WEBVTT - Jim's Grill [5] 0:00:00.360 --> 0:00:03.240 Welcome to the MLK Tapes, a production of I Heart 0:00:03.320 --> 0:00:07.040 Radio and Tenderfoot TV. The views and opinions expressed in 0:00:07.120 --> 0:00:10.159 this podcast are solely those of the podcast author for 0:00:10.320 --> 0:00:14.000 individuals participating in the podcast, and do not represent those 0:00:14.040 --> 0:00:18.439 of I Heart Media, Tenderfoot TV, or their employees. Listener 0:00:18.480 --> 0:00:25.560 discretion is advised. He looked like he had stuck his 0:00:25.640 --> 0:00:29.520 friend in his socket. Lord however, standing up and even 0:00:29.600 --> 0:00:32.159 like somebody had drained all the good his body. He 0:00:32.280 --> 0:00:35.880 was so white. Oh, he was so Whitey. He ain't 0:00:35.880 --> 0:00:38.120 been on his knee. How do you know he's been 0:00:38.159 --> 0:00:39.960 on I know he had been on his knee and 0:00:40.000 --> 0:00:43.120 coast the ground with that, because one the ground was 0:00:43.159 --> 0:00:46.360 down and he's in his knees was dirty. And when 0:00:46.360 --> 0:00:49.600 he came in there and went behind the counting and 0:00:49.880 --> 0:00:53.280 uh put the gun on account it was a brand 0:00:53.280 --> 0:00:58.400 new trick. Black. The para was black, but it was 0:00:58.440 --> 0:01:02.880 shy lack. It been wax the hamlet of the dal brown. Yeah, 0:01:02.920 --> 0:01:08.520 he's black, ditap was? This is Betty Spates telling Attorney 0:01:08.560 --> 0:01:11.839 William Pepper that just moments after Martin Luther King was shot, 0:01:12.280 --> 0:01:14.760 she saw a man she knew come running in the 0:01:14.800 --> 0:01:18.400 back door with a smoking rifle. Betty was working as 0:01:18.400 --> 0:01:21.360 a waitress at Jim's Grill on South Main Street, the 0:01:21.440 --> 0:01:23.920 back door to which opened onto a brush covered yard 0:01:24.240 --> 0:01:27.560 directly opposite the room at the Lorraine Motel where Dr 0:01:27.680 --> 0:01:31.360 King was staying. The grille was owned by Lloyd Jowers, 0:01:31.400 --> 0:01:35.480 and he and Betty had an ongoing sexual relationship. Lloyd 0:01:35.600 --> 0:01:44.880 was white, Betty was black and she was seventeen. I 0:01:45.040 --> 0:01:48.520 call the Union Hall, says matter of life and death. 0:01:49.160 --> 0:01:51.600 I said, I thank these people are planning to kill 0:01:51.760 --> 0:01:56.200 Dr King. The authorities were parade all we found a 0:01:56.480 --> 0:01:59.400 gun the James al Ray board in Birmingham that killed 0:01:59.480 --> 0:02:03.800 Dr King. Except it wasn't the gun that killed Dr Key. 0:02:04.320 --> 0:02:10.760 James Lvey was upon or the official story from My 0:02:10.840 --> 0:02:14.519 Heart Radio in Tender for TV. The plan was to 0:02:15.480 --> 0:02:18.960 get King to the city because they wanted it handled 0:02:18.960 --> 0:02:22.440 in Memphis. Were dead in incl Hamlet, and I've lived 0:02:22.440 --> 0:02:25.760 with it along my sire, and they they scared for me. 0:02:26.280 --> 0:02:29.280 The Lord told me to not the word. I've been 0:02:29.360 --> 0:02:32.280 wanting to tell it all my life. I'm Bill Claiburg 0:02:33.160 --> 0:02:47.680 and this is the MLK tapes. At the time of 0:02:47.680 --> 0:02:51.000 his conversation with Betty SPADs. Bill Pepper had been working 0:02:51.040 --> 0:02:53.800 on the King murder for over a decade, but he 0:02:53.840 --> 0:02:57.120 had been representing James Earl Ray as his attorney for 0:02:57.200 --> 0:03:00.480 just a few years, and that only after he's satisfied 0:03:00.520 --> 0:03:05.000 himself that Raisin folvement was not voluntary. Although the official 0:03:05.120 --> 0:03:07.520 version of the crime had the fatal shot coming from 0:03:07.520 --> 0:03:11.160 the bathroom window above Jim's grill, there were people who 0:03:11.160 --> 0:03:14.480 thought the shot had come from the yard below the bathroom. 0:03:14.520 --> 0:03:17.200 The best access to this yard was by way of 0:03:17.240 --> 0:03:19.840 the back door of the grill, and of course nothing 0:03:19.880 --> 0:03:22.799 could have happened through that door without the cooperation of 0:03:22.840 --> 0:03:25.960 the grill's owner, Lloyd Jowers, so he was always on 0:03:26.000 --> 0:03:30.120 Bill Pepper's suspect list. Showers was in the frame right 0:03:30.160 --> 0:03:32.440 from the beginning because he was the one who ran 0:03:32.600 --> 0:03:37.960 Jim's grill. He owned it, and he ran it, and 0:03:38.200 --> 0:03:43.440 he clearly had some role to play, which which eventually 0:03:44.240 --> 0:03:50.280 started to become defined by Betty's spades. When I eventually 0:03:50.360 --> 0:03:53.040 was able to get her to talk. What brought you 0:03:53.080 --> 0:03:56.720 to Betty space, I guess it's local People said that 0:03:56.920 --> 0:04:02.680 Showers girlfriend was was Betty's face, since she worked part 0:04:02.760 --> 0:04:06.440 time for him and her sister worked also in the grill, 0:04:06.600 --> 0:04:10.560 and so I started talking to them. Betty was not 0:04:10.720 --> 0:04:16.240 willing to disclose anything, uh that was going to incriminate 0:04:16.320 --> 0:04:18.800 Lloyd for quite a long period of time because she 0:04:18.920 --> 0:04:23.279 actually thought Lloyd was the shooter who did the shooting, 0:04:23.320 --> 0:04:28.120 because she saw him carrying the rifle smoking rifle into 0:04:28.560 --> 0:04:32.839 into the kitchen. Lloyd kept her under wraps to the 0:04:32.920 --> 0:04:36.719 extent that he could. Lloyd Jowers had grown up in 0:04:36.839 --> 0:04:40.440 rural Dyersboro, Tennessee, and after his discharge from the Navy, 0:04:40.760 --> 0:04:45.599 he came to Memphis in newly married to his first wife, Dorothy. 0:04:45.920 --> 0:04:48.000 With no training at all, he got a job as 0:04:48.000 --> 0:04:51.120 a Memphis police officer. This was back in the day 0:04:51.320 --> 0:04:54.840 when Edwin Hull Crump, better known as Boss Crump, ran 0:04:54.960 --> 0:04:58.760 most everything in and around Memphis. Here's what Jowers said 0:04:59.000 --> 0:05:11.440 at nine civil trial. The audio quality is so poor 0:05:11.760 --> 0:05:15.600 we've taken the liberty of using a voice actor. Crump 0:05:15.640 --> 0:05:17.920 is the one who got me the job. I went 0:05:17.960 --> 0:05:20.800 in to see him on a Monday, and on Thursday, 0:05:20.800 --> 0:05:23.240 I was riding a squad car with the thirty eight 0:05:23.279 --> 0:05:26.159 hanging on my side. That is the way things operated 0:05:26.200 --> 0:05:30.320 back then. Now Johnny Barger was my partner. He's the 0:05:30.320 --> 0:05:33.280 one who introduced me to Frank Liberto. They were real 0:05:33.360 --> 0:05:36.599 good friends. Of course, I gotta be pretty good friends 0:05:36.600 --> 0:05:39.320 with Frank myself, because he could do you a lot 0:05:39.400 --> 0:05:44.600 of good in Memphis, especially if you're with police. Policemen 0:05:44.600 --> 0:05:48.039 were often seen stopping by Frank Liberto's produce market, but 0:05:48.120 --> 0:05:50.799 they were rarely seen coming out with lettuce or tomatoes. 0:05:51.360 --> 0:05:53.680 Word was the cops would do favors for Frank and 0:05:53.720 --> 0:05:56.119 his friends, and he would make sure there was something 0:05:56.200 --> 0:05:59.320 in it for them. In those days, getting a job 0:05:59.360 --> 0:06:01.640 as a cop was easy enough if you were white, 0:06:02.120 --> 0:06:04.799 but the pay was bad, so after a few years, 0:06:04.920 --> 0:06:07.279 Jowers quit the police and began working for a local 0:06:07.320 --> 0:06:11.080 cab company. Around the same time, Jowers also quit his 0:06:11.160 --> 0:06:14.760 marriage with Dorothy and soon married another woman. That marriage 0:06:14.839 --> 0:06:17.920 also ended in divorce. In a short while after that, 0:06:18.240 --> 0:06:20.880 he married his first wife, Dorothy for a second time. 0:06:21.680 --> 0:06:25.520 In nineteen sixty seven, Jowers bought Jim's grill, and he 0:06:25.640 --> 0:06:28.840 hired two sisters, Bobby and Betty, to cook and service 0:06:28.880 --> 0:06:33.240 waitresses for decades. Jowers had said that the afternoon King 0:06:33.279 --> 0:06:36.360 was shot, he was working the tables by himself, and 0:06:36.400 --> 0:06:41.920 that Betty Space was not there when actually knowed when 0:06:41.920 --> 0:06:48.360 off I was gone a bellers all headed about head 0:06:48.400 --> 0:06:52.039 gone and went off and quit. I went back to 0:06:52.080 --> 0:06:57.000 the kitchen door like I was in the kitchen. I 0:06:57.040 --> 0:06:59.080 looked inside of the kitchen when I was there, ill 0:06:59.240 --> 0:07:05.280 going back to finished all there. Jowers told this his 0:07:05.360 --> 0:07:08.920 standard story to Bill Pepper as part of an extensive 0:07:09.000 --> 0:07:14.240 legal deposition he was required to give. In in the 0:07:14.320 --> 0:07:17.960 nineteen nineties, things regarding the murder of Martin Luther King 0:07:18.000 --> 0:07:21.720 were playing out in different venues on TV, in the 0:07:21.800 --> 0:07:25.080 Office of the Attorney General, with a Shelby County grand jury, 0:07:25.120 --> 0:07:28.760 and eventually in the States court system. The trigger for 0:07:28.800 --> 0:07:34.080 all this was the mock trial, televised on HBO, which 0:07:34.120 --> 0:07:38.680 brought together lawyers, a real judge, and an impartial jury, which, 0:07:38.760 --> 0:07:42.120 after hearing evidence from both sides, found James Earl Ray 0:07:42.280 --> 0:07:46.600 not guilty of murdering Martin Luther King. Lloyd Jowers testified 0:07:46.640 --> 0:07:49.400 at this trial, but he didn't say much beyond what 0:07:49.480 --> 0:07:52.800 you just heard. Pepper started to ask Jowers if he 0:07:52.840 --> 0:07:55.480 had played any role in the murder of King, but 0:07:55.560 --> 0:07:59.600 the judge scolded him and disallowed the question. I had 0:08:00.000 --> 0:08:05.440 a number of altercations with Judge Frankel, who was was 0:08:05.560 --> 0:08:10.760 known as a fairly conservative United States District Court judge 0:08:10.760 --> 0:08:13.920 when he was on the court. He started off with 0:08:13.960 --> 0:08:18.120 a degree of skepticism that waned as we went on 0:08:18.280 --> 0:08:21.840 with the trial. I think he began to accept that 0:08:22.920 --> 0:08:26.560 there was an actual case being made before him that 0:08:26.720 --> 0:08:30.960 he didn't have any idea about. Pepper had good reason 0:08:31.000 --> 0:08:34.520 to ask Jowers about his involvement because Betty Spates had 0:08:34.559 --> 0:08:37.440 recently confessed to him that she had seen Jours with 0:08:37.480 --> 0:08:42.040 a smoking gun. After trying for two or three years, 0:08:42.080 --> 0:08:44.960 eventually got her to tell me what had happened that 0:08:45.120 --> 0:08:49.880 afternoon with respect to Lloyd Jowers looking for him. Think 0:08:49.960 --> 0:08:52.560 he was playing around with some women out in the bushes, 0:08:53.400 --> 0:08:58.040 and she going into the grille, seeing the kitchen door closed, 0:08:58.640 --> 0:09:02.959 which was unusual, but then seeing the back door open, 0:09:03.480 --> 0:09:07.199 which also was unusual. So she went to the back door, 0:09:07.360 --> 0:09:11.840 and on our way there she heard the shot. And 0:09:11.880 --> 0:09:15.520 as she got to the back door, already here comes 0:09:15.559 --> 0:09:19.880 Lloyd running in with the rifle still smoking, and him 0:09:19.920 --> 0:09:23.720 as white as a sheet, and he brushes past her, 0:09:24.360 --> 0:09:27.720 starts to break down the rifle and said to her. 0:09:28.160 --> 0:09:30.520 He would never do anything to hurt me, Betty, would you? 0:09:31.120 --> 0:09:34.319 She said, no, of course not. Then he wrapped it 0:09:34.600 --> 0:09:38.120 the rifle put it on a shelf, where eventually he 0:09:38.160 --> 0:09:42.760 showed it to McGraw, his friend, and a local taxi driver. 0:09:44.040 --> 0:09:47.520 Betty's Spates was scheduled to testify the mock trial, but 0:09:47.600 --> 0:09:51.520 she became frightened and didn't show. But Jowers may have 0:09:51.559 --> 0:09:54.959 heard that she had been called, and perhaps this unnerved him, 0:09:55.480 --> 0:09:59.400 for when he was under oath at his deposition, he 0:09:59.520 --> 0:10:03.439 lied the simplest things. Was he aware Bill Pepper asked 0:10:03.440 --> 0:10:06.240 that doctor King was coming to town? No, he hadn't 0:10:06.280 --> 0:10:09.200 heard a thing about that. Did he have any contact 0:10:09.200 --> 0:10:12.199 with a guy named Frank Liberto, No, none at all. 0:10:12.960 --> 0:10:15.840 Had Betty Space worked at the grill that day? No, 0:10:16.000 --> 0:10:19.400 not that day. Had he had a romantic relationship with 0:10:19.440 --> 0:10:24.440 Betty Spaces, No, he hadn't. Pepper patiently plotted through his 0:10:24.559 --> 0:10:29.720 questions without challenging jowers most obvious lies. None of it 0:10:29.760 --> 0:10:33.720 made any sense. Why would you Owers, under oath revert 0:10:33.800 --> 0:10:36.640 to his former see no evil here, no evil approach 0:10:36.679 --> 0:10:40.120 to the killing of King, when just months before he 0:10:40.160 --> 0:10:43.960 had been on national TV on ABC Prime Time with 0:10:44.000 --> 0:10:47.280 Sam Donaldson, where he had confessed to having played a 0:10:47.400 --> 0:10:50.800 role in this very murder. Did James Earl Ray killed 0:10:50.880 --> 0:10:54.200 Dr Martin Luther King? No, he did not. Do you 0:10:54.320 --> 0:10:57.319 know who killed Dr King? I know who was paid 0:10:57.400 --> 0:11:01.000 to do it. From the outside, it is difficult to 0:11:01.080 --> 0:11:05.959 understand jowers motivation for going on national TV and confessing 0:11:05.960 --> 0:11:09.400 to some part in the murder of doctor King, but 0:11:09.559 --> 0:11:12.600 knowing that Betty's space testimony was loose in the world 0:11:13.160 --> 0:11:16.240 may have made Jowers worry about being prosecuted for his 0:11:16.320 --> 0:11:20.559 part in the crime, or perhaps something else did. Looking 0:11:20.600 --> 0:11:25.760 for relief, jowers attorney Lewis Garrison approached the Attorney General 0:11:25.880 --> 0:11:30.400 John Parotti. He asked for immunity from prosecution for Jowers 0:11:30.679 --> 0:11:33.600 in exchange for coming forward with what he knew about 0:11:33.600 --> 0:11:37.600 the crime. That kind of deal is common in criminal cases. 0:11:39.760 --> 0:11:43.040 What Jowers and Garrison had perhaps overlooked was that in 0:11:43.080 --> 0:11:46.560 this case, the authorities, the police in the AGES Office, 0:11:46.920 --> 0:11:50.120 were heavily invested in the lone assassined version of the 0:11:50.200 --> 0:11:53.959 King murder. At the time of Race conviction, the a g. 0:11:54.160 --> 0:11:57.840 S Office loudly proclaimed that if any information surface that 0:11:57.920 --> 0:12:01.160 indicated others were involved, they would take vigorous action and 0:12:01.240 --> 0:12:03.720 chase those guilty parties to the ends of the earth. 0:12:04.440 --> 0:12:07.480 But now that that information had arrived, they didn't want 0:12:07.520 --> 0:12:10.920 to act on it. Rather, the investigators tried to get 0:12:10.920 --> 0:12:15.600 witnesses to change their stories or discredit them altogether. So 0:12:15.679 --> 0:12:19.760 Garrison's attempts to negotiate immunity hit a wall, and Jowers 0:12:19.800 --> 0:12:23.320 consent to come out on ABC Prime Time might be 0:12:23.400 --> 0:12:27.120 seen as an attempt to force the AG's hand. Indeed, 0:12:27.320 --> 0:12:30.520 when Donaldson asked ours on Live TV to name the 0:12:30.559 --> 0:12:34.000 actual shooter, Garrison jumped in and said that Jowers would 0:12:34.000 --> 0:12:37.560 do that as soon as he was granted immunity. But 0:12:37.720 --> 0:12:40.320 why would Garrison allow us client to go public with 0:12:40.360 --> 0:12:43.760 such a confession. I asked Bill Pepper if he knew 0:12:43.760 --> 0:12:48.160 whether Garrison had recommended that Jowers go on TV. I 0:12:48.200 --> 0:12:51.760 don't think he opposed it. I think Lewis knew that 0:12:51.920 --> 0:12:55.160 his client was guilty, and he believed this was a 0:12:55.200 --> 0:12:59.440 horrendous crime and that the truth should be out. And 0:12:59.520 --> 0:13:02.240 while he was trying to protect the interests of his 0:13:02.400 --> 0:13:06.800 client to the extent that he could, he nevertheless, I 0:13:07.000 --> 0:13:10.360 did not want to get in the way of the 0:13:10.520 --> 0:13:14.480 unfolding truth and what did Garrison have to say about it. 0:13:15.040 --> 0:13:18.400 This audio comes from a twelve interview of Garrison by 0:13:18.440 --> 0:13:23.440 court reporter Brian Dominski. Well, they had contact me at 0:13:23.480 --> 0:13:25.240 bath and I don't know where mister Jarns want to 0:13:25.240 --> 0:13:27.040 do it, and I it didn't matter to me because 0:13:27.280 --> 0:13:31.080 he won't pay anything, but a right, uh. He told 0:13:31.080 --> 0:13:33.720 me one day, you know, he said, well for second history, 0:13:33.720 --> 0:13:35.600 if it will help out, you know, I'll do it. 0:13:35.760 --> 0:13:38.480 And Ms Dalson came and talked to us or once 0:13:38.480 --> 0:13:40.439 to twyfore you had to you know where we actually 0:13:40.480 --> 0:13:43.240 filmed anybody? So I think, I mean, I didn't lead 0:13:43.280 --> 0:13:46.360 Lord into this thing. They a great to it. And 0:13:46.960 --> 0:13:48.280 the only thing I wanted, you know, I don't want 0:13:48.480 --> 0:13:51.839 I'm getting in died anything like that. So Jowers had 0:13:51.840 --> 0:13:55.160 been on TV saying he had been involved in the murder, 0:13:55.600 --> 0:13:59.000 but now with Pepper asking him questions while under oath, 0:13:59.600 --> 0:14:02.080 Jower just wanted to go back to the story that 0:14:02.160 --> 0:14:04.360 he was just drawn a picture of beer when King 0:14:04.440 --> 0:14:08.480 was killed. After having let the charade go on for 0:14:08.640 --> 0:14:12.520 over an hour, Bill Pepper handed Jowers a transcript of 0:14:12.559 --> 0:14:15.280 what he had said to Sam Donaldson and asked him 0:14:15.320 --> 0:14:19.760 to look at the first page, Donaldson saying asking you 0:14:19.880 --> 0:14:23.200 a question. Right on that first paragraph there he is 0:14:23.240 --> 0:14:27.000 saying that James ear already killed Martin Luther King. You 0:14:27.040 --> 0:14:30.640 see your answer to that question as it appeared from transcript. 0:14:31.320 --> 0:14:34.600 What was your response to that question? Mr? Donaldson asked 0:14:34.680 --> 0:14:38.960 you no, and then he said do you know who 0:14:39.080 --> 0:14:45.920 killed Martin Luca King? And the answer, the answer Jowers 0:14:45.960 --> 0:14:48.920 gave to Donaldson was I know who was paid to 0:14:48.960 --> 0:14:53.360 do it. These were important words for Bill Pepper because 0:14:53.400 --> 0:14:56.560 his client, James Earl Ray, had been in jail for 0:14:56.600 --> 0:14:58.800 over twenty five years for a murder he said he 0:14:58.840 --> 0:15:02.600 didn't commit. And now here was testimony from someone with 0:15:02.800 --> 0:15:06.200 presumed inside knowledge who was saying that James Earl Ray 0:15:06.600 --> 0:15:08.880 had not, in fact been the killer of Martin Luther King. 0:15:09.720 --> 0:15:12.360 Pepper was trying to reopen the case in the courts, 0:15:12.840 --> 0:15:15.360 and here was the can opener that might do the job. 0:15:16.040 --> 0:15:18.840 But Lloyd Jowers didn't like this new turn in the questions. 0:15:20.240 --> 0:15:22.880 I think I've got to take care of the man rowan. 0:15:24.480 --> 0:15:27.680 So Jowers pled the fifth He refused to answer Pepper's 0:15:27.760 --> 0:15:31.880 question by asserting his right to not incriminate himself. Pepper 0:15:31.960 --> 0:15:34.480 kept on and asked you Owers if he had any 0:15:34.520 --> 0:15:39.200 business dealings with Frank Liberto take pare Mary known if 0:15:39.200 --> 0:15:46.320 they're going to read no um? Have you ever set 0:15:46.360 --> 0:15:50.480 your eyes on a man who has comes be known 0:15:51.120 --> 0:15:54.880 as many of us as Raoul I have to be 0:15:55.080 --> 0:16:00.240 the fast man? Question? Have you ever had in your 0:16:00.320 --> 0:16:06.200 possession any weapon that might have been associated with the 0:16:06.320 --> 0:16:11.680 murder at Martin? LUs King built the man well that question? 0:16:12.960 --> 0:16:15.920 And so it went a few more questions that Jowers 0:16:15.920 --> 0:16:19.880 wouldn't answer, and Pepper said he was finished. But chowers 0:16:19.960 --> 0:16:23.320 awkward confession and then is taking the fifth would be 0:16:23.480 --> 0:16:25.760 enough for Pepper to get his motion for an evidentiary 0:16:25.840 --> 0:16:29.880 hearing before a sympathetic judge. We will follow that story 0:16:29.920 --> 0:16:33.720 in another episode. But what happened to Betty Spates and 0:16:33.800 --> 0:16:36.840 her story of seeing Jowers running back into Jim's grill 0:16:37.280 --> 0:16:54.800 rifle in hand. Betty Spates didn't work the afternoon shift 0:16:54.840 --> 0:16:58.080 at Jim's Grill. She worked the morning and the evening shifts, 0:16:58.160 --> 0:17:00.560 and in between she'd go across the street and work 0:17:00.600 --> 0:17:04.480 her second job at Seabrook Wallpaper. Years later, she told 0:17:04.520 --> 0:17:07.399 Bill Pepper that on the day Martin Luther King was killed. 0:17:07.920 --> 0:17:11.000 Seabrook let out early, so she returned to the grill 0:17:11.080 --> 0:17:15.720 around three thirty, just in time to run into Jowler's wife, Dorothy, 0:17:15.920 --> 0:17:19.560 who didn't much care for Betty spaces what happened when 0:17:19.600 --> 0:17:25.320 she came in because he slept. She came right up 0:17:25.359 --> 0:17:30.880 to here and was calling her name. How slept about company? 0:17:31.920 --> 0:17:35.199 And then she can learned the lower I want her 0:17:37.280 --> 0:17:42.000 and then would say to get the hand here, and 0:17:42.119 --> 0:17:47.160 he told her and now she's name you are, you'll 0:17:47.200 --> 0:17:51.639 get adding that man he didn't help him and nothing. 0:17:52.880 --> 0:17:56.320 Second she left, she didn't say anything. She's just left. 0:17:58.560 --> 0:18:01.080 A short time after her run in with Jour's wife, 0:18:01.440 --> 0:18:04.119 Betty Speech recalled seeing Charlie Stevens put out of the 0:18:04.200 --> 0:18:07.520 grill so drunk he was becoming a danger to himself. 0:18:08.240 --> 0:18:11.000 This was the same Charlie Stevens who would become the 0:18:11.080 --> 0:18:14.840 state's star witness, saying he saw James ol Ray run 0:18:14.960 --> 0:18:16.960 from the bathroom on the second floor of the rooming 0:18:17.040 --> 0:18:20.680 house after the shot was fired. Betty didn't think much 0:18:20.720 --> 0:18:25.359 of that story. Was nothing right? When did when was 0:18:25.440 --> 0:18:29.440 he put out of the grill? Cappain though his wife there, Yeah, 0:18:29.440 --> 0:18:32.160 I can put out, you know, he came before them, 0:18:32.160 --> 0:18:36.240 but he would say about him, who would put it out? Bobby. 0:18:37.040 --> 0:18:43.560 Bobby told him to believe that would be massive. He 0:18:43.680 --> 0:18:47.760 was a bouncer. So it was a busy afternoon in 0:18:47.840 --> 0:18:50.879 the grill for Lloyd Jowers, and the little scene between 0:18:50.960 --> 0:18:53.440 Betty and Dorothy had played out just an hour and 0:18:53.480 --> 0:18:57.040 a half before Dr King was to be murdered, and 0:18:57.080 --> 0:18:59.840 there were still things that needed doing. Betty said that 0:19:00.040 --> 0:19:03.080 Jowers disappeared on a handful of short errands that didn't 0:19:03.119 --> 0:19:06.480 make much sense. Out the door, back in ten minutes, 0:19:07.040 --> 0:19:10.040 out the door and back in five And then near 0:19:10.160 --> 0:19:13.000 six o'clock she noticed Jowers was again not in the 0:19:13.080 --> 0:19:16.320 dining room and she hadn't seen him leave, so she 0:19:16.400 --> 0:19:19.720 went into the kitchen and Jowers wasn't there either, but 0:19:19.800 --> 0:19:23.280 the back door was open. Then she heard of popping noise, 0:19:23.560 --> 0:19:26.199 and Jowers came running through the back door, white as 0:19:26.240 --> 0:19:29.400 a sheet and carrying a gun. And over the next 0:19:29.480 --> 0:19:32.720 thirty years that image would follow her like a ghost. 0:19:33.960 --> 0:19:36.879 And what about Lloyd Jowers, What was life like for 0:19:37.000 --> 0:19:40.680 him in the years following King's murder. According the Jowers attorney, 0:19:40.720 --> 0:19:44.199 Lewis Garrison, it wasn't too bad because Jowers had come 0:19:44.240 --> 0:19:47.000 into some heavy money right after the murder of Dr King. 0:19:48.160 --> 0:19:52.000 He purchased a cab company sometime oh here six days 0:19:52.080 --> 0:19:54.840 sixty nine, but anyway is the second larger cab gun 0:19:54.920 --> 0:19:57.720 in Memphis. Stad Sam had over a hundred card colled 0:19:57.760 --> 0:20:01.560 ahead pocket when Dr English FASSINYI you got this money, 0:20:02.080 --> 0:20:03.680 but I mean, I mean, I can't tell you. What 0:20:03.720 --> 0:20:04.920 do you tell me? A personally? But I don't know 0:20:05.000 --> 0:20:09.000 for sure? Under town very fat with other witnesses for 0:20:09.080 --> 0:20:13.760 sad messia. According to Jowers, he closed down Jim's grill 0:20:13.880 --> 0:20:17.439 in July of nineteen seventy one. The neighborhood was changing, 0:20:17.920 --> 0:20:20.520 and for some reason, the cops and cab drivers who 0:20:20.560 --> 0:20:23.280 had been as regulars no longer felt like sitting around 0:20:23.320 --> 0:20:27.440 the old place. Sometime before he closed the grill, Jowers 0:20:27.520 --> 0:20:31.840 bought what he told Bill Pepper was of Southland Cab Company. 0:20:32.720 --> 0:20:35.760 It was as an owner of south Land that Jowers 0:20:35.800 --> 0:20:39.280 would meet Attorney Lewis Garrison first on the posing sides 0:20:39.320 --> 0:20:43.520 of an injury lawsuit. But Jowers liked Garrison's relaxed style, 0:20:44.240 --> 0:20:47.440 so Garrison became jowers attorney for the odd things that 0:20:47.560 --> 0:20:52.440 befall anyone in life like a divorce. Jowers divorced his wife, 0:20:52.520 --> 0:20:55.520 Dorothy for the second time in nineteen seventy five, and 0:20:55.600 --> 0:20:59.719 in nineteen seventy six he married Donna Turner, but Turner 0:21:00.000 --> 0:21:05.160 worst Jhowers before their second anniversary, so Jowers, unfazed, turned 0:21:05.200 --> 0:21:08.080 around the same year and married Dorothy for the third time. 0:21:09.000 --> 0:21:12.320 All the while, Lloyd Jowers and Betty Spaces kept up 0:21:12.320 --> 0:21:15.200 an occasional relationship that would go on for twenty years. 0:21:15.960 --> 0:21:18.639 Betty gave birth to five children, two of which she 0:21:18.680 --> 0:21:22.040 said were fathered by Jowers. As she told Bill Pepper, 0:21:22.560 --> 0:21:26.040 all through the seventies and into the eighties, Jowers kept 0:21:26.080 --> 0:21:30.560 tabs on her. He came right to my house back 0:21:30.600 --> 0:21:36.159 for came okay, Loah called me like we was bud buds. 0:21:37.680 --> 0:21:40.000 It was a week or he was calling once more. 0:21:40.640 --> 0:21:42.639 And whenever you changed jobs, he went to see you. 0:21:43.480 --> 0:21:45.920 When have I changed? Is left them up? So I 0:21:46.080 --> 0:21:49.119 was watching me r and b Dan market. Who year 0:21:49.119 --> 0:21:53.160 I want? She said, I wouldn't be there a month, 0:21:53.760 --> 0:21:57.359 and suddenly he was there. Of course, Jowers knew what 0:21:57.520 --> 0:22:00.320 Betty had seen the day King was killed, and this 0:22:00.440 --> 0:22:03.680 may have caused him some anxiety, and at times he 0:22:03.760 --> 0:22:06.159 apparently felt the need to push some of it in 0:22:06.280 --> 0:22:10.200 her direction, and he didn't always do it himself. Jowers 0:22:10.280 --> 0:22:13.200 had a friend named Willie Aikins who would sometimes come 0:22:13.280 --> 0:22:17.240 by Betty's house. On one particular visit, Aikins pulled a 0:22:17.320 --> 0:22:20.240 gun and fired three bullets into the couch on which 0:22:20.320 --> 0:22:23.800 she was sitting. He knocked on my back door, came 0:22:23.920 --> 0:22:27.160 in my house ful of the three fifty seven magnis 0:22:27.720 --> 0:22:31.680 and shot three times in my captain, I have sitting 0:22:31.760 --> 0:22:36.399 right there, adn't jump adenfra adam me hey work A 0:22:36.480 --> 0:22:41.280 sixty was a sleep. Sometimes the lessons would be in 0:22:41.359 --> 0:22:43.960 the form of a story, like the one about Aikins 0:22:44.000 --> 0:22:47.080 and Jowers murdering the wife of some doctor who gave 0:22:47.160 --> 0:22:50.200 the money to do it. And when Agins told me 0:22:50.320 --> 0:22:53.240 there was a doctor I had a wife and paid 0:22:53.800 --> 0:22:56.520 load to get rid of it and him and lower 0:22:56.720 --> 0:23:00.879 feel this one on State manually embar with her. She 0:23:01.040 --> 0:23:03.639 owned a pink CALLI and I asked me, don't you 0:23:03.760 --> 0:23:06.720 remember reading in the paper? And that stuck in my 0:23:06.840 --> 0:23:11.520 head because it's so unusual pink can I. As the 0:23:11.640 --> 0:23:15.200 years passed, the games to frighten Betty died away, but 0:23:15.359 --> 0:23:20.359 you ours still kept contact. I never bobbed Lloyd. I 0:23:20.480 --> 0:23:24.600 always stayed way from Lord. I knew he knew where 0:23:24.640 --> 0:23:27.880 I was, and if he wanted me, I knew he would. Secondly, 0:23:28.600 --> 0:23:31.120 wherever he said for me, I always when where you are. 0:23:32.119 --> 0:23:34.920 It's not that I loved it, Lotte, It's not that 0:23:35.000 --> 0:23:36.399 I was afraid of a little I guess I was 0:23:36.440 --> 0:23:39.960 different fool you, but I failed whenever he said for me, 0:23:40.000 --> 0:23:43.200 if I was always there, he would hurt me. And 0:23:43.280 --> 0:23:45.520 that's why I did it it. But I do always 0:23:45.520 --> 0:23:50.359 do it anymore. Over the years, Attorney Lewis Garrison and 0:23:50.520 --> 0:23:54.320 Lloyd Jowers kept on with their business relationship, but people 0:23:54.359 --> 0:23:57.560 would sometimes say strange things to Garrison about you Owers, 0:23:58.119 --> 0:24:01.480 allusions to some secret that everyone else seemed to know about, 0:24:02.040 --> 0:24:04.600 or sometimes they might just say it. They might write 0:24:04.600 --> 0:24:07.080 out ask if Garrison knew that Jowers was in on 0:24:07.160 --> 0:24:10.360 the murder of Dr King. What a strange thing to say, 0:24:10.760 --> 0:24:15.520 unless there was some truth to it. Finally, Garrison summoned discourage. 0:24:16.480 --> 0:24:19.080 So one day I said, Lord, I said, you know, 0:24:19.480 --> 0:24:22.080 they've been a lot of discussion about the fact you 0:24:22.160 --> 0:24:25.000 may have been involved in the Martin Luther King assassination. 0:24:25.080 --> 0:24:27.320 And he said, well that a lot of people talking 0:24:27.320 --> 0:24:29.120 about he said, and one thing share that Blanket Black 0:24:29.160 --> 0:24:31.320 is not coming back. I said, no, we coming back. 0:24:31.920 --> 0:24:34.640 But that's that's when we first started, the very first 0:24:34.680 --> 0:24:37.840 time we've we've probably talked about it very much. Lewis 0:24:37.920 --> 0:24:41.240 Garrison is a Southern gentleman and blankety blank is as 0:24:41.280 --> 0:24:43.399 close as he will come to saying the words that 0:24:43.560 --> 0:24:47.760 Jowers actually said, but they probably weren't nice words, and 0:24:47.920 --> 0:24:51.800 Garrison understood right away that Jowers had not denied the rumors. 0:24:52.720 --> 0:24:56.960 Garrison and Jowers talked further on subsequent occasions, and soon 0:24:57.440 --> 0:25:00.680 Garrison was not the attorney defending his Liliant and Cab 0:25:00.760 --> 0:25:04.840 related lawsuits. He was the attorney representing a man who 0:25:04.920 --> 0:25:07.720 had admitted to him that he was involved in the 0:25:07.800 --> 0:25:15.880 murder of Dr Martin Luther King. The appearance with Sam 0:25:16.000 --> 0:25:19.280 Donaldson a National TV may have been an attempt to 0:25:19.359 --> 0:25:22.240 force the d a's hand as far as granting immunity 0:25:22.320 --> 0:25:25.160 to Jours, but there may have been something else in play. 0:25:26.080 --> 0:25:29.160 Bill Pepper had worked with an English TV producer named 0:25:29.200 --> 0:25:33.240 Jack Saltman on the HBO Mock Trial. When the trial 0:25:33.520 --> 0:25:36.680 ended with a surprise not guilty verdict in raised favor. 0:25:37.400 --> 0:25:41.520