January 10, 2022 • 45 mins
The black firemen across the street told to report elsewhere. The black detective surveilling King taken off the job. King’s all-black police security unit ordered to stand down. All this and more on just what happened to be the day Dr. King was shot.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the m l K 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 for individuals participating in the podcast, and do not
represent those of iHeart Media, Tenderfoot TV, or their employees.
Listener discretion is advised. In nineteen sixty six, James Meredith,
(00:25):
the first person of color to integrate the University of Mississippi,
decided to go on a two hundred mile march from Memphis, Tennessee,
to Jackson, Mississippi. He called it a walk against fear,
and it was meant to encourage black men and women
to register to vote. On the second day out on
the road, Meredith was ambushed and wounded by a white
(00:47):
man with a shotgun. Meredith was rushed back to a
hospital in Memphis, his wounds not serious. The following morning,
Martin Luther King flew in to see him, and the
Reverend James Lawson, pastor and civil rights leader in Memphis,
drove out to the airport to pick him up. I
was met on the concourse by a couple of black
(01:10):
police officers who were dressed in suits and ties, white
shirts and ties. They informed me there will be no
violence in Memphis and King is going to be safe
in Memphis. Claud Armor, the Commissioner of Fire and Police.
(01:32):
He is appointed eight officers of the police force in
Memphis to work with him and accompany him as a
security unit. For nineteen sixty six on Dr King's office
cooperated with that black security squad of eight men. They're
(01:53):
the ones who would not allow him to stay at
any hotel with balcony sea. They wanted him to be
inside where they could not keep the scenery clear. Was
that unit assigned to him on his final visit to Memphis,
that all black unit. No, it was withdrawn. That security
(02:17):
union was reassigned. I called the union hall. I 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, the James L.
Raybod in Birmingham that killed Dr King. Except it wasn't
(02:41):
the gun that killed Dr King. James Lvy was upon
for the official story from My Heart radio intender for TV.
The plan was to get King to the city because
they wanted it handled in Memphis. Were dead in incate
hamon and I have lived with us alone, monsieur, and
(03:03):
they they skied for me. The Lord told me to
not the word. I've been wanting to tell it all
my life. I'm Bill Clayburg and this is d MLK tapes.
Reverend Lawson was a good friend of Martin Luther King,
(03:25):
and he was one of the first to question the
official story of the assassination. Lawson will tell us how
he came to know doctor King and about the things
he learned that created doubt about the murder. Then we'll
hear from people who were in Memphis that faithful day
and how what they experienced spoke to the very things
that troubled Reverend Lawson. At the time of King's murder,
(03:46):
Lawson was the pastor of the Sentinary Methodist Church in Memphis. Lawson,
like King, was a third generation minister, and he decided
to fight for racial justice at an early age. When
he was just twenty two, he sent to federal prison
for refusing induction into the army. Lawson was locked up
for a year and then went to India as a missionary.
(04:09):
It was while he was in India that Laws and
learned of the Montgomery bus boycott. We spoke last summer.
The Montgomery bus boycott was on the top news all
across India the early part of December nine. I'm sitting
at my desk in my apartment in no for India,
(04:31):
and the immediate headline that caught my eye in my
life Negroes in Montgomery Boycott. I knew as I finished
my term in nineteen fifty six that I were really
going to return to home and would be involved in
that campaign. I didn't know where or what, or when
(04:54):
or who, but I knew it was going to happen,
and it did happened. Lawson met King when he got
back from India, where he had studied the life and
methods of Mahatma Gandhi. King was impressed. He urged me,
and I can't remember all the words, but he said,
come now, don't wait. We don't have anyone like you
(05:18):
in the South, and we need your experience, We need
your work and help. So Lawson went south, where he
would lead the lunch counter sit ins in Nashville and
be arrested as a freedom writer in Jackson, Mississippi. He
then became the pastor at the Centenary Methodist Church and
in the summer of six, he joined a group of
ministers that went to Vietnam to make a report, a
(05:41):
report critical of the war that he personally sent to
Martin Luther King. Less than two years after you made
that report, Dr King then made his speech at Riverside Church,
the speech that shocked the nation fourth nineteen seven. And
I knew that I'm America would never invest the necessary
(06:03):
funds are images in rehabilitation of its poor so long
as adventures like Vietnam continued to draw men and skills
and money. So I was increasingly compelled to see the
war as an enemy of the poor and to attack
it as such. King's opposition to the war might have
(06:26):
sounded like a practical matter. Money spent on military adventures
abroad could not be used to help people at home.
But underneath there was a powerful moral argument that went
much deeper. We were taking the black young men who
had been crippled by our society in sending them eight
(06:47):
thousand miles away to guarantee liberties in Southeast Asia which
they had not found in Southwest Georgia and East Holland.
Did you concur in that speech? Did you agree with
Dr King? Oh? Absolutely? But his speech was not very
well received by the overall American media and some people
(07:11):
in the civil rights movement as well. Is that not true.
That's true. We knew in our conversations the extent to
which they would say he had no business talking about
which causes the idiocy of our conventional wisdom. In the
United States, we think that preachers ought not to talk
(07:34):
about evil. In ninety eight, Memphis, racial tensions were high.
There were a few decent employment opportunities to open the
black citizens. Only the most menial work, and that was
always Underpaidred sanitation workers were the textbook case. A day
after filthy work, black workers were not allowed to shower
(07:57):
and change clothes at the garage, but the way workers
were if it was raining, they were sent home without pay,
while their white drivers were allowed to go back to
the garage, play cards and stay on the payroll. There
were constant humiliations, and if you objected to any of it,
you'd be fired. On April one, two black workers in
(08:20):
Cole Cole and Robert Walker hopped into the back of
their garbage truck to get out of the rain. It's
trash compactor supposedly malfunctioned, switching on and they were crushed
to death, and if the horror of that were not enough,
the wives and families of the two men were barely compensated.
It was the last straw, and the sanitation workers walked
(08:43):
off the job. The city of Memphis declared the strike
illegal and refused to discuss the workers concerns, and about
all the workers could do was march and attend rallies.
This is Reverend Lawson describing what happened during one peaceful
march that he was leading, a march he had cleared
with police Chief Holliman. We were walking on the right
(09:06):
side of the street going south, and these cars came
from the side streets on the main street and rolled
up all alongside of us, so that there was a
long line of police cars, perhaps the length of the walk.
Then I noticed some of the cars coming over the
yellow line and trying to intimidate some of us walking.
(09:32):
So I turned around and went to the couple of
the race cars and said, now, look, we had Holloman's
permission to walk. You guys have designed to provoke an incident,
so stay where you are. And then it happened again.
They moved over on the marchers, and this time the
sanitation workers put their hands in the car, and like that,
(09:56):
the police cars all of it. Now that line stopped.
Officers poured out of the cars with cans of the
base and seated the mace everybody they could place. They
had some targets they dragged off to a vikingople out
the river. By how many I had glasses on, So
they're mad in face. But the march was broken up
(10:19):
in that fashion. But as the strike entered its second month,
it moved into something more threatening even than police violence.
There were now families with no savings and no income
and no way to put food on the table. The
strikers badly needed outside help, national attention. So Reverend Lawson
(10:41):
asked his friend Martin Luther King to come to Memphis
and speak at a rally. And they were standing room
only in that meeting. So I suspect that we probably
had as many as ten the twelve thousand people in
that sanctuary and in that building. I picked up Dr
King at the airport and we had to walk through
(11:04):
mobs of people who were overjoyed that Martin King was
in Memphis for this strike. So this is a very
powerful moment for him and for us in the euphoria
that followed a speech, King agreed to come back to
Memphis and join in a protest march. When the day came,
King's plane was delayed and he was a little late
(11:25):
in getting there. The march began, and King and his
people arrived and took their place near the front of
the marchers. But things were not going well. When I
turned on the main street, I saw just beyond our
first rank of marshals, who were maybe fifty yards ahead
of us, I saw in front of them police officers
(11:48):
in riot deer stretched across that main street in ranks
of three or four ranks on the side of the street.
But we're trying to break the store windows. No police
officer moved to stop them, So I said to myself,
(12:08):
they are planning again to break up this march. Knowing
what was coming next, Lawson ran back and demanded that
King of this party retire. They're coming to get you, Martin,
he said, and we don't want that. King objected at first,
but then agreed, and his party retired to the Rivermont
Hotel with the honest help of a nearby police car.
(12:30):
Later last in another strike, leaders examined photos that were
taken that day. According to them, the windows smashing and
looting had not been done by the marchers, but rather
by some Beal street low lifes and others they didn't know.
As we heard at the beginning of the episode, from
the time of the Meredith shooting forward, King had an
(12:52):
all black security unit when it came to Memphis, but
for some reason, on the King's final visit to the city,
that unit was not called on to protect him. Instead,
a police detail of four officers under the command of
Inspector Donald Smith met doctor King at the airport and
escorted him to the Lorraine Motel, where they remained on
(13:12):
duty till five in the afternoon. But none of them
were black, and none of them returned the next day,
April four, the day the King was murdered. Late in
the afternoon of April four, Lawson went to the motel
to report to doctor King about his day in court,
fighting successfully, as it turned out, for the right to march.
Lawson left King at around five pm. He was home
(13:35):
having dinner with his wife when he got the news
that doctor King had been shot. He then dashed around
the city trying to keep things calm. But several days
later he got a strange package in the mail. I
received the brown envelope and on the inside of it
the invisible tape. It was wrapped around a bullet. It
(13:56):
had scribbled on the sheet of paper to the bullet
woods attached, there is one of these for you. Lawson
didn't tell anyone other than his wife about the package.
But a few days later we got a call on
some matter from police Chief Holloman, and towards the end
of the conversation, Holloman said, we understand that you received
(14:18):
the package in the mail. Lawson, as was his way,
remained polite, but as he hung up the phone, he wondered,
how did you know that? And as time went on,
Lawson was troubled by a few other things he discovered
after the murder. This is what he had to say
in I learned that one or two firemen, and I
(14:40):
got trying to check the next details with living two
firemen who were into fire station across the street Kenny
torn the little hotel Black fireman were transferred from that
station in ways that at least those fireman thought was unusual.
Big contact at me and Ralph Jackson, all with two
(15:02):
others about their removal. I learned that Ed Reid, who's
on surveillance from the fire station, was moved an hour before.
I learned that patrol cars that were in the region
when he was there patrolling Allberry made but suddenly disappeared
(15:26):
with Dora. He found, and after James el Ray had
been captured, more odd things began to pop into Lawson's head.
When he found out that Ray was being held in
a cell where the lights were kept on twenty four
hours a day. It brought to his mind sleep deprivations
used by the North Koreans to break American captives. My
(15:46):
only regret is that I did not then go and
find a way to visit him in that cell at
County Jail. As a pastor, I made a series is
air in not getting acquainted with James el Ray in
that cell. And when James finally had his day in
(16:08):
court and pleaded guilty, Lawson was again disturbed. His plea
astonished me, and it didn't astonished me from his point
of view. It estonished me from the official legal court
point of view. Just why would the local police and
district attorney, in an assassination of a major USA figure
(16:33):
not moved to have an open child I've come to
call this Lawson's question. It's a good one. If this
case is the big slam dunk that the police and
d A like to say it was, why the big
push for the plea? Why wouldn't the d A's office
pursue a trial to prove without a doubt that James
(16:54):
OL Ray killed Martin Luther King. As you just heard,
Reverend Lawson felt badly about not having visited Ray while
he was held captive for eight months before his court day.
The Lawson would make up for that. He visited Ray
in jail after he was convicted. He came to know
Ray in a way few other men did. Lawson even
(17:14):
married Ray in jail and at the end sat with
him as he awaited death. So what was his measure
of the man? Of course, the motive that was given
to Ray was that he hated black people so much
that he escaped from prison with the sole intention of
murdering doctor King. That was a lie. That was the
(17:35):
major lie. Now, remember, I've been fighting racism since age tour,
so I think I do know racism and a white person.
I visited James O. Ray, and I found ignorance in
James O. Rae and some illiteracy, and I found elements
(17:57):
of a poor white man, but I found no races.
Reverend Lawson, do you believe that James el Ray murdered
your friend Martin Luther King? James el Ray was a
pond for the official story. Dr King was not assassinated
(18:19):
by James el Ray. As Reverend Lawson told us, he
noticed some strange activity in the Memphis newspapers in the
(18:41):
week leading up to King's murder, stories attacking King for
staying at white owned hotels when there was a perfectly
good black hotel, the Lorraine, that he could have patronized.
What was this about, Lawson wondered, where was this coming from?
There were, of course good reasons for King to stay
at the white hotel, to integrate them, for one, and
(19:03):
for another, Lawson says, the King's all black security detail
like hotels such as the Rivermont or the Admiral Benbo
with interior access to rooms that they could secure and guard,
instead of motels like the Lorraine, whose rooms were accessed
by an open exterior walkway. But whether because of the
attacks in the newspapers or because he just chose to
(19:26):
be there, King was booked into the Lorraine Motel for
his final visit to Memphis, but at first he was
booked into room two O two, which had a ground
floor entry off an interior alcove, and at the last minute,
King's room was changed to three oh six, which was
reached by the exposed walkway. So the question is why
(19:48):
was King's room changed? The person best able to answer
that question was Lorraine Bailey, the owner with her husband
of the Lorraine Motel. According to an account from Bill
Pepper's book The Plot to Kill King, on April two,
the day before King arrived in Memphis, she told her
husband that she had been visited by someone she described
(20:08):
as an SCLC advanced man, who insisted that King be
moved to a room overlooking the empty motel swimming pool.
But as soon as she heard that doctor King had
been shot, Lorraine Bailey ran to her room screaming, what
have I done? She then suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and
never regained consciousness. She died a few days later, and
(20:30):
the question of who was behind the room changed remained
a mystery. But this was not the only odd occurrence
taking place near the murder site. Reverend Lawson mentioned a
few others like the transfer of the only two black
firemen assigned a fire station number two, or the two's
as it was called. The fire station overlooked the motel,
(20:53):
and a lot would be happening in and around that firehouse,
and the two firemen, as the story goes, being black,
were thought to be a risk. But what excuse should
be used to remove them? According to a witness we
will hear later, it was decided that the easiest thing
was to say that a threat had been made on
their lives? Is that what happened? Well, the fireman can
(21:16):
tell us in their own words as they respond to
questions by Attorney Bill Pepper, who represented Coretta Scott King
and the King family at the civil trial in Memphis.
First is Norville Wallace, who in thirty seven years of
service attained the rank of captain, which is why Pepper
refers to him as chief Fouse. You you were employed
(21:38):
by the Menda's fire departments, were a number years true
years from six Moss when she falls? Did you serve
as the first one day making ses six? I will
have November where you at any time transferred out of
that stage? Were transferred out on eight p m. Of
(22:02):
the night of the killing or the night before the
night of the pool? And how were you transferred? How
do you receive your orders to be transferred out without
receiving from that game? He should add, going be detailed
for thirty three was at the airport? This was the
nine of April third. You were told by your captain
(22:22):
to go out to the airportage in thirty three? She
was Did you ever ask what this was all about? Yes?
And then what were you told? Told that head in three?
And why would you be friend? Was putting out of bires,
I guess, but there was a thread on your life.
Say so, the education out of the areas, that's what
(22:45):
it doesn't get mad here? How many black firemen were
signed the number two, just you and the lower Boston
to Obviously we're learning the nine of one of you
were allowed the right and you never received the satisfactory explanatic.
(23:09):
Say so, Norville Wallace has transferred out of fire station
number two to a firehouse out of the airport. He
is told that the transfer was caused by a threat
upon his life, and Wallace cannot imagine why anyone would
wish him harm. So take the explanation that Wallace was
removed because of a threat to his life. This is
(23:31):
something real or something made up? Because one might think
if a real threat had been made, details would be
provided to the threatened person as a matter of responsible conduct.
If you were fireman Wallace, what might you want to know?
How do they know about this threat? Where is it
coming from? Who more than the threatened party deserves to
(23:53):
know these details? But no details are given, no explanation
is offered. In fact, the threat is never mentioned again.
So does this sound like something real or something made up?
And as Wallace testified, there was another black fireman at
the two's, Floyd Newsom, and his story as told from
(24:14):
the same witness stand, it's quite similar to that, Mr Wallace.
Where are you on duty on the fourth of April
nineteen fire station number two at the time of the
assass today, I was from Judy, but I wasn't the
number twos. You were not at the number two I
(24:35):
was supposed to be. You were supposed to be at
the number dudes. If you were at another dude, you
tell the jury y you were not the number two.
I was that day because Abler ThReD not able. The
third obviously called home from our internet at that times
the times, who is struck to me? Not your pot?
(24:59):
Aren't you the number two on our regular duty to
note the company? But instead they posed two number thirty months.
That was that am gold and crossing possibly in the
tent at the time of nine. Did you receive this call?
After ten? After ten a fucking night, you received the
(25:21):
call and orders to go to another five? That's right?
The next step, what was the emergency that caused you
to be changed? You to be moved to another fire?
Surely wasted my emergency it was? And when you went
to that other station in the next stat did you
(25:43):
find that you were neat? Also, I was not needed
my leading not company. That's not company after serious and
that's somebody else's details of my company in my state.
So you're telling this course that you were surplus to
requirements where you were said that under man your your
homecom So there's a video. Ever inquired why you were
(26:07):
assigned away from your station? Yes? What did you learn? Much? Times?
I was transferred about waiting on it about a quick
So finally you gotta answer to your question, and you
(26:31):
were told that you were transferred at the request of
the Memphis Colsia before any opinion your own about why
you were transferred, not really, I just know it was
very unusually necessary, so it had to be done for
some reason. I don't know the reason. And as if
(26:54):
there weren't enough strange things going on at the twos
that day, there was something else, some thing that Reverend
Lawson didn't know about, nor did anyone else, because no
one in the murder investigation had interviewed Carthel Weeden, the
chief of fire Station number two, about what he saw
that day. Years later, Weedon would come forward and say
that the morning of the murder, he was approached by
(27:16):
two men who flashed army I d and asked to
be placed on the roof of the firehouse where they
could photograph the Lorrain Motel. This is Chief Weedon telling
his account of what happened that morning on April fourth. Yea,
they have the assassination. Were you approached by to Morrow Lawson?
(27:37):
That's what he indicated to the time. Show you any
military identification? Well, I'm sure the dear I want to
hear about there for that. You know, we have a
lot of people coming in and that you know, and
what did they ask you to do? They wanted to
look out for dance, right, okay? They wanted if they
(28:01):
want an advantage point in a rent these arm rolls
And did you put them somewhere? I put them on
the roof to the No. To fire station? You put
these army officers on the roof for the number two
fire stations on fourth of Agos ninetiess year? And were
(28:21):
they carrying anything? They had great case station? Did you
come to learn that it was in those Greek place?
Did they tell you that one was in the brief
phase they said they wanted to banage point or doing
so to photographic where rats you came to believe that
(28:43):
they had camera equipment in those Well that's what they
they indicate in doing. I placed the motor root when
they yet did you see the leaves? Ris Ween? Has
many law enforcement officers ever asked you about about that?
Any rich nobody's ever saw him? To you, this is
(29:07):
a simple story, but curious why would two men flashing
army I d asked to go to the roof of
the firehouse so they could photograph the area around the
Lorraine Motel. Unjust what happened to be the day that
Martin Luther King was shot? Who were these men what
were they doing that day? And if there were an
(29:28):
innocent explanation, why haven't these men come forward? And where
are the photographs that they presumably took. In the previous segment,
(29:51):
we heard the accounts of the two black firemen who
were removed from the critically located fire station number two,
and from the former chief of that station who told
up bringing two men up to the roof so they
could photograph the area around the Lorraine Motel. This on
a morning where he said a lot of people were
coming and going, but something darker still appeared to be
(30:11):
taking place within the Memphis Police Department. On his previous
visits to Memphis in nineteen sixty eight, Martin Luther King
was met and guarded by a special detail of black
police officers. Reverend Lawson told us of how he was
at the airport waiting for doctor King the first time
that unit made their appearance. He told us how their commander,
(30:33):
Captain Jerry Williams, promised to keep King safe, but according
to Lawson, on King's final visit to that troubled city,
Williams strangely did not receive the order to form his unit.
This is what Captain Williams had to say about it
years later, responding to the questions of Attorney Bill Peppers,
(30:57):
and he bously gonna police department. Actually was how long
were you? Was very honest later? When years? And what
were you doing in nineteen sevens? At that time I
was assigned to them as sign and I would be
in charge of security party Police department and then women
(31:21):
have celebrities or some daystarious accompts to numbers. Kevin Williams,
um were you assigned to provide security for Dr Martin
Luther King whenever he came to Men, Well, for the
first two times that he came to my knowledge, I
was assigned. I have a very time. I was not
(31:43):
talking about the Earth assiseration, the you assassination in eight
and tell us how you would put together? How about
security unit that you've had people together? Inspected Dunston, the
old security supervisor. He would call me and asked me
(32:04):
to select a group of officers, possibly nine. I would
help about sister tatives through you and the coming in.
Would you stay with doctor King throughout his visit? When yes,
how would you provide security? Point? Well, we would get
his continerary. When you come to the Memphis we would
(32:24):
meet at the tail port. When he did planned it
would be right with him. We would following him to
his hotel. If he would go to church first was
we would lead to details of the church. Where did
he stay overnight? When on one ocagent who stayed up
(32:45):
to river, wont and your unit would protect him and
from my secur to that, yes, or we would go
in and check the rooms, make sure the telephone on about,
check under the bed to check the over where. Then
I was signed to the officers building the outside of
this door. We would take times about every two hours
(33:07):
and would do that. All right, love now and Dr
King's lost visit to menis were you asked to form
this usual security unit? You know? So you were not?
Was not? Why were you not absolutely formed at security
unit on the lost n So? I don't know. I
(33:32):
was just alled as somebody as within the assignment when
they lack office and label white officers. Did you ever
ask any questions as to why you weren't something well,
I did later on altimary timent. But after the assassination,
in the aftermath the assassination, while you still were a
certain officer, did you ever raise that question with any
(33:54):
on the inside the department, no income wait at the
most house black officers, and we didn't took the vers
as to why. But nobody knew why. You know, you
have to realize at that time to tell you, when
we used to go, plakers were very supergated. There's a
lot of I still the situation of change formatically since
(34:18):
then black people was only talking to black people. White
people gone talking the white people. So a lot I
still have tea. I don't know, my Woodpool, I just
don't know. I don't know what the answer that since
factor gave me was. But you ask, and I just
know who wasn't working on that pay and you were
(34:40):
not in a position as an officer in the departments
and black home really be able to ask any money
and require an anser wrest. But there was a black
police detective who was working that day. His name was
ed Reddit and with this black partner, patrolman Willie Richmond,
he met doctor King at the airport on April third,
(35:03):
as an auxiliary to the official security detail that included
the white officers under Inspector Smith the police. Smith and
his men in one car and read it and Richmond
and another escorted King to the Lorraine Motel read it
and Richmond were not part of the official detail, so
after they arrived they went up to the firehouse, where
from a back window they looked out at the Lorraine.
(35:25):
They were not so much guarding King as putting him
under surveillance, making notes as to who came and went.
It's not clear where Smith's all White details stationed themselves
that day. Bill Pepper thinks they mostly hung out at
the motel office reading newspapers, but we don't know that.
What we do know is that Smith called headquarters at
(35:45):
five p m. Asking for permission to end their watch
despite numerous and credible threats to King's life. The officers
were sent home without any one replacing them, and the
security detail did not return the next day, the day
Dr King was murdered, but Reddit did return to his
post at the firehouse. On the morning of April four,
(36:07):
Reddit said there was no sign of Smith or his detail.
Sometime in the late morning, Willie Richmond rejoined Reddit, but
it would be a rather strange afternoon. What follows his
detective Reddit on the witness stand, answering the questions of
Bill Pepper, Well, you serve as officer me where did
(36:28):
you becoming a police Munity Relations officer SA as a
police munity relations officer on your duties. Well, but when
we started there was nothing written about us. For we
developed our long methods and ways of getting this community,
and it was how do we get the community through
the response to understanding word of us. At the sign
(36:52):
of the Sanentation workers strike, were you still working with
the community and you said involved with amusingly, how did
you related the events of going on? Well, I was
somewhat pool out to kind of surveyor serve. I thought
it sabailas I was given then cop mons do, but
I thought it was a bit necessary, and I think
(37:14):
the whole background idea was too to observe or to
find out anyone who made me come into the city
to disrupt it. That gives you any problems in terms
of your relationship you had in the community because you've
been working with the community and moving into the world,
No one, that's intelligence. We're gett see the contrete everybody
(37:40):
you will be And I'm going about it now that
there come a time when you were assigned to a
a specific detail at the fire station. Firevation number two.
What it is about the sibers one that out of
side on hand that I had noticed something was unusual
(38:00):
about all right again Rant King, and I noticed there
was nobody else there in the past when we were
signed about the team. We stayed with him, guarding him
up down steps and stayed with it. Nobody with him.
So I went to cross the street at the fire
department because we're coming in, and observed greet and I
(38:24):
wish he did and who accompanied you? In the will
of the Richmond. He took up a position uh in
the fire station on the third of April, and from
the rear of the fire station people were able to
see the Lorraine would tell about clear and did you
return with Officer Richmond the next the next day we
(38:45):
were the next day, as we learned from Station Chief wheten,
the firehouse was alive with people not normally there. By
official count, there were thirteen policemen inside the firehouse when
King was murdered thirty, but read it was not one
of them, because at some time near five o'clock, Lieutenant
(39:05):
Arkin showed up and told Reddit that the boss wanted
to see him down at headquarters. What four He wouldn't say,
So Reddit went with Arkan and Richmond was left still
watching out the window. When Reddit arrived at headquarters, he
was shown to a conference room and was stunned by
what he saw. It was like a meeting of the
choint chiefs of staff. He said. In this room were
(39:28):
the heads and seconds of every law enforcement operation in
the area, Sheriff, highway patrol, army, intelligence, national Guard, you
name it, it was in the room. Then read it,
said the chief. Holloman approached and pointed to a man
in civilian clothes who he said was with the Secret Service.
Holloman said this man had flown in from Washington that
(39:49):
day with news that a contract had been taken out
on Redditt's life, and that Reddit had to go home immediately.
Reddit found the scene utterly surreal. Who takes out a
contract on a lowly police detective and who would fly
from Washington with such news? And what would the Secret
Service have to do with it? Returning to Reddit's testimony
(40:10):
at the civil trial, a group of man and I
was a man once to survive inside the holms. That
was a man there who had just falling in and
that was CONTRACTE. I was going home totally have that.
(40:33):
It was basically to go back to where I was
to take care of what the director HOMEO had three
bar argamentations about you going home anyway, It's my job
to take into arm take home. Reddit said he was
kept at home for the next week, then he was
told he could return to work. The whole thing was
said to be a mix up. The threat was actually
(40:54):
on some other black police detective in Knoxville. So detective Reddit,
though apparently not the ject of a real contract, was
the third black man removed from the fire station in
two days, and the second man removed because of reported
threat upon his life. A dangerous time to be working
at the two's. So a lot of strange stuff going on.
(41:15):
And if you lived in Memphis when King was killed
and we're paying attention like Reverend Lawson, you may have
been aware of these odd stories. But most people in
America were not. And in part this was because James
el Ray never had a trial, though according to Ray
and many others, he wanted a trial and always insisted
that he did not shoot Martin Luther King. You heard
(41:39):
the voices of the men in these stories because we
jumped ahead thirty years to the civil trial. A lawsuit
for wrongful death brought in Memphis and by Coretta Scott King.
She no longer believed the official version of her husband's murder,
and she wanted the evidence of that crime as incomplete
as it was to be recorded in a courtful law
(42:00):
so the people coming later could read what the witnesses
had to say, or in our case here what they
had to say. But we really haven't gone anywhere. We're
still in Memphis in nineteen sixty eight looking at some
of the strange things that went down the day King
was killed. We've got fifty years of revelations still in
front of us, and that's how this story will continue
(42:22):
to emerge, piece by piece, year by year, as we
hear people overcome their fear or surrender to their conscience.
So what you've just heard is for openers, for background,
and as ominous as it all sounds, it's possible that
there are reasonable explanations for some or all of these events.
(42:42):
And none of these stories by themselves or even collectively,
proves that there was conspiracy to murder Dr King. But
if these events were table setting for a murder, then
the finger of guilt would point back to those with
the power to make these strange things happen. But one
thing we do know is that these events could not
have been the doing of James el Ray, who drifted
(43:04):
into Memphis for the very first time just a few
hours before Dr King was shot. What is his story?
Who or what brought him to Memphis and where was
he when Dr King was killed? Well, James el Ray
will tell you himself, but be warned it's no simple town.
(43:31):
Next time. On the email K tapes we received a
letter dear Mr Haynes, I'm here in jail. I've been
accused of a murderer. I don't know anything about it.
Will you please come help me. No, he never did
have no hostility towards any race, not only Blacks, but
Hispanics or anybody. And we said a lads together and
(43:51):
he was all maybe, he was all happy and as
he had money money on him, so he said, I'm
going out to berminghended by a late Laul parts you
have this, he said, I'm working up a Mr. Rawl
sadly remember how the rawle came And I'm working for
a guy named Row or something like that. A boat
came all the radio saying that the Reverend Martin Laus
(44:12):
kame and shops so I didn't take too much cant
on that, but I kept on driving and wasn't too
long you have thought. He said, Uh, they were looking
for a white man and white mustang. And the next
one of the shooting my dad, James will really and uh,
We're sitting on the floor of that shower stall. And
the first thing out of anybody's mouth was my dad
(44:33):
looking at this client of ours and say, who are you?
Thanks for listening to The mL K Tapes, a production
of I Heart Radio intended for TV. This podcast is
not specifically endorsed by the King Family or the King
of State. D email K Tapes is written and hosted
(44:55):
by Bill Claper. Matt Frederick and Alex Williams are executive
producers on behalf of I Heart Radio with producers Trevor
Young and ben Keebrick. Donald Albright and Payne Lindsay are
executive producers on behalf of Tenderfoot TV, with producers Jamie
Albright and Meredith Stepman. Original music by Makeup and Vanity Set.
Cover art by Mr soul to six with photography by
(45:18):
Artemus Jenkins. Special thanks to Owen Rosenbaum and Grace Royer
at U t A the Nord Group, back Median Marketing,
Envisioned Business Management, 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
(45:39):
the email k Tapes From 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 m l K 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 for individuals participating in the podcast, and do not
represent those of iHeart Media, Tenderfoot TV, or their employees.
Listener discretion is advised. In nineteen sixty six, James Meredith,
(00:25):
the first person of color to integrate the University of Mississippi,
decided to go on a two hundred mile march from Memphis, Tennessee,
to Jackson, Mississippi. He called it a walk against fear,
and it was meant to encourage black men and women
to register to vote. On the second day out on
the road, Meredith was ambushed and wounded by a white
(00:47):
man with a shotgun. Meredith was rushed back to a
hospital in Memphis, his wounds not serious. The following morning,
Martin Luther King flew in to see him, and the
Reverend James Lawson, pastor and civil rights leader in Memphis,
drove out to the airport to pick him up. I
was met on the concourse by a couple of black
(01:10):
police officers who were dressed in suits and ties, white
shirts and ties. They informed me there will be no
violence in Memphis and King is going to be safe
in Memphis. Claud Armor, the Commissioner of Fire and Police.
(01:32):
He is appointed eight officers of the police force in
Memphis to work with him and accompany him as a
security unit. For nineteen sixty six on Dr King's office
cooperated with that black security squad of eight men. They're
(01:53):
the ones who would not allow him to stay at
any hotel with balcony sea. They wanted him to be
inside where they could not keep the scenery clear. Was
that unit assigned to him on his final visit to Memphis,
that all black unit. No, it was withdrawn. That security
(02:17):
union was reassigned. I called the union hall. I 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, the James L.
Raybod in Birmingham that killed Dr King. Except it wasn't
(02:41):
the gun that killed Dr King. James Lvy was upon
for the official story from My Heart radio intender for TV.
The plan was to get King to the city because
they wanted it handled in Memphis. Were dead in incate
hamon and I have lived with us alone, monsieur, and
(03:03):
they they skied for me. The Lord told me to
not the word. I've been wanting to tell it all
my life. I'm Bill Clayburg and this is d MLK tapes.
Reverend Lawson was a good friend of Martin Luther King,
(03:25):
and he was one of the first to question the
official story of the assassination. Lawson will tell us how
he came to know doctor King and about the things
he learned that created doubt about the murder. Then we'll
hear from people who were in Memphis that faithful day
and how what they experienced spoke to the very things
that troubled Reverend Lawson. At the time of King's murder,
(03:46):
Lawson was the pastor of the Sentinary Methodist Church in Memphis. Lawson,
like King, was a third generation minister, and he decided
to fight for racial justice at an early age. When
he was just twenty two, he sent to federal prison
for refusing induction into the army. Lawson was locked up
for a year and then went to India as a missionary.
(04:09):
It was while he was in India that Laws and
learned of the Montgomery bus boycott. We spoke last summer.
The Montgomery bus boycott was on the top news all
across India the early part of December nine. I'm sitting
at my desk in my apartment in no for India,
(04:31):
and the immediate headline that caught my eye in my
life Negroes in Montgomery Boycott. I knew as I finished
my term in nineteen fifty six that I were really
going to return to home and would be involved in
that campaign. I didn't know where or what, or when
(04:54):
or who, but I knew it was going to happen,
and it did happened. Lawson met King when he got
back from India, where he had studied the life and
methods of Mahatma Gandhi. King was impressed. He urged me,
and I can't remember all the words, but he said,
come now, don't wait. We don't have anyone like you
(05:18):
in the South, and we need your experience, We need
your work and help. So Lawson went south, where he
would lead the lunch counter sit ins in Nashville and
be arrested as a freedom writer in Jackson, Mississippi. He
then became the pastor at the Centenary Methodist Church and
in the summer of six, he joined a group of
ministers that went to Vietnam to make a report, a
(05:41):
report critical of the war that he personally sent to
Martin Luther King. Less than two years after you made
that report, Dr King then made his speech at Riverside Church,
the speech that shocked the nation fourth nineteen seven. And
I knew that I'm America would never invest the necessary
(06:03):
funds are images in rehabilitation of its poor so long
as adventures like Vietnam continued to draw men and skills
and money. So I was increasingly compelled to see the
war as an enemy of the poor and to attack
it as such. King's opposition to the war might have
(06:26):
sounded like a practical matter. Money spent on military adventures
abroad could not be used to help people at home.
But underneath there was a powerful moral argument that went
much deeper. We were taking the black young men who
had been crippled by our society in sending them eight
(06:47):
thousand miles away to guarantee liberties in Southeast Asia which
they had not found in Southwest Georgia and East Holland.
Did you concur in that speech? Did you agree with
Dr King? Oh? Absolutely? But his speech was not very
well received by the overall American media and some people
(07:11):
in the civil rights movement as well. Is that not true.
That's true. We knew in our conversations the extent to
which they would say he had no business talking about
which causes the idiocy of our conventional wisdom. In the
United States, we think that preachers ought not to talk
(07:34):
about evil. In ninety eight, Memphis, racial tensions were high.
There were a few decent employment opportunities to open the
black citizens. Only the most menial work, and that was
always Underpaidred sanitation workers were the textbook case. A day
after filthy work, black workers were not allowed to shower
(07:57):
and change clothes at the garage, but the way workers
were if it was raining, they were sent home without pay,
while their white drivers were allowed to go back to
the garage, play cards and stay on the payroll. There
were constant humiliations, and if you objected to any of it,
you'd be fired. On April one, two black workers in
(08:20):
Cole Cole and Robert Walker hopped into the back of
their garbage truck to get out of the rain. It's
trash compactor supposedly malfunctioned, switching on and they were crushed
to death, and if the horror of that were not enough,
the wives and families of the two men were barely compensated.
It was the last straw, and the sanitation workers walked
(08:43):
off the job. The city of Memphis declared the strike
illegal and refused to discuss the workers concerns, and about
all the workers could do was march and attend rallies.
This is Reverend Lawson describing what happened during one peaceful
march that he was leading, a march he had cleared
with police Chief Holliman. We were walking on the right
(09:06):
side of the street going south, and these cars came
from the side streets on the main street and rolled
up all alongside of us, so that there was a
long line of police cars, perhaps the length of the walk.
Then I noticed some of the cars coming over the
yellow line and trying to intimidate some of us walking.
(09:32):
So I turned around and went to the couple of
the race cars and said, now, look, we had Holloman's
permission to walk. You guys have designed to provoke an incident,
so stay where you are. And then it happened again.
They moved over on the marchers, and this time the
sanitation workers put their hands in the car, and like that,
(09:56):
the police cars all of it. Now that line stopped.
Officers poured out of the cars with cans of the
base and seated the mace everybody they could place. They
had some targets they dragged off to a vikingople out
the river. By how many I had glasses on, So
they're mad in face. But the march was broken up
(10:19):
in that fashion. But as the strike entered its second month,
it moved into something more threatening even than police violence.
There were now families with no savings and no income
and no way to put food on the table. The
strikers badly needed outside help, national attention. So Reverend Lawson
(10:41):
asked his friend Martin Luther King to come to Memphis
and speak at a rally. And they were standing room
only in that meeting. So I suspect that we probably
had as many as ten the twelve thousand people in
that sanctuary and in that building. I picked up Dr
King at the airport and we had to walk through
(11:04):
mobs of people who were overjoyed that Martin King was
in Memphis for this strike. So this is a very
powerful moment for him and for us in the euphoria
that followed a speech, King agreed to come back to
Memphis and join in a protest march. When the day came,
King's plane was delayed and he was a little late
(11:25):
in getting there. The march began, and King and his
people arrived and took their place near the front of
the marchers. But things were not going well. When I
turned on the main street, I saw just beyond our
first rank of marshals, who were maybe fifty yards ahead
of us, I saw in front of them police officers
(11:48):
in riot deer stretched across that main street in ranks
of three or four ranks on the side of the street.
But we're trying to break the store windows. No police
officer moved to stop them, So I said to myself,
(12:08):
they are planning again to break up this march. Knowing
what was coming next, Lawson ran back and demanded that
King of this party retire. They're coming to get you, Martin,
he said, and we don't want that. King objected at first,
but then agreed, and his party retired to the Rivermont
Hotel with the honest help of a nearby police car.
(12:30):
Later last in another strike, leaders examined photos that were
taken that day. According to them, the windows smashing and
looting had not been done by the marchers, but rather
by some Beal street low lifes and others they didn't know.
As we heard at the beginning of the episode, from
the time of the Meredith shooting forward, King had an
(12:52):
all black security unit when it came to Memphis, but
for some reason, on the King's final visit to the city,
that unit was not called on to protect him. Instead,
a police detail of four officers under the command of
Inspector Donald Smith met doctor King at the airport and
escorted him to the Lorraine Motel, where they remained on
(13:12):
duty till five in the afternoon. But none of them
were black, and none of them returned the next day,
April four, the day the King was murdered. Late in
the afternoon of April four, Lawson went to the motel
to report to doctor King about his day in court,
fighting successfully, as it turned out, for the right to march.
Lawson left King at around five pm. He was home
(13:35):
having dinner with his wife when he got the news
that doctor King had been shot. He then dashed around
the city trying to keep things calm. But several days
later he got a strange package in the mail. I
received the brown envelope and on the inside of it
the invisible tape. It was wrapped around a bullet. It
(13:56):
had scribbled on the sheet of paper to the bullet
woods attached, there is one of these for you. Lawson
didn't tell anyone other than his wife about the package.
But a few days later we got a call on
some matter from police Chief Holloman, and towards the end
of the conversation, Holloman said, we understand that you received
(14:18):
the package in the mail. Lawson, as was his way,
remained polite, but as he hung up the phone, he wondered,
how did you know that? And as time went on,
Lawson was troubled by a few other things he discovered
after the murder. This is what he had to say
in I learned that one or two firemen, and I
(14:40):
got trying to check the next details with living two
firemen who were into fire station across the street Kenny
torn the little hotel Black fireman were transferred from that
station in ways that at least those fireman thought was unusual.
Big contact at me and Ralph Jackson, all with two
(15:02):
others about their removal. I learned that Ed Reid, who's
on surveillance from the fire station, was moved an hour before.
I learned that patrol cars that were in the region
when he was there patrolling Allberry made but suddenly disappeared
(15:26):
with Dora. He found, and after James el Ray had
been captured, more odd things began to pop into Lawson's head.
When he found out that Ray was being held in
a cell where the lights were kept on twenty four
hours a day. It brought to his mind sleep deprivations
used by the North Koreans to break American captives. My
(15:46):
only regret is that I did not then go and
find a way to visit him in that cell at
County Jail. As a pastor, I made a series is
air in not getting acquainted with James el Ray in
that cell. And when James finally had his day in
(16:08):
court and pleaded guilty, Lawson was again disturbed. His plea
astonished me, and it didn't astonished me from his point
of view. It estonished me from the official legal court
point of view. Just why would the local police and
district attorney, in an assassination of a major USA figure
(16:33):
not moved to have an open child I've come to
call this Lawson's question. It's a good one. If this
case is the big slam dunk that the police and
d A like to say it was, why the big
push for the plea? Why wouldn't the d A's office
pursue a trial to prove without a doubt that James
(16:54):
OL Ray killed Martin Luther King. As you just heard,
Reverend Lawson felt badly about not having visited Ray while
he was held captive for eight months before his court day.
The Lawson would make up for that. He visited Ray
in jail after he was convicted. He came to know
Ray in a way few other men did. Lawson even
(17:14):
married Ray in jail and at the end sat with
him as he awaited death. So what was his measure
of the man? Of course, the motive that was given
to Ray was that he hated black people so much
that he escaped from prison with the sole intention of
murdering doctor King. That was a lie. That was the
(17:35):
major lie. Now, remember, I've been fighting racism since age tour,
so I think I do know racism and a white person.
I visited James O. Ray, and I found ignorance in
James O. Rae and some illiteracy, and I found elements
(17:57):
of a poor white man, but I found no races.
Reverend Lawson, do you believe that James el Ray murdered
your friend Martin Luther King? James el Ray was a
pond for the official story. Dr King was not assassinated
(18:19):
by James el Ray. As Reverend Lawson told us, he
noticed some strange activity in the Memphis newspapers in the
(18:41):
week leading up to King's murder, stories attacking King for
staying at white owned hotels when there was a perfectly
good black hotel, the Lorraine, that he could have patronized.
What was this about, Lawson wondered, where was this coming from?
There were, of course good reasons for King to stay
at the white hotel, to integrate them, for one, and
(19:03):
for another, Lawson says, the King's all black security detail
like hotels such as the Rivermont or the Admiral Benbo
with interior access to rooms that they could secure and guard,
instead of motels like the Lorraine, whose rooms were accessed
by an open exterior walkway. But whether because of the
attacks in the newspapers or because he just chose to
(19:26):
be there, King was booked into the Lorraine Motel for
his final visit to Memphis, but at first he was
booked into room two O two, which had a ground
floor entry off an interior alcove, and at the last minute,
King's room was changed to three oh six, which was
reached by the exposed walkway. So the question is why
(19:48):
was King's room changed? The person best able to answer
that question was Lorraine Bailey, the owner with her husband
of the Lorraine Motel. According to an account from Bill
Pepper's book The Plot to Kill King, on April two,
the day before King arrived in Memphis, she told her
husband that she had been visited by someone she described
(20:08):
as an SCLC advanced man, who insisted that King be
moved to a room overlooking the empty motel swimming pool.
But as soon as she heard that doctor King had
been shot, Lorraine Bailey ran to her room screaming, what
have I done? She then suffered a cerebral hemorrhage and
never regained consciousness. She died a few days later, and
(20:30):
the question of who was behind the room changed remained
a mystery. But this was not the only odd occurrence
taking place near the murder site. Reverend Lawson mentioned a
few others like the transfer of the only two black
firemen assigned a fire station number two, or the two's
as it was called. The fire station overlooked the motel,
(20:53):
and a lot would be happening in and around that firehouse,
and the two firemen, as the story goes, being black,
were thought to be a risk. But what excuse should
be used to remove them? According to a witness we
will hear later, it was decided that the easiest thing
was to say that a threat had been made on
their lives? Is that what happened? Well, the fireman can
(21:16):
tell us in their own words as they respond to
questions by Attorney Bill Pepper, who represented Coretta Scott King
and the King family at the civil trial in Memphis.
First is Norville Wallace, who in thirty seven years of
service attained the rank of captain, which is why Pepper
refers to him as chief Fouse. You you were employed
(21:38):
by the Menda's fire departments, were a number years true
years from six Moss when she falls? Did you serve
as the first one day making ses six? I will
have November where you at any time transferred out of
that stage? Were transferred out on eight p m. Of
(22:02):
the night of the killing or the night before the
night of the pool? And how were you transferred? How
do you receive your orders to be transferred out without
receiving from that game? He should add, going be detailed
for thirty three was at the airport? This was the
nine of April third. You were told by your captain
(22:22):
to go out to the airportage in thirty three? She
was Did you ever ask what this was all about? Yes?
And then what were you told? Told that head in three?
And why would you be friend? Was putting out of bires,
I guess, but there was a thread on your life.
Say so, the education out of the areas, that's what
(22:45):
it doesn't get mad here? How many black firemen were
signed the number two, just you and the lower Boston
to Obviously we're learning the nine of one of you
were allowed the right and you never received the satisfactory explanatic.
(23:09):
Say so, Norville Wallace has transferred out of fire station
number two to a firehouse out of the airport. He
is told that the transfer was caused by a threat
upon his life, and Wallace cannot imagine why anyone would
wish him harm. So take the explanation that Wallace was
removed because of a threat to his life. This is
(23:31):
something real or something made up? Because one might think
if a real threat had been made, details would be
provided to the threatened person as a matter of responsible conduct.
If you were fireman Wallace, what might you want to know?
How do they know about this threat? Where is it
coming from? Who more than the threatened party deserves to
(23:53):
know these details? But no details are given, no explanation
is offered. In fact, the threat is never mentioned again.
So does this sound like something real or something made up?
And as Wallace testified, there was another black fireman at
the two's, Floyd Newsom, and his story as told from
(24:14):
the same witness stand, it's quite similar to that, Mr Wallace.
Where are you on duty on the fourth of April
nineteen fire station number two at the time of the
assass today, I was from Judy, but I wasn't the
number twos. You were not at the number two I
(24:35):
was supposed to be. You were supposed to be at
the number dudes. If you were at another dude, you
tell the jury y you were not the number two.
I was that day because Abler ThReD not able. The
third obviously called home from our internet at that times
the times, who is struck to me? Not your pot?
(24:59):
Aren't you the number two on our regular duty to
note the company? But instead they posed two number thirty months.
That was that am gold and crossing possibly in the
tent at the time of nine. Did you receive this call?
After ten? After ten a fucking night, you received the
(25:21):
call and orders to go to another five? That's right?
The next step, what was the emergency that caused you
to be changed? You to be moved to another fire?
Surely wasted my emergency it was? And when you went
to that other station in the next stat did you
(25:43):
find that you were neat? Also, I was not needed
my leading not company. That's not company after serious and
that's somebody else's details of my company in my state.
So you're telling this course that you were surplus to
requirements where you were said that under man your your
homecom So there's a video. Ever inquired why you were
(26:07):
assigned away from your station? Yes? What did you learn? Much? Times?
I was transferred about waiting on it about a quick
So finally you gotta answer to your question, and you
(26:31):
were told that you were transferred at the request of
the Memphis Colsia before any opinion your own about why
you were transferred, not really, I just know it was
very unusually necessary, so it had to be done for
some reason. I don't know the reason. And as if
(26:54):
there weren't enough strange things going on at the twos
that day, there was something else, some thing that Reverend
Lawson didn't know about, nor did anyone else, because no
one in the murder investigation had interviewed Carthel Weeden, the
chief of fire Station number two, about what he saw
that day. Years later, Weedon would come forward and say
that the morning of the murder, he was approached by
(27:16):
two men who flashed army I d and asked to
be placed on the roof of the firehouse where they
could photograph the Lorrain Motel. This is Chief Weedon telling
his account of what happened that morning on April fourth. Yea,
they have the assassination. Were you approached by to Morrow Lawson?
(27:37):
That's what he indicated to the time. Show you any
military identification? Well, I'm sure the dear I want to
hear about there for that. You know, we have a
lot of people coming in and that you know, and
what did they ask you to do? They wanted to
look out for dance, right, okay? They wanted if they
(28:01):
want an advantage point in a rent these arm rolls
And did you put them somewhere? I put them on
the roof to the No. To fire station? You put
these army officers on the roof for the number two
fire stations on fourth of Agos ninetiess year? And were
(28:21):
they carrying anything? They had great case station? Did you
come to learn that it was in those Greek place?
Did they tell you that one was in the brief
phase they said they wanted to banage point or doing
so to photographic where rats you came to believe that
(28:43):
they had camera equipment in those Well that's what they
they indicate in doing. I placed the motor root when
they yet did you see the leaves? Ris Ween? Has
many law enforcement officers ever asked you about about that?
Any rich nobody's ever saw him? To you, this is
(29:07):
a simple story, but curious why would two men flashing
army I d asked to go to the roof of
the firehouse so they could photograph the area around the
Lorraine Motel. Unjust what happened to be the day that
Martin Luther King was shot? Who were these men what
were they doing that day? And if there were an
(29:28):
innocent explanation, why haven't these men come forward? And where
are the photographs that they presumably took. In the previous segment,
(29:51):
we heard the accounts of the two black firemen who
were removed from the critically located fire station number two,
and from the former chief of that station who told
up bringing two men up to the roof so they
could photograph the area around the Lorraine Motel. This on
a morning where he said a lot of people were
coming and going, but something darker still appeared to be
(30:11):
taking place within the Memphis Police Department. On his previous
visits to Memphis in nineteen sixty eight, Martin Luther King
was met and guarded by a special detail of black
police officers. Reverend Lawson told us of how he was
at the airport waiting for doctor King the first time
that unit made their appearance. He told us how their commander,
(30:33):
Captain Jerry Williams, promised to keep King safe, but according
to Lawson, on King's final visit to that troubled city,
Williams strangely did not receive the order to form his unit.
This is what Captain Williams had to say about it
years later, responding to the questions of Attorney Bill Peppers,
(30:57):
and he bously gonna police department. Actually was how long
were you? Was very honest later? When years? And what
were you doing in nineteen sevens? At that time I
was assigned to them as sign and I would be
in charge of security party Police department and then women
(31:21):
have celebrities or some daystarious accompts to numbers. Kevin Williams,
um were you assigned to provide security for Dr Martin
Luther King whenever he came to Men, Well, for the
first two times that he came to my knowledge, I
was assigned. I have a very time. I was not
(31:43):
talking about the Earth assiseration, the you assassination in eight
and tell us how you would put together? How about
security unit that you've had people together? Inspected Dunston, the
old security supervisor. He would call me and asked me
(32:04):
to select a group of officers, possibly nine. I would
help about sister tatives through you and the coming in.
Would you stay with doctor King throughout his visit? When yes,
how would you provide security? Point? Well, we would get
his continerary. When you come to the Memphis we would
(32:24):
meet at the tail port. When he did planned it
would be right with him. We would following him to
his hotel. If he would go to church first was
we would lead to details of the church. Where did
he stay overnight? When on one ocagent who stayed up
(32:45):
to river, wont and your unit would protect him and
from my secur to that, yes, or we would go
in and check the rooms, make sure the telephone on about,
check under the bed to check the over where. Then
I was signed to the officers building the outside of
this door. We would take times about every two hours
(33:07):
and would do that. All right, love now and Dr
King's lost visit to menis were you asked to form
this usual security unit? You know? So you were not?
Was not? Why were you not absolutely formed at security
unit on the lost n So? I don't know. I
(33:32):
was just alled as somebody as within the assignment when
they lack office and label white officers. Did you ever
ask any questions as to why you weren't something well,
I did later on altimary timent. But after the assassination,
in the aftermath the assassination, while you still were a
certain officer, did you ever raise that question with any
(33:54):
on the inside the department, no income wait at the
most house black officers, and we didn't took the vers
as to why. But nobody knew why. You know, you
have to realize at that time to tell you, when
we used to go, plakers were very supergated. There's a
lot of I still the situation of change formatically since
(34:18):
then black people was only talking to black people. White
people gone talking the white people. So a lot I
still have tea. I don't know, my Woodpool, I just
don't know. I don't know what the answer that since
factor gave me was. But you ask, and I just
know who wasn't working on that pay and you were
(34:40):
not in a position as an officer in the departments
and black home really be able to ask any money
and require an anser wrest. But there was a black
police detective who was working that day. His name was
ed Reddit and with this black partner, patrolman Willie Richmond,
he met doctor King at the airport on April third,
(35:03):
as an auxiliary to the official security detail that included
the white officers under Inspector Smith the police. Smith and
his men in one car and read it and Richmond
and another escorted King to the Lorraine Motel read it
and Richmond were not part of the official detail, so
after they arrived they went up to the firehouse, where
from a back window they looked out at the Lorraine.
(35:25):
They were not so much guarding King as putting him
under surveillance, making notes as to who came and went.
It's not clear where Smith's all White details stationed themselves
that day. Bill Pepper thinks they mostly hung out at
the motel office reading newspapers, but we don't know that.
What we do know is that Smith called headquarters at
(35:45):
five p m. Asking for permission to end their watch
despite numerous and credible threats to King's life. The officers
were sent home without any one replacing them, and the
security detail did not return the next day, the day
Dr King was murdered, but Reddit did return to his
post at the firehouse. On the morning of April four,
(36:07):
Reddit said there was no sign of Smith or his detail.
Sometime in the late morning, Willie Richmond rejoined Reddit, but
it would be a rather strange afternoon. What follows his
detective Reddit on the witness stand, answering the questions of
Bill Pepper, Well, you serve as officer me where did
(36:28):
you becoming a police Munity Relations officer SA as a
police munity relations officer on your duties. Well, but when
we started there was nothing written about us. For we
developed our long methods and ways of getting this community,
and it was how do we get the community through
the response to understanding word of us. At the sign
(36:52):
of the Sanentation workers strike, were you still working with
the community and you said involved with amusingly, how did
you related the events of going on? Well, I was
somewhat pool out to kind of surveyor serve. I thought
it sabailas I was given then cop mons do, but
I thought it was a bit necessary, and I think
(37:14):
the whole background idea was too to observe or to
find out anyone who made me come into the city
to disrupt it. That gives you any problems in terms
of your relationship you had in the community because you've
been working with the community and moving into the world,
No one, that's intelligence. We're gett see the contrete everybody
(37:40):
you will be And I'm going about it now that
there come a time when you were assigned to a
a specific detail at the fire station. Firevation number two.
What it is about the sibers one that out of
side on hand that I had noticed something was unusual
(38:00):
about all right again Rant King, and I noticed there
was nobody else there in the past when we were
signed about the team. We stayed with him, guarding him
up down steps and stayed with it. Nobody with him.
So I went to cross the street at the fire
department because we're coming in, and observed greet and I
(38:24):
wish he did and who accompanied you? In the will
of the Richmond. He took up a position uh in
the fire station on the third of April, and from
the rear of the fire station people were able to
see the Lorraine would tell about clear and did you
return with Officer Richmond the next the next day we
(38:45):
were the next day, as we learned from Station Chief wheten,
the firehouse was alive with people not normally there. By
official count, there were thirteen policemen inside the firehouse when
King was murdered thirty, but read it was not one
of them, because at some time near five o'clock, Lieutenant
(39:05):
Arkin showed up and told Reddit that the boss wanted
to see him down at headquarters. What four He wouldn't say,
So Reddit went with Arkan and Richmond was left still
watching out the window. When Reddit arrived at headquarters, he
was shown to a conference room and was stunned by
what he saw. It was like a meeting of the
choint chiefs of staff. He said. In this room were
(39:28):
the heads and seconds of every law enforcement operation in
the area, Sheriff, highway patrol, army, intelligence, national Guard, you
name it, it was in the room. Then read it,
said the chief. Holloman approached and pointed to a man
in civilian clothes who he said was with the Secret Service.
Holloman said this man had flown in from Washington that
(39:49):
day with news that a contract had been taken out
on Redditt's life, and that Reddit had to go home immediately.
Reddit found the scene utterly surreal. Who takes out a
contract on a lowly police detective and who would fly
from Washington with such news? And what would the Secret
Service have to do with it? Returning to Reddit's testimony
(40:10):
at the civil trial, a group of man and I
was a man once to survive inside the holms. That
was a man there who had just falling in and
that was CONTRACTE. I was going home totally have that.
(40:33):
It was basically to go back to where I was
to take care of what the director HOMEO had three
bar argamentations about you going home anyway, It's my job
to take into arm take home. Reddit said he was
kept at home for the next week, then he was
told he could return to work. The whole thing was
said to be a mix up. The threat was actually
(40:54):
on some other black police detective in Knoxville. So detective Reddit,
though apparently not the ject of a real contract, was
the third black man removed from the fire station in
two days, and the second man removed because of reported
threat upon his life. A dangerous time to be working
at the two's. So a lot of strange stuff going on.
(41:15):
And if you lived in Memphis when King was killed
and we're paying attention like Reverend Lawson, you may have
been aware of these odd stories. But most people in
America were not. And in part this was because James
el Ray never had a trial, though according to Ray
and many others, he wanted a trial and always insisted
that he did not shoot Martin Luther King. You heard
(41:39):
the voices of the men in these stories because we
jumped ahead thirty years to the civil trial. A lawsuit
for wrongful death brought in Memphis and by Coretta Scott King.
She no longer believed the official version of her husband's murder,
and she wanted the evidence of that crime as incomplete
as it was to be recorded in a courtful law
(42:00):
so the people coming later could read what the witnesses
had to say, or in our case here what they
had to say. But we really haven't gone anywhere. We're
still in Memphis in nineteen sixty eight looking at some
of the strange things that went down the day King
was killed. We've got fifty years of revelations still in
front of us, and that's how this story will continue
(42:22):
to emerge, piece by piece, year by year, as we
hear people overcome their fear or surrender to their conscience.
So what you've just heard is for openers, for background,
and as ominous as it all sounds, it's possible that
there are reasonable explanations for some or all of these events.
(42:42):
And none of these stories by themselves or even collectively,
proves that there was conspiracy to murder Dr King. But
if these events were table setting for a murder, then
the finger of guilt would point back to those with
the power to make these strange things happen. But one
thing we do know is that these events could not
have been the doing of James el Ray, who drifted
(43:04):
into Memphis for the very first time just a few
hours before Dr King was shot. What is his story?
Who or what brought him to Memphis and where was
he when Dr King was killed? Well, James el Ray
will tell you himself, but be warned it's no simple town.
(43:31):
Next time. On the email K tapes we received a
letter dear Mr Haynes, I'm here in jail. I've been
accused of a murderer. I don't know anything about it.
Will you please come help me. No, he never did
have no hostility towards any race, not only Blacks, but
Hispanics or anybody. And we said a lads together and
(43:51):
he was all maybe, he was all happy and as
he had money money on him, so he said, I'm
going out to berminghended by a late Laul parts you
have this, he said, I'm working up a Mr. Rawl
sadly remember how the rawle came And I'm working for
a guy named Row or something like that. A boat
came all the radio saying that the Reverend Martin Laus
(44:12):
kame and shops so I didn't take too much cant
on that, but I kept on driving and wasn't too
long you have thought. He said, Uh, they were looking
for a white man and white mustang. And the next
one of the shooting my dad, James will really and uh,
We're sitting on the floor of that shower stall. And
the first thing out of anybody's mouth was my dad
(44:33):
looking at this client of ours and say, who are you?
Thanks for listening to The mL K Tapes, a production
of I Heart Radio intended for TV. This podcast is
not specifically endorsed by the King Family or the King
of State. D email K Tapes is written and hosted
(44:55):
by Bill Claper. Matt Frederick and Alex Williams are executive
producers on behalf of I Heart Radio with producers Trevor
Young and ben Keebrick. Donald Albright and Payne Lindsay are
executive producers on behalf of Tenderfoot TV, with producers Jamie
Albright and Meredith Stepman. Original music by Makeup and Vanity Set.
Cover art by Mr soul to six with photography by
(45:18):
Artemus Jenkins. Special thanks to Owen Rosenbaum and Grace Royer
at U t A the Nord Group, back Median Marketing,
Envisioned Business Management, 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
(45:39):
the email k Tapes From 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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