April 4, 2022 • 41 mins
After King is murdered, John Curington notices increased contact between H.L. Hunt and FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover. One day, Hunt gives Curington a satchel to bring to Ray's attorney, Percy Foreman. As he hands the bag to Foreman, Curington says the words he was told to say: "Here are 125,000 reasons for Ray to plead guilty."
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the MLK Tapes, a production of I Heart
Radio and Tenderfoot TV. The views and opinions expressed in
this podcast are solely those of the podcast author or
individuals participating in the podcast, and do not represent those
of I Heart Media, Tenderfoot TV, or their employees. Listener
discretion is advised. It was about seven o'clock in the evening.
(00:24):
I got a teletype. It was from the Memphis Field
office and all it said was Martin Luther King has
been shot while standing on a balcony in a hotel
in Memphis. That was that. That was the whole message.
And I called Hoover at home. I didn't want him
to hear it over the news. I called him and
(00:46):
I said, Mr Hoover, I just got a telext message
from our Memphis office said that Martin Luther King was
shot while standing on a beltony in that city. And
then there was this pause, and his reaction to me
was is he dead? I called the Union Hall. I
(01:10):
said a matter of life and death. I said, I
think these people are planning to kill Dr King. The
authorities were parade. Oh, we found a gun that James
ol Ray bought in Birmingham that killed Dr King, except
it wasn't the gun that killed Dr King. James L.
Ray was upon for the official story from My Heart
(01:34):
Radio intended for TV. The plan was to get King
to the city because they wanted it handled in memphisfore
dead and them Coate Hamon And I've lived with it
so long, my Sirion, and they scared for me. The
Lord told me to not the word. I've been wanting
to tell it all my life. I'm Bill Claiburg and
(01:56):
this is d MLK tapes. In the nineteen sixties, as
the FBI was making life as difficult as it could
for Martin Luther King, its director JEdgar Hoover was living
the sweet life in upscale restaurants and five star hotels,
(02:18):
the Waldorf Historia in New York and exclusive resorts in
Florida and California. And Hoover didn't go to these places alone.
In virtually every instance, he was accompanied by his second
in command, Clyde Toulson. So Who's Tulson, when did he
arrive and what was the deal there? To help with this,
(02:40):
we recently spoke with author Philip Nelson, whose excellent book
Who Really Killed Martin Luther King was published just three
years ago. Tide Tulson grew up in a small town
in Missouri. After public schooling, he attended George Washington University,
where he received a law degree in nineteen The next year,
(03:02):
he applied for a job with the Bureau of Investigation,
where j. Edgar Hoover was boss. Apparently Hoover already knew Tulson.
In any case, Tulson was hired, and only two years
later in ninety he rose to the position of assistant
director of the Bureau, which became the FBI in ninety three,
(03:23):
with Tulson as Hoover's number two, a position he held
until Hoover died in nineteen seventy two. It is widely
assumed that Hoover and Tulson were lovers for forty years.
They lived in what appeared to be espousal relationship. Tulson
maintained an apartment near to where Hoover lived. The two
men were driven to and from work every day in
(03:44):
the same car, and they ate all their meals together.
Hoover and Tulson had lunch every day in the rib
room in the Mayflower Hotel. They didn't pay for their
food or drinks. For dinner. Most evenings they would eat
at Harvey's Restaurant, where they were also comped at great
expense to the owners, something that was never reported to
(04:04):
the I R S. And it wasn't just a workday relationship.
For many years, Hoover and Tulson went on extended vacations together.
In the winter, they would go for weeks at a
time to the Gulf Stream Hotel in Miami, and in
the summer it would be the Del Chero Hotel in California.
That neither place did they pay for room or board.
(04:27):
All travel, either by rail or by hair, was built
to their government expense account under the pretense that they
were on official business inspecting FBI field offices, but they
did nothing of the kind. Instead, they spent all over
their time either at the local racetrack or lounging around
the hotel swimming pool. The Del Charo Hotel in Lahoya, California,
(04:52):
where Hoover and Tulson went each summer, was a high
end resort owned by oil baron Clint Murchison. According to
the history website Gibson's World Quote, the hotel was frequented
by guests such as mobsters meyer Lanski, Carlos Marcello, Johnny Roselli,
and Sam Giancanna, along with politico such as Lyndon Johnson,
(05:14):
Richard Nixon, and JEdgar Hoover with his partner Clyde Toulson
Murchison gained control of the nearby del Mar Racetrack, where
Hoover was set up with his own private box. So
the head of our National Police Force, who by reputation
was the very personification of thrift and honesty, was in
real life something entirely different. And while the FBI was
(05:37):
good at chasing down bank robbers and car thieves, and
quite keen on raising the alarm about communists said to
be hiding in the chambers of government, it didn't do
a thing against organized crime, which decade after decade became
a stronger force in the American landscape. One would have
thought that the head of the National Police Force would
(05:57):
have been eager to take on organized crime, but Hoover wasn't. Moreover,
he said publicly that organized crime didn't really exist in America.
What could be the explanation for this? According to Bill Pepper,
Mobster meyer Lansky, who was basically running things at the
Gulf Stream Hotel was pulling the strings here. Meyer set
(06:19):
that up. Meyer instructed Costello, who had a suite at
the World Off Astoria as did Hoover, to go visit
Hoover and to show him photographs of him in sexual
activity with Tulson and put the photographs on a table
and say to him, well, you can have a wonderful life, Edgar,
(06:43):
or we can release these. Well. Hoover, being the coward
that he was no choice his online when Frank Costello
confronted him, and he agreed and that he would do
what they required, and what they required was at the
mob didn't exist. He is sold out to them entirely.
(07:09):
The story of Myer Landscape bringing Hoover on board is
best described in Anthony Summer's book The Secret Life of j.
Edgar Hoover. According to Summers sources, Landsky had Hoover in
his control because he had photographs of him engaging in
sex with Tulson and other men. I don't know if
this is true, but it's not an outrageous idea. As
(07:32):
we heard earlier, Hoover was happy to bug every hotel
room that Martin Luther King stayed in. So how hard
would have been for someone to do that to him
in the forties and fifties, when Hoover and Tulson were
staying for extended periods of time without charge in mob
connected hotels. Once Landski or anyone else had those photographs,
(07:55):
he would virtually own the director of the FBI. And
there was little and who his actions over the years
to say that wasn't the case. He just didn't go
after the mob. To be sure, there are other possible
reasons for Hoover's reluctance to act against organized crime. Arresting
(08:15):
and convicting a mobster would be a lot more work
than what was required to bring down a car thief.
Mobsters could afford good lawyers, and when scary guys were
put on trial, juries were more likely to end up undecided,
and Hoover was particularly proud of the Bureau's conviction rate.
And along with that, it probably felt pretty good getting
(08:37):
tips on horse races from people on the inside and
hanging around the pool with film stars and gangsters, being
treated like a celebrity and paying for none of it.
Of Course, the people offering the free stuff were most
likely expecting something in return, so was Hoover being blackmailed
or was they simply corrupted? And which is worse? Besides
(09:00):
living the good life with Hoover when they were off duty,
one might wonder what Toulson's responsibilities were inside the FBI
as the second in command. Quite simply, it was to
protect Hoover from any threat, real or imagined, that might
arise within the bureau or without. Tulson was not only
a second period of eyes and ears. He had his
own informants, a reputation for being mean, and he might
(09:23):
end a man's career over nothing just to show others
that he could do it. In short, he was Hoover's
hatchet man, and everyone was afraid of him because he
was sitting on the right hand of God. But beyond that,
Tulson gave Hoover a way to get things done that
didn't have to be recorded in an order or a memo.
He could run important errands for Hoover, errands that were
(09:45):
completely off the books. And it appears that's what Tulson
was doing when he becomes part of our story by
showing up in Memphis. The first time I ever met
(10:12):
him was his Memps airport, but it was a little
o wireport. You know what I mean, they didn't have
Sevingfoord to seven was dropping in and I will add
and uh and we went on that turn picked him
up to the airport. In previous episodes, we have heard
from Ronnie Lee Atkins, who was only sixteen years old
when King was murdered. Atkins lived in Memphis and was
(10:33):
privy to many discussions about the need to kill King
because he was a son of Russell Atkins Sr. The
man who led many of these meetings. Atkins Sr. Was
a man of influence in Memphis, and beyond that, he
had a special friend in Washington who would visit every
so often. He was a big connection with Daddy. I
mean he um, you know, he he used Eddie and
(10:56):
give Daddy money to do different lines. You know, went up.
But he is there, you know, two or three times
a year, maybe four or five times a year. Then
he'd call and you know did he'd go get him
and you know in the cab or. I almost told
you call him Uncail Clyde. I said, yes, I Well
from then on he was unc Clyde. So who was
(11:16):
this man who would fly in from Washington? The man
who Ronnie Lee Atkins was told the call uncle Clyde.
It was Clyde Tulson hoover second in command. This is
Bill Pepper. Hoover used to send in Tulson on a
regular basis to meet with Adkind, the Adkins family to
Dixie Mafia people. Dixie Mafia people were junior cousins of
(11:41):
the of the Marcello organization, but they worked together. They
were closely. When March Shallow might might not have wanted
something to happen, but it had to happen. They would
have used the the Adkins family to do this. And
what surprised me was of the extent to which he used.
(12:02):
Clyde Tulson was his number two as the messenger. Always,
for as long as Atkins could remember, Clyde Tulson would
visit his house a couple of times a year. When
Atkins gave his deposition to Bill Pepper, he brought several
backyard photographs of himself and Tulson, which you can check
out on our website. Hey us, Clyde Lee and um
(12:26):
kid lived girls straight, all right, Ryan, and you would
have been how old here? Seven? Yeah? Probably six seven? Okay,
So this then would have been fifty eight or fifty
nine photograph. What we learned from these photos is that
Tulson and Ronnie Lee's father, Russell Sr. Had a relationship
(12:47):
that went back for years, and part of what would
happen on some of these visits is that Tulson would
bring cash money for Russell Senior to pass along to
those on the off. The book's payroll came directly from
Clyde Toulson to my father's hand in a brown bag
or a suit or kind of a doctor's bag. I
have sat Clyde Tulson opened the bag up and pull
(13:09):
his papers out and take the money out. And it
was usually in a bag, you know, And they did.
He had opened a sack up and pull the money out,
and then they go to counting, and they'd both count. Yeah.
I mean, you know what the one potato to potato
three day before. That's why they did it. Pepper then
asked Atkins if he knew how much money changed hands.
I had no idea. I wish I was saying, you know,
(13:30):
a good chunk of but it just didn't have I
got allowance. It was pretty good, though, you know. I
get some Bedley Watchers and peanuts and stuff when I
when I wanted so Tulson would bring money to Atkins, who,
as we discovered in an earlier episode, was a leader
in the Dixie mafia. As Atkins said, Tulson would use
his father and give his father money to do different things.
(13:53):
This arrangement gave Hoover players on the board who were
not you men and who could do things that not
have to make reports. As Atkins would describe, there had
often been talking about killing King at various clan and
Mason meetings going back into the nineteen fifties, but after
King's nineteen sixty three march on Washington and his awarded
the Nobel Prize in nineteen sixty four, the talk took
(14:16):
on a sense of urgency. More ideas were floated about
how it could be done. And if you've come with
us this far, you've heard how Ronnie Lee described the
general plan. But we play his words here another time
because they are important words. The plan was disrupt the
city because they was gonna get King to the city,
(14:39):
because Tunson said that they wanted it handled in Memphis
for dead in m could hamlet words, specifically dead in
m could hamlet, so the workers would get King to town.
Is what it all boiled down to him and by
getting him to town, and I was gonna take care
of him. So apparently come down from over you know,
(14:59):
I don't. And Cloud was doing that on his own.
So this was the deal as fourteen year old Ronnie
Lee Atkins understood it. But the working relationship between Tulson
and Russell Sr. Was derailed when Tulson suffered a stroke
in nineteen sixty six and Atkins Sr. Died a year later.
But according to Ronnie Lee, the plotting kept on under
(15:20):
new leadership, the part of his father assumed by his
thirty six year old half brother, Russell Jr. And the
role of Tulson picked up by veteran FBI agent Frank Holliman,
who would become the next head of fire and Police
in Memphis just a few months before King was killed.
What follows is Bill Pepper questioning Ronnie Lee Atkins, who
(15:41):
was testifying under oath, with his lawyer Stephen Tolin sitting
close by. We're into ninety the guest sanitation workers strike hits, Yes,
your father's dead. Who's taken over? The Russell Jr? And Holloman?
(16:02):
So Russell Jr. Frank Holloman are running as the assassination effort. Yes,
do you know how long your father knew Holloman? He
knew Frank pretty good while is it possible because Holloman,
of course ran Hoover's office and for a number of years.
Is it possible that Holliman introduced Tulson to your father?
(16:23):
I think that Telson introduced Frank to Daddy. I think
guess how that have? You think it worked the other
way around. I think Tellson's the one that put Daddy
with Frank, because Frank run this office here for years.
Frank Holloman had joined the FBI right out of law
school in seven He worked hard and found favor with
(16:46):
Director Hoover, and for seven years in the nineteen fifties
was the man who ran Hoover's office in Washington. Then
he left for important posts in the field, becoming the
agent in charge in Atlanta, and then continuing on the Memphis,
which is Atkins was referring to when he said he
had run this office for years. And this is important
because Frank Allman was no stranger to Memphis. When he
(17:08):
became the director of Firing Police. He already knew who
everybody was and what they were up to. And according
to Atkins, Holloman was an important part of what they
were up to. What was said, anything significant said at
anybody's guard. Frank Holman tell Russell Jr. I old some
of that shot shoot as a bitch in the mouth,
(17:31):
say that, or did at Bertlar Baptist Church in a meeting?
And do you remember when that meeting was? That was
probably less than two weeks before they killed him. As
we saw in the previous segment. In the week before
King was killed, the FBI had composed a nasty article
to be secretly released to friendly news outlets that attacked
(17:52):
King for staying at a posh, white owned hotel in Memphis,
when there was a perfectly good black owned hotel, the Lorraine,
where he could stay if he was willing to patronize
black owned businesses as he was telling his followers to do.
Why do the FBI care were Kings stayed in Memphis?
This was an easy question for running the Atkins. I
(18:16):
think they had it set up for him to stay
at the Lorraine ahead of time, because they were set
up to work out a dowers this place. Now well,
the night they were gonna hit him from the window.
I don't know them, I don't think so. I think
they were gonna try to hit him from the fire
station at first, as far as old spireman, I know
that they had some moved. My brother had talked to somebody,
(18:41):
and I think it was Harman about having them moved.
And I think it was Harman that came up with
the idea, if there's a threat, if we can show
some kind of a threat, we could have a mood.
And I think that's what they used, was a threat.
As Adkins relates, the first idea was to shoot King
(19:04):
from some position at the firehouse, but even with the
black fireman removed, there were too many people there to
assure privacy at the back window. But the brush covered
yard behind Jim's grill had promised. So who made the call?
Atkins said it was his brother Russell Jr. And Frank Holloman.
Work came down to hitting him from from behind the grill.
(19:27):
I don't know if he was ever was down there
after that, but man, there was a ton of she
had back here, so it was the perfect place. The
angle wasn't right. They needed him up where he was
level with him at least the angle wasn't right, and
that would explain the sudden need for a room change.
(19:48):
King had been successfully booked into the Rain Motel, where
an ambush awaited, but he'd been booked into room two
oh two, on the ground floor from the firehouse. A
man standing outside room two o two might have in
a decent target, but not from the yard behind ours grill.
If the shooter were back far enough to be covered
by the brush, the hill itself would hide the rooms
(20:09):
on the ground floor. This problem was apparently recognized a
day or so before King was to arrive, and there
was a rushed effort to get King into another room,
preferably on the second floor, across from the yard behind
ours grill. So there it is. King was moved to
room three oh six. Martin Luther King was shot in
(20:46):
Memphis at six in the evening. Almost instantly the news
appeared on the FBI teletype. But in Washington it was
a little after seven and most people had already left.
But Paula Turski, a young man who was serving as
Hoover's personal assistant, was still there. He saw the teletype
come in, ripped it from the machine, and headed for
(21:07):
the phone. I called Hoover at home. I didn't want
him to hear it over the news. I called him
and I said, Mr Hoover, I just got a telex
message from our Memphis office. I said that Martin Luther
King was shot while standing on a belton in that city.
(21:28):
And then there was this pause, and his immediate reaction
to me was is he dead? And I said, I
don't know. All I have is the fact that he
was shot. And then I asked him if he would
like me to connect him with the head of the
Memphis office, and he said, yeah, do that. Then there
was another slight delay, and he said to me, I
(21:52):
hope the son of a bitch doesn't die, because if
he does, they'll make up martyr. Those are his exact words,
and I'll never forget it. So do Hoover's words upon
hearing the news about King reveal anything to us. Paul
A Tursky, who just came out with a book about
his years and the FBI titled the Director, was pretty
(22:14):
clear with me that he thought Hoover's words should remove
him from any suspicion about the murder. I was surprised
because I didn't hear it that way. So I played
the clip for a friend and he said something similar
that a man who lopes another man doesn't die isn't
the one we should suspect of killing him. That makes
sense if you don't mind being overly literal with Hoover's words.
(22:38):
Seeing another way, if Hoover had played any part in
the killing of King, however passive, he would have had
time to reflect on possible unfortunate side effects, such as
even in death, King would best him, as he clearly
has done so. Of course, Hoover might say what he
said about King becoming a martyr, but regardless of which
(22:58):
way you think his words point, there can be no
dispute about the hatred you can hear in them. At
about the same time that Latourski was on the phone
with his boss Hoover, John Currington was on the phone
with his boss H. L. Hunt. Mr. Hunt. He called me,
I would say, within less than ten minutes after Morton
(23:20):
Lucy King was killed there in in Memphis there and
told me to call every radio station in the United
States or everywhere that Life Find was broadcast. We were
also in Mexico and at that time Hawaiian and have
them not to do the program on Morton Lucy King.
We were doing a very derogatory series of stories on
(23:43):
Morton Lucy King, most of which had come through jayeg
or Hoover. Over a period of time of about two hours,
we were able to call all the radio stations. As
soon as Currington had accomplished this task, Hunt had another
He wanted to go into hiding. His views on King
were well known and he didn't feel safe in his home.
(24:04):
He asked Carrington to arrange for travel and lodging under
an assumed name. So under the names of Mr and
Mrs Jong Crrington, Hunt and his wife Ruth flew out
to El Paso and checked into a hotel. But first
thing Monday, a call came into Hunt's Dallas office someone
wanting to speak to the absent Mr. Hunt. Jaeger Hoover called,
(24:28):
I'd say about nine or nine thirty on on Monday
morning after the death of Martin Lucy King on Friday,
and asked from Miss Heart, and the switchboard advised Mr.
Hoover that Miss Hart was out of town at that time.
Mr Hunt asked our switchboard operator if if John was
in and for I know he never knew my last name,
(24:51):
but anyway, I got on the phone and Hoover asked
where Miss Hunt was. I told him. He asked if
I could get ahold of him and asked him if
he would come to Washington. I told him yes I could.
According to Currington, he called Hunt and told him that
Hoover not only wanted to talk to him, but wanted
to do the talking in person. Would Hunt travel to Washington?
(25:14):
Hunt said yes, and Currington again made the reservations under
another name. Hunt flew to Washington and stayed for a
couple of days. In our previous episode, we heard attorney
John Curington describe how one day out of the blue,
he was selected to be H. L. Hunt's personal assistant,
a position he held for twelve years. Hunt wasn't an
(25:37):
extremely wealthy Texas oilman, often called the richest man in America.
As Currington tells us, Hunt was a longtime supporter of
Lyndon Johnson and also had an ongoing alliance with Jack Hoover.
Miss Hart felt like he could do shirt and sayings
for Jack or Hoover that Whover couldn't do for himself.
(25:57):
But more important, Miss Hart believed that Jaegar Hoover could
furnish him information that he could use in his business activities.
What activities, As we've heard, Mr Hunt produced a radio
program called Lifeline that was designed to advance his rather
extreme political views. It was only fifteen minutes in length,
(26:17):
but a new show came out every day, six days
a week, and was carried by over five hundred radio
stations across the country. The program had a lot of
derogatory comments on Martin Luther King gave Edgar. Hoover kept
a personal file on them, and we were privileged to
a lot of that information in those files that was
(26:38):
redrafted and rewritten and used in the Lifeline programs. As
Curington would reveal, Hoover and Hunt would have brief conversations
on the phone, maybe once a month. It was a
romance of sorts. Hunt had wealth, Hoover had power, and
they shared a deep hatred of Martin Luther King. According
(27:00):
to Currington, Hunt felt sure that he could destroy King
with his radio program. Mr Hart was under the impression
that the message against Martin LUSA King that Lifeline could
deliver would eventually attract somebody or some ward or some
group that would say that Martin LUSA King was removed
(27:23):
from power. Hoover according to Currington, was less certain than
Hunt that lifeline alone could achieve this, but he was
willing to help. So. J Edgar Hoover, the nation's top lawman,
broke the law continuously by secretly giving to Hunt material
and King that Hunt could turn around and use on
his radio programs. When President John Kennedy was murdered, Attorney
(27:48):
General Robert Kennedy lost all control over the FBI and
Jedger Hoover and the new President, Lyndon Johnson apparently had
no desire to shield King from Hoover. Though he and
King were time maintained an outwardly friendly relationship, but in private,
Johnson's real feelings with Surface and Currington was pretty to
(28:09):
some of it. I've never heard such language as Lenda
Johnson used in describing his steeling for Mark Lucy King.
So for the public they were accepted as very close friends,
all both looking out for each other. But I don't
know if anybody is that Lenda Johnson had a more
dislike for than Mark Luther King, and the same thing
(28:33):
with jag Or Hoover. When Hoover invited Hunt to come
to Washington right after King had been killed, it allowed
for more private and personal conversations than either man was
willing to have on the phone. Currington wasn't privy to
any of that. I have no worth the idea of
what they talked about, but I believe that Jagger Hoover,
(28:55):
HL Hunt and Lenda Johnson were putting themselves into a
hold in learned or if anything did surface that would
suggest they had advanced knowledge of this, they wanted to
have as cleaner pass as possible. Of course, the totally
clean path was hard to be certain of because the
alleged killer of Dr. King had not been captured, and
(29:17):
no one could be sure what he might reveal once
he was, assuming he was captured alive. At that time, H. L.
Hunt and Josevillo, the powerful mafia boss, both lived in Dallas.
The two men were not what you would call friends,
but they shared a respect, stayed out of each other's business,
and once in a while might meet at Sevillo's place
out at the airport, were according to Currington, Sevilla might
(29:40):
offer a short lesson on how to get away with murder.
Savello's in carmentis to miss. Hunt told him that, you know,
hiring somebody to kill someone was no problem at all.
But immediately after that killing was done, you either had
to one destroyer the person who did the killing, or
if the mayor guard indicted, you had to make a race.
(30:03):
That man played guilty, so he could not test fine
an open court as to what he knew or did
not know on a protector crime. There. Two months after
King's murder, James Earl Ray was captured in London. He
was brought to Memphis, where he was held in communicado
for eight months. Exactly what you would do if you
were not sure what the man might say if allowed
(30:24):
to speak in public. But if others were involved in
the killing the king, it would appear that Ray did
not pose a danger at least as far as killing secrets,
because he didn't know much. But Ray did post a
danger because if he went to trial, the evidence would
have to bear up under examination, and the case against
him might fall apart, as his first attorney, Arthur Haines,
(30:46):
thought it would, And who knew what other witnesses might
appear and what they might have to say. And if
Ray were found not guilty, or worse still, if the
case against him were shown to be a sham, where
would that Jacker Hoover in the Flonted FBI, who would
run the investigation if Ray had been set up, who
had done the setting up, who had allowed them to
(31:08):
do it, and who had accepted and promoted the phony evidence.
These questions threatened to absolutely destroy Jacker Hoover again. John Currington,
Hoover and Johnson, and Mr Hunt all shared the same
view that if James rol Ray should go to trial,
(31:30):
he could borrow everybody out of the boat that was
floating around out in the ocean there. So I think
any opinion of Jack Hoover, Lenda Johnson, and HL Hunt
that it was necessary for James orl Ray to pre
guilty that were none of his testimony would be made public.
According to John Currington, Hoover and Hunt were on the
(31:52):
phone more often after Ray had been captured. The door
between Currington's office and Hunt's office was always open a
Hunts insistance, so there wasn't much that happened in that
office that John Currington wasn't privy too. One afternoon, according
to Currington, after Hoover had been on the phone with Hunt,
Currington was called into Hunt's office, whereupon Hunt made another
(32:14):
phone call. Mr Hunt called Percy Foreman one day and
he told Mr. Foreman that he had a young lawyer
in his office and had come up with a lot
of ideas as to why James Roe Ray should enter
a guilty play in the killing of Morton Lucy King.
And the young lawyer was myself, and he asked you,
if I came to Houston with Percy Foreman, vish it
(32:36):
with me and go over the series that I had
jotted down, and Percy Former agreed to do that. I
left the next morning. Currington made the quick flight from
Dallas to Houston, took the cab from the airport, and
arrived at Foreman's office. He was not empty handed. I
had a brief case with a hundred twenty five thousand
(32:58):
dollars cash in it. Mr Foreman, I probably exchange a
few preasures for two or three minutes, and I just
simply stated to him that had dritted down a hundred
twenty five thousand razors while James Royal Race should plead
guilty killing mortal as the King, and would like to
leave those reasons with him and the person. Foreman, without
(33:20):
any comment, say just to leave your briefcase that was
an extent of our conversation. Sherrington would say that the
lack of any questions or conversation on the part of
Percy Foreman felt spooky to him. He left Foreman's office
feeling that this was a deal that had been set
up will in advance. If I were just making an
(33:40):
editorial time for comment. In my opinion, I believe that J.
Hoover him Safford had made a call on the persuy
Foreman and told him to what was fiction to have?
This is a stunning story. According to Currington, he brings
a hundred and twenty five thousand dollars to Foreman in
exchange for the promise that Ray will plead guilty. What
(34:03):
reasons do we have for believing him? First, it would
go a long way to explaining form and strange conduct
toward Ray, pushing his way into the case and forcing
out a pair of lawyers who were preparing an affirmative
defensive Ray, than doing nothing on race behalf, and finally
putting Ray under extraordinary pressure to plead guilty while publicly
(34:24):
pretending that was always the plan. And if that were
not enough, Foreman then puts his name to an article
in a National magazine assigning nasty, untrue motives for Ray
in regards to the murder, such as what he was
really trying to do was start a race war. At
every turn, Percy Foreman seems to be acting in the
interests of someone off stage. Would Foreman really take money
(34:49):
and betray a client by secretly working for the other side? Well,
as we heard an episode four, Foreman did that very thing.
Just a few years after the King murder. Foreman signed
up a client who had a conflict with Bunker and
Herbert Hunt, the sons of H. L. Hunt, and then
approached the Hunts and took a hundred thousand dollars from
them in return for getting his client to do what
(35:12):
the Hunts wanted. It's all laid out in a federal indictment,
so I think we now know how it was that
James ol Ray put in a plea of guilty when
he really wanted to go to trial. It was arranged,
paid for, he was forced into it. Foreman was simply
not going to defend him. And the chief beneficiary of
all that was j Edgar Hoover. He was the one
(35:35):
on the hook. If the trial of James ol Ray
took a bad turn. In four Jagar Hoover, at the
age of twenty nine, became the first head of the
Bureau of Investigation, which later became the FBI, and he
was still director of the FBI when he died in
nineteen seventy two. He had seen presidents come and go,
(35:56):
and he had used his office to collect information on
just about every one, which made him the most feared
man in America, unless, of course, you were with a mob.
Though many wanted to, no president dared to replace the man.
It was only after Hoover died that the Senate Church
Committee was formed to investigate what they would call quote
(36:17):
the criminal abuse of power by the FBI. Two years later,
Louis Stokes, chairman of the House elect Committee looking into
the assassination of Martin Luther King, read a statement of
his own into the record that took the FBI's conduct
to the very edge of murder. Should the Committee take
special note that the conduct of the FBI and this
(36:39):
conspiracy of harassment of Dr King was not only unjustified
as policy, it was also illegal and unconstitutional. Did the
conduct of the FBI contributed in any significant degree to
the sequence of events that occurred in Memphis and led
(37:01):
to doctor King's death. In the MLK tapes, we have
attempted to answer that question by presenting the stories of
people who have told what they knew about the murder
of Martin Luther King. No one had a complete picture.
Each person only knew what he or she saw, heard,
or did. We heard from Police Captain Jerry Williams, whose
(37:23):
all black security detail was not called to protect King
on his final visit to Memphis. Fire Captain Carthel Whedon,
who on the day of the murder brought men with
cameras and fancy I d up to the roof of
the firehouse. Attorney Art Haynes, who had a witness who
saw the package with a rifle placed on the street
minutes before the shooting. Judge Joe Brown, who offered hard
(37:46):
reasons why that rifle could not have been the murder weapon.
Detective Barry Lynnville, who saw a bullet in near perfect
condition removed from the body of King, something that in
no way resembled the pieces of lead the f b
I would later offer as the death's luck. Ronnie Lee Atkins,
who told us how the shot was fired from the
yard behind the grille, where there was plenty of cover.
(38:09):
Betty Spades, who saw a smoking gun brought in from
that yard, and a lot of others with similar stories
that did not fit with the official version of the crime.
But even collectively, their testimony doesn't tell everything. Each is
only a tile in the mosaic, and when they are
all in place, the image is still incomplete. We don't
(38:30):
know all the actors and the roles they played, but
if you step back and look at the mosaic, you
can see a picture. The murder of Dr Martin Luther
King was a planned event, and that fact was covered
up by the people who were in charge of investigating
the crime. And when it appeared that Raised attorneys were
really going to fight the charge in court and call
(38:52):
into question the shaky evidence, something had to be done.
So Percy Foreman was sent in at the last moment
to rest of the case away from Race attorneys and
force a plea of guilty, which is precisely what he
did and what he was paid to do. The evidence
of this is overwhelming. As a nation, we choose what
(39:13):
we want to remember. Each year. On the third Monday
of January, we celebrate the birth of Dr Martin Luther
King with a national holiday that bears his name. Newspapers
and magazines published flattering portraits and gush about what a
great man he was, conveniently forgetting the awful things they
said about him after he spoke against the war. Now
(39:34):
they remember him not as the traitor they once denounced,
but as an American saint. But they never asked questions
about how he died, and their pages are used to
shout down anyone who does. Meanwhile, the man who used
his public position to take massive bribes, who every day
violated the law he was sworn to uphold, the man
(39:57):
who tried to destroy King at every turn and finally
helped to arrange his death, that man has a granite
face building named in his honor in our nation's capital.
For Tenderfoot TV and I Heart Radio, I'm Bill Claiber
and this has been the MLK types. Thanks for listening
(40:29):
to the m l K Tapes, a production of I
Heart Radio and Tenderfoot TV. This podcast is not specifically
endorsed by the King family or the King of State.
Damail Ka Tapes is written and hosted by Bill Claiper.
Matt Frederick and Alex Williams are executive producers. On behalf
of I Heart Radio with producers Trevor Young and Jesse Phone.
Donald Albright and Payne Lindsay are executive producers on half
(40:51):
of Tenderfoot TV with producers Jamie Albright and Meredith Steadman.
Original music by Makeup and Vanity Said. Cover art by
Mr soul Too one six with photography by Artemus Jenkins.
Special thanks to Owen Rosenbaum and Grace Rowyer at U
t A, The Nord Group, back Median Marketing, Envisioned Business Management,
(41:11):
and Station sixteen. If you have questions, you can visit
our website, the email k tapes dot com. We posted
photos and videos related to the podcast on our social
media accounts. You can check them out at the email
k Tapes. For more podcasts from I Heart Radio and
Tenderfoot TV, please visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows,
Welcome to the MLK Tapes, a production of I Heart
Radio and Tenderfoot TV. The views and opinions expressed in
this podcast are solely those of the podcast author or
individuals participating in the podcast, and do not represent those
of I Heart Media, Tenderfoot TV, or their employees. Listener
discretion is advised. It was about seven o'clock in the evening.
(00:24):
I got a teletype. It was from the Memphis Field
office and all it said was Martin Luther King has
been shot while standing on a balcony in a hotel
in Memphis. That was that. That was the whole message.
And I called Hoover at home. I didn't want him
to hear it over the news. I called him and
(00:46):
I said, Mr Hoover, I just got a telext message
from our Memphis office said that Martin Luther King was
shot while standing on a beltony in that city. And
then there was this pause, and his reaction to me
was is he dead? I called the Union Hall. I
(01:10):
said a matter of life and death. I said, I
think these people are planning to kill Dr King. The
authorities were parade. Oh, we found a gun that James
ol Ray bought in Birmingham that killed Dr King, except
it wasn't the gun that killed Dr King. James L.
Ray was upon for the official story from My Heart
(01:34):
Radio intended for TV. The plan was to get King
to the city because they wanted it handled in memphisfore
dead and them Coate Hamon And I've lived with it
so long, my Sirion, and they scared for me. The
Lord told me to not the word. I've been wanting
to tell it all my life. I'm Bill Claiburg and
(01:56):
this is d MLK tapes. In the nineteen sixties, as
the FBI was making life as difficult as it could
for Martin Luther King, its director JEdgar Hoover was living
the sweet life in upscale restaurants and five star hotels,
(02:18):
the Waldorf Historia in New York and exclusive resorts in
Florida and California. And Hoover didn't go to these places alone.
In virtually every instance, he was accompanied by his second
in command, Clyde Toulson. So Who's Tulson, when did he
arrive and what was the deal there? To help with this,
(02:40):
we recently spoke with author Philip Nelson, whose excellent book
Who Really Killed Martin Luther King was published just three
years ago. Tide Tulson grew up in a small town
in Missouri. After public schooling, he attended George Washington University,
where he received a law degree in nineteen The next year,
(03:02):
he applied for a job with the Bureau of Investigation,
where j. Edgar Hoover was boss. Apparently Hoover already knew Tulson.
In any case, Tulson was hired, and only two years
later in ninety he rose to the position of assistant
director of the Bureau, which became the FBI in ninety three,
(03:23):
with Tulson as Hoover's number two, a position he held
until Hoover died in nineteen seventy two. It is widely
assumed that Hoover and Tulson were lovers for forty years.
They lived in what appeared to be espousal relationship. Tulson
maintained an apartment near to where Hoover lived. The two
men were driven to and from work every day in
(03:44):
the same car, and they ate all their meals together.
Hoover and Tulson had lunch every day in the rib
room in the Mayflower Hotel. They didn't pay for their
food or drinks. For dinner. Most evenings they would eat
at Harvey's Restaurant, where they were also comped at great
expense to the owners, something that was never reported to
(04:04):
the I R S. And it wasn't just a workday relationship.
For many years, Hoover and Tulson went on extended vacations together.
In the winter, they would go for weeks at a
time to the Gulf Stream Hotel in Miami, and in
the summer it would be the Del Chero Hotel in California.
That neither place did they pay for room or board.
(04:27):
All travel, either by rail or by hair, was built
to their government expense account under the pretense that they
were on official business inspecting FBI field offices, but they
did nothing of the kind. Instead, they spent all over
their time either at the local racetrack or lounging around
the hotel swimming pool. The Del Charo Hotel in Lahoya, California,
(04:52):
where Hoover and Tulson went each summer, was a high
end resort owned by oil baron Clint Murchison. According to
the history website Gibson's World Quote, the hotel was frequented
by guests such as mobsters meyer Lanski, Carlos Marcello, Johnny Roselli,
and Sam Giancanna, along with politico such as Lyndon Johnson,
(05:14):
Richard Nixon, and JEdgar Hoover with his partner Clyde Toulson
Murchison gained control of the nearby del Mar Racetrack, where
Hoover was set up with his own private box. So
the head of our National Police Force, who by reputation
was the very personification of thrift and honesty, was in
real life something entirely different. And while the FBI was
(05:37):
good at chasing down bank robbers and car thieves, and
quite keen on raising the alarm about communists said to
be hiding in the chambers of government, it didn't do
a thing against organized crime, which decade after decade became
a stronger force in the American landscape. One would have
thought that the head of the National Police Force would
(05:57):
have been eager to take on organized crime, but Hoover wasn't. Moreover,
he said publicly that organized crime didn't really exist in America.
What could be the explanation for this? According to Bill Pepper,
Mobster meyer Lansky, who was basically running things at the
Gulf Stream Hotel was pulling the strings here. Meyer set
(06:19):
that up. Meyer instructed Costello, who had a suite at
the World Off Astoria as did Hoover, to go visit
Hoover and to show him photographs of him in sexual
activity with Tulson and put the photographs on a table
and say to him, well, you can have a wonderful life, Edgar,
(06:43):
or we can release these. Well. Hoover, being the coward
that he was no choice his online when Frank Costello
confronted him, and he agreed and that he would do
what they required, and what they required was at the
mob didn't exist. He is sold out to them entirely.
(07:09):
The story of Myer Landscape bringing Hoover on board is
best described in Anthony Summer's book The Secret Life of j.
Edgar Hoover. According to Summers sources, Landsky had Hoover in
his control because he had photographs of him engaging in
sex with Tulson and other men. I don't know if
this is true, but it's not an outrageous idea. As
(07:32):
we heard earlier, Hoover was happy to bug every hotel
room that Martin Luther King stayed in. So how hard
would have been for someone to do that to him
in the forties and fifties, when Hoover and Tulson were
staying for extended periods of time without charge in mob
connected hotels. Once Landski or anyone else had those photographs,
(07:55):
he would virtually own the director of the FBI. And
there was little and who his actions over the years
to say that wasn't the case. He just didn't go
after the mob. To be sure, there are other possible
reasons for Hoover's reluctance to act against organized crime. Arresting
(08:15):
and convicting a mobster would be a lot more work
than what was required to bring down a car thief.
Mobsters could afford good lawyers, and when scary guys were
put on trial, juries were more likely to end up undecided,
and Hoover was particularly proud of the Bureau's conviction rate.
And along with that, it probably felt pretty good getting
(08:37):
tips on horse races from people on the inside and
hanging around the pool with film stars and gangsters, being
treated like a celebrity and paying for none of it.
Of Course, the people offering the free stuff were most
likely expecting something in return, so was Hoover being blackmailed
or was they simply corrupted? And which is worse? Besides
(09:00):
living the good life with Hoover when they were off duty,
one might wonder what Toulson's responsibilities were inside the FBI
as the second in command. Quite simply, it was to
protect Hoover from any threat, real or imagined, that might
arise within the bureau or without. Tulson was not only
a second period of eyes and ears. He had his
own informants, a reputation for being mean, and he might
(09:23):
end a man's career over nothing just to show others
that he could do it. In short, he was Hoover's
hatchet man, and everyone was afraid of him because he
was sitting on the right hand of God. But beyond that,
Tulson gave Hoover a way to get things done that
didn't have to be recorded in an order or a memo.
He could run important errands for Hoover, errands that were
(09:45):
completely off the books. And it appears that's what Tulson
was doing when he becomes part of our story by
showing up in Memphis. The first time I ever met
(10:12):
him was his Memps airport, but it was a little
o wireport. You know what I mean, they didn't have
Sevingfoord to seven was dropping in and I will add
and uh and we went on that turn picked him
up to the airport. In previous episodes, we have heard
from Ronnie Lee Atkins, who was only sixteen years old
when King was murdered. Atkins lived in Memphis and was
(10:33):
privy to many discussions about the need to kill King
because he was a son of Russell Atkins Sr. The
man who led many of these meetings. Atkins Sr. Was
a man of influence in Memphis, and beyond that, he
had a special friend in Washington who would visit every
so often. He was a big connection with Daddy. I
mean he um, you know, he he used Eddie and
(10:56):
give Daddy money to do different lines. You know, went up.
But he is there, you know, two or three times
a year, maybe four or five times a year. Then
he'd call and you know did he'd go get him
and you know in the cab or. I almost told
you call him Uncail Clyde. I said, yes, I Well
from then on he was unc Clyde. So who was
(11:16):
this man who would fly in from Washington? The man
who Ronnie Lee Atkins was told the call uncle Clyde.
It was Clyde Tulson hoover second in command. This is
Bill Pepper. Hoover used to send in Tulson on a
regular basis to meet with Adkind, the Adkins family to
Dixie Mafia people. Dixie Mafia people were junior cousins of
(11:41):
the of the Marcello organization, but they worked together. They
were closely. When March Shallow might might not have wanted
something to happen, but it had to happen. They would
have used the the Adkins family to do this. And
what surprised me was of the extent to which he used.
(12:02):
Clyde Tulson was his number two as the messenger. Always,
for as long as Atkins could remember, Clyde Tulson would
visit his house a couple of times a year. When
Atkins gave his deposition to Bill Pepper, he brought several
backyard photographs of himself and Tulson, which you can check
out on our website. Hey us, Clyde Lee and um
(12:26):
kid lived girls straight, all right, Ryan, and you would
have been how old here? Seven? Yeah? Probably six seven? Okay,
So this then would have been fifty eight or fifty
nine photograph. What we learned from these photos is that
Tulson and Ronnie Lee's father, Russell Sr. Had a relationship
(12:47):
that went back for years, and part of what would
happen on some of these visits is that Tulson would
bring cash money for Russell Senior to pass along to
those on the off. The book's payroll came directly from
Clyde Toulson to my father's hand in a brown bag
or a suit or kind of a doctor's bag. I
have sat Clyde Tulson opened the bag up and pull
(13:09):
his papers out and take the money out. And it
was usually in a bag, you know, And they did.
He had opened a sack up and pull the money out,
and then they go to counting, and they'd both count. Yeah.
I mean, you know what the one potato to potato
three day before. That's why they did it. Pepper then
asked Atkins if he knew how much money changed hands.
I had no idea. I wish I was saying, you know,
(13:30):
a good chunk of but it just didn't have I
got allowance. It was pretty good, though, you know. I
get some Bedley Watchers and peanuts and stuff when I
when I wanted so Tulson would bring money to Atkins, who,
as we discovered in an earlier episode, was a leader
in the Dixie mafia. As Atkins said, Tulson would use
his father and give his father money to do different things.
(13:53):
This arrangement gave Hoover players on the board who were
not you men and who could do things that not
have to make reports. As Atkins would describe, there had
often been talking about killing King at various clan and
Mason meetings going back into the nineteen fifties, but after
King's nineteen sixty three march on Washington and his awarded
the Nobel Prize in nineteen sixty four, the talk took
(14:16):
on a sense of urgency. More ideas were floated about
how it could be done. And if you've come with
us this far, you've heard how Ronnie Lee described the
general plan. But we play his words here another time
because they are important words. The plan was disrupt the
city because they was gonna get King to the city,
(14:39):
because Tunson said that they wanted it handled in Memphis
for dead in m could hamlet words, specifically dead in
m could hamlet, so the workers would get King to town.
Is what it all boiled down to him and by
getting him to town, and I was gonna take care
of him. So apparently come down from over you know,
(14:59):
I don't. And Cloud was doing that on his own.
So this was the deal as fourteen year old Ronnie
Lee Atkins understood it. But the working relationship between Tulson
and Russell Sr. Was derailed when Tulson suffered a stroke
in nineteen sixty six and Atkins Sr. Died a year later.
But according to Ronnie Lee, the plotting kept on under
(15:20):
new leadership, the part of his father assumed by his
thirty six year old half brother, Russell Jr. And the
role of Tulson picked up by veteran FBI agent Frank Holliman,
who would become the next head of fire and Police
in Memphis just a few months before King was killed.
What follows is Bill Pepper questioning Ronnie Lee Atkins, who
(15:41):
was testifying under oath, with his lawyer Stephen Tolin sitting
close by. We're into ninety the guest sanitation workers strike hits, Yes,
your father's dead. Who's taken over? The Russell Jr? And Holloman?
(16:02):
So Russell Jr. Frank Holloman are running as the assassination effort. Yes,
do you know how long your father knew Holloman? He
knew Frank pretty good while is it possible because Holloman,
of course ran Hoover's office and for a number of years.
Is it possible that Holliman introduced Tulson to your father?
(16:23):
I think that Telson introduced Frank to Daddy. I think
guess how that have? You think it worked the other
way around. I think Tellson's the one that put Daddy
with Frank, because Frank run this office here for years.
Frank Holloman had joined the FBI right out of law
school in seven He worked hard and found favor with
(16:46):
Director Hoover, and for seven years in the nineteen fifties
was the man who ran Hoover's office in Washington. Then
he left for important posts in the field, becoming the
agent in charge in Atlanta, and then continuing on the Memphis,
which is Atkins was referring to when he said he
had run this office for years. And this is important
because Frank Allman was no stranger to Memphis. When he
(17:08):
became the director of Firing Police. He already knew who
everybody was and what they were up to. And according
to Atkins, Holloman was an important part of what they
were up to. What was said, anything significant said at
anybody's guard. Frank Holman tell Russell Jr. I old some
of that shot shoot as a bitch in the mouth,
(17:31):
say that, or did at Bertlar Baptist Church in a meeting?
And do you remember when that meeting was? That was
probably less than two weeks before they killed him. As
we saw in the previous segment. In the week before
King was killed, the FBI had composed a nasty article
to be secretly released to friendly news outlets that attacked
(17:52):
King for staying at a posh, white owned hotel in Memphis,
when there was a perfectly good black owned hotel, the Lorraine,
where he could stay if he was willing to patronize
black owned businesses as he was telling his followers to do.
Why do the FBI care were Kings stayed in Memphis?
This was an easy question for running the Atkins. I
(18:16):
think they had it set up for him to stay
at the Lorraine ahead of time, because they were set
up to work out a dowers this place. Now well,
the night they were gonna hit him from the window.
I don't know them, I don't think so. I think
they were gonna try to hit him from the fire
station at first, as far as old spireman, I know
that they had some moved. My brother had talked to somebody,
(18:41):
and I think it was Harman about having them moved.
And I think it was Harman that came up with
the idea, if there's a threat, if we can show
some kind of a threat, we could have a mood.
And I think that's what they used, was a threat.
As Adkins relates, the first idea was to shoot King
(19:04):
from some position at the firehouse, but even with the
black fireman removed, there were too many people there to
assure privacy at the back window. But the brush covered
yard behind Jim's grill had promised. So who made the call?
Atkins said it was his brother Russell Jr. And Frank Holloman.
Work came down to hitting him from from behind the grill.
(19:27):
I don't know if he was ever was down there
after that, but man, there was a ton of she
had back here, so it was the perfect place. The
angle wasn't right. They needed him up where he was
level with him at least the angle wasn't right, and
that would explain the sudden need for a room change.
(19:48):
King had been successfully booked into the Rain Motel, where
an ambush awaited, but he'd been booked into room two
oh two, on the ground floor from the firehouse. A
man standing outside room two o two might have in
a decent target, but not from the yard behind ours grill.
If the shooter were back far enough to be covered
by the brush, the hill itself would hide the rooms
(20:09):
on the ground floor. This problem was apparently recognized a
day or so before King was to arrive, and there
was a rushed effort to get King into another room,
preferably on the second floor, across from the yard behind
ours grill. So there it is. King was moved to
room three oh six. Martin Luther King was shot in
(20:46):
Memphis at six in the evening. Almost instantly the news
appeared on the FBI teletype. But in Washington it was
a little after seven and most people had already left.
But Paula Turski, a young man who was serving as
Hoover's personal assistant, was still there. He saw the teletype
come in, ripped it from the machine, and headed for
(21:07):
the phone. I called Hoover at home. I didn't want
him to hear it over the news. I called him
and I said, Mr Hoover, I just got a telex
message from our Memphis office. I said that Martin Luther
King was shot while standing on a belton in that city.
(21:28):
And then there was this pause, and his immediate reaction
to me was is he dead? And I said, I
don't know. All I have is the fact that he
was shot. And then I asked him if he would
like me to connect him with the head of the
Memphis office, and he said, yeah, do that. Then there
was another slight delay, and he said to me, I
(21:52):
hope the son of a bitch doesn't die, because if
he does, they'll make up martyr. Those are his exact words,
and I'll never forget it. So do Hoover's words upon
hearing the news about King reveal anything to us. Paul
A Tursky, who just came out with a book about
his years and the FBI titled the Director, was pretty
(22:14):
clear with me that he thought Hoover's words should remove
him from any suspicion about the murder. I was surprised
because I didn't hear it that way. So I played
the clip for a friend and he said something similar
that a man who lopes another man doesn't die isn't
the one we should suspect of killing him. That makes
sense if you don't mind being overly literal with Hoover's words.
(22:38):
Seeing another way, if Hoover had played any part in
the killing of King, however passive, he would have had
time to reflect on possible unfortunate side effects, such as
even in death, King would best him, as he clearly
has done so. Of course, Hoover might say what he
said about King becoming a martyr, but regardless of which
(22:58):
way you think his words point, there can be no
dispute about the hatred you can hear in them. At
about the same time that Latourski was on the phone
with his boss Hoover, John Currington was on the phone
with his boss H. L. Hunt. Mr. Hunt. He called me,
I would say, within less than ten minutes after Morton
(23:20):
Lucy King was killed there in in Memphis there and
told me to call every radio station in the United
States or everywhere that Life Find was broadcast. We were
also in Mexico and at that time Hawaiian and have
them not to do the program on Morton Lucy King.
We were doing a very derogatory series of stories on
(23:43):
Morton Lucy King, most of which had come through jayeg
or Hoover. Over a period of time of about two hours,
we were able to call all the radio stations. As
soon as Currington had accomplished this task, Hunt had another
He wanted to go into hiding. His views on King
were well known and he didn't feel safe in his home.
(24:04):
He asked Carrington to arrange for travel and lodging under
an assumed name. So under the names of Mr and
Mrs Jong Crrington, Hunt and his wife Ruth flew out
to El Paso and checked into a hotel. But first
thing Monday, a call came into Hunt's Dallas office someone
wanting to speak to the absent Mr. Hunt. Jaeger Hoover called,
(24:28):
I'd say about nine or nine thirty on on Monday
morning after the death of Martin Lucy King on Friday,
and asked from Miss Heart, and the switchboard advised Mr.
Hoover that Miss Hart was out of town at that time.
Mr Hunt asked our switchboard operator if if John was
in and for I know he never knew my last name,
(24:51):
but anyway, I got on the phone and Hoover asked
where Miss Hunt was. I told him. He asked if
I could get ahold of him and asked him if
he would come to Washington. I told him yes I could.
According to Currington, he called Hunt and told him that
Hoover not only wanted to talk to him, but wanted
to do the talking in person. Would Hunt travel to Washington?
(25:14):
Hunt said yes, and Currington again made the reservations under
another name. Hunt flew to Washington and stayed for a
couple of days. In our previous episode, we heard attorney
John Curington describe how one day out of the blue,
he was selected to be H. L. Hunt's personal assistant,
a position he held for twelve years. Hunt wasn't an
(25:37):
extremely wealthy Texas oilman, often called the richest man in America.
As Currington tells us, Hunt was a longtime supporter of
Lyndon Johnson and also had an ongoing alliance with Jack Hoover.
Miss Hart felt like he could do shirt and sayings
for Jack or Hoover that Whover couldn't do for himself.
(25:57):
But more important, Miss Hart believed that Jaegar Hoover could
furnish him information that he could use in his business activities.
What activities, As we've heard, Mr Hunt produced a radio
program called Lifeline that was designed to advance his rather
extreme political views. It was only fifteen minutes in length,
(26:17):
but a new show came out every day, six days
a week, and was carried by over five hundred radio
stations across the country. The program had a lot of
derogatory comments on Martin Luther King gave Edgar. Hoover kept
a personal file on them, and we were privileged to
a lot of that information in those files that was
(26:38):
redrafted and rewritten and used in the Lifeline programs. As
Curington would reveal, Hoover and Hunt would have brief conversations
on the phone, maybe once a month. It was a
romance of sorts. Hunt had wealth, Hoover had power, and
they shared a deep hatred of Martin Luther King. According
(27:00):
to Currington, Hunt felt sure that he could destroy King
with his radio program. Mr Hart was under the impression
that the message against Martin LUSA King that Lifeline could
deliver would eventually attract somebody or some ward or some
group that would say that Martin LUSA King was removed
(27:23):
from power. Hoover according to Currington, was less certain than
Hunt that lifeline alone could achieve this, but he was
willing to help. So. J Edgar Hoover, the nation's top lawman,
broke the law continuously by secretly giving to Hunt material
and King that Hunt could turn around and use on
his radio programs. When President John Kennedy was murdered, Attorney
(27:48):
General Robert Kennedy lost all control over the FBI and
Jedger Hoover and the new President, Lyndon Johnson apparently had
no desire to shield King from Hoover. Though he and
King were time maintained an outwardly friendly relationship, but in private,
Johnson's real feelings with Surface and Currington was pretty to
(28:09):
some of it. I've never heard such language as Lenda
Johnson used in describing his steeling for Mark Lucy King.
So for the public they were accepted as very close friends,
all both looking out for each other. But I don't
know if anybody is that Lenda Johnson had a more
dislike for than Mark Luther King, and the same thing
(28:33):
with jag Or Hoover. When Hoover invited Hunt to come
to Washington right after King had been killed, it allowed
for more private and personal conversations than either man was
willing to have on the phone. Currington wasn't privy to
any of that. I have no worth the idea of
what they talked about, but I believe that Jagger Hoover,
(28:55):
HL Hunt and Lenda Johnson were putting themselves into a
hold in learned or if anything did surface that would
suggest they had advanced knowledge of this, they wanted to
have as cleaner pass as possible. Of course, the totally
clean path was hard to be certain of because the
alleged killer of Dr. King had not been captured, and
(29:17):
no one could be sure what he might reveal once
he was, assuming he was captured alive. At that time, H. L.
Hunt and Josevillo, the powerful mafia boss, both lived in Dallas.
The two men were not what you would call friends,
but they shared a respect, stayed out of each other's business,
and once in a while might meet at Sevillo's place
out at the airport, were according to Currington, Sevilla might
(29:40):
offer a short lesson on how to get away with murder.
Savello's in carmentis to miss. Hunt told him that, you know,
hiring somebody to kill someone was no problem at all.
But immediately after that killing was done, you either had
to one destroyer the person who did the killing, or
if the mayor guard indicted, you had to make a race.
(30:03):
That man played guilty, so he could not test fine
an open court as to what he knew or did
not know on a protector crime. There. Two months after
King's murder, James Earl Ray was captured in London. He
was brought to Memphis, where he was held in communicado
for eight months. Exactly what you would do if you
were not sure what the man might say if allowed
(30:24):
to speak in public. But if others were involved in
the killing the king, it would appear that Ray did
not pose a danger at least as far as killing secrets,
because he didn't know much. But Ray did post a
danger because if he went to trial, the evidence would
have to bear up under examination, and the case against
him might fall apart, as his first attorney, Arthur Haines,
(30:46):
thought it would, And who knew what other witnesses might
appear and what they might have to say. And if
Ray were found not guilty, or worse still, if the
case against him were shown to be a sham, where
would that Jacker Hoover in the Flonted FBI, who would
run the investigation if Ray had been set up, who
had done the setting up, who had allowed them to
(31:08):
do it, and who had accepted and promoted the phony evidence.
These questions threatened to absolutely destroy Jacker Hoover again. John Currington,
Hoover and Johnson, and Mr Hunt all shared the same
view that if James rol Ray should go to trial,
(31:30):
he could borrow everybody out of the boat that was
floating around out in the ocean there. So I think
any opinion of Jack Hoover, Lenda Johnson, and HL Hunt
that it was necessary for James orl Ray to pre
guilty that were none of his testimony would be made public.
According to John Currington, Hoover and Hunt were on the
(31:52):
phone more often after Ray had been captured. The door
between Currington's office and Hunt's office was always open a
Hunts insistance, so there wasn't much that happened in that
office that John Currington wasn't privy too. One afternoon, according
to Currington, after Hoover had been on the phone with Hunt,
Currington was called into Hunt's office, whereupon Hunt made another
(32:14):
phone call. Mr Hunt called Percy Foreman one day and
he told Mr. Foreman that he had a young lawyer
in his office and had come up with a lot
of ideas as to why James Roe Ray should enter
a guilty play in the killing of Morton Lucy King.
And the young lawyer was myself, and he asked you,
if I came to Houston with Percy Foreman, vish it
(32:36):
with me and go over the series that I had
jotted down, and Percy Former agreed to do that. I
left the next morning. Currington made the quick flight from
Dallas to Houston, took the cab from the airport, and
arrived at Foreman's office. He was not empty handed. I
had a brief case with a hundred twenty five thousand
(32:58):
dollars cash in it. Mr Foreman, I probably exchange a
few preasures for two or three minutes, and I just
simply stated to him that had dritted down a hundred
twenty five thousand razors while James Royal Race should plead
guilty killing mortal as the King, and would like to
leave those reasons with him and the person. Foreman, without
(33:20):
any comment, say just to leave your briefcase that was
an extent of our conversation. Sherrington would say that the
lack of any questions or conversation on the part of
Percy Foreman felt spooky to him. He left Foreman's office
feeling that this was a deal that had been set
up will in advance. If I were just making an
(33:40):
editorial time for comment. In my opinion, I believe that J.
Hoover him Safford had made a call on the persuy
Foreman and told him to what was fiction to have?
This is a stunning story. According to Currington, he brings
a hundred and twenty five thousand dollars to Foreman in
exchange for the promise that Ray will plead guilty. What
(34:03):
reasons do we have for believing him? First, it would
go a long way to explaining form and strange conduct
toward Ray, pushing his way into the case and forcing
out a pair of lawyers who were preparing an affirmative
defensive Ray, than doing nothing on race behalf, and finally
putting Ray under extraordinary pressure to plead guilty while publicly
(34:24):
pretending that was always the plan. And if that were
not enough, Foreman then puts his name to an article
in a National magazine assigning nasty, untrue motives for Ray
in regards to the murder, such as what he was
really trying to do was start a race war. At
every turn, Percy Foreman seems to be acting in the
interests of someone off stage. Would Foreman really take money
(34:49):
and betray a client by secretly working for the other side? Well,
as we heard an episode four, Foreman did that very thing.
Just a few years after the King murder. Foreman signed
up a client who had a conflict with Bunker and
Herbert Hunt, the sons of H. L. Hunt, and then
approached the Hunts and took a hundred thousand dollars from
them in return for getting his client to do what
(35:12):
the Hunts wanted. It's all laid out in a federal indictment,
so I think we now know how it was that
James ol Ray put in a plea of guilty when
he really wanted to go to trial. It was arranged,
paid for, he was forced into it. Foreman was simply
not going to defend him. And the chief beneficiary of
all that was j Edgar Hoover. He was the one
(35:35):
on the hook. If the trial of James ol Ray
took a bad turn. In four Jagar Hoover, at the
age of twenty nine, became the first head of the
Bureau of Investigation, which later became the FBI, and he
was still director of the FBI when he died in
nineteen seventy two. He had seen presidents come and go,
(35:56):
and he had used his office to collect information on
just about every one, which made him the most feared
man in America, unless, of course, you were with a mob.
Though many wanted to, no president dared to replace the man.
It was only after Hoover died that the Senate Church
Committee was formed to investigate what they would call quote
(36:17):
the criminal abuse of power by the FBI. Two years later,
Louis Stokes, chairman of the House elect Committee looking into
the assassination of Martin Luther King, read a statement of
his own into the record that took the FBI's conduct
to the very edge of murder. Should the Committee take
special note that the conduct of the FBI and this
(36:39):
conspiracy of harassment of Dr King was not only unjustified
as policy, it was also illegal and unconstitutional. Did the
conduct of the FBI contributed in any significant degree to
the sequence of events that occurred in Memphis and led
(37:01):
to doctor King's death. In the MLK tapes, we have
attempted to answer that question by presenting the stories of
people who have told what they knew about the murder
of Martin Luther King. No one had a complete picture.
Each person only knew what he or she saw, heard,
or did. We heard from Police Captain Jerry Williams, whose
(37:23):
all black security detail was not called to protect King
on his final visit to Memphis. Fire Captain Carthel Whedon,
who on the day of the murder brought men with
cameras and fancy I d up to the roof of
the firehouse. Attorney Art Haynes, who had a witness who
saw the package with a rifle placed on the street
minutes before the shooting. Judge Joe Brown, who offered hard
(37:46):
reasons why that rifle could not have been the murder weapon.
Detective Barry Lynnville, who saw a bullet in near perfect
condition removed from the body of King, something that in
no way resembled the pieces of lead the f b
I would later offer as the death's luck. Ronnie Lee Atkins,
who told us how the shot was fired from the
yard behind the grille, where there was plenty of cover.
(38:09):
Betty Spades, who saw a smoking gun brought in from
that yard, and a lot of others with similar stories
that did not fit with the official version of the crime.
But even collectively, their testimony doesn't tell everything. Each is
only a tile in the mosaic, and when they are
all in place, the image is still incomplete. We don't
(38:30):
know all the actors and the roles they played, but
if you step back and look at the mosaic, you
can see a picture. The murder of Dr Martin Luther
King was a planned event, and that fact was covered
up by the people who were in charge of investigating
the crime. And when it appeared that Raised attorneys were
really going to fight the charge in court and call
(38:52):
into question the shaky evidence, something had to be done.
So Percy Foreman was sent in at the last moment
to rest of the case away from Race attorneys and
force a plea of guilty, which is precisely what he
did and what he was paid to do. The evidence
of this is overwhelming. As a nation, we choose what
(39:13):
we want to remember. Each year. On the third Monday
of January, we celebrate the birth of Dr Martin Luther
King with a national holiday that bears his name. Newspapers
and magazines published flattering portraits and gush about what a
great man he was, conveniently forgetting the awful things they
said about him after he spoke against the war. Now
(39:34):
they remember him not as the traitor they once denounced,
but as an American saint. But they never asked questions
about how he died, and their pages are used to
shout down anyone who does. Meanwhile, the man who used
his public position to take massive bribes, who every day
violated the law he was sworn to uphold, the man
(39:57):
who tried to destroy King at every turn and finally
helped to arrange his death, that man has a granite
face building named in his honor in our nation's capital.
For Tenderfoot TV and I Heart Radio, I'm Bill Claiber
and this has been the MLK types. Thanks for listening
(40:29):
to the m l K Tapes, a production of I
Heart Radio and Tenderfoot TV. This podcast is not specifically
endorsed by the King family or the King of State.
Damail Ka Tapes is written and hosted by Bill Claiper.
Matt Frederick and Alex Williams are executive producers. On behalf
of I Heart Radio with producers Trevor Young and Jesse Phone.
Donald Albright and Payne Lindsay are executive producers on half
(40:51):
of Tenderfoot TV with producers Jamie Albright and Meredith Steadman.
Original music by Makeup and Vanity Said. Cover art by
Mr soul Too one six with photography by Artemus Jenkins.
Special thanks to Owen Rosenbaum and Grace Rowyer at U
t A, The Nord Group, back Median Marketing, Envisioned Business Management,
(41:11):
and Station sixteen. If you have questions, you can visit
our website, the email k tapes dot com. We posted
photos and videos related to the podcast on our social
media accounts. You can check them out at the email
k Tapes. For more podcasts from I Heart Radio and
Tenderfoot TV, please visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows,
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