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The Advertiser
22-07-2025
- Politics
- The Advertiser
Trump releases Martin Luther King assassination files
The US Justice Department has released more than 240,000 pages of documents related to the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. The files include records from the FBI, which had surveilled the civil rights leader as part of an effort to discredit the Nobel Peace Prize winner. Files have been posted on the website of the National Archives, which said more would be released. King died of an assassin's bullet in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968, as he increasingly extended his attention from a nonviolent campaign for equal rights for African Americans to economic issues and calls for peace. His death shook the United States in a year that would also bring race riots, anti-Vietnam War demonstrations and the assassination of presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy. Earlier in 2025, US President Donald Trump's administration released thousands of pages of digital documents related to the assassinations of Robert Kennedy and former president John F Kennedy, who was killed in 1963. Trump promised on the campaign trail to provide more transparency about Kennedy's death. Upon taking office, he also ordered aides to present a plan for the release of records relating to the assassinations of Robert Kennedy and King. The FBI kept files on King in the 1950s and 1960s - even wiretapping his phones - because of what the bureau falsely said at the time were his suspected ties to communism during the Cold War between the US and Soviet Union. In recent years, the FBI has acknowledged that as an example of "abuse and overreach" in its history. The civil rights leader's family asked those who engage with the files to "do so with empathy, restraint, and respect for our family's continuing grief", and condemned "any attempts to misuse these documents". "Now more than ever, we must honour his sacrifice by committing ourselves to the realisation of his dream - a society rooted in compassion, unity, and equality," said a statement from King's family, including his two living children, Martin III, 67, and Bernice, 62. "During our father's lifetime, he was relentlessly targeted by an invasive, predatory, and deeply disturbing disinformation and surveillance campaign orchestrated by J Edgar Hoover through the Federal Bureau of Investigation," they said, referring to the then-FBI director. James Earl Ray, a segregationist and drifter, confessed to killing King but later recanted. He died in prison in 1998. King's family said it had filed a wrongful death civil lawsuit in Tennessee in 1999 that led to a jury unanimously concluding "that our father was the victim of a conspiracy involving Loyd Jowers and unnamed co-conspirators, including government agencies as a part of a wider scheme". "The verdict also affirmed that someone other than James Earl Ray was the shooter, and that Mr Ray was set up to take the blame. Our family views that verdict as an affirmation of our long-held beliefs." Jowers, once a Memphis police officer, told ABC's Prime Time Live in 1993 that he participated in a plot to kill King. A 2023 Justice Department report called his claims dubious. The US Justice Department has released more than 240,000 pages of documents related to the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. The files include records from the FBI, which had surveilled the civil rights leader as part of an effort to discredit the Nobel Peace Prize winner. Files have been posted on the website of the National Archives, which said more would be released. King died of an assassin's bullet in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968, as he increasingly extended his attention from a nonviolent campaign for equal rights for African Americans to economic issues and calls for peace. His death shook the United States in a year that would also bring race riots, anti-Vietnam War demonstrations and the assassination of presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy. Earlier in 2025, US President Donald Trump's administration released thousands of pages of digital documents related to the assassinations of Robert Kennedy and former president John F Kennedy, who was killed in 1963. Trump promised on the campaign trail to provide more transparency about Kennedy's death. Upon taking office, he also ordered aides to present a plan for the release of records relating to the assassinations of Robert Kennedy and King. The FBI kept files on King in the 1950s and 1960s - even wiretapping his phones - because of what the bureau falsely said at the time were his suspected ties to communism during the Cold War between the US and Soviet Union. In recent years, the FBI has acknowledged that as an example of "abuse and overreach" in its history. The civil rights leader's family asked those who engage with the files to "do so with empathy, restraint, and respect for our family's continuing grief", and condemned "any attempts to misuse these documents". "Now more than ever, we must honour his sacrifice by committing ourselves to the realisation of his dream - a society rooted in compassion, unity, and equality," said a statement from King's family, including his two living children, Martin III, 67, and Bernice, 62. "During our father's lifetime, he was relentlessly targeted by an invasive, predatory, and deeply disturbing disinformation and surveillance campaign orchestrated by J Edgar Hoover through the Federal Bureau of Investigation," they said, referring to the then-FBI director. James Earl Ray, a segregationist and drifter, confessed to killing King but later recanted. He died in prison in 1998. King's family said it had filed a wrongful death civil lawsuit in Tennessee in 1999 that led to a jury unanimously concluding "that our father was the victim of a conspiracy involving Loyd Jowers and unnamed co-conspirators, including government agencies as a part of a wider scheme". "The verdict also affirmed that someone other than James Earl Ray was the shooter, and that Mr Ray was set up to take the blame. Our family views that verdict as an affirmation of our long-held beliefs." Jowers, once a Memphis police officer, told ABC's Prime Time Live in 1993 that he participated in a plot to kill King. A 2023 Justice Department report called his claims dubious. The US Justice Department has released more than 240,000 pages of documents related to the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. The files include records from the FBI, which had surveilled the civil rights leader as part of an effort to discredit the Nobel Peace Prize winner. Files have been posted on the website of the National Archives, which said more would be released. King died of an assassin's bullet in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968, as he increasingly extended his attention from a nonviolent campaign for equal rights for African Americans to economic issues and calls for peace. His death shook the United States in a year that would also bring race riots, anti-Vietnam War demonstrations and the assassination of presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy. Earlier in 2025, US President Donald Trump's administration released thousands of pages of digital documents related to the assassinations of Robert Kennedy and former president John F Kennedy, who was killed in 1963. Trump promised on the campaign trail to provide more transparency about Kennedy's death. Upon taking office, he also ordered aides to present a plan for the release of records relating to the assassinations of Robert Kennedy and King. The FBI kept files on King in the 1950s and 1960s - even wiretapping his phones - because of what the bureau falsely said at the time were his suspected ties to communism during the Cold War between the US and Soviet Union. In recent years, the FBI has acknowledged that as an example of "abuse and overreach" in its history. The civil rights leader's family asked those who engage with the files to "do so with empathy, restraint, and respect for our family's continuing grief", and condemned "any attempts to misuse these documents". "Now more than ever, we must honour his sacrifice by committing ourselves to the realisation of his dream - a society rooted in compassion, unity, and equality," said a statement from King's family, including his two living children, Martin III, 67, and Bernice, 62. "During our father's lifetime, he was relentlessly targeted by an invasive, predatory, and deeply disturbing disinformation and surveillance campaign orchestrated by J Edgar Hoover through the Federal Bureau of Investigation," they said, referring to the then-FBI director. James Earl Ray, a segregationist and drifter, confessed to killing King but later recanted. He died in prison in 1998. King's family said it had filed a wrongful death civil lawsuit in Tennessee in 1999 that led to a jury unanimously concluding "that our father was the victim of a conspiracy involving Loyd Jowers and unnamed co-conspirators, including government agencies as a part of a wider scheme". "The verdict also affirmed that someone other than James Earl Ray was the shooter, and that Mr Ray was set up to take the blame. Our family views that verdict as an affirmation of our long-held beliefs." Jowers, once a Memphis police officer, told ABC's Prime Time Live in 1993 that he participated in a plot to kill King. A 2023 Justice Department report called his claims dubious. The US Justice Department has released more than 240,000 pages of documents related to the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. The files include records from the FBI, which had surveilled the civil rights leader as part of an effort to discredit the Nobel Peace Prize winner. Files have been posted on the website of the National Archives, which said more would be released. King died of an assassin's bullet in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968, as he increasingly extended his attention from a nonviolent campaign for equal rights for African Americans to economic issues and calls for peace. His death shook the United States in a year that would also bring race riots, anti-Vietnam War demonstrations and the assassination of presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy. Earlier in 2025, US President Donald Trump's administration released thousands of pages of digital documents related to the assassinations of Robert Kennedy and former president John F Kennedy, who was killed in 1963. Trump promised on the campaign trail to provide more transparency about Kennedy's death. Upon taking office, he also ordered aides to present a plan for the release of records relating to the assassinations of Robert Kennedy and King. The FBI kept files on King in the 1950s and 1960s - even wiretapping his phones - because of what the bureau falsely said at the time were his suspected ties to communism during the Cold War between the US and Soviet Union. In recent years, the FBI has acknowledged that as an example of "abuse and overreach" in its history. The civil rights leader's family asked those who engage with the files to "do so with empathy, restraint, and respect for our family's continuing grief", and condemned "any attempts to misuse these documents". "Now more than ever, we must honour his sacrifice by committing ourselves to the realisation of his dream - a society rooted in compassion, unity, and equality," said a statement from King's family, including his two living children, Martin III, 67, and Bernice, 62. "During our father's lifetime, he was relentlessly targeted by an invasive, predatory, and deeply disturbing disinformation and surveillance campaign orchestrated by J Edgar Hoover through the Federal Bureau of Investigation," they said, referring to the then-FBI director. James Earl Ray, a segregationist and drifter, confessed to killing King but later recanted. He died in prison in 1998. King's family said it had filed a wrongful death civil lawsuit in Tennessee in 1999 that led to a jury unanimously concluding "that our father was the victim of a conspiracy involving Loyd Jowers and unnamed co-conspirators, including government agencies as a part of a wider scheme". "The verdict also affirmed that someone other than James Earl Ray was the shooter, and that Mr Ray was set up to take the blame. Our family views that verdict as an affirmation of our long-held beliefs." Jowers, once a Memphis police officer, told ABC's Prime Time Live in 1993 that he participated in a plot to kill King. A 2023 Justice Department report called his claims dubious.
Perth Now
22-07-2025
- Politics
- Perth Now
Trump releases Martin Luther King assassination files
The US Justice Department has released more than 240,000 pages of documents related to the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. The files include records from the FBI, which had surveilled the civil rights leader as part of an effort to discredit the Nobel Peace Prize winner. Files have been posted on the website of the National Archives, which said more would be released. King died of an assassin's bullet in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968, as he increasingly extended his attention from a nonviolent campaign for equal rights for African Americans to economic issues and calls for peace. His death shook the United States in a year that would also bring race riots, anti-Vietnam War demonstrations and the assassination of presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy. Earlier in 2025, US President Donald Trump's administration released thousands of pages of digital documents related to the assassinations of Robert Kennedy and former president John F Kennedy, who was killed in 1963. Trump promised on the campaign trail to provide more transparency about Kennedy's death. Upon taking office, he also ordered aides to present a plan for the release of records relating to the assassinations of Robert Kennedy and King. The FBI kept files on King in the 1950s and 1960s - even wiretapping his phones - because of what the bureau falsely said at the time were his suspected ties to communism during the Cold War between the US and Soviet Union. In recent years, the FBI has acknowledged that as an example of "abuse and overreach" in its history. The civil rights leader's family asked those who engage with the files to "do so with empathy, restraint, and respect for our family's continuing grief", and condemned "any attempts to misuse these documents". "Now more than ever, we must honour his sacrifice by committing ourselves to the realisation of his dream - a society rooted in compassion, unity, and equality," said a statement from King's family, including his two living children, Martin III, 67, and Bernice, 62. "During our father's lifetime, he was relentlessly targeted by an invasive, predatory, and deeply disturbing disinformation and surveillance campaign orchestrated by J Edgar Hoover through the Federal Bureau of Investigation," they said, referring to the then-FBI director. James Earl Ray, a segregationist and drifter, confessed to killing King but later recanted. He died in prison in 1998. King's family said it had filed a wrongful death civil lawsuit in Tennessee in 1999 that led to a jury unanimously concluding "that our father was the victim of a conspiracy involving Loyd Jowers and unnamed co-conspirators, including government agencies as a part of a wider scheme". "The verdict also affirmed that someone other than James Earl Ray was the shooter, and that Mr Ray was set up to take the blame. Our family views that verdict as an affirmation of our long-held beliefs." Jowers, once a Memphis police officer, told ABC's Prime Time Live in 1993 that he participated in a plot to kill King. A 2023 Justice Department report called his claims dubious.
Otago Daily Times
29-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Otago Daily Times
Obituary: Jesse Colin Young, musician
Jesse Colin Young performs at City Winery on July 11, 2018 in New York City. Jesse Colin Young was a prolific musician but remained forever best-known for one of his earliest releases, The Youngbloods' era-defining cover of Dino Valenti's Get Together. A modest hit when first released in 1967, it caught fire when re-released two years later and quickly became an anthem of the anti-Vietnam War movement. New York-born Young said he never tired of performing the song because people always sang the chorus: "Come on, people now/Smile on your brother/Everybody get together/Try to love one another right now". Young, previously a solo artist, formed The Youngbloods as a duo with Jerry Corbitt in the mid-60s. The Youngbloods split in 1972 and Young, once more a soloist, released a string of well-received albums and was a touring opening act for the likes of the Eagles and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. He released his final album in 2020 and was still touring up until two years ago. Jesse Colin Young died on March 16 aged 83. — APL/agencies
Sydney Morning Herald
14-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
What happened to Harold Holt? A new novel puts his widow in the spotlight
Kim Wilkins' eyes mist up suddenly. 'I'm going to get a little teary. It's just, Harold Holt's been a bit of a punchline. 'So when I read Zara's memoir, and she talks about the day that he disappears, I finally got that this was a real human being with children, grandchildren and a wife who had loved him for 40 years.' Dame Zara Holt's memoir, My Life and Harry, came out in the wake of the 1967 disappearance of Australia's 17th prime minister while he was swimming at Cheviot Beach in Portsea, Victoria. Toowong-based novelist Wilkins read it after a friend in publishing told her about Zara during a discussion of overlooked women in Australian history. 'This woman was incredible, and I barely knew about her,' Wilkins says. 'She was clever and entrepreneurial, and a really talented designer. She was 19 when she started her first fashion house with her best friend. 'I read her memoir and I thought, oh, there's a novel in this.' That novel is The Secret Year of Zara Holt, Wilkins' new book under her nom de plume, Kimberley Freeman. Wilkins – let's call her Freeman for clarity – is a University of Queensland academic who has somehow found the time to publish more than 30 novels under two names. Her new book covers the life of Zara, nee Dickins, from the night she met Holt at a college dance in Melbourne in 1927 until his fateful swim 40 years later. Speculation about Holt's fate has ranged from a Chinese spy submarine supposedly plucking him from Bass Strait to assassination by the CIA. Some believe he faked his death. Freeman weaves her own theory into her novel, based on what she learned about Zara and Harry's personalities and marriage. 'Harry obviously had commitment issues, and it's well known that he had multiple affairs, even after he and Zara were married. 'He was with his long-term mistress on the beach that day, but he was seeing many other women. No wonder he and [US president Lyndon B. Johnson] got on so well, because LBJ was exactly the same.' Magg, Zara's fashion boutique with friend Betty James, showcased a prodigious talent for design – a collection of her outfits is held at the National Gallery of Victoria. She also contributed to the war effort with innovative ideas while working for her father's food manufacturing business. She had three children before finally marrying Holt, then a rising star in Robert Menzies' cabinet. Zara would bring style to the role of prime minister's wife in the same way Jackie Kennedy added stardust to JFK's White House. Ultimately, she cut an equally tragic figure. Holt came to power when Menzies retired, won the 1966 election and governed for 22 months. His much-reviled 'all the way with LBJ' line outraged Australia's anti-Vietnam War movement. Still, Freeman did not expect to admire Holt's political career as much as she did. 'I'm a member of the Labor Party. And reading about Holt and Menzies blew my mind. That's not the Liberal Party that I see today. 'Holt got through things like the referendum for citizenship for Aboriginal people. He started to dismantle the White Australia policy. And the Child Endowment [Act] – Zara was so proud of that. Politics was very different back then.' Freeman was born in Lewisham, a notoriously rough part of South London that birthed the likes of Alexander McQueen and Sid Vicious. Another Lewisham native, Kate Bush, comes to mind when meeting Freeman, whose witchy sense of personal style features a lot of black. Her New Zealand dad and Papua New Guinea-born mum moved to Redcliffe when she was a toddler. Flunking out of high school to work at Big Rooster and sing in a covers band, she came into academia late after a stint in the public service. Her first tutorial in Elizabethan literature 'took the top of my head off'. 'I did a double major in medieval and early modern literature. The medieval literature has really stuck with me. That's the stuff that really makes my engines run.' She published her first Kim Wilkins novel in 1997 as an undergraduate. The Infernal, a reincarnation drama with witches, found an audience with the Anne Rice-Stephenie Meyer set. 'Under my own name, the books I write inevitably have something supernatural and dark and Gothic about them,' she explains. 'The Kimberley Freeman books, they're like adventure stories for women, and they're historical. They indulge my love of fashion from different periods, which is why I was so drawn to write about Zara.' As Freeman, her 2008 book Wildflower Hill, a multi-era novel in the mould of A.S. Byatt's Possession, almost broke her big, with translations into 20 different languages. 'I used to write like a book a year, and now that I've slowed down a bit, I'm enjoying it much more.' In writing about Zara's first marriage to a British army colonel, she had to invent most details as information was scarce. Zara's final marriage, to Macarthur MP Jeff Bate, is left offstage. As for Harold Holt, Freeman believes the PM was caught up in his 'own mystique'. 'There was that famous photo of him with his daughters-in-law – they were all in bikinis, and he was in a wetsuit going spear fishing. And he looked like James Bond.' As Freeman writes about them, the Holts are Australia's great prime ministerial love story. 'It's clear there were sexual fireworks, because they kept coming back together.' They had a sentimental attachment to Bingil Bay, North Queensland, where artist friends John and Alison Busst lived, and where they eventually owned a holiday house. Freeman admits her depiction of the Holts smoking marijuana there is sheer speculation. 'We don't know that the Holts smoked weed, but it was the '60s and I inferred that from the people that they were hanging around with. I just can't imagine that they didn't.'
The Age
14-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Age
What happened to Harold Holt? A new novel puts his widow in the spotlight
Kim Wilkins' eyes mist up suddenly. 'I'm going to get a little teary. It's just, Harold Holt's been a bit of a punchline. 'So when I read Zara's memoir, and she talks about the day that he disappears, I finally got that this was a real human being with children, grandchildren and a wife who had loved him for 40 years.' Dame Zara Holt's memoir, My Life and Harry, came out in the wake of the 1967 disappearance of Australia's 17th prime minister while he was swimming at Cheviot Beach in Portsea, Victoria. Toowong-based novelist Wilkins read it after a friend in publishing told her about Zara during a discussion of overlooked women in Australian history. 'This woman was incredible, and I barely knew about her,' Wilkins says. 'She was clever and entrepreneurial, and a really talented designer. She was 19 when she started her first fashion house with her best friend. 'I read her memoir and I thought, oh, there's a novel in this.' That novel is The Secret Year of Zara Holt, Wilkins' new book under her nom de plume, Kimberley Freeman. Wilkins – let's call her Freeman for clarity – is a University of Queensland academic who has somehow found the time to publish more than 30 novels under two names. Her new book covers the life of Zara, nee Dickins, from the night she met Holt at a college dance in Melbourne in 1927 until his fateful swim 40 years later. Speculation about Holt's fate has ranged from a Chinese spy submarine supposedly plucking him from Bass Strait to assassination by the CIA. Some believe he faked his death. Freeman weaves her own theory into her novel, based on what she learned about Zara and Harry's personalities and marriage. 'Harry obviously had commitment issues, and it's well known that he had multiple affairs, even after he and Zara were married. 'He was with his long-term mistress on the beach that day, but he was seeing many other women. No wonder he and [US president Lyndon B. Johnson] got on so well, because LBJ was exactly the same.' Magg, Zara's fashion boutique with friend Betty James, showcased a prodigious talent for design – a collection of her outfits is held at the National Gallery of Victoria. She also contributed to the war effort with innovative ideas while working for her father's food manufacturing business. She had three children before finally marrying Holt, then a rising star in Robert Menzies' cabinet. Zara would bring style to the role of prime minister's wife in the same way Jackie Kennedy added stardust to JFK's White House. Ultimately, she cut an equally tragic figure. Holt came to power when Menzies retired, won the 1966 election and governed for 22 months. His much-reviled 'all the way with LBJ' line outraged Australia's anti-Vietnam War movement. Still, Freeman did not expect to admire Holt's political career as much as she did. 'I'm a member of the Labor Party. And reading about Holt and Menzies blew my mind. That's not the Liberal Party that I see today. 'Holt got through things like the referendum for citizenship for Aboriginal people. He started to dismantle the White Australia policy. And the Child Endowment [Act] – Zara was so proud of that. Politics was very different back then.' Freeman was born in Lewisham, a notoriously rough part of South London that birthed the likes of Alexander McQueen and Sid Vicious. Another Lewisham native, Kate Bush, comes to mind when meeting Freeman, whose witchy sense of personal style features a lot of black. Her New Zealand dad and Papua New Guinea-born mum moved to Redcliffe when she was a toddler. Flunking out of high school to work at Big Rooster and sing in a covers band, she came into academia late after a stint in the public service. Her first tutorial in Elizabethan literature 'took the top of my head off'. 'I did a double major in medieval and early modern literature. The medieval literature has really stuck with me. That's the stuff that really makes my engines run.' She published her first Kim Wilkins novel in 1997 as an undergraduate. The Infernal, a reincarnation drama with witches, found an audience with the Anne Rice-Stephenie Meyer set. 'Under my own name, the books I write inevitably have something supernatural and dark and Gothic about them,' she explains. 'The Kimberley Freeman books, they're like adventure stories for women, and they're historical. They indulge my love of fashion from different periods, which is why I was so drawn to write about Zara.' As Freeman, her 2008 book Wildflower Hill, a multi-era novel in the mould of A.S. Byatt's Possession, almost broke her big, with translations into 20 different languages. 'I used to write like a book a year, and now that I've slowed down a bit, I'm enjoying it much more.' In writing about Zara's first marriage to a British army colonel, she had to invent most details as information was scarce. Zara's final marriage, to Macarthur MP Jeff Bate, is left offstage. As for Harold Holt, Freeman believes the PM was caught up in his 'own mystique'. 'There was that famous photo of him with his daughters-in-law – they were all in bikinis, and he was in a wetsuit going spear fishing. And he looked like James Bond.' As Freeman writes about them, the Holts are Australia's great prime ministerial love story. 'It's clear there were sexual fireworks, because they kept coming back together.' They had a sentimental attachment to Bingil Bay, North Queensland, where artist friends John and Alison Busst lived, and where they eventually owned a holiday house. Freeman admits her depiction of the Holts smoking marijuana there is sheer speculation. 'We don't know that the Holts smoked weed, but it was the '60s and I inferred that from the people that they were hanging around with. I just can't imagine that they didn't.'
