Speaker 1: Welcome to the MLK Tapes, a production of I Heart
Speaker 1: Radio and Tenderfoot TV. The views and opinions expressed in
Speaker 1: this podcast are solely those of the podcast author for
Speaker 1: individuals participating in the podcast, and do not represent those
Speaker 1: of I Heart Media, Tenderfoot TV, or their employees. Listener
Speaker 1: discretion is advised. He looked like he had stuck his
Speaker 1: friend in his socket. Lord however, standing up and even
Speaker 1: like somebody had drained all the good his body. He
Speaker 1: was so white. Oh, he was so Whitey. He ain't
Speaker 1: been on his knee. How do you know he's been
Speaker 1: on I know he had been on his knee and
Speaker 1: coast the ground with that, because one the ground was
Speaker 1: down and he's in his knees was dirty. And when
Speaker 1: he came in there and went behind the counting and
Speaker 1: uh put the gun on account it was a brand
Speaker 1: new trick. Black. The para was black, but it was
Speaker 1: shy lack. It been wax the hamlet of the dal brown. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he's black, ditap was? This is Betty Spates telling Attorney
Speaker 1: William Pepper that just moments after Martin Luther King was shot,
Speaker 1: she saw a man she knew come running in the
Speaker 1: back door with a smoking rifle. Betty was working as
Speaker 1: a waitress at Jim's Grill on South Main Street, the
Speaker 1: back door to which opened onto a brush covered yard
Speaker 1: directly opposite the room at the Lorraine Motel where Dr
Speaker 1: King was staying. The grille was owned by Lloyd Jowers,
Speaker 1: and he and Betty had an ongoing sexual relationship. Lloyd
Speaker 1: was white, Betty was black and she was seventeen. I
Speaker 1: call the Union Hall, says matter of life and death.
Speaker 1: I said, I thank these people are planning to kill
Speaker 1: Dr King. The authorities were parade all we found a
Speaker 1: gun the James al Ray board in Birmingham that killed
Speaker 1: Dr King. Except it wasn't the gun that killed Dr Key.
Speaker 1: James Lvey was upon or the official story from My
Speaker 1: Heart Radio in Tender for TV. The plan was to
Speaker 1: get King to the city because they wanted it handled
Speaker 1: in Memphis. Were dead in incl Hamlet, and I've lived
Speaker 1: with it along my sire, and they they scared for me.
Speaker 1: The Lord told me to not the word. I've been
Speaker 1: wanting to tell it all my life. I'm Bill Claiburg
Speaker 1: and this is the MLK tapes. At the time of
Speaker 1: his conversation with Betty SPADs. Bill Pepper had been working
Speaker 1: on the King murder for over a decade, but he
Speaker 1: had been representing James Earl Ray as his attorney for
Speaker 1: just a few years, and that only after he's satisfied
Speaker 1: himself that Raisin folvement was not voluntary. Although the official
Speaker 1: version of the crime had the fatal shot coming from
Speaker 1: the bathroom window above Jim's grill, there were people who
Speaker 1: thought the shot had come from the yard below the bathroom.
Speaker 1: The best access to this yard was by way of
Speaker 1: the back door of the grill, and of course nothing
Speaker 1: could have happened through that door without the cooperation of
Speaker 1: the grill's owner, Lloyd Jowers, so he was always on
Speaker 1: Bill Pepper's suspect list. Showers was in the frame right
Speaker 1: from the beginning because he was the one who ran
Speaker 1: Jim's grill. He owned it, and he ran it, and
Speaker 1: he clearly had some role to play, which which eventually
Speaker 1: started to become defined by Betty's spades. When I eventually
Speaker 1: was able to get her to talk. What brought you
Speaker 1: to Betty space, I guess it's local People said that
Speaker 1: Showers girlfriend was was Betty's face, since she worked part
Speaker 1: time for him and her sister worked also in the grill,
Speaker 1: and so I started talking to them. Betty was not
Speaker 1: willing to disclose anything, uh that was going to incriminate
Speaker 1: Lloyd for quite a long period of time because she
Speaker 1: actually thought Lloyd was the shooter who did the shooting,
Speaker 1: because she saw him carrying the rifle smoking rifle into
Speaker 1: into the kitchen. Lloyd kept her under wraps to the
Speaker 1: extent that he could. Lloyd Jowers had grown up in
Speaker 1: rural Dyersboro, Tennessee, and after his discharge from the Navy,
Speaker 1: he came to Memphis in newly married to his first wife, Dorothy.
Speaker 1: With no training at all, he got a job as
Speaker 1: a Memphis police officer. This was back in the day
Speaker 1: when Edwin Hull Crump, better known as Boss Crump, ran
Speaker 1: most everything in and around Memphis. Here's what Jowers said
Speaker 1: at nine civil trial. The audio quality is so poor
Speaker 1: we've taken the liberty of using a voice actor. Crump
Speaker 1: is the one who got me the job. I went
Speaker 1: in to see him on a Monday, and on Thursday,
Speaker 1: I was riding a squad car with the thirty eight
Speaker 1: hanging on my side. That is the way things operated
Speaker 1: back then. Now Johnny Barger was my partner. He's the
Speaker 1: one who introduced me to Frank Liberto. They were real
Speaker 1: good friends. Of course, I gotta be pretty good friends
Speaker 1: with Frank myself, because he could do you a lot
Speaker 1: of good in Memphis, especially if you're with police. Policemen
Speaker 1: were often seen stopping by Frank Liberto's produce market, but
Speaker 1: they were rarely seen coming out with lettuce or tomatoes.
Speaker 1: Word was the cops would do favors for Frank and
Speaker 1: his friends, and he would make sure there was something
Speaker 1: in it for them. In those days, getting a job
Speaker 1: as a cop was easy enough if you were white,
Speaker 1: but the pay was bad, so after a few years,
Speaker 1: Jowers quit the police and began working for a local
Speaker 1: cab company. Around the same time, Jowers also quit his
Speaker 1: marriage with Dorothy and soon married another woman. That marriage
Speaker 1: also ended in divorce. In a short while after that,
Speaker 1: he married his first wife, Dorothy for a second time.
Speaker 1: In nineteen sixty seven, Jowers bought Jim's grill, and he
Speaker 1: hired two sisters, Bobby and Betty, to cook and service
Speaker 1: waitresses for decades. Jowers had said that the afternoon King
Speaker 1: was shot, he was working the tables by himself, and
Speaker 1: that Betty Space was not there when actually knowed when
Speaker 1: off I was gone a bellers all headed about head
Speaker 1: gone and went off and quit. I went back to
Speaker 1: the kitchen door like I was in the kitchen. I
Speaker 1: looked inside of the kitchen when I was there, ill
Speaker 1: going back to finished all there. Jowers told this his
Speaker 1: standard story to Bill Pepper as part of an extensive
Speaker 1: legal deposition he was required to give. In in the
Speaker 1: nineteen nineties, things regarding the murder of Martin Luther King
Speaker 1: were playing out in different venues on TV, in the
Speaker 1: Office of the Attorney General, with a Shelby County grand jury,
Speaker 1: and eventually in the States court system. The trigger for
Speaker 1: all this was the mock trial, televised on HBO, which
Speaker 1: brought together lawyers, a real judge, and an impartial jury, which,
Speaker 1: after hearing evidence from both sides, found James Earl Ray
Speaker 1: not guilty of murdering Martin Luther King. Lloyd Jowers testified
Speaker 1: at this trial, but he didn't say much beyond what
Speaker 1: you just heard. Pepper started to ask Jowers if he
Speaker 1: had played any role in the murder of King, but
Speaker 1: the judge scolded him and disallowed the question. I had
Speaker 1: a number of altercations with Judge Frankel, who was was
Speaker 1: known as a fairly conservative United States District Court judge
Speaker 1: when he was on the court. He started off with
Speaker 1: a degree of skepticism that waned as we went on
Speaker 1: with the trial. I think he began to accept that
Speaker 1: there was an actual case being made before him that
Speaker 1: he didn't have any idea about. Pepper had good reason
Speaker 1: to ask Jowers about his involvement because Betty Spates had
Speaker 1: recently confessed to him that she had seen Jours with
Speaker 1: a smoking gun. After trying for two or three years,
Speaker 1: eventually got her to tell me what had happened that
Speaker 1: afternoon with respect to Lloyd Jowers looking for him. Think
Speaker 1: he was playing around with some women out in the bushes,
Speaker 1: and she going into the grille, seeing the kitchen door closed,
Speaker 1: which was unusual, but then seeing the back door open,
Speaker 1: which also was unusual. So she went to the back door,
Speaker 1: and on our way there she heard the shot. And
Speaker 1: as she got to the back door, already here comes
Speaker 1: Lloyd running in with the rifle still smoking, and him
Speaker 1: as white as a sheet, and he brushes past her,
Speaker 1: starts to break down the rifle and said to her.
Speaker 1: He would never do anything to hurt me, Betty, would you?
Speaker 1: She said, no, of course not. Then he wrapped it
Speaker 1: the rifle put it on a shelf, where eventually he
Speaker 1: showed it to McGraw, his friend, and a local taxi driver.
Speaker 1: Betty's Spates was scheduled to testify the mock trial, but
Speaker 1: she became frightened and didn't show. But Jowers may have
Speaker 1: heard that she had been called, and perhaps this unnerved him,
Speaker 1: for when he was under oath at his deposition, he
Speaker 1: lied the simplest things. Was he aware Bill Pepper asked
Speaker 1: that doctor King was coming to town? No, he hadn't
Speaker 1: heard a thing about that. Did he have any contact
Speaker 1: with a guy named Frank Liberto, No, none at all.
Speaker 1: Had Betty Space worked at the grill that day? No,
Speaker 1: not that day. Had he had a romantic relationship with
Speaker 1: Betty Spaces, No, he hadn't. Pepper patiently plotted through his
Speaker 1: questions without challenging jowers most obvious lies. None of it
Speaker 1: made any sense. Why would you Owers, under oath revert
Speaker 1: to his former see no evil here, no evil approach
Speaker 1: to the killing of King, when just months before he
Speaker 1: had been on national TV on ABC Prime Time with
Speaker 1: Sam Donaldson, where he had confessed to having played a
Speaker 1: role in this very murder. Did James Earl Ray killed
Speaker 1: Dr Martin Luther King? No, he did not. Do you
Speaker 1: know who killed Dr King? I know who was paid
Speaker 1: to do it. From the outside, it is difficult to
Speaker 1: understand jowers motivation for going on national TV and confessing
Speaker 1: to some part in the murder of doctor King, but
Speaker 1: knowing that Betty's space testimony was loose in the world
Speaker 1: may have made Jowers worry about being prosecuted for his
Speaker 1: part in the crime, or perhaps something else did. Looking
Speaker 1: for relief, jowers attorney Lewis Garrison approached the Attorney General
Speaker 1: John Parotti. He asked for immunity from prosecution for Jowers
Speaker 1: in exchange for coming forward with what he knew about
Speaker 1: the crime. That kind of deal is common in criminal cases.
Speaker 1: What Jowers and Garrison had perhaps overlooked was that in
Speaker 1: this case, the authorities, the police in the AGES Office,
Speaker 1: were heavily invested in the lone assassined version of the
Speaker 1: King murder. At the time of Race conviction, the a g.
Speaker 1: S Office loudly proclaimed that if any information surface that
Speaker 1: indicated others were involved, they would take vigorous action and
Speaker 1: chase those guilty parties to the ends of the earth.
Speaker 1: But now that that information had arrived, they didn't want
Speaker 1: to act on it. Rather, the investigators tried to get
Speaker 1: witnesses to change their stories or discredit them altogether. So
Speaker 1: Garrison's attempts to negotiate immunity hit a wall, and Jowers
Speaker 1: consent to come out on ABC Prime Time might be
Speaker 1: seen as an attempt to force the AG's hand. Indeed,
Speaker 1: when Donaldson asked ours on Live TV to name the
Speaker 1: actual shooter, Garrison jumped in and said that Jowers would
Speaker 1: do that as soon as he was granted immunity. But
Speaker 1: why would Garrison allow us client to go public with
Speaker 1: such a confession. I asked Bill Pepper if he knew
Speaker 1: whether Garrison had recommended that Jowers go on TV. I
Speaker 1: don't think he opposed it. I think Lewis knew that
Speaker 1: his client was guilty, and he believed this was a
Speaker 1: horrendous crime and that the truth should be out. And
Speaker 1: while he was trying to protect the interests of his
Speaker 1: client to the extent that he could, he nevertheless, I
Speaker 1: did not want to get in the way of the
Speaker 1: unfolding truth and what did Garrison have to say about it.
Speaker 1: This audio comes from a twelve interview of Garrison by
Speaker 1: court reporter Brian Dominski. Well, they had contact me at
Speaker 1: bath and I don't know where mister Jarns want to
Speaker 1: do it, and I it didn't matter to me because
Speaker 1: he won't pay anything, but a right, uh. He told
Speaker 1: me one day, you know, he said, well for second history,
Speaker 1: if it will help out, you know, I'll do it.
Speaker 1: And Ms Dalson came and talked to us or once
Speaker 1: to twyfore you had to you know where we actually
Speaker 1: filmed anybody? So I think, I mean, I didn't lead
Speaker 1: Lord into this thing. They a great to it. And
Speaker 1: the only thing I wanted, you know, I don't want
Speaker 1: I'm getting in died anything like that. So Jowers had
Speaker 1: been on TV saying he had been involved in the murder,
Speaker 1: but now with Pepper asking him questions while under oath,
Speaker 1: Jower just wanted to go back to the story that
Speaker 1: he was just drawn a picture of beer when King
Speaker 1: was killed. After having let the charade go on for
Speaker 1: over an hour, Bill Pepper handed Jowers a transcript of
Speaker 1: what he had said to Sam Donaldson and asked him
Speaker 1: to look at the first page, Donaldson saying asking you
Speaker 1: a question. Right on that first paragraph there he is
Speaker 1: saying that James ear already killed Martin Luther King. You
Speaker 1: see your answer to that question as it appeared from transcript.
Speaker 1: What was your response to that question? Mr? Donaldson asked
Speaker 1: you no, and then he said do you know who
Speaker 1: killed Martin Luca King? And the answer, the answer Jowers
Speaker 1: gave to Donaldson was I know who was paid to
Speaker 1: do it. These were important words for Bill Pepper because
Speaker 1: his client, James Earl Ray, had been in jail for
Speaker 1: over twenty five years for a murder he said he
Speaker 1: didn't commit. And now here was testimony from someone with
Speaker 1: presumed inside knowledge who was saying that James Earl Ray
Speaker 1: had not, in fact been the killer of Martin Luther King.
Speaker 1: Pepper was trying to reopen the case in the courts,
Speaker 1: and here was the can opener that might do the job.
Speaker 1: But Lloyd Jowers didn't like this new turn in the questions.
Speaker 1: I think I've got to take care of the man rowan.
Speaker 1: So Jowers pled the fifth He refused to answer Pepper's
Speaker 1: question by asserting his right to not incriminate himself. Pepper
Speaker 1: kept on and asked you Owers if he had any
Speaker 1: business dealings with Frank Liberto take pare Mary known if
Speaker 1: they're going to read no um? Have you ever set
Speaker 1: your eyes on a man who has comes be known
Speaker 1: as many of us as Raoul I have to be
Speaker 1: the fast man? Question? Have you ever had in your
Speaker 1: possession any weapon that might have been associated with the
Speaker 1: murder at Martin? LUs King built the man well that question?
Speaker 1: And so it went a few more questions that Jowers
Speaker 1: wouldn't answer, and Pepper said he was finished. But chowers
Speaker 1: awkward confession and then is taking the fifth would be
Speaker 1: enough for Pepper to get his motion for an evidentiary
Speaker 1: hearing before a sympathetic judge. We will follow that story
Speaker 1: in another episode. But what happened to Betty Spates and
Speaker 1: her story of seeing Jowers running back into Jim's grill
Speaker 1: rifle in hand. Betty Spates didn't work the afternoon shift
Speaker 1: at Jim's Grill. She worked the morning and the evening shifts,
Speaker 1: and in between she'd go across the street and work
Speaker 1: her second job at Seabrook Wallpaper. Years later, she told
Speaker 1: Bill Pepper that on the day Martin Luther King was killed.
Speaker 1: Seabrook let out early, so she returned to the grill
Speaker 1: around three thirty, just in time to run into Jowler's wife, Dorothy,
Speaker 1: who didn't much care for Betty spaces what happened when
Speaker 1: she came in because he slept. She came right up
Speaker 1: to here and was calling her name. How slept about company?
Speaker 1: And then she can learned the lower I want her
Speaker 1: and then would say to get the hand here, and
Speaker 1: he told her and now she's name you are, you'll
Speaker 1: get adding that man he didn't help him and nothing.
Speaker 1: Second she left, she didn't say anything. She's just left.
Speaker 1: A short time after her run in with Jour's wife,
Speaker 1: Betty Speech recalled seeing Charlie Stevens put out of the
Speaker 1: grill so drunk he was becoming a danger to himself.
Speaker 1: This was the same Charlie Stevens who would become the
Speaker 1: state's star witness, saying he saw James ol Ray run
Speaker 1: from the bathroom on the second floor of the rooming
Speaker 1: house after the shot was fired. Betty didn't think much
Speaker 1: of that story. Was nothing right? When did when was
Speaker 1: he put out of the grill? Cappain though his wife there, Yeah,
Speaker 1: I can put out, you know, he came before them,
Speaker 1: but he would say about him, who would put it out? Bobby.
Speaker 1: Bobby told him to believe that would be massive. He
Speaker 1: was a bouncer. So it was a busy afternoon in
Speaker 1: the grill for Lloyd Jowers, and the little scene between
Speaker 1: Betty and Dorothy had played out just an hour and
Speaker 1: a half before Dr King was to be murdered, and
Speaker 1: there were still things that needed doing. Betty said that
Speaker 1: Jowers disappeared on a handful of short errands that didn't
Speaker 1: make much sense. Out the door, back in ten minutes,
Speaker 1: out the door and back in five And then near
Speaker 1: six o'clock she noticed Jowers was again not in the
Speaker 1: dining room and she hadn't seen him leave, so she
Speaker 1: went into the kitchen and Jowers wasn't there either, but
Speaker 1: the back door was open. Then she heard of popping noise,
Speaker 1: and Jowers came running through the back door, white as
Speaker 1: a sheet and carrying a gun. And over the next
Speaker 1: thirty years that image would follow her like a ghost.
Speaker 1: And what about Lloyd Jowers, What was life like for
Speaker 1: him in the years following King's murder. According the Jowers attorney,
Speaker 1: Lewis Garrison, it wasn't too bad because Jowers had come
Speaker 1: into some heavy money right after the murder of Dr King.
Speaker 1: He purchased a cab company sometime oh here six days
Speaker 1: sixty nine, but anyway is the second larger cab gun
Speaker 1: in Memphis. Stad Sam had over a hundred card colled
Speaker 1: ahead pocket when Dr English FASSINYI you got this money,
Speaker 1: but I mean, I mean, I can't tell you. What
Speaker 1: do you tell me? A personally? But I don't know
Speaker 1: for sure? Under town very fat with other witnesses for
Speaker 1: sad messia. According to Jowers, he closed down Jim's grill
Speaker 1: in July of nineteen seventy one. The neighborhood was changing,
Speaker 1: and for some reason, the cops and cab drivers who
Speaker 1: had been as regulars no longer felt like sitting around
Speaker 1: the old place. Sometime before he closed the grill, Jowers
Speaker 1: bought what he told Bill Pepper was of Southland Cab Company.
Speaker 1: It was as an owner of south Land that Jowers
Speaker 1: would meet Attorney Lewis Garrison first on the posing sides
Speaker 1: of an injury lawsuit. But Jowers liked Garrison's relaxed style,
Speaker 1: so Garrison became jowers attorney for the odd things that
Speaker 1: befall anyone in life like a divorce. Jowers divorced his wife,
Speaker 1: Dorothy for the second time in nineteen seventy five, and
Speaker 1: in nineteen seventy six he married Donna Turner, but Turner
Speaker 1: worst Jhowers before their second anniversary, so Jowers, unfazed, turned
Speaker 1: around the same year and married Dorothy for the third time.
Speaker 1: All the while, Lloyd Jowers and Betty Spaces kept up
Speaker 1: an occasional relationship that would go on for twenty years.
Speaker 1: Betty gave birth to five children, two of which she
Speaker 1: said were fathered by Jowers. As she told Bill Pepper,
Speaker 1: all through the seventies and into the eighties, Jowers kept
Speaker 1: tabs on her. He came right to my house back
Speaker 1: for came okay, Loah called me like we was bud buds.
Speaker 1: It was a week or he was calling once more.
Speaker 1: And whenever you changed jobs, he went to see you.
Speaker 1: When have I changed? Is left them up? So I
Speaker 1: was watching me r and b Dan market. Who year
Speaker 1: I want? She said, I wouldn't be there a month,
Speaker 1: and suddenly he was there. Of course, Jowers knew what
Speaker 1: Betty had seen the day King was killed, and this
Speaker 1: may have caused him some anxiety, and at times he
Speaker 1: apparently felt the need to push some of it in
Speaker 1: her direction, and he didn't always do it himself. Jowers
Speaker 1: had a friend named Willie Aikins who would sometimes come
Speaker 1: by Betty's house. On one particular visit, Aikins pulled a
Speaker 1: gun and fired three bullets into the couch on which
Speaker 1: she was sitting. He knocked on my back door, came
Speaker 1: in my house ful of the three fifty seven magnis
Speaker 1: and shot three times in my captain, I have sitting
Speaker 1: right there, adn't jump adenfra adam me hey work A
Speaker 1: sixty was a sleep. Sometimes the lessons would be in
Speaker 1: the form of a story, like the one about Aikins
Speaker 1: and Jowers murdering the wife of some doctor who gave
Speaker 1: the money to do it. And when Agins told me
Speaker 1: there was a doctor I had a wife and paid
Speaker 1: load to get rid of it and him and lower
Speaker 1: feel this one on State manually embar with her. She
Speaker 1: owned a pink CALLI and I asked me, don't you
Speaker 1: remember reading in the paper? And that stuck in my
Speaker 1: head because it's so unusual pink can I. As the
Speaker 1: years passed, the games to frighten Betty died away, but
Speaker 1: you ours still kept contact. I never bobbed Lloyd. I
Speaker 1: always stayed way from Lord. I knew he knew where
Speaker 1: I was, and if he wanted me, I knew he would. Secondly,
Speaker 1: wherever he said for me, I always when where you are.
Speaker 1: It's not that I loved it, Lotte, It's not that
Speaker 1: I was afraid of a little I guess I was
Speaker 1: different fool you, but I failed whenever he said for me,
Speaker 1: if I was always there, he would hurt me. And
Speaker 1: that's why I did it it. But I do always
Speaker 1: do it anymore. Over the years, Attorney Lewis Garrison and
Speaker 1: Lloyd Jowers kept on with their business relationship, but people
Speaker 1: would sometimes say strange things to Garrison about you Owers,
Speaker 1: allusions to some secret that everyone else seemed to know about,
Speaker 1: or sometimes they might just say it. They might write
Speaker 1: out ask if Garrison knew that Jowers was in on
Speaker 1: the murder of Dr King. What a strange thing to say,
Speaker 1: unless there was some truth to it. Finally, Garrison summoned discourage.
Speaker 1: So one day I said, Lord, I said, you know,
Speaker 1: they've been a lot of discussion about the fact you
Speaker 1: may have been involved in the Martin Luther King assassination.
Speaker 1: And he said, well that a lot of people talking
Speaker 1: about he said, and one thing share that Blanket Black
Speaker 1: is not coming back. I said, no, we coming back.
Speaker 1: But that's that's when we first started, the very first
Speaker 1: time we've we've probably talked about it very much. Lewis
Speaker 1: Garrison is a Southern gentleman and blankety blank is as
Speaker 1: close as he will come to saying the words that
Speaker 1: Jowers actually said, but they probably weren't nice words, and
Speaker 1: Garrison understood right away that Jowers had not denied the rumors.
Speaker 1: Garrison and Jowers talked further on subsequent occasions, and soon
Speaker 1: Garrison was not the attorney defending his Liliant and Cab
Speaker 1: related lawsuits. He was the attorney representing a man who
Speaker 1: had admitted to him that he was involved in the
Speaker 1: murder of Dr Martin Luther King. The appearance with Sam
Speaker 1: Donaldson a National TV may have been an attempt to
Speaker 1: force the d a's hand as far as granting immunity
Speaker 1: to Jours, but there may have been something else in play.
Speaker 1: Bill Pepper had worked with an English TV producer named
Speaker 1: Jack Saltman on the HBO Mock Trial. When the trial
Speaker 1: ended with a surprise not guilty verdict in raised favor.
Speaker 1: Saltman apparently imagined a movie about the assassination that would
Speaker 1: reveal what really happened without telling Pepper a thing about it.
Speaker 1: He took on Pepper's former investigators Ken Herman and John Billings,
Speaker 1: and they began to put the pieces together. I think
Speaker 1: I got launched very early on after the HBO trial.
Speaker 1: I think they saw off ffortunity to make some serious money.
Speaker 1: Herman had been um an investigator on the case, as
Speaker 1: was Billings, and they got sucked into this arrangement with
Speaker 1: with Saltman, who was a producer from England, of course,
Speaker 1: and they thought they could put together a a script
Speaker 1: and launch a private project and make money on it.
Speaker 1: But Chowers was the key player, so he was brought in.
Speaker 1: But further to be a movie, they needed to know
Speaker 1: who shot King, and Jowers, now seeing dollar signs, was
Speaker 1: happy to say that it was a guy named Frank Holt,
Speaker 1: a big black fellow that Jowers knew way back when,
Speaker 1: but no one had seen him for years. So jowers
Speaker 1: confession on ABC Prime Time may have been not only
Speaker 1: a play to pry an immunity deal out of a
Speaker 1: g Paroti, but also perhaps a play to get a
Speaker 1: major studio interested in doing a movie. But to get
Speaker 1: a movie studio involved, they needed to flesh out the story,
Speaker 1: and they wanted Betty Space to help. She would say
Speaker 1: that she listened in on jowers phone conversation where some
Speaker 1: produce guy named Liberto told Showers about money that was
Speaker 1: to arrive in a box of lettuce, and Jowers now
Speaker 1: wanted Betty to tell her story about what she saw
Speaker 1: at the back door, except she would say that she
Speaker 1: saw a man hand ours the gun, a large black man.
Speaker 1: He told me, I want you always be noticed him
Speaker 1: and whenever I get on the phone, n and to listen,
Speaker 1: and I want you to eat that. And here Frank
Speaker 1: Liberto telling me from that produce from the end today
Speaker 1: they would be an extra order. And when the produce
Speaker 1: came in, I was supposed to have a nose enough
Speaker 1: to open a box that I thought was a box
Speaker 1: and maze, but it was a box bear with mode.
Speaker 1: But it's not in her. That's true. No rose treat
Speaker 1: and not end of that is tream. I don't know
Speaker 1: anything about a phone call. I don't know anything about
Speaker 1: no lettuce and no money, no box, and I never
Speaker 1: heard of front Lberto before. That's what Lord wanted me
Speaker 1: to say. He wanted me to tell the truth about
Speaker 1: seeing him with the rifle. He just wanted me change
Speaker 1: it just a little bit by saying I saw him
Speaker 1: standing in the back door and a black man passing
Speaker 1: him a right and that's not true. And he said,
Speaker 1: if I didn't say it, I will lose my share
Speaker 1: of three hundred thousand dollars. Trust Roy, it is to
Speaker 1: a book. And I told him I can't lose you nothing.
Speaker 1: I never hate it. So Lloyd Gawers was saying that
Speaker 1: a black man named Frank Holt, whom he had hired,
Speaker 1: had handed him the rifle that day while he was
Speaker 1: at the back door of his restaurant. Perhaps Saltman and
Speaker 1: Hermann believed this story, but when Bill Pepper found out
Speaker 1: about the whole movie intrigue and that the fall guy
Speaker 1: was to be this Frank Halt, he jumped on it. Well.
Speaker 1: I thought it was important to find him and to
Speaker 1: interview him, and I hired a private investigator in Florida
Speaker 1: to locate him because I understood that's where he was.
Speaker 1: Where he was, we found him, Pepper flew down to
Speaker 1: Orlando and met with a penniless Frank Holt, who had
Speaker 1: been living in a series of homeless shelters. Holt was
Speaker 1: surprised to hear that Jowers was now accusing him of
Speaker 1: murdering Martin Luther King. It was apparent to Pepper, after
Speaker 1: asking three questions that Holt didn't no thing about it.
Speaker 1: Why would Jowers name you? He asked, Halt, I don't know,
Speaker 1: The man replied, maybe he thought I was dead, And
Speaker 1: that made sense to Pepper because to him, Frank Holt
Speaker 1: alive did not make a very convincing killer. So with
Speaker 1: Betty Space ready to say that the story wasn't true,
Speaker 1: and Halt turning up alive, the movie idea died a
Speaker 1: quiet death, but it had done damage. Anytime someone looks
Speaker 1: into the murders of the Kennedy's or King, the charge
Speaker 1: is almost always levied that they are just doing it
Speaker 1: for a quick buck. It's an easy way to dismiss
Speaker 1: an honest effort to look at the evidence. But now
Speaker 1: here was someone actually trying to make money by telling
Speaker 1: a story about the murder of King. It became the
Speaker 1: easy way to dismiss Bill Pepper and Jowers and the
Speaker 1: substantial evidence that the assassination was run out of his grill.
Speaker 1: They were all just trying to make a movie. As
Speaker 1: for Betty Spaces, she would endure a great deal of harassment.
Speaker 1: In the beginning, Jack Saltman and a few others showed
Speaker 1: up at her door. Then they appeared at the restaurant
Speaker 1: where she worked. They wanted her in on the story.
Speaker 1: So did Willie Aikins, who was angry that she was
Speaker 1: going to cost them all a lot of money if
Speaker 1: she didn't follow their script. And ABC host Sam Donaldson
Speaker 1: himself showed up in the company of Aikin's who that
Speaker 1: day presumably left this three fifty seven magnum at home.
Speaker 1: When Betty told Pepper that Donaldson had come to her house,
Speaker 1: he was surprised. Did Donaldson come over there? And at
Speaker 1: to hear him on a point? And he was dinging
Speaker 1: when Aidan was beena on the winning doors and he
Speaker 1: was damaged. If this lady don't want to talk, I
Speaker 1: don't want to bother her. Those were nice sentiments spoken
Speaker 1: by Donaldson, but it didn't keep ABC Prime Time from
Speaker 1: turning Betty's life upside down When they did their special
Speaker 1: on Lloyd Showers and his confession, because right in the
Speaker 1: middle of things, they showed a blurry video of Betty
Speaker 1: leaving work and getting into her car like she was
Speaker 1: part of some drug deal, and while that was playing,
Speaker 1: they said that Betty could confirm the story told by Jowers.
Speaker 1: Now lots of people wanted to talk to Betty, journalists,
Speaker 1: people posing as journalists, guys in suits flashing I D.
Speaker 1: Betty didn't want to talk to any of them. Sometimes
Speaker 1: she had and pretended she wasn't home. As for Jowers,
Speaker 1: things weren't great for him either. With a movie deal
Speaker 1: dying and the Attorney General not offering immunity, he felt
Speaker 1: more exposed than ever, And now the King family had questions.
Speaker 1: They wanted to speak to him, and when the possibility
Speaker 1: of a meeting was proposed, Jowers said he was willing.
Speaker 1: He apparently hoped that he might find some shelter in
Speaker 1: a meeting with a King family, So one was arranged
Speaker 1: in a room at a motel out on the highway.
Speaker 1: At the meeting was Lloyd Jowers and his attorney Lewis Garrison,
Speaker 1: Martin King's son Dexter, and Ambassador Andrew Young. They also
Speaker 1: brought a tape recorder. When Martin Luther King was shot
Speaker 1: on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel, King's lute, ennant
Speaker 1: and confidant Andrew Young, was standing below in the parking lot.
Speaker 1: Young heard a popping noise and then suddenly realized that
Speaker 1: King was down. After King's death, Young stayed on for
Speaker 1: a time with the SCLC. Then he entered politics and
Speaker 1: served two terms in Congress. In nineteen seventy seven, he
Speaker 1: was made Ambassador to the United Nations by President Carter,
Speaker 1: and following that he won two consecutive terms as mayor
Speaker 1: of Atlanta. Three decades after King's death, Andrew Young would
Speaker 1: return to Memphis and take the witness stand in the
Speaker 1: civil trial. Under the questioning of Bill Pepper, attorney for
Speaker 1: credit Scott King, Young explained that his energies after King's
Speaker 1: murder were directed towards carrying forward with King's work, rather
Speaker 1: than answering the questions that still lingered about his death.
Speaker 1: But eventually that changed. Did you and recent years, and said, um,
Speaker 1: the events of April four from the assassination on your friends,
Speaker 1: and you prob gain again. I did investing. As a
Speaker 1: result of UM, the families knew awareness and concern, and
Speaker 1: where you asked to participating in a meeting with an
Speaker 1: individual who who was a dependent came Mr Royal Johns.
Speaker 1: Yes I was. I was told that that Mr Jarros
Speaker 1: will getting older, he wasn't very well and it was
Speaker 1: almost like he wanted to get right with dogs before
Speaker 1: he died. But when we met with him, that was
Speaker 1: still impression that I had that he was a man
Speaker 1: who had a lot on his mind and a lot
Speaker 1: on his conscience and who wanted to confess it and
Speaker 1: be free of couldn't you in the time remaining summarized
Speaker 1: for us what Mr Jarros told you? And next you
Speaker 1: came as I beat well. He said that he was
Speaker 1: a Ryan Jim's grill and that he was a retired
Speaker 1: Members police officer and that a lot of police officers
Speaker 1: hung out at his place. He said he hadn't lived
Speaker 1: such a good life. He had a lot of drinking
Speaker 1: and gambling problems, and that he was in debt to
Speaker 1: somebody that he identified as the head of the mafia
Speaker 1: who called him up, and that he was nervous about
Speaker 1: him and afraid that he was calling the collective money
Speaker 1: which he didn't have. The guy said, I'll forget about that.
Speaker 1: I just need you to do me a favor. So
Speaker 1: what was the favor? The mafia guy to whom Jowers
Speaker 1: owed a large debt, Frank Liberto, who we've spoken about before,
Speaker 1: wanted jowers grill for use as the staging ground for
Speaker 1: the murder of Martin Luther King. It was the thick
Speaker 1: place if King were staying ethel Lorraine Motel. But when
Speaker 1: Jowers met with King's son Dexter, he wasn't quite ready
Speaker 1: to let it all hang out, so he told a
Speaker 1: more limited but rather unbelievable story to Dexter King and
Speaker 1: Andy Young. In this telling, Jowers did not know Martin
Speaker 1: Luther King was to be murdered. All Jowers knew was
Speaker 1: that he was supposed to receive a large amount of
Speaker 1: money hidden in a box supposedly containing vegetables, and that
Speaker 1: he was supposed to hand this money over to a
Speaker 1: Spanish looking guy named Raoul, who would bring Jowers a package.
Speaker 1: Jowers claimed the man brought the package, which was a
Speaker 1: long box that presumably contained a rifle, But Jowers told
Speaker 1: Dexter King and Andy Young that he never looked in
Speaker 1: the box. But he did give this Raoul guy the money.
Speaker 1: Then crazy day that this was. Jowers said he got
Speaker 1: a phone call telling him to be at the back
Speaker 1: door of his grill at six o'clock someone would give
Speaker 1: him something. He didn't know what, and asad Or Young
Speaker 1: tells what happened next. According to Jowers, but he said
Speaker 1: when he went to the back door, just as he
Speaker 1: got to the door, shot rang out and somebody came
Speaker 1: out of the bushes and handed him a Smogan rifle.
Speaker 1: And he broke it down and wrapped it in a
Speaker 1: table ball and put it back in the store room.
Speaker 1: He said. The guy who handed him the rifle was
Speaker 1: the Vello who had been on his police force with him.
Speaker 1: That was a friend of his who he used to
Speaker 1: go hunting with. It was quite a good box. Bill
Speaker 1: Pepper asked the court for permission to play the recording
Speaker 1: of the meeting between Ambassador Young, Dexter King, and Lloyd Jowers.
Speaker 1: The judge agreed, and the jury then heard the entire
Speaker 1: tape of that meeting, selections from which we will play
Speaker 1: for you. Here should be noted that this was the
Speaker 1: second such meeting. The first included Jowers, Garrison King, and
Speaker 1: Bill Pepper, so there is a more relaxed informality here
Speaker 1: than one might expect for a meeting where one man
Speaker 1: confesses to killing the other man's father. And while the
Speaker 1: evidence strongly suggests that the basic underlying story here is true, many,
Speaker 1: if not most, of the pieces of this story as
Speaker 1: told by Jowers, are not true, and we will try
Speaker 1: to point these out as they occur. As we heard
Speaker 1: Attorney Garrison say before, Jowers did not speak well of
Speaker 1: King and private company, But now in meeting with Dexter King,
Speaker 1: Jowers wanted not only forgiveness from the King family, but
Speaker 1: their support in his bid for immunity from prosecution. In
Speaker 1: return for his coming forward. The King family, on their side,
Speaker 1: was grateful to finally here after thirty years some version
Speaker 1: of the truth from someone inside the conspiracy. Because of this,
Speaker 1: they were not inclined to challenge Jowers or make things
Speaker 1: difficult for him when he made absurd claims such as
Speaker 1: he did not know it was Martin Luther King who
Speaker 1: was to be murdered. It's an odd trade off. Also,
Speaker 1: after the civil trial, the original tape of this meeting
Speaker 1: appears to have been lost, so what we have now
Speaker 1: is what was made when the original tape was played
Speaker 1: and re recorded in open court with all its distortion
Speaker 1: and background noise. So instead of playing the courtroom recording,
Speaker 1: we're going to recreate the exchange between Dexter and Showers
Speaker 1: heard on that tape with voice actors. We appreciate your
Speaker 1: willingness to open up and come forward. As you know,
Speaker 1: we continue to support immunity for you, but the district
Speaker 1: attorney doesn't seem to want your story to come out,
Speaker 1: so it appears that they are shutting everything down. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think that would be a major tragedy. Well, we
Speaker 1: would be definitely. Dexter then brings the conversation back to
Speaker 1: where it had been the last time they met. When
Speaker 1: we had last met, you had pretty much taken us
Speaker 1: I think, up to a point where you had received
Speaker 1: the rifle from Lieutenant Clark. I couldn't swear it was
Speaker 1: Clark that I took it from, but I believe it was.
Speaker 1: Now say it happened just about that quick. I was
Speaker 1: in the back door at six o'clock like I was
Speaker 1: supposed to be. How many seconds did it take him
Speaker 1: to hand me the rifle and got going? That was
Speaker 1: just a split second. Here again, Jowers being at the
Speaker 1: back doors six for a mysterious handoff is a ludicrous
Speaker 1: fabrication to support the notion that he really didn't know
Speaker 1: what was going down, and Jowers tries to pretend that
Speaker 1: the handoff was so quick that he really couldn't say
Speaker 1: for sure that it was his friend Earl Clark, dead
Speaker 1: for some years now, who had handed him the gun.
Speaker 1: It was just like that, he said, snapping his fingers.
Speaker 1: But a little while later Andy Young asked again, but
Speaker 1: are you pretty sure that it was Clark who handed
Speaker 1: you the rifle? This time Jowers is more certain. I'm
Speaker 1: sure it was Clark, he says, of course. Jowers saying
Speaker 1: so doesn't mean that Lieutenant Earl Clark, an m b D.
Speaker 1: Sharpshooter was out in the bushes behind Jim's grill, just
Speaker 1: as they say so didn't mean that Frank Holt was
Speaker 1: out there. But there is other testimony that we will
Speaker 1: hear later that says that Earl Clark was out in
Speaker 1: the yard, and the muddy knees on jowers pants says
Speaker 1: that he was also out there, along with evidence of
Speaker 1: a third man. But Jowers says that he got a
Speaker 1: smoking rifle handed to him moments after doctor King was
Speaker 1: shot Dexter King then asked you Owers if he knows
Speaker 1: of any evidence determining what rifle killed his father. To
Speaker 1: my knowledge, I don't know of anyone that has scientific
Speaker 1: evidence of which rifle did actually kill him. I definitely
Speaker 1: don't believe it was one of the police found. I'll
Speaker 1: never believe that in a million years. So is it
Speaker 1: your feeling that James Earl Ray did not know? He
Speaker 1: didn't no more kill him and you killed your own dad? No? No, no,
Speaker 1: I'd never believe that in a million Even if he
Speaker 1: told me, I wouldn't believe it. You could be forgiven
Speaker 1: for smiling as you listen to how certain Jowers is
Speaker 1: that neither Ray nor Ray's rifle kill King? If Jowers
Speaker 1: were out in the bushes when the fatal shot was fired,
Speaker 1: as it appears he was, of course he's certain. How
Speaker 1: could he not be? Dexter then has another question, So
Speaker 1: why was he set up his own fault? They got
Speaker 1: him out of jail, they furnished him money, they furnished
Speaker 1: him with passports. Now they come up at that tale
Speaker 1: about him setting up a gun deal, But that wasn't true.
Speaker 1: They may have told him that, you know, So is
Speaker 1: it possible that he was doing things that appeared to
Speaker 1: be stalking, but maybe he didn't realize it. They probably
Speaker 1: didn't even realize it. Yeah, I'm sure that's the way
Speaker 1: it went down. He was doing what he was told
Speaker 1: to do. So Jowers is certain that Ray was set up,
Speaker 1: and he seems to know more than just a little
Speaker 1: bit about it. He knows about the phony gun deal
Speaker 1: were according to Ray, he was asked to buy a
Speaker 1: rifle to present to a prospective customer. And Jowers also
Speaker 1: says that they got Ray out of jail, strongly suggesting
Speaker 1: that Ray was sprung so he would be available for
Speaker 1: future service, perhaps Ay as a full guy. And how
Speaker 1: Ray escaped from prison has always been a mystery because
Speaker 1: he needed help and probably high level permission on the inside,
Speaker 1: and once out, Ray had the use and protection of
Speaker 1: several false identities. Jowers refers to them as passports identities
Speaker 1: that he could never have come up with by himself.
Speaker 1: And so now here's Jowers, who, on the one hand
Speaker 1: is saying that he didn't know King was to be killed,
Speaker 1: but on the other seems to know a lot of
Speaker 1: inside details about how Ray was moved about and brought
Speaker 1: to Memphis. So what to make of all this? With
Speaker 1: Lloyd Jowers and Betty Spades. Over the years, Jowers has
Speaker 1: changed his story many times, like the absurd claim that
Speaker 1: he didn't know who was to be murdered or who
Speaker 1: supposedly handed him the gun at the back door to
Speaker 1: the grill, And of course, at one point he was
Speaker 1: clearly chasing the prospect of making money from his story.
Speaker 1: So after this many lies, is there any reason to
Speaker 1: believe that some part of jowers story is true? The U.
Speaker 1: S Department of Justice doesn't think so. In the year
Speaker 1: two thousand report, they carefully list out all of jowers
Speaker 1: prevarications and conclude that every facet of his story is false.
Speaker 1: The totality of the evidence, the report concludes, suggests that
Speaker 1: Jowers fabricated his allegations, hoping to promote a sensational account
Speaker 1: of a conspiracy to murder Dr Martin Luther King while
Speaker 1: acknowledging the many lies told. My own view is that
Speaker 1: it's a stretch to imagine someone making up an entirely
Speaker 1: untrue story about being part of a horrific murder in
Speaker 1: the hope of making some money out of it. Seems
Speaker 1: like a out of trouble to invite into your life
Speaker 1: for an unlikely reward. And of course, the short lived
Speaker 1: chase for the movie deal arrived with producer Jack Saltman
Speaker 1: after the HBO mock trial. But Betty's Space had already
Speaker 1: told Bill Pepper about Jowers and the rifle before Jowers
Speaker 1: or Space had ever met Jack Saltman. An attorney, Louis Garrison,
Speaker 1: spent some long hours preparing a proposed immunity deal for
Speaker 1: Jowers for a crime that he had confessed to Garrison
Speaker 1: again before he met Jack Saltman. Until his recent death,
Speaker 1: Lewis Garrison maintained a respected law practice in Memphis. He
Speaker 1: was horrified by the murder of King, and he would
Speaker 1: not have abused the legal system with a phony immunity
Speaker 1: proposal so that as client might make some money on
Speaker 1: a movie deal. He wasn't that kind of man. The
Speaker 1: Department of Justice also concluded that Betty Space was lying,
Speaker 1: but the motive here is hard to find. They assert
Speaker 1: that Space's name does not appear on the list of
Speaker 1: people in Jim's grill made right after the shooting, but
Speaker 1: her account of her spat with jowers wife, the drunk
Speaker 1: Charlie Stevens, being escorted out of the place by her
Speaker 1: sister Bobby and Jowers short errands before the murder, ring
Speaker 1: true to me, and I feel the same about her
Speaker 1: account of Jowers coming through the back door with hair
Speaker 1: standing on end and the knees of his pants muddy.
Speaker 1: The d O j would also refer to a statement
Speaker 1: that the AGS investigators got in January with Betty's space's
Speaker 1: signature on it, saying that she had not seen Jowers
Speaker 1: with a rifle. But a little more than a month
Speaker 1: after that, Betty signed a statement in the presence of
Speaker 1: Bill Pepper where she once again affirmed in detail her
Speaker 1: original account of seeing Jowers coming through the back door
Speaker 1: with the gun, saying, in part as read by a
Speaker 1: voice actor, I will not retract the truthful accounts of
Speaker 1: the events which I witnessed around six pm on April
Speaker 1: fourt which confirms Mr jowers involvement based on everything I know,
Speaker 1: James Earl Ray was not the person who shot Dr. King.
Speaker 1: Other persons have tried to get me to change my story,
Speaker 1: saying that if I did so, I would benefit financially.
Speaker 1: I refused to do so and continue to refuse. I
Speaker 1: was in any attempts by the attorney general or his
Speaker 1: investigators to imply that I am telling lives for money.
Speaker 1: So the Attorney General of the State of Tennessee has
Speaker 1: a statement signed by Betty Space saying one thing, and
Speaker 1: Bill Pepper has one saying something entirely different. Both things
Speaker 1: can't be true. How to make sense out of this?
Speaker 1: In my investigation of the murder of Robert Kennedy, I
Speaker 1: came across recordings that have been hidden for twenty years,
Speaker 1: recordings of dozens of police interviews of witnesses who had
Speaker 1: inconvenient accounts of what they saw the knight of Kennedy's murder,
Speaker 1: accounts that didn't fit with the official version of the crime.
Speaker 1: When the investigators made it clear that they wanted a
Speaker 1: change of ory, they often got it. Because it is
Speaker 1: very intimidating to be visited by men in suits who
Speaker 1: suggest that if you don't change your story, they will
Speaker 1: have to return with more questions to discover what reason
Speaker 1: you might have to obstruct a murder investigation by putting
Speaker 1: forward an untrue story, which would be a very serious crime.
Speaker 1: They might need to talk to your employer. Have you
Speaker 1: ever been in trouble with the law, How are you
Speaker 1: doing drugs. Perhaps you told the story to cover up
Speaker 1: an affair. For any normal person under this kind of pressure,
Speaker 1: where the men asking the questions have no interest in
Speaker 1: what you saw, but only in what they want you
Speaker 1: to say you saw, the easiest thing to do is
Speaker 1: sign what they want you to sign and have them leave.
Speaker 1: And this is Bill Pepper's understanding as to what happened
Speaker 1: with Betty Spaces. Well. Betty Spates obviously was a very
Speaker 1: important witness to the events that took place at the
Speaker 1: time of the assassination, and so they had to try
Speaker 1: to discredit her in every way that they could and
Speaker 1: to try to get her to collaborate with a false story.
Speaker 1: So they went to visit her, and they intimidated her.
Speaker 1: They used some pressures they had on one of her children,
Speaker 1: one of her sons. They were determined to get her
Speaker 1: to provide a different story. But that was not the truth,
Speaker 1: and Betty, of course told me the truth to actually tearfully.
Speaker 1: Some time later. He wanted to tell the truth, he
Speaker 1: wanted it out there, and she held nothing back. She
Speaker 1: taught to her relationship with Jowers and what happened on
Speaker 1: that afternoon exactly the way that she recalled it. I
Speaker 1: was very, very proud of her. In the process of
Speaker 1: trying to discredit Spats as a witness, the Department of
Speaker 1: Justice port reveals two other instances where Betty Spates made
Speaker 1: allegations about the murder of Dr King, and this might
Speaker 1: be the most telling evidence of all, because this was
Speaker 1: back in early nineteen sixty nine, less than a year
Speaker 1: after King was killed. The first instance is short on details,
Speaker 1: but according to the report, Betty is supposed to have
Speaker 1: told someone that her boss, presumably Jours, was in on
Speaker 1: the murder. This person told the police, and Space was questioned.
Speaker 1: She denied having said any such thing. In the second,
Speaker 1: Space was arranging bail for her brother. When she remarked
Speaker 1: the two bailed bondsmen that she knew who shot Dr
Speaker 1: King and that Ray was innocent. The bondsman notified the
Speaker 1: AG's office and two investigators were sent to question Spates again.
Speaker 1: She denied the allegation and said she didn't know a
Speaker 1: thing about the assassination. In reviewing alleged crimes that happened
Speaker 1: many years before, like a sexual saul, what a victim
Speaker 1: or witness said at the time to a third party
Speaker 1: is regarded as strong evidence, but to the Department of Justice.
Speaker 1: The fact that Spates twice denied her reported accusations when
Speaker 1: confronted by law enforcement proved to them that her murder
Speaker 1: stories were untrue. Of course, one might well see it
Speaker 1: the other way. One might perceive a woman who saw
Speaker 1: something so disturbing that she lets it out in an
Speaker 1: unguarded moment, but when the lawman show up, she becomes frightened,
Speaker 1: so she denies she ever said it. And if Jowers
Speaker 1: came through that door with a smoking rifle, as Space
Speaker 1: said he did, and as he said he did, and
Speaker 1: as lawyer said he did, then you can put away
Speaker 1: most of what you've been told about the murder of Dr. King.
Speaker 1: And remember, Betty Space was never part of the movie scheme.
Speaker 1: She didn't want to be on TV, and she never
Speaker 1: at any time asked for a single thing for her story.
Speaker 1: I want to play again what she said about what
Speaker 1: Jowers and the movie bunch had wanted her to say.
Speaker 1: They want me to tell the truth about seeing him
Speaker 1: with the rifle. He just wanted to change it just
Speaker 1: a little bit by saying I saw him standing in
Speaker 1: the back door and a black man passing him a
Speaker 1: right and that's not true, and he said if I
Speaker 1: didn't say it, I will lose my share of three
Speaker 1: hundred thousand dollars plus royalties to do it. And I
Speaker 1: told him, I can't love me nothing. I never hate it.
Speaker 1: I believe that Betty Spits saw what she said she saw.
Speaker 1: I don't believe the men in suits. I've seen what
Speaker 1: they do next time on the Emilk tapes. Memphis is
Speaker 1: an interesting reputation of being the first degree murder capital
Speaker 1: of America, and in that context we're not talking about
Speaker 1: street crime, but organized hitch. I heard some noise, and
Speaker 1: I was sitting in my kitchen, and I'm be getting
Speaker 1: aware of some shadows out back, in some out front.
Speaker 1: And to make a long story short, two people tried
Speaker 1: to break in the front, three in the back at
Speaker 1: the same time. More scientific tests may be conducted on
Speaker 1: James Earl Ray's rifle to see if it was used
Speaker 1: to kill Martin Luther King. Tests described Friday were inconclusive,
Speaker 1: though a build up of material and the rifle barrel
Speaker 1: could be to blame. Did you attempt to determine from
Speaker 1: outside the skin the structure of that bullet under the skin? Yes?
Speaker 1: Or I did, and you could take your finger and
Speaker 1: pinch and feel and roll that bullet under the skin.
Speaker 1: You're saying, what you all saw taking out of Dr
Speaker 1: King looked like that. We felt like we found a
Speaker 1: piece of gold when we found a bullet. Thanks for
Speaker 1: listening to the MLK Tapes for auction of iHeart Radio
Speaker 1: and Tenderfoot TV. This podcast is not specifically endorsed by
Speaker 1: the King Family or the King of State. The Email
Speaker 1: K Tapes is written and hosted by Bill Claper. Matt
Speaker 1: Frederick and Alex Williams are executive producers on behalf of
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio with producers Trevor Young and ben Keebrick.
Speaker 1: Donald Albright and Payne Lindsay are executive producers on behalf
Speaker 1: of Tenderfoot TV with producers Jamie Albright and Meredith Stepman.
Speaker 1: Original music by Makeup and Vanity Set. Cover art by
Speaker 1: Mr Soul to six with photography by Artemus Jenkins. Special
Speaker 1: thanks to Owen Rosenbaum and Grace Royer at u t A,
Speaker 1: The Nord Group, back Median Marketing, Envisioned Business Management, and
Speaker 1: Station sixteen. If you have questions, you can visit our website,
Speaker 1: The Email K Tapes dot com. We posted photos and
Speaker 1: videos related to the podcast on our social media accounts.
Speaker 1: You can check them out at the email k tapes.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from I Heart Radio and Tenderfoot TV,
Speaker 1: please visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
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