Gary Revel - Man of Mystery

I have been following the exploits of Gary Revel since 1977 when he was a subject of a Chicago newspaper article. According to the article he had written and recorded a song (They Slew The Dreamer) about the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. I made a few calls and found that he was a songwriter in Nashville who had some kind of partnership relationship with Jack Kershaw, attorney for James Earl Ray.

He had released a single record of the song on the Rebel Label (owned by Kershaw) and in a few years included it on an album titled ‘Revel' on the Star City Records, Inc. label (not owned by Kershaw). After that he dropped out of sight for several years.

The next time I began to see his name was in 1998 and it was related to a movie that he was making with an independent movie director named Bill Sachs. The articles from a few different newspapers made a vague promise about his movie and how it would answer the question of who killed King. Now the real story was that while he was known to be a songwriter in Nashville many years before he was actually a special investigator trying to expose the conspiracies of the Martin Luther King Jr., John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy assassinations.

Tennessee State Prison officials that I have talked to conclude that for the typical Nashville songwriter to gain an audience with James Earl Ray in 1977 would have been a miraculous feat and so the special investigator angle seems to make more sense.

After all these years now there is a buzz in New York City and Hollywood that is spilling out onto the internet that Sony Corporation of America has gained some kind of inside role in bringing some sense to all this. They bought Acuff-Rose Music a few years ago. It turns out that Acuff-Rose owned the copyright to the song "They Slew The Dreamer" that Gary had written. Now Sony stockholders see their chance to actually be on the receiving end of some commercial success of the tragic event of April 4, 1968. So we see Gary may become the subject of a big Hollywood movie that would finally expose the real killers of King, JFK and RFK.

As mysterious as this thing has been over the years I really wouldn't be surprised if such a movie were to actually be released someday. After all "They Slew The Dreamer" was recorded and released in an environment where it would appear all the odds were against him. It's use of the word ‘They' instead of the US Government's authorized ‘He' has been a matter of debate ever since. I've tried to talk to Sony, Bill Sachs, Jack Kershaw and members of the King family about this but there all tight-lipped about it. Of course no one was willing to say a special investigator was going to write a song about his investigation of the King assassination and release it for all the world to hear either.

About the Author

Born in Chicago in the early 50's. Lived in Chicago, New York City, Los Angeles and Nashville, Tennessee working as a freelance journalist and ghostwriter for celebrities.