200
IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF SHELBY COUNTY,
TENNESSEE FOR THE THIRTIETH JUDICIAL
DISTRICT AT MEMPHIS
_______________________________________________
CORETTA SCOTT KING, et al,
Plaintiffs,
Vs. Case No. 97242
LOYD JOWERS, et al,
Defendants.
_______________________________________________
PROCEEDINGS
November 17th, 1999
VOLUME III
_______________________________________________
Before the Honorable James E. Swearengen,
Division 4, judge presiding.
_______________________________________________
DANIEL, DILLINGER, DOMINSKI,
RICHBERGER, WEATHERFORD
COURT REPORTERS
Suite 2200, One Commerce Square
Memphis, Tennessee 38103
(901) 529-1999
201
- APPEARANCES -
For the Plaintiff: DR. WILLIAM PEPPER
Attorney at Law
New York City, New York
For the Defendant:
MR. LEWIS GARRISON
Attorney at Law
Memphis, Tennessee
Court Reported by:
MR. BRIAN F. DOMINSKI
Certificate of Merit
Registered Professional
Reporter
Daniel, Dillinger,
Dominski, Richberger &
Weatherford
22nd Floor
One Commerce Square
Memphis, Tennessee 38103
202
- INDEX -
WITNESS: PAGE/LINE NUMBER
JAMES MILNER
DIRECT EXAMINATION
BY MR. PEPPER:....................... 204 21
CROSS-EXAMINATION
BY MR. GARRISON:..................... 224 5
REDIRECT EXAMINATION
BY MR. PEPPER:....................... 227 22
FLOYD NEWSOM
DIRECT EXAMINATION
BY MR. PEPPER:....................... 230 16
CROSS-EXAMINATION
BY MR. GARRISON:..................... 240 9
REDIRECT EXAMINATION
BY MR. PEPPER:....................... 242 16
NORVILLE WALLACE
DIRECT EXAMINATION
BY MR. PEPPER:....................... 245 12
CROSS-EXAMINATION
BY MR. GARRISON:..................... 254 15
REDIRECT EXAMINATION
BY MR. PEPPER:....................... 257 16
LEON COHEN
DIRECT EXAMINATION
BY MR. PEPPER:....................... 260 23
ED REDDITT
DIRECT EXAMINATION
BY MR. PEPPER: ...................... 293 12
CROSS-EXAMINATION
BY MR. GARRISON...................... 310 10
REDIRECT EXAMINATION
BY MR. PEPPER:....................... 313 14
JAMES McCRAW
BY DEPOSITION........................ 271 15
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JERRY WILLIAMS
DIRECT EXAMINATION
BY MR. PEPPER: ...................... 315 15
SOLOMON JONES
BY WRITTEN STATEMENT(S).............. 327 13
PHILLIP MELANSON
DIRECT EXAMINATION
BY MR. PEPPER: ...................... 338 13
KAYE PITTMAN BLACK
BY PRIOR TRANSCRIBED TESTIMONY....... 348 10
EXHIBIT PAGE/LINE
Exhibit 1............................ 269 22
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PROCEEDINGS
(November 17, 1999, 10:20 a.m.)
THE COURT: All right. Bring
the jury out, please.
(Jury in.)
THE COURT: Good morning, ladies
and gentlemen. We're going to resume our
trial at this time.
Mr. Pepper, will you call your next
witness.
MR. PEPPER: Good morning, Your
Honor.
THE COURT: Good morning.
MR. PEPPER: Your Honor,
plaintiffs call as their first witness this
morning Mr. James Milner.
JAMES E. MILNER
Having been first duly sworn, was examined
and testified as follows:
DIRECT EXAMINATION
BY MR. PEPPER:
Q. Good morning, Mr. Milner. Thank you
for coming here this morning. I know you
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have a bit of a hearing problem.
A. Right.
Q. If you can't hear me, would you ask
me to come forward to speak louder.
A. Please, just come forward.
Q. All right.
MR. PEPPER: Is it all right to
approach, Your Honor?
THE COURT: You may.
Q. (BY MR. PEPPER) Would you state your
name and address for the record, please.
A. My name is James Edward Milner, Jr.
I live in St. Petersburg, Florida.
Q. Where did you live before you resided
in St. Petersburg, Florida?
A. Here in Memphis, Tennessee.
Q. What do you presently do for a
living?
A. I drive a taxicab.
Q. And what did you do in Memphis,
Tennessee, for a living?
A. Drove a taxi.
Q. How long did you drive a taxicab?
A. Approximately around about
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twenty-five years.
Q. Always in Memphis, Tennessee?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Which company did you drive for?
A. I drove for Veteran Cab and Yellow
Cab.
Q. How many years for Veteran's Cab?
A. Eighteen of it was Yellow. The rest
of it was Veteran?
Q. In which order, Yellow first?
A. The Veteran first and then Yellow.
Q. Then Yellow. In the course of your
work in your taxi-driving work here in the
City of Memphis, did you come to know the
Defendant Loyd Jowers?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. When did you first meet Mr. Jowers?
A. The first time I met him was back
there after I first started driving, back
when he was with Yellow Cab. I'm not sure
exactly what year it was.
Q. But approximately.
A. I probably met Loyd probably I'd say
after I'd been driving about two years or
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something like that.
Q. About two years you had been driving
and you met him. Did you come to know him
pretty well?
A. Well, I didn't really come to know
him real well until I went to work for
Veteran Cab when he bought the company out.
Q. So when he owned Veterans Cab, when
he bought that company and you drove for him,
then you came to know him better?
A. Right.
Q. Roughly what time frame is that?
What years would those be?
A. I'm not really sure the year, but it
was right around 1979, 1980, something like
that, as far as I can remember, something
like that. I'm not for sure of the dates.
They pass off too fast for me.
Q. How often did you see Mr. Jowers
during that period?
A. I'd see him every day. I was a
supervisor down there. I helped run a lot of
things down there. I'd see him every day.
Q. In the course of your days work, how
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much time would you say you actually spent
with him?
A. Oh, I'd say anywhere from at least
eight hours a day. Maybe even ten hours a
day. Loyd sometimes would stay down there
five, six o'clock, something. I'd get down
there usually about seven o'clock in the
morning.
Q. All right. So you had extensive
contact with him?
A. Right.
Q. How many days a week would that be?
A. Well, I don't really remember if he
took off on weekends or not. I know it was
at least Monday through Friday and some
Saturdays. I can't really remember if I
worked six days a week or seven days or
what. I worked quite a few days a week.
Q. Okay. So you had this contact with
Mr. Jowers over a period of time about twenty
years ago?
A. Right.
Q. Now, in the course of this quite
extensive contact with him, did you ever
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discuss the assassination of Martin Luther
King with him?
A. Yes. It was one day they was having
a -- I believe it was some kind of a march
downtown about it. I don't know if it was on
the anniversary of his death. I'm not sure
just the circumstances of what was going on
downtown. There was talk about James Earl
Ray in the paper and on the news and
everything. We just got to talking one day
down there.
It was just me and him in the office
there. I told him, I says, you know, I just
don't think James Earl Ray done it. Loyd
made a comment, you know, he said, no, Lordy,
Memphis police officers. Well, he said law
enforcement officers done it. He said, you
can take that to the bank.
Q. I'm sorry. Would you repeat that?
A. He said, you can take that to the
bank, you can bank on that or something.
Loyd used to have some phrases when he used
to talk. He'd always say, you can take that
to the bank, you know.
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Q. What was he saying you could take to
the bank?
A. The truth of what he was saying,
anything he would say, you know, in other
words like money, if he give you money, you
could take it to the bank. If he told you
something, he would guarantee it would be
true. He never --
Q. What was the specific statement he
was referring to in your mind?
A. When he was talking about Ray doing
the killing, he mentioned, no -- I think he
said something he didn't think he done it or
he didn't do it, you know. He said, a law
enforcement officer done that, you can take
that to the bank.
Q. He said a law enforcement officer did
it, you can take that to the bank?
A. Sir?
Q. He said a law enforcement officer did
it?
A. He said law enforcement officers.
Q. Did he say what agency this law
enforcement officer might have worked for?
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A. I'm not sure if he said Memphis
police department or what. I can't be for
sure about that. It has been so many years
ago now, I don't remember a whole lot about
that conversation. We was just talking about
different things, you know. He did say law
enforcement officers.
Q. That's fair enough, Mr. Milner. You
just must tell the Court and the jury what
you honestly remember at this point in time
these years later. Did he say anything about
the planning of the assassination?
A. No, sir.
Q. Did he say anything about the
involvement of anyone else in the
assassination?
A. No, sir.
Q. Just that one statement?
A. Just that one statement.
Q. Did you ever at any other time
discuss this matter with him?
A. Yes. I heard through the news media
and stuff like that that Loyd was trying to
come out about the truth about the killing.
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But I didn't know the circumstances about it
or anything. So I didn't know who he talked
to about it.
So I talked to a lawyer up in
Tennessee that was representing James Earl
Ray. He contacted me, had me talk to
Mr. Billings, a private investigator here.
He told me about Loyd's lawyer. He told me I
needed to go up there and talk to him. So I
said, okay. He had a Mr. Hamblin went up
there and talk to me.
Q. I want to stop you there, because the
question was did you have any further
conversations with Mr. Jowers, not the
history of your --
A. Yes.
Q. You had a further conversation with
Mr. Jowers?
A. Right. After that.
Q. When did that conversation take
place?
A. That was in April -- I believe it was
April the 2nd of last year, 2nd of last year,
1998.
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Q. Where did that conversation take
place?
A. Right here in Memphis. He was in
Arkansas at the time. He called me on the
phone. I left word through his attorney to
call me because I wanted to talk to him.
Q. So he called you?
A. Right.
Q. You spoke with him at that time?
A. Right.
Q. What did he say to you at that time?
A. Well, we just made a little bit of
conversation about we hadn't seen each other
in quite awhile, you know. I was asking him
what was going on with him and the King
killing. He told me, you know, that he was
trying to bring it out but he didn't know how
to bring it out.
I remembered the conversation back
we had before, and I heard rumors through the
cab drivers, you know, how a lot of cab
drivers would talk, that had heard a lot of
things, you know. I heard that Loyd was
involved in it but I didn't know if that
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would be -- just to be sure. Different
things like that. I just asked him, I said,
listen, what's your involvement in it?
That's when he told me.
Q. What did he tell you?
A. He told me he was involved in it to a
certain extent. I asked him, I says, first
thing I asked him, I said, listen, you tell
me the honest truth. He has always been
truthful with me. I said, listen, did you --
first thing I asked him, did you pull the
trigger? He said, no, no, Lordy. He said, I
was involved in it to a certain extent, but
did I not pull the trigger.
I said, well, that's the main thing
I was concerned about. I didn't want nobody
talking to me about killing somebody, you
know what I mean. So we talked over two, two
and a half, three months there just talked
every day.
I'd call him on my cell phone. We
would talk and he would tell me things that
happened to him because he said he would like
to bring it out, you know, but he didn't want
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to take the chance of maybe being indicted
for something, being involved in it to a
certain extent, or what. So he just come out
and just told me basically the whole story
about it.
Q. Well, how did these new admissions
differ from what he had told you almost
twenty years ago?
A. How much difference?
Q. Yes.
A. Well, he just told me more or less
not every little detail, but he just told me
exactly how it come about, who was involved
in it.
Q. Let me stop you, Mr. Milner. How did
it come about? How did you come to
understand that it came about?
A. He said he was offered I think it was
a hundred thousand dollars or something by
Frank Liberto had offered him the money if he
thought he could find somebody to do a
killing.
He didn't know what kind of a
killing it was at the time or nothing. He
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says, I don't know. Then Loyd just said he
didn't think no more about it until Frank
Liberto called him, and he said, I'm sending
a great deal of money. In other words, Loyd
would buy his produce from this Frank
Liberto, and I think they was real close
friends.
He said, I'm sending a great deal of
money. It would be wrapped up. He said it
was wrapped up in a paper sack with two
rubber bands on it. He said, I'll be sending
it inside the produce, up under his produce
that he was sending to him.
Loyd said on the day he said he
would send it, that he received the money. I
think he said he stuck the money inside of a
stove, an old stove he had there. He was
told that somebody would come back and get
the money.
Q. So he was given this money to hold
for someone else to pick up?
A. Right. At the time, from what I
understand, he didn't know what the money was
about or what it was for or nothing. He just
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said, I'm sending you some money there, be
careful, it is a great deal of money, just
hold it for me and somebody will be there to
come and get it.
Q. Then what happened?
A. Well, he said this -- I'm not sure
how to pronounce his name -- Raul come and
picked the money up. We got to talk. I
said, how did you know of anything about the
killing if you didn't know about the money?
He said, well, over a couple of days
some law enforcement officers that he knew
real well, one of them was his partner back
years ago when he was on the police
department, he said him and two other law
enforcement officers planned this thing out
over two days.
He said he didn't know what -- he
said he knew they was planning -- what he
could understand, they was planning to kill
someone, but he didn't know who or what it
was about or nothing. He just assumed it was
something of that nature. He told me that --
do I have to tell their names?
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Q. Mr. Milner, let me -- it is useful if
you tell any names that you know. But let me
back you up. Where did this planning take
place?
A. In his cafe. He owned -- he had a
cafe down below the boarding house, across
the street from the Lorraine Hotel.
Q. In Jim's Grill?
A. Sir?
Q. In his cafe, Jim's Grill?
A. Right, Jim's Grill.
Q. Who did he say was involved in the
planning of this assassination?
A. He said there was five men that
planned it out. Two of them he didn't know
who they were. But he knew three of them.
One of them was a good hunting buddy of his
that he hunted with all the time. The other
one was a law enforcement officer that he
used to ride with years ago when he was on
the police department. The third one was a
guy that this man, this officer that he used
to ride with, brought in to introduce Loyd.
He brought him in there and introduced him to
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him. That's how Loyd knew about the third
one. He didn't know him personally.
Q. He didn't know the third one
personally?
A. Right.
Q. Who was the one he did not know
personally?
A. Who was he? He said he was a law
enforcement officer by the name of Merrell
McCullough.
Q. Merrell McCullough?
A. Uh-huh.
Q. Who were the officer he knew
personally?
A. The officer's -- I think his name
was -- I believe he was a supervisor by the
name of Johnny Barger. That was his partner
that he used to ride with years ago. And the
second one was Earl Clark. That's the one he
used to hunt with down in Mississippi.
Q. I see. Did he say how long these
planning sessions lasted?
A. He just said over a couple of days
before the killing, but he didn't say how
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long, how long a stint of time or anything
like that. If he did, I don't remember what
he said.
Q. Did he say what his role was in terms
of the actual killing? What Loyd's role
was?
A. At the time he wasn't involved in it
at all. He was overhearing what they was
talking about. He said -- he was told at six
o'clock the day of the killing by Frank
Liberto, who called him, he said to be at the
back door at six o'clock and receive a
package for him. He didn't say what it was
going to be or nothing else. Loyd said he
didn't have no idea what it was. He was just
told to be at the back door.
Q. Be at the back door of his cafe, his
grill?
A. His cafe.
Q. Which faced on toward the Lorraine
Motel?
A. Yes.
Q. Was he at the back door?
A. He said at six o'clock he went to the
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back door, you know, and was just standing
there. All of a sudden he heard a big bang.
He said when he opened the door right away
when he heard it, because he -- he said as
soon as he opened the door, one of the
officers handed him a rifle. It was still
smoking from the barrel.
Q. Which officer handed him the rifle?
A. Sir?
Q. Did he say officer handed him the
rifle?
A. He said it was Earl Clark.
Q. What did he do with the rifle?
A. Loyd said he brought the rifle in. I
believe he said he broke the rifle down, took
the shell casing out of it. He said he tried
to flush it down the commode and it stopped
his commode up to where the commode wouldn't
flush.
So he said he had to tear his
commode down to get the shell casing out of
it. So he put the rifle I think under a
cupboard. He wrapped it up I think he said
in something and put it under the shelf or
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something.
I not sure where he said he put it,
but it was somewhere back in the kitchen. He
said later on that night after he closed the
grill down, he throwed the shell casing away
in the Mississippi River.
Q. Did he say what was done with the
actual murder weapon?
A. He said the next day that this Raul
came to pick the rifle up. He said that was
the last he seen of Raul or the rifle. I've
asked him what he thought happened to it. He
said he didn't have no idea what happened to
it. He didn't want to know where it was at.
Q. All right.
A. He said until all this was over with,
he found out that Mr. King had been killed,
he didn't even know, you know, who they was
trying to kill or anything, you know. He
didn't have no idea who it was.
Q. Mr. Milner, Mr. Jowers opened this
page with you, this story with you, some
twenty years ago. Is that right? He
started --
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A. You are talking about this twenty
years ago?
Q. He started to discuss this with you
twenty years ago?
A. He didn't tell me this twenty years
ago.
Q. Not the details. I'm saying he
started the story, the discussion of this?
A. Yes, about twenty years ago.
Q. But it was only more recently that
you were able to get these kinds of details?
A. Right. I just remember what he told
me back the way he would talk about it was
law enforcement that done it, and I just
thought -- at first, you know, for a long
time I thought he was just thinking somebody
else done it besides James Earl Ray, like I
thought somebody else done it.
It never really occurred to me until
after he started telling me the details about
it that that is what he meant years ago when
he was telling me. I didn't have no idea
that really law enforcement officers was
involved in it.
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Q. Nor should you.
MR. PEPPER: Thank you very
much, Mr. Milner.
Your witness.
CROSS-EXAMINATION
BY MR. GARRISON:
Q. Mr. Milner, you and I have talked
about this matter many --
A. Speak up a little bit.
Q. You and I have talked about this many
times, haven't we?
A. Right.
Q. Let me ask you something, when you
worked at the cab company, you worked for
Mr. Jowers when he owned the Veteran's Cab
company is that correct?
A. Right. He owned Veteran's Cab.
Q. He was not prejudiced in any way, you
had no idea he had was prejudiced against the
races, had no animosity?
A. Oh, no. He had no prejudice at all.
I would say over half the drivers that worked
there worked for him inside, you know, helped
as supervisors and everything else, with the
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money. As far as I know, Loyd never been
real prejudiced that I know of.
Q. He was fair to everybody, no matter
what color they are. Am I correct, sir?
A. Right.
Q. Now, all this information that you
have given, you said it was by telephone that
you obtained this by telephone in talking
with the later conversations with Mr. Jowers?
A. Right.
Q. Did this take place over more than
one day?
A. Oh, no. He would tell me just a
little bit of it every time I would call him,
we would just talk a little bit. Because I
had to work, you know, and I just couldn't be
just talking to him. I'd talk to him over
possibly two and a half, maybe three months
or whatever it was. Then he would just tell
me a little bit about it.
Q. He always told you, even back years
ago and up to then, that he was sorry Dr.
King was assassinated here in Memphis. Isn't
that correct?
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A. Right.
Q. He also told you that he never knew
anything that he may have been called upon by
Mr. Liberto -- there was never any mention
that it would be Dr. King?
A. He was told what, sir?
Q. He was never told that Dr. King would
be the target of any assassination in
anything that he was asked to do?
A. No. Frank Liberto, according to what
Loyd told me, Frank never told him what the
money was for or anything about the killing
or nothing like that.
Q. Okay. Mr. Milner, mostly what you
told the Court and jury here today has been
in the news media about the same things you
have already told, that has been on the
newspaper and on the TV, isn't it? It has
pretty much been the same?
A. I've heard some things. I haven't
really kept up with what everybody has said.
Q. Okay.
A. I just know what Loyd told me.
MR. GARRISON: That's all, Your
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Honor.
THE WITNESS: As a matter of
fact, even the books and stuff on it, I read
a book, and, you know, I didn't even -- I
never even read a book until after all this
stuff he told me, because I was interested
about it.
Q. (BY MR. GARRISON) Did you ever know a
Mr. McCraw, a gentleman named McCraw?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Did you ever talk to him about this?
A. I never talked to him about it. But
he was the one back years ago that was
talking about -- thought Loyd was involved in
it, you know, and he knew who killed Martin
Luther King. I knew McCraw pretty well, but
I never talked to him about this.
Q. All these were rumors going around?
A. Just rumors. You hear everything in
the cab business.
MR. GARRISON: Thank you, sir.
REDIRECT EXAMINATION
BY MR. PEPPER:
Q. Mr. Milner, this is very important.
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Did you get any of this information, any of
these details, from any other source --
A. No, sir.
Q. -- but Mr. Jowers?
A. What I have told you is exactly what
Loyd told me. I've read some books on it
afterwards, you know, about the killing and
stuff like that, but a lot of stuff I read,
you know, was nothing like what Loyd was
talking about, you know.
Loyd, what he told me was completely
different. Everything I read, James Earl Ray
done it, or they thought the military was
involved in it or different things like that,
you know. Which I don't know anything about
that. Loyd never even mentioned nothing like
that. Loyd just told me what he knew about
it.
Q. So you -- have you not gotten any of
these details from any newspaper article, any
book, any other writing at all?
A. What I've told you today?
Q. Yes.
A. No, sir.
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Q. Solely from Mr. Jowers?
A. Sir?
Q. Only from Mr. Jowers?
A. Only from Mr. Jowers.
Q. There have been a number of people
who have written books on this case, one
fairly recently who calls himself an expert
on the case. Have any writers interviewed
you for their work?
A. No, sir.
Q. And asked you what you knew?
A. Has anybody asked me questions?
Q. Has any writer interviewed you?
A. No, sir. No writer has talked to me
about doing a book on it or nothing.
MR. PEPPER: No further
questions.
THE COURT: All right, then.
You may stand down, Mr. Milner. You are free
to go or you can remain in the courtroom if
you want to.
THE WITNESS: I'll just go
outside.
(Witness excused.)
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THE COURT: Call your next
witness, please.
MR. PEPPER: Your Honor,
plaintiffs call Mr. Floyd Newsom.
THE COURT: Does Mr. Milner know
he is not to discuss his testimony with the
media?
MR. PEPPER: He has been
advised, Your Honor.
THE COURT: All right.
MR. PEPPER: They fall pray when
they walk outside this room.
FLOYD E. NEWSOM
Having been first duly sworn, was examined
and testified as follows:
DIRECT EXAMINATION
BY MR. PEPPER:
Q. Good morning, Mr. Newsom.
A. Good morning, sir.
Q. It has been a long time.
A. Yes, it has.
Q. Thank you for coming down here this
morning. Let me ask you to state for the
record, please, your name and address.
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A. My name is Floyd E. Newsom, Sr. My
address is 1203 North Lion's Gate Drive.
Q. Memphis, Tennessee?
A. Memphis, Tennessee, the zip is 38116.
Q. Mr. Newsom, would you tell us what
you presently do?
A. I'm retired.
Q. And how long have you been retired?
A. Since 1989, ten years.
Q. And did you at one point earlier in
your life work for the Memphis Fire
Department?
A. I did, sir.
Q. When did you join the Memphis Fire
Department?
A. 7/11/1955.
Q. How long were you in service?
A. I retired 7/11/1989, sir.
Thirty-four years.
Q. So you were a serving fireman for
thirty-four years?
A. Yes, sir. There was a break of about
five years in there.
Q. When would that have been?
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A. That was 1968.
Q. When in 1968?
A. I resigned on May the 18th, 1968.
Q. You resigned on May the 18th, 1968?
A. Yes.
Q. I want to cover some of that period
of time when you worked for the Memphis Fire
Department. It is a part of the plaintiff's
case that we have sectioned off to call
"local conspiracy."
You, Mr. Newsom, were at a critical
point in time stationed at Firehouse Number
2, weren't you?
A. Yes, sir.
MR. PEPPER: Your Honor, if it
please the Court, I think we'd like to put up
a graphic description of the area at this
point so that the jury doesn't just hear
words about the place we're talking about so
they might be able to visualize it.
THE COURT: I'll allow it.
MR. PEPPER: Thank you. Your
Honor, I've shown the drawing to counsel for
the defense. He has approved it as basically
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accurate.
Q. (BY MR. PEPPER) Mr. Newsom, can you
see that board?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Do you recognize that area?
A. Pretty much, yes.
Q. This is South Main Street. It
parallels Mulberry Street. Is that right?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. And is this the fire station where
you were?
A. Yes, sir, it is.
Q. Where you were stationed?
A. Yes.
Q. So it on the corner really of Butler,
Mulberry and South Main Street?
A. That's right.
Q. And the Lorraine Motel where Dr. King
was staying was on the opposite side of
Mulberry Street facing sort of at an angle
the fire station?
A. That's right.
Q. Now, how long were you stationed at
Number 2?
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A. Two years.
Q. What was the periods of time that you
were there?
A. What do you mean, sir?
Q. How long -- from when to when during
that two-year period?
A. The shifts?
Q. No, just which two years?
A. 1966 to 1968.
Q. Were you assigned to that station in
April of 1968?
A. Yes.
Q. Now, was there a -- to the best of
your knowledge, was there a police
intelligence surveillance operation being
conducted out of that station at the time of
Martin Luther King's visit to Memphis?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. And how many officers were involved
in that surveillance?
A. Well, that's a long time back.
Q. Yes.
A. I know of two that I was familiar
with. There could have been others.
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Q. And who were the two that you knew
of?
A. Officer Redditt and -- I have the
other person's name written here, if I'm
allowed to look and see. Richmond.
Q. Officers Redditt and Richmond?
A. And Richmond.
Q. And from which area of the fire
station did they actually conduct the
surveillance, do you recall?
A. Well, it was basically done from the
locker room.
Q. That was in the rear?
A. Yes.
Q. Were there windows there?
A. Yes. Windows up at the top part of
the locker room.
Q. Did those windows afford a good view
of the Lorraine Motel?
A. Yes.
Q. Now, were you on duty on the 4th of
April, 1968, at Fire Station Number 2, at the
time of the assassination?
A. I was on duty, but I wasn't at the
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Number 2, sir.
Q. You were not at the Number 2?
A. No. I was supposed to be at the
Number 2.
Q. You were supposed to be at the Number
2, but you weren't at the Number 2?
A. Right.
Q. Would you tell the Court and the jury
why you were not at the Number 2?
A. Well, I was not there because on
April the 3rd, the night of April the 3rd, I
received a call at home from a lieutenant at
that time, Lieutenant Smith, who instructed
me not to report to the Number 2 on my
regular duty to my regular company but
instead report to Number 31. That was out on
Overton Crossing at the opposite end of town.
Q. What time of night did you receive
this call?
A. After ten.
Q. After ten o'clock at night you
received a call and orders to go to another
fire station?
A. That's right.
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Q. The next day. What was the emergency
that caused you to be changed, you to be
moved to another fire station?
A. Sir, there was no emergency that
caused me to be changed.
Q. There was no emergency?
A. No, sir.
Q. Mr. Newsom, how many black firemen
were assigned to Number 2?
A. Two. N. E. Wallace was assigned to
the opposite shift from me on a different
company but at the Number 2's engine house.
Q. So there were two black firemen
assigned to Number 2's?
A. That's right.
Q. And you were one of the two?
A. That's right.
Q. And sometime after ten o'clock that
night you were assigned to another station?
A. That's right.
Q. When you went to that other station
the next day, did you find that you were
needed?
A. No, sir, I was not needed. I was
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needed on my company because my leaving my
company left my company out of service unless
somebody else was detailed to my company in
my stead.
Q. So you are telling this Court that
you were surplused to requirements where you
were sent, and that undermanned your home
company?
A. That's right.
Q. Mr. Newsom, did you ever inquire why
you were assigned away from your station?
A. Yes, sir, I did.
Q. What did you learn?
A. Not much. When I first inquired.
Time after time after time I was eventually
told that I was transferred by officers of
the police department or by request of the
police department.
Q. So finally you got an answer to your
question?
A. Yes.
Q. And you were told that you were
transferred at the request of the Memphis
Police Department?
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A. That's right.
Q. Have you thought about this over all
these years?
A. Well, yes.
Q. Have you formed any opinion of your
own about why you were transferred?
A. Not really. I just know that it was
very unusual and unnecessary. So it had to
be done for some reason. I don't know the
reason.
Q. What happened to the other black fire
officer?
A. He was also detailed out. He was
detailed out on the 3rd. He was working the
3rd. I would have been working the 4th. He
was detailed out to the airport on the 3rd,
that night of the 3rd.
Q. So on the night of the 3rd he was
also detailed out?
A. That's right.
Q. So both black officers at this fire
station were removed from duty?
A. That's right. Not from duty but from
that engine house.
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Q. From duty at that station. I'm
sorry.
A. Right.
Q. On the day around the time of the
killing they were both absent?
A. Right.
MR. PEPPER: Thank you, Mr.
Newsom. No further questions.
CROSS-EXAMINATION
BY MR. GARRISON:
Q. Mr. Newsom, were you familiar with
the area behind the rooming house where there
is a lot of brush and trees growing back
there all the time you worked the fire
station, had you seen that, sir?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Okay. Had you ever seen any activity
in there of any one walking or any activity
in there where there appeared to be someone
was back there that you can recall?
A. In the trees?
Q. Yes, sir.
A. Not that I can remember.
Q. I believe you said now you resigned
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from the Memphis Fire Department in May of
1968?
A. That's right.
Q. And did this have anything to do with
your resignation, the fact that you had been
removed and you felt you had been wrongfully
removed, did it have anything to do with your
resignation?
A. The fact that I was wrongfully moved
didn't necessarily have anything to do with
it. What had something to do with it was
that due to the effects of Dr. King's
assassination, my wife got -- was ill, and
she at that time was working for
International Harvester. And the doctor at
International Harvester recommended that she
change sceneries.
So she -- they sent her to
California, which left me with two children
at home. I went and asked for a leave of
absence. I was denied the leave of absence.
So I chose to leave.
Q. You had to resign in order to do what
you wanted to do?
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A. Right. To do what I needed to do, to
do what my duty was to do.
Q. Who was the person -- was it
Commissioner Holloman over the fire and
police department?
A. That's right.
Q. At that time? Who denied your
request for a leave of absence? Do you know
who that person was?
A. Chief Hamilton.
MR. GARRISON: That's all.
THE COURT: Anything further.
MR. PEPPER: Yes. Just briefly,
Your Honor.
THE COURT: Go ahead.
REDIRECT EXAMINATION
BY MR. PEPPER:
Q. Mr. Newsom, were you involved at all
in any supportive activities of the
sanitation workers' strike?
A. Yes, sir, I was very active in the
sanitation workers' strike.
Q. What did you do? How did you attempt
to support the striking workers?
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A. Well, I'll tell you -- I attended
their meetings, supported them orally, also
acted as a monitor when they had different
demonstrations, et cetera, at which time I
was under surveillance, I guess by the Fire
Department, because they wrote reports on me
like every other day as to my whereabouts and
what I was doing.
Q. And those were surveillance reports
on you?
A. Yes.
Q. Is it fair to say that you were not
trusted by the police and fire authorities in
Memphis because of your activities?
A. I guess you could say that.
Q. Did anyone ever tell you that they
thought you were untrustworthy or unreliable?
A. No, sir.
Q. But there was no secret made of your
community activities?
A. No, sir. But I never was disciplined
for it.
Q. Would there have been any reason for
you to be disciplined for those activities?
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A. Well, if it was wrong, then I figured
I would have been.
Q. But you fulfilled all of your work
requirements as a fireman?
A. I did. I never was late during the
whole time I worked there.
Q. When did you return to active duty at
Fire Station Number 2?
A. I didn't.
Q. You never went back there?
A. (Nodding.) No, sir.
Q. So from the night of April 3rd when
you were told to go away to another station,
you never returned to that station?
A. No, sir.
MR. PEPPER: No further
questions. Thank you very much.
THE COURT: Mr. Garrison.
MR. GARRISON: Your Honor, I
have nothing further.
THE COURT: All right, sir. You
may stand down, Mr. Newsom. You are free to
leave or you can remain in the courtroom.
(Witness excused.)
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THE COURT: Anyone need to take
a comfort break? Mr. Garrison?
MR. GARRISON: I'm okay today,
Your Honor. I won't be the only one.
THE COURT: Me, too.
MR. PEPPER: Plaintiffs call
Chief Norville Wallace to the stand, please.
THE COURT: All right.
NORVILLE WALLACE
Having been first duly sworn, was examined
and testified as follows:
DIRECT EXAMINATION
BY MR. PEPPER:
Q. Good morning, Chief Wallace.
A. Good morning.
Q. Thank you for coming this morning.
Would you state your name and address for the
record, please.
A. Norville Wallace, 2365 Perry Road,
Memphis, Tennessee.
Q. Chief Wallace, you were employed by
the Memphis Fire Department for a number of
years. Is that true?
A. That's correct.
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Q. What do you presently do?
A. Loaf. Nothing.
Q. Wonderful occupation, Chief. How
long did you work for the Fire Department?
A. Thirty-seven years, six months.
Q. Thirty seven years and six months.
What did you do for the Fire Department and
what was your -- what ranks did you go
through?
A. I started out as a fire fighter, made
lieutenant, captain, investigator, deputy
fire marshal. When I left, I was assistant
fire marshal.
Q. Did you serve at a number of the
stations around Memphis?
A. Yes, several of them.
Q. Which were the ones you served at?
A. 8, 2, 24 and the Fire Prevention
Bureau.
Q. When, Chief Wallace, did you serve at
the 2's?
A. I first went there in 1966.
Q. How long were you there during that
period of time?
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A. I left November of 1968.
Q. So you were serving at the 2's at the
time of the assassination of Martin Luther
King?
A. That's right.
Q. Chief Wallace, would you just take a
look at this drawing here. Do you recognize
this area?
A. Oh, yes.
Q. Do you recognize Mulberry Street that
ran behind the fire station?
A. Uh-huh.
Q. South Main Street that ran in front
of it?
A. Right.
Q. Butler Avenue that ran to the south
of it and, of course, Huling Avenue at the
north end of this particular block?
A. Right.
Q. Is this, to your recollection and
current present recollection, is this where
the Fire Station Number 2 was located?
A. Yes.
Q. It backed onto Mulberry and
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overlooked the Lorraine Motel where Martin
Luther King was staying?
A. Right.
Q. Chief Wallace, were you on duty at
that fire station on the 4th of April, 1968?
A. Was that the day before?
Q. That was the day of the 4th when
Martin Luther King was assassinated?
A. I was on duty there until somewhere
around eight p.m. that afternoon.
Q. Were you -- you were on duty, but
were you in that station at that time?
A. Right.
Q. Were you at any time transferred out
of that station?
A. Yeah. About eight p.m. that night
I'm saying eight p.m. It was night.
Q. Were you transferred -- let's
understand this. Were you transferred out on
eight p.m. the night of the killing or the
night before the killing?
A. The night before.
Q. It was the night before the killing.
And how were you transferred, how did you
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receive your orders to be transferred out?
A. Well, I received them from my
captain. He said I was going to be detailed
to 33's, which is out at the airport. I
thought it was just for the rest of -- the
remainder of the day or night. That night we
had an airplane run off the runway out there,
and I thought somebody back in those days,
you make a run like that, somebody gets
suspended. So I thought I was filling in for
somebody that got suspended. But once I
got -- and it was raining hard. You couldn't
see to drive.
Q. This was the night of April 3rd?
A. Uh-huh.
Q. It was raining hard. You were told
by your captain to go out to the airport?
A. Engine 33.
Q. Sorry?
A. Engine 33.
Q. 33. Did he tell you this
face-to-face?
A. Yeah.
Q. So you were sent away?
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A. Right.
Q. Did that surprise you?
A. Well, not at the time it didn't. The
surprises came later.
Q. What were the surprises that came
later?
A. I ended up staying out there over a
month.
Q. Right.
A. I just had the uniform I left there
with, and the next day, well, I was told that
morning when I got off at seven a.m. to
report back there. So I left and was going
back to home base to pick up some uniforms,
and they wouldn't even let me off of Main
Street.
Q. Let me understand this. You were
told at seven a.m. the next morning --
A. To report back to 33's.
Q. -- to report back to the airport
station?
A. Right.
Q. And how did you get that message?
A. From the officer in charge of the
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piece of equipment there.
Q. Face-to-face?
A. Yes.
Q. Again you came in to go to work? I'm
trying to understand because you were on a
different shift. Did you actually report to
the 2's and were sent away again?
A. No. I just went to the 2's to get a
uniform.
Q. You just went there to get uniforms.
How did you actually learn that you were not
to report to the 2's on your shift but to go
back to the airport?
A. I learned that that morning of the
4th when I got off to come back the next
workday -- you know, it is an every-other-day
thing. The reason I went back to the 2's
was to get clean uniforms.
Q. Who told you not to come to the 2's?
A. The officer in charge of 33.
Q. The officer in charge of 33 told you
you were to report back out there and not go
to the 2's on April 4th?
A. That's right.
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Q. So then you went to get some clean
uniforms?
A. Yes.
Q. What happened?
A. They wouldn't let me go to the engine
house. They said couldn't anybody come up
there.
Q. What do you mean they wouldn't let
you go? What did you do? Did you come up to
the fire station?
A. No. I think I got stopped at Butler
and Main.
Q. Somebody stopped you here?
A. Uh-huh.
Q. This corner here. Who was it that
stopped you?
A. They had it blocked off. Police had
barricades and everything else.
Q. This is -- this was the next day you
were reporting to work?
A. Really that was the morning of the
4th.
Q. So you are saying on the morning of
the 4th that they had some --
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A. Well, it was the same day that Dr.
King was assassinated.
Q. They wouldn't let you into the
station?
A. They wouldn't let me up there to get
uniforms. They wouldn't even let me up the
street.
Q. Chief Wallace, did you ever ask what
this was all about?
A. Yes.
Q. What were you told?
A. Told that I had been threatened.
That was the reason I was out at the other
engine house.
Q. Oh, you were threatened?
A. Uh-huh.
Q. Why would you be threatened?
A. I don't know. Of course, I was
putting out fires, I guess.
Q. So there was a threat on your life.
I see. So they had to get you out of the
area?
A. I guess. That's what they done.
They got me out of the area.
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Q. How many black firemen were assigned
to Number 2?
A. Just two.
Q. You and --
A. Floyd Newsom on the other shift.
Q. Floyd Newsom. We're learning that
neither one of you were allowed to be on duty
on that day?
A. That's right.
Q. You never received a satisfactory
explanation?
A. No. Never did. Not to this day.
MR. PEPPER: Thank you, Chief
Wallace. No further questions.
CROSS-EXAMINATION
BY MR. GARRISON:
Q. Chief Wallace, you worked there at
this station how long, sir? How long were
you there altogether at this station?
A. About two years.
Q. Two years did you ever report back to
work there after the assassination of Dr.
King?
A. Oh, yeah.
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Q. You did report back?
A. Yeah.
Q. Are you familiar with the area behind
the rooming house that is raised up from the
street where there is a lot of trees and
bushes and things?
A. Right.
Q. Did you ever see anyone walking back
in there, any activity back there all the
time you worked there?
A. When are you talking about?
Q. Any time during the time of the
assassination did you ever see anyone walking
back in that area?
A. Yeah.
Q. Okay. More than once?
A. Well, I'll put it like this: If it
was ninety-nine policemen on duty,
ninety-eight of them was out in that area.
Q. In that brush area?
A. In the area, in the engine house, all
up and down that fence there. That fence had
a tree line that would separate the city
property from the area over there which had
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heavy equipment parked in there.
Q. This area on the map where it shows
behind the rooming house where it shows the
shaded area, that's the tree area. You saw
police officers all in there?
A. They was all parked over there
looking on the ground and everything.
MR. GARRISON: Okay. Thank
you, sir.
MR. PEPPER: No further
questions, Your Honor. Thank you, Chief
Wallace.
THE COURT: Chief, I want to be
sure that I understand your testimony.
THE WITNESS: Yes, sir.
THE COURT: Are you saying that
Main Street was blocked off the morning of
the day that Dr. King was killed.
THE WITNESS: No, no.
THE COURT: Oh.
THE WITNESS: It was blocked off
afterwards. I tried to get up there to get a
uniform so I could have something clean to
wear to work the next day.
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THE COURT: So this was the day
after Dr. King was killed.
THE WITNESS: It was after,
because I was in my car when I heard the
news. I just made an effort to get by there
to get some uniforms before the time to go to
work the next morning. So it was in the
afternoon late.
THE COURT: But it was the day
after he was killed.
THE WITNESS: Right.
MR. PEPPER: Your Honor has
raised an interesting point of clarification.
May I ask a further question?
THE COURT: Yes.
REDIRECT EXAMINATION
BY MR. PEPPER:
Q. Chief, Your Honor is clarifying your
testimony. It is a very important point.
What time would you have reported for work on
the afternoon of the 4th? What time did your
shift start?
A. I wouldn't have reported on the 4th.
Q. You were off on the 4th?
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A. I worked the 3rd. So that would mean
I would have reported back to work on the
5th.
Q. So you worked the 3rd --
A. Mr. Newsom would have worked the 4th.
Q. Mr. Newsom would have worked the 4th?
A. Uh-huh.
Q. You would have reported back on the
5th. But you came by sometime in the evening
of the 4th after the assassination to get
your clothing?
A. Right.
Q. You weren't allowed anywhere into
that area?
A. Right.
Q. And then on the 5th when you were to
return to work you were told not to go back
to your regular base, Number 2?
A. I was told that the morning of the
4th, though.
Q. You were told that on the 4th, that
you were not going to be allowed back there?
A. Right.
Q. How long had you served at Number 2
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in uninterrupted fashion to that point?
A. Well, my total time at the 2's was
roughly two years. I went there in 1966.
That was when the Fire Department first
integrated. I left November -- I made
lieutenant in November of 1968 and I left and
was assigned elsewhere.
Q. When did you eventually go back to
Number 2?
A. About thirty days after the --
Q. You stayed out there for a month?
A. Uh-huh.
Q. Were you surplused to requirements at
that other station?
A. Do what now?
Q. Were you surplused to requirements?
Were you needed at the other station?
A. No.
Q. You weren't needed?
A. No. I was just an extra man.
Q. You were an extra man.
MR. PEPPER: No further
questions.
THE COURT: Mr. Garrison.
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MR. GARRISON: Your Honor, I
have nothing further.
THE COURT: All right. Then you
may stand down, sir. You can remain in the
courtroom or you are free to leave. You
should not discuss your testimony with the
news media or anyone else.
THE WITNESS: Okay.
THE COURT: Let's take about
fifteen minutes.
(Jury out.)
(Short recess.)
THE COURT: Bring the jury out,
Mr. James.
(Jury in.)
THE COURT: You may call your
next witness, Mr. Pepper.
MR. PEPPER: Yes, Your Honor.
Plaintiffs call Mr. Leon Cohen.
LEON COHEN
Having been first duly sworn, was examined
and testified as follows:
DIRECT EXAMINATION
BY MR. PEPPER:
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Q. Good afternoon, Mr. Cohen.
A. Good afternoon.
Q. Thank you for coming down here today.
A. You are welcome.
Q. If you have any difficult any hearing
me, would you please signify that so I can
come closer.
A. I certainly will. Thank you.
Q. Would you state your name and address
for the record, please.
A. Leon Cohen. I reside at 1859 Poplar
Pines Drive, Number 201, Memphis, 38119.
THE COURT: Would you please
spell your last name?
THE WITNESS: C O H E N.
THE COURT: Thank you, sir.
Q. (BY MR. PEPPER) Mr. Cohen, how long
you have lived in the City of Memphis?
A. Just under thirty years.
Q. Where did you live before that?
A. New York City.
Q. What did you do in New York City?
A. I was a member of the New York City
Police Department. For twenty-three years.
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Q. Did you retire from your position?
A. Yes, I did.
Q. When did you retire?
A. In 1965.
Q. And when did you come to Memphis?
A. Shortly thereafter.
Q. So you've been in Memphis sometime
since 1965 to the present?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. It has been your home?
A. Yes.
Q. And when you came to Memphis, was it
strictly as a retiree or did you become
engaged in any activity?
A. For a short time I worked as a
special deputy at Juvenile Court. Later on I
became director of security at Baptist
Hospital in Memphis.
Q. What year would you have become
director of security at Baptist Hospital?
A. I believe that was early in the
1970's.
Q. And what do you do today?
A. I'm fully retired.
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Q. Now, in 1968 or before 1968 did you
come to know a man named Walter Bailey?
A. Yes, I did.
Q. How did you come to meet Mr. Bailey?
A. I was associated with another lad in
the food business, and Mr. Bailey used to
come to our market and make purchases for the
motel. I got to know him very well.
Q. How often would you say you saw
Mr. Bailey in an average week or month?
A. Two or three times a week.
Q. And you became quite friendly with
him?
A. Yes, I did.
Q. And also with his wife?
A. No. Not his wife. I don't know his
wife. I met her on several occasions but did
not know her that well. Not as well as
Walter Bailey.
Q. Right. What did Mr. Bailey do for a
living in 1968?
A. He was the owner and the manager of
the Lorraine Motel.
Q. The Lorraine Motel, is that the same
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motel which Martin Luther King came to stay
in Memphis on April 3rd, 1968?
A. That's correct.
Q. Were you familiar with the fact that
Dr. King was coming to Memphis at that time?
A. No. I was not.
Q. When did you learn that Dr. King was
in Memphis?
A. I was on my way back from Nashville
when I heard the news on the radio about his
assassination. That's the first I knew of
him being in Memphis.
Q. That would have been on the 4th of
April that you heard this news?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. When did you next see Mr. Walter
Bailey?
A. The very next morning.
Q. On the 5th of April you went to see
him?
A. No. I went to take -- to look over
the scene at the Lorraine Motel, and I took
some photographs while there. After I had
taken photographs, I ran into Mr. Bailey.
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Q. What time of the morning would that
have been?
A. Between eight and nine a.m., as I
best recall.
Q. So it was quite early in the morning?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Actually where did you go to look
over this scene? Where were you? What was
your path?
A. Well, I first went to the rooming
house where the alleged shots had been fired
and took some photographs from the lavatory
of the rooming house aiming towards the
Lorraine Motel. Then I went down and took
photographs of the Lorraine Motel and
vicinity. At that time I ran into
Mr. Bailey.
Q. And where did you meet Mr. Bailey?
A. Right outside his office.
Q. At the Lorraine Motel?
A. At the Lorraine Motel.
Q. Did you have a conversation with him?
A. Yes, sir, I did.
Q. And what -- how did you perceive him
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at that time? Was he upset? How did you
view him?
A. Well, he seemed visibly upset about
the occurrence.
Q. Did you ask him any questions about
the incident?
A. I mentioned the terrible occurrence.
He said in response, if they had listened to
me, this wouldn't have happened. And he went
on to explain that the previous night, he got
a call from a member of Dr. King's group in
Atlanta who wanted him to change the location
of the room where Dr. King would be staying.
And he was adamantly against that because he
had provided security by the inner court for
Dr. King, Dr. King's room.
Q. Where did he want Dr. King to stay in
his motel?
A. There was an inner court behind the
office which had very good security. In
other words, it was not exposed to public
view. Per se.
Q. Right. Do you know if that would
have been Room 201?
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A. Pardon?
Q. Do you recall the number of that
room?
A. No, I don't.
Q. But it was in an inner court area?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. And, instead, where did Mr. Bailey
say he was being instructed to move Dr. King?
A. The room -- I don't recall the room
number, but the room which Dr. King had
occupied that night, that's the room that
they wanted him to occupy.
Q. A balcony room?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. For the record, that was Room 306,
that balcony room. So Bailey said he was
instructed to move Martin King from room --
well, you didn't know the number, but from a
courtyard room to a balcony room?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Did he say he opposed that?
A. He adamantly opposed it.
Q. Did he say who in Dr. King's
organization wanted him placed in that
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exposed balcony room?
A. He just mentioned that a member of
Dr. King's group had told him, advised him,
he wanted the room changed. He said he knew
the person, but I did not question him as to
who it was or his name or pedigree or
whatever.
Q. Did he indicate, when he spoke to
you, if you can reflect very carefully, Mr.
Cohen, did he use the pronoun "he" or "she"?
A. He used the pronoun "he."
Q. So some male member of Dr. King's
Atlanta office instructed the room change?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Once again, when did he receive that
instruction?
A. He said the previous night that Dr.
King was supposed to stay there.
Q. Prior to the arrival?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Just moving on, when you were down in
that area early that morning, did you then or
had you previously had an opportunity or
occasion to look at the area behind the
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rooming house?
A. No. No, that was the first and last
occasion.
Q. Did you look at the area that
morning?
A. After the assassination, yes, sir, I
did.
Q. How did it appear to you?
A. Which area are you referring to?
Q. I'm referring to the area behind the
rooming house above the wall on Mulberry
Street. I could show you -- we have -- can
you see this?
A. No, I can't.
MR. GARRISON: It probably
should be marked an exhibit. I don't think
it has been marked as an exhibit.
THE COURT: That's right. I
intended to do so. Let's make that Exhibit
1.
(The above-mentioned diagram was
marked Exhibit 1.)
Q. (BY MR. PEPPER) I'm asking you about
this area here that is above the wall. There
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is a wall here on Mulberry Street. I'm
asking you about this area which is behind
the rooming house.
A. Uh-huh.
Q. The rooming house has two wings.
There is an alleyway. This is vacant area
fenced in. I'm asking you about this. I
just wondered if you had a chance to look at
this.
A. Yes, I did, that very same morning I
had taken the photographs.
Q. And how did it appear to you? What
did you see?
A. Well, it was kind of dense with
underbrush.
Q. Dense with underbrush?
A. As a matter of fact, I went to the
room which James Earl Ray had occupied and
looked out the window which overlooks the
alley and looked out the window intending to
take some photographs, but I never did
because they wouldn't have shown anything
outside of the underbrush.
Q. So it was thick underbrush is what
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you are saying?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Okay.
MR. PEPPER: Thank you,
Mr. Cohen. No further questions.
THE WITNESS: You are welcome.
MR. GARRISON: Your Honor, I
don't have any questions of Mr. Cohen.
THE COURT: All right, sir. You
may stand down. You can remain in the
courtroom or you are free to leave. I ask
you not to discuss your testimony with anyone
outside the courtroom.
(Witness excused)
MS. ATKINS-HILL: With Your
Honor's approval, we would like to read the
sworn statement of James McCraw. Mr. McCraw
is now deceased. He was deposed on October
22nd.
THE COURT: How lengthy is it?
MS. ATKINS-HILL: Your Honor, I
only want to read experts from it. Actually,
it is thirty pages.
THE COURT: Thirty pages. But
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you are not going to read it in content?
MS. ATKINS-HILL: No, Your
Honor.
THE COURT: Okay. Let's go with
it.
MS. ATKINS-HILL: Question, by
Attorney Pepper --
THE COURT: Ladies and
gentlemen, I explained to you before that
this is what we call a deposition, which is
testimony taken before the trial. It was
sworn to at the time that it was given, so
you many accept this as if that testimony
were being given in the courtroom at this
time.
Go ahead.
MS. ATKINS-HILL: Thank you,
your Honor.
Question: You were employed by a
taxi company at the time?
Answer: Yes, Yellow Cab Company.
Question: How long had you been
driving for the Yellow Cab Company?
Answer: You got me. I drove for
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Yellow for forty-one years.
THE COURT: Would you please
identify your page and lines as you go.
MS. ATKINS-HILL: Page 3, your
Honor, line 25.
THE COURT: All right. Go
ahead.
MS. ATKINS-HILL: Where were you
born, Mr. McCraw?
Answer, top of page 4: Alabama.
Question: How long have you lived
in Memphis, Tennessee?
Answer: Ever since 1945.
Line 8, question: Right. Were you
in the armed services during the Second World
War?
Answer: I was in the Air Force. I
was on Guam and Saipan.
Line 15 -- line 13, question: How
many years were you in the service?
Answer: About five years.
Question: When were you discharged?
Answer: 1945.
Question: What was the nature of
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your discharge?
Answer: Honorable discharge.
Question: What did you do for a
living during those years -- let me back up.
Line 20, question: After the war, you then
settled in Memphis, did you?
Answer: Wound up here in 1946.
Question: What did you do for a
living during those years?
Answer: I drove a taxicab.
Top of page 5, line 1, question: So
you have been a taxicab driver for a good
number of years previous to the time in
question?
Answer: Yes.
Question: Now, on April the 4th,
1968, you were driving a cab and did you
receive a call to pick up a passenger at 422
and one half South Main Street?
Answer: I sure did, old Charlie
Stephens.
Question, line 10: You received a
call to pick up one Charles Stephens at 422
and a half South Main. What time of day did
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you receive this assignment?
Answer: I don't really remember,
but it wasn't more than a few minutes before
Martin Luther King got shot.
Question, line 19: So it was
sometime before six p.m. on Thursday, April
the 4th?
Answer: That's right.
Question: Would you say it was
sometime before a quarter to six or was it
after a quarter to six?
Answer: It was after a quarter to
six.
Question: It was after a quarter to
six?
Answer, top of page 6: That was
when left to get old Charlie and got to Main
and it had come over the radio that Martin
Luther King had been shot and I should stay
out of there.
Mr. Herman, who was the interpreter
at the time -- Mr. McCraw had a voice
box. Mr. Herman: It came over the radio
that Martin Luther King had got shot and stay
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out of there.
Question: About what time did
you -- you actually parked your car in front
of the rooming house where Charlie Stephen
was living sometime after a quarter to six or
before six. Is that right?
Answer: That's right.
Question: Where did you park your
car?
Answer: Right out in front of it.
And I was double parked.
Question: Right out in front of the
rooming house and you were double parked?
Answer: The witness nodding
affirmatively.
Question: Right. What did you do
then.
Answer: I went upstairs to
Charlie's room, and he was too drunk to get
up. I turned the light off and left. I got
in my cab.
Question: Let's go question and
answer, question and answer, as best we can.
You went upstairs to Charlie Stephens' room?
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The top of page 7.
Answer: Right.
Question: Do you recall which room
this was?
Answer: Well, it was the last room
back on the right right next to the
restroom. I don't remember the number.
Question: Right. Which stairway
did you go up? There were two stairways into
the rooming house.
Answer: Well, I went up the one
right beside the restroom and went upstairs.
That door stays open all night.
Question: When you went up the
stairway to approach Mr. Stephens' room, did
you notice the bathroom?
Answer: Yeah, it was right next
door to his room.
Question: Was the bathroom door
open or closed?
Answer: It was standing wide open.
Question: The bathroom door was
standing wide open and this again was
sometime just prior to six o'clock?
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Answer: That's right.
Question: Was there anyone in the
bathroom?
Answer: No.
Question: Was the light on so far
as you can remember? If you can't --
Answer: I don't remember.
Question: But you are stating that
the bathroom door was wide open?
Answer: Bathroom was wide open.
Question: No one was inside?
Answer: I sure didn't see nobody.
Mr. Herman: The doors went out
toward the hallway.
Question: Did you knock on Charlie
Stephens' door?
Answer: I knocked on the door and
somebody said, come in. I opened the door,
and he was laying on the bed too drunk to get
up.
Question: He was lying on the bed
and he was drunk, he couldn't get up?
Answer: That's right.
Question: Did he say anything to
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you?
Answer: No. I just said, I ain't
going to haul you.
Line 19, question: Did you see
anyone else in the room?
Answer: Yeah, his girlfriend was at
the foot of the bed, and she was drunk, too.
Top of page 9, line 3.
Question: So what did you do then?
I just turned around and left.
Question: Did you go down the same
stairway that you came up?
Answer: I went down them and walked
outside and got in my car and drove.
Question: Did you notice the
bathroom on your way out?
Answer: Well, the door was still
open.
Question: The door was still open?
You are quite certain of that?
Answer: Yeah, I'm quite sure of it.
Question: Right. Mr. McCraw, when
you were going into the rooming house to
ascend the stairs to pick up Charlie
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Stephens, did you notice any automobiles
parked in front?
Answer: Yeah, Loyd Jowers' car was
parked in front.
Mr. Herman: Loyd Jowers' car?
Answer: And then there was two
Mustangs.
Question: Two Mustangs?
Answer: And a gray truck was parked
there.
Mr. Herman: Gray truck.
Question by Dr. Pepper. It must
have been some sort of delivery truck.
Question: Top of page 10. When you
were leaving and you were returning to your
car, did you notice whether or not a Mustang
was -- had gone, had departed?
Answer: I don't remember whether
both of them was there or not.
Page 11, line 3.
Now, what did you do when you got
into your car? I made an U-turn. I told the
dispatcher I wouldn't haul him, he was too
drunk.
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Mr. Herman: I made an U-turn, I
told the dispatcher I wouldn't haul him
because he was too drunk.
Answer: And they tried to give me
another order over in River Bluff, and I got
to Main and Calhoun when they come over the
radio that Martin Luther King had just got
shot. I was to stay out of that area.
Question: How long after you made
your U-turn and headed away from the rooming
house did you hear this bulletin?
Answer: It couldn't have been over
three minutes or four. It might have been --
Mr. Herman: Say it again.
The witness: It probably wasn't
over -- it couldn't have been over four
minutes. It couldn't have been that long of
a time. It might have been about two or
three minutes.
Page 12, line 2.
Question: So how many minutes would
it have been in your view from the time that
you actually left the rooming house until you
heard the bulletin?
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Answer: About four minutes.
Question: About four minutes. What
did you do then?
Answer: Well, I just turned right
on Calhoun and went on over to River Bluff
and picked up my passenger and come back to
the bus -- I tried to get to the bus station,
but I couldn't get in there because there was
traffic stopped ever which way.
Question: Right, Mr. McCraw. Let's
move ahead to the next day. What time were
you due to start work the next day?
Answer: Two o'clock.
Question: This is now Friday, April
the 5th. Is that right?
Answer: That's right.
Question: And prior to going to
work, what did you do?
Answer: I was at Jim's Grill.
Line 25, question: So you went to
Jim's Grill?
Page 13.
Answer: To have a couple of beers.
Question: What time?
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Answer: Twelve o'clock.
Question: Around twelve o'clock
prior to going to work?
Answer: I went to work at two
o'clock.
Question: Who was in Jim's Grill at
that time?
Answer: I don't really know. I
know Loyd Jowers was behind the bar.
Question: Loyd Jowers?
Answer: Was behind the bar, was
behind the counter.
Question: Was behind the counter?
Answer: Witness nodding
affirmatively.
Question: Where did you stand or
sit in the grill.
Answer: Right in the corner of the
grill.
Then it became inaudible.
Did you have a conversation with
Loyd Jowers?
Answer: Yeah, he showed me the box
the gun was in and showed me the gun. He put
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it back under the counter.
Question: He showed you a box that
a gun was in?
Answer: Yeah.
Question: Where was he keeping
this?
Answer: In under the counter.
Question: Under the counter?
Actually, right underneath on a shelf
underneath the counter?
Answer: Yeah.
Question: Did you take the lid off
of the box so that you could see that a gun
was in it?
Answer: Yeah, he showed me the
gun.
Question: Did he physically take it
out from under the counter to show it to
you?
Answer: He take it right out to the
edge of the counter and opened the lid up on
it.
Question: He took it right out to
the edge of the counter and opened the lid.
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So you have no question what you saw?
Answer: No, I sure don't.
Question: What did Mr. Jowers do
with this gun event actually? Answer he took
it to the police.
Question: How do you know he turned
it over to the police?
Answer: He told me, and I believed
him.
Question: He told you he turned it
over to the police. When did he tell you
that he turned it over to the police?
Answer: That night.
Question: That evening?
Answer: When I come back in about
six or seven o'clock, he told me.
Page 15.
Question: So your statement is that
you came back in around -- sometime between
six and seven o'clock and he was still there?
Answer: Oh, yeah. He stayed there
all night.
Question: And he told you that he
had turned this gun over to the police?
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Answer: That's right.
Line 10.
Question: Did you ever discuss the
existence of this gun again with Mr. Jowers?
Answer: Well, he said -- he told me
a couple of times that he was scared. He
said he wished he would have kept it.
Page 18, line 9.
Question: You told the Memphis
Police Department investigators -- you told
Memphis Police Department detectives and you
told the FBI about the existence of this
gun?
Answer: I did.
Question: And you told the Justice
Department investigators about the existence
of this weapon?
Answer: I sure did.
Question: And what have --
individually what have they said to you about
this?
Answer: Nothing much. All they
said was that I shouldn't be talking to
people about it and all that kind of crap.
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Mr. Herman: They told me that I
shouldn't be talking to people about it and
all that kind of crap.
Page 19, line 7.
After the guilty plea proceedings
against James Earl Ray, were you contacted
again by Memphis Police Department, Attorney
General's investigators, FBI or anyone else?
Answer: Oh, yeah, but it went on
for two years.
Question: It went on for two
years? Who used to contact you after this?
Answer: I forget the names, but it
was the Justice Department, FBI, police
department.
Line 23.
Yes, but did the FBI specifically
interview you other times after James' guilty
plea?
Page 20.
Answer: Oh, yes.
Question: What did they say to you
during these interviews?
Answer: They just asked me the same
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old questions all the time.
Line 8.
Question: Did they ask you about
the gun?
Answer: They asked me everything.
Question: Did they advise you not
to speak with anyone else?
Answer: They told me not to, but I
didn't pay them no attention.
Line 18.
Question: And how long did this go
on after James Earl Ray's guilty plea?
Answer: Two or three, four years.
Every time there was a trial or something or
started to have a trial here, they would
come.
Page 21, line 9.
Question: Would they come out to
visit you at your home?
Answer: That's the only place where
they could catch me. They would tell me at
the cab company they was looking for me. I
said, bye, I'm gone. I worked for myself,
they couldn't find me.
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Line 18.
Question: Mr. McCraw, do you know
the names of the FBI agents who would come
out to visit you?
Answer: No. All I know is they was
out of Washington.
Question: They were out of
Washington? You don't know any of the agents
from the local office who would come to visit
you?
Answer: Well, I don't remember his
name, but me and him were -- (Inaudible) him
pretty good. He was always begging me for
information. I said, man, I don't know
nothing.
Line 5, the witness: The one, the
FBI, the one that was over the FBI here.
Mr. Herman: The one that was over
the FBI here?
Line 9, Dr. Pepper: Jenson.
Question: Do you recall the name of
Jenson?
Line 12.
Answer: That sounds awful
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familiar.
Question: Mr. McCraw, as we
conclude, I'm going to just simply ask you
some very specific questions just for the
purpose of clarification of what you observed
on the date of April the 4th, 1968.
When you approached Charles
Stephens' room to pick him up that day, your
statement is that the bathroom door was
open. Is that right?
Answer: That's right.
Question: And that the bathroom was
unoccupied. Is that right?
Answer: There was nobody in it.
Question: There was nobody in it?
Answer: Right.
Question: And that when you saw
Charles Stephens, it is your view that he was
lying on the bed and appeared to be
intoxicated?
Page 23, line 2.
Answer: He was drunk before I ever
went to him.
Question: On this basis you decided
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not to haul him?
Answer: That's right. When he
couldn't get up and walk out of that room, I
knowed (sic) I wasn't hauling him.
Question: Right. Had you ever
driven him before when he was drunk?
Answer: Many times.
Question: On those occasions was he
as drunk as he was that day?
Answer: No.
Question: Right. Now, the next day
when you went into Loyd Jowers' Jim's Grill
sometime around noon and you went up to the
bar and you were conversing with him in that
bar, your statement is that Loyd Jowers
pulled a box out from under the counter,
lifted the lid and showed you a weapon. Is
that right?
Answer: That's right.
Question: The weapon was a rifle?
Answer: It was a rifle.
Question: Did it have a telescopic
sight on it or do you recall?
Answer: It was laying on the side.
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It wasn't on it, but it was in the box.
Top of page 24, line 4.
Question: It wasn't on it but it
was in the box?
Answer: Yeah.
Line 13.
Question: This was within a very
few minutes of you having noticed the
bathroom being empty?
Answer: Three or four minutes.
Question: Three or four minutes you
noticed the bathroom previously, the bathroom
had been empty?
Answer: (Witness nodding
affirmatively.)
MS. ATKINS-HILL: That's the end
of the excerpts.
THE COURT: We're going to take
our lunch break and resume at two o'clock,
ladies and gentlemen.
(Jury out.)
(Lunch recess.)
THE COURT: Bring the jury out,
please, sir.
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THE SHERIFF: Yes, sir.
(Jury in.)
THE COURT: All right. You may
call your next witness, Mr. Pepper.
MR. PEPPER: Yes, Your Honor.
Your Honor, the plaintiffs call Captain Jerry
Williams. Captain Jerry Williams.
Let's call Lieutenant Ed Redditt.
EDWARD E. REDDITT
Having been first duly sworn, was examined
and testified as follows:
DIRECT EXAMINATION
BY MR. PEPPER:
Q. Good afternoon, Detective Redditt.
A. Good afternoon.
Q. Thank you very much for coming here
this afternoon. It is a pleasure to see you
every few years. Would you state your name
and address for the record, please.
A. My name is Edward E. Redditt, 370
Evergreen, Somerville, Tennessee.
Q. Detective Redditt, what do you
presently do for a living?
A. As part of my volunteerism, I'm the
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head high school track and field and
cross-country coach for boys and girls and
elementary school.
Q. Is that a full-time professional
activity for you?
A. Full-time, and I enjoy every bit of
it.
Q. And how long have you lived up in
Fayette County?
A. Since 1986.
Q. Before that where did you reside?
A. I resided in Bartlett.
Q. Is there a time when you were
employed by the Memphis Police Department?
A. 1593 South Wellington.
Q. How long did you serve as an officer
with the Memphis Police Department?
A. Ten and a half years.
Q. Can you tell us the various positions
that you held in the department from the time
that you entered until the time that you
left?
A. I worked as one of the first persons
in the detention area. I worked as a desk
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lieutenant. I worked in various special
units, such as vice squad, homicide,
burglary, also working in the areas of the
sanitation department, working to find out
what was going on there, from that to the
juvenile bureau, from that to the police
community relations.
Q. When did you become a police
community relations officer?
A. 1965.
Q. Were you still a police community
relations officer in 1968 at the time of the
assassination of Martin Luther King?
A. Yes.
Q. As a police community relations
officer, what were your duties?
A. Well, when we started there, there
was nothing written about it, so we was to
develop our own methods and ways of dealing
with the community. Our idea was how do we
get the community to be responsive and
understand the police workings.
I had a center at 1310 Florida
Street where I worked the kids and we
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designed the first daycare center that met
all the qualifications for community health
and library and what MIFA is today, getting
food from various entities.
Q. At the time of the sanitation
workers' strike, what -- were you still
working with the community? Were you still
involved with the community? How did you
relate to the events that were going on then?
A. Well, I was somewhat pulled out to
kind of survey or serve -- I call it
surveillance. I was given kind of carte
blanche to do what I thought was necessary.
I think the whole background idea was to
observe or to find out anyone who may be
coming into the city to disrupt it.
One incident, Chief MacDonald asked
me to be sure to watch for a number of
out-of-town license plates, because
Chattanooga was known for dynamiting and this
type thing.
Q. Were you actually secunded to the
intelligence bureau at that point in time?
A. I guess I was kind of if you want to
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call it TDY to that entity.
Q. Right. You were assigned to
intelligence department duties?
A. Right.
Q. Did that give you any problems with
the relationships you had in the community,
because you were working with the community
and now moving into more or less
intelligence, surveillance activities?
A. I didn't see any conflict. Everybody
knew me and I knew everybody. So there was
no conflict. Again, the role that I viewed
was, one, trying to again protect the
community against anything that may be
occurring to disrupt anything.
Q. What was your actual rank at this
time?
A. I was still a detective.
Q. You were a detective. Did there come
a time when you were assigned to a specific
detail, a surveillance detail, at the fire
station, Fire Station Number 2, on South Main
Street, between South Main and Mulberry
Street?
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A. Originally it wasn't an assignment.
It was one that I decided upon and that I had
noticed something that was unusual once upon
arriving at the Lorraine with Dr. King.
If I may continue, Inspector Smith
was in charge of security. When he asked me,
he said, well, you may go now. I noticed
there was nobody else there. In the past
when we were assigned to Dr. King, we stayed
with him, guarded him up the steps, down the
steps, and stayed with him. I saw nobody
with him.
So I went across the street and
asked the Fire Department could we come in
and observe from the rear, which we did.
Q. Who accompanied you in that --
A. Willie B. Richmond.
Q. What was his rank at that time?
A. As far as I know, patrolman.
Q. Which section of the department -- to
which section was he assigned? Where did he
work?
A. He was assigned with me at the time.
I didn't know where he came from.
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Q. So he worked with you. You didn't
know if he was from the intelligence section
or not?
A. No.
Q. So the two of you conducted this
oversight, this surveillance activity, of the
Lorraine Motel?
A. Yes.
Q. When did you take up your positions
there?
A. That was the same afternoon that we
had brought Dr. King in.
Q. That would have been the 3rd of
April?
A. Right.
Q. So you took up position in the fire
station on the 3rd of April and from the rear
of the fire station you were able to see the
Lorraine Motel quite clearly?
A. Right.
Q. Do you recall how late you worked on
that afternoon?
A. I really don't, no, sir.
Q. At some point, though, at the end of
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the day and the early evening was the
surveillance discontinued?
A. Yes.
Q. Did you return with officer Richmond
the next day?
A. The next day we returned.
Q. At what time did you start your
surveillance activities the next day?
A. I don't recall the time. It was
early, I'm sure. I don't know exactly.
Q. You started in the morning?
A. Oh, yes.
Q. In the course of that surveillance,
did you notice anything unusual going on over
at the Lorraine?
A. On one occasion again, I don't know
what day or what time it was, we saw the
Invaders leaving one of the rooms on one
occasion. We recognized Reverend Orange
going in at one time.
Q. You saw various activity happening or
taking place?
A. Right.
Q. Do you recall if there were any
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out-of-state license plates?
A. The only one that I recognized was
the one that Reverend Orange was driving.
Q. Okay. How long did you remain on
duty in the course of that day?
A. As far as time goes, I really
don't --
Q. It is hard to reconstruct that, isn't
it? But fairly late in that afternoon is it
fair to say your activities were called to a
halt? You were removed from your -- is that
fair too say that you were removed at some
point fairly late in the afternoon?
A. Yes.
Q. Would you describe how that came
about, just how you were removed and did you
have any advance notice of it or what
happened?
A. Well, that morning I received a phone
call on the pay phone in the fire station,
and the voice on the other end was saying
that we're going to kill you. That's about
the size of that. I'd go back to where I
was. Later on that day Lieutenant Arkin came
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by and stated I was needed at the
headquarters. I said, for what? He said,
well, director wants to see you.
Q. So late in the afternoon Lieutenant
Arkin from the intelligence division came by
the fire station?
A. Came down to get me.
Q. He came down to get you?
A. Right.
Q. He said you are needed down at
central headquarters?
A. Right.
Q. Did you have threats on your life
from time to time?
A. That's part of a policeman's job.
Q. Did you take them seriously?
A. Not really. If you do, you need to
resign. That's the way I felt.
Q. So it wasn't that unusual that you
would get that kind of -- have that kind of
threat?
A. Nothing unusual.
Q. Okay. Now, who was with Lieutenant
Arkin when he carried you down to central
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headquarters?
A. He was alone.
Q. He was alone. Was he an officer to
whom you reported on a regular basis from
this assignment, as a result of this
assignment?
A. He wasn't one of the ones I would
directly report to. He worked in
intelligence.
Q. Okay. When you got down to central
headquarters, where did you go?
A. We went to the conference room.
Q. And who was in the conference room?
A. There were a group of men, I would
assume many of them law enforcement. Once we
arrived and got inside, Director Holloman
stated that there was a man there who had
just flown in and there was a contract on my
life and that they had prepared to send my
family to safety and that I was to go home.
At that point I told him that -- he knew as
well as I did that you couldn't stop a
contract and it was best for me to go back to
where I was and take care of my family.
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Q. What did Director Holloman say to
that?
A. We had a brief argumentation. He
said, well, you going home anyway, it is my
job to protect you, so, Lieutenant Arkin,
take him home.
Q. He didn't want to hear about your
objections?
A. No.
Q. Reflect carefully, Detective Redditt,
if you can. Who were the -- how many people
were in that conference room and what was the
nature of their positions, so far as you
could see?
A. When you get the word that someone
has a contract on you, you probably lose all
visions of what is going on around you. You
only know the room is full. In fact, I can't
even remember the face of the guy that was
standing there. I know he had on a checkered
coat and dark hair. That's about the only
thing I can remember about the guy that was
supposed to have flown in at that point.
Q. The man who relayed the information?
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A. Right.
Q. But beyond him did you notice any
military personnel in that room?
A. Well, if there was, they were not in
uniform. But the room was full.
Q. How do you know they were Army
personnel?
A. I said they may have been. They
wasn't in uniform. They may have been in the
room.
Q. Okay. Do you recall who the person
was who conveyed this threat, the information
about the threat on you?
A. I probably would if I heard the name
again. At that time I kind of -- like I say,
I lost all vision and my mind was wondering
about -- more so about my family than
anything else that the point.
Q. Did you learn where the threat came
from, where this information came from?
A. A couple of years ago.
Q. Now, would this person who conveyed
the threat, was he a local person?
A. I never seen him before. They say he
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had flown in from the Washington D.C. and
said he was from the Secret Service Division.
Q. He had flown in from Washington and
he was from the Secret Service Division. He
was the one who told -- brought the
information about the threat on your life?
A. Right.
Q. The reason why they removed you?
A. That's correct.
Q. If I advice you that the records have
indicated that the person was a man named
Phillip Manuel, would that name ring a bell
with you?
A. Manual sounds familiar.
Q. What happened next?
A. We proceeded to my home in his
cruiser. I was waiting for the arrival of
those persons who were supposed to be my
security. While waiting there, the radio
blasted that Dr. King had been shot. I
jumped out of the car and ran in the house,
because my mother-in-law was in the bed sick
and I didn't want her to hear the news.
As I got inside the house, she
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screamed out, Lord, take me, don't take Dr.
King, because we had forgot she had a small
transistor radio under her pillow. In fact,
she died a week later.
Q. Who was sitting in the car with you
at the time?
A. Lieutenant Arkin.
Q. By himself?
A. By himself.
Q. Had you just pulled up when the
news --
A. We had been there a brief time while
we was waiting on the guys to come.
Q. You had been there for a brief time
and were just waiting. What happened about
this threat? Did you go back to work?
A. I called about every hour to come
back to work. Thursday, Friday, Saturday.
Finally Sunday they said you can come on
back. I never heard anything else about it.
Q. You never heard anything else about
the threat?
A. No.
Q. No one ever mentioned it to you
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again?
A. Not again until two years ago.
Q. But did you ever question officially
anyone about this threat?
A. No. Someone mentioned, oh, it wasn't
you anyone, it was somebody in Knoxville,
Tennessee, that they had a contract on.
Q. It wasn't you, it was a mistaken
identity?
A. Right.
Q. It was someone in Knoxville,
Tennessee?
A. Then I heard again it was somebody in
St. Louis.
Q. Now, detective, you've had a lot of
years to think about this. Have you formed
any opinion about your removal from your post
on that afternoon of the murder?
A. Well, yes. I had a doubt about my
partner in the first place. It is unusual
getting somebody that you don't know anything
about to be assigned to you.
Number two, in that day there was
two men always worked together. Whatever
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happened to one man would happen to the
other. So if you got a threat, both partners
got a threat.
I always wondered what happened to
him, why wasn't he removed, why wasn't he
taken a long with me. I never got that
answer. That has bothered me. Again, I felt
very strongly.
In fact, I told a couple of friends
of mine during that time that he was there to
spy on me in the first place.
Q. I see. Do you think you were removed
because you had certain ties and
relationships in the community and perhaps
were not trusted?
A. No. I think because I knew most of
the people in the community, that I may have
recognized someone that I shouldn't have
recognized. Or it has been discounted that
when you are with a partner, you make a
decision on what you are going to do if
certain things occur.
We had discussed briefly that he
would remain at the window if something
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occurred and I would go out the door because
I was much faster, and if someone was
running, I could catch them or whatever. So
that was another thought we had in mind for
doing that.
MR. PEPPER: Okay. No further
questions hat this time.
THE COURT: All right.
Cross-examine.
CROSS-EXAMINATION
BY MR. GARRISON:
Q. Officer Redditt, I've talked to you
about this some time ago. I don't have too
many questions to ask you. But during the
time that you were there at the fire station,
you are aware that behind the rooming house
there were certain brush area and trees back
there?
A. Yes.
Q. Did you ever see any activity in
there where anyone was coming or going or
walking back in that area?
A. You could not really get -- it was so
grown-up at that time, it is on top of that
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hill there, it is possible somebody had come
up from the Huling side and gotten in there,
it is possible.
I think all my focus was really on
basically Mulberry Street itself and toward
the hotel itself. I very seldom looked into
that direction.
Q. Let me ask you, when you were taken
down by Lieutenant Arkin to the headquarters,
Director Holloman was there with some other
personnel?
A. Yes.
Q. Detective Redditt, did you know that
Director Holloman denied you were coming down
there until you actually arrived, were you
aware of that?
A. That's what I had heard.
Q. Did it seem to you he was surprised
when you got there?
A. No. It seemed like he was waiting
for me to get there, because when I walked
in, he pointed to the man standing there.
Q. You've been told since then that he
didn't know you were coming until you
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actually got there?
A. I've heard that.
Q. You've said I believe after you
learned that Dr. King had been assassinated
that Lieutenant Arkin was there with you.
Did he stay with you any more after that or
did he leave?
A. He left after Melvin Burgess and
Emmett Winters got there.
Q. How long did Director Burgess stay
there with you?
A. They stayed there during I guess --
again, I guess I did more looking out the
window than they did, I imagine.
Q. Did they stay the rest of the night?
A. Yes.
Q. They did. I believe when you and I
talked the first time, you told me something
had happened that was just hard for you to
take after this occurrence. Am I correct,
sir, personally?
A. I missed you.
Q. I believe you told me it was hard for
you to understand what had happened and hard
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for you to absorb this personally.
A. Yes. It is very difficult.
MR. GARRISON: That's all.
REDIRECT EXAMINATION
BY MR. PEPPER:
Q. Just a word about the bushes in the
area that counsel asked you. Could you
describe that brush area as you recall it
around that point in time?
A. There is -- on Mulberry I guess you
could call it behind the buildings on Main
Street there is a high bank above the
sidewalk. And on that were a group of trees
that were there at that time.
Q. If you would cast your eyes over
here. Can you see this fairly well?
A. Yes.
Q. Do you see Mulberry Street here?
A. Yes.
Q. Do you see the sidewalk here?
A. Yes.
Q. Is this the area?
A. That's the area there.
Q. So it is behind Jim's Grill and the
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rooming house?
A. Right.
Q. This parking area and just north of
the fire station?
A. Yes.
Q. So this is the area that you are
talking about?
A. That's the area I'm speaking of this.
Q. This green area?
A. Yes.
Q. What was the nature of the shrubbery
and the bushes there?
A. Again, they were very -- the bank is
high and the trees are there.
Q. The bushes themselves were high?
A. Right.
Q. And thick?
A. Right.
MR. PEPPER: No further
questions. Thank you.
THE COURT: All right. If you
would call your next witness.
(Witness excused).
MR. PEPPER: Now we will call
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Captain Jerry Williams.
JERRY WILLIAMS
Having been first duly sworn, was examined
and testified as follows:
DIRECT EXAMINATION
BY MR. PEPPER:
Q. Good afternoon, Captain Williams?
A. How do you do, sir.
Q. It is good to see you again and thank
you very much for coming down here.
A. My pleasure.
Q. Would you please for the record tell
us your full name and address?
A. My name is Jerry Dave Williams. I
live at 1095 Wild Leaf Cove, Memphis, Shelby
County.
Q. What is your current occupation,
Captain Williams?
A. Well, I'm involved currently in real
estate.
Q. Have you previously been a member of
the Memphis Police Department?
A. I sure have.
Q. How long were you a serving officer?
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A. Thirty-one years.
Q. From when to when?
A. January of 1949 until January of
1980.
Q. That's a long tour of duty, Captain.
A. About twenty years ago I retired.
Q. Yes. Could you tell us the various
positions that you've held and the various
tasks that you have filled as a serving
officer?
A. Well, initially I started off walking
Beale Street. I then was one of the first
black officers that were assigned, all of us
to Beale Street.
After several years we went into a
squad car and I worked the Orange Mound area,
that's East Memphis, Park and Airways, and
from there I was promoted up to fourteen
years to the detective bureau where I served
several years in the homicide bureau
investigating murders, rapes, aggravated
assaults.
Then I was transferred to vice and
narcotics, worked two or three years there.
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Then I worked the larceny bureau. Then after
I was made captain, I was assigned to the
West Precinct.
Q. When were you promoted to captain?
A. 1979.
Q. What were you doing in 1967, 1968?
A. At that time I was assigned to
homicide and I would be in charge of security
for the police department whenever we would
have celebrities or some dignitaries to come
to Memphis.
Q. So you were in charge of that
security operation with respect to
dignitaries when they came to Memphis?
A. Yes.
Q. And that would be in 1967, 1968?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. That period of time?
A. Yes.
Q. Were you on that detail earlier as
well?
A. Well, about 1967, until around 1971,
most of the dignitaries who would come to
Memphis, the police would have a security
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detail to make sure that their safety would
be taken care of while they were here in
Memphis.
Q. Right. But were you on a special
security detail as early as the mid-1960's,
in 1965 or 1966?
A. I believe my assignment to security
was probably 1966. We're going back over
thirty years.
Q. That's all right.
A. To my memory, around July of 1966,
which involved my first security assignment,
which was James Meredith when he came to
Memphis on his walk to Mississippi.
Q. Captain Williams, were you assigned
to provide security for Dr. Martin Luther
King whenever he came to Memphis?
A. Well, for the first two times that he
came, to my knowledge, I was assigned. On
the third time I was not.
Q. Well, Dr. King, of course, didn't
come to Memphis -- didn't visit the city a
great number of times, anyway.
A. Not to my knowledge.
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Q. But when he did come, when you are
saying the first two times, what year are we
talking about? Are we talking about the year
of the assassination?
A. The year of the assassination, 1968.
Q. And tell us how you would put
together -- how that security unit that you
headed would be put together.
A. To the best of my knowledge Reverend
Ben Hooks was a member of SCLC, and he was on
the board I believe of SCLC. The SCLC office
headquarters in Atlanta would notify Reverend
Ben Hooks, and he, in turn, would call the
police department to ask for security.
Inspector Don Smith was the overall
security supervisor. He would call me and
ask me to select a group of officers to serve
for security on those occasions.
Q. How large a team would you put
together?
A. Possibly nine. I would have about
six detectives, three uniformed men, and if
there would be a woman in the entourage, I
would have a female officer.
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Q. And would you stay with Dr. King
throughout his visit when he was in Memphis?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. How would you protect him? How would
you provide security for him?
A. Well, we would get his itinerary when
he would come to Memphis. We would meet him
at the airport when he landed, we would be
right with him. We would follow him to his
hotel. If he would go to church first, we
would lead the detail to the church.
Whenever these meetings were over
with, we would find out what hotel he would
be staying at. We would never advise him to
stay at the Lorraine because we couldn't
furnish proper security there.
Q. We understand he used to visit the
Lorraine for meetings but never stayed there
overnight.
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Where did he stay overnight when he
was in Memphis on the times when you were
protecting him?
A. On one occasion he stayed at the
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Rivermont. It was the Rivermont on
Riverside, the Rivermont Hotel. I think it
has changed now. But that's where he stayed.
Q. Your unit would protect him and
provide security there?
A. Yes, sir. We would go in and check
the rooms, make sure the telephone wasn't
bugged, check under the beds, check
everywhere. Then I would assign two officers
on the outside of his door. We would take
turns about every two hours. We would do
that all night long.
Q. Now, on Dr. King's last visit to
Memphis, he arrived on the 3rd of April,
Wednesday, the 3rd of April, 1968. Were you
asked to form this usual security unit to
protect him?
A. No, sir.
Q. You were not?
A. I was not.
Q. Why were you not asked to perform
that security unit on his last visit to
Memphis?
A. Sir, I don't know. I was just told
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that somebody else would handle the
assignment.
Q. Are you aware of any security that
was provided for him during that visit?
A. To the best of my knowledge, there
were two other officers from my office, the
homicide office, that was assigned.
Q. How large a unit was provided?
A. I don't know. I just know of the two
officers who left homicide on the assignment.
Q. Were they black officers?
A. They were white officers.
Q. They were white officers. But your
black unit -- this security unit was a unit
of black homicide officers, wasn't it?
A. Sir, I just don't know. I know I
wasn't assigned on that particular day I
worked in the office.
Q. You were not assigned on that
particular day. But the usual unit that you
formed consisted of whom?
A. Well, Wendell Robinson, William
Harris, and I would have some uniformed men.
Some of them are no longer on the force. But
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three uniformed men that I could rely on, I
could call on for their assistance. And I
had four detectives.
Usually I would have -- I don't know
if -- as I said, it has been a long time. I
just can't name those people. But I would
have four detectives, three uniformed men and
one female officer, to the best of my
knowledge.
Q. Were they all black officers?
A. All black officers.
Q. And the last time he visited, none of
that unit, no one on that unit, certainly
under your command, anyway, was assigned?
A. No, sir, they were not assigned, to
my knowledge.
Q. Did you ever ask any questions as to
why you weren't assigned?
A. Well, I did later on after my
retirement. I had a talk with my inspector,
who also had retired. I felt he had no
reason to hold anything from me. I asked
him. He said that we frankly wasn't asked to
handle the security. I asked the question,
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we wasn't asked by whom? He said by somebody
in Dr. King's entourage. That's the way it
was. That's the way he left it.
Q. Were you satisfied with that answer?
A. Well, it was an answer. I hadn't
gotten anything before that time. That was
some twenty years later. No, eighteen years,
at least, afterwards. We happened to have a
conversation about it. I was curious as to
why, from day one, I was taken off. That
bothered me, even to this day.
Q. Particularly since he was
assassinated on that visit?
A. That's right.
Q. But after the assassination, in the
aftermath of the assassination while you were
still a serving officer, did you ever raise
that question with anybody inside the
department?
A. No.
Q. You didn't at that time?
A. Ug-huh. We talked amongst ourselves,
we black officers, and we had different
versions as to why, but nobody knew why, you
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know.
Q. You just know that it didn't happen?
A. You have to realize at that time
thirty-one years ago, maybe -- Memphis was
very segregated. There was a lot of
hostility here. The situation has changed
dramatically since then. Black people was
only talking to black people, only -- white
people only talking to white people. There
was a lot of hostility here.
You could not -- I remember just
like it was yesterday when Dr. King was
assassinated. Because I went to the scene.
I took the camera down there to make
pictures. I wasn't on the assignment, but
the inspector had asked me to bring the
camera down to make the pictures.
I brought the camera down so the
photographer for the police department could
make the pictures at the scene. And it seems
to me I could see the hostility, the hatred,
on a lot of the officers faces.
When we left, when I left the scene
from where Dr. King was assassinated, I went
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immediately out to St. Joseph Hospital. And
there I saw his body lying on the slab in the
emergency room. The doctors had tried all
they could to massage his heart, get his
heart back, but he had been cut open. We
could see the damage that had been done by
the shot that he received.
But I mention that it seems to me,
as I said, it seems to me a long time ago,
there was some at least a hundred police
officers who was lined up on the street from
the police department north to St. Joseph
Hospital where Dr. King's body was carried,
and only one officer came up to me and
expressed any type of sympathy, a white
officer, that is. I never will forget that.
It did make me feel a lot better.
But I don't know why we were pulled
off. I just know -- I don't know if the
answer the inspector has gave me was a true
answer or not. I just know that we wasn't
working on that day on the assignment.
Q. And you were not in a position as an
officer in the department as a black officer
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to really be able to ask anybody and require
an answer, were you?
A. That's correct.
MR. PEPPER: Nothing further,
Your Honor. I pass the witness.
MR. GARRISON: Your Honor, I
have no questions of Captain Williams. Thank
you.
(Witness excused.)
(Bench conference outside the
presence of the court reporter.)
MR. PEPPER: Your Honor, at
point in the proceedings plaintiff would like
to read into the record two interview
statements, one conducted by a Federal Bureau
of Investigation officer and the other
conducted by a Memphis Police Department
officer of a man we believe is long deceased,
I've tried to find him for over twenty years,
named Solomon Jones, who was Dr. King's
chauffeur at the time and was present at the
scene when Dr. King was assassinated, with
the Court's permission.
THE COURT: All right, sir.
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MR. PEPPER: This is what is
known as an FBI 302. It is a statement that
FBI agents take when they interview
witnesses. They fill it out and sign it.
The signing officer is Special Agent
Eugene G. Douglass, with two S's, and it was
taken on April 12th, 1968.
Mr. Solomon Jones, Jr., 374 Vance
Avenue, Memphis. He was employed as a
funeral director for R. S. Lewis & Sons at
the same address. They interviewed him at
the Lorraine Motel, 406 Mulberry, Memphis.
Mr. Jones advised he had been
serving as a chauffeur for Dr. Martin Luther
King, Jr., on Dr. King's last trip to
Memphis. He believed he had started driving
for Dr. King on April 1, 1968. He stated
that the Reverend James Lawson of Memphis had
requested him to drive Dr. King while he was
in Memphis.
On Wednesday night, April 3rd, 1968,
Dr. King spoke at the Mason Temple in
Memphis, and after the speech returned to the
Lorraine Motel. Dr. King told him to report
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back to the Lorraine Motel on Thursday
morning, April 4, 1968, at eight-thirty a.m.
Dr. King was due to go to court in regard to
a restraining order on that morning.
Mr. Jones stated that on Thursday
morning, April 4th, he returned to the
Lorraine Motel at about eight-thirty a.m. He
stated that this motel is located on the east
side of Mulberry and is bordered on the north
by Huling and on the south by East Butler.
He advised that he parked the car
which was used to drive Dr. King and which
car was a 1967 Cadillac and belonged to the
R. S. Lewis & Sons Funeral Home in the
parking area of the Lorraine Motel and in
front of Room 207. The car was headed into
the motel area, which would have been in an
easterly direction. So it was facing into
the motel.
A short time after he arrived,
Reverend Andrew young, an associate of Dr.
King, contacted Jones and stated that Dr.
King was not going to go to court on the
morning of April 4, 1996, and Young was going
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to Court. Reverend Young informed Jones that
he was to remain at the motel as Dr. King was
to later that day address the sanitation
workers.
Jones advised that he remained at
the Lorraine Motel and ate his lunch at the
hotel. At about three p.m. Memphis time the
Reverend Billy Kyles, a minister in Memphis,
informed Jones that Dr. King and other
members of his staff were going to have
dinner at his home at about five p.m. on
April 4th, 1968.
Mr. Jones stated that Dr. King did
not leave the motel area the entire day of
April 4, 1968, and Jones stated that he also
stayed in that area the entire day. He
advised that Dr. King and his group did not
leave the motel at five p.m. as had been
originally mentioned to him by Reverend
Kyles, and at approximately six p.m. on April
4, 1968, Jones noticed Dr. King come out of a
room on the balcony level of the motel, which
room was north -- he said was to the north of
Room 306 where he was residing.
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Dr. King proceeded to Room 306, and
as he was about to enter the room, Dr. King
told Jones to start the car, as they were
preparing to go to dinner. Jones started the
car, and Dr. King went into Room 306 where he
was staying with Reverend Abernathy.
Dr. King came out of Room 306 a
short time later and was standing on the
balcony area in front of Room 306. At this
time Dr. King was fully dressed. Dr. King
was looking from the balcony level down to
Jones, who was standing beside the car on the
ground level.
Jones advised the car was still
parked in front of Room 207. Dr. King was
talking to Jones about the weather, and Jones
stated he told Dr. King he should put on a
topcoat, as it was cold outside. He stated
that he was looking up at Dr. King during
this conversation, and Dr. King was facing
west and that he, Jones, was facing east.
Dr. King acknowledged Jones
concerning obtaining his topcoat. Jones
stated that while he was looking at Dr. King,
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he heard a sound which he thought was a
firecracker. Dr. King fell to the floor of
the walkway in front of Room 306.
At this point Jones could see blood
coming from Dr. King and realized the sound
was actually a shot rather than a
firecracker. Jones stated that he started
screaming and calling for help and repeatedly
called several times "Dr. King has been
shot."
He advised that at the time of the
shooting that Jesse Jackson, a member of the
staff of Dr. King's, was standing at Room
305. He also recalled that Dr. King's lawyer
by the name of Eskridge of Chicago, Illinois,
was standing near Jones on the ground level.
On seeing Dr. King bleeding and
realizing that he was shot, Jones stated that
he and Eskridge did not run to the side of
Dr. King, as others were coming to Dr. King's
aid. However, he and Eskridge turned west,
since that was the direction in which the
shot had originated, and went toward Mulberry
Street, which street is located on the front
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portion of the motel.
They ran about fifty feet and
stopped opposite the office of the motel.
Jones stated he and the lawyer both then
looked around and saw nothing. Jones stated
he ran about another ten feet west and
stopped at the edge of the sidewalk in front
of the motel and stood beside a brick wall.
He stated that Eskridge also ran up
to the same area opposite him. He advised
when he reached this point he looked opposite
to the point where he was standing, which was
also the driveway area. He looked opposite
the driveway area toward the west side of
Mulberry Street. This area has a large
retaining wall.
Immediately above the retaining wall
is a grassy area with shrubs and bushes.
This area is behind some buildings facing
South Main Street. He got a quick glimpse of
a person with his back toward Mulberry
Street. He estimated the person he glimpsed
would have been approximately sixty feet from
where he was standing.
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He pointed out it was dusk dark and
he merely got a quick glimpse of someone in
the area. He stated that it was the back of
this individual and he could not tell whether
the person was negro or white. This person
was moving rather fast, and he recalls that
he believed he was wearing some sort of
light-colored jacket with some sort of hood
or parka.
He stated that this person appeared
to him to be about five feet eleven or a
little taller. He did not see him carrying
anything in his hand and did not notice
anything concerning the dress below his
waist. He said he could not tell anything
further about this individual and that it
could have been an officer, but he could not
furnish any further details concerning this
individual.
Then it simply continues by saying
he was in a state of shock and someone put
him in Room 308 and he had to lie down. He
drove the car which had been used for Dr.
King to follow the ambulance to the
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hospital. In the car with him was Reverend
Andrew Young and Bernard Lee.
Now, the second interview is with a
Memphis Police Department detective, R. R.
Davis. It was taken on Thursday, April 4th,
as well.
Moving away from all of the
introductory material down to the relevant
part of his observation, Detective Davis
said: You mentioned that the direction of
the shot came from across the street, meaning
the west side of Mulberry. What leads you to
believe this vicinity is where the shot came
from?
Answer: After the shot and Dr. King
fell, instead of me going up to where Dr.
King was, I ran to the street to see if I
could see somebody, and I could see
somebody. I could see a person leaving the
thicket on the west side of Mulberry with his
back to me, looked to me like he had a hood
over his head, and that's all that I could
see.
Question: Can you describe in more
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detail this person that you saw?
No, sir, I cannot.
Was this person leaving hurriedly?
Answer: In a hurry.
Question: In order to clarify this
hood that you mentioned, can you describe it
in some detail?
Answer: The only thing that I could
see was something fitting close around his
shoulders and was white in color.
Question: Could you tell if this
person was carrying anything in his hands?
No, sir, I could not.
Question: How close to the street
was this man when you first observed him?
Answer: He was a few feet west of
the retainer wall in the brushes and was
going west toward Main Street when I first
noticed him.
Question: Prior to the shooting,
were you outside around this area where you
possibly could have seen a suspicious type of
person hanging around or passing by the
Lorraine Motel?
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Answer: The only thing that I saw
was a squad car passing with four men in it,
and they were driving slow and they were
looking toward the Lorraine Motel and they
were cruising real slow, and in a few minutes
after -- they had passed by, and a few
minutes after they had passed by, the
incident happened.
Question: In regards to the
description on the above-mentioned man
wearing the hood, describe in detail all you
can about the clothing and physical status.
Answer: It looked to me like he had
on a one-piece jacket and hood, and it
appeared to be of white material. He
appeared to be a small person and he was
moving real rapidly. I could not describe
his clothing below the jacket. I did not
observe any car of a suspicious nature around
this area and did not watch to see if this
man attempted to enter a car, because I then
turned back to Dr. King.
That concludes those two statements
of Solomon Jones.
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MR. PEPPER: Your Honor,
plaintiffs will call next Professor Phillip
Melanson.
THE COURT: All right. Maybe we
ought to take about ten minutes.
(Jury out.)
(Short recess.)
THE COURT: All right. Bring
the jury in.
(Jury in.)
THE COURT: All right. Call
your next witness.
PHILLIP M. MELANSON
Having been first duly sworn, was examined
and testified as follows:
DIRECT EXAMINATION
BY MR. PEPPER:
Q. Good afternoon, Professor Melanson.
A. Good afternoon.
Q. Would you state your full name and
address for the record, please.
A. Phillip M. Melanson, 18 Partridge
Place, Marion, Massachusetts.
Q. What is your occupation,
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Mr. Melanson?
A. I'm a professor of political science
and an author.
Q. How long have you been a professor of
political science?
A. Twenty-eight years.
Q. Have you had a particular interest in
any special area of American history or
political science?
A. Yes. Political violence and
assassination is my main area of expertise.
I've written thirteen books, including one on
the U.S. Secret Service and how they protect
presidents.
Q. Have you in the course of your work
considered the assassination of Martin Luther
King?
A. Yes, sir, I have.
Q. When did you do some research and
investigation of the assassination of Martin
Luther King?
A. Approximately between 1980 and 1990.
Q. Could you tell us some of the -- the
nature of some of the investigative work that
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you did and research that you did?
A. Yes. I read the complete files as
available of the FBI and whatever Memphis
Police documents were released. I
interviewed crime scene witnesses and law
enforcement officers here and in Canada who
had a connection with the case in arresting
Mr. Ray or in investigating the crime scene
and talked to as many people as I could find.
Q. How long would you say you devoted --
how much time would you say you devoted to
this investigation, this effort?
A. Well, I was carrying on my normal
academic duties, but I think it is probably
fair to say that five years of those ten
years, the working hours were probably
devoted to researching Dr. King's
assassination.
Q. And you published a work on this
case?
A. Yes.
Q. What was the name of that work?
A. The Martin Luther King Assassination.
Q. When was it published?
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A. That was published in 1988. There
have been several subsequent editions of the
book with additional material.
Q. Now, Professor Melanson, you've
stated that your work took you -- your
investigative work on this case took you to
Memphis?
A. Yes.
Q. And that you interviewed a number of
people, including law enforcement officers?
A. Yes.
Q. Was one of the officers who you
interviewed a Memphis Police Department
inspector named Samuel Evans?
A. Yes, sir, it was.
Q. What is Inspector Sam Evans'
significance in this case? Just generally
what was his role in the police department,
what is the significance that you have seen?
A. The avenue that I was researching was
that inspector Evans was the commander of the
Memphis Police Force Tactical Units or Tact
Squads. He was in charge of their mobility
and deploying them. I was particularly
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interested in what had happened to them at
the time of the assassination.
Q. All right. Now, would you just
describe for the Court and the jury what is a
tactical unit and what was the tact squad?
A. Well, I use "unit" and "squad"
interchangeably. The Memphis Police
Department specifically for Dr. King's visit
formed six tactical units that they had not
formed before. And they were essentially
riot control units consisting of three to
four vehicles, police vehicles, with two to
three officers in each vehicle, and there
were six of these tactical units formed, four
of which were deployed around the Lorraine
Motel.
Q. Now, when you say they were deployed
around the Lorraine Motel, this is the
Lorraine Motel. Can you see this?
(Indicating diagram on easel.)
A. Yes.
Q. Where would they have been deployed?
Would they have taken up residence in the
lobby? Do you have a sense of where they
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were in the motel area?
A. From reading the documents and in
talking with Inspector Evans, most of them
were intended to be mobile, and their orders
were to be within a five-block radius of the
Lorraine Motel because their central concern
was Dr. King and his party. And so their
presence was specifically for him. That's
why they were going to include this tight, if
you will, law enforcement net around the
Lorraine.
Q. Right. Was there a particular unit,
a Tact 10, that was actually based at the
Lorraine Motel at that time? Do you recall?
A. I'm not sure my information speaks to
Tact 10 being based at the hotel. I know
that they were in the firehouse, but I don't
have that information.
Q. Right. But before they were in the
firehouse, they were in the proximity of the
Lorraine Motel?
A. Tact 10, yes.
Q. Now, did you become aware of -- did
you ask Inspector Evans how they were removed
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to the fire station or what caused them to be
removed from the area of the Lorraine Motel
to the fire station?
A. Well, my understanding from Inspector
Evans and from the documents was that on
April 3rd and up and to the morning of April
4th, the day of the assassination, the four
deployed tactical units with approximately
ten or twelve cars were in various locations
within a five-block radius of the Lorraine,
including proximity to the Lorraine and the
firehouse and other specific areas. They
were all within that block area as ordered.
On the morning of the assassination,
the order came for the tactical units to be
withdrawn outside of a five-block area,
therefore, disbursing them at a much greater
distance and removing their presence from the
immediate what would become the assassination
scene.
Q. So there was an order on the morning
of the assassination that yet another level
of security for Martin Luther King be
removed?
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A. Yes.
Q. Who gave that order?
A. The order was given by Inspector Sam
Evans. He not only told that to me in the
interview, but he is on record as having said
in the House Select Committee report that he
in fact ordered those tactical units to be
removed. They were under his command. He
gave the order.
Q. Inspector Evans, as an aside, is
deceased at this time?
A. Correct.
Q. And he informed you that he gave the
order that these units be withdrawn, be
removed or be pulled back?
A. Yes. He referred to them as "his
units," yes.
Q. What reason did he give you for
removing these units?
A. He told me that he had been requested
by a member of Dr. King's party to remove the
units from proximity to the Lorraine Motel.
Q. He received a request from a member
of Dr. King's party to remove the units?
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A. Yes.
Q. Did he say which member of Dr. King's
party made this request?
A. That's the question I asked him. He
immediately responded that it was the
Reverend Samuel Kyles.
Q. The Reverend Samuel Kyles requested
that the security forces, the tact forces
around the Lorraine Motel, be removed?
A. Yes.
Q. Was the Reverend Samuel Kyles -- did
he have any position or anything to do with
the Southern Christian Leadership Conference?
A. Not to my awareness. I think
politically he was more of a local person in
Memphis politics.
Q. He was a local pastor?
A. Yes.
Q. So you are telling us, Professor
Melanson, that Inspector Evans was telling
you that a local pastor's request was behind
the removal of this security umbrella for Dr.
Martin Luther King, Jr.?
A. Yes.
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Q. As one who was looked into these
matters, does it make sense to you that
police department security in a time like
this would be determined by a local pastor's
request?
A. It makes no sense to me whatsoever in
terms of law enforcement chain of command or
in terms of what I understood to be the
duties and responsibilities of everyone
involved.
Q. But yet when you asked him that
question, he didn't hesitate, he said that
this is why he acceded. Did he say why he
acceded? Did he say he disagreed or he
thought he had to do this? Did he give any
reason for that at all?
A. No. He simply said that request had
come and they had honored the request.
Q. On the day of the assassination?
A. The morning of the assassination.
Q. The morning of the assassination?
A. Yes.
MR. WILLIAMS: No further
questions.
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MR. GARRISON: I don't have any
questions for this witness.
THE COURT: All right. You may
stand down, sir. You can remain in the
courtroom or you are free to leave.
(Witness excused.)
THE COURT: Your next witness.
MS. ATKINS-HILL: Your Honor, at
this time we'd like to read the transcribed
statement of Kaye Pittman Black. It was
transcribed in the documentary trial in
1993. She was sworn, but this was not a
formal legal proceeding, Your Honor. The
statement was sworn testimony.
THE COURT: All right. Go ahead
and read.
MS. ATKINS-HILL: Okay.
Starting at page 2018 --
THE COURT: Read her name into
the record for the --
MS. ATKINS-HILL: Her name is
Kaye Pittman Black.
THE COURT: Pittman is spelled
P I T T --
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MS. ATKINS-HILL: It is
P I T T M A N.
THE COURT: Go ahead.
MS. ATKINS-HILL:
Question: What is your present
occupation?
Answer: I'm administrative
assistant to Sheriff A. C. Gillis.
Question: What was your occupation
back in 1968?
Answer: I was a reporter, civil
rights reporter, basically at that time.
Question: For which newspaper?
Answer: The Memphis Press
Scimitar. It closed in 1983.
Question: All right, Ms. Black, how
long had you been a reporter at that time?
Answer: 26 years about, but
twenty-one years with the Press Scimitar.
Line 13.
Question: Were you familiar with
the issues of the sanitation strike?
Answer: Very definitely.
Question: Did you cover that on a
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regular basis?
Answer: Yes. I also helped out at
city hall to Mr. Porteous, who was the senior
reporter at city hall. And I assisted him.
So I knew both sides. Mostly I was on the
street at the sanitation strike. I would go
to Clayborn Temple every day in March.
Were you known and familiar with
political leaders of Memphis at that time?
The top of page 2020.
Answer: Yes.
Question: Did you, for example,
know former Mayor William Ingram?
Answer: Very well.
Question: How long had you known
Mayor Ingram?
Answer: I would say from the time
of his election, which was -- I moved here in
1962 to go to work. It would have been after
that period. I can't remember when he was
elected. I don't have a date available
without a newspaper, so I can't tell you.
But it was prior to the sanitation strike.
Mayor Henry lobe was mayor at the time of the
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strike.
Question: Without telling us
exactly what was said, but did you have a
telephone conversation with Mayor Ingram on
morning of April the 5th?
Answer: Yes, I did. He called
somewhere between I would say seven and ten.
The reason I say seven is most of us had been
up all night. A lot of us came in at seven,
some had gone home. So it would have been
between seven and ten.
Question: And as a result of that
conversation, did you go over to the South
Main Street area?
Answer: Yes.
Question: Where did you go and what
did you observe at the South Main Street
area?
Top of page 2021.
Answer: The trees which lined the
embankment behind the rooming house and which
would have overlooked the Lorraine Motel had
been cut and the area had been cleared and
cleaned. Line 20.
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Question: Would you show us the
area where the trees that you are talking
about were located?
Answer: They would have been --
this faces the Lorraine back, the back of the
rooming house, correct?
Question: That's the rooming
house. That's the back area of the rooming
house there.
Answer: This is where the
embankment would have been where the trees
would have been. It overlooks the Lorraine.
In other words, someone here up in the
rooming house would have had to look down to
the Lorraine because the embankment was
taller than me, which means, you know, which
I'm not very tall, but it would have been six
or eight feet tall. I think it was a
concrete embankment holding up the back of
the building.
Line 16.
Now, you received this call on the
morning of April the 5th?
Answer: Right.
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Question: And at what time did you
go down to that area and make that
observation?
Answer: I'm going by a long memory,
but I remember telling the city editor about
it, and he said, I'm pretty sure I went out
right after home edition, and home edition
was twelve o'clock deadline. So it would
have been probably oneish. I wouldn't have
gone out before home edition, which meant it
would have been in the next day's paper,
which edition, I couldn't tell you, but I
remember city hall. The city hall reporter
had gotten a statement from city hall saying
that a sanitation crew cleaned it up to make
it look better for all the people coming into
town.
Question: Had you been down in that
area before a number of --
Answer: Every day.
Question: Every day?
Answer: Every day.
Question: Were you then quite
familiar with the way the area looked?
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Answer: Very familiar, right, very
familiar.
Question: And you were thus able to
ascertain that there had been a cutting?
Answer: There was a total
demolishing almost. It was just scrubs. It
wasn't any fine trees or anything. There
were willows and scrub ash and stuff like
that.
Dr. Pepper: No further questions.
There was a recross, page 2024, line 1 --
line 2.
Mrs. Black, did you say it was a
total cleaning? Were there any trees left
standing? Answer, there were probably
pieces, you know. They topped a lot of
them. They just topped a lot of them and
some they trimmed. They were trying to clean
it up, they said.
THE COURT: All right. Your
next order of proof?
MR. PEPPER: I think that will
do it for today, Your Honor. Apparently they
have located one witness who is due here, but
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he is probably ten minutes away. I think is
probably not useful to delay the Court that
period of time. If we can just resume in the
morning.
THE COURT: All right. Ladies
and gentlemen, I know how mad it is going to
make you, but we're going to stop at this
point. We will resume tomorrow again at ten
o'clock. I remind you don't discuss this
matter among yourselves or with anyone else
until you start your deliberations.
All right, Mr. James.
(The proceedings were adjourned
at 4:07 p.m.)
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