William Francis Pepper (August 16, 1937 – April 7, 2024) was an American lawyer who was based in New York City and noted for his efforts to prove government culpability and the innocence of James Earl Ray in the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.. Pepper also tried to prove the innocence of Sirhan Sirhan in the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy.

He was the author of several books, and had been active in other government conspiracy cases, including the 9/11 Truth movement,[1] and had advocated that George W. Bush be charged with war crimes.

[6] Pepper stated Martin Luther King Jr. contacted him after seeing his photo essay, The Children of Vietnam, which was published in the January 1967 issue of Ramparts magazine.

He discussed the theory from his book Orders to Kill: The Truth Behind the Murder of Martin Luther King Jr.

This theory that held that a hit team from the 20th special forces group was to kill King if a police sharpshooter failed.

This group was supposedly led by a man named Billy Eidson, who Pepper claimed had since been killed in a coverup.

Hypnosis expert Harvard Medical School professor Daniel P. Brown concluded that Sirhan did not act under his own volition and knowledge at the time of the shooting.

On March 30, 2016, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals denied a further appeal launched by Pepper, noting the appellant has not shown that "jurists of reason would find it debatable whether the petition states a valid claim of the denial of a constitutional right and that jurists of reason would find it debatable whether the district court was correct in its procedural ruling.