WEBVTT - Setting for a Murder [2] 0:00:00.720 --> 0:00:03.200 Welcome to the m l K Tapes, a production of 0:00:03.200 --> 0:00:06.880 I Heart Radio and Tenderfoot TV. The views and opinions 0:00:06.880 --> 0:00:09.879 expressed in this podcast are solely those of the podcast 0:00:09.920 --> 0:00:13.520 author for individuals participating in the podcast, and do not 0:00:13.640 --> 0:00:17.760 represent those of iHeart Media, Tenderfoot TV, or their employees. 0:00:18.440 --> 0:00:25.760 Listener discretion is advised. In nineteen sixty six, James Meredith, 0:00:25.920 --> 0:00:29.360 the first person of color to integrate the University of Mississippi, 0:00:29.720 --> 0:00:33.480 decided to go on a two hundred mile march from Memphis, Tennessee, 0:00:33.800 --> 0:00:38.120 to Jackson, Mississippi. He called it a walk against fear, 0:00:38.640 --> 0:00:41.240 and it was meant to encourage black men and women 0:00:41.600 --> 0:00:44.640 to register to vote. On the second day out on 0:00:44.680 --> 0:00:47.720 the road, Meredith was ambushed and wounded by a white 0:00:47.720 --> 0:00:50.760 man with a shotgun. Meredith was rushed back to a 0:00:50.840 --> 0:00:55.560 hospital in Memphis, his wounds not serious. The following morning, 0:00:55.800 --> 0:00:58.480 Martin Luther King flew in to see him, and the 0:00:58.560 --> 0:01:02.320 Reverend James Lawson, pastor and civil rights leader in Memphis, 0:01:02.640 --> 0:01:05.720 drove out to the airport to pick him up. I 0:01:05.880 --> 0:01:10.400 was met on the concourse by a couple of black 0:01:10.680 --> 0:01:15.520 police officers who were dressed in suits and ties, white 0:01:15.520 --> 0:01:20.760 shirts and ties. They informed me there will be no 0:01:21.000 --> 0:01:25.480 violence in Memphis and King is going to be safe 0:01:25.760 --> 0:01:31.400 in Memphis. Claud Armor, the Commissioner of Fire and Police. 0:01:32.120 --> 0:01:36.240 He is appointed eight officers of the police force in 0:01:36.319 --> 0:01:41.040 Memphis to work with him and accompany him as a 0:01:41.160 --> 0:01:47.480 security unit. For nineteen sixty six on Dr King's office 0:01:47.640 --> 0:01:53.560 cooperated with that black security squad of eight men. They're 0:01:53.600 --> 0:01:56.960 the ones who would not allow him to stay at 0:01:57.040 --> 0:02:02.280 any hotel with balcony sea. They wanted him to be 0:02:02.600 --> 0:02:07.560 inside where they could not keep the scenery clear. Was 0:02:07.600 --> 0:02:11.359 that unit assigned to him on his final visit to Memphis, 0:02:11.800 --> 0:02:17.320 that all black unit. No, it was withdrawn. That security 0:02:17.440 --> 0:02:26.040 union was reassigned. I called the union hall. I said, 0:02:26.160 --> 0:02:28.959 a matter of life and death. I said, I think 0:02:29.040 --> 0:02:33.079 these people are planning to kill Dr King. The authorities 0:02:33.120 --> 0:02:36.320 were parade. Oh, we found a gun, the James L. 0:02:36.400 --> 0:02:41.080 Raybod in Birmingham that killed Dr King. Except it wasn't 0:02:41.080 --> 0:02:45.720 the gun that killed Dr King. James Lvy was upon 0:02:46.560 --> 0:02:51.200 for the official story from My Heart radio intender for TV. 0:02:51.960 --> 0:02:56.440 The plan was to get King to the city because 0:02:56.760 --> 0:02:59.400 they wanted it handled in Memphis. Were dead in incate 0:02:59.440 --> 0:03:02.960 hamon and I have lived with us alone, monsieur, and 0:03:03.040 --> 0:03:06.640 they they skied for me. The Lord told me to 0:03:06.760 --> 0:03:09.120 not the word. I've been wanting to tell it all 0:03:09.120 --> 0:03:14.480 my life. I'm Bill Clayburg and this is d MLK tapes. 0:03:22.480 --> 0:03:24.799 Reverend Lawson was a good friend of Martin Luther King, 0:03:25.080 --> 0:03:26.760 and he was one of the first to question the 0:03:26.760 --> 0:03:30.360 official story of the assassination. Lawson will tell us how 0:03:30.400 --> 0:03:32.760 he came to know doctor King and about the things 0:03:32.800 --> 0:03:36.280 he learned that created doubt about the murder. Then we'll 0:03:36.320 --> 0:03:38.800 hear from people who were in Memphis that faithful day 0:03:39.200 --> 0:03:42.280 and how what they experienced spoke to the very things 0:03:42.320 --> 0:03:46.400 that troubled Reverend Lawson. At the time of King's murder, 0:03:46.600 --> 0:03:51.000 Lawson was the pastor of the Sentinary Methodist Church in Memphis. Lawson, 0:03:51.280 --> 0:03:54.800 like King, was a third generation minister, and he decided 0:03:54.800 --> 0:03:58.360 to fight for racial justice at an early age. When 0:03:58.360 --> 0:04:01.040 he was just twenty two, he sent to federal prison 0:04:01.080 --> 0:04:04.960 for refusing induction into the army. Lawson was locked up 0:04:05.000 --> 0:04:08.680 for a year and then went to India as a missionary. 0:04:09.000 --> 0:04:11.320 It was while he was in India that Laws and 0:04:11.480 --> 0:04:15.520 learned of the Montgomery bus boycott. We spoke last summer. 0:04:16.680 --> 0:04:21.719 The Montgomery bus boycott was on the top news all 0:04:21.760 --> 0:04:26.359 across India the early part of December nine. I'm sitting 0:04:26.440 --> 0:04:31.159 at my desk in my apartment in no for India, 0:04:31.600 --> 0:04:35.440 and the immediate headline that caught my eye in my 0:04:35.560 --> 0:04:42.159 life Negroes in Montgomery Boycott. I knew as I finished 0:04:43.000 --> 0:04:46.080 my term in nineteen fifty six that I were really 0:04:46.200 --> 0:04:49.600 going to return to home and would be involved in 0:04:49.600 --> 0:04:54.520 that campaign. I didn't know where or what, or when 0:04:54.920 --> 0:04:58.520 or who, but I knew it was going to happen, 0:04:59.440 --> 0:05:02.160 and it did happened. Lawson met King when he got 0:05:02.160 --> 0:05:04.359 back from India, where he had studied the life and 0:05:04.440 --> 0:05:10.039 methods of Mahatma Gandhi. King was impressed. He urged me, 0:05:10.800 --> 0:05:13.200 and I can't remember all the words, but he said, 0:05:13.839 --> 0:05:17.800 come now, don't wait. We don't have anyone like you 0:05:18.520 --> 0:05:22.000 in the South, and we need your experience, We need 0:05:22.080 --> 0:05:25.680 your work and help. So Lawson went south, where he 0:05:25.720 --> 0:05:28.160 would lead the lunch counter sit ins in Nashville and 0:05:28.200 --> 0:05:31.839 be arrested as a freedom writer in Jackson, Mississippi. He 0:05:31.960 --> 0:05:35.200 then became the pastor at the Centenary Methodist Church and 0:05:35.240 --> 0:05:38.000 in the summer of six, he joined a group of 0:05:38.040 --> 0:05:41.280 ministers that went to Vietnam to make a report, a 0:05:41.440 --> 0:05:44.640 report critical of the war that he personally sent to 0:05:44.720 --> 0:05:48.280 Martin Luther King. Less than two years after you made 0:05:48.279 --> 0:05:53.000 that report, Dr King then made his speech at Riverside Church, 0:05:53.320 --> 0:05:59.000 the speech that shocked the nation fourth nineteen seven. And 0:05:59.120 --> 0:06:03.400 I knew that I'm America would never invest the necessary 0:06:03.640 --> 0:06:09.000 funds are images in rehabilitation of its poor so long 0:06:09.080 --> 0:06:13.839 as adventures like Vietnam continued to draw men and skills 0:06:13.920 --> 0:06:18.719 and money. So I was increasingly compelled to see the 0:06:18.800 --> 0:06:22.359 war as an enemy of the poor and to attack 0:06:22.480 --> 0:06:26.400 it as such. King's opposition to the war might have 0:06:26.440 --> 0:06:30.080 sounded like a practical matter. Money spent on military adventures 0:06:30.080 --> 0:06:33.120 abroad could not be used to help people at home. 0:06:33.960 --> 0:06:38.240 But underneath there was a powerful moral argument that went 0:06:38.320 --> 0:06:43.880 much deeper. We were taking the black young men who 0:06:43.920 --> 0:06:47.440 had been crippled by our society in sending them eight 0:06:47.520 --> 0:06:55.039 thousand miles away to guarantee liberties in Southeast Asia which 0:06:55.400 --> 0:06:59.320 they had not found in Southwest Georgia and East Holland. 0:07:00.279 --> 0:07:02.960 Did you concur in that speech? Did you agree with 0:07:03.080 --> 0:07:07.520 Dr King? Oh? Absolutely? But his speech was not very 0:07:07.520 --> 0:07:11.160 well received by the overall American media and some people 0:07:11.200 --> 0:07:13.920 in the civil rights movement as well. Is that not true. 0:07:14.440 --> 0:07:19.560 That's true. We knew in our conversations the extent to 0:07:19.640 --> 0:07:22.960 which they would say he had no business talking about 0:07:25.240 --> 0:07:30.480 which causes the idiocy of our conventional wisdom. In the 0:07:30.520 --> 0:07:34.360 United States, we think that preachers ought not to talk 0:07:34.400 --> 0:07:40.920 about evil. In ninety eight, Memphis, racial tensions were high. 0:07:41.160 --> 0:07:43.680 There were a few decent employment opportunities to open the 0:07:43.720 --> 0:07:47.360 black citizens. Only the most menial work, and that was 0:07:47.400 --> 0:07:53.880 always Underpaidred sanitation workers were the textbook case. A day 0:07:53.920 --> 0:07:57.360 after filthy work, black workers were not allowed to shower 0:07:57.480 --> 0:08:00.480 and change clothes at the garage, but the way workers 0:08:00.480 --> 0:08:04.800 were if it was raining, they were sent home without pay, 0:08:04.800 --> 0:08:06.880 while their white drivers were allowed to go back to 0:08:06.920 --> 0:08:10.800 the garage, play cards and stay on the payroll. There 0:08:10.800 --> 0:08:14.160 were constant humiliations, and if you objected to any of it, 0:08:14.800 --> 0:08:20.360 you'd be fired. On April one, two black workers in 0:08:20.480 --> 0:08:23.480 Cole Cole and Robert Walker hopped into the back of 0:08:23.480 --> 0:08:26.400 their garbage truck to get out of the rain. It's 0:08:26.480 --> 0:08:31.800 trash compactor supposedly malfunctioned, switching on and they were crushed 0:08:31.800 --> 0:08:35.320 to death, and if the horror of that were not enough, 0:08:36.080 --> 0:08:39.160 the wives and families of the two men were barely compensated. 0:08:40.120 --> 0:08:43.280 It was the last straw, and the sanitation workers walked 0:08:43.280 --> 0:08:48.480 off the job. The city of Memphis declared the strike 0:08:48.559 --> 0:08:52.520 illegal and refused to discuss the workers concerns, and about 0:08:52.559 --> 0:08:55.360 all the workers could do was march and attend rallies. 0:08:56.040 --> 0:08:59.600 This is Reverend Lawson describing what happened during one peaceful 0:08:59.640 --> 0:09:02.560 march that he was leading, a march he had cleared 0:09:02.720 --> 0:09:06.720 with police Chief Holliman. We were walking on the right 0:09:06.840 --> 0:09:11.560 side of the street going south, and these cars came 0:09:11.640 --> 0:09:14.760 from the side streets on the main street and rolled 0:09:14.880 --> 0:09:17.280 up all alongside of us, so that there was a 0:09:17.360 --> 0:09:21.920 long line of police cars, perhaps the length of the walk. 0:09:23.040 --> 0:09:26.640 Then I noticed some of the cars coming over the 0:09:26.720 --> 0:09:31.520 yellow line and trying to intimidate some of us walking. 0:09:32.559 --> 0:09:35.480 So I turned around and went to the couple of 0:09:35.520 --> 0:09:38.559 the race cars and said, now, look, we had Holloman's 0:09:38.559 --> 0:09:42.160 permission to walk. You guys have designed to provoke an incident, 0:09:42.320 --> 0:09:45.880 so stay where you are. And then it happened again. 0:09:47.280 --> 0:09:51.320 They moved over on the marchers, and this time the 0:09:51.360 --> 0:09:55.160 sanitation workers put their hands in the car, and like that, 0:09:56.720 --> 0:09:59.880 the police cars all of it. Now that line stopped. 0:10:00.400 --> 0:10:03.360 Officers poured out of the cars with cans of the 0:10:03.440 --> 0:10:07.920 base and seated the mace everybody they could place. They 0:10:07.960 --> 0:10:11.480 had some targets they dragged off to a vikingople out 0:10:11.559 --> 0:10:15.280 the river. By how many I had glasses on, So 0:10:15.480 --> 0:10:19.240 they're mad in face. But the march was broken up 0:10:19.280 --> 0:10:25.079 in that fashion. But as the strike entered its second month, 0:10:25.520 --> 0:10:28.720 it moved into something more threatening even than police violence. 0:10:29.320 --> 0:10:33.080 There were now families with no savings and no income 0:10:33.480 --> 0:10:36.000 and no way to put food on the table. The 0:10:36.080 --> 0:10:41.080 strikers badly needed outside help, national attention. So Reverend Lawson 0:10:41.200 --> 0:10:44.760 asked his friend Martin Luther King to come to Memphis 0:10:44.840 --> 0:10:48.640 and speak at a rally. And they were standing room 0:10:48.640 --> 0:10:52.480 only in that meeting. So I suspect that we probably 0:10:52.559 --> 0:10:55.720 had as many as ten the twelve thousand people in 0:10:55.800 --> 0:10:59.640 that sanctuary and in that building. I picked up Dr 0:10:59.760 --> 0:11:03.800 King at the airport and we had to walk through 0:11:04.240 --> 0:11:07.960 mobs of people who were overjoyed that Martin King was 0:11:08.000 --> 0:11:11.640 in Memphis for this strike. So this is a very 0:11:11.640 --> 0:11:16.880 powerful moment for him and for us in the euphoria 0:11:16.920 --> 0:11:19.480 that followed a speech, King agreed to come back to 0:11:19.520 --> 0:11:23.000 Memphis and join in a protest march. When the day came, 0:11:23.360 --> 0:11:25.760 King's plane was delayed and he was a little late 0:11:25.760 --> 0:11:28.719 in getting there. The march began, and King and his 0:11:28.840 --> 0:11:30.800 people arrived and took their place near the front of 0:11:30.800 --> 0:11:34.600 the marchers. But things were not going well. When I 0:11:34.720 --> 0:11:38.400 turned on the main street, I saw just beyond our 0:11:38.480 --> 0:11:43.360 first rank of marshals, who were maybe fifty yards ahead 0:11:43.400 --> 0:11:47.960 of us, I saw in front of them police officers 0:11:48.160 --> 0:11:55.240 in riot deer stretched across that main street in ranks 0:11:55.280 --> 0:11:59.280 of three or four ranks on the side of the street. 0:12:00.000 --> 0:12:04.000 But we're trying to break the store windows. No police 0:12:04.040 --> 0:12:08.480 officer moved to stop them, So I said to myself, 0:12:08.640 --> 0:12:14.079 they are planning again to break up this march. Knowing 0:12:14.120 --> 0:12:16.760 what was coming next, Lawson ran back and demanded that 0:12:16.880 --> 0:12:19.880 King of this party retire. They're coming to get you, Martin, 0:12:19.960 --> 0:12:23.559 he said, and we don't want that. King objected at first, 0:12:23.559 --> 0:12:26.560 but then agreed, and his party retired to the Rivermont 0:12:26.600 --> 0:12:29.120 Hotel with the honest help of a nearby police car. 0:12:30.440 --> 0:12:33.719 Later last in another strike, leaders examined photos that were 0:12:33.760 --> 0:12:37.120 taken that day. According to them, the windows smashing and 0:12:37.120 --> 0:12:40.240 looting had not been done by the marchers, but rather 0:12:40.280 --> 0:12:43.280 by some Beal street low lifes and others they didn't know. 0:12:46.960 --> 0:12:49.520 As we heard at the beginning of the episode, from 0:12:49.520 --> 0:12:52.440 the time of the Meredith shooting forward, King had an 0:12:52.480 --> 0:12:55.760 all black security unit when it came to Memphis, but 0:12:55.880 --> 0:12:59.200 for some reason, on the King's final visit to the city, 0:12:59.480 --> 0:13:03.040 that unit was not called on to protect him. Instead, 0:13:03.280 --> 0:13:05.920 a police detail of four officers under the command of 0:13:05.920 --> 0:13:09.240 Inspector Donald Smith met doctor King at the airport and 0:13:09.400 --> 0:13:12.600 escorted him to the Lorraine Motel, where they remained on 0:13:12.679 --> 0:13:15.400 duty till five in the afternoon. But none of them 0:13:15.400 --> 0:13:17.920 were black, and none of them returned the next day, 0:13:17.960 --> 0:13:21.920 April four, the day the King was murdered. Late in 0:13:21.960 --> 0:13:25.280 the afternoon of April four, Lawson went to the motel 0:13:25.360 --> 0:13:27.840 to report to doctor King about his day in court, 0:13:28.440 --> 0:13:31.520 fighting successfully, as it turned out, for the right to march. 0:13:32.440 --> 0:13:35.720 Lawson left King at around five pm. He was home 0:13:35.760 --> 0:13:37.760 having dinner with his wife when he got the news 0:13:37.840 --> 0:13:40.520 that doctor King had been shot. He then dashed around 0:13:40.520 --> 0:13:43.760 the city trying to keep things calm. But several days 0:13:43.840 --> 0:13:47.240 later he got a strange package in the mail. I 0:13:47.360 --> 0:13:51.280 received the brown envelope and on the inside of it 0:13:51.840 --> 0:13:56.720 the invisible tape. It was wrapped around a bullet. It 0:13:56.840 --> 0:14:00.559 had scribbled on the sheet of paper to the bullet 0:14:00.600 --> 0:14:06.280 woods attached, there is one of these for you. Lawson 0:14:06.360 --> 0:14:09.440 didn't tell anyone other than his wife about the package. 0:14:09.880 --> 0:14:11.640 But a few days later we got a call on 0:14:11.720 --> 0:14:14.880 some matter from police Chief Holloman, and towards the end 0:14:14.920 --> 0:14:18.920 of the conversation, Holloman said, we understand that you received 0:14:18.920 --> 0:14:22.080 the package in the mail. Lawson, as was his way, 0:14:22.320 --> 0:14:25.480 remained polite, but as he hung up the phone, he wondered, 0:14:26.040 --> 0:14:29.160 how did you know that? And as time went on, 0:14:29.360 --> 0:14:32.000 Lawson was troubled by a few other things he discovered 0:14:32.040 --> 0:14:34.600 after the murder. This is what he had to say 0:14:34.720 --> 0:14:40.200 in I learned that one or two firemen, and I 0:14:40.320 --> 0:14:42.880 got trying to check the next details with living two 0:14:42.920 --> 0:14:46.160 firemen who were into fire station across the street Kenny 0:14:46.240 --> 0:14:51.960 torn the little hotel Black fireman were transferred from that 0:14:52.160 --> 0:14:57.720 station in ways that at least those fireman thought was unusual. 0:14:59.120 --> 0:15:02.880 Big contact at me and Ralph Jackson, all with two 0:15:02.920 --> 0:15:08.640 others about their removal. I learned that Ed Reid, who's 0:15:08.720 --> 0:15:12.960 on surveillance from the fire station, was moved an hour before. 0:15:14.280 --> 0:15:17.640 I learned that patrol cars that were in the region 0:15:17.680 --> 0:15:25.360 when he was there patrolling Allberry made but suddenly disappeared 0:15:26.160 --> 0:15:30.240 with Dora. He found, and after James el Ray had 0:15:30.240 --> 0:15:34.000 been captured, more odd things began to pop into Lawson's head. 0:15:34.600 --> 0:15:36.640 When he found out that Ray was being held in 0:15:36.640 --> 0:15:38.840 a cell where the lights were kept on twenty four 0:15:38.840 --> 0:15:42.680 hours a day. It brought to his mind sleep deprivations 0:15:42.800 --> 0:15:46.800 used by the North Koreans to break American captives. My 0:15:46.960 --> 0:15:51.920 only regret is that I did not then go and 0:15:52.000 --> 0:15:55.760 find a way to visit him in that cell at 0:15:55.800 --> 0:16:00.120 County Jail. As a pastor, I made a series is 0:16:00.320 --> 0:16:03.960 air in not getting acquainted with James el Ray in 0:16:04.040 --> 0:16:08.760 that cell. And when James finally had his day in 0:16:08.800 --> 0:16:14.240 court and pleaded guilty, Lawson was again disturbed. His plea 0:16:15.120 --> 0:16:19.080 astonished me, and it didn't astonished me from his point 0:16:19.080 --> 0:16:22.920 of view. It estonished me from the official legal court 0:16:23.040 --> 0:16:27.560 point of view. Just why would the local police and 0:16:27.720 --> 0:16:33.200 district attorney, in an assassination of a major USA figure 0:16:33.960 --> 0:16:38.440 not moved to have an open child I've come to 0:16:38.520 --> 0:16:42.320 call this Lawson's question. It's a good one. If this 0:16:42.400 --> 0:16:44.760 case is the big slam dunk that the police and 0:16:44.880 --> 0:16:47.520 d A like to say it was, why the big 0:16:47.560 --> 0:16:51.040 push for the plea? Why wouldn't the d A's office 0:16:51.080 --> 0:16:54.200 pursue a trial to prove without a doubt that James 0:16:54.200 --> 0:16:57.560 OL Ray killed Martin Luther King. As you just heard, 0:16:57.800 --> 0:17:01.160 Reverend Lawson felt badly about not having visited Ray while 0:17:01.160 --> 0:17:04.359 he was held captive for eight months before his court day. 0:17:04.520 --> 0:17:07.720 The Lawson would make up for that. He visited Ray 0:17:07.800 --> 0:17:10.960 in jail after he was convicted. He came to know 0:17:11.160 --> 0:17:14.400 Ray in a way few other men did. Lawson even 0:17:14.400 --> 0:17:17.719 married Ray in jail and at the end sat with 0:17:17.800 --> 0:17:21.159 him as he awaited death. So what was his measure 0:17:21.200 --> 0:17:24.720 of the man? Of course, the motive that was given 0:17:24.760 --> 0:17:27.800 to Ray was that he hated black people so much 0:17:28.440 --> 0:17:31.840 that he escaped from prison with the sole intention of 0:17:31.920 --> 0:17:35.320 murdering doctor King. That was a lie. That was the 0:17:35.400 --> 0:17:40.879 major lie. Now, remember, I've been fighting racism since age tour, 0:17:41.800 --> 0:17:46.000 so I think I do know racism and a white person. 0:17:46.920 --> 0:17:51.679 I visited James O. Ray, and I found ignorance in 0:17:51.960 --> 0:17:57.879 James O. Rae and some illiteracy, and I found elements 0:17:57.960 --> 0:18:02.920 of a poor white man, but I found no races. 0:18:04.000 --> 0:18:07.680 Reverend Lawson, do you believe that James el Ray murdered 0:18:07.680 --> 0:18:12.240 your friend Martin Luther King? James el Ray was a 0:18:12.440 --> 0:18:19.119 pond for the official story. Dr King was not assassinated 0:18:19.600 --> 0:18:38.240 by James el Ray. As Reverend Lawson told us, he 0:18:38.400 --> 0:18:41.639 noticed some strange activity in the Memphis newspapers in the 0:18:41.680 --> 0:18:45.200 week leading up to King's murder, stories attacking King for 0:18:45.280 --> 0:18:48.160 staying at white owned hotels when there was a perfectly 0:18:48.200 --> 0:18:51.800 good black hotel, the Lorraine, that he could have patronized. 0:18:52.720 --> 0:18:57.000 What was this about, Lawson wondered, where was this coming from? 0:18:57.040 --> 0:18:59.120 There were, of course good reasons for King to stay 0:18:59.160 --> 0:19:02.960 at the white hotel, to integrate them, for one, and 0:19:03.000 --> 0:19:06.400 for another, Lawson says, the King's all black security detail 0:19:06.800 --> 0:19:09.960 like hotels such as the Rivermont or the Admiral Benbo 0:19:10.240 --> 0:19:13.679 with interior access to rooms that they could secure and guard, 0:19:14.160 --> 0:19:18.879 instead of motels like the Lorraine, whose rooms were accessed 0:19:18.920 --> 0:19:22.960 by an open exterior walkway. But whether because of the 0:19:23.000 --> 0:19:25.960 attacks in the newspapers or because he just chose to 0:19:26.000 --> 0:19:29.199 be there, King was booked into the Lorraine Motel for 0:19:29.280 --> 0:19:33.000 his final visit to Memphis, but at first he was 0:19:33.040 --> 0:19:35.560 booked into room two O two, which had a ground 0:19:35.560 --> 0:19:39.879 floor entry off an interior alcove, and at the last minute, 0:19:40.119 --> 0:19:43.320 King's room was changed to three oh six, which was 0:19:43.359 --> 0:19:47.920 reached by the exposed walkway. So the question is why 0:19:48.040 --> 0:19:51.439 was King's room changed? The person best able to answer 0:19:51.440 --> 0:19:54.520 that question was Lorraine Bailey, the owner with her husband 0:19:54.680 --> 0:19:58.480 of the Lorraine Motel. According to an account from Bill 0:19:58.520 --> 0:20:01.920 Pepper's book The Plot to Kill King, on April two, 0:20:02.040 --> 0:20:05.040 the day before King arrived in Memphis, she told her 0:20:05.119 --> 0:20:08.040 husband that she had been visited by someone she described 0:20:08.200 --> 0:20:11.960 as an SCLC advanced man, who insisted that King be 0:20:12.200 --> 0:20:15.600 moved to a room overlooking the empty motel swimming pool. 0:20:16.400 --> 0:20:18.480 But as soon as she heard that doctor King had 0:20:18.480 --> 0:20:22.439 been shot, Lorraine Bailey ran to her room screaming, what 0:20:22.560 --> 0:20:26.399 have I done? She then suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and 0:20:26.480 --> 0:20:30.439 never regained consciousness. She died a few days later, and 0:20:30.520 --> 0:20:33.520 the question of who was behind the room changed remained 0:20:33.520 --> 0:20:39.520 a mystery. But this was not the only odd occurrence 0:20:39.600 --> 0:20:42.840 taking place near the murder site. Reverend Lawson mentioned a 0:20:42.880 --> 0:20:46.119 few others like the transfer of the only two black 0:20:46.119 --> 0:20:49.480 firemen assigned a fire station number two, or the two's 0:20:49.680 --> 0:20:53.440 as it was called. The fire station overlooked the motel, 0:20:53.640 --> 0:20:56.320 and a lot would be happening in and around that firehouse, 0:20:57.000 --> 0:21:00.439 and the two firemen, as the story goes, being black, 0:21:00.520 --> 0:21:03.600 were thought to be a risk. But what excuse should 0:21:03.600 --> 0:21:06.760 be used to remove them? According to a witness we 0:21:06.800 --> 0:21:09.680 will hear later, it was decided that the easiest thing 0:21:09.760 --> 0:21:11.280 was to say that a threat had been made on 0:21:11.320 --> 0:21:15.959 their lives? Is that what happened? Well, the fireman can 0:21:16.000 --> 0:21:18.159 tell us in their own words as they respond to 0:21:18.280 --> 0:21:21.760 questions by Attorney Bill Pepper, who represented Coretta Scott King 0:21:21.800 --> 0:21:25.440 and the King family at the civil trial in Memphis. 0:21:26.440 --> 0:21:29.280 First is Norville Wallace, who in thirty seven years of 0:21:29.320 --> 0:21:32.520 service attained the rank of captain, which is why Pepper 0:21:32.560 --> 0:21:38.040 refers to him as chief Fouse. You you were employed 0:21:38.080 --> 0:21:41.760 by the Menda's fire departments, were a number years true 0:21:43.000 --> 0:21:45.920 years from six Moss when she falls? Did you serve 0:21:45.960 --> 0:21:50.680 as the first one day making ses six? I will 0:21:50.640 --> 0:21:56.480 have November where you at any time transferred out of 0:21:56.480 --> 0:22:02.240 that stage? Were transferred out on eight p m. Of 0:22:02.240 --> 0:22:04.560 the night of the killing or the night before the 0:22:04.640 --> 0:22:07.879 night of the pool? And how were you transferred? How 0:22:07.880 --> 0:22:11.439 do you receive your orders to be transferred out without 0:22:11.480 --> 0:22:14.960 receiving from that game? He should add, going be detailed 0:22:14.960 --> 0:22:18.440 for thirty three was at the airport? This was the 0:22:18.560 --> 0:22:22.199 nine of April third. You were told by your captain 0:22:22.280 --> 0:22:26.159 to go out to the airportage in thirty three? She 0:22:26.520 --> 0:22:28.880 was Did you ever ask what this was all about? Yes? 0:22:29.520 --> 0:22:32.359 And then what were you told? Told that head in three? 0:22:33.200 --> 0:22:36.080 And why would you be friend? Was putting out of bires, 0:22:36.119 --> 0:22:39.840 I guess, but there was a thread on your life. 0:22:41.359 --> 0:22:45.600 Say so, the education out of the areas, that's what 0:22:45.680 --> 0:22:49.919 it doesn't get mad here? How many black firemen were 0:22:50.280 --> 0:22:55.840 signed the number two, just you and the lower Boston 0:22:55.920 --> 0:22:59.399 to Obviously we're learning the nine of one of you 0:22:59.480 --> 0:23:06.520 were allowed the right and you never received the satisfactory explanatic. 0:23:09.640 --> 0:23:14.800 Say so, Norville Wallace has transferred out of fire station 0:23:14.920 --> 0:23:18.680 number two to a firehouse out of the airport. He 0:23:18.840 --> 0:23:21.280 is told that the transfer was caused by a threat 0:23:21.320 --> 0:23:24.560 upon his life, and Wallace cannot imagine why anyone would 0:23:24.600 --> 0:23:28.639 wish him harm. So take the explanation that Wallace was 0:23:28.720 --> 0:23:31.359 removed because of a threat to his life. This is 0:23:31.520 --> 0:23:35.640 something real or something made up? Because one might think 0:23:35.720 --> 0:23:38.680 if a real threat had been made, details would be 0:23:38.840 --> 0:23:42.600 provided to the threatened person as a matter of responsible conduct. 0:23:43.359 --> 0:23:46.680 If you were fireman Wallace, what might you want to know? 0:23:47.480 --> 0:23:49.800 How do they know about this threat? Where is it 0:23:49.880 --> 0:23:53.680 coming from? Who more than the threatened party deserves to 0:23:53.760 --> 0:23:58.320 know these details? But no details are given, no explanation 0:23:58.560 --> 0:24:01.840 is offered. In fact, the threat is never mentioned again. 0:24:02.840 --> 0:24:05.959 So does this sound like something real or something made up? 0:24:06.920 --> 0:24:10.080 And as Wallace testified, there was another black fireman at 0:24:10.119 --> 0:24:14.000 the two's, Floyd Newsom, and his story as told from 0:24:14.040 --> 0:24:17.400 the same witness stand, it's quite similar to that, Mr Wallace. 0:24:19.440 --> 0:24:22.320 Where are you on duty on the fourth of April 0:24:22.480 --> 0:24:27.399 nineteen fire station number two at the time of the 0:24:27.440 --> 0:24:30.760 assass today, I was from Judy, but I wasn't the 0:24:31.080 --> 0:24:35.480 number twos. You were not at the number two I 0:24:35.600 --> 0:24:38.119 was supposed to be. You were supposed to be at 0:24:38.119 --> 0:24:41.000 the number dudes. If you were at another dude, you 0:24:41.080 --> 0:24:44.200 tell the jury y you were not the number two. 0:24:45.400 --> 0:24:50.560 I was that day because Abler ThReD not able. The 0:24:50.680 --> 0:24:54.320 third obviously called home from our internet at that times 0:24:54.440 --> 0:24:58.920 the times, who is struck to me? Not your pot? 0:24:59.600 --> 0:25:02.440 Aren't you the number two on our regular duty to 0:25:02.560 --> 0:25:07.520 note the company? But instead they posed two number thirty months. 0:25:08.320 --> 0:25:12.240 That was that am gold and crossing possibly in the 0:25:12.359 --> 0:25:15.960 tent at the time of nine. Did you receive this call? 0:25:17.280 --> 0:25:21.399 After ten? After ten a fucking night, you received the 0:25:21.480 --> 0:25:26.360 call and orders to go to another five? That's right? 0:25:26.880 --> 0:25:30.399 The next step, what was the emergency that caused you 0:25:30.600 --> 0:25:34.040 to be changed? You to be moved to another fire? 0:25:34.119 --> 0:25:41.080 Surely wasted my emergency it was? And when you went 0:25:41.160 --> 0:25:43.879 to that other station in the next stat did you 0:25:43.920 --> 0:25:47.119 find that you were neat? Also, I was not needed 0:25:48.200 --> 0:25:51.600 my leading not company. That's not company after serious and 0:25:51.680 --> 0:25:55.359 that's somebody else's details of my company in my state. 0:25:56.680 --> 0:25:58.680 So you're telling this course that you were surplus to 0:25:58.800 --> 0:26:02.280 requirements where you were said that under man your your 0:26:02.359 --> 0:26:07.760 homecom So there's a video. Ever inquired why you were 0:26:07.800 --> 0:26:18.400 assigned away from your station? Yes? What did you learn? Much? Times? 0:26:21.760 --> 0:26:26.160 I was transferred about waiting on it about a quick 0:26:27.600 --> 0:26:31.480 So finally you gotta answer to your question, and you 0:26:31.560 --> 0:26:35.159 were told that you were transferred at the request of 0:26:35.280 --> 0:26:41.920 the Memphis Colsia before any opinion your own about why 0:26:42.000 --> 0:26:45.560 you were transferred, not really, I just know it was 0:26:46.520 --> 0:26:50.159 very unusually necessary, so it had to be done for 0:26:50.240 --> 0:26:54.239 some reason. I don't know the reason. And as if 0:26:54.280 --> 0:26:56.760 there weren't enough strange things going on at the twos 0:26:56.880 --> 0:27:00.800 that day, there was something else, some thing that Reverend 0:27:00.880 --> 0:27:03.879 Lawson didn't know about, nor did anyone else, because no 0:27:03.960 --> 0:27:07.280 one in the murder investigation had interviewed Carthel Weeden, the 0:27:07.359 --> 0:27:09.920 chief of fire Station number two, about what he saw 0:27:10.080 --> 0:27:14.040 that day. Years later, Weedon would come forward and say 0:27:14.080 --> 0:27:16.520 that the morning of the murder, he was approached by 0:27:16.600 --> 0:27:19.520 two men who flashed army I d and asked to 0:27:19.560 --> 0:27:21.720