WEBVTT - Every Dog For His Own [10] 0:00:00.920 --> 0:00:03.800 Welcome to the MLK Tapes, a production of I Heart 0:00:03.880 --> 0:00:07.640 Radio and Tenderfoot TV. The views and opinions expressed in 0:00:07.680 --> 0:00:10.799 this podcast are solely those of the podcast author or 0:00:10.880 --> 0:00:14.560 individuals participating in the podcast, and do not represent those 0:00:14.600 --> 0:00:19.000 of I Heart Media, Tenderfoot TV, or their employees. Listener 0:00:19.040 --> 0:00:24.520 discretion is advised. I was sitting at Quince and Kirkbry 0:00:24.600 --> 0:00:27.240 waiting on a call. I heard Paul come in on 0:00:27.320 --> 0:00:29.640 the radio and well, I couldn't hear him, but he 0:00:29.720 --> 0:00:32.760 talked to the dispatcher and the dispatcher started repeating with 0:00:32.800 --> 0:00:36.680 Paul said. He said, you mean doctor Martin Luther King 0:00:36.840 --> 0:00:41.360 has been shot, and he said yes, and then he said, well, 0:00:41.400 --> 0:00:44.360 I'll send an ambulance. And he said I don't believe 0:00:44.400 --> 0:00:47.800 an ambulance can help, because he would repeat it back, 0:00:47.880 --> 0:00:50.320 so I knew what he was saying. And he said, well, 0:00:50.320 --> 0:00:54.840 I'll send an ambulance anyhow, and send the police. These 0:00:54.880 --> 0:00:57.680 are the words of cab driver Louis Ward, taken from 0:00:57.680 --> 0:01:00.760 his testimony at the civil trial and de nine and 0:01:00.840 --> 0:01:04.080 rent to us by a voice actor. Ward is repeating 0:01:04.120 --> 0:01:07.679 the words of another taxi driver, no longer living, who 0:01:07.720 --> 0:01:10.840 told him what he saw when Martin Luther King was killed. 0:01:11.640 --> 0:01:13.959 Ward had been in another part of town when he 0:01:13.959 --> 0:01:16.959 heard his dispatcher talking to Car fifty eighth at the 0:01:17.000 --> 0:01:21.120 Lorraine Motel. King had just been shot. An ambulance was 0:01:21.200 --> 0:01:25.440 being sent. Ward then heard the dispatcher tell the cabby 0:01:25.480 --> 0:01:28.040 to take his fare to the airport and that he 0:01:28.040 --> 0:01:30.320 would call the police and tell them what the driver 0:01:30.440 --> 0:01:34.160 had seen, something about the man who shot King running 0:01:34.240 --> 0:01:37.440 up the street. Ward wasn't sure that he had heard 0:01:37.440 --> 0:01:39.959 it right. The man who shot King was running up 0:01:39.959 --> 0:01:43.720 the street. On impulse, Ward drove to the airport, where 0:01:43.720 --> 0:01:46.080 he found the driver of Car fifty eight, who told 0:01:46.080 --> 0:01:49.600 Ward and two other cabbies what he had seen. Ward 0:01:49.640 --> 0:01:52.600 would never see that driver again. And when he found 0:01:52.640 --> 0:01:54.840 out what happened to him the very night the King 0:01:54.920 --> 0:01:58.360 himself was killed, Louis Ward began to fear for himself 0:01:58.720 --> 0:02:02.160 and his family. So for twenty five years he kept 0:02:02.160 --> 0:02:05.639 what he knew to himself. Then, when the kids were grown, 0:02:05.960 --> 0:02:12.080 he decided to come forward. I called the Union Hall. 0:02:12.440 --> 0:02:15.200 I said, this a matter of life and death. I said, 0:02:15.320 --> 0:02:18.000 I thank these people are planning to kill doctor King. 0:02:19.080 --> 0:02:22.560 The authorities were parade. Oh, we found a gun the 0:02:22.680 --> 0:02:26.760 James Old raybought in Birmingham that killed Dr King, except 0:02:27.360 --> 0:02:31.560 it wasn't the gun that killed Dr King. James Lvey 0:02:31.880 --> 0:02:37.079 was upon for the official story from My Heart radio 0:02:37.120 --> 0:02:41.920 intender for TV. The plan was to get King to 0:02:42.080 --> 0:02:45.320 the city because they wanted it handled in Memphis. Were 0:02:45.400 --> 0:02:48.120 dead and in cold handle it and I've lived with 0:02:48.240 --> 0:02:51.960 us along my Siri, and they scared for me. The 0:02:52.080 --> 0:02:55.200 Lord told me to not the word. I've been wanting 0:02:55.200 --> 0:02:58.840 to tell it all my life. I'm Bill Claiburg and 0:02:58.960 --> 0:03:11.480 this is the MLK tapes. When Martin Luther King was killed. 0:03:11.560 --> 0:03:15.240 Louis ward was forty one, married with three children. He 0:03:15.280 --> 0:03:17.760 had been a federal security guard at a local army 0:03:17.800 --> 0:03:21.280 depot for twenty years. He drove a cab part time 0:03:21.639 --> 0:03:24.360 and was driving the ninth King was shot when he 0:03:24.400 --> 0:03:27.959 decided to come forward some twenty five years later. Ward 0:03:28.040 --> 0:03:30.920 first went to the police, then to the Attorney General, 0:03:31.400 --> 0:03:34.040 but they were not interested in what he had to say. 0:03:34.480 --> 0:03:37.360 Then he found Bill Pepper, who sat him down and 0:03:37.400 --> 0:03:41.080 turned on the tape recorder the home of Mr Lewis 0:03:41.080 --> 0:03:46.480 ward Cardigan Drive. Mr Warden was a taxi driver for 0:03:46.720 --> 0:03:51.600 a Yellow can back in and on the evening of 0:03:51.640 --> 0:03:56.240 the killing, he was driving and he was parked. Then 0:03:56.240 --> 0:03:59.880 he heard a report come over the radio to the dispatcher. 0:04:00.440 --> 0:04:03.600 Report was from a driver of cab number fifty, whose 0:04:03.720 --> 0:04:07.440 name he does not recall. At this time, Ward would 0:04:07.440 --> 0:04:09.480 tell Pepper how it was that he heard about the 0:04:09.560 --> 0:04:11.800 killing over the radio, and how we went to the 0:04:11.800 --> 0:04:14.960 airport to meet with the driver of cart eight. He said, 0:04:15.000 --> 0:04:17.520 the man told him and the other Caveys that he 0:04:17.560 --> 0:04:20.080 had been at the rain picking up a fair a 0:04:20.240 --> 0:04:23.080 black man with a lot of luggage. Then he said 0:04:23.120 --> 0:04:26.799 something that's stuck in Ward's mind. He laved the past 0:04:26.880 --> 0:04:29.120 and he picked up He knew what was going on. 0:04:30.360 --> 0:04:33.440 The passenger knew what was going on. What made him 0:04:33.440 --> 0:04:37.240 think that? It went like this? As the driver was 0:04:37.279 --> 0:04:39.839 putting the last bag in the cab, he was looking 0:04:39.880 --> 0:04:42.440 in the direction of the brush covered yard facing the motel, 0:04:43.120 --> 0:04:46.000 But the passenger seemed to want to divert his attention 0:04:46.920 --> 0:04:55.240 that was looking at direct out Momolity. His upervisor at 0:04:55.360 --> 0:04:57.920 so and he said, when you don't hear to see 0:04:58.880 --> 0:05:01.720 so the passenger told the cabby to look the other way, 0:05:02.040 --> 0:05:04.479 just in time to see the bullet explode. On Dr 0:05:04.600 --> 0:05:08.200 King's face. The driver said he immediately turned back and 0:05:08.240 --> 0:05:10.960 saw a puff of smoke rising from the yard. Then 0:05:11.000 --> 0:05:13.159 a man appeared out of the bushes, and though we 0:05:13.200 --> 0:05:15.760 had no rifle, the way he was moving made the 0:05:15.839 --> 0:05:18.680 driver feel that he was the one who had fired 0:05:18.680 --> 0:05:24.160 the shot. Is how he lived as a clerks, and 0:05:25.839 --> 0:05:32.359 he didn't have a rappers here. According to the driver, 0:05:32.560 --> 0:05:35.320 As related by Louis Ward, the man who came out 0:05:35.320 --> 0:05:37.719 of the bushes jumped down off the wall not far 0:05:37.760 --> 0:05:40.279 from where the cab was, and ran up the street 0:05:40.320 --> 0:05:43.279 toward a police car a block or so away. The 0:05:43.400 --> 0:05:46.000 driver said he immediately reported what he had seen to 0:05:46.040 --> 0:05:48.919 his dispatcher. He first said to tell the police the 0:05:48.920 --> 0:05:51.479 man was running north, but then the man seemed to 0:05:51.520 --> 0:05:54.720 disappear into the police car, which then burned rubber as 0:05:54.760 --> 0:05:58.320 it sped away, making so much noise that the dispatcher 0:05:58.360 --> 0:06:04.359 said he could hear it over the rate EO. So 0:06:04.480 --> 0:06:06.960 Ward went to the airport and heard the driver of 0:06:07.000 --> 0:06:09.599 Car fifty eight tell him and a couple of other 0:06:09.680 --> 0:06:12.440 cabbies what he had seen when King was shot. But 0:06:12.560 --> 0:06:15.200 Ward wasn't the only one who came to the airport 0:06:15.440 --> 0:06:22.039 for that story. I'm sart harder with the living. They 0:06:22.040 --> 0:06:28.240 won't drive them out Californation litter. Hey Ward and the 0:06:28.320 --> 0:06:30.840 others stepped away, but they were close enough to hear 0:06:30.880 --> 0:06:33.560 what was being said, and the driver told the police 0:06:33.600 --> 0:06:36.120 the same story that he had told them a few 0:06:36.160 --> 0:06:45.800 minutes before. The Sards serves ca right lietenant hope to 0:06:45.880 --> 0:06:52.040 report down and they got start repower. After the police left, 0:06:52.279 --> 0:06:55.240 the dispatcher called the driver of car fifty eight and 0:06:55.360 --> 0:06:57.440 said that he was wanted down at the cab garage. 0:06:57.960 --> 0:07:01.400 So the driver went back a little later, Louis Ward 0:07:01.400 --> 0:07:03.880 took a fair to town and drove by the garage. 0:07:04.800 --> 0:07:08.240 They were sea clay covers, damn and I they were 0:07:08.360 --> 0:07:12.000 you know, paying similarly Poward. Because of the unrest now 0:07:12.080 --> 0:07:15.760 in Memphis, Ward's security work increased and it was days 0:07:15.840 --> 0:07:19.120 before he returned to drive a cab. Well, I wouldn't 0:07:19.160 --> 0:07:26.000 all my first amc workfar standing the rail and this 0:07:26.520 --> 0:07:29.640 head when they help would mean I don what we 0:07:29.720 --> 0:07:31.520 just want to call it said that that would have 0:07:31.600 --> 0:07:36.760 a high speed in art because the list well you 0:07:36.800 --> 0:07:41.200 know I read about it. Yeah, I would page space 0:07:41.640 --> 0:07:46.960 and you ever done a play in the paper? Mm 0:07:48.360 --> 0:07:50.440 the fact that the driver of Car fifty eight was 0:07:50.480 --> 0:07:52.720 said to have been murdered and that nothing had been 0:07:52.720 --> 0:07:55.880 said about it in the newspapers put fear into Louis Ward. 0:07:56.560 --> 0:07:59.160 With a family to protect, Ward felt the best thing 0:07:59.360 --> 0:08:02.280 would be the up and keep quiet, and that's what 0:08:02.400 --> 0:08:05.840 he did for twenty five years. But when he did 0:08:05.960 --> 0:08:08.320 come forward and finally found someone who would listen to him, 0:08:08.360 --> 0:08:10.920 in the person of Bill Pepper, he could no longer 0:08:11.000 --> 0:08:14.520 remember the name of the murdered cab driver, and Pepper 0:08:14.600 --> 0:08:19.400 knew this detail was important. Mr Ward, Can you describe 0:08:19.480 --> 0:08:22.400 this man? How old was he? And you don't recall 0:08:22.520 --> 0:08:25.880 his name? Do you? I was about forty one forty two, 0:08:25.960 --> 0:08:29.840 let's say, but he was probably about six. I knew 0:08:29.880 --> 0:08:34.120 his name with that tim but I had my best 0:08:34.160 --> 0:08:37.640 today and I cannot get that name to say. You 0:08:37.720 --> 0:08:41.520 might laugh, but the identity of the driver is key. 0:08:42.160 --> 0:08:44.520 So towards the end of the interview, Bill Pepper comes 0:08:44.600 --> 0:08:50.480 forward with an interesting idea hypnosis. The ability to bring 0:08:50.559 --> 0:08:52.839 back the name of the of the driver would be 0:08:53.000 --> 0:08:55.640 very helpful if I could be done. How would you 0:08:55.800 --> 0:09:00.760 feel about undergoing hypnosis for the purpose of taking you back? 0:09:01.640 --> 0:09:05.040 I'm putting you face to face with this man to 0:09:05.120 --> 0:09:09.520 see if you could remember his name. Ward wasn't exactly eager, 0:09:09.760 --> 0:09:12.400 but he did agree to the hypnosis, and that session 0:09:12.480 --> 0:09:15.599 took place a few weeks later. The audio quality of 0:09:15.679 --> 0:09:17.880 that tape is awful, so I'll do my best to 0:09:17.920 --> 0:09:23.400 tell you about it. Will see it and see yourself 0:09:24.080 --> 0:09:29.640 highly will of the cat hips yourself. The hypnotist Dr 0:09:29.760 --> 0:09:32.800 Joseph Cassius begins a session in a way we've all 0:09:32.840 --> 0:09:35.760 seen in the movies. I'm going to take you back 0:09:35.840 --> 0:09:39.439 in time, Louis in an imaginary taxi. I'm going to 0:09:39.559 --> 0:09:42.680 take you through a tunnel of time. The more relaxed 0:09:42.720 --> 0:09:45.320 you are, the more it will come to you, bit 0:09:45.400 --> 0:09:50.320 by bit, piece by piece, more and more and more. 0:09:52.040 --> 0:09:55.400 Ward apparently goes into a light trance, but little in 0:09:55.440 --> 0:09:58.880 the way of new memories appear. The obvious problem is 0:09:58.960 --> 0:10:01.200 that War didn't witness the shooting. He was only told 0:10:01.200 --> 0:10:03.760 about it, so it's not as though hypnosis could help 0:10:03.840 --> 0:10:08.000 him remember something he had forgotten. Even so, success was 0:10:08.080 --> 0:10:10.480 still in reach if Ward could remember the name of 0:10:10.520 --> 0:10:14.080 the driver, who Ward now thought may have been called Paul. 0:10:14.840 --> 0:10:18.760 Doctor Cassius does his best. More and more will come 0:10:18.840 --> 0:10:23.079 to you better and better. Each time, the last name 0:10:23.080 --> 0:10:27.959 will come to you. Paul's last name will come to you. Now, 0:10:28.360 --> 0:10:33.840 as Paul's last name comes to you, a name finally 0:10:33.880 --> 0:10:37.160 comes to Louis Ward, a last name to go with Paul. 0:10:38.160 --> 0:10:42.120 It was Harvey. Dr Cassius decides to try it out. 0:10:43.280 --> 0:10:51.319 Harvey Harvey, Paul Harvey, Yes, Paul Harvey. Neither man made 0:10:51.360 --> 0:10:54.480 the connection at that moment. But in the nineteen sixties, 0:10:54.760 --> 0:10:58.959 Paul Harvey was a ubiquitous ABC radio journalist with his 0:10:59.080 --> 0:11:03.360 own self and manner of speaking. People loved him. If 0:11:03.400 --> 0:11:05.880 you drove your car anywhere, you'd hear him on the radio, 0:11:06.400 --> 0:11:09.680 and he would end each broadcast in his own stylized way. 0:11:10.520 --> 0:11:14.000 You know, just a little fitty crack and Mrs Backerman's 0:11:14.080 --> 0:11:16.960 driveway in Kennis On, Nebraska, I mean a teensy crack. 0:11:17.080 --> 0:11:18.880 You couldn't push your pencil through it. And yet out 0:11:18.920 --> 0:11:21.679 of that crack two watermelon vines are growing, and they 0:11:21.800 --> 0:11:25.240 produced seven big watermelons. She still can drive around them, 0:11:25.280 --> 0:11:28.079 but she'd no longer get in the garage door. One 0:11:28.120 --> 0:11:31.960 thing more, today's bumper sneaker. This was seen by Marshall 0:11:32.000 --> 0:11:34.760 Miller in Stone Mountain, Georgia. It says vote yes on 0:11:34.920 --> 0:11:41.760 preparation H Paul Harvey good Day. So Hypnosis offered up 0:11:41.800 --> 0:11:45.320 a former well known radio personality as the possible driver 0:11:45.480 --> 0:11:48.559 of car fifty eight, not the result they were hoping for. 0:11:49.520 --> 0:11:51.760 Pepper then tried to find people who were drivers at 0:11:51.840 --> 0:11:54.240 Yellow Cab when King was killed to see if they 0:11:54.280 --> 0:11:57.840 would know, But no one he found wanted to talk 0:11:57.880 --> 0:12:01.480 about it, and more strange, no one could remember who 0:12:01.600 --> 0:12:05.319 the dispatcher was that night. But Ward clearly remembered the 0:12:05.360 --> 0:12:08.440 police taking a statement at the airport, so Pepper went 0:12:08.559 --> 0:12:12.920 looking for it. We couldn't find them, as I recall, Oh, 0:12:13.040 --> 0:12:17.920 we didn't find any record of any police interrogation or 0:12:18.000 --> 0:12:21.719 any police interview. And that's where things stood for a 0:12:21.800 --> 0:12:24.839 few years. It was like Louis Ward had dreamed the 0:12:24.880 --> 0:12:29.840 whole thing. But then in Bill Pepper got some information 0:12:29.960 --> 0:12:32.199 that the man they were looking for might be a 0:12:32.280 --> 0:12:35.640 fellow named Paul Butler. The name rang a bell in 0:12:35.720 --> 0:12:38.640 Ward's head, and he felt that this was probably the 0:12:38.679 --> 0:12:42.320 guy's name, and the pieces seemed to fit. Butler did 0:12:42.440 --> 0:12:45.319 drive for Yellow Cab. He was in his sixties back then, 0:12:45.720 --> 0:12:48.760 and he seemed to have disappeared around nineteen sixty eight. 0:12:49.559 --> 0:12:52.439 So when Ward took the witness stand in late nine nine, 0:12:52.520 --> 0:12:55.400 at age seventy one, he told his story publicly for 0:12:55.480 --> 0:12:57.960 the first time and gave the name of the driver 0:12:58.120 --> 0:13:01.880 of Car fifty eight as Paul Butler. Within a matter 0:13:01.960 --> 0:13:04.600 of months, there was an official response to Louis Ward's 0:13:04.600 --> 0:13:08.080 shocking story. It came in the Department of Justice Report 0:13:08.280 --> 0:13:11.680 of the year two thousand, sometimes known as the Renal Report, 0:13:12.160 --> 0:13:14.840 which said that Paul Butler died in August of nineteen 0:13:14.880 --> 0:13:18.160 sixty seven, a full eight months before Martin Luther King 0:13:18.240 --> 0:13:22.360 was murdered. That would seem to be conclusive. Butler couldn't 0:13:22.400 --> 0:13:24.920 possibly tell Ward about the murder of King if he 0:13:25.040 --> 0:13:34.680 was already dead. So what happened here was the Paul 0:13:34.720 --> 0:13:39.160 Butler name a simple mistake or disinformation? Has someone monkeyed 0:13:39.160 --> 0:13:42.160 around with the death records? I had seen such things 0:13:42.280 --> 0:13:44.200 and worse in the L A. P d S totally 0:13:44.360 --> 0:13:48.400 corrupt RFK murder investigation, so I don't rule it out. 0:13:49.040 --> 0:13:52.400 But false death records in this instance seem unlikely to me. 0:13:53.320 --> 0:13:56.880 So let's accept that Paul Butler died in nineteen sixty seven. 0:13:57.559 --> 0:14:00.400 Does that solve the puzzle. I don't think it does, 0:14:01.320 --> 0:14:03.480 because in order for that fact to make keV fifty 0:14:03.520 --> 0:14:06.679 eight dissolve into the mist, Louis Ward's account would have 0:14:06.760 --> 0:14:10.160 to be a fabrication, a lie, and a very big one. 0:14:10.840 --> 0:14:12.920 And I don't think it is a lie because everything 0:14:12.960 --> 0:14:16.600 about Ward and his story rings true. And Ward first 0:14:16.679 --> 0:14:19.160 approached the police and then the a G before he 0:14:19.240 --> 0:14:22.400 ever went to Bill Pepper. And there is no conceivable 0:14:22.480 --> 0:14:25.160 reason for him to come forward at this point in 0:14:25.280 --> 0:14:28.760 his life and invent a detailed, an elaborate lie about 0:14:28.760 --> 0:14:32.520 the murder of Dr. King. And if Ward's story is true, 0:14:33.080 --> 0:14:37.360 it doesn't matter what the driver's name was. Another put 0:14:37.440 --> 0:14:40.040 down of Ward was that he really isn't a witness, 0:14:40.360 --> 0:14:44.880 just someone passing along some unsubstantiated hearsay. And that might 0:14:44.920 --> 0:14:48.640 be partly true. But within an hour of King being shot, 0:14:49.120 --> 0:14:52.720 Louis Ward became an eye witness because he was out 0:14:52.800 --> 0:14:55.760 at the airport when the police showed up. The lieutenant 0:14:55.840 --> 0:14:58.600 wrote the report down, says Ward. Yet there is no 0:14:58.800 --> 0:15:01.920 such report in the police files. Of course, if such 0:15:01.960 --> 0:15:04.760 a report were preserved, the police would have some explaining 0:15:04.800 --> 0:15:07.960 to do. Who was the running man, who was driving 0:15:08.040 --> 0:15:10.480 the police car that took him away, and why were 0:15:10.520 --> 0:15:12.480 they so desperate to leave the scene of a crime. 0:15:14.320 --> 0:15:18.040 As far as Ward's story being unsubstantiated, that would cease 0:15:18.080 --> 0:15:21.280 to be the case fifteen years later, when another person 0:15:21.360 --> 0:15:24.520 would come forward, now forty years after King's death, with 0:15:24.640 --> 0:15:27.680 a very detailed eyewitness account of the murder of Dr King, 0:15:28.240 --> 0:15:31.160 an account that supports the things reported by Louis Ward, 0:15:31.600 --> 0:15:35.120 including a positive idea of the man who jumped the 0:15:35.160 --> 0:15:56.720 wall and ran up the street cranks back up my 0:15:56.800 --> 0:15:59.200 old ass up somewhere Avenue, hit Parkway, come all the 0:15:59.240 --> 0:16:02.000 way up, turn, come down, cooled in between the damn 0:16:02.080 --> 0:16:05.760 boards up there, the billboards and the mill boards. I said, 0:16:05.800 --> 0:16:07.840 I sold it. I turned well, all right. One side 0:16:07.920 --> 0:16:12.800 is a parking well, all parks something there anywhere, I guess. So, 0:16:13.120 --> 0:16:16.240 So where did you meet Junior? He was standing in 0:16:16.560 --> 0:16:21.800 buying a poster board. Okay, so was Jars. Showers was 0:16:21.880 --> 0:16:25.080 out there at that point as well. In two thousand 0:16:25.160 --> 0:16:29.360 and nine, some forty years after the fact, Ronnie Lee Atkins, 0:16:29.480 --> 0:16:32.560 who we've already met in episode seven, came up from 0:16:32.640 --> 0:16:35.800 Texas with his lawyer, Stephen Tolin, and gave a seven 0:16:35.920 --> 0:16:39.680 hour deposition regarding his family's involvement in the murder of 0:16:39.760 --> 0:16:43.720 Martin Luther King. At the time King was shot, Atkins 0:16:43.880 --> 0:16:47.080 was sixteen and on a motorcycle out on Mulberry Street 0:16:47.160 --> 0:16:52.280 near the Lorraine. In his deposition, Atkins often refers to Junior, 0:16:52.720 --> 0:16:55.440 who was his half brother and twenty years his senior, 0:16:56.000 --> 0:16:59.520 and who, according to Ronnie Lee, replaced his father upon 0:16:59.640 --> 0:17:02.440 his dead in a leadership role in the plot to 0:17:02.520 --> 0:17:06.800 kill King. The person asking the questions here is Bill Pepper. 0:17:08.280 --> 0:17:10.080 Then what did you do? I did what he told 0:17:10.160 --> 0:17:13.159 me to do, which was right around. You told me 0:17:13.200 --> 0:17:15.119 to ride around down there. If I saw anything that 0:17:15.240 --> 0:17:17.479 was out of order that I knew it was crooked, 0:17:17.640 --> 0:17:20.080 get up there and let him know. I told him why. Okay, 0:17:20.320 --> 0:17:22.640 So you went down to Mulbury Man. I was all 0:17:22.680 --> 0:17:25.000 over the place down there. I went to Union Station. Uh, 0:17:25.680 --> 0:17:29.320 I've seen Holly. Holly was going up on the station. Uh. 0:17:29.800 --> 0:17:33.280 I went around and checked and was checking on Chess. 0:17:33.560 --> 0:17:37.680 Chess wasn't in his spot. According to Atkins, the plot 0:17:37.760 --> 0:17:41.240 to kill King had several alternate scenarios. If the attempt 0:17:41.280 --> 0:17:43.440 to shoot him on the balcony did not come off, 0:17:43.520 --> 0:17:47.159 his planned if Solomon was driving like he was supposed to, 0:17:47.800 --> 0:17:51.159 he was gonna put King up front on the passenger side. 0:17:51.600 --> 0:17:54.400 That would give Holly a straight shot all the way 0:17:54.440 --> 0:17:56.800 down that street. And there was no way for him 0:17:56.840 --> 0:17:59.560 to turn and come up name because the police blocked 0:17:59.600 --> 0:18:03.080 that all where the fire station was just passed there 0:18:03.359 --> 0:18:05.280 before you got to that corner. You're saying the police 0:18:05.320 --> 0:18:08.240 would have been there to any of They was already there. 0:18:09.200 --> 0:18:12.040 And if King was only wounded by the shot, there 0:18:12.119 --> 0:18:14.840 was something else in the works. There was a man 0:18:15.640 --> 0:18:19.240 that was a sign to get the King before anybody 0:18:19.280 --> 0:18:21.720 could run up from anywhere to get the King and 0:18:21.960 --> 0:18:24.960 make sure he was dead. It was already arranged that 0:18:25.119 --> 0:18:28.320 he was to go to Saint Joseph's Hospital down the street. 0:18:28.680 --> 0:18:31.160 He never was gonna make it out of that emergency 0:18:31.280 --> 0:18:35.879 room alive. Bill Pepper then asked Atkins to describe the 0:18:35.960 --> 0:18:40.920 things he saw when King was shot. I was leaning 0:18:40.960 --> 0:18:43.760 back against the body when I heard the shot, when 0:18:43.760 --> 0:18:45.679 I saw him get hit, and when I saw him 0:18:45.760 --> 0:18:48.240 go down. Now, I'm no doctor, but there was no 0:18:48.400 --> 0:18:50.320 question to me that the man was hit hard. I 0:18:50.400 --> 0:18:54.520 mean he was hit hard. So I see the man 0:18:54.680 --> 0:18:57.119 jump over the edge of where the trees met the 0:18:57.240 --> 0:19:01.320 rim and start side of ways across of those immediately 0:19:01.400 --> 0:19:04.280 turned around and go that direction. So I didn't have 0:19:04.440 --> 0:19:06.440 to worry about. What I'm trying to tell you is 0:19:06.840 --> 0:19:09.120 I didn't have to worry about anybody coming out through here, 0:19:09.119 --> 0:19:11.119 and I didn't have to worry about Holly's job. It 0:19:11.240 --> 0:19:13.359 was like once the shot went off, it was every 0:19:13.480 --> 0:19:16.240 dog for his own. Did you know that a man 0:19:16.400 --> 0:19:18.440 was going to come down over the wall. I didn't 0:19:18.480 --> 0:19:19.920 know that he was going to run out there there, 0:19:20.040 --> 0:19:23.040 like nos, I really didn't. Did you recognize him at 0:19:23.080 --> 0:19:26.639 the time? Uh? Who was he? It was Earl Clark? 0:19:26.840 --> 0:19:31.560 So you recognize Earl Clark getting down and running north 0:19:31.680 --> 0:19:35.400 on Mulberry. Yes, he ran the way, he ran Ketty Corner. 0:19:35.680 --> 0:19:40.760 He was running northeast. Yeah, he was running across. Cab 0:19:40.880 --> 0:19:44.080 driver was there, had the doors open, had to back up. 0:19:44.280 --> 0:19:45.920 There was a black guy there with a ship, little 0:19:45.960 --> 0:19:48.960 bags trying to get in there. Everybody's running and come 0:19:49.000 --> 0:19:52.080 and screaming and ship and guy's going up the stairs. 0:19:52.280 --> 0:19:57.440 And uh noticed the guy that Junior and Holloman was 0:19:57.520 --> 0:20:01.440 talking to the day before, the black guy that ended 0:20:01.560 --> 0:20:03.720 up checking to make sure that King was dey at 0:20:03.800 --> 0:20:08.040 doc anythinking what that guy's lame was around McCullough. Yeah, McCullough, 0:20:08.080 --> 0:20:10.320 I guess that's him. But he was a fad anyway, 0:20:10.440 --> 0:20:14.920 so they was. He was one of Holloman's guys. When 0:20:15.040 --> 0:20:18.040 King went down, Merrill McCullough was in the parking lot below, 0:20:18.600 --> 0:20:20.800 but in a flash, he ran up the stairs and 0:20:20.960 --> 0:20:23.480 was the first to reach Dr. King. He is the 0:20:23.520 --> 0:20:26.560 man leaning over King in the iconic photo of people 0:20:26.640 --> 0:20:30.360 pointing on the balcony. There is no dispute that McCullough 0:20:30.400 --> 0:20:32.959 was a federal agent on loan to the Memphis Police 0:20:33.359 --> 0:20:37.600 who had successfully infiltrated the invaders, the Memphis Black Radical Group. 0:20:38.400 --> 0:20:40.960 As we heard from Ronnie Leatkins. There are some who 0:20:41.040 --> 0:20:44.359 believe that it was McCullough's job to ascertain if King 0:20:44.440 --> 0:20:49.120 had been fatally wounded, but McCullough, while acknowledging his undercover role, 0:20:49.720 --> 0:20:52.000 has always denied that he had anything to do with 0:20:52.119 --> 0:20:58.639 the assassination. But leaving McCullough aside, what Ronnie Lee Atkins 0:20:58.640 --> 0:21:01.040 saw on the other side of mole Bray Street may 0:21:01.119 --> 0:21:04.000 had more bearing on the case, because he saw a 0:21:04.119 --> 0:21:07.000 man jump off the wall run up the road and 0:21:07.119 --> 0:21:09.720 hop into a car that sped away, just like what 0:21:09.840 --> 0:21:12.960 the cab driver had reported to Louis Ward. The only 0:21:13.040 --> 0:21:16.440 important difference between the two accounts is that Atkins not 0:21:16.560 --> 0:21:19.040 only saw the man come over the wall, he knew 0:21:19.040 --> 0:21:22.840 who he was. It was Captain or Clark, and Atkins 0:21:22.920 --> 0:21:25.080 got a good look at him because he almost caught 0:21:25.160 --> 0:21:28.480 up with Clark on his motorbike. When I got behind 0:21:28.600 --> 0:21:30.560 him and got to the corner, he had done gotten 0:21:30.560 --> 0:21:32.320 that Chevrolet and he was there was a cop car 0:21:32.400 --> 0:21:33.760 in front of him, and pulled off and went to 0:21:33.840 --> 0:21:35.680 the corner internal leup. They pulled off, went to the 0:21:35.720 --> 0:21:38.320 corner internal leup. I will pull in behind them and 0:21:38.440 --> 0:21:41.960 went to this building right here. Pepper had suspected that 0:21:42.080 --> 0:21:44.120 Captain Clark was one of the people in the brush 0:21:44.200 --> 0:21:47.639 covered yard facing the Lorraine, so he was not surprised 0:21:47.680 --> 0:21:50.800 by this report, But he also felt strongly that there 0:21:50.920 --> 0:21:54.200 was a third person there. In fact, he had someone 0:21:54.280 --> 0:21:57.400 in mind. But now there was a person who could 0:21:57.400 --> 0:22:00.520 solve this mystery once and for all. So Pepper asked 0:22:00.560 --> 0:22:03.440 the question, all right, and and who was the guy 0:22:03.480 --> 0:22:05.720 in the pushes? So who was the third shooter? My 0:22:05.880 --> 0:22:10.760 brother Russell m He he took it on himself. I 0:22:10.920 --> 0:22:13.399 believe so. He tells you that he was the one 0:22:13.440 --> 0:22:17.560 who did the shooting straight up. Yeah, he told me 0:22:17.680 --> 0:22:20.520 popped you know, I mean if he popped me, popped him. 0:22:20.520 --> 0:22:23.240 It was three guys out there were Lauel Clark, my brother, 0:22:23.359 --> 0:22:25.840 and and no old man. And no man didn't have 0:22:25.960 --> 0:22:28.200 guts to do it, and I don't think they trusted 0:22:28.280 --> 0:22:30.440 him to do it. He is to shake in ship. 0:22:31.480 --> 0:22:33.760 According to Apkins, the three men out in the yard 0:22:33.840 --> 0:22:37.040 behind the grille where the old man who was Lloyd Owers, 0:22:37.560 --> 0:22:41.080 Captain Earl Clark, who ours had already placed there, and 0:22:41.200 --> 0:22:45.600 Atkins brother Russell Jr. Which is new and surprising information 0:22:45.680 --> 0:22:50.119 to Bill Pepper, who keeps asking questions What did he 0:22:50.200 --> 0:22:53.080 do with the gun? Where did he go? He handed 0:22:53.119 --> 0:22:54.399 the gun to Earle and he went and got in 0:22:54.440 --> 0:22:56.480 the car and he left through the where the two 0:22:56.960 --> 0:23:00.199 billboards at turn Ryant got a must I took uh. 0:23:01.520 --> 0:23:04.440 Earl handed the gun the old man, old man, and 0:23:04.520 --> 0:23:07.520 carried it inside. Earl jumped the wall and took out. 0:23:07.680 --> 0:23:10.160 I took out behind Earl. We all went under the quanta. 0:23:10.560 --> 0:23:13.360 Earl gave the gun to Chowers, Yes he did. Jowers 0:23:13.440 --> 0:23:17.200 took it inside apparently, So what happened to that taxi driver? 0:23:17.760 --> 0:23:21.040 The taxi driver I was told was killed on either 0:23:21.119 --> 0:23:24.080 how one or how Away fifty five by Chess Butler. 0:23:24.880 --> 0:23:27.320 How do you know Chess Butler did that? Well, I 0:23:27.400 --> 0:23:29.320 heard Chess how you killed him? But that was in 0:23:29.440 --> 0:23:31.640 Chest's house when he was telling the Mildred, my mother 0:23:31.800 --> 0:23:33.480 that he took care of you in the house at 0:23:33.520 --> 0:23:35.800 the time he was I was in the bedroom, was 0:23:35.960 --> 0:23:38.159 sitting on the end of the bed. Linda Butler was 0:23:38.200 --> 0:23:39.720 sitting on the left side of the bed. I was 0:23:39.720 --> 0:23:41.440 sitting in the middle of Danny Butler sitting on the 0:23:41.560 --> 0:23:43.600