January 24, 2022 • 43 mins
Famous criminal lawyer Percy Foreman talks his way in by telling Ray that his will be the easiest case he ever argued. Then, at the last moment, he informs Ray that he must plead guilty. Was Foreman working for someone offstage?
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
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. We had witness statements, outlines of arguments.
(00:28):
I mean, we had a complete ready file. He came
through Birmingham and we offered him that file. We offered
to sit down with him, We offered to outline our
defense with him, to give him the witness state, every
everything that we had. All he wanted to do, and
all we did was feeding steak and scotch whiskey at
(00:51):
the club in Birmingham and hear him ramble on about
what a fabulous lawyer he was. Truth of the matter is,
Percy Form was the biggest fraud and blow hard I
ever encountered in over fifty years of practicing law. I
saw absolutely no evidence, ever, either directly or second hand,
(01:13):
of any inclination or willingness on his part to defend
that case as it should have been defended. I called
the Union Hall. I said, it's a matter of life
and death. I said, I think these people of planning
to kill Dr King. The authorities were parade. Oh, we
(01:34):
found a gun that James L. Ray bought in Birmingham
that killed Dr King. Except it wasn't the gun that
killed Dr King. James Lvy was upon or the official
story from my Heart radio intended for TV. The plan
was to get King to the city because they wanted
(01:57):
it handled in Memphis for dead in them could hamon
and I've lived with us alone, monsieur, and 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 Claybury and this is the MLK tapes, speaking from experience.
(02:22):
When one tries to open a conversation about who shot
Martin Luther King, if the person you're talking to knows
anything at all about the case, they immediately come back
with but the guy said he did it, And the
answer to that is a patient no he didn't. He
always denied it, but of course James Earl Ray did
in the end plead guilty. So how did that plea
(02:45):
come about? And what does it tell us about the murder?
As we heard in the last episode. Arthur Haynes Junior
and Senior were criminal defense attorneys who came to represent
James Earl Ray, the man accused of killing Martin Luther Kane.
Ray was an escaped con He had been in Memphis
that day and there did seem to be some connection
(03:06):
between him and the murderer, Dr. King. But despite all
the public posturing by the prosecution, Ray's attorneys were surprised
to find that the actual case against Ray was weak.
It seemed to them that the connection to the murder
was that their client had been set up. They investigated,
interviewed witnesses, and worked on the case for four months.
(03:27):
As the trial approached, they thought they had good chances
for an acquittal. Then the night before the trial was
to begin, they were handed a note that said they
had been removed from the case. Why did Foreman push
his way into the case? Did you ever wonder about that?
Did we ever wonder why and how Foreman got in
(03:48):
the case? Only every day from that day until the
day my father died. When I sat down with Ark
Haynes Jr. In Birmingham, he tried to explain how famous
criminal defense attorney Percy Foreman had pushed them aside, there
were pressure points. How to pay for the defense was
one of them. Ray had no money, and Haines father
(04:11):
and son could not afford to work for nothing and
pay all the costs of the defense. As well. Haines
knew a successful investigative writer named William Bradford Huey, who
was also from Alabama and who was interested in writing
about the King murder. Huey's books included The Americanization of Emily,
The Execution of Priva Slavik, and The Revolt of Mami Stover,
(04:33):
all of which were made into movies. He also wrote
Wolf Whistle, the story of the murder of the young
Emmett Till, and Three Live from Mississippi, which told of
the murders of the three civil rights workers in Nashoba County.
The forward to this book was written by Martin Luther King.
No one at the time knew what the real story
(04:53):
was with Ray and King, but Hughey sense there was
a book there and possibly a movie, and he was
willing to put money up front to get access money
that was needed to fund the defense of James Earl
Ray two Art Haynes. It seemed like a promising offer
and he brought it to James William Bradford hue the
(05:14):
author who was writing for Look magazine, whom we had
encouraged Ray to hire. Because Hughie was was a noted
uh anti George Wallace, he was in the middle of
a series of articles for Esquire, he had every credential
being in DUCTR. King's camp, and he was from Alabama
(05:37):
and close to us, so we we encouraged him to
hire Hughie Haines Sr. Brought a deal to Ray where
in simple numbers, Ray would receive of whatever Huey's books
and articles brought in, Hughie would get and Haynes Judge
Preston Battle would not permit anyone besides his attorneys and
(05:58):
his immediate family to visit it or talked to Ray.
So the arrangement was made for Hughie to submit questions
to Ray and for Ray to write out his answers
in Longhand. All that summer I had carried questions from
Hughie to Ray and raise handwritten answers back to Hughie.
We had facilitated that all two hundred pages of Ray's
(06:19):
answers to Hughie's questions have been preserved and make for
an interesting read if you can decipher Ray's handwriting. It's
the same story Ray has told before of his prison
break and is moving about the country at the direction
of a man named Raoul. Hughie took these notes and
actually traced race travels and found the people Race that
(06:39):
he had worked for or met along the way. The
one exception was Raoul. This was not surprising because Ray
didn't know Raoul's last name, his address, or even if
Raoul was his real first name. Race spent a great
deal of time writing these pages, and at first he
was satisfied with how his attorneys were going about things,
(07:01):
but not everyone was. I suppose we were naive and
that we thought we were lawyers hired to defend a
murder case and that's what we were doing. There were
all kinds of reported witness hangers on and people involved
who wanted to be a part of it. Well. Jerry
Ray was one of those. He wanted to come to
(07:23):
Birmingham and have us support him and let him be
part of the defense. Truthfully, we didn't have time for that.
We were trying to manage our practice at the same
time get that case ready for trial, and we just
didn't have time or inclination to food Jerry Ray. We
were polite but not responsive to that. But Jerry Raid
(07:46):
did get himself involved. He visited James in prison, his
attorneys in Birmingham and author William Bradford, Huwey and Huntsville,
and he was also in touch with a certain attorney
in Texas who had soon arrived in Memphis. According to
everyone close to the case, James Earl Ray very much
wanted to go to trial. As Jerry Ray would say,
(08:07):
he didn't kill King, and he wanted his chance to
prove it in court. He need but this is where
the trouble started. James imagined a trial where he would
be able to tell his story, where he, James Earl Ray,
would be able to look the jurors in the eye
and have them believe that he did not shoot Martin
(08:29):
Luther King. But Arthur Haynes Senior was an experienced attorney
and he knew that great danger awaited a defendant when
he took the witness stand, especially if the defendant had,
like Ray, a long record of criminal conduct that the
prosecution could explore in great detail until less pretty much
all the jury would remember as they concluded that such
(08:52):
an outlaw should get what he deserved. So, as Arthur
Haynes explains, they were not ready to promise Ray that
he would take the stand. Our view of it was
that we wouldn't know whether Ray was gonna testify or
need to testify until the end of the state's case. Obviously,
if he had testified, that would have killed the value
(09:15):
of Hughey's connection to him. This is how Jerry Ray
saw it. On Whomber firston making is sistime, I blew
out in the heart build Alabama and talked to you,
you take my way down because he want another contact
(09:36):
beside the journey. So he was showing these contracts and
so I told he hope. He said only again, and
now you go back and tell James. He's not about
to understand. He doesn't go. So I went back and
told James you on the phone hand because when he's
running stas So with a little help from brother Jerry,
(09:58):
James began to fear that the case was not being
pursued with his best interests in mind. He wanted to testify,
and it seemed that Huey and his book was now
standing in the way. And then the weekend before his
trial was to begin, he received a visit from a
famous Texas lawyer named Percy Foreman. Foreman was six foot
four and weighed two hundred and fifty pounds, and had
(10:21):
a huge reputation to go with it. He had grown
up poor in the wiles of East Texas, quit school
when he was fifteen, and made something of himself because
he had an agile mind and a quick tongue. He
put himself through law school and came out ready for bear.
He had a knack for talking in a way that
juries liked, and he was especially good at representing people
(10:42):
accused of murder. In his forty years a criminal law
he claimed to have represented over one thousand of those.
Only one, as the story goes, was ever executed, and
according to Foreman, only sixty six of the thousand spent
even a day in jail. The more obviously guilty, the
easier it seemed for him to get them off for
(11:02):
a price. He was hated by the prosecutors he faced,
and also hated by his clients when they felt the
most vulnerable, as when he could have them sign over
every asset they had. I don't represent wealthy clients, he
once said, if they aren't poor when they come to me,
they are when they leave. Foreman had been talking to
Jerry Ray, so he knew all the right buttons to push.
(11:25):
He told James that Haynes should not have made a
deal like that with Hughie. Who is Hughie to give
advice to his attorney based on what might or might
not be good for a book. Foreman talked about all
the famous people he knew in all the cases he
had won, and how James's case would be the easiest
one he ever argued, and added to that, Foreman said
that unlike the Haines defense team, he was wealthy, wealthy
(11:48):
enough to move forward without any literary contracts, and they'd
figure out how to pay his fee after the trial.
But for a retainer, he had James sign over the
title to his Mustang and the Remington thirty six that
he purchased in Birmingham, the one that was said to
have killed King. Here's Ray for King jail the same made.
(12:09):
He told me that if I would just miss things
and are him, he wouldn't get involved in literary contrast,
he financed trow trows over and he would get used
to be then, so I agreed, and I signed some
time and paper decade just missing Haynes and all right
(12:29):
him well. On one of the national herring for the
trial work, Foreman promised Batting would get involved any litter contracts.
At that time, I didn't know he was negotiating with
Hie to think for Hayes interesting to contract and said
that at that time so Foreman's big promise to Ray
was the case would not be driven by literary contracts,
(12:52):
that he Foreman was rich enough to defend Ray without them.
But a week after he had taken over the case,
Foreman and Huie for Luncheon dallas Key described that meeting
in his book he slew the dreamer quote Mr Foreman,
like my three way contract. All he wanted was for
Mr Haynes to get out of the way so he
(13:12):
could have what Mr Haynes had. So you get Haynes
out of the way, he said, and then god damn it,
get to work and write us a good book, make
us a good movie, and make us some money. I
didn't think him myself. And then subsequently, in January of
nineteen six nine, he came up there with a literary contract.
Yes idea, and I signed in fair Way third. Yes,
(13:37):
signed a literary contracts A thing I got to go
to him. The contracts that Foreman had Ray signed on
January nine and February three essentially stripped Ray of every
remaining asset he had or might have. So why did
he sign them? As Ray would explain later, Foreman had
(14:01):
come to see him in late January saying the case
was going very well, but he needed to bring in
another attorney, John J. Hooker, and that was going to
cost money. So Ray, not really having a choice, signed
everything over to Foreman. Now, a Foreman had been telling
the truth about representing from the start that a plea
bargain was their only option, there would have been no
(14:23):
reason for Ray to enter into these contracts. So as
late as February three, Foreman was saying that they were
going to trial and things were looking good. But just
ten days later, after Foreman had plucked his client clean,
as Bradford Huey would describe it, Foreman came back with
bad news where he had to plead guilty. Now, I
(15:05):
want to think we're thirteen. He came into prisiness Jerman
Heart Danton, and he uh suggested a human playing, he says,
and there's me and don't in thankfully and well anyway,
when he came back to see me next time, he
was talking about he said they might prosecute my brother
(15:26):
Jerry rag and expiracing words and also he said they
might be pressed my father James brother Jerry tells the
same story a forman's about face and the first before
we gave it said it's little busy because he's I
read a lot, I erst whoever they are followed it
and he did that up until uh a month before
(15:49):
the Guildy plays that he started cries that they're gonna
acute and they're going to do this, but so Jade
fans to read me paiously little problem nyway and it
would resigned. At this point, James Earl Ray was boxed in.
He was stuck with Foreman, and Foreman refused to perform.
(16:09):
He kept telling Ray that the prosecution wanted to turn
him into barbecue form his word. Then he told Ray
that if he insisted on going to trial, they would
put his father and brother in jail. When Ray said
he still wanted to trial, Foreman said flat out that
he wouldn't defend him. He didn't feel up to it.
Here is an interchange between Bill Pepper and Jerry Ray
(16:32):
at the nine civil trial, not invisibly. He told me
to the last my sier he still had made up
the money he's still to fight doing for and he
he told he told me that foreman told him if
he did both of my hand and my John Earl
back in the twenties, and is both charged me being
(16:54):
the assessed of the word, I'm pretty sure you left, Jerry.
That's certainly the James little Ray Black versus Forman got
all about. This is the day of a letter Archer
that m March Watson Arch nine, nineteen fifty and when
(17:14):
is it going to be played here? Uh? Right, right right?
I was right, was March following that this is a
letter from his council on the eve of trop and
this letter offers you offers hand five hundred dollars. What
conditions was the over five hundred dollars we have abdybe
(17:35):
played to the lea built embarrassment in coort and it
was agreed with We understand that five hundred dollars was
to be taking the higher a new lawyer and her
decided a sad Yet this agreement signed the day before
Ray entered his guilty plea as a strange document. Foreman
signs on for a fee of a hundred and sixty
five thousand dollars if such is produced by books for movies,
(17:59):
and Ray is handed five dollars. The purpose of the
five hundred is not stated in the contract, but according
to both James and Jerry, it was so Ray could
go find a lawyer to overturn the plea, as if
five dollars could accomplish such a thing. But Ray is
to get the five hundred only if he meets to conditions.
(18:19):
He enters a plea of guilty of murder in the
first degree, and he doesn't make a scene of any
kind at the proceeding. And that's what unfolds. Are you
leading murder in the place degree in this case because
you killed Dr Martin lives the king under sex secumstances,
it would make you legally guilty. But in the place
degree under the law is explained to you by your lawyer.
(18:43):
Ray's answer was barely audible on the recording system used
by the court. What he said was quote yes, legally guilty.
According to attorney Mark Lane, who would later represent Ray,
Ray told him that when Foreman was using every kind
of argument to put him into a plea. Ray blurted
out that he didn't want to plead guilty because he
(19:04):
hadn't shot king. Doesn't matter, replied Foreman. If you were
involved in any kind of illegal activity with those who did,
you are legally guilty. You are as guilty as the
man who pulled the trigger. Foreman was referring to the
concept of felony murder, where if three people say agree
to rob a store, and they all agree that no
(19:25):
one is to be heard, but something goes wrong and
one man pulls a gun and kills the store clerk,
all three men are legally guilty of the murder. Most
states have such laws, though it is far from clear
that such a concept would apply in a case where
one man is purposely deceived about the crime and brought
along only for the purpose of taking the blame. But
(19:47):
Foreman's little lesson was most likely how the phrase legally
guilty became part of raise plea. After the plea was entered,
Ray's attorney, Percy Foreman, was invited to speak. He stood
up and addressed the court. This is what he had
to say. It's an honor to appear in this court.
(20:07):
I never expected or had any idea when I entered
this case that I would be able to accomplish anything
except perhaps save the defendant's life. All of us, all
of you, were as well informed as I was about
the facts of this case, due to the fact that
we have such an effective news media. Took me a
month that convinced myself of that which the Attorney General
(20:27):
of the United States and Jed Grohover of the FBI
announced last July that there was no conspiracy. After that
bit of self congratulations from Percy Foreman, Ray asked Judge
Battle if he might say something. The judge agreed, and
I'll read a slightly edited version of what followed Ray.
(20:49):
I don't want to change anything that I have said.
I don't want to add anything onto it either. The
only thing I have to say is I don't exactly
accept the theories of Mr Clark. In other words, I'm
not bound to accept the theories of Mr Clark. This
is an aside. But Percy Foreman, who had just referred
to Attorney General of the United States, doesn't know who
(21:10):
Ray is speaking about, so he asked, who is Mr Clark?
Ray Ramsey Clark Foreman Oh Ray and Mr Hoover Foreman
Mr who Ray, Mr j Edgar Hoover. I'm not trying
to change anything. I just want to add something onto it.
(21:31):
Judge Battle, you don't agree with those theories, Ray, I
mean on the conspiracy thing. There is a bit of
cross talk, and no one seems inclined to ask Ray
what it is he's trying to say. Judge Battle then
asks if he is still pleading guilty to first degree murder,
and Ray says that he is. It was a short,
(21:52):
tense moment. Ray had gone off script, but he hadn't
cost a huge scene, so he would still get his
five dollars. Three days after recording his guilty plea, James
Earl Ray wrote to Judge Preston Battle and asked to
have the plea overturned and allow him to go to trial.
A few days later, he wrote again asking for the
same thing. It was not clear how Judge Battle was
(22:16):
going to rule on raised petitions. Often, in the interests
of justice, such petitions are granted. But before Battle could
make a decision, he was found slumped over his desk,
dead from an apparent heart attack, and according to various accounts,
Battle was slumped over raised petitions on which he was
to rule. A new judge replaced Battle, and he didn't
(22:37):
allow Ray to reopen the case. So Ray was led
off to prison no trial. But Percy Foreman's statement at
the end of the trial is curious. If Foreman was
so certain that Ray had to plead guilty, why did
he connive to get himself into the case, And what
was all this talk about the easiest case I've ever argued?
(23:00):
Did you ever feel that you could ever do more
than save his life? Never had any time, and so
told him from the day I came here, and he
never expected anything else from the first and I never
expected to accomplish this. This statement by Percy Foreman, made
out on the street after race so called trial, is
most certainly a lie, and a big one. Foreman says
(23:24):
here that he told Ray on the first day that
they met, that his only hope was to plead guilty
and take a life sentence. But if that were true,
why would Ray need to change lawyers. Haines father and
son already possessed a plea offer from the prosecution, as
art Hands revealed to me when we spoke, we ever
(23:44):
offered a plea bargain. Oh, absolutely, we were offered a
better deal that he took. I think there was a
little anxiety on the part of the prosecution is to
the strength of the case. Haines said that the deal
they had been offered was better than the one Ray
finally had to settle for. But it was better only
in that it allowed him an earlier date from which
(24:05):
he would be eligible for parole. Not much of a difference,
because no one was going to let the convicted murderer
of Martin Luther King out on parole. But if Ray
wished to take a guilty plea in exchange for life
in prison, he already had that. He didn't need the
services of some fancy outside lawyer. But Ray wasn't thinking
plea bargain. He was thinking trial, and he went with
(24:29):
Foreman because Foreman says his would be an easy case
to win. So why was Foreman now saying that he
had always told Ray that his only chance was to
plead guilty. Some insights into this are provided by the
House Select Committee on Assassinations, which published a deposition of
Foreman pursuant to a lawsuit brought by Ray concerning the
(24:51):
representation he received attorney James Lassar asked Foreman exactly what
he had done on behalf of his client. Did he
hire an investigator? Foreman said he hadn't. Then how did
he investigate the case? Foreman fumbled about and then said
he hired six or eight Memphis Law School students who
worked for him. What did he ask them to do?
(25:13):
Foreman couldn't quite remember now? What were their names? He
couldn't remember that either. Well, surely their names could be
found on their pace ups. Foreman said they had been
paid in cash. Well, where would their work product be
Foreman didn't know, but he probably had it somewhere. Foreman
then said he owned eighty vacant houses which were all
(25:33):
filled with his case records, but he kept no list
of what was where. Foreman did say he interviewed some witnesses,
but he couldn't say where the records of this might
be found. And so it went. But from these questions
and answers, it became apparent that Percy Foreman had nothing
to show that he had done any work on behalf
(25:53):
of his client, James Earl Ray. When Percy Foreman appeared
before the House Select Committee, he was asked if he
had ever compared notes with Ray's previous attorneys. Did you
ever consult with Mr Haynes, who had also reviewed the evidence,
to see whether he agreed with you? Did you ever
consult with with Arthur Haynes? Well? I went to Birmingham
(26:20):
from Atlanta in November within a week, at ten days
of accepting the case, and Mr Haynes, his wife and
brother in law and his wife took me to a club.
We spent the evening together and we talked as to
(26:42):
what we said. I don't temporary recall, but I had
difficulty getting the any information from Mr Haynes. I had
to have him sighted for contempted battle to get whatever
I did get. Foreman was so full of the larky.
(27:05):
This is Art Hanes Jr. Reacting to Foreman's charge that
he and his father withheld their files from Foreman. It
should be remembered that Foreman pushed his way into this
case and was the reason Haynes was dismissed. But the
four month work product of Haines father and son did
not suddenly belong to Foreman because Ray was now his client.
(27:26):
Even so, according to Art Haynes Jr. They were willing
to share the work they had done. He came through
Birmingham and we offered him that file. We offered to
sit down with him, We offered to outline our defense
with him. All he wanted to do, and all we
did was feeding steak and Scotch whiskey at the club
(27:50):
in Birmingham and hearing him rambalong about what a fabulous
lawyer he was. I saw absolutely no evidence, ever, either
directly or second hand, of any inclination or willingness on
his part to defend that case as it should have
been defended. Attorney Mark Lane, who represented James Earl Ray
(28:14):
in the late nineteen seventies, sought out Arthur Haynes Sr.
And was generously given access to his files, as Foreman
would have been had he had the interest. While they
were meeting, Lane asked Haynes what he thought of Foreman,
especially after their meeting at the club in Birmingham. Mr
Haynes replied, my judgment is that the man never considered
(28:37):
trying the case. As far as I can ascertain, he
never prepared and he never investigated. He never considered giving
James Earl Ray a trial. For what reason, I don't know. Ye,
(29:09):
so Foreman said that the Haynes boys would not give
him anything, while Haynes Junior and Senior claimed they were
shocked by Foreman's lack of interest in the case. So
who was telling the truth? Smart money would be on
art Haynes Sr. Because, first of all, Judge Preston Battle
never cited him for contempt in this matter. And second,
Haynes was upset enough about the whole thing that a
(29:31):
few days later he felt compelled to take the unusual
step to write a letter to Judge Battle, a letter
that is still in the official files. It is my
distinct impression, he wrote that Foreman is disinterested in making
a genuine effort to obtain the benefit from the fruits
of our labor. His brief visit from a layover between
(29:52):
planes has been the only contact we've had with him.
At the House Select Committee hearing Congressman McKinney of Connecticut
question Foreman on his hard cell of the plea bargain
to Ray, You had a government case where ballistics were weak,
You had a key eye witness who was an alcoholic.
(30:13):
You had testimonial conflicts on when the bundle was dropped
in front of the store. There were no prints found
in the rooming house or in the bathroom, Solomon Jones,
for for one, place the shooter outside of the area
at the time. And finally, Ray had never in his
(30:34):
background had any history of quote unquote violence. Doesn't that
bring the odds down to a little better than a
d I mean, you're a pretty tough lawyer. I've reviewed
some of the work you've done, and wouldn't that give
you a fighting chance for a reasonable doubt? The Foreman disagreed.
My experience in a half a century of defending criminal
(30:56):
case makes me evaluate case of a lot of standpoints
that is not available to the average this passionate observer.
So Foreman pulled Frank and said his years in court
gave him special insight into what was winnable and what wasn't,
(31:19):
even though on many occasions he had gotten people way
more guilty than Ray appeared to be off scott free.
But what was missing here was the follow up question.
Foreman was a busy guy. Why would he push his
way into a case if he knew from the start
that all he would do is oversee a plea bargain
that the prosecution had already offered, and after that deed
(31:42):
had been done publicly pat himself on the back for
pulling off this miracle and saving this man's life. None
of this rings true. Let's return to the House Committee Chairman.
I wonder if you could ask the committee clerk to
hand him this reform on a copy of Martin Luther
King Shibit f Dash two fifty three. I'll describe this
(32:03):
exhibit for the record. This is a copy of a
Look magazine article. It's dated April. The title of the article,
excuse me is against conspiracy. The author is Mr Foreman,
the witness today captioned his attorney for James Earl Ray.
Do you recognize the article? Mr Foreman, I do. Did
(32:26):
you write the article? I wonder if I could direct
your attention please to the second paragraph in the article,
and if you'd follow along with me. I'll read that
for the record. When last November the brothers of James L.
Ray sought me out and handed me a letter from him,
the seeching me to represent him. Now this article, that
(32:50):
language is not mine, Mr. That language is Bradford. You
he rewrote this. I wrote it all your good writing.
The issue here is this James Earl Ray said he
never invited Percy Foreman to visit him in jail, that
he just appeared and was given entry, and then pitched
Ray as to why he would be the better choice
(33:12):
for an attorney. Ray liked the part where he said
he was rich enough that he wouldn't need to depend
on literary contracts and that he'd be able to testify
at his own trial, which is what he wanted. But
for the House Committee, the issue was whether Foreman had
been asked to appear by Ray himself, not his brother,
and if he had not, Foreman was on shaky legal ground.
(33:34):
Foreman had responded that Ray had written him a letter
at his office in Houston asking for him to enter
the case. I did receive such a letter. It came
to my office on the eighth of about the eighth
seventh or eighth of November, and I was in Wakeo,
or near Wakeo, trying a law shoot when the letter came.
(33:55):
It was read to be over the fall who read
the letters to you by secretary? Did you have an
opportunity when you return to your office to see Mr.
But James Earl Ray insisted that he hadn't written any
such letter, and that would be a rather bold story
to tell because if he had, all Foreman would have
(34:17):
to do to prove him a liar was produce it.
But Foreman couldn't, He said, the letter was apparently lost
with all his other files on the case. Foreman was
becoming visibly uncomfortable. He had begun this discussion by telling
the House Committee that he wrote the article in Look magazine.
Then the story was that Hughie had polished a sentence
(34:38):
or two. Suddenly it seemed safer to say that none
of the words were his. The entire article was rewritten,
every line of it. I was right like a lawyer
with long six cylinder Latin words. Hugh he writes for
the public. He translated to make it readable. I do
(35:01):
not speak literally when I when I say all of
its mind, I meant the sense and the spirit of
the article. I do not mean the literal word by word.
So let's take this explanation. What is Foreman's sense and
spirit of the article and Look magazine? What does it
tell us? Remember raise guilty plea fixed in the public mind.
(35:23):
If there had been any doubt that James Earl Ray
and no one else had murdered Martin Luther King, But
why that was still up for grabs, and who would
know better than Percy Foreman raised attorney just so everyone
would understand what a regular guy he was. Foreman said
early in the article that he always assumed that Ray
(35:44):
was guilty, but that he took the case to save
Rai's life. This is most certainly a lie, because, as
Attorney Art Haines has told us, Ray already had a
plea offer before Foreman showed up. In the article, Foreman
goes on to group Ray with Oswald and her Hand,
the alleged killers of John and Robert Kennedy, respectively, all
(36:04):
of whom wanted, according to Foreman, a shortcut to fame.
They wanted credit he wrote, top billing headlines, front page pictures.
But Oswald, just before he was murdered, said he was
a patsy. Sir Hands said he couldn't remember the crime,
and Ray said he didn't shoot Martin Luther King. So
whatever they did or didn't do, it doesn't seem as
(36:24):
though any of them was looking for fame. But according
to Foreman, Ray made special efforts to make sure that
he got credit for this crime before he fled the
murder scene. Foreman wrote, James Earl Ray carefully deposited on
the sidewalk the murder weapon that he had wrapped in
his own bed cover to protect his fingerprints on the
(36:45):
rifle from being obliterated. Ray thought a war between the
racest was imminent and he wanted to fire the first shot.
The shooting of doctor King was to him the pearl
harbor of that war. The presumption here is that because
(37:05):
Foreman was Ray's attorney, he knew these damning things about
Ray because Ray had told him. But Ray always said
he had nothing to do with the package wrapped in
the bedspread found on the street. He never told Foreman
that he placed the package there, or that he wrapped
it carefully so as not to erase his fingerprints. This
is Foreman's invention. And of course, if Ray had wanted
(37:27):
the rifle to point back to him so we would
get credit for the crime, as Foreman was now saying,
he could have just left it in his room and
gotten a better start out of town. And Ray never
said to anyone, much less Foreman, that he wanted to
fire the first shot in a race war that he
was trying to start. These are lies, rather vicious lies,
vicious because they would shape the way people all over
(37:49):
America would see Ray as a ruthless killer driven by hatred,
So Percy Foreman pushed his way into the case, talking
about what an easy when it would be, made himself
scarce as he attended to other business, and then showed
up one day saying that Ray had to plead guilty.
And after Ray made the plea, Foreman published an article
(38:11):
where he congratulated himself for saving Ray's life and then
went on to assassinate his character. What was he doing here?
Who was he working for? Is there anything in Foreman's
subsequent history that might give us a clue? Turns out
there is. In nineteen seventy five, Percy Foreman received a
(38:31):
felony indictment for obstruction of justice from a federal grand
jury in Texas. What did he do? In nineteen seventy
just one year after Foreman leaned on Ray to plead guilty,
Herbert and Nelson bunker Hunt, the sons of Texas billionaire H. L. Hunt,
hired private detective John Kelly to do some illegal wire tapping,
(38:54):
but he got caught. The Hunt brothers didn't want to
go to jail, so they offered Kelly money if he
would not testify against them, but Kelly didn't want to
go to jail either. Then Percy Foreman shows up, offers
his services to Kelly and promises to keep him out
of jail. Kelly pays Foreman a retainer of one thousand dollars,
(39:16):
but as soon as the ink is dry on their contract,
Foreman approaches the Hunt brothers and says that he has
Kelly Quote under control, and if the Hunts will give
Foreman fifty thousand dollars, he will guarantee that Kelly will
not incriminate them, As the indictment tells us. Foreman has
paid his money and then goes back to Kelly, acting
(39:37):
all concerned, and reminds him that the Hunts are very
rich with mob connections and they would think nothing of
killing him. So it's Foreman's recommendation as his lawyer, that
Kelly go to jail and say nothing about the Hunts.
After all, says Foreman, according to the indictment, the government
can't help you a whole lot if you're dead. But
(39:59):
by sheer acts sit in, Kelly finds out about the
double cross, and Foreman and the Hunt Brothers are indicted
for obstruction of justice, a crime that might well have
cost Foreman a license to practice law, But the people
Foreman is in trouble with are very wealthy and connected.
There are negotiations, time goes by, and the charges are
(40:20):
quietly dropped, but the facts are really not in dispute.
Foreman found a weak client with powerful people on the
other side. He signed up the client, chopped him around,
and received fifty dollars for making sure the client pled
guilty and didn't involve anyone else. Does that storyline sound familiar?
(40:40):
Did Foreman do something of the same with James Earl Ray? Well,
we think he did, and we think we have the
evidence to prove it. So we will come back to
this story later in the podcast and take a trip
to Mr Foreman's office in Houston next time. On the
(41:04):
Emilk tapes, Showers was in the frame right from the beginning,
because he was the one who run Jim Squirrel. He
looked back, he has stuck his frame in his socket.
Lord hair was standing up and he like somebody had
drained all the good d He was so white. Oh
you're so r I said, Lord. I said, you know,
they've been a lot of discussion about the fact you
(41:26):
may have been involved in the Martin Luth King assassination.
And he said, well, a lot of people talking about
he said it. One thing, saure that blanket back is
not coming back. But he said when he went to
the back door, just as he got to the door,
shot right now, and somebody came out of the bushes
and handed him smoking rifle. He wanted me to tell
(41:48):
the truth about seeing him with the rifle. He just
wanted me change just a little bit by saying I
saw him standing in the back door and a black man.
Hey in my righte. Did James Earl Ray killed Dr
Mark Luther King? No, they did not. Do you know
who killed Dr King? I know who paid to do
(42:17):
Thanks for listening 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. D email KA Tapes is written and
hosted 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
(42:38):
are executive producers on behalf of Tenderfoot TV with producers
Jamie Albright and Meredith Steadman. Original music by Makeup and
Vanity Said. Cover art by Mr Soul two six with
photography by Artemis 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
(43:01):
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. We had witness statements, outlines of arguments.
(00:28):
I mean, we had a complete ready file. He came
through Birmingham and we offered him that file. We offered
to sit down with him, We offered to outline our
defense with him, to give him the witness state, every
everything that we had. All he wanted to do, and
all we did was feeding steak and scotch whiskey at
(00:51):
the club in Birmingham and hear him ramble on about
what a fabulous lawyer he was. Truth of the matter is,
Percy Form was the biggest fraud and blow hard I
ever encountered in over fifty years of practicing law. I
saw absolutely no evidence, ever, either directly or second hand,
(01:13):
of any inclination or willingness on his part to defend
that case as it should have been defended. I called
the Union Hall. I said, it's a matter of life
and death. I said, I think these people of planning
to kill Dr King. The authorities were parade. Oh, we
(01:34):
found a gun that James L. Ray bought in Birmingham
that killed Dr King. Except it wasn't the gun that
killed Dr King. James Lvy was upon or the official
story from my Heart radio intended for TV. The plan
was to get King to the city because they wanted
(01:57):
it handled in Memphis for dead in them could hamon
and I've lived with us alone, monsieur, and 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 Claybury and this is the MLK tapes, speaking from experience.
(02:22):
When one tries to open a conversation about who shot
Martin Luther King, if the person you're talking to knows
anything at all about the case, they immediately come back
with but the guy said he did it, And the
answer to that is a patient no he didn't. He
always denied it, but of course James Earl Ray did
in the end plead guilty. So how did that plea
(02:45):
come about? And what does it tell us about the murder?
As we heard in the last episode. Arthur Haynes Junior
and Senior were criminal defense attorneys who came to represent
James Earl Ray, the man accused of killing Martin Luther Kane.
Ray was an escaped con He had been in Memphis
that day and there did seem to be some connection
(03:06):
between him and the murderer, Dr. King. But despite all
the public posturing by the prosecution, Ray's attorneys were surprised
to find that the actual case against Ray was weak.
It seemed to them that the connection to the murder
was that their client had been set up. They investigated,
interviewed witnesses, and worked on the case for four months.
(03:27):
As the trial approached, they thought they had good chances
for an acquittal. Then the night before the trial was
to begin, they were handed a note that said they
had been removed from the case. Why did Foreman push
his way into the case? Did you ever wonder about that?
Did we ever wonder why and how Foreman got in
(03:48):
the case? Only every day from that day until the
day my father died. When I sat down with Ark
Haynes Jr. In Birmingham, he tried to explain how famous
criminal defense attorney Percy Foreman had pushed them aside, there
were pressure points. How to pay for the defense was
one of them. Ray had no money, and Haines father
(04:11):
and son could not afford to work for nothing and
pay all the costs of the defense. As well. Haines
knew a successful investigative writer named William Bradford Huey, who
was also from Alabama and who was interested in writing
about the King murder. Huey's books included The Americanization of Emily,
The Execution of Priva Slavik, and The Revolt of Mami Stover,
(04:33):
all of which were made into movies. He also wrote
Wolf Whistle, the story of the murder of the young
Emmett Till, and Three Live from Mississippi, which told of
the murders of the three civil rights workers in Nashoba County.
The forward to this book was written by Martin Luther King.
No one at the time knew what the real story
(04:53):
was with Ray and King, but Hughey sense there was
a book there and possibly a movie, and he was
willing to put money up front to get access money
that was needed to fund the defense of James Earl
Ray two Art Haynes. It seemed like a promising offer
and he brought it to James William Bradford hue the
(05:14):
author who was writing for Look magazine, whom we had
encouraged Ray to hire. Because Hughie was was a noted
uh anti George Wallace, he was in the middle of
a series of articles for Esquire, he had every credential
being in DUCTR. King's camp, and he was from Alabama
(05:37):
and close to us, so we we encouraged him to
hire Hughie Haines Sr. Brought a deal to Ray where
in simple numbers, Ray would receive of whatever Huey's books
and articles brought in, Hughie would get and Haynes Judge
Preston Battle would not permit anyone besides his attorneys and
(05:58):
his immediate family to visit it or talked to Ray.
So the arrangement was made for Hughie to submit questions
to Ray and for Ray to write out his answers
in Longhand. All that summer I had carried questions from
Hughie to Ray and raise handwritten answers back to Hughie.
We had facilitated that all two hundred pages of Ray's
(06:19):
answers to Hughie's questions have been preserved and make for
an interesting read if you can decipher Ray's handwriting. It's
the same story Ray has told before of his prison
break and is moving about the country at the direction
of a man named Raoul. Hughie took these notes and
actually traced race travels and found the people Race that
(06:39):
he had worked for or met along the way. The
one exception was Raoul. This was not surprising because Ray
didn't know Raoul's last name, his address, or even if
Raoul was his real first name. Race spent a great
deal of time writing these pages, and at first he
was satisfied with how his attorneys were going about things,
(07:01):
but not everyone was. I suppose we were naive and
that we thought we were lawyers hired to defend a
murder case and that's what we were doing. There were
all kinds of reported witness hangers on and people involved
who wanted to be a part of it. Well. Jerry
Ray was one of those. He wanted to come to
(07:23):
Birmingham and have us support him and let him be
part of the defense. Truthfully, we didn't have time for that.
We were trying to manage our practice at the same
time get that case ready for trial, and we just
didn't have time or inclination to food Jerry Ray. We
were polite but not responsive to that. But Jerry Raid
(07:46):
did get himself involved. He visited James in prison, his
attorneys in Birmingham and author William Bradford, Huwey and Huntsville,
and he was also in touch with a certain attorney
in Texas who had soon arrived in Memphis. According to
everyone close to the case, James Earl Ray very much
wanted to go to trial. As Jerry Ray would say,
(08:07):
he didn't kill King, and he wanted his chance to
prove it in court. He need but this is where
the trouble started. James imagined a trial where he would
be able to tell his story, where he, James Earl Ray,
would be able to look the jurors in the eye
and have them believe that he did not shoot Martin
(08:29):
Luther King. But Arthur Haynes Senior was an experienced attorney
and he knew that great danger awaited a defendant when
he took the witness stand, especially if the defendant had,
like Ray, a long record of criminal conduct that the
prosecution could explore in great detail until less pretty much
all the jury would remember as they concluded that such
(08:52):
an outlaw should get what he deserved. So, as Arthur
Haynes explains, they were not ready to promise Ray that
he would take the stand. Our view of it was
that we wouldn't know whether Ray was gonna testify or
need to testify until the end of the state's case. Obviously,
if he had testified, that would have killed the value
(09:15):
of Hughey's connection to him. This is how Jerry Ray
saw it. On Whomber firston making is sistime, I blew
out in the heart build Alabama and talked to you,
you take my way down because he want another contact
(09:36):
beside the journey. So he was showing these contracts and
so I told he hope. He said only again, and
now you go back and tell James. He's not about
to understand. He doesn't go. So I went back and
told James you on the phone hand because when he's
running stas So with a little help from brother Jerry,
(09:58):
James began to fear that the case was not being
pursued with his best interests in mind. He wanted to testify,
and it seemed that Huey and his book was now
standing in the way. And then the weekend before his
trial was to begin, he received a visit from a
famous Texas lawyer named Percy Foreman. Foreman was six foot
four and weighed two hundred and fifty pounds, and had
(10:21):
a huge reputation to go with it. He had grown
up poor in the wiles of East Texas, quit school
when he was fifteen, and made something of himself because
he had an agile mind and a quick tongue. He
put himself through law school and came out ready for bear.
He had a knack for talking in a way that
juries liked, and he was especially good at representing people
(10:42):
accused of murder. In his forty years a criminal law
he claimed to have represented over one thousand of those.
Only one, as the story goes, was ever executed, and
according to Foreman, only sixty six of the thousand spent
even a day in jail. The more obviously guilty, the
easier it seemed for him to get them off for
(11:02):
a price. He was hated by the prosecutors he faced,
and also hated by his clients when they felt the
most vulnerable, as when he could have them sign over
every asset they had. I don't represent wealthy clients, he
once said, if they aren't poor when they come to me,
they are when they leave. Foreman had been talking to
Jerry Ray, so he knew all the right buttons to push.
(11:25):
He told James that Haynes should not have made a
deal like that with Hughie. Who is Hughie to give
advice to his attorney based on what might or might
not be good for a book. Foreman talked about all
the famous people he knew in all the cases he
had won, and how James's case would be the easiest
one he ever argued, and added to that, Foreman said
that unlike the Haines defense team, he was wealthy, wealthy
(11:48):
enough to move forward without any literary contracts, and they'd
figure out how to pay his fee after the trial.
But for a retainer, he had James sign over the
title to his Mustang and the Remington thirty six that
he purchased in Birmingham, the one that was said to
have killed King. Here's Ray for King jail the same made.
(12:09):
He told me that if I would just miss things
and are him, he wouldn't get involved in literary contrast,
he financed trow trows over and he would get used
to be then, so I agreed, and I signed some
time and paper decade just missing Haynes and all right
(12:29):
him well. On one of the national herring for the
trial work, Foreman promised Batting would get involved any litter contracts.
At that time, I didn't know he was negotiating with
Hie to think for Hayes interesting to contract and said
that at that time so Foreman's big promise to Ray
was the case would not be driven by literary contracts,
(12:52):
that he Foreman was rich enough to defend Ray without them.
But a week after he had taken over the case,
Foreman and Huie for Luncheon dallas Key described that meeting
in his book he slew the dreamer quote Mr Foreman,
like my three way contract. All he wanted was for
Mr Haynes to get out of the way so he
(13:12):
could have what Mr Haynes had. So you get Haynes
out of the way, he said, and then god damn it,
get to work and write us a good book, make
us a good movie, and make us some money. I
didn't think him myself. And then subsequently, in January of
nineteen six nine, he came up there with a literary contract.
Yes idea, and I signed in fair Way third. Yes,
(13:37):
signed a literary contracts A thing I got to go
to him. The contracts that Foreman had Ray signed on
January nine and February three essentially stripped Ray of every
remaining asset he had or might have. So why did
he sign them? As Ray would explain later, Foreman had
(14:01):
come to see him in late January saying the case
was going very well, but he needed to bring in
another attorney, John J. Hooker, and that was going to
cost money. So Ray, not really having a choice, signed
everything over to Foreman. Now, a Foreman had been telling
the truth about representing from the start that a plea
bargain was their only option, there would have been no
(14:23):
reason for Ray to enter into these contracts. So as
late as February three, Foreman was saying that they were
going to trial and things were looking good. But just
ten days later, after Foreman had plucked his client clean,
as Bradford Huey would describe it, Foreman came back with
bad news where he had to plead guilty. Now, I
(15:05):
want to think we're thirteen. He came into prisiness Jerman
Heart Danton, and he uh suggested a human playing, he says,
and there's me and don't in thankfully and well anyway,
when he came back to see me next time, he
was talking about he said they might prosecute my brother
(15:26):
Jerry rag and expiracing words and also he said they
might be pressed my father James brother Jerry tells the
same story a forman's about face and the first before
we gave it said it's little busy because he's I
read a lot, I erst whoever they are followed it
and he did that up until uh a month before
(15:49):
the Guildy plays that he started cries that they're gonna
acute and they're going to do this, but so Jade
fans to read me paiously little problem nyway and it
would resigned. At this point, James Earl Ray was boxed in.
He was stuck with Foreman, and Foreman refused to perform.
(16:09):
He kept telling Ray that the prosecution wanted to turn
him into barbecue form his word. Then he told Ray
that if he insisted on going to trial, they would
put his father and brother in jail. When Ray said
he still wanted to trial, Foreman said flat out that
he wouldn't defend him. He didn't feel up to it.
Here is an interchange between Bill Pepper and Jerry Ray
(16:32):
at the nine civil trial, not invisibly. He told me
to the last my sier he still had made up
the money he's still to fight doing for and he
he told he told me that foreman told him if
he did both of my hand and my John Earl
back in the twenties, and is both charged me being
(16:54):
the assessed of the word, I'm pretty sure you left, Jerry.
That's certainly the James little Ray Black versus Forman got
all about. This is the day of a letter Archer
that m March Watson Arch nine, nineteen fifty and when
(17:14):
is it going to be played here? Uh? Right, right right?
I was right, was March following that this is a
letter from his council on the eve of trop and
this letter offers you offers hand five hundred dollars. What
conditions was the over five hundred dollars we have abdybe
(17:35):
played to the lea built embarrassment in coort and it
was agreed with We understand that five hundred dollars was
to be taking the higher a new lawyer and her
decided a sad Yet this agreement signed the day before
Ray entered his guilty plea as a strange document. Foreman
signs on for a fee of a hundred and sixty
five thousand dollars if such is produced by books for movies,
(17:59):
and Ray is handed five dollars. The purpose of the
five hundred is not stated in the contract, but according
to both James and Jerry, it was so Ray could
go find a lawyer to overturn the plea, as if
five dollars could accomplish such a thing. But Ray is
to get the five hundred only if he meets to conditions.
(18:19):
He enters a plea of guilty of murder in the
first degree, and he doesn't make a scene of any
kind at the proceeding. And that's what unfolds. Are you
leading murder in the place degree in this case because
you killed Dr Martin lives the king under sex secumstances,
it would make you legally guilty. But in the place
degree under the law is explained to you by your lawyer.
(18:43):
Ray's answer was barely audible on the recording system used
by the court. What he said was quote yes, legally guilty.
According to attorney Mark Lane, who would later represent Ray,
Ray told him that when Foreman was using every kind
of argument to put him into a plea. Ray blurted
out that he didn't want to plead guilty because he
(19:04):
hadn't shot king. Doesn't matter, replied Foreman. If you were
involved in any kind of illegal activity with those who did,
you are legally guilty. You are as guilty as the
man who pulled the trigger. Foreman was referring to the
concept of felony murder, where if three people say agree
to rob a store, and they all agree that no
(19:25):
one is to be heard, but something goes wrong and
one man pulls a gun and kills the store clerk,
all three men are legally guilty of the murder. Most
states have such laws, though it is far from clear
that such a concept would apply in a case where
one man is purposely deceived about the crime and brought
along only for the purpose of taking the blame. But
(19:47):
Foreman's little lesson was most likely how the phrase legally
guilty became part of raise plea. After the plea was entered,
Ray's attorney, Percy Foreman, was invited to speak. He stood
up and addressed the court. This is what he had
to say. It's an honor to appear in this court.
(20:07):
I never expected or had any idea when I entered
this case that I would be able to accomplish anything
except perhaps save the defendant's life. All of us, all
of you, were as well informed as I was about
the facts of this case, due to the fact that
we have such an effective news media. Took me a
month that convinced myself of that which the Attorney General
(20:27):
of the United States and Jed Grohover of the FBI
announced last July that there was no conspiracy. After that
bit of self congratulations from Percy Foreman, Ray asked Judge
Battle if he might say something. The judge agreed, and
I'll read a slightly edited version of what followed Ray.
(20:49):
I don't want to change anything that I have said.
I don't want to add anything onto it either. The
only thing I have to say is I don't exactly
accept the theories of Mr Clark. In other words, I'm
not bound to accept the theories of Mr Clark. This
is an aside. But Percy Foreman, who had just referred
to Attorney General of the United States, doesn't know who
(21:10):
Ray is speaking about, so he asked, who is Mr Clark?
Ray Ramsey Clark Foreman Oh Ray and Mr Hoover Foreman
Mr who Ray, Mr j Edgar Hoover. I'm not trying
to change anything. I just want to add something onto it.
(21:31):
Judge Battle, you don't agree with those theories, Ray, I
mean on the conspiracy thing. There is a bit of
cross talk, and no one seems inclined to ask Ray
what it is he's trying to say. Judge Battle then
asks if he is still pleading guilty to first degree murder,
and Ray says that he is. It was a short,
(21:52):
tense moment. Ray had gone off script, but he hadn't
cost a huge scene, so he would still get his
five dollars. Three days after recording his guilty plea, James
Earl Ray wrote to Judge Preston Battle and asked to
have the plea overturned and allow him to go to trial.
A few days later, he wrote again asking for the
same thing. It was not clear how Judge Battle was
(22:16):
going to rule on raised petitions. Often, in the interests
of justice, such petitions are granted. But before Battle could
make a decision, he was found slumped over his desk,
dead from an apparent heart attack, and according to various accounts,
Battle was slumped over raised petitions on which he was
to rule. A new judge replaced Battle, and he didn't
(22:37):
allow Ray to reopen the case. So Ray was led
off to prison no trial. But Percy Foreman's statement at
the end of the trial is curious. If Foreman was
so certain that Ray had to plead guilty, why did
he connive to get himself into the case, And what
was all this talk about the easiest case I've ever argued?
(23:00):
Did you ever feel that you could ever do more
than save his life? Never had any time, and so
told him from the day I came here, and he
never expected anything else from the first and I never
expected to accomplish this. This statement by Percy Foreman, made
out on the street after race so called trial, is
most certainly a lie, and a big one. Foreman says
(23:24):
here that he told Ray on the first day that
they met, that his only hope was to plead guilty
and take a life sentence. But if that were true,
why would Ray need to change lawyers. Haines father and
son already possessed a plea offer from the prosecution, as
art Hands revealed to me when we spoke, we ever
(23:44):
offered a plea bargain. Oh, absolutely, we were offered a
better deal that he took. I think there was a
little anxiety on the part of the prosecution is to
the strength of the case. Haines said that the deal
they had been offered was better than the one Ray
finally had to settle for. But it was better only
in that it allowed him an earlier date from which
(24:05):
he would be eligible for parole. Not much of a difference,
because no one was going to let the convicted murderer
of Martin Luther King out on parole. But if Ray
wished to take a guilty plea in exchange for life
in prison, he already had that. He didn't need the
services of some fancy outside lawyer. But Ray wasn't thinking
plea bargain. He was thinking trial, and he went with
(24:29):
Foreman because Foreman says his would be an easy case
to win. So why was Foreman now saying that he
had always told Ray that his only chance was to
plead guilty. Some insights into this are provided by the
House Select Committee on Assassinations, which published a deposition of
Foreman pursuant to a lawsuit brought by Ray concerning the
(24:51):
representation he received attorney James Lassar asked Foreman exactly what
he had done on behalf of his client. Did he
hire an investigator? Foreman said he hadn't. Then how did
he investigate the case? Foreman fumbled about and then said
he hired six or eight Memphis Law School students who
worked for him. What did he ask them to do?
(25:13):
Foreman couldn't quite remember now? What were their names? He
couldn't remember that either. Well, surely their names could be
found on their pace ups. Foreman said they had been
paid in cash. Well, where would their work product be
Foreman didn't know, but he probably had it somewhere. Foreman
then said he owned eighty vacant houses which were all
(25:33):
filled with his case records, but he kept no list
of what was where. Foreman did say he interviewed some witnesses,
but he couldn't say where the records of this might
be found. And so it went. But from these questions
and answers, it became apparent that Percy Foreman had nothing
to show that he had done any work on behalf
(25:53):
of his client, James Earl Ray. When Percy Foreman appeared
before the House Select Committee, he was asked if he
had ever compared notes with Ray's previous attorneys. Did you
ever consult with Mr Haynes, who had also reviewed the evidence,
to see whether he agreed with you? Did you ever
consult with with Arthur Haynes? Well? I went to Birmingham
(26:20):
from Atlanta in November within a week, at ten days
of accepting the case, and Mr Haynes, his wife and
brother in law and his wife took me to a club.
We spent the evening together and we talked as to
(26:42):
what we said. I don't temporary recall, but I had
difficulty getting the any information from Mr Haynes. I had
to have him sighted for contempted battle to get whatever
I did get. Foreman was so full of the larky.
(27:05):
This is Art Hanes Jr. Reacting to Foreman's charge that
he and his father withheld their files from Foreman. It
should be remembered that Foreman pushed his way into this
case and was the reason Haynes was dismissed. But the
four month work product of Haines father and son did
not suddenly belong to Foreman because Ray was now his client.
(27:26):
Even so, according to Art Haynes Jr. They were willing
to share the work they had done. He came through
Birmingham and we offered him that file. We offered to
sit down with him, We offered to outline our defense
with him. All he wanted to do, and all we
did was feeding steak and Scotch whiskey at the club
(27:50):
in Birmingham and hearing him rambalong about what a fabulous
lawyer he was. I saw absolutely no evidence, ever, either
directly or second hand, of any inclination or willingness on
his part to defend that case as it should have
been defended. Attorney Mark Lane, who represented James Earl Ray
(28:14):
in the late nineteen seventies, sought out Arthur Haynes Sr.
And was generously given access to his files, as Foreman
would have been had he had the interest. While they
were meeting, Lane asked Haynes what he thought of Foreman,
especially after their meeting at the club in Birmingham. Mr
Haynes replied, my judgment is that the man never considered
(28:37):
trying the case. As far as I can ascertain, he
never prepared and he never investigated. He never considered giving
James Earl Ray a trial. For what reason, I don't know. Ye,
(29:09):
so Foreman said that the Haynes boys would not give
him anything, while Haynes Junior and Senior claimed they were
shocked by Foreman's lack of interest in the case. So
who was telling the truth? Smart money would be on
art Haynes Sr. Because, first of all, Judge Preston Battle
never cited him for contempt in this matter. And second,
Haynes was upset enough about the whole thing that a
(29:31):
few days later he felt compelled to take the unusual
step to write a letter to Judge Battle, a letter
that is still in the official files. It is my
distinct impression, he wrote that Foreman is disinterested in making
a genuine effort to obtain the benefit from the fruits
of our labor. His brief visit from a layover between
(29:52):
planes has been the only contact we've had with him.
At the House Select Committee hearing Congressman McKinney of Connecticut
question Foreman on his hard cell of the plea bargain
to Ray, You had a government case where ballistics were weak,
You had a key eye witness who was an alcoholic.
(30:13):
You had testimonial conflicts on when the bundle was dropped
in front of the store. There were no prints found
in the rooming house or in the bathroom, Solomon Jones,
for for one, place the shooter outside of the area
at the time. And finally, Ray had never in his
(30:34):
background had any history of quote unquote violence. Doesn't that
bring the odds down to a little better than a
d I mean, you're a pretty tough lawyer. I've reviewed
some of the work you've done, and wouldn't that give
you a fighting chance for a reasonable doubt? The Foreman disagreed.
My experience in a half a century of defending criminal
(30:56):
case makes me evaluate case of a lot of standpoints
that is not available to the average this passionate observer.
So Foreman pulled Frank and said his years in court
gave him special insight into what was winnable and what wasn't,
(31:19):
even though on many occasions he had gotten people way
more guilty than Ray appeared to be off scott free.
But what was missing here was the follow up question.
Foreman was a busy guy. Why would he push his
way into a case if he knew from the start
that all he would do is oversee a plea bargain
that the prosecution had already offered, and after that deed
(31:42):
had been done publicly pat himself on the back for
pulling off this miracle and saving this man's life. None
of this rings true. Let's return to the House Committee Chairman.
I wonder if you could ask the committee clerk to
hand him this reform on a copy of Martin Luther
King Shibit f Dash two fifty three. I'll describe this
(32:03):
exhibit for the record. This is a copy of a
Look magazine article. It's dated April. The title of the article,
excuse me is against conspiracy. The author is Mr Foreman,
the witness today captioned his attorney for James Earl Ray.
Do you recognize the article? Mr Foreman, I do. Did
(32:26):
you write the article? I wonder if I could direct
your attention please to the second paragraph in the article,
and if you'd follow along with me. I'll read that
for the record. When last November the brothers of James L.
Ray sought me out and handed me a letter from him,
the seeching me to represent him. Now this article, that
(32:50):
language is not mine, Mr. That language is Bradford. You
he rewrote this. I wrote it all your good writing.
The issue here is this James Earl Ray said he
never invited Percy Foreman to visit him in jail, that
he just appeared and was given entry, and then pitched
Ray as to why he would be the better choice
(33:12):
for an attorney. Ray liked the part where he said
he was rich enough that he wouldn't need to depend
on literary contracts and that he'd be able to testify
at his own trial, which is what he wanted. But
for the House Committee, the issue was whether Foreman had
been asked to appear by Ray himself, not his brother,
and if he had not, Foreman was on shaky legal ground.
(33:34):
Foreman had responded that Ray had written him a letter
at his office in Houston asking for him to enter
the case. I did receive such a letter. It came
to my office on the eighth of about the eighth
seventh or eighth of November, and I was in Wakeo,
or near Wakeo, trying a law shoot when the letter came.
(33:55):
It was read to be over the fall who read
the letters to you by secretary? Did you have an
opportunity when you return to your office to see Mr.
But James Earl Ray insisted that he hadn't written any
such letter, and that would be a rather bold story
to tell because if he had, all Foreman would have
(34:17):
to do to prove him a liar was produce it.
But Foreman couldn't, He said, the letter was apparently lost
with all his other files on the case. Foreman was
becoming visibly uncomfortable. He had begun this discussion by telling
the House Committee that he wrote the article in Look magazine.
Then the story was that Hughie had polished a sentence
(34:38):
or two. Suddenly it seemed safer to say that none
of the words were his. The entire article was rewritten,
every line of it. I was right like a lawyer
with long six cylinder Latin words. Hugh he writes for
the public. He translated to make it readable. I do
(35:01):
not speak literally when I when I say all of
its mind, I meant the sense and the spirit of
the article. I do not mean the literal word by word.
So let's take this explanation. What is Foreman's sense and
spirit of the article and Look magazine? What does it
tell us? Remember raise guilty plea fixed in the public mind.
(35:23):
If there had been any doubt that James Earl Ray
and no one else had murdered Martin Luther King, But
why that was still up for grabs, and who would
know better than Percy Foreman raised attorney just so everyone
would understand what a regular guy he was. Foreman said
early in the article that he always assumed that Ray
(35:44):
was guilty, but that he took the case to save
Rai's life. This is most certainly a lie, because, as
Attorney Art Haines has told us, Ray already had a
plea offer before Foreman showed up. In the article, Foreman
goes on to group Ray with Oswald and her Hand,
the alleged killers of John and Robert Kennedy, respectively, all
(36:04):
of whom wanted, according to Foreman, a shortcut to fame.
They wanted credit he wrote, top billing headlines, front page pictures.
But Oswald, just before he was murdered, said he was
a patsy. Sir Hands said he couldn't remember the crime,
and Ray said he didn't shoot Martin Luther King. So
whatever they did or didn't do, it doesn't seem as
(36:24):
though any of them was looking for fame. But according
to Foreman, Ray made special efforts to make sure that
he got credit for this crime before he fled the
murder scene. Foreman wrote, James Earl Ray carefully deposited on
the sidewalk the murder weapon that he had wrapped in
his own bed cover to protect his fingerprints on the
(36:45):
rifle from being obliterated. Ray thought a war between the
racest was imminent and he wanted to fire the first shot.
The shooting of doctor King was to him the pearl
harbor of that war. The presumption here is that because
(37:05):
Foreman was Ray's attorney, he knew these damning things about
Ray because Ray had told him. But Ray always said
he had nothing to do with the package wrapped in
the bedspread found on the street. He never told Foreman
that he placed the package there, or that he wrapped
it carefully so as not to erase his fingerprints. This
is Foreman's invention. And of course, if Ray had wanted
(37:27):
the rifle to point back to him so we would
get credit for the crime, as Foreman was now saying,
he could have just left it in his room and
gotten a better start out of town. And Ray never
said to anyone, much less Foreman, that he wanted to
fire the first shot in a race war that he
was trying to start. These are lies, rather vicious lies,
vicious because they would shape the way people all over
(37:49):
America would see Ray as a ruthless killer driven by hatred,
So Percy Foreman pushed his way into the case, talking
about what an easy when it would be, made himself
scarce as he attended to other business, and then showed
up one day saying that Ray had to plead guilty.
And after Ray made the plea, Foreman published an article
(38:11):
where he congratulated himself for saving Ray's life and then
went on to assassinate his character. What was he doing here?
Who was he working for? Is there anything in Foreman's
subsequent history that might give us a clue? Turns out
there is. In nineteen seventy five, Percy Foreman received a
(38:31):
felony indictment for obstruction of justice from a federal grand
jury in Texas. What did he do? In nineteen seventy
just one year after Foreman leaned on Ray to plead guilty,
Herbert and Nelson bunker Hunt, the sons of Texas billionaire H. L. Hunt,
hired private detective John Kelly to do some illegal wire tapping,
(38:54):
but he got caught. The Hunt brothers didn't want to
go to jail, so they offered Kelly money if he
would not testify against them, but Kelly didn't want to
go to jail either. Then Percy Foreman shows up, offers
his services to Kelly and promises to keep him out
of jail. Kelly pays Foreman a retainer of one thousand dollars,
(39:16):
but as soon as the ink is dry on their contract,
Foreman approaches the Hunt brothers and says that he has
Kelly Quote under control, and if the Hunts will give
Foreman fifty thousand dollars, he will guarantee that Kelly will
not incriminate them, As the indictment tells us. Foreman has
paid his money and then goes back to Kelly, acting
(39:37):
all concerned, and reminds him that the Hunts are very
rich with mob connections and they would think nothing of
killing him. So it's Foreman's recommendation as his lawyer, that
Kelly go to jail and say nothing about the Hunts.
After all, says Foreman, according to the indictment, the government
can't help you a whole lot if you're dead. But
(39:59):
by sheer acts sit in, Kelly finds out about the
double cross, and Foreman and the Hunt Brothers are indicted
for obstruction of justice, a crime that might well have
cost Foreman a license to practice law, But the people
Foreman is in trouble with are very wealthy and connected.
There are negotiations, time goes by, and the charges are
(40:20):
quietly dropped, but the facts are really not in dispute.
Foreman found a weak client with powerful people on the
other side. He signed up the client, chopped him around,
and received fifty dollars for making sure the client pled
guilty and didn't involve anyone else. Does that storyline sound familiar?
(40:40):
Did Foreman do something of the same with James Earl Ray? Well,
we think he did, and we think we have the
evidence to prove it. So we will come back to
this story later in the podcast and take a trip
to Mr Foreman's office in Houston next time. On the
(41:04):
Emilk tapes, Showers was in the frame right from the beginning,
because he was the one who run Jim Squirrel. He
looked back, he has stuck his frame in his socket.
Lord hair was standing up and he like somebody had
drained all the good d He was so white. Oh
you're so r I said, Lord. I said, you know,
they've been a lot of discussion about the fact you
(41:26):
may have been involved in the Martin Luth King assassination.
And he said, well, a lot of people talking about
he said it. One thing, saure that blanket back is
not coming back. But he said when he went to
the back door, just as he got to the door,
shot right now, and somebody came out of the bushes
and handed him smoking rifle. He wanted me to tell
(41:48):
the truth about seeing him with the rifle. He just
wanted me change just a little bit by saying I
saw him standing in the back door and a black man.
Hey in my righte. Did James Earl Ray killed Dr
Mark Luther King? No, they did not. Do you know
who killed Dr King? I know who paid to do
(42:17):
Thanks for listening 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. D email KA Tapes is written and
hosted 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
(42:38):
are executive producers on behalf of Tenderfoot TV with producers
Jamie Albright and Meredith Steadman. Original music by Makeup and
Vanity Said. Cover art by Mr Soul two six with
photography by Artemis 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
(43:01):
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,
Popular Podcasts
1. The Podium
The Podium: An NBC Olympic and Paralympic podcast. Join us for insider coverage during the intense competition at the 2024 Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games. In the run-up to the Opening Ceremony, we’ll bring you deep into the stories and events that have you know and those you'll be hard-pressed to forget.
2. In The Village
In The Village will take you into the most exclusive areas of the 2024 Paris Olympic Games to explore the daily life of athletes, complete with all the funny, mundane and unexpected things you learn off the field of play. Join Elizabeth Beisel as she sits down with Olympians each day in Paris.
3. iHeartOlympics: The Latest
Listen to the latest news from the 2024 Olympics.