WEBVTT - BONUS: Memphis Blues 0:00:01.160 --> 0:00:04.720 Welcome to the MLK Tapes, a production of iHeartRadio and 0:00:04.760 --> 0:00:08.640 Tenderfoot TV. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast 0:00:08.840 --> 0:00:12.360 are solely those of the podcast author or individuals participating 0:00:12.400 --> 0:00:15.680 in the podcast, and do not represent those of iHeartMedia, 0:00:16.000 --> 0:00:20.480 Tenderfoot TV, or their employees. Listener discretion is advised. 0:00:25.280 --> 0:00:28.760 The National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis traces the history 0:00:28.760 --> 0:00:32.000 of slavery in America and then follows the nation's long 0:00:32.040 --> 0:00:36.160 struggle for human rights. Its rooms portray lunch counter sit ins, 0:00:36.320 --> 0:00:41.000 freedom rides, bus boycotts, and burned churches. To walk through 0:00:41.000 --> 0:00:44.000 its halls is a moving experience, made all the more 0:00:44.040 --> 0:00:47.400 exceptional because the museum is built into the shell of 0:00:47.440 --> 0:00:50.879 the former Lorraine Motel, where Martin Luther King was murdered. 0:00:52.200 --> 0:00:55.320 Being at the Lorraine also helps to bring into focus 0:00:55.640 --> 0:00:58.960 some of the unresolved questions surrounding the death of doctor King, 0:01:00.160 --> 0:01:03.080 more so because in two thousand and two, the museum 0:01:03.200 --> 0:01:06.679 acquired the neighboring rooming house from where James Earl Ray 0:01:06.800 --> 0:01:09.679 was said to have fired the fatal bullet. The rooming 0:01:09.680 --> 0:01:12.680 house has been renovated to accommodate the public and its 0:01:12.760 --> 0:01:16.440 access from the museum by way of a tunnel. Its 0:01:16.480 --> 0:01:20.000 interior is dedicated to displays that pertained to the assassination, 0:01:20.640 --> 0:01:22.679 such as a rifle said to be the murder weapon 0:01:23.120 --> 0:01:26.840 and a replica of Ray's famous white Mustang. But a 0:01:26.880 --> 0:01:29.720 few places had been preserved in the condition in which 0:01:29.760 --> 0:01:33.200 they were found after the murder, such as the bedroom 0:01:33.200 --> 0:01:36.319 that Ray had rented and the bathroom from which he 0:01:36.400 --> 0:01:39.920 was said to have fired the shot. When I visited 0:01:39.920 --> 0:01:43.640 Memphis last year, I was joined by historian Ryan Jones, 0:01:43.880 --> 0:01:46.760 who accompanied me through both the Lorraine and the rooming 0:01:46.760 --> 0:01:49.880 house sections of the museum. I was not permitted to 0:01:49.920 --> 0:01:52.960 record any sound, so the voice of mister Jones that 0:01:53.000 --> 0:01:56.000 you'll hear in this segment was recorded at a later date. 0:01:57.240 --> 0:01:59.800 Mister Jones had grown up in Memphis and has been 0:01:59.800 --> 0:02:03.200 with the museum for ten years. He is an expert 0:02:03.240 --> 0:02:05.920 on the King assassination, and I asked him what God 0:02:06.000 --> 0:02:07.120 him interested in the case. 0:02:09.680 --> 0:02:14.600 It wasn't until I moved back to Memphis in nineteen 0:02:14.680 --> 0:02:15.520 ninety seven. 0:02:16.280 --> 0:02:18.160 I think I was watching a talk show. 0:02:18.200 --> 0:02:21.800 It may have been Montell Williams to be exact, and 0:02:21.919 --> 0:02:25.280 the King family, some of his children appeared on that 0:02:25.520 --> 0:02:28.400 talk show and they were talking of getting James Olray, 0:02:29.240 --> 0:02:33.240 the accused assassin, a trial here in Memphis, which he 0:02:33.320 --> 0:02:36.880 never got in nineteen sixty eight and sixty nine. And 0:02:37.000 --> 0:02:39.720 I really didn't get back into it until I began 0:02:39.919 --> 0:02:42.200 starting to work at the museum. 0:02:42.600 --> 0:02:44.880 And it was there when I realized that the. 0:02:44.919 --> 0:02:49.760 Museum holds all of the state's evidence against James Alray 0:02:49.840 --> 0:02:53.000 and its collections, and I just began to go by 0:02:53.120 --> 0:02:55.160 box by box, file by file. 0:02:55.200 --> 0:02:57.720 I left no foul, you know, unturned. 0:02:58.280 --> 0:03:01.920 So I just began to do my own individual research 0:03:02.240 --> 0:03:06.919 and began to interview people. And almost ten years later, 0:03:07.240 --> 0:03:09.400 you know, I feel like I have a pathway of 0:03:09.400 --> 0:03:13.120 what truly happened here in Memphis at the Lorraine on 0:03:13.160 --> 0:03:14.840 April fourth, nineteen sixty eight. 0:03:16.200 --> 0:03:18.480 It should be noted here that on the issue of 0:03:18.520 --> 0:03:21.760 whether James Earl Ray was the lone assassin or if 0:03:21.800 --> 0:03:25.520 others were involved, the museum itself takes what it calls 0:03:25.680 --> 0:03:29.400 a neutral position. The people who work there are entitled 0:03:29.400 --> 0:03:32.840 to their opinions, But we should remember that Ryan Jones 0:03:32.919 --> 0:03:35.320 is speaking here on his own and not for the 0:03:35.440 --> 0:03:39.120 museum itself. Of course, working at the museum in the 0:03:39.160 --> 0:03:42.920 old Lorraine motel. Jones is in an excellent position to 0:03:42.960 --> 0:03:47.080 have an informed opinion about certain matters. For example, did 0:03:47.200 --> 0:03:49.760 King always stay at the Lorraine when he came to Memphis, 0:03:49.840 --> 0:03:52.680 has some said? Or did he usually stay at other 0:03:52.720 --> 0:03:56.200 places and was shamed or maneuvered into staying at the 0:03:56.240 --> 0:03:59.720 Lorraine because a certain reception had been planned. 0:04:00.800 --> 0:04:03.760 There is this myth that has been floating around for 0:04:03.800 --> 0:04:06.160 the past fifty two years that doctor King was a 0:04:06.400 --> 0:04:10.240 normal guest, and even that he stayed at the Lorraine 0:04:10.280 --> 0:04:11.960 on numerous occasions. 0:04:12.400 --> 0:04:15.240 This is, however, not true. This is indeed false. 0:04:15.720 --> 0:04:18.880 The Reverend James Lawson, who lived in Memphis at the time, 0:04:19.240 --> 0:04:23.520 whom King met with the day before his assassination, stated 0:04:23.440 --> 0:04:26.800 affirmatively many times that when he came to Memphis, they 0:04:26.800 --> 0:04:29.040 would stay at his house, they'd go to the Peabody, 0:04:29.080 --> 0:04:30.560 They'd stayed at the Admiral Bimbo. 0:04:31.880 --> 0:04:34.840 On March twenty eight, the night following the Memphis March 0:04:34.880 --> 0:04:38.080 that became a riot, King stayed at the Rivermont Hotel 0:04:38.600 --> 0:04:41.400 and held a press conference there the next morning, where 0:04:41.440 --> 0:04:44.080 he condemned the riot but couldn't say for sure how 0:04:44.120 --> 0:04:46.919 it had started, though there were those in his camp 0:04:47.120 --> 0:04:50.280 who believed the window smashing and looting had somehow been 0:04:50.400 --> 0:04:55.599 arranged in advance. Seven years later, in congressional hearings, it 0:04:55.600 --> 0:04:58.200 would be revealed that the same morning that King was 0:04:58.240 --> 0:05:01.560 speaking to the press, document was being produced by the 0:05:01.640 --> 0:05:04.599 FBI in Washington. It was in the form of a 0:05:04.640 --> 0:05:07.960 press release that criticized King for staying at the Rivermont 0:05:08.240 --> 0:05:12.560 and specifically named the Lorraine Motel as the more appropriate 0:05:12.560 --> 0:05:15.800 place for him to stay. It bore the approving initials 0:05:15.800 --> 0:05:18.480 of J at Gar Hoover and was to be circulated 0:05:18.480 --> 0:05:21.640 to what the FBI called friendly news outlets. 0:05:22.680 --> 0:05:25.800 The very next day, on the twenty ninth, there is 0:05:25.920 --> 0:05:30.040 a press release calling doctor King a hypocrite, and it 0:05:30.080 --> 0:05:34.839 pretty much states that you are staying at a predominantly 0:05:34.839 --> 0:05:38.520 white business and you're asking African Americans to boycott white 0:05:38.600 --> 0:05:42.440 merchants when you're not even given business to the lavish 0:05:42.680 --> 0:05:47.400 and plus Lorraine Motel. This was an FBI memorandum that 0:05:47.600 --> 0:05:51.680 was released on March to twenty ninth, nineteen sixty eight. 0:05:52.520 --> 0:05:56.039 Whyou the FBI care where doctor King stays at this 0:05:56.160 --> 0:06:00.880 time unless the Lorraine Motel was a particular area that 0:06:00.920 --> 0:06:04.320 they needed him to be at, and of course, you know, 0:06:04.400 --> 0:06:08.279 he was eventually moved from his original room which was 0:06:08.320 --> 0:06:11.440 down below, and was moved upstairs to three of six. 0:06:12.520 --> 0:06:15.320 And just how did this room change come about? There 0:06:15.320 --> 0:06:19.000 are two stories. Both come from the owner of the Lorraine, 0:06:19.520 --> 0:06:20.279 Walter Bailey. 0:06:21.480 --> 0:06:26.160 Mister Bailey told this story to an investigative reporter by 0:06:26.160 --> 0:06:30.640 the name of Wayne Chastain, and the story states that 0:06:30.760 --> 0:06:36.279 someone who appeared to be very tall and athletic with 0:06:36.440 --> 0:06:42.080 it like complexion, came to missus Bailey, who did all 0:06:42.120 --> 0:06:48.400 of the hotel reservations, and stated that doctor King did 0:06:48.440 --> 0:06:54.680 not want this nice room inside and away from the 0:06:54.800 --> 0:06:58.479 original trajectory, and that he wonted room three US six 0:06:58.600 --> 0:07:02.960 on the second floor. The second story is that it 0:07:03.040 --> 0:07:06.280 was a phone call from Atlanta that was made so 0:07:06.320 --> 0:07:09.600 that the Bailey's got a phone call from Atlanta a 0:07:09.680 --> 0:07:12.800 day or two before they arrived, stating that doctor King 0:07:12.920 --> 0:07:15.760 specifically won at room three oh six. 0:07:17.000 --> 0:07:21.120 Why two stories, both supposedly from mister Bailey, we don't know, 0:07:21.960 --> 0:07:25.360 But if the real story involved the phone call from Atlanta, 0:07:25.720 --> 0:07:28.840 why would Walter Bailey make up another story of a tall, 0:07:28.920 --> 0:07:32.040 athletic man coming to the Lorraine to make the room change. 0:07:32.840 --> 0:07:33.760 It makes no sense. 0:07:34.800 --> 0:07:37.160 But if it were the other way around, and the 0:07:37.280 --> 0:07:40.200 room was changed by someone posing as an advanced man, 0:07:40.800 --> 0:07:44.800 a description of that man might, upon further thought, be 0:07:44.880 --> 0:07:47.600 a dangerous story to tell and give birth to the 0:07:47.680 --> 0:07:52.239 supposed phone call. Of course, a quick conversation with missus 0:07:52.280 --> 0:07:55.200 Bailey who changed the room could clear up the situation, 0:07:56.040 --> 0:07:58.960 but as mister Jones explains, that was never possible. 0:08:00.200 --> 0:08:04.880 Her name was Laurie Bailey, and she really was the 0:08:04.880 --> 0:08:08.560 one who ran the Loraino Motel. On the afternoon of 0:08:08.600 --> 0:08:12.679 April fourth, nineteen sixty eight, doctor King speaks with Missus 0:08:12.720 --> 0:08:17.320 Bailey standing on the balcony and he says, listen, Missus Bailey, 0:08:17.920 --> 0:08:21.920 if the food over at Reverend Kyle's's home is not good, 0:08:21.920 --> 0:08:24.520 I'm going to come back and count on you. And 0:08:24.560 --> 0:08:27.560 she kind of blushed and said, of course, anything for you, 0:08:27.640 --> 0:08:30.520 Doctor King, And then they go back into the kitchen 0:08:30.640 --> 0:08:34.520 area of the diner of the Lorraine. Then the shot 0:08:34.600 --> 0:08:38.600 rings out and the Baileys hear it from inside. They 0:08:38.679 --> 0:08:41.840 walk outside and they see doctor King Worley wounded on 0:08:41.880 --> 0:08:44.320 the second floor outside of room three of six, and 0:08:44.400 --> 0:08:50.120 immediately Missus Bailey says, why why, why? She took her 0:08:50.160 --> 0:08:52.880 hand and she kept hitting the side of her temple 0:08:53.480 --> 0:08:56.240 to the point where he could see her blood vessels 0:08:56.320 --> 0:09:01.200 moving oddly enough, mister Bailey left the Lora Hotel a 0:09:01.280 --> 0:09:05.240 few hours he lays his wife when there's police and 0:09:05.440 --> 0:09:10.000 investigators all over the motel's grounds, and he goes to 0:09:10.040 --> 0:09:13.120 his other job at the Holiday Inn on Lamar Avenue, 0:09:13.640 --> 0:09:17.079 and he gets a call from his brother, Beatrice Bailey, 0:09:17.640 --> 0:09:21.000 and Beatrice says Laurie, he's not an answering, She's not answering, 0:09:21.600 --> 0:09:24.400 And then they finally get to her, and they found 0:09:24.440 --> 0:09:28.080 her slumped over and she's gone into a coma to 0:09:28.120 --> 0:09:32.440 a stroke where she never gains consciousness again and actually 0:09:32.520 --> 0:09:37.480 dies at nine am on April and ninth, nineteen sixty eight. 0:09:38.040 --> 0:09:41.240 We know now that a bud vessel ruptured in her brain. 0:09:47.240 --> 0:09:49.240 Mister Jones and I walk through the tunnel to the 0:09:49.240 --> 0:09:51.920 basement of the rooming house and then take the elevator 0:09:52.000 --> 0:09:54.760 up to the second floor. We come upon a glass 0:09:54.800 --> 0:09:57.200 case displaying the rifle that was found on the street 0:09:57.440 --> 0:10:00.560 just minutes after the shooting. Mister jo Jones gives a 0:10:00.600 --> 0:10:03.240 small laugh and informs me that the scope on the 0:10:03.320 --> 0:10:07.560 rifle is still not properly sighted. The rooming house has 0:10:07.600 --> 0:10:10.199 been gut renovated, so on the inside it doesn't look 0:10:10.240 --> 0:10:12.920 like it did in nineteen sixty eight, but the room 0:10:13.000 --> 0:10:15.480 that Ray rented and the bathroom down the hall had 0:10:15.480 --> 0:10:18.440 been recreated to be replicas of what was found right 0:10:18.480 --> 0:10:21.440 after King was killed. Over the years, a lot has 0:10:21.480 --> 0:10:24.360 been made about Ray choosing room five B because of 0:10:24.360 --> 0:10:27.240 its window rather than the only other room, which had 0:10:27.280 --> 0:10:30.360 no view but did have a stove. I asked Jones 0:10:30.400 --> 0:10:33.960 about five B and what problems it might present to 0:10:34.040 --> 0:10:34.960 a would be assassin. 0:10:36.280 --> 0:10:39.280 You are able to see the Lorainotel, and you are 0:10:39.360 --> 0:10:43.559 able to see the second four balcony of the Lorainmotel 0:10:43.720 --> 0:10:48.800 as well. Now, however, if your purpose is to assassinate 0:10:48.880 --> 0:10:52.720 Martin Luther King Jr. And you're using a rifle, you 0:10:52.800 --> 0:10:59.880 have a significant problem. In order to get a sufficient trajectory, 0:11:00.120 --> 0:11:03.120 have to walk outside of the bedroom of five B, 0:11:04.120 --> 0:11:08.800 down the hall and into a community bathroom in order 0:11:08.920 --> 0:11:10.840 to even get an attempt. 0:11:12.080 --> 0:11:15.000 The problem with that window was although you could see 0:11:15.040 --> 0:11:17.880 the rear part of the Lorraine Motel, you could not 0:11:18.000 --> 0:11:20.640 see room three h six, where doctor King was staying. 0:11:21.000 --> 0:11:24.600 Without opening the window and leaning out, and no one 0:11:24.600 --> 0:11:27.560 has ever said the shot was fired from there. I 0:11:27.640 --> 0:11:31.760 asked mister Jones to describe the bathroom, but I encourage 0:11:31.800 --> 0:11:33.960 the listener to look on her website to see the 0:11:33.960 --> 0:11:37.400 photo of the tiny room to better understand the issues 0:11:37.400 --> 0:11:38.040 at play here. 0:11:39.200 --> 0:11:42.280 When you look inside of this very small community bathroom 0:11:42.280 --> 0:11:45.360 that was shared by other people who were staying on 0:11:45.400 --> 0:11:49.560 the same floor, you see a commode, you see a 0:11:49.679 --> 0:11:53.000 very small sink, and until the left and the corner 0:11:53.520 --> 0:11:59.360 right beneath a partially open window, there's a bathtub. Now 0:11:59.400 --> 0:12:03.320 here's a significant red flag with that. James Olray was 0:12:03.520 --> 0:12:08.520 six feet in height, and the weapon that he admitted 0:12:08.640 --> 0:12:12.000 to buying in Birmingham, Alabama, a few days prior to 0:12:12.000 --> 0:12:15.520 doctor King's death is not a small weapon at all. 0:12:15.600 --> 0:12:19.120 It's a fairly large weapon with a scope as well. 0:12:20.000 --> 0:12:23.240 And James Alray, we know, was a right handed marksman. 0:12:24.000 --> 0:12:27.880 I about six feet, I'm about five to nine, and 0:12:27.920 --> 0:12:32.240 I've gotten into that bathtub with a rifle that's not 0:12:32.400 --> 0:12:36.920 the size of the one that rifle is accused of musing. 0:12:37.400 --> 0:12:41.320 And it was almost impossible for myself, also right handed, 0:12:41.640 --> 0:12:46.800 to have gotten a sufficient trajectory and My honest estimation 0:12:47.240 --> 0:12:50.679 is that if there was a shot fired from that 0:12:51.000 --> 0:12:56.000 community bathroom, which I don't think happened, you will have 0:12:56.160 --> 0:12:59.920 had to have been a left handed marksman to situate 0:13:00.200 --> 0:13:04.400 yourself in the bathtub in a very uncomfortable position. 0:13:06.000 --> 0:13:09.120 The bathroom window is small and leaves very little room 0:13:09.160 --> 0:13:11.160 for a weapon and a body to gain the needed 0:13:11.200 --> 0:13:15.000 angle to make the shot not impossible, But it's not 0:13:15.080 --> 0:13:17.960 like someone would just walk up to this window, take aim, 0:13:18.040 --> 0:13:21.080 and shoot something directly in front of it. As it 0:13:21.160 --> 0:13:23.920 exists today, the window is now open, just a matter 0:13:24.000 --> 0:13:26.400 of benches, as it apparently was on the day of 0:13:26.400 --> 0:13:29.560 the murder, and it appears to me as though the 0:13:29.559 --> 0:13:32.320 wooden bottom frame of the window would block or partially 0:13:32.360 --> 0:13:35.400 block the view through the scope of the rifle, even 0:13:35.440 --> 0:13:39.319 assuming it was properly sighted. But what got me most 0:13:39.559 --> 0:13:44.600 when I looked at the bathroom is the tub, a small, narrow, 0:13:44.800 --> 0:13:49.480 old fashioned bathtub with steep sloping sides. So instead of 0:13:49.480 --> 0:13:52.680 spreading his legs and creating a secure base for a 0:13:52.679 --> 0:13:56.679 difficult shot, our presumed shooter, mister Ray has to stand 0:13:56.679 --> 0:14:00.200 with his feet close together inside this narrow bathtub and 0:14:00.240 --> 0:14:02.840 get all balanced and squared away at just the time 0:14:02.880 --> 0:14:04.880 the King came out of his room at the Lorraine. 0:14:05.640 --> 0:14:08.600 Then Ray fired the only bullet he had loaded into 0:14:08.640 --> 0:14:11.480 his gun because he was that certain of his skill 0:14:11.520 --> 0:14:13.600 with the rifle he had only owned for four days. 0:14:14.600 --> 0:14:16.520 Then there is the question of what needs to happen 0:14:16.520 --> 0:14:19.160 in the next couple of minutes. As soon as the 0:14:19.200 --> 0:14:22.120 fatal shot us fired. Ray would need to return to 0:14:22.200 --> 0:14:24.960 Room five B, place the rifle in the box, and 0:14:25.040 --> 0:14:28.400 throw his personal belongings into a bag made from a bedspread, 0:14:28.440 --> 0:14:31.080 if he hadn't already done that before making his way 0:14:31.120 --> 0:14:34.080 down to his car. But instead of just throwing his 0:14:34.120 --> 0:14:37.640 stuff into his car, he leaves the bag and the 0:14:37.680 --> 0:14:44.120 gun on the street. Harold Weisberg's nineteen seventy one book 0:14:44.240 --> 0:14:47.360 Frame Up was the first to call into question the 0:14:47.440 --> 0:14:50.560 official story of the king murder, and we all owe 0:14:50.600 --> 0:14:53.920 him a debt. He died in two thousand and two, 0:14:54.040 --> 0:14:56.320 but I'd like to play for you here. His take 0:14:56.360 --> 0:15:00.840 on the stuff found on the street with Ray's rifle ridiculous. 0:15:01.280 --> 0:15:03.520 He's required of going to his room in the flophouse 0:15:03.560 --> 0:15:06.840 and picked up the why does collection of junk bobby pins, 0:15:07.160 --> 0:15:11.200 bobby pins, cans of beer that hadn't been opened. You know, 0:15:11.240 --> 0:15:13.000 a guy has been a crime like that and he's 0:15:13.000 --> 0:15:14.280 playing for his life. You're going to pick up a 0:15:14.280 --> 0:15:17.080 couple of cans of beer or bobby pin. The box 0:15:17.240 --> 0:15:19.000 didn't hold the rifle. He had to put the rifle 0:15:19.000 --> 0:15:22.680 in that all sorts of other junk, ridiculous collection of it. 0:15:23.120 --> 0:15:25.440 The one thing that that bundle served to do was 0:15:25.480 --> 0:15:26.640 the point a finger it ready. 0:15:27.720 --> 0:15:31.560 Ryan Jones agrees with Weisberg's doubt about the likelihood that 0:15:31.680 --> 0:15:33.840 Ray was the one who left the bundle with the 0:15:33.920 --> 0:15:34.880 rifle on the street. 0:15:36.000 --> 0:15:40.240 Why he would have ever have done that will always 0:15:40.280 --> 0:15:43.400 be a mystery. The car wasn't parked right in front 0:15:43.400 --> 0:15:45.080 of Jim's drills. 0:15:44.640 --> 0:15:49.360 Parked a little closer to the firehouse, but it's close 0:15:49.520 --> 0:15:52.760 enough to where he does not have to like run 0:15:53.200 --> 0:15:54.720 a significant long way. 0:15:54.880 --> 0:15:58.480 He had more than enough time. It was probably safer 0:15:58.760 --> 0:16:01.720 for him to just put the rifle and his car 0:16:01.760 --> 0:16:02.600 and drive off. 0:16:05.000 --> 0:16:07.640 It was strange to stand on South Maine with Ryan 0:16:07.760 --> 0:16:10.600 Jones and try to imagine things that had happened. 0:16:10.320 --> 0:16:11.160 Fifty years ago. 0:16:12.080 --> 0:16:15.720 There's no question that James Earl Ray rented Room five 0:16:15.800 --> 0:16:19.120 B from Bessie Brewer the day of the murder, but 0:16:19.200 --> 0:16:22.800 all the rest of it seems unlikely. I was grateful 0:16:22.840 --> 0:16:24.840 for the time Ryan Jones spent with me, so I 0:16:24.880 --> 0:16:28.480 asked him if he had anything else he wanted to say. 0:16:29.320 --> 0:16:32.760 I think that this would have been a very very 0:16:32.800 --> 0:16:38.200 interesting trial had Ray gone to trial. We have this 0:16:38.360 --> 0:16:42.640 weapon and it's never you know, the ballistics and trajectory 0:16:42.640 --> 0:16:46.600 are not tested. The room changed, Why the weapon was 0:16:46.680 --> 0:16:50.960 found when it was found? Who supplied Ray? The aliases 0:16:51.120 --> 0:16:56.720 of Gault Lobyer, Willard Bridgeman, Snay and you know what, 0:16:56.760 --> 0:16:59.360 this was a hate crime. You know I'm not buying 0:16:59.400 --> 0:17:03.040 it is said, hey crime, any ku kluks klansmen could 0:17:03.080 --> 0:17:05.760 have gotten doctor King of Montgomery. They could have got 0:17:05.800 --> 0:17:08.639 him in Reachville, Georgia. They could have gotten him in Birmingham. 0:17:08.680 --> 0:17:11.600 They could have got him in Saint Augustine Selma, Chicago, 0:17:12.680 --> 0:17:15.560 walking the two hundred and twenty one mile distance from 0:17:15.600 --> 0:17:17.960 Memphis to Jackson at the March against Fear. But no, 0:17:18.000 --> 0:17:22.400 they don't get him until he is opposing the Vietnam 0:17:22.560 --> 0:17:25.680 War in April of nineteen sixty seven. For the very 0:17:25.800 --> 0:17:28.959 last year. They wait and get him when he proposes 0:17:29.040 --> 0:17:34.120 on December fourth, nineteen sixty seven to the Poor People's Campaign, 0:17:34.200 --> 0:17:36.720 where he wants to bring black and white people who 0:17:36.760 --> 0:17:40.399 are stricken by poverty to the nation's capital and to 0:17:40.560 --> 0:17:44.760 demand that the country, you know, write the check to 0:17:44.840 --> 0:17:47.320 the people out in their backyard versus an a war. 0:17:48.400 --> 0:17:52.320 I think that the story that we've been given for 0:17:52.400 --> 0:17:56.879 the past fifty three years is just fictional. It's laughable 0:17:57.000 --> 0:18:00.399 in certain areas that this limon was sold to the 0:18:00.440 --> 0:18:05.679 American public, that this insignificant man is James Olray was 0:18:05.760 --> 0:18:08.399 able to kill Martin Luther King Junior standing on the 0:18:08.400 --> 0:18:11.960 balcony of a Memphis hotel room, and to flee and 0:18:12.040 --> 0:18:16.480 get away untouched, not once. At the end of the day, 0:18:16.480 --> 0:18:18.600 when we look at it, the people who hated him 0:18:18.600 --> 0:18:21.919 the most yetbi who was committed to discrediting him, to 0:18:22.000 --> 0:18:26.000 destroy him, who urged him to commit suicide in January 0:18:26.160 --> 0:18:30.840 nineteen sixty five, are the same people responsible for investigating 0:18:30.880 --> 0:18:34.399 his death. If that's done a disservice to justice in 0:18:34.440 --> 0:18:37.399 this country, I don't know it is. And I feel 0:18:37.400 --> 0:18:40.200 that the story will never rest, and I will never 0:18:40.240 --> 0:18:41.840 rest until we get it to the bottom of it, 0:18:41.920 --> 0:18:45.320 until we give the justice that's due and served to 0:18:45.440 --> 0:18:55.920 doctor King's family into history. 0:19:09.320 --> 0:19:11.359 One of my court reporters was down at the Shelby 0:19:11.400 --> 0:19:14.359 County Courthouse and said there was a British English producer 0:19:14.440 --> 0:19:16.240 named Jack Saltman there and he was going to be 0:19:16.240 --> 0:19:19.440 doing this teletrial that never occurred, the trial of James 0:19:19.440 --> 0:19:21.919 Earl Ray. I thought it was a hoax at first, 0:19:21.920 --> 0:19:25.320 but I threw on my coat, ran down seven blocks 0:19:25.440 --> 0:19:27.879 on a cold winter's day, and there was Jack Saltman 0:19:28.000 --> 0:19:30.920 with contract in hand. He said, I need a real 0:19:30.960 --> 0:19:33.760 time court reporting for this trial I'm doing. It's going 0:19:33.840 --> 0:19:36.040 to be a real trial for all intents and purposes, 0:19:36.359 --> 0:19:38.840 but it will have no judicial weight. Trial of James 0:19:38.880 --> 0:19:40.280 Earl Ray is what it was called. 0:19:41.440 --> 0:19:44.359 I'm in Memphis, a block away from the Formula Rainbow 0:19:44.440 --> 0:19:47.200 Tel talking to Brian de Minski, who is a court 0:19:47.240 --> 0:19:50.120 reporter and someone who has lived in Memphis. 0:19:49.680 --> 0:19:50.760 For most of his life. 0:19:51.160 --> 0:19:53.760 For the last three decades, he's had a front row 0:19:53.880 --> 0:19:55.840 seat for some of the more important events in the 0:19:55.840 --> 0:19:59.120 ongoing challenge to the story of how Martin Luther King 0:19:59.200 --> 0:20:03.040 was murdered. As we just heard, Brian's entrance into the 0:20:03.040 --> 0:20:05.719 case began when he offered himself as a court reporter 0:20:06.000 --> 0:20:08.920 to an English producer who was attempting to stage a. 0:20:08.880 --> 0:20:10.920 Mock trial of James Earl Ray. 0:20:11.880 --> 0:20:14.919 The trial was to mimic in all possible ways a 0:20:14.920 --> 0:20:19.200 real trial, with a retired federal judge presiding, attorneys arguing 0:20:19.240 --> 0:20:22.720 both sides, and an impartial jury to hear the evidence 0:20:23.040 --> 0:20:25.600 and to come to a verdict. This is in nineteen 0:20:25.680 --> 0:20:29.080 ninety three. An edited tape of the trial was televised 0:20:29.320 --> 0:20:33.000 on HBO on the twenty fifth anniversary of the murder 0:20:33.280 --> 0:20:34.280 of Martin Luther King. 0:20:35.560 --> 0:20:37.720 It was a little surreal doing my job as a 0:20:37.720 --> 0:20:40.359 court reporter, but so that my left is a track 0:20:40.400 --> 0:20:42.639 with a journey on it and a big television camera 0:20:42.720 --> 0:20:46.479 filming me. It was cool stuff. I enjoyed it. 0:20:46.920 --> 0:20:48.360 And who were the attorneys involved? 0:20:48.880 --> 0:20:52.280 Bill Pepper, William Pepper and Pickman Ewing Junior, who was 0:20:52.480 --> 0:20:56.119 our United States District Attorney for the Western District of 0:20:56.119 --> 0:20:59.359 Tennessee prior to that he had left that post and 0:20:59.400 --> 0:21:04.760 they hired him as the prosecutor against versus Bill. James 0:21:04.880 --> 0:21:08.400 Rolry tested via satellite for two full days and one 0:21:08.400 --> 0:21:11.280 of the days was a vigorous cross examination by Hickman 0:21:11.320 --> 0:21:14.560 Ewing Jr. The jury was sequestered every evening. It was 0:21:14.640 --> 0:21:17.880 done airtight, better than the ones that I actually would 0:21:17.920 --> 0:21:19.719 handle in my other court reporting life. 0:21:20.280 --> 0:21:22.600 And for our listeners who were not in class that day, 0:21:23.080 --> 0:21:24.720 what was the result of the trial. 0:21:25.200 --> 0:21:28.600 That Ray was not guilty of the assassination of Martin 0:21:28.640 --> 0:21:29.160 Luther King? 0:21:30.080 --> 0:21:33.560 Okay, so tell us about Bill Pepper? What was he like? 0:21:34.480 --> 0:21:38.080 He was very difficult during that entire time. He was frankly, 0:21:38.440 --> 0:21:41.560 he was an ass to everybody. And as you and 0:21:41.600 --> 0:21:44.840 I know, he's a charming, wonderful man. But during that 0:21:44.920 --> 0:21:47.479 trial it was so intense because he was having his 0:21:47.520 --> 0:21:50.880 shot now. He was extremely intense and he was difficult 0:21:50.920 --> 0:21:54.200 to everybody. He even made his co consul cry during 0:21:54.359 --> 0:21:58.080 the trial. April Ferguson made her cry because I don't 0:21:58.119 --> 0:21:59.879 know what the issue was, so she left the table 0:22:00.119 --> 0:22:01.760 during one of the days in tears. 0:22:02.520 --> 0:22:06.120 Did you feel going into the HBO trial that there 0:22:06.160 --> 0:22:08.359 was something wrong with the King murder or did you 0:22:08.960 --> 0:22:11.520 basically think that Ray had done ed? What was your 0:22:11.560 --> 0:22:14.399 mindset before you went in or did it change during 0:22:14.400 --> 0:22:14.840 the trial. 0:22:15.359 --> 0:22:18.080 I had an open mind. As the days unfolded, though, 0:22:18.119 --> 0:22:21.760 I was just astounded at what I didn't know and 0:22:21.800 --> 0:22:22.719 then what I was learning. 0:22:23.520 --> 0:22:27.760 What witnesses stick out in your mind from that trial, Well, 0:22:27.800 --> 0:22:31.320 there's there's Lieutenant Hamby who is sent to a coroner 0:22:31.320 --> 0:22:34.160 of Francisco's office to pick up the slug and bring 0:22:34.200 --> 0:22:37.480 it back to Director Holloman's office, the head of Fire 0:22:37.520 --> 0:22:38.480 in place of Memphis. 0:22:38.640 --> 0:22:41.600 He saw it was an intact bullet. And now even 0:22:41.640 --> 0:22:43.760 at the Civil Rights Museum across the street from where 0:22:43.760 --> 0:22:46.800 we're at, there was this three fragments of a bullet. 0:22:47.400 --> 0:22:49.439 I recall they were going to put Lloyd Jowers on 0:22:49.440 --> 0:22:51.480 the stand. I think he actually was on the stand, 0:22:51.880 --> 0:22:54.760 and there were certain questions that Judge Frankel said, we're 0:22:54.800 --> 0:22:56.760 not going there. You're not going to ask this. Well, 0:22:56.760 --> 0:22:59.800 Pepper tried to ask it anyway. He asked, mister Jowers, well, 0:22:59.840 --> 0:23:03.439 you know what were you doing behind your bar and 0:23:03.440 --> 0:23:06.520 grilla in that day? And Judge Frankel said, you'll see 0:23:06.520 --> 0:23:09.760 me in chambers right now. And they went into the chambers, 0:23:10.359 --> 0:23:15.080 hic Youing and Jowers, lawyer Lewis Garrison and Bill and 0:23:15.119 --> 0:23:17.320 they came back out and they took Jowers off the stand. 0:23:17.760 --> 0:23:21.399 Frankel had some objection to asking Jowers whether he was 0:23:21.400 --> 0:23:23.720