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Things Done Changed is a political and cultural history of America in the 1990s. You can subscribe and listen to Things Done Changed wherever you listen to podcasts. Listen on iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/podcast/id1435512237    

Finale. The Contra cocaine pipeline is detailed by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Gary Webb in 1996, but the CIA, once again, works to suppress the new revelations. From beginning to end, the CIA worked to manipulate public opinion and sell citizens and Congress disinformation about what was happening in Central America.

Reagan is forced back in front of the American people to confess yet more after the first, partial Iran-Contra investigation releases its findings in early 1987. But quietly, another Senate investigation, led by a young John Kerry, is amassing evidence of widespread cocaine trafficking by Reagan's Contras. Meanwhile, Reagan is revving up his War on Drugs by targeting black users of a new drug, crack cocaine. The drug "war" sets the United States on its course to become the most incarcerated nation on earth. SUPPORT THE CRUX AT www.patreon.com/thecrux

North and Secord's profitable arms sales to Iran ramp up through the beginning of 1986, providing much needed funds to the Enterprise, still struggling against the Boland Amendment's drought in Contra funding. But getting weapons to Central America still proves difficult. But North will discover a new way to deliver weapons into the field, involving even shadier characters. The Enterprise is now firmly ensconced in a world of terrorists, assassins and narcotraffickers. SUPPORT THE CRUX www.patreon.com/thecrux

In the wake of revelations that the CIA was mining a civilian harbor in Nicaragua, congress makes Reagan and his CIA's aiding of the Contras illegal and finally cut off funding. But Reagan tells his men to somehow sustain the Contras during the funding drought, a directive that will lead the White House further and further into criminality. In an effort to skirt the new congressional restrictions, Lt. Col. Oliver North emerges as the new effective commander of the Contras, establishing "The Enterprise" to act as a shadowy arms dealer and illicit fundraiser. After approaching some of the worst governments in the world for Contra cash, North's team hit upon the idea of selling arms to Iran and diverting the profits "The Enterprise." SUPPORT THE CRUX www.patreon.com/thecrux

The Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua leads President Reagan to direct his CIA to create the Contra army, a small force of Nicaraguans who oppose the new government. SUPPORT THE CRUX! www.patreon.com/thecrux

An unprepared celebrity president takes office, and life is about to change for poor and working class Americans, especially black folks. PLEASE SUPPORT THE CRUX ON PATREON! https://www.patreon.com/thecrux FOR MORE INFO VISIT http://www.thecruxpodcast.com/    

Conclusion. James' brother Jerry spoke of "millions of Rays" who might be radicalized by white supremacist culture. How different is 2016 than 1968?

Why are conspiracy theories so attractive? And if there is no conspiracy, is the lone gunman the only one who shoulders blame? How far does culpability extend? To answer that question we have to look at how James Earl Ray was radicalized by right-wing voices and determine whether guilt extends to those who stoke hatred and resentment. Enter Governor George Wallace.

Why is Ray caught on his way to Rhodesia?

Is the Director of the Memphis PD, the former FBI man close to J. Edgar Hoover, in on the conspiracy? The behavior of the Memphis PD on April 4, 1968 is, at the very least, racist negligence. But many see the apparent unwillingness to pursue the assassin as a necessary piece of an FBI-led scheme.

With Loyd Jowers’ revelations, the conspiracy starts to take shape. But how is James Earl Ray steered to be the fall guy? How do you get the patsy into position, into the trap? And without him suspecting anything. Enter Raoul.

The State's chief witness, a drunk who the prosecution claims can place James Earl Ray at the flop house at the time of the assassination, is a total disaster. Meanwhile, more witnesses begin to describe a mysterious hooded figure in the thicket just below the boarding house.

On April 4, 1967--exactly one year before his assassination--King gives a speech that sets him on collision course with the United States government. In a monumental address in August, King defiantly calls out the FBI’s harassment of himself and the movement, but in King’s last weeks his friends and colleagues are concerned about a new worried distraction in him. Ralph Abernathy even makes inquiries into whether or not the FBI had threatened King again.

King is collecting enemies in the government in 1967 and 1968. Both the FBI and the Pentagon are hunting King, tracking his every move and searching for ways to neutralize his radicalizing influence. Both the Pentagon and FBI intensify their surveillance and tracking of King, as he boldly denounces the growing war in Vietnam and plans what can only be called a socialist revolution to begin in the spring of 1968. King announces a multi-racial campaign to indefinitely occupy Washington, D.C. until demands are met to end American capitalism as we know it, with the “total, direct and immediate abolition of poverty” for all Americans of all races.

Episode 1 begins the investigation into Martin Luther King's assassination, with the FBI's suspect racing from Memphis just moments after King was shot. Who was this James Earl Ray? And why did Coretta Scott King and King's closest friends and associates suspect that the FBI itself—and not Ray—was behind the murder?