WEBVTT - Death of a King [1] 0:00:04.600 --> 0:00:07.480 Welcome to the MLK Tapes, a production of I Heart 0:00:07.560 --> 0:00:11.280 Radio and Tenderfoot TV. The views and opinions expressed in 0:00:11.320 --> 0:00:14.480 this podcast are solely those of the podcast author or 0:00:14.520 --> 0:00:18.200 individuals participating in the podcast, and do not represent those 0:00:18.239 --> 0:00:22.680 of I Heart Media, Tenderfoot TV, or their employees. Listener 0:00:22.720 --> 0:00:28.680 discretion is advised. In August of nine sixty three, Dr 0:00:28.720 --> 0:00:31.280 Martin Luther King spoke from the steps of the Lincoln 0:00:31.360 --> 0:00:34.040 Memorial to a crowd of more than two hundred and 0:00:34.040 --> 0:00:40.199 fifty thousand in Washington, d C. So even though we 0:00:40.400 --> 0:00:46.360 faced the difficulties up today and tomorrow, I still have 0:00:46.520 --> 0:00:51.000 a dream. His iconic I have a Dream speech is 0:00:51.080 --> 0:00:53.960 one of the most famous speeches in history, and one 0:00:54.080 --> 0:00:58.520 you're probably familiar with. Nearly six decades later, a few 0:00:58.600 --> 0:01:01.600 hand pick sentences from that speech have come to define 0:01:01.680 --> 0:01:05.240 him in the popular mind. But King was not afraid 0:01:05.400 --> 0:01:09.360 to travel more dangerous roads. Four years later, at Riverside 0:01:09.400 --> 0:01:11.920 Church in New York, Martin Luther King would give a 0:01:11.959 --> 0:01:14.480 speech that wasn't about the fight for civil rights in America. 0:01:15.080 --> 0:01:18.480 It was about the horrific war in Vietnam, and it 0:01:18.520 --> 0:01:22.160 may have cost him his life. This business of burning 0:01:22.240 --> 0:01:26.240 human beings with napalm. Sending men home from dark and 0:01:26.280 --> 0:01:32.319 bloody battle fields, physically handicapped and psychologically derain cannot be 0:01:32.560 --> 0:01:38.280 reconciled with wisdom, justice and love. King's speech that night 0:01:38.280 --> 0:01:41.200 shook the country. Many thought he had crossed a line 0:01:41.200 --> 0:01:44.360 by speaking against the war he was supposed to stick 0:01:44.400 --> 0:01:49.160 to civil rights. Life magazine called a speech demogogic slander 0:01:49.200 --> 0:01:52.720 that sounded like a script for Radio Hanoi, referring to 0:01:52.720 --> 0:01:57.000 the radio station in communist North Vietnam, and for some, 0:01:57.400 --> 0:02:01.120 King's speech was an act of treason. A year later, 0:02:01.360 --> 0:02:05.240 to the day, Martin Luther King, just thirty nine years old, 0:02:05.840 --> 0:02:13.720 would be dead. My name is Bill claybour On, an 0:02:13.720 --> 0:02:17.400 author and researcher, and most recently co creator of the 0:02:17.560 --> 0:02:21.600 RFK Tapes, a podcast about the assassination of Robert Kennedy. 0:02:22.639 --> 0:02:24.880 I was in law school when doctor King was shot. 0:02:25.600 --> 0:02:28.400 My first thought was that hidden forces, perhaps in our 0:02:28.400 --> 0:02:32.080 own government, were likely behind the murder. But then a 0:02:32.120 --> 0:02:36.000 man named James Earl Ray was arrested. He pled guilty 0:02:36.040 --> 0:02:38.160 to the crime and spent the rest of his life 0:02:38.160 --> 0:02:41.400 in prison. He was a lone gunman, we were told, 0:02:41.720 --> 0:02:45.120 brought to murder by racial hatred, and that spent the 0:02:45.160 --> 0:02:49.840 official narrative for over fifty years. It would be decades 0:02:49.919 --> 0:02:52.920 before I discovered the real story behind the murder of 0:02:52.960 --> 0:02:57.639 doctor King. It came to me in boxes, cardboard boxes 0:02:57.720 --> 0:03:02.600 with dozens of audio tapes. Just as he got to 0:03:02.720 --> 0:03:06.160 the door, shot rang up, and somebody came out of 0:03:06.160 --> 0:03:10.640 the bushes and handed him a smoking rifle, and he 0:03:10.800 --> 0:03:14.640 broke it down and wrapped it in a table ball 0:03:15.680 --> 0:03:20.120 and put it back in the door room. When I 0:03:20.160 --> 0:03:22.080 heard the shot, when I saw him get hit, and 0:03:22.080 --> 0:03:24.920 when I saw him go down. Now I'm no doctor, 0:03:24.960 --> 0:03:26.600 but there was no question to me that the man 0:03:26.680 --> 0:03:30.080 was hit hard. I mean he was hit hard. So 0:03:30.639 --> 0:03:33.840 I immediately turned around and go that direction. It was 0:03:33.880 --> 0:03:36.280 like once the shot went off, it was every dog 0:03:36.400 --> 0:03:41.720 for his own, every dog for his own. The voices 0:03:41.760 --> 0:03:45.280 on these tapes are from people who were there, people who, 0:03:45.280 --> 0:03:48.360 in the passing years have overcome their fear to speak 0:03:48.360 --> 0:03:51.800 about what they saw, what they heard, and in some cases, 0:03:52.080 --> 0:03:56.400 what they did when Martin Luther King was killed. Welcome 0:03:56.840 --> 0:04:05.320 to the MLK tapes. Doctor King's assassination is a critical 0:04:05.360 --> 0:04:08.760 moment in American history. Let's go back to March nine 0:04:10.960 --> 0:04:13.640 in his campaign to fight not only for civil rights 0:04:13.680 --> 0:04:17.080 but for economic justice. King had come to Memphis to 0:04:17.160 --> 0:04:20.359 support the sanitation workers in their request to form a union. 0:04:21.080 --> 0:04:24.599 Striking workers peacefully carrying signs that said I Am a 0:04:24.640 --> 0:04:27.880 Man was an image they hoped would penetrate the conscience 0:04:27.920 --> 0:04:31.080 of the nation. But this hope was shattered when the 0:04:31.120 --> 0:04:34.400 peaceful march King had wanted to lead was disrupted by 0:04:34.560 --> 0:04:38.200 rioting writing that may have been set off by people 0:04:38.279 --> 0:04:41.560 sent in to start trouble, and because of the awful 0:04:41.600 --> 0:04:45.040 images coming out of Memphis, King's critics were now saying 0:04:45.080 --> 0:04:47.560 that he had lost control of his movement, that he 0:04:47.560 --> 0:04:51.320 could no longer lead a peaceful protest. So we returned 0:04:51.320 --> 0:04:54.320 to Memphis to support the sanitation workers and prove his 0:04:54.400 --> 0:04:58.120 doubters wrong. Dr King, You're a march here on Monday 0:04:58.160 --> 0:05:01.920 has apparently been enjoyed the federal injunction. If that holds up, 0:05:02.320 --> 0:05:04.760 what are your plans? Will you march or not? We 0:05:04.960 --> 0:05:08.160 do feel that it would be a basic denial of 0:05:08.320 --> 0:05:12.400 First Amendment privileges to have an injunction take effect that 0:05:12.440 --> 0:05:15.719 would prevent us from marching. We stand on the First 0:05:15.760 --> 0:05:19.440 Amendment and in the past, we've on the basis of 0:05:19.440 --> 0:05:22.880 conscience had to break injunctions, and that may very well 0:05:22.960 --> 0:05:26.479 happen in this situation. But breaking an injunction was not 0:05:26.600 --> 0:05:29.960 King's only worry. By returning to Memphis, he was also 0:05:30.080 --> 0:05:32.560 putting his life on the line, and he knew it. 0:05:36.200 --> 0:05:40.839 It's the evening of April three, as thunderstorms rage outside Martin, 0:05:40.920 --> 0:05:43.839 Luther King speaks on behalf of the sanitation workers to 0:05:43.920 --> 0:05:49.200 several thousand followers in downtown Memphis. That's the question before 0:05:49.240 --> 0:05:54.240 you tonight. Not if I stopped to help the sanitation workers, 0:05:54.279 --> 0:05:59.000 what will happen to my job? The question is if 0:05:59.160 --> 0:06:02.520 I do not stop to help the sanitation workers, what 0:06:02.839 --> 0:06:09.120 will happen to them? That's the question. But there was 0:06:09.160 --> 0:06:12.279 something else that needed to be put into words. King's 0:06:12.320 --> 0:06:15.080 playing into Memphis had been delayed by a bomb scare, 0:06:15.520 --> 0:06:19.360 and threats on King himself were an increasing, almost daily occurrence. 0:06:20.360 --> 0:06:25.120 And then I got into Memphis and some began to 0:06:25.200 --> 0:06:28.440 say the threats I talk about what would happen to 0:06:28.480 --> 0:06:34.120 me from some of a sick white brothers. His words 0:06:34.200 --> 0:06:37.320 that night were a chilling foretelling of his own death. 0:06:38.520 --> 0:06:42.320 Like anybody I would like to live a long life. 0:06:42.400 --> 0:06:48.279 Longevity has its place, but I'm not concerned about that now. 0:06:49.320 --> 0:06:52.920 I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed 0:06:53.080 --> 0:06:56.440 me to go up to the mountain and I've looked 0:06:56.480 --> 0:07:04.560 over and I've seen the promised land. King didn't look away. 0:07:05.240 --> 0:07:08.480 He could feel what was coming. I may not get 0:07:08.520 --> 0:07:11.440 there with you, but I want you to know the 0:07:11.600 --> 0:07:15.880 night and we as a people will get to the 0:07:15.960 --> 0:07:22.240 promised Land. So I'm happy tonight. I'm not worried about anything. 0:07:22.320 --> 0:07:26.440 I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the 0:07:26.480 --> 0:07:35.920 glory on the coming of the Lord. The next morning, 0:07:36.000 --> 0:07:39.160 King's lieutenant Andrew Young went to court to challenge the 0:07:39.200 --> 0:07:43.800 injunction prohibiting the upcoming protest march. Well. King mostly stayed 0:07:43.840 --> 0:07:46.840 around the Lorraine Motel and met with people who came 0:07:46.880 --> 0:07:50.720 and went. Late in the day, Young returned to report 0:07:50.760 --> 0:07:54.120 that they had won. The march could go on. That 0:07:54.280 --> 0:07:56.760 was happy news because the soul food dinner was waiting 0:07:56.760 --> 0:07:59.640 at the Reverend Billy Kyle's house and everyone could now 0:07:59.720 --> 0:08:04.640 rely acts and have a good time. At six pm, 0:08:04.720 --> 0:08:07.360 Martin Luther King stepped out of Room three oh six 0:08:07.640 --> 0:08:10.360 onto the motel balcony. On his way to the dinner. 0:08:11.480 --> 0:08:14.360 As he waited for Ralph Abernathy to join him, he 0:08:14.480 --> 0:08:18.400 watched below as the diminutive Andrew Young shadow box with 0:08:18.440 --> 0:08:21.560 the Reverend James Orange, who was six ft four and 0:08:21.640 --> 0:08:25.680 near three hundred pounds. Don't hurt him, Andy King shouted. 0:08:26.360 --> 0:08:29.520 Then King spotted Ben Branch, a musician who was to 0:08:29.600 --> 0:08:32.800 play at the party after dinner. He asked Branch to 0:08:32.800 --> 0:08:37.000 be sure to play Precious Lord, take my hand, play 0:08:37.000 --> 0:08:49.840 it real, pretty, said King. There was a sudden sound 0:08:50.200 --> 0:08:55.360 like a firecracker, and Doctor King collapsed. Abernathy ran out 0:08:55.400 --> 0:08:58.040 of the room and knelt beside the fallen King. He 0:08:58.160 --> 0:09:01.080 cradled his wounded head and saw, as he put it, 0:09:01.520 --> 0:09:06.080 the understanding drain from his eyes. By the time Young arrived, 0:09:06.200 --> 0:09:10.440 blood was everywhere. Oh God, Ralph, he said, it's over. 0:09:11.280 --> 0:09:13.520 They said. They shoot an all points bulletin for a 0:09:13.559 --> 0:09:16.280 world rushed young white man scene running from the scene. 0:09:16.760 --> 0:09:20.240 Officers also reportedly chased and fired on a radio equipped 0:09:20.320 --> 0:09:24.200 car containing two white men. King was rushed to Saint 0:09:24.280 --> 0:09:29.120 Joseph's Hospital, where he died within the hour. Meanwhile, out 0:09:29.200 --> 0:09:32.199 on Main Street, the police would find a rifle in 0:09:32.280 --> 0:09:37.240 a box near a mysterious bag. In the bag were binoculars, 0:09:37.640 --> 0:09:40.839 nine bullets, a transistor radio, a pair of players, a 0:09:40.880 --> 0:09:43.280 couple of beers, and a copy of that day's newspaper. 0:09:44.200 --> 0:09:47.880 On this evidence, investigators would find the fingerprints of a 0:09:47.960 --> 0:09:51.959 man named James Earl Ray, a fugitive who would escape 0:09:51.960 --> 0:09:55.559 from prison the year before. They also discovered that a 0:09:55.640 --> 0:09:58.439 man fitting raised description had rented a room at a 0:09:58.480 --> 0:10:02.040 boarding house near the Lorraine and add access to a 0:10:02.160 --> 0:10:05.000 small bathroom with a line of sight to doctor King's 0:10:05.000 --> 0:10:08.720 position on the motel balcony. So the Memphis Police now 0:10:08.840 --> 0:10:13.160 had a suspect, but where was he? An enormously wide 0:10:13.200 --> 0:10:16.960 police hunt is now going on for an unidentified thirty 0:10:17.040 --> 0:10:19.079 year old white man who has been reported to be 0:10:19.240 --> 0:10:23.599 driving a large, fast, white sports car very recklessly. It 0:10:23.720 --> 0:10:26.840 took two months to find him, but finally on June eighth, 0:10:27.240 --> 0:10:30.160 Ray was arrested at London Heathrow Airport with a fake 0:10:30.200 --> 0:10:33.960 Canadian passport. The forty year old petty criminal and escaped 0:10:33.960 --> 0:10:38.559 convict was brought back to Memphis. At his arraignment, Ray 0:10:38.720 --> 0:10:42.160 was charged with the murder of Martin Luther King. He 0:10:42.320 --> 0:10:53.120 pleaded not guilty wishes of not guilty. Of course, criminals 0:10:53.240 --> 0:10:57.120 commonly plead not guilty, so Ray's initial plea doesn't mean 0:10:57.160 --> 0:11:00.400 a thing. It was rumored that Ray had Old King 0:11:00.520 --> 0:11:03.360 out of a vicious hatred, but no one knew for sure, 0:11:03.679 --> 0:11:07.439 because for the next eight months Ray was held in communicado. 0:11:08.360 --> 0:11:11.560 The only persons allowed to see him were his attorney 0:11:11.760 --> 0:11:15.559 and his brother. So what most people didn't know, and 0:11:15.679 --> 0:11:19.240 as a supposedly informed law student, I didn't know, was that, 0:11:19.400 --> 0:11:22.840 while admitting he was in Memphis that day, James Earl 0:11:22.960 --> 0:11:26.440 Ray always said that he did not shoot Martin Luther King. 0:11:27.600 --> 0:11:30.520 Ray wanted to go to trial, even though he knew 0:11:30.600 --> 0:11:33.240 that if he could not convince the jury, the penalty 0:11:33.400 --> 0:11:36.920 was likely to be the electric chair. He didn't care. 0:11:37.600 --> 0:11:39.559 He said he didn't do it, and he wanted his 0:11:39.679 --> 0:11:43.800 chance to prove it in court. Race famous criminal defense 0:11:43.840 --> 0:11:47.160 attorney Percy Foreman came on saying that Race case would 0:11:47.160 --> 0:11:50.120 be the easiest one he ever argued. But his Race 0:11:50.240 --> 0:11:55.040 trial date approached, Foreman suddenly changed his tune and pressured 0:11:55.120 --> 0:11:59.280 Ray to plead guilty, which he finally did. Are you 0:11:59.400 --> 0:12:01.559 play didn't did the murder in the plash degree in 0:12:01.640 --> 0:12:04.719 this case? Because you killed Dr Martin lived the King 0:12:04.880 --> 0:12:08.280 on the such circumstances that would make you legally guilty 0:12:09.120 --> 0:12:11.840 murder in the flash degree under the law is explained 0:12:11.880 --> 0:12:15.480 to you by your lawyers. Ray's answer was barely audible 0:12:15.520 --> 0:12:17.800 on the recording system used by the court. What he 0:12:17.880 --> 0:12:23.600 said was quote, yes, legally guilty. Uh huh. Three days 0:12:23.679 --> 0:12:27.320 after his guilty plea, James Earl Ray petition Judge Preston 0:12:27.400 --> 0:12:31.800 Battle to change his plea to not guilty. Often, in 0:12:31.880 --> 0:12:35.319 the interests of justice, such a petition is granted, and 0:12:35.480 --> 0:12:39.400 many observers expected Judge Battle to do that. But the 0:12:39.559 --> 0:12:43.120 day was to act, Battle was found slumped over his desk, 0:12:43.720 --> 0:12:46.800 dead from an apparent heart attack, and James El Ray 0:12:47.160 --> 0:12:53.120 was led off to prison no trial. Years passed and 0:12:53.200 --> 0:12:56.040 the vast majority of Americans didn't give the case much 0:12:56.120 --> 0:12:59.439 thought King had been killed and Ray was in prison 0:12:59.600 --> 0:13:02.440 because he was the one who shot him. But if 0:13:02.520 --> 0:13:04.880 you lived in Memphis, you might have been aware of 0:13:05.000 --> 0:13:08.000 strange stories and odd bits of evidence that didn't fit 0:13:08.080 --> 0:13:11.440 with the official count of the crime. People who heard things, 0:13:12.040 --> 0:13:14.920 people who saw things, things that didn't fit with the 0:13:15.040 --> 0:13:19.640 story of a loane drifter killing King. Also in nineteen 0:13:19.760 --> 0:13:23.439 seventy six, during congressional hearings, it came to light that 0:13:23.559 --> 0:13:26.599 the federal government had been wire tapping King's office and 0:13:26.720 --> 0:13:30.400 home and bugging his every hotel room. Why was the 0:13:30.480 --> 0:13:34.320 government so concerned with surveilling King? Was this in any 0:13:34.360 --> 0:13:38.640 way connected to his death? A man named William Pepper 0:13:38.760 --> 0:13:41.880 thinks it was. Pepper was a friend of Doctor King, 0:13:42.360 --> 0:13:44.839 and he spent many years gathering evidence that tells a 0:13:44.960 --> 0:13:47.720 very different story than the one we've all been told, 0:13:48.520 --> 0:13:52.000 Evidence about who really killed Martin Luther King and why 0:13:52.160 --> 0:14:12.839 he was murdered. In April nineteen seven, I traveled to 0:14:12.920 --> 0:14:15.600 New York City to join a massive anti war rally. 0:14:16.360 --> 0:14:18.600 There were more people marching than I had ever seen. 0:14:19.560 --> 0:14:22.560 As we approached the United Nations Plaza, we were too 0:14:22.600 --> 0:14:25.440 far away to see Dr King, but we could hear 0:14:25.600 --> 0:14:32.720 his unmistakable voice, stop the bombing, Let us save our 0:14:33.000 --> 0:14:40.600 national honor, stop the bombing, and stop the war. Sharing 0:14:40.640 --> 0:14:43.560 the stage with Dr King was a journalist named Bill Pepper. 0:14:44.320 --> 0:14:46.520 Pepper had been a friend of Dr King, and he 0:14:46.600 --> 0:14:49.960 had been an important influence on King's position against the 0:14:50.000 --> 0:14:54.360 war in Vietnam. I because of my writings on the 0:14:54.440 --> 0:14:59.680 war had been asked to introduce Martin King, which I did. 0:15:00.600 --> 0:15:05.520 It was a very significant movement because Dr King went 0:15:05.600 --> 0:15:09.680 against the advice of most of the civil rights leaders, 0:15:10.240 --> 0:15:13.520 who believed that he was going to cost them a 0:15:13.600 --> 0:15:16.800 great deal of money for their movements with his anti 0:15:16.920 --> 0:15:21.080 war position. But that was that was the nature of 0:15:21.240 --> 0:15:26.440 Dr King. He was amount of conscience. He spoke courageously 0:15:26.960 --> 0:15:31.080 on that day as well. Fifty years after that rally 0:15:31.120 --> 0:15:34.280 in New York, I would interview Bill Pepper while working 0:15:34.360 --> 0:15:37.840 on the RFK Tapes podcast. I wanted his take on 0:15:37.920 --> 0:15:40.200 the Robert Kennedy murder, and he had a lot to 0:15:40.240 --> 0:15:42.960 say about that, but he had even more to say 0:15:43.240 --> 0:15:46.160 about the killing of Martin Luther King because he had 0:15:46.200 --> 0:15:48.880 spent the last forty years of his life investigating the 0:15:48.960 --> 0:15:52.000 murder of his friend. There was more to tell than 0:15:52.080 --> 0:15:55.240 time would allow. So we agreed to meet again, and 0:15:55.360 --> 0:15:58.320 one warm afternoon in May, I traveled to Bill Pepper's 0:15:58.400 --> 0:16:01.400 home in South Harlem, where told me the remarkable story 0:16:01.880 --> 0:16:03.680 of how he had come to know Martin Luther King 0:16:04.240 --> 0:16:07.600 and the stunning things he had discovered about the assassination. 0:16:08.760 --> 0:16:11.760 I got my credentials as a journalist, and I went 0:16:11.840 --> 0:16:15.880 to Vietnam in nineteen sixties six. I was seeing whole 0:16:16.000 --> 0:16:20.680 villages raised and burned. I was seeing children badly injured 0:16:20.800 --> 0:16:23.720 by the napalm and the white fosphors, and I was 0:16:23.800 --> 0:16:28.600 seeing total devastation among the civilian population. So it was 0:16:28.720 --> 0:16:31.680 clear to me that war crimes are being committed by 0:16:31.760 --> 0:16:36.160 the Americans in massive amounts. I had heard about things 0:16:36.240 --> 0:16:38.640 like that, but I'd never seen anything like that in 0:16:38.760 --> 0:16:42.000 my life. I took photographs as much as I could. 0:16:42.840 --> 0:16:46.080 Pepper returned to the United States determined to tell about 0:16:46.120 --> 0:16:49.360 what he had seen, but his photographs were rejected by 0:16:49.440 --> 0:16:53.920 mainstream and progressive publications. He finally found a taker in 0:16:54.080 --> 0:16:58.520 Ramparts magazine, so the Ramparts piece came out in January 0:16:58.600 --> 0:17:04.119 of nineteen sixties. Heaven Martin King noticed as he was 0:17:04.240 --> 0:17:06.840 going on a trip to photographs. I think caught his 0:17:06.920 --> 0:17:10.000 attention that he read the article and asked to meet 0:17:10.080 --> 0:17:15.119 with me. I showed him whatever additional material that I 0:17:15.280 --> 0:17:18.119 had at that time, and I talked to him about 0:17:18.160 --> 0:17:22.359 what was going on there, and he wept. He saw 0:17:22.560 --> 0:17:27.440 all of this horror that was being done by his government. 0:17:27.560 --> 0:17:31.040 He couldn't believe it. And that was how I became 0:17:31.080 --> 0:17:34.400 involved with Doctor King, and I became close to him 0:17:34.440 --> 0:17:36.680 during the last year, but only the last year of 0:17:36.760 --> 0:17:41.399 his life. Pepper's article and photos helped Dr King come 0:17:41.480 --> 0:17:45.320 to grips with the harsh connection between poverty, race, and war. 0:17:46.560 --> 0:17:51.040 Then on April four seven, King delivered his famous speech 0:17:51.080 --> 0:17:55.680 on Vietnam at Riverside Church in New York. When machines 0:17:55.840 --> 0:18:01.159 and computers, profit motives, and property rights are considered more 0:18:01.280 --> 0:18:07.399 important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism, 0:18:07.480 --> 0:18:13.240 and militarism are incapable of being conquered. A year later, 0:18:13.440 --> 0:18:19.040 Doctor King was dead and Bill Pepper was devastated. But 0:18:19.160 --> 0:18:21.960 in the midst of the pain and heartbreak, his skills 0:18:22.000 --> 0:18:25.920 as a campaigner were still being courted, notably by Robert Kennedy, 0:18:26.160 --> 0:18:29.080 who had just recently announced he was running for president. 0:18:30.000 --> 0:18:33.760 We went from Memphis to Atlanta, where we buried Martin, 0:18:34.400 --> 0:18:37.080 and Bobby asked me and others to come up to 0:18:37.160 --> 0:18:41.000 his hotel to discuss his presidential campaign, and I said, no, 0:18:41.600 --> 0:18:45.680 I'm through his politics. After King was laid to rest, 0:18:46.119 --> 0:18:48.760 Bill Pepper went to work in education and at the 0:18:48.800 --> 0:18:53.200 same time earned a law degree. Ten years after King's murder. 0:18:53.520 --> 0:18:56.359 Pepper was pursuing a legal career in New York City. 0:18:57.680 --> 0:19:02.600 One afternoon, the phone rang. It was Ralph Abernathi, King's 0:19:02.640 --> 0:19:09.639 former number two. Abernati asked me in sev to go 0:19:10.080 --> 0:19:14.840 up to the prison Brushing Mountain Penitentiary and interrogate James 0:19:14.920 --> 0:19:18.639 Earl Ray, and I told Ralph I didn't know anything 0:19:18.640 --> 0:19:22.200 about the case. I thought James el Ray had been guilty, 0:19:22.960 --> 0:19:27.399 and I had not done any intensive investigation, so I 0:19:27.440 --> 0:19:30.879 would need some time in order to do that. In 0:19:31.040 --> 0:19:37.720 August of v I interrogated James for five torturous hours 0:19:37.840 --> 0:19:41.520 to put him under enormous stress, and James remained as 0:19:41.640 --> 0:19:44.600 calm as he could be, and he answered the questions 0:19:44.840 --> 0:19:49.320 as best as he could. For ten years, Bill Pepper 0:19:49.400 --> 0:19:52.080 had thought that James Earl Ray had murdered his friend 0:19:52.160 --> 0:19:55.760 Martin King, and he entered his interview with Ray still 0:19:55.840 --> 0:20:00.440 believing that. But the quiet understated Wray he met wasn't 0:20:00.480 --> 0:20:03.480 the man he expected to meet. Ray admitted that he 0:20:03.520 --> 0:20:06.200 had been in Memphis that day, had rented a room 0:20:06.280 --> 0:20:08.960 in Bessy Brewer's boarding house, and had bought the rifle 0:20:09.040 --> 0:20:12.840 in Birmingham. But he also calmly insisted that he did 0:20:12.920 --> 0:20:15.720 not shoot doctor King and didn't know the King was 0:20:15.800 --> 0:20:19.520 going to be shot. The men spent hours going over 0:20:19.600 --> 0:20:22.320 and over how it was he came to Memphis and 0:20:22.440 --> 0:20:25.760 what he was doing when King was killed. Each one 0:20:25.840 --> 0:20:28.600 of us, in our everyday lives has our own ways 0:20:28.640 --> 0:20:31.280 of deciding whether a person is telling the truth or not. 0:20:32.400 --> 0:20:34.720 It may be how they meet our eyes or the 0:20:34.800 --> 0:20:38.720 sound of their voice. But after five hours of questions 0:20:38.760 --> 0:20:43.240 and answers, both Bill Pepper and Ralph Abernathy came away 0:20:43.440 --> 0:20:47.920 with the same judgment. We left the room believing that 0:20:48.600 --> 0:20:52.000 he was not the shooter, but we didn't know what 0:20:52.280 --> 0:20:55.600 role he might have played. But he raised enough questions 0:20:56.040 --> 0:21:00.679 so that from that time on in night I began 0:21:01.040 --> 0:21:07.200 to go into Memphis and examine specific issues related to 0:21:07.320 --> 0:21:11.240 the case. As he went deeper into the evidence, Pepper 0:21:11.359 --> 0:21:13.720 came to believe that James Earl Ray was not only 0:21:13.800 --> 0:21:19.040 not the shooter, but was himself a victim of manipulation. Eventually, 0:21:19.280 --> 0:21:22.320 in an incredible twist of fate, Bill Pepper would become 0:21:22.359 --> 0:21:26.840 the attorney representing James Earl Ray, the man convicted of 0:21:26.960 --> 0:21:34.160 murdering his friend Martin King. Pepper was determined to get 0:21:34.240 --> 0:21:36.960 ready the trial he never had, and in so doing 0:21:37.400 --> 0:21:42.600 revealed to the world the evidence he was uncovering. I 0:21:42.760 --> 0:21:47.000 came to represent James in nine. He had been denied 0:21:47.359 --> 0:21:50.800 relief in the state courts, so we followed the abeous 0:21:51.160 --> 0:21:54.600 proceeding in the federal district court. We were denied in 0:21:54.680 --> 0:21:58.640 the Federal District Court. Then we went to the six 0:21:58.720 --> 0:22:03.399 Circuit Court of Appeal. We were denied there. Then we 0:22:03.600 --> 0:22:08.120 filed for a rit of sircir I with the Supreme Court. 0:22:09.320 --> 0:22:12.879 When we lost our appeal to the final appeal to 0:22:13.000 --> 0:22:17.080 the Supreme Court, we thought that was pretty much going 0:22:17.160 --> 0:22:20.400 to be the end of it. Though the legal avenues 0:22:20.440 --> 0:22:24.040 were seemingly close to them, there was one last recourse 0:22:24.320 --> 0:22:28.160 open to Bill Pepper and James Earl Ray, the court 0:22:28.560 --> 0:22:32.880 of public opinion. I talked to a producer whom I new, 0:22:33.400 --> 0:22:38.760 and HBO agreed, and so we worked on a plan 0:22:38.960 --> 0:22:43.119 to do an HBO special tonight in an effort to 0:22:43.280 --> 0:22:46.919 probe the mystery of Dr King's death. James Earl Ray 0:22:47.080 --> 0:22:50.880 will finally have his day in court. The defense team 0:22:50.960 --> 0:22:54.240 will be led by William Pepper, an American lawyer who 0:22:54.359 --> 0:22:58.520 practices in London. Pepper has been raised unpaid counsel for 0:22:58.640 --> 0:23:02.560 the past five years. It would be a formal trial 0:23:03.119 --> 0:23:06.560 with a randomly selected jury from all of the country, 0:23:06.800 --> 0:23:12.159 a and impartial judge. They asked Hickman Ewing, who was 0:23:12.200 --> 0:23:15.960 a former U S attorney for the Memphis area, and 0:23:16.320 --> 0:23:20.640 asked Hickman if he would be lead prosecutor. Hickman agreed, 0:23:21.359 --> 0:23:26.600 and so we tried the case three. The trial was 0:23:27.000 --> 0:23:32.879 a full knockdown, drag out trial. Prosecution maintains that the 0:23:33.480 --> 0:23:36.760 truck came from a bathroom, the bathroom in the rooming house, 0:23:37.200 --> 0:23:41.160 the defense suggests, and the proof and the evidence indicates 0:23:41.680 --> 0:23:45.760 the shot came from the brush from the bushes down below, 0:23:46.040 --> 0:23:52.399 from the backyard. Totally unscripted. We got James to testify 0:23:52.840 --> 0:23:57.879 by camera and he was subject to cross examination. I 0:23:57.960 --> 0:24:00.160 want to show you the chart of the ins out 0:24:00.240 --> 0:24:03.040 of the rooming house. You went up the south stairs. 0:24:03.119 --> 0:24:05.920 You went and saw Mrs Brewer said you wanted a room. 0:24:06.400 --> 0:24:08.640 It's a fact, is it not. She showed you room 0:24:08.760 --> 0:24:12.640 eight first, did she not? She showed me one room first. 0:24:12.680 --> 0:24:14.600 She said it was a lighthouse keeper room. And you 0:24:14.680 --> 0:24:17.240 looked at that room and then y'all walked down over here. 0:24:17.640 --> 0:24:19.520 She showed you that room, and you said you'd take 0:24:19.600 --> 0:24:22.200 five beat? Is that correct? Yes? I told her I 0:24:22.240 --> 0:24:25.040 wanted to sleeping room. That's great. This room right here, 0:24:25.800 --> 0:24:28.640 you can't see anything out of ken ken you, Mr Ray, 0:24:29.000 --> 0:24:30.960 you could have had room eight or you could have 0:24:31.040 --> 0:24:34.600 had room five B, and you chose room five beat. 0:24:34.880 --> 0:24:37.240 Is that right? Yes? There was two rooms there and 0:24:37.280 --> 0:24:43.440 I picked out that one. Is The HBO trial gave 0:24:43.520 --> 0:24:47.440 Bill Pepper an opportunity to call into question every aspect 0:24:47.520 --> 0:24:50.920 of the official story. If there is no significance of 0:24:50.960 --> 0:24:53.320 the brush in the back of the rooming house, why 0:24:53.440 --> 0:24:56.560 was it cut? Was this the police to find evidence? No, 0:24:57.160 --> 0:24:59.399 The defense suggests the brush was cut so that it 0:24:59.400 --> 0:25:02.360 could never be suggested that there was enough brush there 0:25:02.400 --> 0:25:05.080 to conceal a sniper. Could James Earl Ray cause the 0:25:05.240 --> 0:25:07.320 scene of a crime to be tampered with in this way? 0:25:08.119 --> 0:25:11.280 Reverend Jose Williams, who was one of Dr King's closest aids, 0:25:11.359 --> 0:25:16.159 testified for the defense that Martin's hotel room and the 0:25:16.280 --> 0:25:21.000 hotel itself, the reservations itself, were changed. Could James el 0:25:21.040 --> 0:25:25.119 Rey arranged this? Could James el Ray do this. We 0:25:25.400 --> 0:25:29.360 didn't know the verdict. They kept the verdict as secret 0:25:29.400 --> 0:25:33.600 as they could. The jury took seven hours plus and 0:25:33.880 --> 0:25:39.680 eventually it aired on April four. I guess, and we've 0:25:39.760 --> 0:25:42.400 sat up at the at the prison. James was there. 0:25:42.920 --> 0:25:45.920 Hickman and his team were on the left, and Jeanie 0:25:45.960 --> 0:25:49.040 and I were on the on the right, and the 0:25:49.119 --> 0:25:54.320 whole trial played on HBO and verdict came out. We 0:25:54.560 --> 0:25:59.919 the jury find the defendant not guilty. When the verdict 0:26:00.080 --> 0:26:03.720 came out, Hickman was startled. I was gonna have a 0:26:03.760 --> 0:26:09.840 heart attack. Even though it wasn't a real court proceeding, 0:26:10.280 --> 0:26:13.440 this mock trial demonstrated that the case against James Earl 0:26:13.520 --> 0:26:17.359 Ray didn't pass the test of reasonable doubt. A jury, 0:26:17.720 --> 0:26:20.840 when presented with the evidence that Pepper and others had uncovered, 0:26:21.240 --> 0:26:24.640 decided that Ray was not guilty. This should have been 0:26:24.800 --> 0:26:27.560 big news, but it got almost no mention in the 0:26:27.600 --> 0:26:30.800 American press. But it did shake the tree a little, 0:26:31.040 --> 0:26:33.480 and a few new people came forward with what they knew. 0:26:34.560 --> 0:26:37.760 At the same time, Bill Pepper published his book Orders 0:26:37.800 --> 0:26:40.240 to Kill, where he laid out the case for Ray's 0:26:40.280 --> 0:26:43.200 innocence and alleged that elements of the government may have 0:26:43.280 --> 0:26:47.320 been involved in Dr King's assassination, but most outlets in 0:26:47.359 --> 0:26:51.960 the mainstream media didn't review it, considering the importance of 0:26:52.000 --> 0:26:54.840 the man who was murdered and the evidence laid out 0:26:54.880 --> 0:26:58.680