WEBVTT - The Death Slug [6] 0:00:00.640 --> 0:00:03.559 Welcome to the MLK Tapes, a production of I Heart 0:00:03.600 --> 0:00:07.360 Radio and Tenderfoot TV. The views and opinions expressed in 0:00:07.400 --> 0:00:10.559 this podcast are solely those of the podcast author or 0:00:10.600 --> 0:00:14.280 individuals participating in the podcast, and do not represent those 0:00:14.320 --> 0:00:18.720 of I Heart Media, Tenderfoot TV, or their employees. Listener 0:00:18.760 --> 0:00:25.080 discretion is advised to understand the context of this killing. 0:00:25.200 --> 0:00:30.280 You should understand that Emmett Till, Medgar Evers, for civil 0:00:30.360 --> 0:00:33.760 rights workers who were buried in the levee, We're all 0:00:33.920 --> 0:00:39.040 slain within about fifty or sixty miles of Memphis. Memphis 0:00:39.280 --> 0:00:43.320 as an interesting reputation of being the first degree murder 0:00:43.440 --> 0:00:47.159 capital of America. And in that context we're not talking 0:00:47.200 --> 0:00:52.960 about street crime but organized land hits. So that explains 0:00:53.000 --> 0:00:57.040 why this. If you were gonna kill somebody, Memphis was 0:00:57.760 --> 0:01:00.960 the place to do it, and you pull off the killing, 0:01:01.120 --> 0:01:04.160 and meanwhile, some other folks have done the skull duggery 0:01:04.200 --> 0:01:06.800 and got some SAPs set up to take the dive 0:01:07.800 --> 0:01:17.360 and fifty years later argue about who did what I 0:01:17.440 --> 0:01:20.480 called the Union Hall. I said, a matter of life 0:01:20.480 --> 0:01:23.600 and death. I said, I think these people are planning 0:01:23.640 --> 0:01:27.800 to kill Dr King. The authorities were parade. Oh, we 0:01:27.880 --> 0:01:31.199 found a gun that James ol Ray bought in Birmingham 0:01:31.400 --> 0:01:35.000 that killed Dr King. Except it wasn't the gun that 0:01:35.080 --> 0:01:41.080 killed Dr King. James Lay was upon for the official 0:01:41.240 --> 0:01:46.119 story from My Heart Radio intended for TV. The plan 0:01:46.560 --> 0:01:50.840 was to get King to the city because they wanted 0:01:50.840 --> 0:01:53.240 it handled. In Memphis were dead and in cat Hamon 0:01:53.920 --> 0:01:56.440 and I have lived with it so long, my sion, 0:01:56.440 --> 0:02:00.200 and they scared for me. The Lord told me to 0:02:00.320 --> 0:02:02.600 not the word. I've been want to tell it all 0:02:02.680 --> 0:02:08.040 my life on Bill Claybourn and this is the MLK tapes. 0:02:14.639 --> 0:02:17.280 At the top of this episode, we heard Judge Joe 0:02:17.320 --> 0:02:22.640 Brown speaking at AEEN symposium at Duquesne University marking the 0:02:22.680 --> 0:02:27.120 fiftieth anniversary of the assassinations of Martin King and Robert Kennedy. 0:02:27.840 --> 0:02:31.160 Judge Brown had just completed a fifteen year run as 0:02:31.160 --> 0:02:34.799 a judge on a TV reality show, but before that 0:02:35.200 --> 0:02:37.440 he had been a real judge in Tennessee and had 0:02:37.480 --> 0:02:40.079 presided over the last attempt to get James Earl Ray 0:02:40.160 --> 0:02:43.400 a trial. That case had been brought by Bill Pepper, 0:02:43.800 --> 0:02:46.120 Ray's attorney at the time, and from the stage of 0:02:46.120 --> 0:02:50.080 the same symposium, Pepper spoke about Judge Brown and those 0:02:50.080 --> 0:02:55.040 events of some twenty years before. We were very pleased 0:02:55.080 --> 0:02:58.079 to have Judge Brown on the bench because finally there 0:02:58.160 --> 0:03:02.400 was an impartial object of and I might say courageous 0:03:02.440 --> 0:03:05.960 man up there who was prepared to do what he 0:03:06.000 --> 0:03:11.640 believed was right. No better expert on ballistics did we 0:03:11.760 --> 0:03:17.120 find anywhere than Judge Brown. Judge Brown was indeed an 0:03:17.120 --> 0:03:19.760 expert when it came to guns, and when he spoke 0:03:19.840 --> 0:03:22.320 that day on the shooting of King, he focused on 0:03:22.400 --> 0:03:26.800 race rifle. Was it really the murder weapon? But before 0:03:26.800 --> 0:03:29.760 we get to forensics, the race of twist lands and 0:03:29.800 --> 0:03:32.560 grooves and all that, let's hear what Brown had to 0:03:32.600 --> 0:03:34.600 say about what it was like to be black in 0:03:34.680 --> 0:03:38.720 Memphis in the bad old days. Joe Brown had a 0:03:38.800 --> 0:03:41.880 unique perspective because he had not grown up in Tennessee. 0:03:42.560 --> 0:03:45.640 He had come of age in sunny California, and after 0:03:45.720 --> 0:03:48.240 law school at U c. L A. He accepted a 0:03:48.320 --> 0:03:53.320 challenging legal fellowship in the nation's heartland. Joe Brown arrived 0:03:53.360 --> 0:03:57.320 in Memphis in nineteen seventy three. He noticed the difference 0:03:57.400 --> 0:04:03.720 right away. Appeared for one of the poverty law centers 0:04:03.760 --> 0:04:06.640 I was working at with five clients at the local 0:04:06.720 --> 0:04:11.680 juvenile court. The judge, who had a sixth grade education, 0:04:11.720 --> 0:04:14.760 he dropped out of the sixth grade, thought I was 0:04:14.840 --> 0:04:17.520 on his docket and he called me the inn words. 0:04:17.560 --> 0:04:21.800 So we had at it. But that was the attitude. 0:04:22.960 --> 0:04:27.120 And I've actually been in court rooms in front of 0:04:27.120 --> 0:04:31.159 a jury and the judge used the in word to 0:04:31.279 --> 0:04:35.919 the jury in describing um some of the defendants on trial. 0:04:36.680 --> 0:04:41.080 So it's not unusual now. I also happened to be 0:04:41.120 --> 0:04:44.120 the first black prosecutor for the city in Memphis, and 0:04:44.240 --> 0:04:49.240 one of the interesting, rather disgusting charges that I would 0:04:49.320 --> 0:04:53.080 see on records when I would be asked to make 0:04:53.120 --> 0:04:58.120 an offer on something was something like this reckless eyeballing 0:04:58.200 --> 0:05:01.000 by a colored person. That's a quote on what the 0:05:01.120 --> 0:05:06.360 charge was, colored person refusing to remove from sidewalk for 0:05:06.480 --> 0:05:11.239 passage of white person. This was the interesting one, acting 0:05:11.360 --> 0:05:16.080 too colored in public. So I would see these kind 0:05:16.080 --> 0:05:22.240 of charges on people's rap sheets, and that was the atmosphere. 0:05:22.240 --> 0:05:25.400 In the early nineteen seventies, you still had that thing 0:05:25.520 --> 0:05:29.960 going on. And describing his shock at Landing and what 0:05:30.120 --> 0:05:33.120 for him was the wild West, Judge Brown recalled a 0:05:33.120 --> 0:05:37.360 particular evening in a Memphis courtroom. Well, we had this 0:05:37.440 --> 0:05:42.840 old guy late eighties maybe early nineties, and he was 0:05:42.920 --> 0:05:45.600 on the dockets. So I asked the judge if I 0:05:45.640 --> 0:05:49.680 could advance the case since the arresting officer was coming 0:05:49.720 --> 0:05:53.159 in that evening on a traffic matter. So the judge 0:05:53.200 --> 0:05:56.479 gave me permission. I got the file jacket brought to 0:05:56.560 --> 0:06:00.760 the courtroom and I'm standing around waiting for this case 0:06:00.920 --> 0:06:03.800 to come up. When the back door the courtroom is 0:06:03.920 --> 0:06:06.880 kicked in, and he was an old man. He had 0:06:06.960 --> 0:06:11.680 his Model nineteen three fifty seven Smith up in the air, 0:06:12.880 --> 0:06:17.080 and the many officers in the courtroom, instead of doing 0:06:17.120 --> 0:06:19.800 what you think they do, they all dived under the 0:06:19.920 --> 0:06:24.080 cover of the pews. So he walked in and he said, 0:06:24.120 --> 0:06:26.960 who the devil? Et cetera, et ceter was cussing and 0:06:27.000 --> 0:06:30.839 put his hands on my nigro. So nobody touched my 0:06:31.000 --> 0:06:34.880 nigga's and my hunting animals but me. So he walks 0:06:34.960 --> 0:06:37.640 up to the cop in question, grabs him by the collar, 0:06:37.760 --> 0:06:40.520 puts the pistol to his head and said, I'll blow 0:06:40.600 --> 0:06:46.159 your brains out. I kill you, your granty looking wife, 0:06:46.200 --> 0:06:49.599 all your children, your livestock, and your hunting animals, if 0:06:49.640 --> 0:06:55.000 you ever do this again? Who he walks over and 0:06:55.320 --> 0:06:58.920 shut up. Robert, that was the judge's name. I used 0:06:58.960 --> 0:07:01.680 to do your mama. You you maybe wanna mind it. 0:07:01.760 --> 0:07:05.840 I don't know about it. O. Judge said, Mr Brown, 0:07:05.960 --> 0:07:08.880 whatnover is? He had the dock and I said, yeah, 0:07:08.920 --> 0:07:13.160 I th show those this this. So he walked out 0:07:13.160 --> 0:07:16.120 of here. I said, why didn't nobody do what he thin? 0:07:16.240 --> 0:07:23.200 He said, that's Jimmie Thompson. That's death in Carnie Brown 0:07:23.280 --> 0:07:26.800 didn't know who Jimmy Thompson was, but during a recess 0:07:27.000 --> 0:07:29.400 he was pulled aside by some old timer who tried 0:07:29.440 --> 0:07:33.320 to fill him in. Turns out, Jimmie Thompson had at 0:07:33.360 --> 0:07:36.720 one time been sheriff in Memphis for some sixteen years. 0:07:37.480 --> 0:07:40.000 Here's old guys, let me tell you store about when 0:07:40.000 --> 0:07:43.880 I was a young deputy with the sheriff departing. Before 0:07:43.960 --> 0:07:47.360 I got on, the police departing said we was out 0:07:47.400 --> 0:07:50.640 and you know we busted two good old of a 0:07:50.680 --> 0:07:54.240 couple of good old boys and they were drunk. Jimmy 0:07:54.320 --> 0:07:57.880 Thompson pulled up in his V twelve packet automobile and 0:07:57.960 --> 0:08:01.120 he stopped. He came on, say I know this man. 0:08:01.320 --> 0:08:05.240 He's saying, none but scumb He said, who you? So 0:08:05.360 --> 0:08:07.440 the guy told him, he said, you take care of 0:08:07.480 --> 0:08:10.360 your wife and children. He said, well, yes, sir, I tried, 0:08:10.440 --> 0:08:13.080 so you that's wrong to that right, Get on up 0:08:13.120 --> 0:08:16.560 out of here. He says, I'm wondering what the Sheriff's 0:08:16.560 --> 0:08:19.560 gonna do. He pulls his revolver, I shoots the other 0:08:19.600 --> 0:08:22.760 man in the head. Tways said, I told this scarm 0:08:22.840 --> 0:08:25.240 he ain't on dirty up my jail. No more call 0:08:25.360 --> 0:08:28.800 to meet wagon. So that was my first time meeting 0:08:28.840 --> 0:08:32.120 to share a face to face. He said, Jimmy's gonna 0:08:32.200 --> 0:08:35.800 kill forty five fifty people in his career. So when 0:08:35.880 --> 0:08:39.040 Jimmy pull out a gun, everybody diving for couple because 0:08:39.120 --> 0:08:42.520 somebody likely to that. But you see, this is the 0:08:42.600 --> 0:08:47.520 background in Memphis, Tennessee at this point in time. Joe 0:08:47.559 --> 0:08:49.960 Brown would go on to be the first black prosecutor 0:08:50.000 --> 0:08:52.880 in the city of Memphis, and after that he began 0:08:52.920 --> 0:08:57.280 his own law practice. In he became a criminal court 0:08:57.360 --> 0:09:03.200 judge in Shelby County, which includes Memphis, US In Bill 0:09:03.240 --> 0:09:06.200 Pepper brought a lawsuit seeking to reopen the case against 0:09:06.320 --> 0:09:09.680 James Earl Ray with that time had been imprisoned for 0:09:09.760 --> 0:09:14.160 twenty five years. The case landed in Judge Brown's courtroom, 0:09:14.200 --> 0:09:17.240 a lucky break for Pepper and Ray, because Brown took 0:09:17.240 --> 0:09:21.520 an active interest in the cases that came before him, 0:09:21.720 --> 0:09:24.360 and I did a lot of trial work. And one 0:09:24.360 --> 0:09:27.319 of the things that I did was I helped train 0:09:27.440 --> 0:09:31.840 the Capitol defense team for the Public Defender's Office. So 0:09:32.000 --> 0:09:36.280 that wound up getting me involved in forty forty two 0:09:36.320 --> 0:09:40.480 first degree murder cases. They're fascinating. One of the things 0:09:40.559 --> 0:09:45.760 I learned from trying that kind of case is when 0:09:45.800 --> 0:09:48.680 you get it, go to the scene, take a look 0:09:48.720 --> 0:09:52.400 around and see if what you see on the ground 0:09:52.640 --> 0:09:56.760 matches the theory. Well, one of the problems that came 0:09:56.760 --> 0:10:00.800 out when I got the Ray case is that some 0:10:00.960 --> 0:10:04.080 of the evidence, as far as I was concerned, did 0:10:04.120 --> 0:10:09.160 not match the circumstances. First off, let's get a clarification 0:10:09.240 --> 0:10:12.400 in here. The news media likes to put it out 0:10:12.520 --> 0:10:16.160 James Earl Ray, the self confess killer of Dr Martin 0:10:16.240 --> 0:10:19.800 Luther King. Well, that's an error. He never confessed. He 0:10:19.880 --> 0:10:24.440 always denied it. This might seem like a strange thing 0:10:24.520 --> 0:10:28.240 for Judge Brown to say, because in nineteen sixty nine, 0:10:28.600 --> 0:10:31.679 James L. Ray did plead guilty to the explicit charge 0:10:31.880 --> 0:10:35.800 of murdering Dr Martin Luther King. If you were with 0:10:35.880 --> 0:10:40.080 us in episode four, you heard about the strange circumstances 0:10:40.160 --> 0:10:43.240 under which that plea was made. And as we heard 0:10:43.280 --> 0:10:47.000 from his first attorney, Art Haynes Jr. Ray always said 0:10:47.240 --> 0:10:50.440 that he did not shoot King or anyone else that day. 0:10:50.960 --> 0:10:54.000 So that is what Judge Brown is referring to the 0:10:54.120 --> 0:10:58.560 little known fact that James Earl Ray always said he 0:10:58.679 --> 0:11:02.480 did not shoot Martin Luther King. Of course, the authorities 0:11:02.480 --> 0:11:05.400 said that he did, and their best evidence was not 0:11:05.480 --> 0:11:07.840 the drunk who said he saw Ray running from the scene, 0:11:08.520 --> 0:11:11.480 but the rifle found on the street, the one Ray 0:11:11.520 --> 0:11:15.000 had bought just two days before. But Judge Brown was 0:11:15.080 --> 0:11:18.320 far from convinced that this rifle raised rifle was the 0:11:18.360 --> 0:11:23.600 actual murder weapon. The state claimed that its reasonable factual 0:11:23.679 --> 0:11:28.880 basis was raised rifle a thirty odd six caliber Remingtons 0:11:28.920 --> 0:11:33.640 seven sixty game Master, a pump rifle. The interesting thing 0:11:33.880 --> 0:11:38.360 is is that that really went astray at that point 0:11:38.480 --> 0:11:41.880 because the FBI claimed that they could not make a 0:11:41.920 --> 0:11:46.240 ballistics match between Ray's rifle and the bullet they pulled 0:11:46.240 --> 0:11:50.559 out of King's body. They said it was too distorted 0:11:50.640 --> 0:11:55.480 to test that is the death's lug. However, examining the 0:11:55.520 --> 0:11:59.960 evidence and the evidence room, it most certainly was not there. 0:12:00.000 --> 0:12:04.640 It was a big bruga about me ordering the rifle reachsted. 0:12:05.679 --> 0:12:08.320 In most cases, when you test fire a gun to 0:12:08.320 --> 0:12:10.920 see if it's the weapon used in a particular murder, 0:12:11.320 --> 0:12:13.920 you're creating a bullet that can be compared to the 0:12:13.960 --> 0:12:17.079 death slug. If the markings on the two bullets are 0:12:17.120 --> 0:12:20.600 a perfect match, you have determined that this gun fired 0:12:20.640 --> 0:12:23.880 the fatal shot to the exclusion of all other guns 0:12:23.920 --> 0:12:28.120 in the universe. Very often the match is less than perfect. 0:12:28.840 --> 0:12:31.760 In this case, if the class characteristics are the same, 0:12:32.280 --> 0:12:35.800 like the caliber bullet, you have determined that the weapon 0:12:35.880 --> 0:12:39.040 tested could have fired the bullet, and that's the best 0:12:39.080 --> 0:12:43.080 the FBI could do. In essence, King was killed with 0:12:43.120 --> 0:12:46.320 a thirty caliber bullet, and raised rifle could fire a 0:12:46.320 --> 0:12:50.320 thirty caliber bullet. So what did Judge Brown discover about 0:12:50.360 --> 0:12:52.520 the rifle and the bullet when this case landed in 0:12:52.559 --> 0:13:11.719 his courtroom? Recognize thats the seven sixty game master and 0:13:11.800 --> 0:13:16.719 evidence in this case? Did you have a cadianum to 0:13:16.920 --> 0:13:20.120 consider this weapon as a murder weapon in this case, 0:13:21.240 --> 0:13:24.800 some degree of debt and careful consideration. I did so. 0:13:25.559 --> 0:13:28.439 And when was that? That was during the course of 0:13:28.520 --> 0:13:31.840 proceedings brought by the lady James or A Ray and 0:13:31.880 --> 0:13:34.760 what is known as the post conviction relief proceedings to 0:13:35.080 --> 0:13:40.760 challenge his inviction. You're listening to Judge Joe Brown testify 0:13:40.840 --> 0:13:45.640 at the civil trial. Brown a few years earlier had 0:13:45.640 --> 0:13:48.600 presided over the lawsuits seeking to reopen the case against 0:13:48.679 --> 0:13:52.760 James Earl Ray. The man asking the questions is Bill Pepper, 0:13:53.200 --> 0:13:57.440 who at the civil trial is representing the King family. Now, 0:13:58.120 --> 0:14:01.120 Judge Brown, how long did you pres over those sin 0:14:01.840 --> 0:14:04.280 I'd like to say about three years. It all sort 0:14:04.320 --> 0:14:09.200 of shifts into a blur that got in my courtroom. 0:14:09.360 --> 0:14:15.320 There was at that time a set of laws and 0:14:15.960 --> 0:14:19.120 cases that have been decided that basically caused me to 0:14:19.240 --> 0:14:23.080 deny the petition of James or a Raid. So what 0:14:23.280 --> 0:14:27.600 I've ordered was that the petition would be denied, but 0:14:27.720 --> 0:14:30.440 I will allow the petitioner to put on what is 0:14:30.480 --> 0:14:34.880 known as a proper of proof. In other words, if 0:14:34.880 --> 0:14:37.480 he will allowed to present this evidence, this is what 0:14:37.600 --> 0:14:40.400 it would show. So on appellate court could determine whether 0:14:40.520 --> 0:14:44.680 or not the law need to be needed to be refused. Well, 0:14:44.680 --> 0:14:48.040 in any event, I ordered that the rifle will be retested. 0:14:48.200 --> 0:14:51.080 It went to the Port of Criminal Appeals who went 0:14:51.120 --> 0:14:54.680 along to the prosecutorial side of things and declined to 0:14:54.720 --> 0:14:57.680 allow that rifle to be retested. And issue of state 0:14:59.600 --> 0:15:02.480 the blue that Judge Brown just mentioned has to do 0:15:02.560 --> 0:15:04.760 with the fact that the rate case in his court 0:15:05.200 --> 0:15:09.400 dragged on for the better part of three years to nine. 0:15:10.880 --> 0:15:13.480 It was a legal battle over whether Ray would have 0:15:13.480 --> 0:15:16.600 the right to present evidence that might overturn his conviction, 0:15:17.200 --> 0:15:19.800 even though the statute of limitations for doing such a 0:15:19.880 --> 0:15:24.440 thing had long ago run out. There were orders, stays, appeals, 0:15:24.720 --> 0:15:28.360 changes in state law, more stays. Most of the time 0:15:28.480 --> 0:15:31.480 was spent waiting around for a ruling on some appeal 0:15:31.560 --> 0:15:34.560 of a ruling made in Judge Brown's court. It was 0:15:34.600 --> 0:15:39.320 a frustrating, messy affair that defies any simple description, but 0:15:39.440 --> 0:15:43.320 we will touch on some of the important points. As 0:15:43.440 --> 0:15:46.880 Judge Brown said, the Court of Appeals initially prevented him 0:15:46.920 --> 0:15:50.040 from ordering a test firing of the rifle, but it 0:15:50.120 --> 0:15:54.160 didn't prevent him from going through the case files. Sometime 0:15:54.200 --> 0:15:57.640 in ninety six, he had the death slug fragments put 0:15:57.760 --> 0:16:01.400 under a high powered electron microscope. When he did this, 0:16:01.760 --> 0:16:04.440 sure enough, the rifling had a right hand twist, just 0:16:04.560 --> 0:16:07.640 as the FBI said. But as he told the court 0:16:07.720 --> 0:16:11.520 that day, there was something else, something that required a 0:16:11.520 --> 0:16:16.440 little high school trigonometry. It appears that the death slugged 0:16:16.480 --> 0:16:19.200 it was taken out of King's body, was fired from 0:16:19.240 --> 0:16:21.840 a rifle that had a rate of rifling twist of 0:16:21.920 --> 0:16:26.160 one turn in every eleven and a quarter inches. Raised rifle, 0:16:26.560 --> 0:16:29.400 for those who are interested, had a rate of rifling 0:16:29.440 --> 0:16:33.600 twist of one turn in ten inches. If you've got 0:16:33.640 --> 0:16:36.600 an eleven and a quarter inch rate of rifling twist, 0:16:36.680 --> 0:16:41.480 you're talking custom barrel and James Drew Ray I assure 0:16:41.720 --> 0:16:45.480 you had no access to anybody making custom barrels at 0:16:45.520 --> 0:16:51.720 that time. If Judge Brown's calculations are correct, and you 0:16:51.720 --> 0:16:54.040 could get the case back in court, it would go 0:16:54.080 --> 0:16:56.280 a long way to proving that raised rifle was not 0:16:56.320 --> 0:17:00.680 the murder weapon. More certain still, Judge Brown's poking around 0:17:00.720 --> 0:17:04.760 like that was beginning to make people uncomfortable. Most judges 0:17:04.840 --> 0:17:08.400 don't use microscopes to look at bullets. Most judges don't 0:17:08.400 --> 0:17:11.560 think in terms of metallurgy or rates of twist, but 0:17:11.680 --> 0:17:14.720 Judge Brown did, and the pressure to relieve him of 0:17:14.760 --> 0:17:18.560 his duties increased, and strange things were starting to happen. 0:17:19.280 --> 0:17:24.320 Judge Brown told me of several incidents. In one ninety seven, 0:17:24.720 --> 0:17:28.159 his house was invaded by men wearing ski masks. He 0:17:28.200 --> 0:17:31.040 had gotten home late, fallen asleep at the kitchen table, 0:17:31.520 --> 0:17:35.480 and then woke up. I heard some noise and I 0:17:35.600 --> 0:17:39.680 was sitting in my kitchen and I became aware of 0:17:39.760 --> 0:17:43.000 some shadows out back and some out front. And to 0:17:43.080 --> 0:17:46.040 make a long story short, two people tried to break 0:17:46.040 --> 0:17:48.879 in the front, three in the back at the same time. 0:17:50.160 --> 0:17:54.160 They jammie the screens out of the windows and took 0:17:54.280 --> 0:17:57.479 wild glass cutters to cut the pain out so they 0:17:57.520 --> 0:18:02.560 could open the windows. Were dressed in pretty much the 0:18:02.640 --> 0:18:06.280 same thing, dark clothing, balaklavs with just the eyes out, 0:18:07.119 --> 0:18:10.080 and apparently they had on some heavy kevlar armor and 0:18:10.119 --> 0:18:12.960 they had side arms on the side. I was thinking, 0:18:12.960 --> 0:18:16.480 why the police raiding me? And then I said, these 0:18:16.520 --> 0:18:21.320 aren't police. I'm a sitting judge. This is three thirty 0:18:21.359 --> 0:18:25.400 am in the morning. And they came in and there 0:18:25.480 --> 0:18:28.760 was a shootout. I wound up having to patch the walls. 0:18:28.880 --> 0:18:31.960 I called my friend Winfrey, who was the director of 0:18:31.960 --> 0:18:35.760 the police at that time. He came out. We looked around. 0:18:35.880 --> 0:18:39.240 We found some blood trails out front, out back, and 0:18:40.040 --> 0:18:42.840 there was no report of anyone being treated in an 0:18:42.840 --> 0:18:47.040 emergency room and no reports of this incident. So that's 0:18:47.200 --> 0:18:54.400 a little wild. But actually my disposition I found it intriguing. 0:18:55.560 --> 0:18:59.400 Intriguing or not. According to Judge Brown, nothing ever came 0:18:59.440 --> 0:19:03.000 of that into in but one afternoon, not long after that, 0:19:03.440 --> 0:19:05.399 Brown said he got a phone call while he was 0:19:05.440 --> 0:19:09.000 in court. What's going on, Judge, is to Detective Song. 0:19:09.119 --> 0:19:11.120 So and Song so we're out in the parking lot. 0:19:11.280 --> 0:19:16.280 Somebody's trying to break in your lexus. Okay. Five minutes later, 0:19:16.600 --> 0:19:20.240 Judge the Song so they were trying to plant two 0:19:20.320 --> 0:19:24.320 key loads of coke in your car. Oh wow, all right, 0:19:24.680 --> 0:19:28.280 we got them. What's going on? They stayed there, were 0:19:28.320 --> 0:19:32.280 with a federal agency and uh, they made a mistake 0:19:32.400 --> 0:19:35.600 during this sting. But your name's on your parking place, 0:19:35.800 --> 0:19:40.800 you know. Stuff like that. It's hard to know just 0:19:40.840 --> 0:19:44.040 what to make of such stories, but Judge Brown feels 0:19:44.080 --> 0:19:46.160 they were related to his handling of the race case, 0:19:46.960 --> 0:19:49.760 and things were starting to heat up because, although he 0:19:49.800 --> 0:19:52.679 had initially been prevented from having the rifle test fired, 0:19:53.200 --> 0:19:56.440 Judge Brown finally won permission to do that very thing. 0:19:57.359 --> 0:20:01.080 The rifle was tested by ballistics expert Robert Hathaway at 0:20:01.080 --> 0:20:04.760 the University of Rhode Island Crime Lab, and two weeks 0:20:04.840 --> 0:20:09.639 later the results were revealed in court. After hearing testimony 0:20:09.680 --> 0:20:14.040 from ballistics experts, Memphis, Judge Joe Brown decided further examination 0:20:14.080 --> 0:20:17.840 of test fire bullets from James R. Ray's rifle maybe needed. 0:20:18.960 --> 0:20:21.520 This was one headline the day after the test results 0:20:21.520 --> 0:20:25.760 of the rifle were announced. Hathaway testified that he fired 0:20:25.840 --> 0:20:29.280 and recovered eighteen bullets like the one that killed Dr. King. 0:20:30.119 --> 0:20:33.720 Twelve of those eighteen emerged with unique markings matching them 0:20:33.720 --> 0:20:36.960 to each other and to the rifle itself, but they 0:20:36.960 --> 0:20:41.359 didn't match the fatal slug recovered from Dr. King. But 0:20:41.560 --> 0:20:45.120 six bullets did not have those particular markings, even though 0:20:45.160 --> 0:20:49.440 they were fired from the same weapon. Hathaway's tests strongly 0:20:49.520 --> 0:20:52.800 suggested that the death slug was not fired from Ray's rifle, 0:20:53.320 --> 0:20:56.439 but it was short of proving that if six bullets 0:20:56.480 --> 0:20:58.240 could have been fired by the rifle but not be 0:20:58.400 --> 0:21:01.320 with certainty trace back to it. Then the same could 0:21:01.320 --> 0:21:04.080 be true for the death slog. There was immediate talk 0:21:04.160 --> 0:21:08.480 of retest. More scientific tests may be conducted on James 0:21:08.480 --> 0:21:11.000 Earl Ray's rifle to see if it was used to 0:21:11.080 --> 0:21:15.680 kill Martin Luther King. Tests described Friday were inconclusive, though 0:21:15.920 --> 0:21:18.480 a build up of material and the rifle barrel could 0:21:18.480 --> 0:21:21.800 be to blame. But today experts told that Joe Brown 0:21:22.119 --> 0:21:25.080 James L. Ray's rifle had not been thoroughly cleaned since 0:21:25.119 --> 0:21:27.639 the last test firing, and that build up within the 0:21:27.680 --> 0:21:34.320 barrel may have jeopardized the accuracy of this testing. As 0:21:34.359 --> 0:21:36.800 soon as the results of the rifle test were announced, 0:21:37.160 --> 0:21:39.879 Bill Pepper asked for the rifle to be tested again. 0:21:40.720 --> 0:21:44.040 Judge Brown then asked the Appeals Court for permission to 0:21:44.119 --> 0:21:47.960 retest the gun after it had been cleaned. What we 0:21:48.080 --> 0:21:51.200 wanted was to get everything out so we could get 0:21:51.240 --> 0:21:56.159 a pristine bore and get the best sample possible. There's 0:21:56.200 --> 0:22:00.080 a company called Outers and they made cleaning supply is 0:22:00.160 --> 0:22:05.440 for weapons. They had a reverse plating device known as 0:22:05.480 --> 0:22:09.119 a foul out, and what you do is when you 0:22:09.280 --> 0:22:11.840 hook the weapons rifle up to this, you get an 0:22:12.119 --> 0:22:18.359 electric current going which causes any fouling in the bore 0:22:18.520 --> 0:22:22.240 to come out without having to scrub it. But the 0:22:22.280 --> 0:22:26.200 authorities were not keen on this proposal. State witness Tommy 0:22:26.240 --> 0:22:29.919 Heflin of the Tennessee Bureau of an Investigation testified, cleaning 0:22:29.960 --> 0:22:32.800 the rifle may damage it and could alter the markings 0:22:32.800 --> 0:22:35.760 on the bullets win fire. So you're gonna change and 0:22:36.160 --> 0:22:39.120 either take away or you're gonna add things to them. 0:22:39.880 --> 0:22:41.800 They had the idea of what you're gonna do is 0:22:41.840 --> 0:22:44.000 take a wire brush and run it up and down 0:22:44.080 --> 0:22:48.280 the boar, and they were worried about that damaging the rifle. 0:22:49.160 --> 0:22:52.120 They had a very peculiar thing that they put in 0:22:52.160 --> 0:22:58.199 their documentation to state said if the rifle is tested 0:22:59.680 --> 0:23:05.720 at this point, it may become damaged, which would quote 0:23:05.720 --> 0:23:11.560 prevented from being retested in the future unquote. Now that 0:23:11.600 --> 0:23:14.320 one eludes me. If you don't want it tested now, 0:23:14.560 --> 0:23:18.440 why do you want it tested in the future. As 0:23:18.440 --> 0:23:21.359 it turned out, Judge Brown never got permission to test 0:23:21.359 --> 0:23:24.680 the rifle again, and what finally happened to raise appeal. 0:23:25.520 --> 0:23:29.000 Here is Judge Brown's response to that very question asked 0:23:29.000 --> 0:23:34.199 by Bill Pepper at the civil trial. Well, they're removed 0:23:34.320 --> 0:23:36.840 from the case. He said, I'll be biased for James 0:23:36.920 --> 0:23:41.280 row a rate which I found rather astonishing. Anybody knows 0:23:41.400 --> 0:23:43.640 me to be being a biased in favor of itself 0:23:43.640 --> 0:23:47.080 about racist and bigot is just absolutely disgusting in the 0:23:47.160 --> 0:23:50.840 concept what I've always tried to do to be fair 0:23:50.920 --> 0:23:54.560 and Parson wotfully detached, straight down the middle and sometimes 0:23:54.600 --> 0:23:57.880 with another that upsets people when things don't go as 0:23:57.920 --> 0:24:00.760 they expect them to go, or you were ruined by 0:24:00.840 --> 0:24:04.480 the from a case by Whome Tennessee Cord from Peas 0:24:06.320 --> 0:24:09.359 So Judge Brown was removed and another judge was brought 0:24:09.400 --> 0:24:13.359 in and raised petition for post conviction relief was dismissed. 0:24:14.240 --> 0:24:18.680 But the mystery surrounding Raise Rifle have only deepened. Anyone 0:24:18.760 --> 0:24:21.160 today who looks into the case can learn soon enough 0:24:21.520 --> 0:24:23.879 that the FBI could not match the death slug to 0:24:23.960 --> 0:24:26.959 Raise rifle. But at the time of the murder and 0:24:27.040 --> 0:24:30.399 raise subsequent plea hearing a year later, the common wisdom 0:24:30.440 --> 0:24:32.680 in the country was that a match had been made. 0:24:33.320 --> 0:24:53.320 How had this come about? It is incumbent upon the 0:24:53.480 --> 0:24:55.800 state in a plea of guilty to murder in the 0:24:55.880 --> 0:24:59.640 first degree to put on certain proof for your consideration. 0:25:00.400 --> 0:25:02.640 We have to put on proof of what we lawyers 0:25:02.720 --> 0:25:06.639 call the proof of corpus delicti, which is the body 0:25:06.840 --> 0:25:10.479 of the crime. This is a reading of the words 0:25:10.520 --> 0:25:14.680 of Assistant Attorney General James Beasley, spoken at Ray's plea 0:25:14.760 --> 0:25:18.919 hearing in March nineteen sixty eight in Tennessee. At the time, 0:25:19.400 --> 0:25:22.639 after a person had pleaded guilty to murder, the state 0:25:22.720 --> 0:25:25.560 was obligated to present some of the evidence they would 0:25:25.560 --> 0:25:28.840 have offered had there been a trial. So the state 0:25:28.920 --> 0:25:32.560 put on an abbreviated and uncontested version of their case. 0:25:33.400 --> 0:25:36.320 They called witnesses who saw doctor King brought down by 0:25:36.320 --> 0:25:39.520 a bullet. They introduced a doctor who said that doctor 0:25:39.600 --> 0:25:42.760 King died because of that bullet, and a police officer 0:25:42.800 --> 0:25:47.040 who found a thirty caliber rifle on the street. Beasley 0:25:47.080 --> 0:25:50.399 then spoke of an expert who would testify that he 0:25:50.560 --> 0:25:54.359 discovered the fingerprints of James Earl Ray on that rifle, 0:25:54.960 --> 0:25:58.600 and then the clincher assistant A. G. Beasley spoke of 0:25:58.640 --> 0:26:02.160 an FBI man who testify at the trial had there 0:26:02.160 --> 0:26:05.639 been one, as to his examination of the death slug 0:26:06.000 --> 0:26:09.919 and its relationship to the found rifle. He examined the 0:26:09.960 --> 0:26:13.199 cartridges the whole from the chamber of this rifle the 0:26:13.320 --> 0:26:16.800