Speaker 1: Welcome to the MLK Tapes, a production of I Heart
Speaker 1: Radio and Tenderfoot TV. The views and opinions expressed in
Speaker 1: this podcast are solely those of the podcast author or
Speaker 1: individuals participating in the podcast, and do not represent those
Speaker 1: of I Heart Media, Tenderfoot TV, or their employees. Listener
Speaker 1: discretion is advised. We received a letter Dear Mr Haynes,
Speaker 1: I'm here in jail. I've been accused of a murder.
Speaker 1: I don't know anything about it. Will you please come
Speaker 1: help me? Signed Raymond George Snead in England. We couldn't
Speaker 1: talk to Ray without a police officer right there with us,
Speaker 1: so as far as we were concerned, he was Raymond
Speaker 1: George Snead. And when he came back to the United States,
Speaker 1: he was brought down on a charter flight with FBI
Speaker 1: agents and all of that, and came in late late
Speaker 1: one evening. It was dark, and they landed at the
Speaker 1: far side of the airport, and police cars and vans
Speaker 1: came to the airplane to get the Great Mystery Man,
Speaker 1: because there was some doubt as to his identity in
Speaker 1: the first place, and certainly there was doubt as to
Speaker 1: whether he was the leader of a Revolutionary Army, or
Speaker 1: or what was going on. The great mystery Man was
Speaker 1: grabbed from his aeroplane, put in a caravan of vans
Speaker 1: and police cars, and taken to the Shelby County, Tennessee jail.
Speaker 1: And in that jail there was a special floor that
Speaker 1: had not been developed yet, old concrete floor. And on
Speaker 1: that floor in the jail was a jail within a jail.
Speaker 1: It was a cage. It was a four sighted cage
Speaker 1: with the heavy traditional iron bars. When he got there
Speaker 1: that night, my dad and I went to see him
Speaker 1: for the first time in the United States. By then
Speaker 1: the whole circumstances were such that there was probably doably
Speaker 1: rightly a bit of paranoia on the defense side. My
Speaker 1: dad was a very savvy man. He deemed the most
Speaker 1: secure place in the jail was the shower stall. So
Speaker 1: the first time we met Ray in the United States,
Speaker 1: my dad Ray and I. We're sitting need a knee
Speaker 1: on the floor of that shower stall. And the first
Speaker 1: thing out of anybody's mouth was my Dad looking at
Speaker 1: this client of ours and saying, who are you? I
Speaker 1: called the Union Hall. I said, it's a matter of
Speaker 1: life and death. I said, I think these people are
Speaker 1: planning to kill Dr King. The authorities were parade. Oh,
Speaker 1: we found a gun that James L. Ray bought in
Speaker 1: Birmingham that killed Dr King. Except it wasn't the gun
Speaker 1: that killed Dr King. James L. Ray was upon in
Speaker 1: the official story from My Heart Radio and tender Foot TV.
Speaker 1: The plan was to get King to the city because
Speaker 1: they wanted it handled in memphisfore dead in Nam cat
Speaker 1: Hamon and I've lived with it alone, mansieur, and they
Speaker 1: skied for me. The lawd told me to not the word.
Speaker 1: I've been wanting to tell it all my life. I'm
Speaker 1: Bill Claiburn and this is d MLK tapes. At the
Speaker 1: top of the episode, you heard Judge Arthur Haynes Jr.
Speaker 1: Describing the first time he met James Earl Ray, the
Speaker 1: man accused of killing Martin Luther King. Haynes grew up
Speaker 1: in Birmingham, Alabama, and after high school, he went to
Speaker 1: Princeton and then the law school at the University of Alabama,
Speaker 1: where he graduated in the spring of nineteen He then
Speaker 1: joined his father's law practice. Art Haynes, Sr. Was a
Speaker 1: fierce segregationist who had been mayor of Birmingham from nineteen
Speaker 1: sixty one to sixty three. In his first year in office,
Speaker 1: he closed over a hundred parks, playgrounds, and swimming pools
Speaker 1: rather than integrate them as required by a federal court order.
Speaker 1: He was also mayor when Sheriff Bull Connor said dogs
Speaker 1: and fire hoses on peaceful demonstrators, many of them children.
Speaker 1: Haynes was by a narrow vote put out of office
Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty three, and he began a practice in
Speaker 1: criminal law. In nineteen sixty civil rights activist Viola Leozzo
Speaker 1: was shot dead while driving participants back and forth in
Speaker 1: the Selma to Montgomery Freedom March, and three clan members
Speaker 1: were charged with the murder. When their first attorney died,
Speaker 1: Art Haynes assumed their defense and won the case by
Speaker 1: way of a hung jury, though the men were later
Speaker 1: convicted in a federal court a year later. Art Haynes Jr.
Speaker 1: Would Join his father, and in June of nineteen sixty
Speaker 1: eight they idle letter from James Earl Ray in London
Speaker 1: asking for help. As a criminal defense attorney. More often
Speaker 1: than not, you defend criminals. In the case of our
Speaker 1: Haynes and his father, they defended some of the worst,
Speaker 1: including Bob Chambliss, who murdered four little girls when he
Speaker 1: blew up the sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham. But
Speaker 1: Chambliss would be the very last criminal that our junior
Speaker 1: would defend. The whole thing made him so sick inside
Speaker 1: that he turned his back on criminal law, left his
Speaker 1: father's practice and went on to have a distinguished legal career.
Speaker 1: He served eighteen years as a judge in Alabama, and
Speaker 1: when he left the bench, he became an adjunct professor
Speaker 1: at the University of Alabama Law School, and he began
Speaker 1: a civil practice that specializes in arbitration. I sat with
Speaker 1: him in his law office in Birmingham. I'm here to
Speaker 1: talk to you today because at a particular moment in time,
Speaker 1: you and your father, the late Arthur Haynes, Sr. Became
Speaker 1: the defense attorne is for one James Earl Ray. You
Speaker 1: graduated from law school in sixty seven, and one year
Speaker 1: later found yourself representing the man who's accused of murdering
Speaker 1: Martin Luther King. I was very well aware that uh
Speaker 1: I was part of history. I also knew that statistically,
Speaker 1: at any rate, I would outlive all the other participants.
Speaker 1: Haynes then told me the story you heard about getting
Speaker 1: the letter from some guy in London asking for help
Speaker 1: with a murder. He knew nothing about. The man writing
Speaker 1: the letter turned out to be James Earl Ray, and
Speaker 1: the man murdered was Martin Luther King. Not having any
Speaker 1: idea of where this story would lead, Haines father and
Speaker 1: son decided to take the case over the next four months.
Speaker 1: They would be the ones and the only ones in
Speaker 1: contact with Ray, and they would be the ones getting
Speaker 1: the first look at the evidence, which is why what
Speaker 1: ar Hanes Jr. Has to say about it today is important.
Speaker 1: I asked him about Ray. Was he the person you
Speaker 1: expected to meet? What what were your impressions of him?
Speaker 1: Ray is every man and no man. He was invisible.
Speaker 1: He was remarkably nondescript. You could dress him in a
Speaker 1: tuxedo and send him to a debutante ball, or dress
Speaker 1: him in in ragged sweat clothes and send him to
Speaker 1: a homeless camp, and he would be equally in place
Speaker 1: at either place, a remarkably colorless person. Did Ray ever
Speaker 1: say to you that he shot Martin Luther King? Never?
Speaker 1: He denied it. From day one, moment one until the
Speaker 1: last moment he did wind up pleading guilty, But he
Speaker 1: told me later that he had done that because he
Speaker 1: realized that the lawyer who took over for us had
Speaker 1: done nothing to prepare the case for trial. Did you,
Speaker 1: when you took over the case begin your own investigation?
Speaker 1: Did you interview witnesses? Oh? Absolutely good, gracious, we had
Speaker 1: a complete trial file. I guess I probably talked to
Speaker 1: every one oh in Memphis. So we worked on that
Speaker 1: case from his arrest in June of solidly until the
Speaker 1: trial in the fall of and you thought you had
Speaker 1: a pretty good chance going to trial. We were absolutely confident.
Speaker 1: What was the evidence that the authorities had that they
Speaker 1: say proved that James el Ray murdered Martin with the King?
Speaker 1: We'll see, that's the problem. There was a lot of talk.
Speaker 1: For instance, the authorities would parade, Oh, we found a
Speaker 1: gun that James ol Ray bought in Birmingham. There's no
Speaker 1: doubt about it. It was the rifle that Ray bought
Speaker 1: in Birmingham. It simply wasn't the gun that killed Dr. King. Moreover,
Speaker 1: perhaps the only legitimate witness in the whole area was
Speaker 1: a man named Knips, who ran the amusement shop where
Speaker 1: the package was thrown down. Mr Knips was prepared justifi
Speaker 1: that the package was thrown down that contained the rifle
Speaker 1: before the shot that killed Dr King was fired. When
Speaker 1: Judge Haynes refers to the package, he's talking about a
Speaker 1: strange collection of things, including some books, cans of beer,
Speaker 1: a small radio, underwear, and a rifle with raised fingerprints,
Speaker 1: all of it tied up in a bedspread and found
Speaker 1: on the street in front of a small store owned
Speaker 1: by Mr Guy Knipe. When you talked to Mr Knight,
Speaker 1: did he have a clear recollection of the package? Well,
Speaker 1: sure is, and he said that he believes it was
Speaker 1: ten minutes before the shot that the package was dropped off,
Speaker 1: and that would make sense because the street would be
Speaker 1: empty then and somebody could do that and not be seen.
Speaker 1: Do you believe he was sincere? Oh? I absolutely, He
Speaker 1: had no motive or stake in it, and truthfully was
Speaker 1: not particularly excited to be involved, but he was willing
Speaker 1: to be. You'll see the fire station overlooks the Lorraine Motel.
Speaker 1: That fire station was packed with city policeman, federal agents,
Speaker 1: of spectators, curiosity seekers and others who were looking out
Speaker 1: over the Lorraine Motel to see the activities of Dr
Speaker 1: King and his entourage. The moment the shot was fired
Speaker 1: and Dr King went down, that fire station erupted like
Speaker 1: a beehive, police going in all directions. The very idea
Speaker 1: that someone could fire that shot stopping a room, very
Speaker 1: carefully wrapped that package, put the gun in it, and
Speaker 1: tie it and then drop it is, in our way
Speaker 1: of thinking, simply preposterous and unbelievable. When they put their
Speaker 1: so called trial on, which wasn't a trial at all,
Speaker 1: It was just a show where they brought forth what
Speaker 1: evidence they said they would have brought forth had there
Speaker 1: been a trial, And in that proceeding they referred to
Speaker 1: their eyewitness, one Charlie Stevens. Oh, good, gracious, Charlie Stevens
Speaker 1: was drunk as a goat when Dr King was killed.
Speaker 1: We had a taxi driver who was going to testify.
Speaker 1: Stevens had called a cab and the cab driver refused
Speaker 1: to lead him in the cab because he was too
Speaker 1: drunk to ride in a cab. So if your star
Speaker 1: witness is too drunk to ride in a cab, we
Speaker 1: felt his testimony was worth nothing. Tell me what was
Speaker 1: the official authorities, what was their official motive? What did
Speaker 1: Ray kill King? According to them, We were never quite
Speaker 1: clear on that there was some noble that there was
Speaker 1: a convict in Missouri who was going to say that
Speaker 1: Ray had made some racist comments years before. But it
Speaker 1: was a very very weak and probably untrue declaration. Had
Speaker 1: Bray ever done engaged in violence that you know of?
Speaker 1: Nothing we know of he He was, of course a
Speaker 1: petty criminal. He had no history of violence that we
Speaker 1: were aware of. We should note that James Earl Ray
Speaker 1: did own a pistol, though we did not carry it
Speaker 1: around in his everyday life. He might brandish the weapon
Speaker 1: during a hold up, but there was no record of
Speaker 1: him ever shooting someone. Now back to our hands, I'm
Speaker 1: telling you, Bill, Martin Luther King was not on James
Speaker 1: Earl Ray's radar screen, part of his life or his
Speaker 1: interest at all. A convict doing time is interested in
Speaker 1: his daily bread and survival. That was James Earl Ray.
Speaker 1: He had had no interest in politics, or world affairs
Speaker 1: or anything. We tried everything in the world to evoke
Speaker 1: any kind of reaction from Ray, arranging from ductr King
Speaker 1: deserved to die to whoever killed him should be summarily executed. Nothing,
Speaker 1: no reaction one way or the other. Ray told art
Speaker 1: Hanes from the start that he did not shoot King,
Speaker 1: and Haines was unable to find in Ray even the
Speaker 1: semblance of a motive for such a crime. Of course,
Speaker 1: the press found it easy to brand him as a racist,
Speaker 1: and when they wanted to put a little frosting on
Speaker 1: the cake, they would say he was a hardened criminal.
Speaker 1: In that regard, it might be useful to review rays
Speaker 1: rap sheet. Discharged from the army for failure to adapt
Speaker 1: to military life. Sentenced to ninety days for stealing a typewriter,
Speaker 1: two sentenced to two years in prison for stealing eleven
Speaker 1: dollars from a cab driver. Five served three years, and
Speaker 1: Leavenworth for stealing money orders nine sentenced to twenty years
Speaker 1: Missouri State pen for stealing a hundred dollars from a supermarket.
Speaker 1: That's it, except for a bunch of escape attempts. A
Speaker 1: rap sheet, of course, is not a complete record of
Speaker 1: a person's criminal activity. It's just the record of crimes
Speaker 1: he's been caught at. So we can assume from this
Speaker 1: list that Ray pulled off other robberies and hold ups.
Speaker 1: But the list does illustrate the kinds of crimes he
Speaker 1: was inclined to commit. And nowhere does it appear that
Speaker 1: he wants to be a famous criminal. And why would
Speaker 1: that matter? It would matter because of what William Bradford
Speaker 1: Huey said in an article for Look magazine following Raised
Speaker 1: plea of guilty. Hughie had been putting up money for
Speaker 1: Raised defense, and in return he got the inside track
Speaker 1: on race story by way of handwritten accounts by Ray
Speaker 1: of where he had been and what he had done.
Speaker 1: Hughie had written two previous articles for Look where he
Speaker 1: said he would show that there was a conspiracy to
Speaker 1: assassinate King, but Hughie suddenly changed course and in his
Speaker 1: final article said that James Ray alone had murdered King.
Speaker 1: But why did Ray kill King? Did he hate black people?
Speaker 1: Did he hate King? No? According to hue Ray felt
Speaker 1: insecure about his position in the world, so he wanted
Speaker 1: to make sure that everyone knew that he was the
Speaker 1: one who killed King. This was the explanation that the
Speaker 1: nation received by way of Look magazine from a man
Speaker 1: who had inside information from Ray himself. But Ray never
Speaker 1: told him that. Huie just came to it on his own.
Speaker 1: But Hughie never spent any time at all with Ray.
Speaker 1: But Judge Haynes had spent many hours with him, what
Speaker 1: did he think? Did Ray ever demonstrate anything to you
Speaker 1: to indicate that he wanted to be known as the
Speaker 1: man who killed King? Why? Certainly not. He did not
Speaker 1: it vehemently from the beginning. He was an escaped con
Speaker 1: He didn't care. He just didn't want to go back
Speaker 1: to the penitentiary. So how was it that Ray came
Speaker 1: to Memphis. Well, his brother Jerry and Ray himself are
Speaker 1: about to tell us. And we gave up real boring
Speaker 1: journey at in person plays. We lived out of them.
Speaker 1: These are the words of Jerry Ray, James Earl Ray's
Speaker 1: younger brother, testifying at the civil trial. In the court
Speaker 1: recording here was muddy. So we've taken the liberty of
Speaker 1: reading Ray's words from the trial transcript. We came up
Speaker 1: real poor during the depression days. We lived out on
Speaker 1: a far most of the time. But back there in
Speaker 1: the depression, everybody had it bad. James had been born
Speaker 1: in ninety eight in Alton, Illinois, the oldest of eight.
Speaker 1: His mother, Lucille, was nineteen. James was followed by his
Speaker 1: sister Marjorie, brother John, and then Jerry there were seven
Speaker 1: years between Jerry and James asked if he had noticed
Speaker 1: any signs of racial hatred, and his brother Jerry said
Speaker 1: he hadn't. No, he never did, have no hostility towards
Speaker 1: any race, not only Blacks, but Hispanics or anybody. The
Speaker 1: one thing he tried to do is live and let live.
Speaker 1: Before he went into the army. He was a hard
Speaker 1: worker and he just lived a life of crime after that.
Speaker 1: It's true that James Earl Ray did not have an
Speaker 1: arrest record before entering the army in nineteen forty six,
Speaker 1: but he was already traveling a difficult road. He had
Speaker 1: to do first grade twice because of some forgery trouble
Speaker 1: where the family had to leave town. His father was
Speaker 1: frequently drunk and his mother was always signet. She gave
Speaker 1: birth eight times and lost Marjorie when the six year
Speaker 1: old caught fire standing next to a stove. James left
Speaker 1: school in the middle of eighth grade and went to
Speaker 1: live with his grandparents, where he would sometimes spend evenings
Speaker 1: with his uncle Earl. Evenings had often ended up at
Speaker 1: Big Marie's brothel, where Ray would sometimes run errands for
Speaker 1: the girls, as he called them. The behavior he fell
Speaker 1: into is what he had seen all his life. Jerry
Speaker 1: Ray watched his older brother from a distance of seven years,
Speaker 1: but he did have one insight about James that is
Speaker 1: worth mentioning. If he uh makes friends with somebody, he's
Speaker 1: easily led around, easily led around. That's what his brother
Speaker 1: said about him. According to the St. Louis Post Dispatch,
Speaker 1: James met a guy named Rife who had stolen some
Speaker 1: postal money orders. Rife recruited Ray to help cash them
Speaker 1: until they got caught. James went to federal prison in Leavenworth.
Speaker 1: He got out three years later and ran into a
Speaker 1: guy named Owens, and they robbed a grocery store for
Speaker 1: a hundred and twenty dollars, but they were caught twenty
Speaker 1: minutes later because a witness notified the police about his
Speaker 1: vehicle for that robbery. Ray was sentenced to twenty years.
Speaker 1: James hated prison life, and his record is filled with
Speaker 1: various attempts to escape, which always put more years on
Speaker 1: enough so that in the spring of nineteen sixty seven,
Speaker 1: after having served six years, he still had eighteen years
Speaker 1: left on his twenty years sentence. But James came up
Speaker 1: with yet another scheme and he rode out of Jefferson
Speaker 1: City Prison in style, hidden under loads of bread in
Speaker 1: a bakery truck. It required the help and probably the
Speaker 1: permission of some people on the inside, and James would
Speaker 1: never say who those people were. After his escape, Ray
Speaker 1: said that he walked along a railroad for six days
Speaker 1: until his feet were swollen and bloody. Then he caught
Speaker 1: a bus to Chicago and met with his brothers, John
Speaker 1: and Jerry. It is also possible, perhaps likely, that Ray
Speaker 1: was picked up by his brother John somewhere along the way,
Speaker 1: and the two of them drove to Chicago, where the
Speaker 1: brothers gave him some money and James answered an ad
Speaker 1: for work at a restaurant. Ray took the work under
Speaker 1: his brother's name, John Raynes, and he used his brother
Speaker 1: social Security number. The plan was to earn enough money
Speaker 1: to buy an old car and drive to Canada. James
Speaker 1: worked hard at the Indian Trail restaurant and one of pay,
Speaker 1: raise and the respect of the owners, Clara and Harvey Klingman.
Speaker 1: There was something about him that they liked. After Ray
Speaker 1: had been captured and brought back to Memphis, Clara Klingman
Speaker 1: was shocked to hear that the person she knew as
Speaker 1: John Raines was really James L. Ray, the man who
Speaker 1: had murdered Martin Luther King. She could not believe that
Speaker 1: he had harbored such invisible hatred. She had seen none
Speaker 1: of it. Whatever he is and whatever he is done,
Speaker 1: she would say, while he was here, we saw a
Speaker 1: spark of dignity in John Raines doing so well. Ray
Speaker 1: might have stayed on at the restaurant, but he was
Speaker 1: a wanted man and a social Security number was not his.
Speaker 1: So after eight weeks he left, bought an old car
Speaker 1: and went to Montreal, where he hoped to discover what
Speaker 1: he needed to get a Canadian passport. Ray had been
Speaker 1: in Montreal just a couple of days. When he was
Speaker 1: sitting at a table in a neptune bar, a man approached,
Speaker 1: pulled out a chair and sat down. From this point
Speaker 1: on the voice of James Earl Ray that you will
Speaker 1: hear is from a deposition he gave in and answers
Speaker 1: to questions asked by Attorney Lewis Garrison. Where you first
Speaker 1: met in Montreal, Canada and a place called bar in Montville,
Speaker 1: East Mark, Yo. And what was your unforted person going
Speaker 1: in my drawways? Your tune to do when you got there,
Speaker 1: I try to get try to get some tel dipars
Speaker 1: and leave the counting. How long would you been there
Speaker 1: when you met raw at this Neptune bar. It's just
Speaker 1: day exactly been all right? He hadn't been over it.
Speaker 1: I said week, last, a week wheter week? It probably
Speaker 1: have wait six seven days. I wouldn't want to get
Speaker 1: hit down. Just how many days? And when he came in?
Speaker 1: What what attracted you to him? Or how did you
Speaker 1: get the current sation? Started him? I didn't started conversation
Speaker 1: and in in sit down started conversation maybe just talking about
Speaker 1: general things and and you and this gentle start up
Speaker 1: the conversation general things such as a weather or something
Speaker 1: like that. And how long did you said to you? Really? Well,
Speaker 1: I don't know. I wan't too long. I mean, I
Speaker 1: mean i've been how are you conversation bars feed less?
Speaker 1: What you just get some kind of teach you? But
Speaker 1: we didn't sit there too long, and I don't think
Speaker 1: we just started talking and I was can you tell
Speaker 1: us just about to row about sad person? Was was
Speaker 1: a fast with ten uh traffic? Leven or half of
Speaker 1: found where it really taller you or short in you well,
Speaker 1: but with Tana, I just simon the ground and five
Speaker 1: with a year nine or maybe somewhere in that general
Speaker 1: or again that it's hard to estimated bet with weight,
Speaker 1: but I didn't think it would be any can't wait
Speaker 1: a whole lot, but I've got any waited by earn
Speaker 1: forty or forty five pounds. I just can't can't leave
Speaker 1: start on someone weight like that cod here here, I
Speaker 1: had a kind of a it's a dark hair dark
Speaker 1: which I called a slight red tanda. The talk like
Speaker 1: you have been someone who had been uh Ripken, Canada,
Speaker 1: or Detroit or someone in uh tweople of Mississippi or
Speaker 1: told you what was your intrusion on? Well, yes, some
Speaker 1: much spanis accident. And I had a lot of association
Speaker 1: with Mexican that been in Mexico before and that and
Speaker 1: les was a lot of time, so I certainly used
Speaker 1: that person. Ray said that in their first meeting he
Speaker 1: had mentioned that he wanted travel documents. Raoul said he
Speaker 1: might be able to help with that. They agreed to
Speaker 1: meet again, and did so a day or two later.
Speaker 1: When the conversation became specific, Raoul told Ray that he
Speaker 1: could help him get a Canadian passport and other documents
Speaker 1: he might need, but it would take some time. In
Speaker 1: the meanwhile, he had some work to offer if Ray
Speaker 1: were interested. It involved carrying some things across the border
Speaker 1: and race car. According to Ray, Raoul's promised to get
Speaker 1: him the documents he desired was the very thing he
Speaker 1: most wanted to hear, so he ended up crossing the
Speaker 1: border a couple of times carrying things hidden under the
Speaker 1: back seat of his car. Ray didn't know what he
Speaker 1: had been transporting for Raoul, but he was well paid
Speaker 1: for his time. However, the promised documents were not produced,
Speaker 1: but they were still being offered. So when Raoul said
Speaker 1: he wanted ready to go to Alabama, where he would
Speaker 1: buy Ray a much nicer car to be used for
Speaker 1: a few errands, Ray agreed. So one day in late August,
Speaker 1: Jerry Ray got a call from James and agreed to
Speaker 1: meet him in Chicago, where James said he'd give Jerry
Speaker 1: his sixty two Plymouth and that Jerry could put him
Speaker 1: on a train south. Here's Jerry's memory of that meeting.
Speaker 1: And we spent a Nightingale had pratice together, and he
Speaker 1: was thought maybe he was all happy and earliers. He
Speaker 1: had plenty money on him, so he said, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: move down to Birmingham and by a late model Paris.
Speaker 1: He had as he said written and Mr Raol, I
Speaker 1: get decided to remember Ala Raoul came and I work
Speaker 1: for again named Raoul or something like that. Didn't I
Speaker 1: sure go out? There was no over carman and suddenly
Speaker 1: I didn't know what it was. And uh he said
Speaker 1: he worked as uh he as a guy go rabul
Speaker 1: that um to get that money. Un So you get
Speaker 1: out of the will get out of the Canada and
Speaker 1: the United States boat he ever mentioned. Dr Hardin came
Speaker 1: gaging that the game came name never came up and
Speaker 1: uh the last name name that was mad about was
Speaker 1: you know Jackson or Gang or Candier ended held he
Speaker 1: though he was drying to stay out of rot. So
Speaker 1: James went to Birmingham, where he said Raoul gave him
Speaker 1: two thousand dollars to buy a white sixties six Mustang.
Speaker 1: What followed was weeks of crazy trips in and out
Speaker 1: of Mexico, spare tires that were exchanged for other spare tires.
Speaker 1: James believed that he was running drugs and money, but
Speaker 1: he didn't know. He just did as he was told.
Speaker 1: Then the trips dried up, and James ceased to believe
Speaker 1: that there were any travel documents coming his way. So
Speaker 1: he told Raoul, who seemed fine with it, that he
Speaker 1: planned to go to Los Angeles, And so he went
Speaker 1: to l A, where he stayed from November to March,
Speaker 1: taking dance lessons and a course in har Attending. Some
Speaker 1: months later, Ray said he got a letter from Raoul
Speaker 1: saying he wanted to meet in New Orleans. According to Ray,
Speaker 1: he met with Raoul who said he wanted him to
Speaker 1: come back East. Ray was running low on money, so
Speaker 1: we agreed. When Ray got to Birmingham, Raoul said there
Speaker 1: was some sort of gun deal coming down and he
Speaker 1: needed Ray to purchase a rifle to show to a
Speaker 1: prospective customer. And while none of this made a lot
Speaker 1: of sense, one must remember that Ray had already done
Speaker 1: some number of things for Raoul that didn't seem to
Speaker 1: make sense, but he hadn't asked questions and he had
Speaker 1: always been paid. So in pursuit of the needed rifle,
Speaker 1: Ray goes to a sports store in Birmingham named Aero Marine. Again,
Speaker 1: here's Ray and Louis garrison. Did he take what kind
Speaker 1: of well when he wants you to take a look at? Well?
Speaker 1: When I got there, I asked for a deare a
Speaker 1: rival than it was? Wonn't you us for it? That's
Speaker 1: the type of ros used. But I don't know too
Speaker 1: much about the roding? So what kind of right would
Speaker 1: you take you look at? He probably gave me some drives,
Speaker 1: but it wasn't good enough for I could say exactly
Speaker 1: what I wanted? Did you writeing man? Did I? Did
Speaker 1: he write him man for you? No? No? Not so
Speaker 1: you walked in and did that? What kind of rival?
Speaker 1: You won't him want a brand? What caliber? Want anything?
Speaker 1: You just said, I want to hear up? Yeah, I
Speaker 1: told him I was gonna out there is my brother
Speaker 1: law and not like looks at vibes and he said,
Speaker 1: he said, this is what you want. This is about
Speaker 1: the best thing. Ay said, where is that effect? And
Speaker 1: I said, okay, that's about more So. The store mounted
Speaker 1: a scope on the rifle, which turned out to be
Speaker 1: a quite fine two forty three Winchester. Gray left the
Speaker 1: store with that gun. Because when you get back to
Speaker 1: the hotel, are you waiting for you? Yes? Get one
Speaker 1: with him? No? And do you take the guy in? Yes,
Speaker 1: What do you say about it? I think he said
Speaker 1: was wrong type of trap or on caliber? On brand? Wrong?
Speaker 1: What I think he said? This wan type? It was
Speaker 1: his word. What do you what do you meant? So
Speaker 1: they don't What do you really wanted? No? I didn't.
Speaker 1: I had brochure. The Salesmenking a brochure, So I just
Speaker 1: brochure to take out what he wanted, and I go
Speaker 1: back and rochure Sara Hees. Raoul pointed to a certain gun,
Speaker 1: and Ray called the store and asked if he could
Speaker 1: make the exchange. They said yes, but that he should
Speaker 1: come in the following day. According to Ray, the next
Speaker 1: time he met Raoul was at the New Rebel Motel
Speaker 1: just outside of Memphis on the stormy night before King
Speaker 1: was killed. Raoul left with a gun, and Ray says
Speaker 1: he never saw it again. So what to make of this?
Speaker 1: In many ways, it's a quintessential James Earl Ray story.
Speaker 1: It doesn't make sense, none of it. If there was
Speaker 1: a un deal, what purpose would be served to show
Speaker 1: up with a rifle that anyone could buy in a store?
Speaker 1: And was Ray really such a dope when it comes
Speaker 1: to guns? It seems that he was. Bill Pepper talked
Speaker 1: to the guy who sold Ray the rifle. I spoke
Speaker 1: to the Don Woods who managed the story. Told Donald
Speaker 1: again about three or four months ago. He said, this
Speaker 1: guy absolutely nothing about is incredible. Yeah, nothing. So some
Speaker 1: guy who knows nothing about guns comes in to buy
Speaker 1: a rifle and he's pleased to take whatever is offered
Speaker 1: and leaves the store happy as a clan. But then
Speaker 1: an hour or so later he calls and says he
Speaker 1: needs to exchange the gun. But why. In the official
Speaker 1: version of the crime, Ray was completely on his own,
Speaker 1: So who was unhappy with the gun? For ten years,
Speaker 1: no one even tried to answer this question. But to
Speaker 1: their credit, the House Committee finally solve the problem. Gun
Speaker 1: number one, they said, being exchanged for gun number two
Speaker 1: showed quote significant signs of unwitting aid or knowing complicity
Speaker 1: in the assassination itself. So finally, this crazy gun exchange
Speaker 1: story merits the interpretation that there was at least another person,
Speaker 1: and the House Committee had a suspect in mind, and
Speaker 1: it wasn't Raoul. It was raised brother Jerry and supported
Speaker 1: this idea. They offered a few casual comments that James
Speaker 1: had made along the way in California, James apparently told
Speaker 1: the woman he was going east to see his brother,
Speaker 1: and later at the gun store, he told the salesman
Speaker 1: that he was going hunting with his brother. But of
Speaker 1: course neither of these statements is evidence of anything, and
Speaker 1: Jerry Ray was working in Chicago then, and for all
Speaker 1: this to work, he kind of needed to be in Birmingham.
Speaker 1: To their credit, the House Committee did try to deal
Speaker 1: with this. They said in their report that every Ray
Speaker 1: work from eleven pm to seven a m. And if
Speaker 1: he had Thursdays off, he could, quoting here conceivably have
Speaker 1: gone to Birmingham, given advice on the initial rifle purchase
Speaker 1: on Friday afternoon, and returned to Chicago in time to
Speaker 1: be on the job by eleven pm that night. So
Speaker 1: apparently it was possible. It just seems like a lot
Speaker 1: of trouble to go to to advise your older brother
Speaker 1: on a gun purchase, and it must have felt the
Speaker 1: same way to the House Committee, because a couple of
Speaker 1: sentences later they suggest that perhaps Jerry didn't come down
Speaker 1: to Birmingham after all, that maybe the entire advising consent
Speaker 1: took place over the phone. They then leave it to
Speaker 1: us to imagine the conversation. If we were to set
Speaker 1: the House Committee solution to this riddle aside for the moment,
Speaker 1: and we're to accept james explanation that includes Raoul, then
Speaker 1: what does wrong type or wrong gun mean? Well, the
Speaker 1: first rifle was a two forty three Winchester, an excellent
Speaker 1: hunting gun and perfectly adequate for killing a human if
Speaker 1: that's what you wanted to do. The second, a Remington
Speaker 1: thirty six game Master, fired a larger bullet, so in
Speaker 1: this instance might be considered more ideal for killing a person.
Speaker 1: But is that what Raoul meant when he said wrong gun?
Speaker 1: Doesn't seem likely, because if Raoul and others were involved,
Speaker 1: the murder was a planned event, And if it was
Speaker 1: a planned event, then the shooter, whoever he was, which
Speaker 1: surely not agreed to a plan that relied upon the
Speaker 1: arrival of a weapon to be purchased the day before
Speaker 1: by some guy. Seems a little casual for the importance
Speaker 1: of the event. So if the newly bought gun is
Speaker 1: not going to be the murder weapon, wrong gun takes
Speaker 1: on a different meaning. If the purpose of the gun
Speaker 1: Ray bought is to connect Ray to the murder. Then
Speaker 1: the two forty three Winchester is truly the wrong gun.
Speaker 1: If King was to be killed by a thirty caliber bullet,
Speaker 1: a throwdown weapon that could not fire such a bullet
Speaker 1: would give up the game. Though he did not know
Speaker 1: why Ray had to go back and change the gun.
Speaker 1: Where were you reported decision? I wasn't understand, say Ray
Speaker 1: told Attorney Lewis Garrison that on the evening of April third,
Speaker 1: Raoul stopped by to see him at the New Rebel
Speaker 1: Motel just outside of Memphis. Raoul took the new rifle
Speaker 1: that Ray had purchased and told Ray to meet him
Speaker 1: at three thirty the next day at Jim's Grill, which
Speaker 1: was two and a half south Maine. The address was
Speaker 1: a little funny, so Ray wrote it down. Then he
Speaker 1: spoke of the next day on April fourth, I think
Speaker 1: I checked out the motel. I just guessed about let
Speaker 1: him fly. Pointever, they running out of the places, just
Speaker 1: too early to go to have his mates set on
Speaker 1: the outside of Memphis, asked her some Mephiles say I
Speaker 1: had I was getting ready to come back and have
Speaker 1: his meeting room. I had a flat tire, so I
Speaker 1: hadn't think said, so, where were you going? There's some
Speaker 1: words out in there. I'm not certain his works there,
Speaker 1: Race said. He removed the tire and put on the spare,
Speaker 1: and then drove into Memphis. It took a little exploring
Speaker 1: and he had to ask for directions, but he did
Speaker 1: end up at Jim's grill, and Raoul was not there.
Speaker 1: Ray had left his car some distance away and thought
Speaker 1: to retrieve it. When he returned, he parked it right
Speaker 1: outside the grill. And then when I went in this time,
Speaker 1: la Raoul, wasn't it this time? You see main name
Speaker 1: rising sting. So when when when I went out the door,
Speaker 1: it uh. He wanted to be rear a room upstairs
Speaker 1: to saidy laid up there with some start learned. Name
Speaker 1: is Bessy Brower, I toold. I want I like to
Speaker 1: wear a room for room a week, I think it was.
Speaker 1: She had two rooms, so she showed me two different rooms.
Speaker 1: One of was a sleeping room and one on was
Speaker 1: some type of ring where you're cooking. So I told
Speaker 1: her I was just interested in sleeping room. So she
Speaker 1: practice she ran into the sleeping room. I would like
Speaker 1: her too long. Rob would come up there and uh
Speaker 1: and started talking He said that we might be around
Speaker 1: her two three days, a couple of days. And he said,
Speaker 1: I should winging in my clothing everything I had to
Speaker 1: put in the room. But I didn't do that. But
Speaker 1: I didn't wing an overnight case up there, and U
Speaker 1: and I think I bought a something that sleep on,
Speaker 1: something thin sheet or something. Raoul then sent rayan and
Speaker 1: Errand to buy a pair of infrared binoculars, the inference
Speaker 1: being that this was somehow part of the gun deal.
Speaker 1: But the store Ray was sent to only had common binoculars,
Speaker 1: so Ray bought a pair of those, and when he
Speaker 1: returned to the room, Raoul didn't seem to care. It
Speaker 1: was approaching six o'clock and Raoul suggested that Ray clear
Speaker 1: out for a while, maybe go see a movie. So
Speaker 1: Ray left. From this point on in the story, you
Speaker 1: can flip a coin. According to the House Select Committee,
Speaker 1: Ray told his lawyer Art Haynes Sr. That quote. At
Speaker 1: approximately six pm on April four, he was sitting in
Speaker 1: his park Mustang in front of four twenty two and
Speaker 1: a half South Main Street when Raoul came running out
Speaker 1: of the rooming house, jumped in the back of the car,
Speaker 1: threw a white sheet over himself and told Ray to
Speaker 1: drive away. After they had driven a few blocks, Raoul
Speaker 1: jumped out, never to be seen again. But according to Ray,
Speaker 1: that was a false story. He had become distrustful of
Speaker 1: Bradford Huey, the writer who was paying for access to
Speaker 1: a story, because Ray felt that he was sharing everything
Speaker 1: Ray said with the FBI. So Ray decided to throw
Speaker 1: him a curveball and made up the story of driving
Speaker 1: away with Raoul. Perhaps not the smartest thing to do,
Speaker 1: but it was for Ray certainly in character. What really happened,
Speaker 1: according to Ray, was that he went to the gas
Speaker 1: station looking to fix his tire, and I gotta think
Speaker 1: about had flat tire earlier that day, so I am
Speaker 1: I thought to get clixed. I woke back down to
Speaker 1: the room house and got the must night and then
Speaker 1: I thought I was road waiting, probably a game girls.
Speaker 1: Several blocks I turned right, you know, I think I went,
Speaker 1: you know, one or two, blocked down and turn right again.
Speaker 1: My attention trying to get tik clax and the park
Speaker 1: where right where it was? Evidence does this to support
Speaker 1: Ray's gas station account. In five years after the murder,
Speaker 1: Bill Pepper found at the bottom of a drawer in
Speaker 1: the police files, evidence that had never been chaired with anyone.
Speaker 1: They were official statements made to the FBI by two men,
Speaker 1: Ray Hendrix and Bill Reid on the day King was killed.
Speaker 1: The two men were at Jim's grill late in the afternoon.
Speaker 1: They left together at around five thirty. Both of these
Speaker 1: statements were read into the record at the civil trial.
Speaker 1: What we will do here is read the statement given
Speaker 1: to the FBI by Mr Hendrix. Mr Hendrix commented that
Speaker 1: when he left Jim's grill, he forgot his jacket and
Speaker 1: had to return for the jacket. He said he learned
Speaker 1: later that while he was getting his jacket, Bill Reid
Speaker 1: looked at a white Mustang that was parked almost in
Speaker 1: front of jim Scroll. He stated, however, when he and
Speaker 1: Bill Reid approached the intersection of Vance in South Main Street,
Speaker 1: Bill Reid pulled him back from the curb because the
Speaker 1: car was turning the corner. He said that this car
Speaker 1: was a white Mustang, and after the car turned the corner, though,
Speaker 1: Read commented to him that this was the Mustang that
Speaker 1: was parked in front of Jim's grill which he looked
Speaker 1: at while he Hendrix was retrieving his jacket. Neither Hendrix
Speaker 1: nor Reid could say who was driving, though both said
Speaker 1: there was only one person in the car, and Reid
Speaker 1: said that the driver was not young, but not old.
Speaker 1: Reid also described the color of the Mustang as off white,
Speaker 1: which would be a strong indication that it was raised
Speaker 1: off white Mustang that he saw making the turn, the
Speaker 1: same car that he looked at in front of Jim's grill.
Speaker 1: The best estimate of the encounter on Band Street would
Speaker 1: be somewhere near five. This would conform with Ray's account
Speaker 1: of driving to a guess station at that time. There
Speaker 1: has never been any explanation as to why this evidence
Speaker 1: had been kept hidden by law. It should not have been,
Speaker 1: and if James hil Ray had had a trial, such
Speaker 1: evidence might have been sufficient to establish the reasonable doubt
Speaker 1: required for Ray's acquittal. And what about the tire? According
Speaker 1: to Ray, he never got to fix that day. When
Speaker 1: he got to the gas station and talked to the attendant,
Speaker 1: the man said he didn't have the time just then, so,
Speaker 1: according to Ray, he headed back to Main Street. But
Speaker 1: when he got there he saw all kinds of commotion
Speaker 1: from the place he had just come from. I lived
Speaker 1: down manistrate and looked like three more in vaga replacement
Speaker 1: running around on her and I think had labor squad,
Speaker 1: bar police cars, black later sectionary, black office street. So
Speaker 1: something looked like the way around. So waiting his arm
Speaker 1: around impossible way to big los Aires turned less, turning right,
Speaker 1: I find that come out a manastrate ray was an
Speaker 1: escaped convict. Any contact with the police was unwelcome, so
Speaker 1: we did not need a lot of incentive to drive
Speaker 1: away and ask questions later, and his radio in the
Speaker 1: car was on. His vote came over radio saying that
Speaker 1: Reverend Martlin's King and shots. So I didn't take too
Speaker 1: much canse on that, but I kept on driving. Was
Speaker 1: too long I have heard and said, uh, they were
Speaker 1: looking for a white man and white mustang and the
Speaker 1: next one the shooting reverend King. So I decided him
Speaker 1: that you know, did have died, So it's back. So
Speaker 1: instead of magnate phone calls, I just kept going going
Speaker 1: south in the Mississippi of returning from there, I went
Speaker 1: on into the land. From the land, I went through. Uh,
Speaker 1: they joined him by Canada. Before we move on, I
Speaker 1: think it important to note that there are places in
Speaker 1: race story where he is obviously not telling all he knows.
Speaker 1: As mentioned earlier, Ray always refused to reveal who helped
Speaker 1: him escape from federal prison. According to Bill Pepper, Ray
Speaker 1: had been a convict for most of his adult life
Speaker 1: and he lived by the code that you don't tell
Speaker 1: on people. And while Ray says it was only Raoul
Speaker 1: that he met on his two trips to New Orleans,
Speaker 1: it may have been not just Raoul. Ray's first lawyer,
Speaker 1: Art Haynes, told me about an interesting piece of evidence
Speaker 1: that turned up and raised mustang. A matchbook cover had
Speaker 1: a New Orleans phone number written only he forbad us
Speaker 1: to look into it and go beyond it. Then there
Speaker 1: is the matter of the four excellent false identities that
Speaker 1: Ray used while he was on the run from the law.
Speaker 1: This is the late phil Alanson, who wrote one of
Speaker 1: the early books on the murder of King The alias's
Speaker 1: question is crucial because it was unexplained by official investigations,
Speaker 1: and it's obviously central to this case. James ol Ray
Speaker 1: was able to use the names of people who looked
Speaker 1: like him, who were totally innocent, and in the case
Speaker 1: of Mr gald who shared uncanny characteristics with Ray, when
Speaker 1: Ray had no capacity to have gone to Toronto and
Speaker 1: scouted these names out or gotten them from a file.
Speaker 1: Over the years, Ray would offer vague explanations as to
Speaker 1: how he came by these identities, like maybe he got
Speaker 1: them out of a phone book, but someone had to
Speaker 1: have provided them to Ray, and he would never say who.
Speaker 1: Milansen's theory was that Ray, whose role in this crime
Speaker 1: seemed to be that of the fall guy, understood that
Speaker 1: more people involved would not make him look more innocent,
Speaker 1: and beyond that, exposing other people might well get him killed.
Speaker 1: So as we move forward, it is important to know
Speaker 1: that Ray did not tell everything he knew, even to
Speaker 1: proven friends like Bill Pepper. So Ray was arrested in
Speaker 1: Great Britain and then sent back to Memphis, where he
Speaker 1: was kept out of sight. As Judge Hines explained, the
Speaker 1: more familiar he and his father became with the evidence,
Speaker 1: the more certain they were that they would win the case.
Speaker 1: But rays enforced isolation presented a problem because everyone knew
Speaker 1: from all the reports that their client was the monster
Speaker 1: who had shot Dr King, but no one had seen him,
Speaker 1: and as Arthur Haynes said, if they were going to
Speaker 1: have a chance to win the case, they would need
Speaker 1: to change the visuals. He still remained the great mystery man.
Speaker 1: Nobody had ever seen him. There was no picture of him,
Speaker 1: there were no purple walks in those days. You had
Speaker 1: this great mystery Man. All in all, he was being
Speaker 1: crucified in the press of the world, and we felt
Speaker 1: like we needed to do something to at least stem
Speaker 1: the tide. So the lights were on all the time,
Speaker 1: and we talked to Ray about it, and he said, yeah,
Speaker 1: so the hard sleep. So we thought this is a
Speaker 1: great opportunity. Number one to parade out the Great Fiend
Speaker 1: and let the world see that he's just a little
Speaker 1: petty criminal. And number two to start the whole proceedings
Speaker 1: with a lock cinch winning decision. So we followed a
Speaker 1: motion to turn off the lights, that it was cruel
Speaker 1: and unusual punishment, and to turn off the lights so
Speaker 1: that he could sleep at night. Oh, it was a
Speaker 1: great day in Memphis. They had reserved a large room
Speaker 1: for the press. There were no cell phones, of course,
Speaker 1: with telephones, and incomes the Great Fiend to the courtroom
Speaker 1: to hear the motion to turn off the lights. I'll
Speaker 1: never forget it. Ray was on the stand and ultimately
Speaker 1: the crucial question was asked, Mr Ray, are the lights
Speaker 1: on in your cell twenty four hours a day? As
Speaker 1: answered wise, yes they were. And then the Kuda Gras
Speaker 1: was to come and my dad asked him, and how
Speaker 1: does that affect you, Mr Ray, And I will tell
Speaker 1: you word for word his answer, Oh, it doesn't bother me.
Speaker 1: No one a typical James Earl Ray move. And I
Speaker 1: used this example with my trial students because the lesson
Speaker 1: is you can prepare all you want to, but you
Speaker 1: never know what a witness is going to say in court.
Speaker 1: Back in It's November and you've been on the case
Speaker 1: for four months and you're about to go to trial.
Speaker 1: The entire world thinks that James el Ray murdered King.
Speaker 1: But you know the prosecution's eye witness is a fraud.
Speaker 1: Charlie Stephens that the supposed the purported murder weapon is
Speaker 1: most likely a plant, and the motive given to Ray
Speaker 1: is a fabrication. But virtually everyone else in the universe
Speaker 1: thinks the case is a slam dunk for the prosecution.
Speaker 1: You're six, were you ever? Did you have any apprehension
Speaker 1: or any fear? That is the advantage of being a
Speaker 1: twenty six year old lawyer about to make the opening
Speaker 1: statement and the trial of the accused killer of Martin
Speaker 1: Luther King. So all I knew was, of course, we're
Speaker 1: gonna win this one too. We went to the jail.
Speaker 1: I had spent all Friday with Ray getting ready for
Speaker 1: the case. I have learned in retrospect that almost immediately
Speaker 1: upon my leaving the jail on Friday to come back
Speaker 1: to Birmingham, this lawyer from Texas was allowed in the
Speaker 1: one that ultimately spent the weekend in the cell with
Speaker 1: Ray persuading him to change lawyers. We got there and interestingly,
Speaker 1: James Earl Ray and my dad were exactly the same size.
Speaker 1: We had bought two of suits for him to wear
Speaker 1: the trial and ties to go with them, and we
Speaker 1: were going to take him the suits and buck him
Speaker 1: up a little bit on the even before trial when
Speaker 1: we got to the jail, the spitting snow was right cold.
Speaker 1: That night we got the jail, we were handed a
Speaker 1: note and said thanks for all you've done, but I've
Speaker 1: decided to change lawyers. So we left. I mean, we
Speaker 1: were just lawyers. We were lawyers doing our duties. My
Speaker 1: dad wore those suits though for years and we always
Speaker 1: called him, as James Earl Ray suits why was Foreman there?
Speaker 1: And by there, I mean why did Foreman push his
Speaker 1: way into the case. Do you ever wonder about that?
Speaker 1: Did we ever wonder how Foreman got in the case? Only?
Speaker 1: Every day from that day until the day my father died.
Speaker 1: There are a lot of possible answers to that question.
Speaker 1: I'd like to end with something fun, or what I
Speaker 1: think is fun. In January of seventy, Ray is locked
Speaker 1: up for the rest of his life, no trial, and
Speaker 1: he learns that your dad has been ill and is
Speaker 1: in the hospital. So James el Ray sits down and
Speaker 1: writes to your dad, I'm gonna just read it, dear Arthur.
Speaker 1: I have read in the paper where you have been
Speaker 1: a little under the weather. I trust the young nurses
Speaker 1: will have you back in condition before you receive this letter. Sincerely,
Speaker 1: James el Ray. P s at least you don't have
Speaker 1: Percy Foreman for a doctor. There's something so simple and
Speaker 1: human about that. And he's able to look at I mean,
Speaker 1: he's in jail for the rest of his life, and
Speaker 1: he's chosen the wrong lawyers, and he's been duped again,
Speaker 1: and he's able to sort of make a little joke
Speaker 1: about it. That's exactly it. So why did celebrity attorney
Speaker 1: Percy Foreman at the very last moment push his way
Speaker 1: into the case. As Judge Haines says, not a day
Speaker 1: went by that they didn't wonder about that, and they
Speaker 1: came up with a bunch of possible answers. But as
Speaker 1: we shall see, the closer you look at Foreman, the
Speaker 1: darker those answers become. Next time on the email K tapes.
Speaker 1: The truth of the matter is Percy Foreman was the
Speaker 1: biggest fraud and blow hard I ever encountered in over
Speaker 1: fifty years of practicing law. The jail made He told
Speaker 1: me that if I would this missing him, he wouldn't
Speaker 1: get involved literary contest he might ask. I saw absolutely
Speaker 1: no evidence of any inclination or willingness on his part
Speaker 1: to defend that case as it should have been defended.
Speaker 1: And the Foreman game said this wis at all? Could
Speaker 1: you ever feel that you could ever do more than
Speaker 1: save his life? Never at any time, And so told
Speaker 1: him from the day I came in, and he never
Speaker 1: expected anything else from the first and I never expected
Speaker 1: to accomplish this. You had a government case where ballistics
Speaker 1: were weak, you had a key eye witness who was
Speaker 1: an alcoholic. Doesn't that bring the odds down to a
Speaker 1: little better than Wouldn't that give you a fighting chance
Speaker 1: for a reasonable doubt? Thanks for listening to The m
Speaker 1: l K Tapes, a production of I Heart Radio and
Speaker 1: Tenderfoot TV. This podcast is not specifically endorsed by the
Speaker 1: King Family or the King of State. Damail Ka Tapes
Speaker 1: is written and hosted by Bill Claiper. Matt Frederick and
Speaker 1: Alex Williams are executive producers on behalf of I Heart
Speaker 1: Radio with producers Trevor Young and ben Keebrick. Donald Albright
Speaker 1: and Payne Lindsay are executive producers on half of Tenderfoot
Speaker 1: TV with producers Jamie Albright and Meredith Steadman. Original music
Speaker 1: by Makeup and Vanity Said. Cover art by Mr Soul
Speaker 1: two six with photography by Artemus Jenkins. Special thanks to
Speaker 1: Owen Rosenbaum and Grace Royer at ut A, the Nord Group,
Speaker 1: back Median Marketing, Envisioned Business Management, and Station sixteen. If
Speaker 1: you have questions, you can visit our website the email
Speaker 1: K Tapes dot com. We posted photos and videos related
Speaker 1: to the podcast on our social media accounts. You can
Speaker 1: check them out at the email k tapes. For more
Speaker 1: podcasts from I Heart Radio and Tenderfoot TV, please visit
Speaker 1: the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
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