WEBVTT - 125,000 Reasons [13] 0:00:00.760 --> 0:00:04.320 Welcome to the MLK Tapes, a production of iHeartRadio and 0:00:04.360 --> 0:00:08.240 Tenderfoot TV. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast 0:00:08.440 --> 0:00:11.960 are solely those of the podcast author or individuals participating 0:00:12.000 --> 0:00:15.240 in the podcast, and do not represent those of iHeartMedia, 0:00:15.560 --> 0:00:20.040 Tenderfoot TV, or their employees. Listener discretion is advised. 0:00:22.079 --> 0:00:24.000 It was about seven o'clock in the evening. 0:00:24.680 --> 0:00:27.800 I got a teletype. It was from the Memphis Field 0:00:27.840 --> 0:00:31.520 office and all it said was Martin Luther King has 0:00:31.560 --> 0:00:34.559 been shot while standing on a balcony in a hotel 0:00:34.680 --> 0:00:37.880 in Memphis. That was it. That was the whole message. 0:00:38.520 --> 0:00:42.400 And I called Hoover at home. I didn't want him 0:00:42.680 --> 0:00:46.560 to hear it over the news. I called him and 0:00:46.640 --> 0:00:49.680 I said, mister Hoover, I just got a telex message 0:00:49.720 --> 0:00:53.479 from our Memphis office said that Martin Luther King was 0:00:53.520 --> 0:00:57.720 shot while standing on a belcon in that city. And 0:00:57.760 --> 0:01:01.920 then there was this pause, and his reaction to me 0:01:02.200 --> 0:01:04.280 was is he dead? 0:01:08.400 --> 0:01:11.200 I called the Union Hall. I said, it's a matter 0:01:11.240 --> 0:01:12.039 of life and death. 0:01:12.720 --> 0:01:15.200 I said, I think these peoples are planning to kill 0:01:15.280 --> 0:01:15.840 doctor King. 0:01:17.000 --> 0:01:20.480 The authorities were parade, Oh, we found a gun that 0:01:20.600 --> 0:01:24.760 James o'ray bought in Birmingham that killed doctor King. Except 0:01:25.280 --> 0:01:27.040 it wasn't the gun that killed doctor King. 0:01:27.880 --> 0:01:35.120 James Lray was a pawn for the official story. 0:01:34.000 --> 0:01:35.960 From My Heart Radio and Tender for TV. 0:01:36.640 --> 0:01:41.200 The plan was to get King to the city because 0:01:41.440 --> 0:01:43.880 they wanted it handled in Memphis where Daddy and then 0:01:43.920 --> 0:01:44.520 could handle it. 0:01:45.080 --> 0:01:48.280 And I've lived with it so long, my searity, and 0:01:47.720 --> 0:01:49.320 they scared for me. 0:01:49.840 --> 0:01:53.160 The Lord told me, not the word. I've been wanting 0:01:53.160 --> 0:01:54.320 to tell it all my life. 0:01:54.960 --> 0:02:05.960 I'm Bill Cleeburgh. And this is the MLK tapes. In 0:02:06.000 --> 0:02:09.240 the nineteen sixties, as the FBI was making life as 0:02:09.280 --> 0:02:12.600 difficult as it could for Martin Luther King, its director 0:02:12.680 --> 0:02:16.079 j Edgar Hoover was living the sweet life in upscale 0:02:16.120 --> 0:02:20.360 restaurants and five star hotels, the Waldorf Astoria in New 0:02:20.440 --> 0:02:26.080 York and exclusive resorts in Florida and California. And Hoover 0:02:26.160 --> 0:02:30.120 didn't go to these places alone, and virtually every instance 0:02:30.400 --> 0:02:33.800 he was accompanied by his second in command, Clyde Tolson. 0:02:34.800 --> 0:02:38.120 So who was Toulson, when did he arrive and what 0:02:38.280 --> 0:02:41.520 was the deal there? To help with this, we recently 0:02:41.600 --> 0:02:45.040 spoke with author Philip Nelson, whose excellent book Who really 0:02:45.120 --> 0:02:49.079 killed Martin Luther King was published just three years ago. 0:02:50.000 --> 0:02:53.079 Clyde Tolson grew up in a small town in Missouri. 0:02:53.760 --> 0:02:58.360 After public schooling, he attended George Washington University, where he 0:02:58.440 --> 0:03:01.560 received a law degree in nineteen ten twenty seven. The 0:03:01.600 --> 0:03:04.120 next year, he applied for a job with the Bureau 0:03:04.200 --> 0:03:09.200 of Investigation, where j Edgar Hoover was boss. Apparently Hoover 0:03:09.400 --> 0:03:13.520 already knew Tulson. In any case, Toulson was hired, and 0:03:13.600 --> 0:03:17.120 only two years later, in nineteen thirty he rose to 0:03:17.160 --> 0:03:20.639 the position of assistant director of the Bureau, which became 0:03:20.720 --> 0:03:25.120 the FBI in nineteen thirty three, with Toulson as Hoover's 0:03:25.200 --> 0:03:29.040 number two, a position he held until Hoover died in 0:03:29.160 --> 0:03:30.239 nineteen seventy two. 0:03:31.360 --> 0:03:34.320 It is widely assumed that Hoover and Twlson were lovers 0:03:34.840 --> 0:03:36.920 for forty years. They lived in what appeared to be 0:03:36.960 --> 0:03:40.960 a spousal relationship. Tulson maintained an apartment near to where 0:03:40.960 --> 0:03:43.400 Hoover lived. The two men were driven to and from 0:03:43.440 --> 0:03:45.840 work every day in the same car, and they ate 0:03:45.920 --> 0:03:47.080 all their meals together. 0:03:48.120 --> 0:03:51.119 Hoover and Toulson had lunch every day in the reb 0:03:51.200 --> 0:03:54.400 room in the Mayflower Hotel. They didn't pay for their 0:03:54.440 --> 0:03:57.960 food or drinks For dinner. Most evenings they would eat 0:03:58.000 --> 0:04:01.560 at Harvey's Restaurant, where they were also comped at great 0:04:01.600 --> 0:04:04.760 expense to the owners, something that was never reported to 0:04:04.800 --> 0:04:07.080 the irs. 0:04:06.480 --> 0:04:09.960 And it wasn't just a workday relationship. For many years, 0:04:10.040 --> 0:04:13.160 Hoover and Tulson went on extended vacations together. 0:04:14.240 --> 0:04:16.200 In the winter, they would go for weeks at a 0:04:16.240 --> 0:04:19.680 time to the Gulf Stream Hotel in Miami, and in 0:04:19.720 --> 0:04:23.320 the summer it would be the Del Chro Hotel in California. 0:04:23.839 --> 0:04:26.679 At neither place did they pay for room or board. 0:04:27.320 --> 0:04:31.120 All travel, either by rail or by air, was built 0:04:31.120 --> 0:04:34.880 to their government expense account under the pretense that they 0:04:34.880 --> 0:04:39.720 were on official business inspecting FBI field offices, but they 0:04:39.720 --> 0:04:42.880 did nothing of the kind. Instead, they spent all of 0:04:42.960 --> 0:04:46.839 their time either at the local racetrack or lounging around 0:04:46.880 --> 0:04:48.279 the hotel swimming pool. 0:04:49.680 --> 0:04:53.359 The Delchara Hotel in La Jolla, California, where Hoover and 0:04:53.400 --> 0:04:57.080 Tulson went each summer, was a high end resort owned 0:04:57.120 --> 0:05:01.960 by oil barring Clint Murchison. To the history website Gibson's 0:05:02.000 --> 0:05:06.200 World Quote, the hotel was frequented by guests such as 0:05:06.240 --> 0:05:11.040 Mobsters Meyer, Lanski, Carlos Marcello, Johnny Rosselli, and Sam g 0:05:11.200 --> 0:05:15.520 and Kanna, along with politicos such as Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, 0:05:15.920 --> 0:05:19.720 and Jay Edgar Hoover with his partner Clyde Tolson Murchison 0:05:19.760 --> 0:05:23.000 gained control of the nearby del Mar Racetrack, where Hoover 0:05:23.160 --> 0:05:26.800 was set up with his own private box. So the 0:05:26.839 --> 0:05:29.960 head of our National Police Force, who by reputation was 0:05:30.000 --> 0:05:33.960 the very personification of thrift and honesty, was in real 0:05:34.000 --> 0:05:37.800 life something entirely different. And while the FBI was good 0:05:37.839 --> 0:05:40.880 at chasing down bank robbers and carthieves, and quite keen 0:05:40.920 --> 0:05:43.760 on raising the alarm about communists said to be hiding 0:05:43.760 --> 0:05:46.599 in the chambers of government, it didn't do a thing 0:05:46.880 --> 0:05:51.520 against organized crime, which decade after decade, became a stronger 0:05:51.560 --> 0:05:55.440 force in the American landscape. One would have thought that 0:05:55.520 --> 0:05:57.920 the head of the National Police Force would have been 0:05:57.960 --> 0:06:03.279 eager to take on organized crime, but Hoover wasn't. Moreover, 0:06:03.320 --> 0:06:06.839 he said publicly that organized crime didn't really exist in America. 0:06:07.680 --> 0:06:11.360 What could be the explanation for this? According to Bill Pepper, 0:06:11.560 --> 0:06:14.599 Mobster Meyer Lanski, who was basically running things at the 0:06:14.600 --> 0:06:17.279 Gulfstream Hotel, was pulling the strings here. 0:06:18.640 --> 0:06:23.839 Meyer set that up. Meyer instructed Costello, who had a 0:06:23.880 --> 0:06:27.960 suite at the Waldorf Astoria as did Hoover, to go 0:06:28.040 --> 0:06:32.240 visit Hoover and to show him photographs of him in 0:06:32.720 --> 0:06:36.960 sexual activity with Tulsen and put the photographs on a 0:06:37.040 --> 0:06:41.080 table and say to him, well, you can have a 0:06:41.160 --> 0:06:46.960 wonderful life, Edgar, or we can release these. Well. Hoover, 0:06:47.839 --> 0:06:52.320 being the coward that he was, had no choice in 0:06:52.360 --> 0:06:56.800 his own mind. When Frank Costello confronted him and he 0:06:56.839 --> 0:07:01.120 agreed that he would do what they require, and what 0:07:01.279 --> 0:07:05.360 they required was that the mob didn't exist. He has 0:07:05.839 --> 0:07:08.320 sold out to them entirely. 0:07:09.640 --> 0:07:12.840 The story of Meyer Lansky bringing Hoover on board is 0:07:12.920 --> 0:07:16.360 best described in Anthony Summer's book The Secret Life of 0:07:16.440 --> 0:07:20.560 Jay Edgar Hoover. According to Summer's sources, Lansky had Hoover 0:07:20.680 --> 0:07:24.520 in its control because he had photographs of him engaging 0:07:24.560 --> 0:07:28.360 in sex with Tulson and other men. I don't know 0:07:28.400 --> 0:07:31.680 if this is true, but it's not an outrageous idea. 0:07:32.560 --> 0:07:35.360 As we heard earlier, Hoover was happy to bug every 0:07:35.360 --> 0:07:38.440 hotel room that Martin Luther King stayed in so how 0:07:38.560 --> 0:07:41.200 hard would it have been for someone to do that 0:07:41.320 --> 0:07:44.680 to him in the forties and fifties, when Hoover and 0:07:44.720 --> 0:07:48.880 Tulson were staying for extended periods of time without charge 0:07:49.200 --> 0:07:53.760 in mob connected hotels. Once Lansky or anyone else had 0:07:53.800 --> 0:07:58.200 those photographs, he would virtually own the director of the FBI. 0:07:59.000 --> 0:08:01.240 And there is little one who's actions over the years 0:08:01.640 --> 0:08:04.600 to say that wasn't the case. He just didn't go 0:08:04.640 --> 0:08:11.160 after the mob. To be sure, there are other possible 0:08:11.200 --> 0:08:15.800 reasons for Hoover's reluctance to act against organized crime. Arresting 0:08:15.800 --> 0:08:18.480 and convicting a mobster would be a lot more work 0:08:18.720 --> 0:08:20.920 than what was required to bring down a car thief. 0:08:21.680 --> 0:08:25.040 Mobsters could afford good lawyers, and when scary guys were 0:08:25.080 --> 0:08:29.160 put on trial, jurys were more likely to end up undecided, 0:08:29.760 --> 0:08:33.040 and Hoover was particularly proud of the Bureau's conviction rate. 0:08:33.720 --> 0:08:37.160 And along with that, it probably felt pretty good getting 0:08:37.200 --> 0:08:40.280 tips on horse races from people on the inside and 0:08:40.360 --> 0:08:44.000 hanging around the pool with film stars and gangsters, being 0:08:44.040 --> 0:08:46.880 treated like a celebrity and paying for none of it. 0:08:47.760 --> 0:08:50.200 Of course, the people offering the free stuff were most 0:08:50.320 --> 0:08:54.439 likely expecting something in return. So was Hoover being blackmailed 0:08:55.160 --> 0:08:59.959 or was he simply corrupted? And which is worse? Besides 0:09:00.160 --> 0:09:02.760 living the good life with Hoover when they were off duty, 0:09:03.240 --> 0:09:06.760 one might wonder what Tulson's responsibilities were inside the FBI 0:09:07.160 --> 0:09:10.560 as the second in command. Quite simply, it was to 0:09:10.559 --> 0:09:14.280 protect Hoover from any threat, real or imagined, that might 0:09:14.360 --> 0:09:17.760 arise within the bureau or without. Tulson was not only 0:09:17.840 --> 0:09:19.760 a second pair of eyes and ears. He had his 0:09:19.800 --> 0:09:23.319 own informants, a reputation for being mean, and he might 0:09:23.440 --> 0:09:25.760 end a man's career over nothing just to show others 0:09:25.800 --> 0:09:29.000 that he could do it. In short, he was Hoover's 0:09:29.000 --> 0:09:32.320 hatchet man, and everyone was afraid of him because he 0:09:32.400 --> 0:09:35.440 was sitting on the right hand of God. But beyond that, 0:09:36.000 --> 0:09:38.800 Tulson gave Hoover a way to get things done that 0:09:38.840 --> 0:09:41.360 didn't have to be recorded in an order or a memo. 0:09:42.120 --> 0:09:45.360 He could run important errands for Hoover, errands that were 0:09:45.400 --> 0:09:49.520 completely off the books. And it appears that's what Tulson 0:09:49.640 --> 0:09:52.760 was doing when he becomes part of our story by 0:09:52.800 --> 0:09:58.559 showing up in Memphis. 0:10:11.559 --> 0:10:14.640 The first time I met him was at Memphis Airport. 0:10:14.720 --> 0:10:16.360 But it was a little old wireporard, you know, I 0:10:16.360 --> 0:10:18.760 mean they didn't have seven forty seven was dropping in 0:10:18.880 --> 0:10:22.920 and all that, and we went on latter and picked 0:10:22.960 --> 0:10:23.840 him up the airport. 0:10:25.080 --> 0:10:28.240 In previous episodes, we have heard from Ronnie Lee Atkins, 0:10:28.240 --> 0:10:30.800 who was only sixteen years old when King was murdered. 0:10:31.400 --> 0:10:34.720 Atkins lived in Memphis and was privy to many discussions 0:10:34.760 --> 0:10:37.320 about the need to kill King because he was a 0:10:37.360 --> 0:10:40.800 son of Russell atkinsor the man who led many of 0:10:40.880 --> 0:10:44.960 these meetings. Atkins was a man of influence in Memphis, 0:10:45.320 --> 0:10:48.200 and beyond that, he had a special friend in Washington 0:10:48.600 --> 0:10:50.439 who would visit every so often. 0:10:51.559 --> 0:10:53.760 He was a big connection with Daddy. I mean he 0:10:54.520 --> 0:10:58.599 you know, he used Daddy and give Daddy money to 0:10:58.679 --> 0:11:02.400 do different things, you know, but he is there, you know, 0:11:02.440 --> 0:11:04.439 two or three times a year, maybe four or five. 0:11:04.280 --> 0:11:04.920 Times a year. 0:11:05.679 --> 0:11:08.559 Then hid Carl and you know, did he'd go get 0:11:08.640 --> 0:11:11.720 him and you know in the cab or. I almost 0:11:11.720 --> 0:11:13.760 told you call him uncle Clyde. I said, yes, I 0:11:13.800 --> 0:11:15.640 well from then on he was on Clyde. 0:11:16.320 --> 0:11:18.760 So who was this man who would fly in from Washington, 0:11:19.080 --> 0:11:21.440 the man who Ronnie Lee Atkins was told to call 0:11:21.760 --> 0:11:25.960 Uncle Clyde. It was Clyde Tolson, Hoover's second in command. 0:11:26.880 --> 0:11:27.800 This is Bill Pepper. 0:11:28.840 --> 0:11:33.479 Hoover used to send in Tolson on a regular basis 0:11:34.040 --> 0:11:38.080 to meet with Adkin. The Atkins family to Dixie Mafia people. 0:11:39.080 --> 0:11:42.679 Dixie Mafia people were junior cousins of the of the 0:11:43.080 --> 0:11:47.600 Marcello organization, but they worked together. They were closely. When 0:11:48.520 --> 0:11:51.600 Marchello might might not have wanted something to happen, but 0:11:51.640 --> 0:11:55.040 it had to happen, they would have used the Atkins 0:11:55.120 --> 0:12:00.280 family to do this. And what surprised me was of 0:12:00.480 --> 0:12:04.440 the extent to which he used Clyde Tolson, who was 0:12:04.480 --> 0:12:06.839 his number two, as the messenger. 0:12:07.000 --> 0:12:11.640 Always, for as long as Atkins could remember, Clyde Tolson 0:12:11.679 --> 0:12:14.440 would visit his house a couple times a year. When 0:12:14.480 --> 0:12:17.840 Atkins gave his deposition to Bill Pepper, he brought several 0:12:17.880 --> 0:12:21.640 backyard photographs of himself and Toulson, which you can check 0:12:21.640 --> 0:12:22.880 out on our website. 0:12:23.880 --> 0:12:28.120 Heyu is Clyde Lee and kid lived girl street. 0:12:28.240 --> 0:12:31.240 All right, Hian and you would have been how old here? 0:12:31.400 --> 0:12:35.000 Seven? Dumm? Yeah? Probably six seven? 0:12:35.440 --> 0:12:37.560 Okay, So this then would have been fifty eight or 0:12:37.600 --> 0:12:40.960 fifty nine yes, sir, photograph. 0:12:41.360 --> 0:12:44.160 What we learned from these photos is that Toulson and 0:12:44.280 --> 0:12:47.880 Ronnie Lee's father, Russell Senior, had a relationship that went 0:12:47.960 --> 0:12:50.680 back for years, and part of what would happen on 0:12:50.679 --> 0:12:53.520 some of these visits is that Toulson would bring cash 0:12:53.559 --> 0:12:56.880 money for Russell Senior to pass along to those on 0:12:56.920 --> 0:12:57.720 the off the books. 0:12:57.720 --> 0:13:02.160 Payroll came directly from Clyde Towson to my father's hand 0:13:02.200 --> 0:13:04.720 in a brown bag or a sup or kind of 0:13:04.720 --> 0:13:08.199 like a doctor's bag. I have saying Clyde Towlson open 0:13:08.240 --> 0:13:11.000 the bag up and pull his papers out and take 0:13:11.040 --> 0:13:11.840 the money out. 0:13:11.960 --> 0:13:14.120 And it was usually in a bag, you know, and 0:13:14.120 --> 0:13:14.439 they did. 0:13:14.440 --> 0:13:16.400 He'd open a sack up and pull the money out, 0:13:16.400 --> 0:13:18.520 and then they'd go to count, and then they'd both count. Yeah, 0:13:18.520 --> 0:13:21.480 I mean, you know they you know, one potato, two, potato, three, 0:13:21.520 --> 0:13:22.080 potato four. 0:13:22.120 --> 0:13:22.920 That's why they did it. 0:13:23.760 --> 0:13:26.560 Pepper then asked Atkins if he knew how much money 0:13:26.600 --> 0:13:27.400 changed hands. 0:13:28.120 --> 0:13:29.360 I had no idea. 0:13:29.640 --> 0:13:31.840 I always started saying, you know, a good chunk over, but 0:13:31.920 --> 0:13:34.520 it just didn't happen. I got allowance. It's pretty good, though, 0:13:34.960 --> 0:13:37.599 you know. I get some bedy washers and peanuts, and 0:13:37.640 --> 0:13:39.080 stuff when I. 0:13:38.600 --> 0:13:42.480 When I wanted so, Toulson would bring money to Atkins, who, 0:13:42.559 --> 0:13:45.560 as we discovered in an earlier episode, was a leader 0:13:45.600 --> 0:13:49.719 in the Dixie mafia. As Atkins said, Towlson would use 0:13:49.760 --> 0:13:52.720 his father and give his father money to do different things. 0:13:53.440 --> 0:13:56.640 This arrangement gave Hoover players on the board who were 0:13:56.640 --> 0:13:58.680 not g men and who could do things did not 0:13:58.760 --> 0:14:02.320 have to make reports. As Atkins would describe, there had 0:14:02.360 --> 0:14:05.120 often been talk about killing King at various plan and 0:14:05.160 --> 0:14:08.600 Meson meetings going back into the nineteen fifties, but after 0:14:08.760 --> 0:14:12.800 King's nineteen sixty three march on Washington and his awarded 0:14:12.840 --> 0:14:16.080 the Nobel Prize in nineteen sixty four, the talk took 0:14:16.160 --> 0:14:19.840 on a sense of urgency. More ideas were floated about 0:14:19.840 --> 0:14:22.240 how it could be done. And if you've come with 0:14:22.320 --> 0:14:25.200 us this far, you've heard how Ronnie Lee described the 0:14:25.240 --> 0:14:28.800 general plan. But we play his words here another time 0:14:29.240 --> 0:14:30.720 because they are important words. 0:14:31.920 --> 0:14:36.760 The plan was to disrupt the city because they was 0:14:36.800 --> 0:14:41.640 gonna get King to the city, because Tolsen said that 0:14:41.720 --> 0:14:44.160 they wanted it handled in Memphis for Daddy and M 0:14:44.200 --> 0:14:48.120 could handle it. Words specifically, Daddy and M could handle it. 0:14:48.360 --> 0:14:52.280 So the workers would get King to town. That's what 0:14:52.360 --> 0:14:55.720 it all boiled down to. And by getting him to town, 0:14:55.760 --> 0:14:57.560 then they was going to take care of him. So 0:14:57.720 --> 0:15:01.120 apparently come down from over Cloud was doing that on 0:15:01.160 --> 0:15:01.520 his own. 0:15:02.800 --> 0:15:05.240 So this was the deal as fourteen year old Ronnie 0:15:05.280 --> 0:15:09.360 Lee Atkins understood it. But the working relationship between Toulson 0:15:09.440 --> 0:15:12.960 and Russell Senior was derailed when Toulson suffered a stroke 0:15:13.000 --> 0:15:16.760 in nineteen sixty six and Atkins Senior died a year later. 0:15:17.560 --> 0:15:20.920 But according to Ronnie Lee, the plotting kept on under 0:15:20.920 --> 0:15:23.960 new leadership, the part of his father assumed by his 0:15:24.040 --> 0:15:27.160 thirty six year old half brother, Russell Junior, and the 0:15:27.240 --> 0:15:30.920 role of Toulson picked up by veteran FBI agent Frank Holloman, 0:15:31.080 --> 0:15:33.320 who would become the next head of fire and Police 0:15:33.320 --> 0:15:36.200 in Memphis just a few months before King was killed. 0:15:37.040 --> 0:15:41.280 What follows is Bill Pepper questioning Ronnie Lee Atkins, who 0:15:41.320 --> 0:15:45.520 was testifying under oath, with his lawyer Stephen Tolan sitting 0:15:45.560 --> 0:15:46.040 close by. 0:15:48.080 --> 0:15:53.280 We're into nineteen sixty eight. The guest sanitation workers strike hits, Yes, 0:15:53.760 --> 0:15:59.240 that is dead. Hey, your father's dead. Who's taken over 0:15:59.440 --> 0:16:04.040 the Russell Junior in Holloman so Russell Jr. And Frank 0:16:04.080 --> 0:16:07.040 Hollman are running as the assassination effort. 0:16:07.160 --> 0:16:09.480 Yes. Do you know how long your father knew Holloman? 0:16:12.320 --> 0:16:13.640 He knew Frank pretty good while. 0:16:14.520 --> 0:16:17.520 Is it possible because Holloman, of course ran Hoover's office 0:16:17.600 --> 0:16:20.600 and for a number of years. Yes, is it possible 0:16:20.640 --> 0:16:23.480 that Holloman introduced Tulson to your father? 0:16:23.600 --> 0:16:30.200 I think that Tulson introduced Frank to Daddy. 0:16:30.360 --> 0:16:32.160 I think guess how that happened. You think it worked 0:16:32.160 --> 0:16:32.880 the other way around. 0:16:33.040 --> 0:16:35.840 I think Tulson was the one that put Daddy with Frank. 0:16:36.600 --> 0:16:38.960 Of course, Frank run this office here for years. 0:16:40.200 --> 0:16:42.760 Frank Hollman had joined the FBI right out of law 0:16:42.800 --> 0:16:46.160 school in nineteen thirty seven. He worked hard and found 0:16:46.200 --> 0:16:48.720 favor with Director Hoover, and for seven years in the 0:16:48.800 --> 0:16:52.120 nineteen fifties was the man who ran Hoover's office in Washington. 0:16:53.000 --> 0:16:55.760 Then he left for important posts in the field, becoming 0:16:55.760 --> 0:16:58.640 the agent in charge in Atlanta and then continuing on 0:16:58.720 --> 0:17:01.720 the Memphis Which is what Atkins was referring to when 0:17:01.720 --> 0:17:05.000 he said he had run this office for years. And 0:17:05.040 --> 0:17:08.400 this is important because Frank Hollman was no stranger to Memphis. 0:17:08.480 --> 0:17:11.680 When he became the director of Fire and Police, he 0:17:11.800 --> 0:17:15.000 already knew who everybody was and what they were up to, 0:17:15.800 --> 0:17:19.399 and according to Atkins, Holloman was an important part of 0:17:19.440 --> 0:17:20.199 what they were up to. 0:17:21.680 --> 0:17:25.639 What was said anything significant? Senate then of the Frank 0:17:25.720 --> 0:17:27.280 Hollomantel Russell Jr. 0:17:27.800 --> 0:17:30.679 I want some bitch shot, shoot Asomo bitch in the 0:17:30.800 --> 0:17:34.040 mouth and say that our dead Birkery Baptist Church in 0:17:34.080 --> 0:17:34.480 a meeting. 0:17:34.600 --> 0:17:36.119 And do you remember when that meeting was? 0:17:36.359 --> 0:17:41.680 That was probably less than two weeks before they killed him. 0:17:41.920 --> 0:17:44.640 As we saw in the previous segment, in the week 0:17:44.680 --> 0:17:48.359 before King was killed, the FBI had composed a nasty 0:17:48.480 --> 0:17:52.199 article to be secretly released to friendly news outlets that 0:17:52.320 --> 0:17:55.680 attacked King for staying at a posh, white owned hotel 0:17:55.880 --> 0:17:59.960 in Memphis when there was a perfectly good black owned hotel, 0:18:00.400 --> 0:18:02.639 the Lorraine, where he could stay if he was willing 0:18:02.640 --> 0:18:06.080 to patronize black owned businesses as he was telling his 0:18:06.160 --> 0:18:09.800 followers to do. Why did the FBI care were King 0:18:09.840 --> 0:18:13.720 state in Memphis? This was an easy question for running 0:18:13.760 --> 0:18:14.400 the Yapkins. 0:18:15.840 --> 0:18:17.520 I think they had it set up for him to 0:18:17.520 --> 0:18:21.080 stay at the Lorraine ahead of time, because they were 0:18:21.160 --> 0:18:23.439 set up to work out at Jowler's this place. 0:18:24.200 --> 0:18:26.000 Now one or night they were going to hit him 0:18:26.040 --> 0:18:29.320 from the window. I don't know, I don't think so. 0:18:29.680 --> 0:18:31.040 I think they were going to try to hit him 0:18:31.080 --> 0:18:34.520 from the fire station at first, as far as old firemen, 0:18:35.200 --> 0:18:39.320 I know that they had some move My brother had 0:18:39.400 --> 0:18:45.240 talked to somebody and I think it was Holloman about 0:18:45.640 --> 0:18:48.480 having a moved. And I think it was Halloman. It 0:18:48.560 --> 0:18:52.240 came up with the idea, if there's a threat, if 0:18:52.280 --> 0:18:55.400 we can show some kind of a threat, we could 0:18:55.480 --> 0:18:58.600 have a mood. And I think that's what they used, 0:18:58.840 --> 0:18:59.439 was a threat. 0:19:00.720 --> 0:19:04.160 As Adkins relates, the first idea was to shoot King 0:19:04.240 --> 0:19:07.320 from some position at the firehouse, but even with the 0:19:07.320 --> 0:19:10.359 black fireman removed, there were too many people there to 0:19:10.400 --> 0:19:13.879 assure privacy at the back window. But the brush covered 0:19:13.920 --> 0:19:17.560 yard behind Jim's grill had promise. So who made the call? 0:19:18.400 --> 0:19:21.640 Atkins said it was his brother Russell Junior and Frank Holloman. 0:19:22.920 --> 0:19:26.600 Work came down to hitting him from behind the grill. 0:19:27.520 --> 0:19:30.600 I don't know if he ever was down there after that, 0:19:30.960 --> 0:19:33.040 but man, there was a ton of sh had back here, 0:19:33.600 --> 0:19:37.240 so it was the perfect place the angle wasn't right. 0:19:37.840 --> 0:19:41.359 They needed him up where he was level with him. 0:19:41.440 --> 0:19:45.840 At least the angle wasn't right, and that would explain 0:19:45.920 --> 0:19:48.879 the sudden need for a room change. King had been 0:19:48.920 --> 0:19:52.960 successfully booked into the rain motel, where ambush awaited, but 0:19:53.040 --> 0:19:55.359 he'd been booked into room two oh two, on the 0:19:55.400 --> 0:19:58.880 ground floor from the firehouse. A man standing outside Room 0:19:58.880 --> 0:20:01.760 too o two might have been a decent target, but 0:20:01.920 --> 0:20:05.000 not from the yard behind Jowers Grill. If the shooter 0:20:05.119 --> 0:20:07.639 were back far enough to be covered by the brush, 0:20:08.040 --> 0:20:10.639 the hill itself would hide the rooms on the ground floor. 0:20:11.480 --> 0:20:14.280 This problem was apparently recognized a day or so before 0:20:14.400 --> 0:20:17.000 King was to arrive, and there was a rushed effort 0:20:17.000 --> 0:20:20.240 to get King into another room, preferably on the second floor, 0:20:20.280 --> 0:20:22.280 across from the yard behind Jowers Grill. 0:20:23.359 --> 0:20:24.120 So there it is. 0:20:24.760 --> 0:20:45.800 King was moved to room three oh six. Martin Luther 0:20:45.880 --> 0:20:48.000 King was shot in Memphis at six in the evening. 0:20:48.640 --> 0:20:52.679 Almost instantly the news appeared on the FBI teletype, But 0:20:52.760 --> 0:20:55.640 in Washington it was a little after seven and most 0:20:55.640 --> 0:20:59.360 people had already left. But Paul Leturski, a young man 0:20:59.400 --> 0:21:02.280 who was serving is Hoover's personal assistant, was still there. 0:21:02.960 --> 0:21:05.960 He saw the teletype come in, ripped it from the machine, 0:21:06.440 --> 0:21:07.440 and headed for the phone. 0:21:09.520 --> 0:21:13.280 I called Hoover at home. I didn't want him to 0:21:13.359 --> 0:21:17.280 hear it over the news. I called him and I said, 0:21:17.280 --> 0:21:20.360 mister Hoover, I just got a telex message from our 0:21:20.359 --> 0:21:25.120 Memphis office said that Martin Luther King was shot while 0:21:25.160 --> 0:21:28.520 standing on a belt get in that city. And then 0:21:28.560 --> 0:21:33.520 there was this pause, and his immediate reaction to me 0:21:33.800 --> 0:21:37.000 was is he dead? And I said, I don't know. 0:21:37.119 --> 0:21:39.639 All I have is the fact that he was shot. 0:21:40.119 --> 0:21:41.840 And then I asked him if he would like me 0:21:41.880 --> 0:21:44.960 to connect him with the head of the Memphis office, 0:21:45.000 --> 0:21:48.280 and he said, yeah, do that. Then there was another 0:21:48.480 --> 0:21:52.640 slight delay, and he said to me, I hope the 0:21:52.640 --> 0:21:55.160 son of a bitch doesn't die, because if he does, 0:21:55.200 --> 0:21:59.320 they'll make a martyr on Those are his exact words, 0:21:59.320 --> 0:22:00.520 and I'll never forget it. 0:22:03.840 --> 0:22:06.280 So do Hoover's words upon hearing the news about King 0:22:06.440 --> 0:22:10.360 reveal anything to us. Paul Letursky, who just came out 0:22:10.359 --> 0:22:12.720 with a book about his years in the FBI titled 0:22:12.760 --> 0:22:16.000 The Director, was pretty clear with me that he thought 0:22:16.000 --> 0:22:19.560 Hoover's words should remove him from any suspicion about the murder. 0:22:20.400 --> 0:22:22.640 I was surprised because I didn't hear it that way. 0:22:23.359 --> 0:22:25.600 So I played the clip for a friend and he 0:22:25.680 --> 0:22:28.639 said something similar that a man who holps another man 0:22:28.720 --> 0:22:32.879 doesn't die, isn't the one we should suspect of killing him. 0:22:33.359 --> 0:22:36.280 That makes sense if you don't mind being overly literal 0:22:36.440 --> 0:22:39.959 with Hoover's words. See in another way, if Hoover had 0:22:40.000 --> 0:22:42.720 played any part in the killing of King, however passive, 0:22:43.359 --> 0:22:46.720 he would have had time to reflect on possible unfortunate 0:22:46.800 --> 0:22:50.480 side effects, such as even in death, King would best him, 0:22:50.600 --> 0:22:54.200 as he clearly has done. So. Of course, Hoover might 0:22:54.240 --> 0:22:57.159 say what he said about King becoming a martyr, but 0:22:57.320 --> 0:23:00.479 regardless of which way you think his words point, there 0:23:00.560 --> 0:23:02.800 can be no dispute about the hatred you can hear 0:23:02.840 --> 0:23:06.679 in them. At about the same time that Laturski was 0:23:06.680 --> 0:23:10.199 on the phone with his boss Hoover, John Currington was 0:23:10.200 --> 0:23:12.280 on the phone with his boss H. L. 0:23:12.400 --> 0:23:12.680 Hunt. 0:23:13.880 --> 0:23:18.640 Mister Hunt, he called me, I would say, within less 0:23:18.640 --> 0:23:21.440 than ten minutes after Martin Lucy King was killed there 0:23:21.920 --> 0:23:26.679 in Memphis. There and told me to call every radio 0:23:26.800 --> 0:23:30.879 station in the United States or everywhere that lifeline was broadcast. 0:23:30.960 --> 0:23:34.520