you say you didn't do it, why should I believe you? His answer would be, as it has been on numerous occasions the past, you shouldn't believe me, we should have a trial. If Ray were convicted in a new trial, either of pulling the trigger or of knowingly taking part in the conspiracy to kill King, he could be executed. If Ray were acquitted in a new trial, the case would be unsolved and reopened. In any event, for those people who believe that the truth about the murder of Martin Luther King has never been told, a new trial seems to be the best way to get at that truth. Don Harris, NBC News, Memphis, Tennessee. Almost seven minutes before the hour now, and standby in Saginaw, Michigan, because in just a few moments Dick Schaff will be along with a sportsman of the week of special interest to that area. First this message.