Speaker 1: Welcome to the m l K Tapes, a production of
Speaker 1: I Heart Radio and Tenderfoot TV. The views and opinions
Speaker 1: expressed in this podcast are solely those of the podcast
Speaker 1: author for individuals participating in the podcast, and do not
Speaker 1: represent those of iHeart Media, Tenderfoot TV, or their employees.
Speaker 1: Listener discretion is advised. In nineteen sixty six, James Meredith,
Speaker 1: the first person of color to integrate the University of Mississippi,
Speaker 1: decided to go on a two hundred mile march from Memphis, Tennessee,
Speaker 1: to Jackson, Mississippi. He called it a walk against fear,
Speaker 1: and it was meant to encourage black men and women
Speaker 1: to register to vote. On the second day out on
Speaker 1: the road, Meredith was ambushed and wounded by a white
Speaker 1: man with a shotgun. Meredith was rushed back to a
Speaker 1: hospital in Memphis, his wounds not serious. The following morning,
Speaker 1: Martin Luther King flew in to see him, and the
Speaker 1: Reverend James Lawson, pastor and civil rights leader in Memphis,
Speaker 1: drove out to the airport to pick him up. I
Speaker 1: was met on the concourse by a couple of black
Speaker 1: police officers who were dressed in suits and ties, white
Speaker 1: shirts and ties. They informed me there will be no
Speaker 1: violence in Memphis and King is going to be safe
Speaker 1: in Memphis. Claud Armor, the Commissioner of Fire and Police.
Speaker 1: He is appointed eight officers of the police force in
Speaker 1: Memphis to work with him and accompany him as a
Speaker 1: security unit. For nineteen sixty six on Dr King's office
Speaker 1: cooperated with that black security squad of eight men. They're
Speaker 1: the ones who would not allow him to stay at
Speaker 1: any hotel with balcony sea. They wanted him to be
Speaker 1: inside where they could not keep the scenery clear. Was
Speaker 1: that unit assigned to him on his final visit to Memphis,
Speaker 1: that all black unit. No, it was withdrawn. That security
Speaker 1: union was reassigned. I called the union hall. I said,
Speaker 1: a matter of life and death. I said, I think
Speaker 1: these people are planning to kill Dr King. The authorities
Speaker 1: were parade. Oh, we found a gun, the James L.
Speaker 1: Raybod in Birmingham that killed Dr King. Except it wasn't
Speaker 1: the gun that killed Dr King. James Lvy was upon
Speaker 1: for the official story from My Heart radio intender for TV.
Speaker 1: The plan was to get King to the city because
Speaker 1: they wanted it handled in Memphis. Were dead in incate
Speaker 1: hamon and I have lived with us alone, monsieur, and
Speaker 1: they they skied for me. The Lord told me to
Speaker 1: not the word. I've been wanting to tell it all
Speaker 1: my life. I'm Bill Clayburg and this is d MLK tapes.
Speaker 1: Reverend Lawson was a good friend of Martin Luther King,
Speaker 1: and he was one of the first to question the
Speaker 1: official story of the assassination. Lawson will tell us how
Speaker 1: he came to know doctor King and about the things
Speaker 1: he learned that created doubt about the murder. Then we'll
Speaker 1: hear from people who were in Memphis that faithful day
Speaker 1: and how what they experienced spoke to the very things
Speaker 1: that troubled Reverend Lawson. At the time of King's murder,
Speaker 1: Lawson was the pastor of the Sentinary Methodist Church in Memphis. Lawson,
Speaker 1: like King, was a third generation minister, and he decided
Speaker 1: to fight for racial justice at an early age. When
Speaker 1: he was just twenty two, he sent to federal prison
Speaker 1: for refusing induction into the army. Lawson was locked up
Speaker 1: for a year and then went to India as a missionary.
Speaker 1: It was while he was in India that Laws and
Speaker 1: learned of the Montgomery bus boycott. We spoke last summer.
Speaker 1: The Montgomery bus boycott was on the top news all
Speaker 1: across India the early part of December nine. I'm sitting
Speaker 1: at my desk in my apartment in no for India,
Speaker 1: and the immediate headline that caught my eye in my
Speaker 1: life Negroes in Montgomery Boycott. I knew as I finished
Speaker 1: my term in nineteen fifty six that I were really
Speaker 1: going to return to home and would be involved in
Speaker 1: that campaign. I didn't know where or what, or when
Speaker 1: or who, but I knew it was going to happen,
Speaker 1: and it did happened. Lawson met King when he got
Speaker 1: back from India, where he had studied the life and
Speaker 1: methods of Mahatma Gandhi. King was impressed. He urged me,
Speaker 1: and I can't remember all the words, but he said,
Speaker 1: come now, don't wait. We don't have anyone like you
Speaker 1: in the South, and we need your experience, We need
Speaker 1: your work and help. So Lawson went south, where he
Speaker 1: would lead the lunch counter sit ins in Nashville and
Speaker 1: be arrested as a freedom writer in Jackson, Mississippi. He
Speaker 1: then became the pastor at the Centenary Methodist Church and
Speaker 1: in the summer of six, he joined a group of
Speaker 1: ministers that went to Vietnam to make a report, a
Speaker 1: report critical of the war that he personally sent to
Speaker 1: Martin Luther King. Less than two years after you made
Speaker 1: that report, Dr King then made his speech at Riverside Church,
Speaker 1: the speech that shocked the nation fourth nineteen seven. And
Speaker 1: I knew that I'm America would never invest the necessary
Speaker 1: funds are images in rehabilitation of its poor so long
Speaker 1: as adventures like Vietnam continued to draw men and skills
Speaker 1: and money. So I was increasingly compelled to see the
Speaker 1: war as an enemy of the poor and to attack
Speaker 1: it as such. King's opposition to the war might have
Speaker 1: sounded like a practical matter. Money spent on military adventures
Speaker 1: abroad could not be used to help people at home.
Speaker 1: But underneath there was a powerful moral argument that went
Speaker 1: much deeper. We were taking the black young men who
Speaker 1: had been crippled by our society in sending them eight
Speaker 1: thousand miles away to guarantee liberties in Southeast Asia which
Speaker 1: they had not found in Southwest Georgia and East Holland.
Speaker 1: Did you concur in that speech? Did you agree with
Speaker 1: Dr King? Oh? Absolutely? But his speech was not very
Speaker 1: well received by the overall American media and some people
Speaker 1: in the civil rights movement as well. Is that not true.
Speaker 1: That's true. We knew in our conversations the extent to
Speaker 1: which they would say he had no business talking about
Speaker 1: which causes the idiocy of our conventional wisdom. In the
Speaker 1: United States, we think that preachers ought not to talk
Speaker 1: about evil. In ninety eight, Memphis, racial tensions were high.
Speaker 1: There were a few decent employment opportunities to open the
Speaker 1: black citizens. Only the most menial work, and that was
Speaker 1: always Underpaidred sanitation workers were the textbook case. A day
Speaker 1: after filthy work, black workers were not allowed to shower
Speaker 1: and change clothes at the garage, but the way workers
Speaker 1: were if it was raining, they were sent home without pay,
Speaker 1: while their white drivers were allowed to go back to
Speaker 1: the garage, play cards and stay on the payroll. There
Speaker 1: were constant humiliations, and if you objected to any of it,
Speaker 1: you'd be fired. On April one, two black workers in
Speaker 1: Cole Cole and Robert Walker hopped into the back of
Speaker 1: their garbage truck to get out of the rain. It's
Speaker 1: trash compactor supposedly malfunctioned, switching on and they were crushed
Speaker 1: to death, and if the horror of that were not enough,
Speaker 1: the wives and families of the two men were barely compensated.
Speaker 1: It was the last straw, and the sanitation workers walked
Speaker 1: off the job. The city of Memphis declared the strike
Speaker 1: illegal and refused to discuss the workers concerns, and about
Speaker 1: all the workers could do was march and attend rallies.
Speaker 1: This is Reverend Lawson describing what happened during one peaceful
Speaker 1: march that he was leading, a march he had cleared
Speaker 1: with police Chief Holliman. We were walking on the right
Speaker 1: side of the street going south, and these cars came
Speaker 1: from the side streets on the main street and rolled
Speaker 1: up all alongside of us, so that there was a
Speaker 1: long line of police cars, perhaps the length of the walk.
Speaker 1: Then I noticed some of the cars coming over the
Speaker 1: yellow line and trying to intimidate some of us walking.
Speaker 1: So I turned around and went to the couple of
Speaker 1: the race cars and said, now, look, we had Holloman's
Speaker 1: permission to walk. You guys have designed to provoke an incident,
Speaker 1: so stay where you are. And then it happened again.
Speaker 1: They moved over on the marchers, and this time the
Speaker 1: sanitation workers put their hands in the car, and like that,
Speaker 1: the police cars all of it. Now that line stopped.
Speaker 1: Officers poured out of the cars with cans of the
Speaker 1: base and seated the mace everybody they could place. They
Speaker 1: had some targets they dragged off to a vikingople out
Speaker 1: the river. By how many I had glasses on, So
Speaker 1: they're mad in face. But the march was broken up
Speaker 1: in that fashion. But as the strike entered its second month,
Speaker 1: it moved into something more threatening even than police violence.
Speaker 1: There were now families with no savings and no income
Speaker 1: and no way to put food on the table. The
Speaker 1: strikers badly needed outside help, national attention. So Reverend Lawson
Speaker 1: asked his friend Martin Luther King to come to Memphis
Speaker 1: and speak at a rally. And they were standing room
Speaker 1: only in that meeting. So I suspect that we probably
Speaker 1: had as many as ten the twelve thousand people in
Speaker 1: that sanctuary and in that building. I picked up Dr
Speaker 1: King at the airport and we had to walk through
Speaker 1: mobs of people who were overjoyed that Martin King was
Speaker 1: in Memphis for this strike. So this is a very
Speaker 1: powerful moment for him and for us in the euphoria
Speaker 1: that followed a speech, King agreed to come back to
Speaker 1: Memphis and join in a protest march. When the day came,
Speaker 1: King's plane was delayed and he was a little late
Speaker 1: in getting there. The march began, and King and his
Speaker 1: people arrived and took their place near the front of
Speaker 1: the marchers. But things were not going well. When I
Speaker 1: turned on the main street, I saw just beyond our
Speaker 1: first rank of marshals, who were maybe fifty yards ahead
Speaker 1: of us, I saw in front of them police officers
Speaker 1: in riot deer stretched across that main street in ranks
Speaker 1: of three or four ranks on the side of the street.
Speaker 1: But we're trying to break the store windows. No police
Speaker 1: officer moved to stop them, So I said to myself,
Speaker 1: they are planning again to break up this march. Knowing
Speaker 1: what was coming next, Lawson ran back and demanded that
Speaker 1: King of this party retire. They're coming to get you, Martin,
Speaker 1: he said, and we don't want that. King objected at first,
Speaker 1: but then agreed, and his party retired to the Rivermont
Speaker 1: Hotel with the honest help of a nearby police car.
Speaker 1: Later last in another strike, leaders examined photos that were
Speaker 1: taken that day. According to them, the windows smashing and
Speaker 1: looting had not been done by the marchers, but rather
Speaker 1: by some Beal street low lifes and others they didn't know.
Speaker 1: As we heard at the beginning of the episode, from
Speaker 1: the time of the Meredith shooting forward, King had an
Speaker 1: all black security unit when it came to Memphis, but
Speaker 1: for some reason, on the King's final visit to the city,
Speaker 1: that unit was not called on to protect him. Instead,
Speaker 1: a police detail of four officers under the command of
Speaker 1: Inspector Donald Smith met doctor King at the airport and
Speaker 1: escorted him to the Lorraine Motel, where they remained on
Speaker 1: duty till five in the afternoon. But none of them
Speaker 1: were black, and none of them returned the next day,
Speaker 1: April four, the day the King was murdered. Late in
Speaker 1: the afternoon of April four, Lawson went to the motel
Speaker 1: to report to doctor King about his day in court,
Speaker 1: fighting successfully, as it turned out, for the right to march.
Speaker 1: Lawson left King at around five pm. He was home
Speaker 1: having dinner with his wife when he got the news
Speaker 1: that doctor King had been shot. He then dashed around
Speaker 1: the city trying to keep things calm. But several days
Speaker 1: later he got a strange package in the mail. I
Speaker 1: received the brown envelope and on the inside of it
Speaker 1: the invisible tape. It was wrapped around a bullet. It
Speaker 1: had scribbled on the sheet of paper to the bullet
Speaker 1: woods attached, there is one of these for you. Lawson
Speaker 1: didn't tell anyone other than his wife about the package.
Speaker 1: But a few days later we got a call on
Speaker 1: some matter from police Chief Holloman, and towards the end
Speaker 1: of the conversation, Holloman said, we understand that you received
Speaker 1: the package in the mail. Lawson, as was his way,
Speaker 1: remained polite, but as he hung up the phone, he wondered,
Speaker 1: how did you know that? And as time went on,
Speaker 1: Lawson was troubled by a few other things he discovered
Speaker 1: after the murder. This is what he had to say
Speaker 1: in I learned that one or two firemen, and I
Speaker 1: got trying to check the next details with living two
Speaker 1: firemen who were into fire station across the street Kenny
Speaker 1: torn the little hotel Black fireman were transferred from that
Speaker 1: station in ways that at least those fireman thought was unusual.
Speaker 1: Big contact at me and Ralph Jackson, all with two
Speaker 1: others about their removal. I learned that Ed Reid, who's
Speaker 1: on surveillance from the fire station, was moved an hour before.
Speaker 1: I learned that patrol cars that were in the region
Speaker 1: when he was there patrolling Allberry made but suddenly disappeared
Speaker 1: with Dora. He found, and after James el Ray had
Speaker 1: been captured, more odd things began to pop into Lawson's head.
Speaker 1: When he found out that Ray was being held in
Speaker 1: a cell where the lights were kept on twenty four
Speaker 1: hours a day. It brought to his mind sleep deprivations
Speaker 1: used by the North Koreans to break American captives. My
Speaker 1: only regret is that I did not then go and
Speaker 1: find a way to visit him in that cell at
Speaker 1: County Jail. As a pastor, I made a series is
Speaker 1: air in not getting acquainted with James el Ray in
Speaker 1: that cell. And when James finally had his day in
Speaker 1: court and pleaded guilty, Lawson was again disturbed. His plea
Speaker 1: astonished me, and it didn't astonished me from his point
Speaker 1: of view. It estonished me from the official legal court
Speaker 1: point of view. Just why would the local police and
Speaker 1: district attorney, in an assassination of a major USA figure
Speaker 1: not moved to have an open child I've come to
Speaker 1: call this Lawson's question. It's a good one. If this
Speaker 1: case is the big slam dunk that the police and
Speaker 1: d A like to say it was, why the big
Speaker 1: push for the plea? Why wouldn't the d A's office
Speaker 1: pursue a trial to prove without a doubt that James
Speaker 1: OL Ray killed Martin Luther King. As you just heard,
Speaker 1: Reverend Lawson felt badly about not having visited Ray while
Speaker 1: he was held captive for eight months before his court day.
Speaker 1: The Lawson would make up for that. He visited Ray
Speaker 1: in jail after he was convicted. He came to know
Speaker 1: Ray in a way few other men did. Lawson even
Speaker 1: married Ray in jail and at the end sat with
Speaker 1: him as he awaited death. So what was his measure
Speaker 1: of the man? Of course, the motive that was given
Speaker 1: to Ray was that he hated black people so much
Speaker 1: that he escaped from prison with the sole intention of
Speaker 1: murdering doctor King. That was a lie. That was the
Speaker 1: major lie. Now, remember, I've been fighting racism since age tour,
Speaker 1: so I think I do know racism and a white person.
Speaker 1: I visited James O. Ray, and I found ignorance in
Speaker 1: James O. Rae and some illiteracy, and I found elements
Speaker 1: of a poor white man, but I found no races.
Speaker 1: Reverend Lawson, do you believe that James el Ray murdered
Speaker 1: your friend Martin Luther King? James el Ray was a
Speaker 1: pond for the official story. Dr King was not assassinated
Speaker 1: by James el Ray. As Reverend Lawson told us, he
Speaker 1: noticed some strange activity in the Memphis newspapers in the
Speaker 1: week leading up to King's murder, stories attacking King for
Speaker 1: staying at white owned hotels when there was a perfectly
Speaker 1: good black hotel, the Lorraine, that he could have patronized.
Speaker 1: What was this about, Lawson wondered, where was this coming from?
Speaker 1: There were, of course good reasons for King to stay
Speaker 1: at the white hotel, to integrate them, for one, and
Speaker 1: for another, Lawson says, the King's all black security detail
Speaker 1: like hotels such as the Rivermont or the Admiral Benbo
Speaker 1: with interior access to rooms that they could secure and guard,
Speaker 1: instead of motels like the Lorraine, whose rooms were accessed
Speaker 1: by an open exterior walkway. But whether because of the
Speaker 1: attacks in the newspapers or because he just chose to
Speaker 1: be there, King was booked into the Lorraine Motel for
Speaker 1: his final visit to Memphis, but at first he was
Speaker 1: booked into room two O two, which had a ground
Speaker 1: floor entry off an interior alcove, and at the last minute,
Speaker 1: King's room was changed to three oh six, which was
Speaker 1: reached by the exposed walkway. So the question is why
Speaker 1: was King's room changed? The person best able to answer
Speaker 1: that question was Lorraine Bailey, the owner with her husband
Speaker 1: of the Lorraine Motel. According to an account from Bill
Speaker 1: Pepper's book The Plot to Kill King, on April two,
Speaker 1: the day before King arrived in Memphis, she told her
Speaker 1: husband that she had been visited by someone she described
Speaker 1: as an SCLC advanced man, who insisted that King be
Speaker 1: moved to a room overlooking the empty motel swimming pool.
Speaker 1: But as soon as she heard that doctor King had
Speaker 1: been shot, Lorraine Bailey ran to her room screaming, what
Speaker 1: have I done? She then suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and
Speaker 1: never regained consciousness. She died a few days later, and
Speaker 1: the question of who was behind the room changed remained
Speaker 1: a mystery. But this was not the only odd occurrence
Speaker 1: taking place near the murder site. Reverend Lawson mentioned a
Speaker 1: few others like the transfer of the only two black
Speaker 1: firemen assigned a fire station number two, or the two's
Speaker 1: as it was called. The fire station overlooked the motel,
Speaker 1: and a lot would be happening in and around that firehouse,
Speaker 1: and the two firemen, as the story goes, being black,
Speaker 1: were thought to be a risk. But what excuse should
Speaker 1: be used to remove them? According to a witness we
Speaker 1: will hear later, it was decided that the easiest thing
Speaker 1: was to say that a threat had been made on
Speaker 1: their lives? Is that what happened? Well, the fireman can
Speaker 1: tell us in their own words as they respond to
Speaker 1: questions by Attorney Bill Pepper, who represented Coretta Scott King
Speaker 1: and the King family at the civil trial in Memphis.
Speaker 1: First is Norville Wallace, who in thirty seven years of
Speaker 1: service attained the rank of captain, which is why Pepper
Speaker 1: refers to him as chief Fouse. You you were employed
Speaker 1: by the Menda's fire departments, were a number years true
Speaker 1: years from six Moss when she falls? Did you serve
Speaker 1: as the first one day making ses six? I will
Speaker 1: have November where you at any time transferred out of
Speaker 1: that stage? Were transferred out on eight p m. Of
Speaker 1: the night of the killing or the night before the
Speaker 1: night of the pool? And how were you transferred? How
Speaker 1: do you receive your orders to be transferred out without
Speaker 1: receiving from that game? He should add, going be detailed
Speaker 1: for thirty three was at the airport? This was the
Speaker 1: nine of April third. You were told by your captain
Speaker 1: to go out to the airportage in thirty three? She
Speaker 1: was Did you ever ask what this was all about? Yes?
Speaker 1: And then what were you told? Told that head in three?
Speaker 1: And why would you be friend? Was putting out of bires,
Speaker 1: I guess, but there was a thread on your life.
Speaker 1: Say so, the education out of the areas, that's what
Speaker 1: it doesn't get mad here? How many black firemen were
Speaker 1: signed the number two, just you and the lower Boston
Speaker 1: to Obviously we're learning the nine of one of you
Speaker 1: were allowed the right and you never received the satisfactory explanatic.
Speaker 1: Say so, Norville Wallace has transferred out of fire station
Speaker 1: number two to a firehouse out of the airport. He
Speaker 1: is told that the transfer was caused by a threat
Speaker 1: upon his life, and Wallace cannot imagine why anyone would
Speaker 1: wish him harm. So take the explanation that Wallace was
Speaker 1: removed because of a threat to his life. This is
Speaker 1: something real or something made up? Because one might think
Speaker 1: if a real threat had been made, details would be
Speaker 1: provided to the threatened person as a matter of responsible conduct.
Speaker 1: If you were fireman Wallace, what might you want to know?
Speaker 1: How do they know about this threat? Where is it
Speaker 1: coming from? Who more than the threatened party deserves to
Speaker 1: know these details? But no details are given, no explanation
Speaker 1: is offered. In fact, the threat is never mentioned again.
Speaker 1: So does this sound like something real or something made up?
Speaker 1: And as Wallace testified, there was another black fireman at
Speaker 1: the two's, Floyd Newsom, and his story as told from
Speaker 1: the same witness stand, it's quite similar to that, Mr Wallace.
Speaker 1: Where are you on duty on the fourth of April
Speaker 1: nineteen fire station number two at the time of the
Speaker 1: assass today, I was from Judy, but I wasn't the
Speaker 1: number twos. You were not at the number two I
Speaker 1: was supposed to be. You were supposed to be at
Speaker 1: the number dudes. If you were at another dude, you
Speaker 1: tell the jury y you were not the number two.
Speaker 1: I was that day because Abler ThReD not able. The
Speaker 1: third obviously called home from our internet at that times
Speaker 1: the times, who is struck to me? Not your pot?
Speaker 1: Aren't you the number two on our regular duty to
Speaker 1: note the company? But instead they posed two number thirty months.
Speaker 1: That was that am gold and crossing possibly in the
Speaker 1: tent at the time of nine. Did you receive this call?
Speaker 1: After ten? After ten a fucking night, you received the
Speaker 1: call and orders to go to another five? That's right?
Speaker 1: The next step, what was the emergency that caused you
Speaker 1: to be changed? You to be moved to another fire?
Speaker 1: Surely wasted my emergency it was? And when you went
Speaker 1: to that other station in the next stat did you
Speaker 1: find that you were neat? Also, I was not needed
Speaker 1: my leading not company. That's not company after serious and
Speaker 1: that's somebody else's details of my company in my state.
Speaker 1: So you're telling this course that you were surplus to
Speaker 1: requirements where you were said that under man your your
Speaker 1: homecom So there's a video. Ever inquired why you were
Speaker 1: assigned away from your station? Yes? What did you learn? Much? Times?
Speaker 1: I was transferred about waiting on it about a quick
Speaker 1: So finally you gotta answer to your question, and you
Speaker 1: were told that you were transferred at the request of
Speaker 1: the Memphis Colsia before any opinion your own about why
Speaker 1: you were transferred, not really, I just know it was
Speaker 1: very unusually necessary, so it had to be done for
Speaker 1: some reason. I don't know the reason. And as if
Speaker 1: there weren't enough strange things going on at the twos
Speaker 1: that day, there was something else, some thing that Reverend
Speaker 1: Lawson didn't know about, nor did anyone else, because no
Speaker 1: one in the murder investigation had interviewed Carthel Weeden, the
Speaker 1: chief of fire Station number two, about what he saw
Speaker 1: that day. Years later, Weedon would come forward and say
Speaker 1: that the morning of the murder, he was approached by
Speaker 1: two men who flashed army I d and asked to
Speaker 1: be placed on the roof of the firehouse where they
Speaker 1: could photograph the Lorrain Motel. This is Chief Weedon telling
Speaker 1: his account of what happened that morning on April fourth. Yea,
Speaker 1: they have the assassination. Were you approached by to Morrow Lawson?
Speaker 1: That's what he indicated to the time. Show you any
Speaker 1: military identification? Well, I'm sure the dear I want to
Speaker 1: hear about there for that. You know, we have a
Speaker 1: lot of people coming in and that you know, and
Speaker 1: what did they ask you to do? They wanted to
Speaker 1: look out for dance, right, okay? They wanted if they
Speaker 1: want an advantage point in a rent these arm rolls
Speaker 1: And did you put them somewhere? I put them on
Speaker 1: the roof to the No. To fire station? You put
Speaker 1: these army officers on the roof for the number two
Speaker 1: fire stations on fourth of Agos ninetiess year? And were
Speaker 1: they carrying anything? They had great case station? Did you
Speaker 1: come to learn that it was in those Greek place?
Speaker 1: Did they tell you that one was in the brief
Speaker 1: phase they said they wanted to banage point or doing
Speaker 1: so to photographic where rats you came to believe that
Speaker 1: they had camera equipment in those Well that's what they
Speaker 1: they indicate in doing. I placed the motor root when
Speaker 1: they yet did you see the leaves? Ris Ween? Has
Speaker 1: many law enforcement officers ever asked you about about that?
Speaker 1: Any rich nobody's ever saw him? To you, this is
Speaker 1: a simple story, but curious why would two men flashing
Speaker 1: army I d asked to go to the roof of
Speaker 1: the firehouse so they could photograph the area around the
Speaker 1: Lorraine Motel. Unjust what happened to be the day that
Speaker 1: Martin Luther King was shot? Who were these men what
Speaker 1: were they doing that day? And if there were an
Speaker 1: innocent explanation, why haven't these men come forward? And where
Speaker 1: are the photographs that they presumably took. In the previous segment,
Speaker 1: we heard the accounts of the two black firemen who
Speaker 1: were removed from the critically located fire station number two,
Speaker 1: and from the former chief of that station who told
Speaker 1: up bringing two men up to the roof so they
Speaker 1: could photograph the area around the Lorraine Motel. This on
Speaker 1: a morning where he said a lot of people were
Speaker 1: coming and going, but something darker still appeared to be
Speaker 1: taking place within the Memphis Police Department. On his previous
Speaker 1: visits to Memphis in nineteen sixty eight, Martin Luther King
Speaker 1: was met and guarded by a special detail of black
Speaker 1: police officers. Reverend Lawson told us of how he was
Speaker 1: at the airport waiting for doctor King the first time
Speaker 1: that unit made their appearance. He told us how their commander,
Speaker 1: Captain Jerry Williams, promised to keep King safe, but according
Speaker 1: to Lawson, on King's final visit to that troubled city,
Speaker 1: Williams strangely did not receive the order to form his unit.
Speaker 1: This is what Captain Williams had to say about it
Speaker 1: years later, responding to the questions of Attorney Bill Peppers,
Speaker 1: and he bously gonna police department. Actually was how long
Speaker 1: were you? Was very honest later? When years? And what
Speaker 1: were you doing in nineteen sevens? At that time I
Speaker 1: was assigned to them as sign and I would be
Speaker 1: in charge of security party Police department and then women
Speaker 1: have celebrities or some daystarious accompts to numbers. Kevin Williams,
Speaker 1: um were you assigned to provide security for Dr Martin
Speaker 1: Luther King whenever he came to Men, Well, for the
Speaker 1: first two times that he came to my knowledge, I
Speaker 1: was assigned. I have a very time. I was not
Speaker 1: talking about the Earth assiseration, the you assassination in eight
Speaker 1: and tell us how you would put together? How about
Speaker 1: security unit that you've had people together? Inspected Dunston, the
Speaker 1: old security supervisor. He would call me and asked me
Speaker 1: to select a group of officers, possibly nine. I would
Speaker 1: help about sister tatives through you and the coming in.
Speaker 1: Would you stay with doctor King throughout his visit? When yes,
Speaker 1: how would you provide security? Point? Well, we would get
Speaker 1: his continerary. When you come to the Memphis we would
Speaker 1: meet at the tail port. When he did planned it
Speaker 1: would be right with him. We would following him to
Speaker 1: his hotel. If he would go to church first was
Speaker 1: we would lead to details of the church. Where did
Speaker 1: he stay overnight? When on one ocagent who stayed up
Speaker 1: to river, wont and your unit would protect him and
Speaker 1: from my secur to that, yes, or we would go
Speaker 1: in and check the rooms, make sure the telephone on about,
Speaker 1: check under the bed to check the over where. Then
Speaker 1: I was signed to the officers building the outside of
Speaker 1: this door. We would take times about every two hours
Speaker 1: and would do that. All right, love now and Dr
Speaker 1: King's lost visit to menis were you asked to form
Speaker 1: this usual security unit? You know? So you were not?
Speaker 1: Was not? Why were you not absolutely formed at security
Speaker 1: unit on the lost n So? I don't know. I
Speaker 1: was just alled as somebody as within the assignment when
Speaker 1: they lack office and label white officers. Did you ever
Speaker 1: ask any questions as to why you weren't something well,
Speaker 1: I did later on altimary timent. But after the assassination,
Speaker 1: in the aftermath the assassination, while you still were a
Speaker 1: certain officer, did you ever raise that question with any
Speaker 1: on the inside the department, no income wait at the
Speaker 1: most house black officers, and we didn't took the vers
Speaker 1: as to why. But nobody knew why. You know, you
Speaker 1: have to realize at that time to tell you, when
Speaker 1: we used to go, plakers were very supergated. There's a
Speaker 1: lot of I still the situation of change formatically since
Speaker 1: then black people was only talking to black people. White
Speaker 1: people gone talking the white people. So a lot I
Speaker 1: still have tea. I don't know, my Woodpool, I just
Speaker 1: don't know. I don't know what the answer that since
Speaker 1: factor gave me was. But you ask, and I just
Speaker 1: know who wasn't working on that pay and you were
Speaker 1: not in a position as an officer in the departments
Speaker 1: and black home really be able to ask any money
Speaker 1: and require an anser wrest. But there was a black
Speaker 1: police detective who was working that day. His name was
Speaker 1: ed Reddit and with this black partner, patrolman Willie Richmond,
Speaker 1: he met doctor King at the airport on April third,
Speaker 1: as an auxiliary to the official security detail that included
Speaker 1: the white officers under Inspector Smith the police. Smith and
Speaker 1: his men in one car and read it and Richmond
Speaker 1: and another escorted King to the Lorraine Motel read it
Speaker 1: and Richmond were not part of the official detail, so
Speaker 1: after they arrived they went up to the firehouse, where
Speaker 1: from a back window they looked out at the Lorraine.
Speaker 1: They were not so much guarding King as putting him
Speaker 1: under surveillance, making notes as to who came and went.
Speaker 1: It's not clear where Smith's all White details stationed themselves
Speaker 1: that day. Bill Pepper thinks they mostly hung out at
Speaker 1: the motel office reading newspapers, but we don't know that.
Speaker 1: What we do know is that Smith called headquarters at
Speaker 1: five p m. Asking for permission to end their watch
Speaker 1: despite numerous and credible threats to King's life. The officers
Speaker 1: were sent home without any one replacing them, and the
Speaker 1: security detail did not return the next day, the day
Speaker 1: Dr King was murdered, but Reddit did return to his
Speaker 1: post at the firehouse. On the morning of April four,
Speaker 1: Reddit said there was no sign of Smith or his detail.
Speaker 1: Sometime in the late morning, Willie Richmond rejoined Reddit, but
Speaker 1: it would be a rather strange afternoon. What follows his
Speaker 1: detective Reddit on the witness stand, answering the questions of
Speaker 1: Bill Pepper, Well, you serve as officer me where did
Speaker 1: you becoming a police Munity Relations officer SA as a
Speaker 1: police munity relations officer on your duties. Well, but when
Speaker 1: we started there was nothing written about us. For we
Speaker 1: developed our long methods and ways of getting this community,
Speaker 1: and it was how do we get the community through
Speaker 1: the response to understanding word of us. At the sign
Speaker 1: of the Sanentation workers strike, were you still working with
Speaker 1: the community and you said involved with amusingly, how did
Speaker 1: you related the events of going on? Well, I was
Speaker 1: somewhat pool out to kind of surveyor serve. I thought
Speaker 1: it sabailas I was given then cop mons do, but
Speaker 1: I thought it was a bit necessary, and I think
Speaker 1: the whole background idea was too to observe or to
Speaker 1: find out anyone who made me come into the city
Speaker 1: to disrupt it. That gives you any problems in terms
Speaker 1: of your relationship you had in the community because you've
Speaker 1: been working with the community and moving into the world,
Speaker 1: No one, that's intelligence. We're gett see the contrete everybody
Speaker 1: you will be And I'm going about it now that
Speaker 1: there come a time when you were assigned to a
Speaker 1: a specific detail at the fire station. Firevation number two.
Speaker 1: What it is about the sibers one that out of
Speaker 1: side on hand that I had noticed something was unusual
Speaker 1: about all right again Rant King, and I noticed there
Speaker 1: was nobody else there in the past when we were
Speaker 1: signed about the team. We stayed with him, guarding him
Speaker 1: up down steps and stayed with it. Nobody with him.
Speaker 1: So I went to cross the street at the fire
Speaker 1: department because we're coming in, and observed greet and I
Speaker 1: wish he did and who accompanied you? In the will
Speaker 1: of the Richmond. He took up a position uh in
Speaker 1: the fire station on the third of April, and from
Speaker 1: the rear of the fire station people were able to
Speaker 1: see the Lorraine would tell about clear and did you
Speaker 1: return with Officer Richmond the next the next day we
Speaker 1: were the next day, as we learned from Station Chief wheten,
Speaker 1: the firehouse was alive with people not normally there. By
Speaker 1: official count, there were thirteen policemen inside the firehouse when
Speaker 1: King was murdered thirty, but read it was not one
Speaker 1: of them, because at some time near five o'clock, Lieutenant
Speaker 1: Arkin showed up and told Reddit that the boss wanted
Speaker 1: to see him down at headquarters. What four He wouldn't say,
Speaker 1: So Reddit went with Arkan and Richmond was left still
Speaker 1: watching out the window. When Reddit arrived at headquarters, he
Speaker 1: was shown to a conference room and was stunned by
Speaker 1: what he saw. It was like a meeting of the
Speaker 1: choint chiefs of staff. He said. In this room were
Speaker 1: the heads and seconds of every law enforcement operation in
Speaker 1: the area, Sheriff, highway patrol, army, intelligence, national Guard, you
Speaker 1: name it, it was in the room. Then read it,
Speaker 1: said the chief. Holloman approached and pointed to a man
Speaker 1: in civilian clothes who he said was with the Secret Service.
Speaker 1: Holloman said this man had flown in from Washington that
Speaker 1: day with news that a contract had been taken out
Speaker 1: on Redditt's life, and that Reddit had to go home immediately.
Speaker 1: Reddit found the scene utterly surreal. Who takes out a
Speaker 1: contract on a lowly police detective and who would fly
Speaker 1: from Washington with such news? And what would the Secret
Speaker 1: Service have to do with it? Returning to Reddit's testimony
Speaker 1: at the civil trial, a group of man and I
Speaker 1: was a man once to survive inside the holms. That
Speaker 1: was a man there who had just falling in and
Speaker 1: that was CONTRACTE. I was going home totally have that.
Speaker 1: It was basically to go back to where I was
Speaker 1: to take care of what the director HOMEO had three
Speaker 1: bar argamentations about you going home anyway, It's my job
Speaker 1: to take into arm take home. Reddit said he was
Speaker 1: kept at home for the next week, then he was
Speaker 1: told he could return to work. The whole thing was
Speaker 1: said to be a mix up. The threat was actually
Speaker 1: on some other black police detective in Knoxville. So detective Reddit,
Speaker 1: though apparently not the ject of a real contract, was
Speaker 1: the third black man removed from the fire station in
Speaker 1: two days, and the second man removed because of reported
Speaker 1: threat upon his life. A dangerous time to be working
Speaker 1: at the two's. So a lot of strange stuff going on.
Speaker 1: And if you lived in Memphis when King was killed
Speaker 1: and we're paying attention like Reverend Lawson, you may have
Speaker 1: been aware of these odd stories. But most people in
Speaker 1: America were not. And in part this was because James
Speaker 1: el Ray never had a trial, though according to Ray
Speaker 1: and many others, he wanted a trial and always insisted
Speaker 1: that he did not shoot Martin Luther King. You heard
Speaker 1: the voices of the men in these stories because we
Speaker 1: jumped ahead thirty years to the civil trial. A lawsuit
Speaker 1: for wrongful death brought in Memphis and by Coretta Scott King.
Speaker 1: She no longer believed the official version of her husband's murder,
Speaker 1: and she wanted the evidence of that crime as incomplete
Speaker 1: as it was to be recorded in a courtful law
Speaker 1: so the people coming later could read what the witnesses
Speaker 1: had to say, or in our case here what they
Speaker 1: had to say. But we really haven't gone anywhere. We're
Speaker 1: still in Memphis in nineteen sixty eight looking at some
Speaker 1: of the strange things that went down the day King
Speaker 1: was killed. We've got fifty years of revelations still in
Speaker 1: front of us, and that's how this story will continue
Speaker 1: to emerge, piece by piece, year by year, as we
Speaker 1: hear people overcome their fear or surrender to their conscience.
Speaker 1: So what you've just heard is for openers, for background,
Speaker 1: and as ominous as it all sounds, it's possible that
Speaker 1: there are reasonable explanations for some or all of these events.
Speaker 1: And none of these stories by themselves or even collectively,
Speaker 1: proves that there was conspiracy to murder Dr King. But
Speaker 1: if these events were table setting for a murder, then
Speaker 1: the finger of guilt would point back to those with
Speaker 1: the power to make these strange things happen. But one
Speaker 1: thing we do know is that these events could not
Speaker 1: have been the doing of James el Ray, who drifted
Speaker 1: into Memphis for the very first time just a few
Speaker 1: hours before Dr King was shot. What is his story?
Speaker 1: Who or what brought him to Memphis and where was
Speaker 1: he when Dr King was killed? Well, James el Ray
Speaker 1: will tell you himself, but be warned it's no simple town.
Speaker 1: Next time. On the email K tapes we received a
Speaker 1: letter dear Mr Haynes, I'm here in jail. I've been
Speaker 1: accused of a murderer. I don't know anything about it.
Speaker 1: Will you please come help me. No, he never did
Speaker 1: have no hostility towards any race, not only Blacks, but
Speaker 1: Hispanics or anybody. And we said a lads together and
Speaker 1: he was all maybe, he was all happy and as
Speaker 1: he had money money on him, so he said, I'm
Speaker 1: going out to berminghended by a late Laul parts you
Speaker 1: have this, he said, I'm working up a Mr. Rawl
Speaker 1: sadly remember how the rawle came And I'm working for
Speaker 1: a guy named Row or something like that. A boat
Speaker 1: came all the radio saying that the Reverend Martin Laus
Speaker 1: kame and shops so I didn't take too much cant
Speaker 1: on that, but I kept on driving and wasn't too
Speaker 1: long you have thought. He said, Uh, they were looking
Speaker 1: for a white man and white mustang. And the next
Speaker 1: one of the shooting my dad, James will really and uh,
Speaker 1: We're sitting on the floor of that shower stall. And
Speaker 1: the first thing out of anybody's mouth was my dad
Speaker 1: looking at this client of ours and say, who are you?
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to The mL K Tapes, a production
Speaker 1: of I Heart Radio intended for TV. This podcast is
Speaker 1: not specifically endorsed by the King Family or the King
Speaker 1: of State. D email K Tapes is written and hosted
Speaker 1: by Bill Claper. Matt Frederick and Alex Williams are executive
Speaker 1: producers on behalf of I Heart Radio with producers Trevor
Speaker 1: Young and ben Keebrick. Donald Albright and Payne Lindsay are
Speaker 1: executive producers on behalf of Tenderfoot TV, with producers Jamie
Speaker 1: Albright and Meredith Stepman. Original music by Makeup and Vanity Set.
Speaker 1: Cover art by Mr soul to six with photography by
Speaker 1: Artemus Jenkins. Special thanks to Owen Rosenbaum and Grace Royer
Speaker 1: at U t A the Nord Group, back Median Marketing,
Speaker 1: Envisioned Business Management, and Station sixteen. If you have questions,
Speaker 1: you can visit our website, the email k tapes dot com.
Speaker 1: We posted photos and videos related to the podcast on
Speaker 1: our social media accounts. You can check them out at
Speaker 1: the email k Tapes From More podcasts from I Heart
Speaker 1: Radio and Tenderfoot TV, please visit the I Heart Radio app,
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