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 or
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 laid it on the counter to Lenny,
Speaker 1: how you like that scount book that baby? It's a
Speaker 1: rifle actor wrestler, right, it's noisy, just a special one
Speaker 1: that baby special did right? It looked like a regular
Speaker 1: hunt gun which site with thing along boul what I said,
Speaker 1: looking like one of the old Brown and gun. That's
Speaker 1: what I always said, because I guess Ramanton Brown is
Speaker 1: about that. I would know, but uh I didn't touch it,
Speaker 1: and I don't know who I didn't because it was
Speaker 1: on the counter there and land right in front of me.
Speaker 1: Did you look like it's a new gun? Was it new?
Speaker 1: It was branded? Right, said? Looked like it hadn't never
Speaker 1: been It wasn't hadn't been abet at all been fired.
Speaker 1: Looked like I did have a scope on it, I think,
Speaker 1: I said, had a scope on top. It did have
Speaker 1: a scope. It was brown it was nice. What I
Speaker 1: guess you's macall and woodwork. It was a good looking
Speaker 1: made a lot of noise. Yeah, it didn't make a
Speaker 1: lot of noise. It didn't look like the type of
Speaker 1: going to do that, all right. It's a strange looking,
Speaker 1: all right, But it made a tremendous noise every time
Speaker 1: he would shoot it down in that gun, right down. Oh,
Speaker 1: this is his first time. I saw him that day
Speaker 1: and that day only that he shot that right and
Speaker 1: he started all day. He spent time with it all
Speaker 1: that day. I called the Union Hall. I said, a
Speaker 1: matter of life and death. I said, I think these
Speaker 1: peoples are planning to kill Dr King. The authorities parade. Oh,
Speaker 1: we found a gun the James l. Ray bought in
Speaker 1: Birmingham that killed Dr King. Except it wasn't the gun
Speaker 1: that killed Dr King. James l. Vay was a paw
Speaker 1: or The official story from My Heart Radio and Tenderfoot TV.
Speaker 1: The plan was to get King to the city because
Speaker 1: they wanted it handled in Memphis. Were dead in named
Speaker 1: Cat Hammond. I'm Bill Claibourg and this is the MLK tapes.
Speaker 1: Lenny Curtis was a black custodian at the Memphis Police
Speaker 1: firing range in April of night he witnessed several disturbing
Speaker 1: things that the King was shot, and in the days
Speaker 1: leading up to it, afraid for his family. He kept
Speaker 1: those events to himself for over thirty years, but Curtis
Speaker 1: did tell a friend of his who contacted Bill Pepper.
Speaker 1: Pepper convinced the friend to at least let him speak
Speaker 1: to Curtis. Lenny told me the story, and then I
Speaker 1: convinced Lenny to go under oath in a deposition and
Speaker 1: be filmed and tell the story, but in front of
Speaker 1: Mark M. King the third, and he did all of that.
Speaker 1: The deal was that I would not reveal what he
Speaker 1: said whilst she was alive. The Curtis deposition was recorded
Speaker 1: in April of two thousand and three, but the tape
Speaker 1: itself remained in the custody of Bill Pepper, as per
Speaker 1: his agreement with Lenny Curtis. Also in attendance was Martin
Speaker 1: King the third, an attorney Louis Garrison, who would ask
Speaker 1: many of the questions as well. Hear now back in
Speaker 1: miss Curtis, you were employed by the Memphis Police Department,
Speaker 1: and at that time you were working at the firing
Speaker 1: range cost out. Okay, but four April fourth, nineteen sixtight,
Speaker 1: you knew I have an officer there whose name was
Speaker 1: Earl Clark and my corrector, Captain Cloud. Yes. And also
Speaker 1: there was an aufer named Frank Strausser is that he
Speaker 1: was a patrol Now, MS courtis just tell us before
Speaker 1: April four some things you had heard from both of
Speaker 1: those sources about Dr King's present here in Memphis. Here,
Speaker 1: Uh Mrs Strailer said that somebody I was gonna blow
Speaker 1: his I don't say it, blow his mother fucking brains out. Okay.
Speaker 1: We had set two TVs in which we call a
Speaker 1: lounge in a lounge area, and that they had reserve
Speaker 1: police officers which was rookie police. You know they didn't
Speaker 1: you know, you could tell. So they was in uniform
Speaker 1: waiting on a standby and they would listen to looking
Speaker 1: at the TV. And uh Mrs Straiser came in and
Speaker 1: stood up, stopping the lounge while TV was on, and
Speaker 1: he made the statement that oh he'd get a fucking
Speaker 1: brain blow it out. And he went on down into
Speaker 1: the area where the gun room room down on the basement.
Speaker 1: And that's what the first gave me. I started thinking
Speaker 1: because we were in the area where he couldn't see us,
Speaker 1: and we were in the kitchen, in the cook area
Speaker 1: of the lounge. He couldn't see us. So I told James,
Speaker 1: and not just saying anything. So we just do it,
Speaker 1: and we talked about it, and I told Jane, I said, so,
Speaker 1: I don't feel good about that because he was shooting
Speaker 1: that gun all that day. When Curtis refers to the
Speaker 1: gun that Frank Strausser was shooting at the range as
Speaker 1: that gun, he was talking about a particular rifle, the
Speaker 1: special Baby with a polished wood stock, that had been
Speaker 1: shown to him just a few days before by a
Speaker 1: close friend of Strousser's, a fireman named Roy Young. And
Speaker 1: when Curtis was asked to describe what he saw or
Speaker 1: heard on the day King was killed, it went right
Speaker 1: back to Frank Strausser and that gun. He was shooting
Speaker 1: the gun all day. But when he came up, it
Speaker 1: was during the time that we was getting ready to
Speaker 1: leave and we were in the same location. We were
Speaker 1: doing lunch. I mean about what time the day was,
Speaker 1: would you say? That was about three o'clock? Okay, So
Speaker 1: we were cleaning up and here he'd come up out
Speaker 1: of the thing with the rifle, that same rifle, like
Speaker 1: the same rifle to me, what do you do? He
Speaker 1: went to Mr young car. He had a voice wagon.
Speaker 1: Mrs Streis did but he left and Mr Young's car
Speaker 1: that date ruffles, however, and then he turned to what
Speaker 1: I said, fire because he had a white T shirt on,
Speaker 1: blue pants and put a pair of dog sunglass on.
Speaker 1: When he left, the top back all right. And then
Speaker 1: you saw him leave, said he got in the car
Speaker 1: and pool law. When he left, I wait until he
Speaker 1: got out of the drive and I went across the
Speaker 1: street to the Board of Education. I had only a
Speaker 1: two phone called fair. I called the Union Hall, talked
Speaker 1: to them later. It was a reception there. The young
Speaker 1: lady I spoke to. I told her, I said this
Speaker 1: is something very important and she said what is it
Speaker 1: to I said, it's a matter of life and death,
Speaker 1: and she said, what fool's life? And what you know?
Speaker 1: I said, I think these people are planning to kill
Speaker 1: Dr King? And I said I wanted to talk to
Speaker 1: Reverend Smith. She said what he probably with Dr King?
Speaker 1: I said, no way, ma'am, you could get in touch
Speaker 1: with him. She says, not not at this time. Sir,
Speaker 1: so I called Dr Vasco Smith. I let his phone
Speaker 1: rang for I don't know how long. No one never answered.
Speaker 1: I don't guess nobody was there. So I had no
Speaker 1: more money. I went back to the police problem across
Speaker 1: the street and I sat over there for a while.
Speaker 1: Then I left him, going home. And when I got home,
Speaker 1: my wife and I was in the kitchen and it
Speaker 1: came over radio, and it just knocked me down. And
Speaker 1: I have lived with it so long as the fact
Speaker 1: that I thought, I said, well, now, am I not
Speaker 1: honly somebody that could have helped? And I did all
Speaker 1: I could, and I could I think about moving? Or
Speaker 1: am I safe here? And and you know I've been
Speaker 1: to a thing with this thing with me and my
Speaker 1: seron and they they scared for me, you know, it's
Speaker 1: scared for me. But the Lord told me and not
Speaker 1: the word I wanted to tell this here. I've been
Speaker 1: wanting to tell it all my lions. But Curtis's worries
Speaker 1: didn't stop when King was killed. They increased because Frank
Speaker 1: Strousser seemed to think that Lenny Curtis had seemed too
Speaker 1: much and had put the pieces together that he knew
Speaker 1: what Strausser had done. He was aware that Lenny saw
Speaker 1: everything that was going on. I knew everything that was
Speaker 1: going on, so he definitely intimidated Lenny. For quite a
Speaker 1: period of time. Curtis tried to stay out of the
Speaker 1: way whenever Frank Strouser came around, but he could feel
Speaker 1: Strousser looking at him. Some months after the King killing,
Speaker 1: after he hadn't said a word to Curtis since the murder,
Speaker 1: Strausser approached Curtis and asked him to come with him
Speaker 1: on an errand Curtis felt an immediate fear. He said,
Speaker 1: I think he contacts you one day and sq back
Speaker 1: riding down to pick up the pay roll. That was
Speaker 1: surprising to me. Coach you before said nothing to me.
Speaker 1: They had never even spoken to you before other than
Speaker 1: just remark you heard. And my mind told me to go, okay,
Speaker 1: what do you say? Remember said LENNI said, you got
Speaker 1: your boy caught up? And I just said you. He said, uh,
Speaker 1: you wanna write down with me to pick up a check?
Speaker 1: And I went and I knew what he was gonna
Speaker 1: ask me, but I didn't know where he was gonna
Speaker 1: ask me. We we went and got in the car, Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's going on. I was looking at it. He put
Speaker 1: his hand on his gun. He didn't put his hand
Speaker 1: on it. He didn't touch it because I was watching it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but just two I get in the car too. It
Speaker 1: was in the car, thank you, said he was. Mary
Speaker 1: asked me when I'm mayor? Then who We got down
Speaker 1: by the Popular in the North Parkway. He turned and
Speaker 1: went through the wood area. Why the zoo, you know?
Speaker 1: And I'm one. Of course, we're own Poplar. All we
Speaker 1: gotta do. Go straight down to the deal High. When
Speaker 1: we got around them, cured while you get deep the grass,
Speaker 1: He's said, let it. What are you thinking about that
Speaker 1: guy Ray killing king things like that? I saw all
Speaker 1: he did. I said, it's no doubt about it. You know.
Speaker 1: I had to say that. I said, no, no doubt
Speaker 1: about it. I said, I know he did it. Everybody
Speaker 1: know he did it. Talking about Mr Ray. And then
Speaker 1: they asked me, said you're still doing privor detective word
Speaker 1: now I was insecured, doing secure the guards. I said year.
Speaker 1: He said, you're still working with those lbis and periodic.
Speaker 1: I had some couple of FBI that would bring me,
Speaker 1: won't it posts I said, yeah, I said, periodic I
Speaker 1: we worked together, and he told me, he said, let him,
Speaker 1: you'd be careful him. But Frank Strousser always seemed to
Speaker 1: feel that Lenny Curtis was a danger to him and
Speaker 1: to him, and again Strosser would stalk Curtis, either to
Speaker 1: frighten him or possibly worse. Strange thing was happening to
Speaker 1: me at one time, and with the own box says,
Speaker 1: somebody turned my gas off and turned it back home.
Speaker 1: But it was in one of time, and I got
Speaker 1: cold and woke up and smelled to gad. And so
Speaker 1: that next week I noticed a car sitting across the street.
Speaker 1: It was a Lincoln, or I was a Lincoln, and
Speaker 1: I was looking at I said that I was a
Speaker 1: car that don't supposed to be there before I come out.
Speaker 1: I always do that in the morning, because, like I said,
Speaker 1: I was scared. At one time, I was really scared.
Speaker 1: So I noticed the cobs there of the car, and
Speaker 1: I looked at the real careful and kept looking at.
Speaker 1: I saw a head moved, and I said, So by
Speaker 1: that time I went back into in the house. I
Speaker 1: got my pistol and I loaded it, put it in
Speaker 1: my pocket, and like I normally do. I would go
Speaker 1: out and stop my car later on this time something
Speaker 1: that Lulow I told me. He told me he said,
Speaker 1: when you get ready to go, go, don't warm your
Speaker 1: motor up or nothing. So I got him a car
Speaker 1: and turn in this and took off without even turn
Speaker 1: my lights on. And just as I went to pull out,
Speaker 1: he pulled out and it was him Strousser. And at
Speaker 1: that particular time they were they were doing Christmas time.
Speaker 1: They were saying something about they had new evidence. Every
Speaker 1: time they come up with new eleness, he would pop
Speaker 1: up some kind of way as something. In recounting the
Speaker 1: day King was killed, Curtis gave an interesting description of
Speaker 1: the way Strauser looked as he left the firing range.
Speaker 1: Curtis said, quote, he turned into what I said was
Speaker 1: a fireman, referring to Strouser in the informal dress of
Speaker 1: a fireman, complete with white T shirt, ruffled hair, and sunglasses.
Speaker 1: He also left in a fireman's car. I asked Bill
Speaker 1: Pepper about this. He was driving Roy Young's car. Ry
Speaker 1: Young's had privileges at the fire station number two, so
Speaker 1: he was able to park the car there, and he
Speaker 1: did change his his physical appearance yes he did, and
Speaker 1: since the fire station erupted like a beehive as soon
Speaker 1: as King was shot, being dressed like a fireman wouldn't
Speaker 1: be a bad way to blend in and then disappear,
Speaker 1: if that's what happened. Once Bill Pepper heard Lenny Curtis's testimony,
Speaker 1: he naturally began to look at Frank Strausser, though he
Speaker 1: had to be cautious because sudden interest would put Curtis
Speaker 1: in danger, something Pepper had promised not to do. Pepper
Speaker 1: found out that Strausser was new to the Memphis Police
Speaker 1: force at the time of the King killing, having recently
Speaker 1: returned from Vietnam, where he had been wounded and lost
Speaker 1: her brother. Pepper also found a cop who had briefly
Speaker 1: served as Strousser's partner in a squad car. He told
Speaker 1: Pepper that Strausser was out of control, acting as though
Speaker 1: he was untouchable, with numerous abuses of power, like when
Speaker 1: he went into a black bar screaming nword this and
Speaker 1: nword that, and emptied his pistol into the jukebox. Pepper
Speaker 1: also ran across a reference to Strausser in It Came
Speaker 1: from Memphis, a book by Robert Gordon about the music
Speaker 1: scene in the sixties. Gordon described Strousser as a brawler
Speaker 1: recently back from Nam, quoting here, he got wired on
Speaker 1: his own adrenaline in the Vietnam jungle, and the chill
Speaker 1: rush of danger in his lower backbone had become as
Speaker 1: necessary to him as air going in and out of
Speaker 1: his lungs. Upon returning to Memphis, he'd become a cop,
Speaker 1: the paramilitary uniform and the weapon sort of a methodon.
Speaker 1: The book would go on to describe how Strausser would
Speaker 1: muscle in on the pimps and dope dealers working Beal Street,
Speaker 1: and how after hours he would team up with a
Speaker 1: friend and go to bars looking for people to beat up.
Speaker 1: For most people, such a character reference might be enough
Speaker 1: to just stay clear of the man, But when Lenny
Speaker 1: Curtis died in Bill Pepper decided to find Strausser and
Speaker 1: talk to him. I didn't necessarily expect that I would
Speaker 1: get anything out of it, but I thought I would
Speaker 1: be remiss if I didn't try to have some conversation
Speaker 1: with this guy. I saw him where he was living.
Speaker 1: I just went out there one day. He was doing
Speaker 1: his laundry, and then he came out to see me,
Speaker 1: and I introduced myself to him, and I said, I'd
Speaker 1: like to talk to you at some some point. You
Speaker 1: were an officer at the time of the killing, and
Speaker 1: I'd like to I'd like to know what you what
Speaker 1: you believe happened, and so forth. Then I invited him
Speaker 1: to have lunch with me, and I offered him five
Speaker 1: hundred dollars if he would sit down a restaurant have
Speaker 1: lunch with me, which he did. So Bill Pepper decided
Speaker 1: to have lunch with the man he believed killed, Martin
Speaker 1: Luther king Strouser, in his seventies, was driving a cab
Speaker 1: to support himself, and five dollars seemed like good pay
Speaker 1: for an hour work, so he said yes, and a
Speaker 1: date was set for the dining room of the Peabody
Speaker 1: Hotel in Memphis. Pepper then called his court reporter, Brian Dominsky.
Speaker 1: Bill asked that that I have him wired for sound,
Speaker 1: and we did a rudimentary attempt at that recorder in
Speaker 1: his pocket. Besides the recorder, it was also thought a
Speaker 1: good idea if Pepper had additional people in the room,
Speaker 1: so Dominski and an associate were already at a nearby
Speaker 1: table when Strousser and Pepper sat down at the Peabody,
Speaker 1: unbeknownst to Strousser, we were sitting one table away. But
Speaker 1: Bill welcomed him and they sat down and they had
Speaker 1: about a forty five minute chat about what life was
Speaker 1: like in in Memphis. But the small device that Bill
Speaker 1: had in his pocket wasn't up to the task. Given
Speaker 1: the normal noise of a dining room, what it recorded
Speaker 1: was barely decipherable. Dominski, however, was able to produce a
Speaker 1: transcript parts of which voice actors will perform for us
Speaker 1: right after the break, m how are you, Frank? How
Speaker 1: are you doing? You all right? Yeah? Well, I did
Speaker 1: something in my back, so I'm not really all right.
Speaker 1: Bill Pepper rises awkwardly from his chair to greet Frank Strousser,
Speaker 1: who notices his pain. Pepper says that he did something
Speaker 1: to his back, referring to something that was done to
Speaker 1: his back decades earlier. Pepper then Hans Strousser an envelope
Speaker 1: with five Strousser nods, puts it in his pocket and
Speaker 1: takes his seat. Once settled, it is Strausser who asked
Speaker 1: the first question, So what's on your agenda? You write
Speaker 1: in a book. Yeah, I've written too on this case.
Speaker 1: This is gonna be the final one, so I'm trying
Speaker 1: to cover all the bases. I'm gonna go through a
Speaker 1: lot of stuff with you and take some notes if
Speaker 1: I may. And I want to first ask your recollection
Speaker 1: of what things were like around the time this went on,
Speaker 1: this killing. Sure, let's start with what you recall in
Speaker 1: the police department and what the atmosphere was like around
Speaker 1: the time of the assassination. Okay, the department at that
Speaker 1: time was an old school police department. There was before
Speaker 1: we started hiring for quotas and everything. So most of
Speaker 1: the officers were a dying breed. They were dinosaurs. Basically
Speaker 1: an all white force, very few blacks, so it was
Speaker 1: a very tight knit group of men. Now Halliman came in,
Speaker 1: when was that? What was your impression of him? Harmon
Speaker 1: came in somewhere around January. I didn't have that much
Speaker 1: to do with him. Those FBI guys pretty much stay
Speaker 1: with their own. He was in a street coup. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he was with Hoover for a number of years. What
Speaker 1: was the attitude toward Martin King, I mean amongst the police,
Speaker 1: I don't think they had any liking for him. The
Speaker 1: sanitation workers went on strike and then we monitored them,
Speaker 1: rode with them when they marched. The police officers were
Speaker 1: just doing their job. So what was the atmosphere in
Speaker 1: the city were outside the police force in terms of
Speaker 1: was it explosive? Was it ready to know? Not? Really?
Speaker 1: What did that? What changed the whole thing? Was you
Speaker 1: mean the assassination or the assassination sanitation workers going out.
Speaker 1: Prior to that, there weren't demonstrations, and then after the assassination,
Speaker 1: the blacks and everybody come downtown, thieves, pickpockets. They ruined it,
Speaker 1: the rioters, whoever you want. Before then, everyone came to
Speaker 1: town to shop, and after nobody came. So I think
Speaker 1: prior to that the relationship was much better. Since then,
Speaker 1: Memphis has evolved into a racially charged city. Frank Strausser
Speaker 1: starts his history of Memphis by referring to the police
Speaker 1: at the time of the king killing as dinosaurs, as
Speaker 1: if he has somehow moved on, But then he candidly
Speaker 1: puts himself back among them as he reveals his belief
Speaker 1: that it was the blacks who ruined the city. Things
Speaker 1: were much better before the sanitation workers got all stirred
Speaker 1: up about a union. Of course, the city might have
Speaker 1: saved itself a lot of trouble had they just paid
Speaker 1: their garbageman a living wage. But Pepper doesn't argue because
Speaker 1: he is pleased with the conversation. He had been half
Speaker 1: expecting Strousser to take the money and then become hostile
Speaker 1: or uncooperative. Pepper wants to keep the words coming, so
Speaker 1: he steers the conversation to something they had in common.
Speaker 1: From what I know about you, you've had an interesting
Speaker 1: career because you were in the military. Correct in Vietnam.
Speaker 1: That was in Vietnam and I got I got hit
Speaker 1: pretty good. What a year that's when I was there.
Speaker 1: Really were you military? No? No, I was a journalist,
Speaker 1: went there in the spring of sixty six and took
Speaker 1: myself out to the Central Islands. I was in a
Speaker 1: C one thirty and we were landing in Plaku and
Speaker 1: they hit us. Going in plane made a very bad
Speaker 1: rough landing and it started my back problems then. But
Speaker 1: those things happen. Those things happen. But you must have
Speaker 1: seen rough action. How was that? A couple of good ones.
Speaker 1: I ended up in the hospital in Osaka, needed skin grass.
Speaker 1: My brother wasn't so lucky. He died there. M hm.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry to hear that, younger brother, two years younger.
Speaker 1: I understand that you were given some serious award, the
Speaker 1: Army Commendation Medal for valor. But they gave it to
Speaker 1: you at the police roll call. Isn't that unusual? It
Speaker 1: was good pr The conversation so far had gone better
Speaker 1: than Bill Pepper could have expected. Frank Strauser was calm
Speaker 1: and willing to talk about what things were like in
Speaker 1: Memphis back in the day, but that's all he had
Speaker 1: signed on to do. He hadn't agreed to talk about
Speaker 1: the murder of Dr. King, and Pepper didn't expect to
Speaker 1: get Strousser to fess up to anything or rat out anybody.
Speaker 1: But he also didn't want to squander at the opportunity
Speaker 1: to poke a ound. Do you remember where you were
Speaker 1: when King was shot? Uh? Yeah, I was at home.
Speaker 1: I wasn't home. I had had been at home. I
Speaker 1: forget what time he got killed. He got killed about
Speaker 1: six o'clock in the afternoon, because I was I think
Speaker 1: I was working seven to seven. I know I was
Speaker 1: working seven to seven, so I was on my way
Speaker 1: to work because I heard it on the radio that
Speaker 1: he had been assassinated, and I was on my way
Speaker 1: to the precinct down at headquarters to go to work.
Speaker 1: Do you remember hearing it on the radio driving to work? Yes,
Speaker 1: driving to work. Then I'll hell broke loose. I guess
Speaker 1: what happened. The riots broke out downtown. There was so
Speaker 1: much going on that I went on twelve hour shifts
Speaker 1: probably for the next six weeks. Pepper, of course, is
Speaker 1: quite certain that Frank Strausser was not at home or
Speaker 1: in his car when King was killed, but Strouser is
Speaker 1: disarmingly relaxed about it all. So Pepper decides to lay
Speaker 1: a few more cards on the table. Do you know
Speaker 1: what I've done? Who I am? I have no idea.
Speaker 1: I was James Earl Ray's lawyer from until he died.
Speaker 1: Oh okay. I only took him on after I spent
Speaker 1: ten years convincing myself that he wasn't guilty of the crime.
Speaker 1: I tried desperately to get him a trial. I failed.
Speaker 1: Banham locked up all the way. Family knew Martin Luther
Speaker 1: King the last year of his life. After he was killed,
Speaker 1: I just walked away from it all. Politics and everything.
Speaker 1: Then in seventy seven, Abernathy called and asked me to
Speaker 1: question Ry in prison. I said, what are you talking about?
Speaker 1: They got the right guy. But six months later I
Speaker 1: spent five hours with James Earl Ray and it was
Speaker 1: clear to me that he wasn't the shooter. The family
Speaker 1: asked me to look into it further. I want to
Speaker 1: know what happened to have closure. Strousser at first isn't
Speaker 1: sure how to respond to this. He stumbles just a
Speaker 1: touch and ends up by denying that he had ever
Speaker 1: anything to do with James ol Ray. Bill Pepper had
Speaker 1: never suggested it. Do you know, if you have children,
Speaker 1: you know you want to find out who did it.
Speaker 1: I'm just, I'm just I had no dealings with James
Speaker 1: Earl Ray, never saw him. So Pepper tells Strausser that
Speaker 1: he knows he didn't know James ol Ray. It was
Speaker 1: an easy call because no one in Memphis knew James
Speaker 1: el Ray. Strousser then follows with a remarkable opinion as
Speaker 1: to why the case against Ray doesn't make much sense.
Speaker 1: I'll just say this much, and I have a profound
Speaker 1: belief in this. I don't think James el Ray could
Speaker 1: have put all this together. You're right about that. Now
Speaker 1: where it goes from there? Bill, I don't know. I
Speaker 1: could be totally incorrect. But with the kind of criminal
Speaker 1: background he had, this guy was, you know, he was
Speaker 1: a petty criminal. How can a guy like this I
Speaker 1: don't think I ever had this thought before. Why would
Speaker 1: he want to kill Martin Luther King? Yes, there's no motive.
Speaker 1: He's a black leader and you're a James are array
Speaker 1: over here? What's the reason for killing exactly? I mean
Speaker 1: to drift into Memphis and to suddenly have access to
Speaker 1: a room across the street and a rival, and then
Speaker 1: to drop the rival in a bag or a mattress
Speaker 1: or wrapped up in something. Give me right, he didn't
Speaker 1: do it. There must have been other people involved. One
Speaker 1: of the things I enjoy while trying to unravel this
Speaker 1: mystery is that people who are likely neck deep in
Speaker 1: the murder don't seek refuge in the official story of
Speaker 1: how the King killing went down. You heard similar stuff
Speaker 1: from Lloyd Jowers when he spoke to Andrew Young and
Speaker 1: Dexter King. Oh Ray couldn't have done all this, not
Speaker 1: in a million years. The official story is so weak.
Speaker 1: The framing of Ray so obvious that even the beneficiaries
Speaker 1: of this story run away from it. So Strouser thinks
Speaker 1: there were other people involved. But who Pepper has an
Speaker 1: idea too. The thing is as hard as I've looked,
Speaker 1: I never found any indication that the CIA or the
Speaker 1: agency was involved in the killing of Martin King. I
Speaker 1: have found strong indications that the FBI was involved, and
Speaker 1: that Hoover was involved. Hoover hated King, hated him. He
Speaker 1: used Clyde Toulson, his number two, to come in here,
Speaker 1: bring money and set it up through the Dixie Mafia.
Speaker 1: So even lowly patrolman understood at the time that j
Speaker 1: Edgar Hoover hated Martin Luther King. Not a great character
Speaker 1: reference for the man who was ultimately put in charge
Speaker 1: of the murder investigation. But Pepper's mention of the Dixie
Speaker 1: Mafia brings forth an unexpected confession from Strousser. Years ago.
Speaker 1: There was this article in the press, Simitar about people
Speaker 1: who had some connection to the Dixie Mafia, and my
Speaker 1: name was in there. You could have sued him, you
Speaker 1: could have. No. To be quite candid, I guess they
Speaker 1: got it right because I had not been involved directly.
Speaker 1: But I had known some pretty questionable characters, you know,
Speaker 1: from the Dixie Mafia to the actual mafia, and it
Speaker 1: was well now that I was in a lot of
Speaker 1: activity with people who were involved in that sort of livelihood.
Speaker 1: Frank Strousser has just admitted that over the years he
Speaker 1: had engaged in a lot of activity with some pretty
Speaker 1: questionable characters, and Pepper thinks this might be the time
Speaker 1: disturb the pot. He tells Strouser that after the murder,
Speaker 1: the Memphis police made a plaster cast of a fresh
Speaker 1: footprint in the yard behind Jours Place. This is true,
Speaker 1: a size thirteen footprint, and that's significant because not that
Speaker 1: many men have a size thirteen hoof. So Pepper then
Speaker 1: asked Strousser the size of his shoe, and years later
Speaker 1: he told me what he saw on Strousser's face, and
Speaker 1: he said thirteen and a half with a little grin
Speaker 1: on his face. He was telling me something, wasn't he.
Speaker 1: Pepper may have gotten a grin from Strousser, but if
Speaker 1: he thought he'd get more of a reaction and he
Speaker 1: was wrong. So Pepper decided to try something else. He
Speaker 1: told Strousser that as Jowers near death, he had named
Speaker 1: him as the shooter. This was not true. Jowers had
Speaker 1: done no such thing. He had named Captain Clark and
Speaker 1: by extension, himself as being out in the yard, but
Speaker 1: he never named Strousser, and Pepper believes that this was
Speaker 1: because he was afraid of Strousser, who, unlike Clark, was
Speaker 1: still very much alive. So in search of the truth,
Speaker 1: Bill Pepper tells the following lie. Well, Frank, let me
Speaker 1: raise something that I've got to raise with you. First
Speaker 1: of all, I appreciate your candor thank you for that
Speaker 1: and for your time. As you may know, I represented
Speaker 1: the King family here in Memphis, and we sued Lloyd
Speaker 1: Jowers for wrongful death and the King killing. There was
Speaker 1: a civil trial thirty days and seventy witnesses. The jury
Speaker 1: came back in fifty nine minutes and found for the
Speaker 1: family against hours. Jowers, as you know, is dead. Maybe
Speaker 1: he didn't know, Yeah he did, but it wasn't just
Speaker 1: the jury. Before he died, Jowers admitted to myself, Andrew
Speaker 1: Young and Dexter King. He admitted his involvement in the assassination.
Speaker 1: He did, Yes, he admitted it. Betty Spates had nailed
Speaker 1: him because she was at the back door in the
Speaker 1: kitchen when he brought the rifle in. After the shooting,
Speaker 1: Jowers had the rifle. Jowers brought the rifle in, but
Speaker 1: before he died. Hold on yourself. He named you as
Speaker 1: the assassin. He did that, Yes, he named you. Why
Speaker 1: he did this, I don't know. And I found Jowers
Speaker 1: to be a liar on a lot of things, but
Speaker 1: he did. He named you. This surprised me because for
Speaker 1: a long time I thought Clark was the shooter. Clark
Speaker 1: was a hell of a shot, and he lied about
Speaker 1: where he was that afternoon, there was no longer a
Speaker 1: grin on Frank Strouser's face. Earl Clark was a good
Speaker 1: friend of mine. He had strong feelings about certain things.
Speaker 1: Was he a good shot? Oh yeah, and you are
Speaker 1: a hell of a shooter from what I understand, I'm
Speaker 1: a dead shot. I was then, certainly not now. But
Speaker 1: I don't have any idea why Jowers would do that.
Speaker 1: If the purpose of the lie about being named by
Speaker 1: Jowers was to Jossel Strausser into a revealing emotional response,
Speaker 1: it would appear to be a failure. Strousser doesn't get
Speaker 1: upset or angry over the accusation, he just acts perplexed.
Speaker 1: But then Pepper tells Strousser that for a good while
Speaker 1: he had thought Captain Clark was a shooter. Strousser's response is,
Speaker 1: Earl Clark was a good friend of mine. He had
Speaker 1: strong feelings about certain things. These two sentences are the
Speaker 1: most real things. Strausser says. The entire afternoon he had
Speaker 1: strong feelings about certain things might be seen as Strousser's
Speaker 1: inter justification for Clark's roll in the murder. And Earl
Speaker 1: Clark was a good friend of mine appears to put
Speaker 1: Strousser right next to Clark in the yard facing the
Speaker 1: Lorraine Motel. How do we come to that? According to
Speaker 1: the literature, a proper sniper team has a spotter and
Speaker 1: a shooter. The shooter has a site on the target
Speaker 1: at all times, but the spotter takes a wider view
Speaker 1: of what's going on around the target. Each man needs
Speaker 1: to know the other well down to how he sounds
Speaker 1: when he's breathing, and it's the spotter who is in
Speaker 1: charge who gives the command to shoot. If Jowers primary
Speaker 1: function is to provide the yard and take the gun
Speaker 1: and hide it. And we say for the moment that
Speaker 1: Clark is the spotter. Who might we imagine the shooter
Speaker 1: to be first, it would have to be someone who
Speaker 1: was an excellent shot. Then you would need someone who
Speaker 1: was tight with Captain Clark, and someone who shoots guns
Speaker 1: regularly with Clark, say at the police firing range. And
Speaker 1: this is why Earl Clark was a good friend of mine.
Speaker 1: Is a tell because Strousser was the perfect fit for Clark. Plus,
Speaker 1: according to Lenny Curtis, Strausser was the one shooting a
Speaker 1: special rifle all morning and into the afternoon on the
Speaker 1: day King was killed. Does Curtis has sworn testimony prove
Speaker 1: that Frank Strousser was out in the yard facing Lorraine
Speaker 1: that day? No, it doesn't, but it does point in
Speaker 1: that direction. So from what we've been able to piece together,
Speaker 1: it appears that Jowers, Clark, and perhaps Strouser you've heard
Speaker 1: the evidence, you can decide for yourselves, were in the
Speaker 1: yard facing Lorraine and one of them fired the shot
Speaker 1: that killed King. If that is true, have we solved
Speaker 1: the case? Not hardly, Because no matter how knowing and willing,
Speaker 1: the men in the yard were and how knowing and
Speaker 1: willing were those who put them there. They were all
Speaker 1: just pawns in this game. To solve this crime, we
Speaker 1: need to know who planned the murder and who helped
Speaker 1: look the other way or went along for the ride.
Speaker 1: Next time on the MLK tapes he was for McCarthy
Speaker 1: ass right wing vision of America. Mr Hunt looked over
Speaker 1: and he says, John, I've just about had a beneful
Speaker 1: of the Kennedy boys. They both need to go. We
Speaker 1: have seen today the dark side of those activities where
Speaker 1: many Americans who were not even suspected of crime, we're
Speaker 1: not only spied upon, but they were harassed, They were
Speaker 1: discredited and at times endangered. My aunt had been the
Speaker 1: victim of Jegor Hoover, you know, lying to her. After
Speaker 1: the march on Washington, there was an acceleration. He was
Speaker 1: defined because of his speech in that demonstration in Washington
Speaker 1: as the most dangerous and effective leader in the country,
Speaker 1: and there was a paper battle between within the bureau
Speaker 1: was to how best to attack him. That he was attacked,
Speaker 1: So the main focus of that meeting was really trying
Speaker 1: to figure out how to take down Martin Luther King.
Speaker 1: They were quite explicit about laying out a campaign to
Speaker 1: destroy King. Thanks for listening to the m l K Tapes,
Speaker 1: a production of I Heart Radio and Tenderfoot TV. This
Speaker 1: podcast is not specifically endorsed by the King Family or
Speaker 1: the King of State. Damail Ka Tapes is written and
Speaker 1: hosted by Bill Claiper. Matt Frederick and Alex Williams are
Speaker 1: executive producers on behalf of I Heart Radio, with producers
Speaker 1: Trevor Young and ben Keebrick. Donald Albright and Payne Lindsay
Speaker 1: are executive producers on half of Tenderfoot TV with producers
Speaker 1: Jamie Albright and Meredith Steadman. Original music by Makeup and
Speaker 1: Vanity Said. Cover art by Mr Soul two six with
Speaker 1: photography by Artemis Jenkins. Special thanks to Owen Rosenbaum and
Speaker 1: Grace Rowyer at u t A, The Nord Group, back
Speaker 1: Median Marketing, Envisioned Business Management, and Station sixteen. If you
Speaker 1: have questions, you can visit our website the email k
Speaker 1: Tapes dot com. We posted photos and videos related to
Speaker 1: the podcast on our social media accounts. You can check
Speaker 1: them out at the email k Tapes. For more podcasts
Speaker 1: from I Heart Radio and Tenderfoot TV, please visit the
Speaker 1: I heart radio, app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen
Speaker 1: to your favorite shows.