ATLANTA -- Almost 41 years to the day after the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, newly published photographs of the aftermath of his shooting at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tenn., are on a magazine's Web site.
About a dozen black-and-white pictures published on www.life.com today include scenes of King's associates meeting solemnly in the civil rights leader's motel room, standing on the balcony where he stood for the last time, and workers cleaning the last of the blood.
They were taken April 4, 1968, by "Life" photographer Henry Groskinsky, who was on assignment in Alabama with writer Mike Silva when they learned that King had been shot in Memphis and rushed to the scene.
To their surprise, they had access not just to the motel but to King's room.
"I was very discreet. I shot just enough to document what was going on. I didn't want to make a nuisance of myself," the 75-year-old Groskinsky said in the caption to a photo showing a group of King's associates, including Andrew Young and the Rev. Ralph Abernathy, assembled inside the room.
"It's very somber, and there I am with a flash camera. So I took a couple of pictures and just kind of backed off," Groskinsky said.
There was no explanation on the Web site of why the photographs have not been published before now. A phone number for Groskinsky could not be obtained to reach him for comment tonight night. Attempts to reach representatives from Time & Life and Getty Images were unsuccessful.
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