992
IN THE CIRCUIT COURT OF SHELBY COUNTY,
TENNESSEE FOR THE THIRTIETH JUDICIAL
DISTRICT AT MEMPHIS
CORETTA SCOTT KING, MARTIN
LUTHER KING, III, BERNICE KING,
DEXTER SCOTT KING and YOLANDA KING,
Plaintiffs,
Vs. Case No. 97242-4 T.D.
LOYD JOWERS and OTHER UNKNOWN
CO-CONSPIRATORS,
Defendants.
TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS
November 29, 1999
Volume VIII
Before the Honorable James E. Swearengen,
Division 4, Judge presiding.
DANIEL, DILLINGER, DOMINSKI,
RICHBERGER, WEATHERFORD
COURT REPORTERS
22nd Floor - One Commerce Square
Memphis, Tennessee 38103
(901) 529-1999
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- APPEARANCES -
For the Plaintiffs: DR. WILLIAM PEPPER
Attorney at Law
New York City, New York
For the Defendant:
MR. LEWIS GARRISON
Attorney at Law
Memphis, Tennessee
Reported by:
MS. SARA R. ROGAN
Court Reporter
Daniel, Dillinger,
Dominski, Richberger &
Weatherford
22nd Floor
One Commerce Square
Memphis, Tennessee 38103
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- INDEX -
WITNESS: PAGE
WILLIAM B. HAMBLIN
DIRECT EXAMINATION
BY MR. PEPPER:....................... 998
CROSS-EXAMINATION
BY MR. GARRISON:..................... 1013
REDIRECT EXAMINATION
BY MR. PEPPER:....................... 1015
JAMES JOSEPH ISABEL
DIRECT EXAMINATION
BY MR. PEPPER:....................... 1016
CROSS-EXAMINATION
BY MR. GARRISON:..................... 1024
JERRY WILLIAM RAY
DIRECT EXAMINATION
BY MR. PEPPER:....................... 1026
CROSS-EXAMINATION
BY MR. GARRISON:..................... 1063
WILLIE B. RICHMOND
DIRECT EXAMINATION
BY MR. PEPPER:....................... 1086
CROSS-EXAMINATION
BY MR. GARRISON:..................... 1099
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- INDEX CONTINUED -
WITNESS: PAGE
DOUGLAS VALENTINE
DIRECT EXAMINATION
BY MR. PEPPER:....................... 1101
CROSS-EXAMINATION
BY MR. GARRISON:..................... 1110
REDIRECT EXAMINATION
BY MR. PEPPER:....................... 1110
CARTHEL WEEDEN
DIRECT EXAMINATION
BY MR. PEPPER:....................... 1111
CROSS-EXAMINATION
BY MR. GARRISON:..................... 1120
WALTER E. FAUNTROY
DIRECT EXAMINATION
BY MR. PEPPER:....................... 1123
CROSS-EXAMINATION
BY MR. GARRISON:..................... 1143
REDIRECT EXAMINATION
BY MR. PEPPER:....................... 1148
APRIL R. FERGUSON
DIRECT EXAMINATION
BY MR. PEPPER:....................... 1155
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- INDEX CONTINUED -
WITNESS: PAGE
JAMES E. ADAMS
DIRECT EXAMINATION
BY MR. PEPPER:....................... 1167
CROSS-EXAMINATION
BY MR. GARRISON:..................... 1175
YOLANDA KING
DIRECT EXAMINATION
BY MR. PEPPER:....................... 1177
TRIAL EXHIBITS PAGE
Exhibit 19.......................... 1051
Exhibit 20.......................... 1054
Exhibit 21.......................... 1085
Exhibit 22.......................... 1099
Exhibit 23.......................... 1165
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P R O C E E D I N G S
(Jury in at 10:15 a.m.)
THE COURT: Good morning, ladies
and gentlemen.
THE JURY: Good morning.
THE COURT: It seems that
everyone is all present and accounted for.
Mr. Jowers, the defendant, is still having
some health problems, but we're going to
proceed in his absence. And as soon as he's
able, he'll return. He's still concerned
about the action against him so don't take
this as -- don't interpret it as he's
indicating he's not interested. He is, but
his health is keeping him.
All right. Mr. Pepper, are you
ready to proceed?
MR. PEPPER: Yes, Your Honor.
THE COURT: All right, you may.
MR. PEPPER: Your Honor,
plaintiffs call as their first witness today
Mr. William Hamblin.
WILLIAM B. HAMBLIN,
having been first duly sworn, was examined
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and testified as follows:
DIRECT EXAMINATION
BY MR. PEPPER:
Q. Good morning, Mr. Hamblin.
A. Good morning.
Q. Thank you very much for coming here
this morning. I know you haven't been well.
A. No, a little under the weather.
Q. I appreciate your making the effort
to come by and be with us. Would you please
state your full name and address for the
record?
A. William B. Hamblin, 322 South
Camilla, Apartment 302.
Q. In Memphis?
A. Right.
Q. How long have you lived in Memphis,
Mr. Hamblin?
A. Oh, probably about -- I came here in
'63.
Q. Been here a good number of years?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. And what is your present occupation?
A. I'm a part-time security guard.
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Q. You're a part-time security guard?
A. Yes.
Q. In the city?
A. Yes.
Q. And prior to being a part-time
security guard and taking on that position,
were you -- what else did you do previous to
that?
A. Well, I drove a cab for many years,
and I worked as a barber for approximately
ten years -- something like that.
Q. You were a barber for approximately
ten years and you drove a cab --
A. Right, off and on.
Q. -- off and on for a number of years?
A. Right.
Q. And which company did you drive the
cab for?
A. I drove for Veterans and Yellow.
Q. Both of those cab companies.
A. Right.
Q. Now, in the course of your cab
driving activity and your work there, did you
come to know a cab driver named James McCraw?
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A. Yeah, I knew him well.
Q. And did you in fact share digs or
share rooms with McCraw?
A. Well, I rented him an apartment one
time. I had an apartment house, and I rented
him an apartment. And I lived in the same
apartment building with him a couple other
times.
Q. How long would you say you knew
Mr. McCraw -- over what period of time?
A. Oh, probably about 25 years.
Q. So you knew him over 25 years.
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Did you know him after the date in
question in this case, after the
assassination Dr. Martin Luther King?
A. Yes, sir, I met him after the date.
Q. You met him afterward?
A. Yes.
Q. And you knew him for all of those
years after the assassination?
A. Yeah, it was after the
assassination. I drove a short time before
the assassination, but I wasn't driving at
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the time the assassination happened.
Q. Right. But you new Mr. McCraw during
that period?
A. Right.
Q. Did you not only know him but were
you actually living with him or close to him
in the same building?
A. Well, we shared the same apartment
building more than three times, and he lived
with me a couple of times when he would get
down on his luck.
Q. When he was down on his luck?
A. Yeah. He would lay around on my
couch some.
Q. All right. So it's fair to say that
you were quite a close friend of
Mr. McCraw's?
A. Right, right.
Q. Now, did Mr. McCraw at various times
in the course of this friendship discuss the
assassination of Martin Luther King with you?
A. Yeah, he did.
Q. One time or two times or --
A. Oh, several times.
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Q. Several times.
A. Yeah, several times.
Q. And was he in any particular frame of
mind or condition when this subject would
come up?
A. He would usually be drinking when he
started. I mean, you know, he would start
talking about it.
Q. It was when he had been drinking?
A. Right.
Q. Did he ever volunteer any information
when he had not been drinking?
A. No, he wouldn't talk about it then.
Q. Then he wouldn't talk about it?
A. No, he didn't want to hear about it
then.
Q. And when he had been drinking over
these many times when he spoke with you, did
he tell you a particular story?
A. Yeah. He first come out with
a -- he showed me a story that the National
Inquirer or one of those tabloids did on him,
and they did a pretty good write-up.
Q. And was the story that he told you
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each of these occasions the same? Was it
consistent?
A. It was -- the story he told was
consistent all those years. He didn't vary
off of it.
Q. Over how many years would he have
told you this story consistently?
A. Oh, I probably heard it at least 50
times at least.
Q. For how many years?
A. Oh, now you're trying to pin me down
on dates, and I'm not good at dates.
Q. Not dates, but just roughly.
A. Oh, I would say probably
15 -- something like that.
Q. Over 15 years. And what was the
story that he told you consistently over 15
years?
A. Well, after I got -- after I read the
article and found out that he knew a little
something about it, I got interested in it
myself. And he would talk about Raul having
a drink with him and he --
Q. Did he mention -- let me interrupt
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you and try to focus you. Did he mention the
defendant in this case, Mr. Jowers?
A. Oh, yes.
Q. Did he know Mr. Jowers well?
A. Yeah. He worked for Jowers at the
time I would say. They were both working at
the Southland Cab Company.
Q. They both worked with the same
company?
A. Right.
Q. Did he tell you of his personal
knowledge of any involvement of Mr. Jowers in
the assassination of Doctor King?
A. Yeah, he said that Jowers gave him
the rifle, and he took it and threw it off
the Harahan bridge.
Q. He said that the defendant gave him
the rifle?
A. Right.
Q. And by the rifle, do you mean the
murder weapon? Is that --
A. Right, right. That's the story that
he told.
Q. And he told you this same story over
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the years?
A. Same story over and over. He didn't
vary off of it. And in the last he came up
and I think they changed it to a bullet or
whatever, but I don't remember if he changed
his story or not. But he...
Q. But he consistently told you he gave
him the murder weapon?
A. Right.
Q. Did he say that the defendant made
any admission against his own interest? Did
he say he made any admission when he gave him
the rifle? Did he say anything to him?
A. He said Jowers told him to get it and
get it out of here now. He said that he
grabbed his beer and snatched it out. He had
the rifle rolled up in an oil cloth, and he
leapt out the door and did away with it.
Q. And Jowers told him to get rid of it?
A. Right. That's the story that he
told.
Q. Do you recall when he said that
conversation took place?
A. No, I didn't. To try to pin me down
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on the date, I couldn't.
Q. Right. But would it have been your
understanding sometime near to the
assassination itself?
A. Well, see, I came in on the picture
probably about five years after the
assassination.
Q. Yes. No, I'm not talking about your
conversation with McCraw. I'm talking about
McCraw's conversation with Jowers. Would
that have been around close to the time of
the assassination?
A. Yeah, that's -- the way I understand,
right after it happened. Right after it
happened.
Q. Now, was Mr. McCraw himself fearful
of being charged or indicted?
A. That's the reason they all changed
their stories. Every time they -- McCraw
really wanted to come out with it, but he was
involved in it. And he couldn't really tell
the truth. That's the reason all of them
changed their stories all this time. Their
conscious was getting hurt, and they were in
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fear of being indicted.
Q. Mr. Hamblin, did you tell anyone, in
particular a landlord of yours, that McCraw
knew something about this assassination?
A. Yes, I did.
Q. And was this a landlord in the
premises where both you and McCraw were
living?
A. We were both living at the same time,
right.
Q. And what did you tell to your
landlord?
A. He came by to collect the rent --
Q. Yes.
A. -- and I had introduced him to
McCraw.
Q. Yes.
A. And I told him he was involved in it
in some way and he told us to move.
Q. He told you to move?
A. Right. In fact, he sent the police
up there and harassed us. They locked McCraw
up for having a knife, and we finally wound
up being evicted in about a week.
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Q. So you were evicted by your landlord
because you told him this story?
A. Right.
Q. Mr. Hamblin, who was your landlord?
A. It was Mr. Purdy.
Q. Mr. Purdy.
A. Right.
Q. And what did Mr. Purdy do for a
living?
A. Mr. Purdy was an FBI agent.
Q. So your landlord was an FBI agent?
A. Yeah. I didn't know at the time that
he owned the house. I rented from someone
else, but he happened to be the owner. And
he just bumped in to collect the rent.
Q. But you didn't know that he was the
owner before this?
A. No.
Q. And do you know where Mr. Purdy was
assigned as an FBI agent?
A. Probably Memphis office, Memphis
region.
Q. The Memphis office?
A. Right.
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Q. And he told you to leave?
A. He told us both to move.
Q. Both to move. And did you move?
A. Yeah, about a week later we got
kicked out.
Q. Now, I want to take you back,
Mr. Hamblin, to 1968. What were you doing in
1968 for a living?
A. I was a barber back in '68.
Q. And where did you work as a barber?
A. Cherokee Barber Shop, 2792 Campbell.
Q. Right. And who was the proprietor,
who was the owner of that barber shop?
A. Vernon Jones.
Q. Mr. Vernon Jones.
A. Right.
Q. How long did you work there as a
barber?
A. Oh, I worked for Mr. Jones probably
for about five years all totalled at two
different places.
Q. Is Mr. Jones alive today?
A. No, Mr. Jones passed on some time
ago.
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Q. And were you working as a barber in
that barber shop April 4th, 1968?
A. Yes, I was.
Q. And were you working there
immediately following the assassination?
A. Right. I was working there when they
broke the news about -- oh, I'd say about
6:00 -- 5:30, 6:00 -- something like that.
Q. Now, did you hear Mr. Jones have a
conversation with one of his long-term
customers?
A. Right.
Q. Within -- how soon after the
assassination did this --
A. I would say, oh, probably a week or
ten days.
Q. Within a week or ten days after the
assassination?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. And what did Mr. Jones ask this
long-standing customer?
A. He asked him who did it or who do you
think did it.
Q. Who do you think did it.
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A. Right.
Q. Meaning who killed Martin Luther
King?
A. Right.
Q. And what did this long standing
customer say to him?
A. He told him that the CIA had it done.
Q. That the CIA had it done?
A. Right. That's the answer he gave
him.
Q. How long had this customer been a
customer of Mr. Jones in the Cherokee Barber
Shop?
A. Oh, ever since I worked for him.
Q. How many years roughly would you say?
A. Oh, I'd say probably -- well, I know
of five anyway.
Q. At least five years?
A. Yeah, at least five -- five or six at
the time that I worked for him he had been
coming in.
Q. People often develop close
relationships with barbers and bartenders?
A. Yeah, they'll tell a barber something
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they won't even tell their own psychiatrist.
Q. Was that the kind of relationship
Mr. --
A. Yeah, that's the kind of
relationship.
Q. -- Jones had with this customer?
A. Right.
Q. Who told him the CIA had it done?
A. I mean I didn't hear the conversation
myself. I asked him what he said when he
left after he had told him.
Q. You asked your boss --
A. Mr. Jones what he said.
Q. Right.
A. And he told me.
Q. And that's what he told you.
A. Right.
Q. Would you tell the Court and the jury
who was this long-standing customer?
A. It was Mr. Purdy, the FBI agent.
Q. The same Mr. Purdy?
A. The same Mr. Purdy.
MR. PEPPER: Mr. Hamblin, thank
you very much. No further questions.
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MR. GARRISON: Mr. Hamblin, wait
a minute. I may have a question if you don't
mind.
THE WITNESS: Oh, okay.
CROSS-EXAMINATION
BY MR. GARRISON:
Q. Mr. Hamblin, Mr. McCraw was quite a
heavy drinker, wasn't he?
A. Right.
Q. Alcoholic beverages pretty regular?
A. Right. In fact, he was an alcoholic.
Q. All right, sir. And I believe you
said that you would have trouble believing
him, didn't you?
A. Yeah. I had some trouble believing
him at times, right.
Q. You knew Mr. Jowers, did you not?
A. Right. I worked for Mr. Jowers.
Q. And you never heard him say anything
about any of this, did you?
A. Not really, no, huh-uh.
Q. You said Mr. McCraw would change his
story from time to time when he told it?
A. Well, they was -- what I mean was
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changing the story, they would accuse another
dead policeman.
Q. When you say they, who are they?
A. Well, they first -- they've named
every policeman in the graveyard. Every time
they get scared, they'll name another
policeman as being the murder man.
Q. Are you talking about Mr. McCraw?
A. Well, both of them.
Q. Both of them who?
A. Mr. McCraw and Jowers.
Q. I thought you said you never have
talked to Mr. Jowers about this, never had
anything to --
A. Well, he's made several statements.
Q. Who has? Whose made several
statements?
A. Well, I talked to him -- I talked to
him on the cell phone about six months ago,
me and Millner.
Q. Okay.
A. And he told me that he didn't do it,
but somebody by the name of maybe Earl Clark
or something like that did it, and he did it
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or whatever.
Q. So that's been six months ago?
A. That's here recently.
Q. Did he tell you he didn't have
anything to do with it?
A. That's what he said.
MR. GARRISON: That's all.
Thank you.
THE COURT: All right.
REDIRECT EXAMINATION
BY MR. PEPPER:
Q. Mr. Hamblin, just so that we're
clear, did Mr. McCraw ever change the story
he told you?
A. Never changed his story. He stuck
with the basic same fact -- I took the gun
and threw it off of the Harahan bridge.
Q. So as far as he is concerned -- as
far as you are concerned, the weapon --
A. As far as I'm concerned, that's what
happened. I mean, you know, I believed him
because he stuck to the same story.
Q. So far as you're concerned, the
murder weapon is at the bottom of the
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Mississippi River?
A. That's where I would -- if I was
going to go look for the gun today, I would
go look and look at the middle river bridge
because you can drive right to it. You can
walk 20 feet and drop it and be back in your
car in five seconds and be gone.
MR. PEPPER: Thank you,
Mr. Hamblin. No further questions.
(Witness excused.)
THE COURT: Call your next
witness.
MR. PEPPER: Plaintiffs call
Mr. J.J. Isabel.
JAMES JOSEPH ISABEL,
having been first duly sworn, was examined
and testified as follows:
DIRECT EXAMINATION
BY MR. PEPPER:
Q. Good morning, Mr. Isabel. If you
have trouble hearing me, please just stop me
and I'll speak louder. Thank you very much
for joining us this morning.
A. Yes, sir.
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Q. For the record, would you please
state your full name and address?
A. My name is James Joseph Isabel, 2344
Jackson Avenue, Memphis, Tennessee. Zip
38108-3236.
Q. Thank you, Mr. Isabel. I know you
haven't been well, and we do appreciate you
coming here. You were deposed in this case
on October 14th, and you were kind enough to
answer a range of questions at that time.
And I'm going to put those questions to you
this morning.
A. Okay, sir.
Q. What do you do now for a living,
Mr. Isabel?
A. Well, I'm retired. I'm seventy-four
years old, but I am an independent courier.
I pick up food like for Memphis Hardwood
Flooring five days a week, and I pick up
pagers, take them to get repaired and take
them back to the customer. That's all I do.
Q. And what did you do previously,
Mr. Isabel?
A. Starting which year?
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Q. Let's just go through the range of
jobs and work that you've done, if you can.
Just very quickly try to summarize for us.
A. Well, in '43 I was a sailor in the
Navy in a Pacific killing force, and let's
see, then I got out of the Navy. I went back
to CBHS and got my high school diploma. I
didn't have it before I went in the service,
and then I've driven trucks.
I've driven chartered buses. I
worked for Firestone at one time for six
months, and I worked for Vet cab, Hams --
Mike down at Yellow Cab and then Airport
Limousine. Hams owned Airport Limousine. I
met Jowers at Yellow Cab, and Airport
Limousine, they owned -- Hams might have
owned Airport Limousine, and they owned
something else too. Oh, it went from -- I
think we went from Yellow Cab --
Q. But basically you've done a lot of
driving?
A. Yes, yes.
Q. You drove chartered buses?
A. Right.
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Q. You drove taxi cabs, limousine
service?
A. Yes.
Q. That constituted the main part of
your life, didn't it?
A. A lot of it.
Q. And when did you meet Mr. Jowers as
you said?
A. I met Mr. Jowers at the Yellow Cab.
That was probably in about seventy -- around
'77 I would think.
Q. So you met him when you were involved
with Yellow Cab at the same time?
A. I was working at Yellow Cab with
Airport Limousine and Hams might have hired
Loyd to come down there and run I think the
whole operation or the biggest part of it.
Q. That's around 1977?
A. Yes.
Q. Did you come to know Mr. Jowers
pretty well?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. How often would you see him?
A. Oh, daily.
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Q. You saw him every day?
A. Five days out of seven.
Q. So five out of the seven days in that
period from 1977, you saw him?
A. Right, and sometimes over the
weekends if we had a holiday or something.
We would run the buses from the airport to
Millington.
Q. You saw him then as well?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. So you became quite friendly with
him?
A. Yes.
Q. Did you go on any chartered bus runs
with Mr. Jowers?
A. Yes.
Q. How many did you take with him, do
you recall? If you don't, it's all right,
but roughly?
A. Out of town probably four or five,
and in Memphis, a lot of them -- a lot of
school trips and trips.
Q. I know it's a long time ago and
you've had some medical problems even since
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the deposition.
A. Yes, sir.
Q. So I'm going to try to move you
through your testimony. Did you go on a trip
with Mr. Jowers over one St. Patrick's Day, a
chartered bus trip with him?
A. Yes. Loyd and I took two bus loads
of bowlers to Cleveland, Ohio, and that was
St. Patrick's Day. The reason I remember it,
we were drinking green beer.
Q. Do you remember what year that was?
A. Pardon?
Q. Do you remember the year? Which
St. Patrick's Day?
A. That had to be '79 -- '78 or '79, but
I'm saying '79.
Q. Around 1979?
A. It was winter because Lake Erie was
frozen over.
Q. Right. March 17th, 1979?
A. That's what I'm thinking.
Q. And that trip was to you said
Cleveland?
A. Yes.
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Q. In the course of that trip to
Cleveland, did you share a room with
Mr. Jowers?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. In a local hotel?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. And did you eat with Mr. Jowers?
A. Oh, yes.
Q. Share --
A. Did I eat with him?
Q. Did you eat?
A. Yes.
Q. Did you go to dinner with him? Did
you drink with him?
A. Yes.
Q. Were you together with him most of
the time?
A. Except when he was driving one bus
and I was driving the other one, yes, sir.
We would go to the same destination, and then
we'd usually meet and go and get something to
eat after we took care of the people.
Q. In the course of one evening on that
trip to Cleveland, did you have a discussion
DANIEL, DILLINGER, DOMINSKI, RICHBERGER, WEATHERFORD
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with Mr. Jowers about the assassination of
Martin Luther King?
A. Yeah, after we had gone and got the
bowlers, we went out and ate down on the
pier, a restaurant down there, and then we
went back to the hotel. And I took a
shower. I don't think Jowers took one then.
I took a shower, and I came out. And he was
sitting on the bed, and I sat down with my
back against the bathroom on the floor. And
for some reason, I just said -- I said, Loyd,
did you drop the hammer on Martin Luther
King. And he just kind of hesitated for a
moment or two, and he said you think you know
I did. I know what I did, but I'll never
admit it or tell it in a court of law. And I
said, oh, and I didn't mention it to him
again after that.
Q. Did you expect that reply?
A. Maybe, yeah.
Q. And when you asked him did you drop
the hammer on Martin Luther King, what were
you asking him?
A. If he fired the shot that killed him.
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Q. And his response again?
A. Pardon?
Q. And what was his response again to
that question?
A. Oh, he said you think you know who
did it, but I know who did it, but I'll never
admit it or tell it in a court of law.
Q. Did you ever raise the subject with
him again?
A. Huh-uh, no.
MR. PEPPER: No further
questions.
CROSS-EXAMINATION
BY MR. GARRISON:
Q. Mr. Isabel, you knew Mr. Jowers quite
well. The two of you were on trips together,
weren't you?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. And this is the only time that
subject ever came up was just the one time;
am I correct, sir?
A. The best I remember.
Q. He never admitted to you or anyone in
your presence he had anything to do with it
DANIEL, DILLINGER, DOMINSKI, RICHBERGER, WEATHERFORD
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or knew anything about it other than this one
time; am I correct, sir?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. All right. And on this time, both of
you were drinking, weren't you?
A. Uh, yes.
Q. You had been drinking a little beer;
am I correct, sir?
A. Well, the best way I can describe it,
I can get high on two beers and I had about
six. And Loyd is a pretty heavy toper. He
can handle it, and I would say he would drink
close to 20 beers or more.
Q. All right. Your question to him was
did you drop the hammer on Dr. Martin Luther
King, and that's your question?
A. Yes.
Q. He simply said you think you know who
did it, but I know who did it and I'll never
admit it. Is that basically what he said?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. But he never said he had anything to
do with it, did he?
A. No.
DANIEL, DILLINGER, DOMINSKI, RICHBERGER, WEATHERFORD
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Q. That's the only words he ever used --
A. Yes.
Q. -- that he knew who did it? Is that
right, sir?
A. Yes, sir.
MR. GARRISON: Okay. That's
all. Thank you.
MR. PEPPER: Nothing.
THE COURT: All right, sir. You
may stand down. You're free to leave or you
can remain in the courtroom.
THE WITNESS: Thank you.
MR. PEPPER: Thank you.
(Witness excused.)
THE COURT: Next witness.
MR. PEPPER: Your Honor,
plaintiffs call Mr. Jerry Ray to the stand.
JERRY WILLIAM RAY,
having been first duly sworn, was examined
and testified as follows:
DIRECT EXAMINATION
BY MR. PEPPER:
Q. Good morning, Mr. Ray.
A. Good morning.
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Q. Thank you for coming some distance to
be with us today.
A. Yeah, I'm glad to come down.
Q. Would you state your full name and
address for the record, please?
A. My name is Jerry William Ray, brother
of the late James Earl Ray, and I live in
Smart, Tennessee, 107 Short Street.
Q. Mr. Ray, you are the brother of James
Earl Ray?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Would you just describe for the Court
and the jury the circumstances in which you
were raised and lived as children?
A. We came up real poor during the
depression days. We lived out on the farm
most of the time, and that's when my
brothers -- they had a WPA and he just barely
got by until after the depression. And then
my daddy got a job on the railroad, and then
we were just average people then. But back
during the depression, everybody had it
bad -- anybody who can remember back then.
Q. How many children were there in your
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family?
A. There was nine all together.
Q. And where were you and James in that
constellation?
A. James was the first born, and then
they had a sister Marjorie and John, then I
was the fourth born. We had seven years age
difference.
Q. Seven years --
A. Yes.
Q. -- difference between the two of you?
A. Yes.
Q. And what grade did James go to in
school?
A. I'm not positive what grade. I think
he went to about a year of high school I
think, but I'm not positive of the grade he
went to.
Q. What did he do after that?
A. He went to -- he moved to Alton,
Illinois. See, we lived in a little town
outside of Quincy, Illinois named Ewing,
Missouri, and Alton, Illinois is about 100
miles from Ewing, Missouri. And my uncle
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lived in there and my grandmother lived
there, and they got him a job working at the
Tambery Room. He was fifteen or sixteen.
Q. And he held that job for how long?
A. He held that job -- I forget how long
it was until he went into the Army.
Q. And he had worked up until the time
he went into the Army?
A. Yeah, he worked every day up until
the time he went in the Army.
Q. What do you remember him doing after
he got out of the Army?
A. I don't remember all that much
because he didn't -- he came there a couple
times to visit my mother and my dad. We
lived in Quincy, Illinois. That's where I
was born, and that's where most of our
relatives are from. He come once in a while,
but I didn't see him that much.
Q. Mr. Ray, as you were growing up with
James, did you notice any signs -- obvious
signs of racism or hatred of black people?
A. No. It would be strange to have any
hatred because Ewing, Missouri was just a few
DANIEL, DILLINGER, DOMINSKI, RICHBERGER, WEATHERFORD
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hundred people, and I didn't never see one
black person in the town. It's just a little
bitty town, and Quincy, Illinois, where I
grew up, they had 42,000 people -- 2,000
blacks and 40,000 whites so I never even went
to school with one. See, and James didn't
either so you can't hate somebody unless you
something -- you know, do something to you.
Q. As he got older though and as you
associated with him, did you see any
hostility toward black people?
A. No, he never did have no hostility
toward any race -- not only blacks, but
Hispanics or anybody. What he tried to do is
live and let live.
Q. Now, he began to get in trouble at
various points in his life?
A. Yeah, after he got out of the Army.
Q. After he got out of the Army. What
was the reason for that? Do you understand
how --
A. No, nobody could understand that
because before he went to the Army, he was a
hard worker. And he went in the Army and
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after he came out of the Army, he just lived
the life of crime after that.
Q. How did he get involved with various
types of petty crimes and small time
criminals?
A. Unlike a lot of the media think, he's
easily -- if he makes friends with somebody,
he's easily led around too, see. And I know
he committed -- he robbed a post office
outside of Quincy, Illinois. This is back in
the fifties, and this Walter Rife was his
name. He's a ringleader. After he got him
to rob this post office -- I mean he's as
guilty as Walter Rife was for doing it, but
then he went on a cash spree. They stole all
his money and he got arrested in Kansas City,
Missouri. Then they sent him to the
Leavenworth Federal Prison.
Q. But where did he meet people like
Walter Rife?
A. He met him in Quincy, Illinois.
Quincy -- it was a real kind of a corrupt
town back in the fifties. They had a
write-up in the magazines about them.
DANIEL, DILLINGER, DOMINSKI, RICHBERGER, WEATHERFORD
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Everything was open, see -- gambling,
prostitution, everything. And I knew Walter
Rife and I knew his brother, Lonnie Rife, and
like I say, it's a small town. Only got
42,000 people in the town.
Q. Did James tend to hang out in bars?
A. Yeah, on Fifth Street in Quincy,
Illinois. That's where most of the main ones
was at, and then on Third Street, it was a
house of prostitution -- the whole Third
Street. So when you go up to the tavern,
most of the people you run into was pimps,
ex-convicts or something like that.
Q. Well, eventually he was sentenced and
he went away?
A. Yeah, he was sentenced to
Leavenworth, and I think he got out in 1958 I
think -- '58 or '59, and he was sentenced in
there -- I think he did a little bit over two
years in Leavenworth Federal Prison. Then he
got out, and then he met up with a guy named
Owens. Owens, he was an ex-convict and they
did several things. They robbed a Kroger
store, and then he got sent to Jefferson City
DANIEL, DILLINGER, DOMINSKI, RICHBERGER, WEATHERFORD
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for that.
Q. Do you know where he met Mr. Owens?
A. No, I don't because I wasn't in
St. Louis at that time. I don't know him.
Q. So he was sent to Jefferson City
Penitentiary?
A. Yeah, for 20 -- I think it was for 20
years.
Q. Now, did you visit him when he was in
the penitentiary?
A. I only visited him a couple times. I
didn't visit him much because I was working
up in -- we wrote all the time. I mean every
week we exchanged letters, but when I would
get down in that area, I would visit him.
But I didn't get to visit him that much.
Q. Well, he eventually escaped from
Jefferson City Penitentiary, didn't he?
A. Yes.
Q. He escaped in April of 1967?
A. Yes.
Q. Did you see him after he escaped from
prison?
A. Yeah. Well, I -- see, I didn't know
DANIEL, DILLINGER, DOMINSKI, RICHBERGER, WEATHERFORD
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he was going to escape, but my other brother
John had visited him the day before he
escaped. And James told him he was going to
escape and for him to come down and pick him
up and which John did. And John brought him
straight to Chicago, and we rented a room at
the Fairview.
I didn't know all this. They rented
the room, then they called me up. John
called me up, and I came in and we all stayed
at the Fairview that night. That's on South
Michigan Avenue in Chicago. So that was how
they escaped. Then after that, John went
back to St. Louis. We used to give James
$100 because he didn't have no money. He
escaped.
So John went back to St. Louis and
James -- and I went back to work the next
day. Then James got a paper and he found an
ad in there at Klinglens (spelled
phonetically) Restaurant in Winnetka, and
Winnetka is only a few miles from where I'm
at. And he went to work there, and we used
to meet every week or so at a bar there in
DANIEL, DILLINGER, DOMINSKI, RICHBERGER, WEATHERFORD
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North Brook, Illinois.
Q. Well, where were you working at the
time?
A. I was working at the Sportsman's
Country Club in North Brook, Illinois.
That's about five or seven miles from where
he was working at.
Q. And you would then see him from time
to time?
A. Yeah, every week or every other week.
Q. Did John have any more contact with
him?
A. No. Once John left us, you know, the
Fairview Hotel in Chicago, he never had no
contact with James until he got back to
Memphis. You know, when he was brought back
from England.
Q. You mean he had no contact with him
from the time he escaped to the time he was
captured?
A. Yeah, the day after James escaped,
John left and went back to St. Louis and I
went out to work. And John didn't ever have
no contact with him after that.
DANIEL, DILLINGER, DOMINSKI, RICHBERGER, WEATHERFORD
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Q. So were you the only family member
who had contact with James?
A. Yeah, the only one. He called me
every once in a while.
Q. During his fugitivity?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. How long did he stay at this job in
Winnetka?
A. Let's see, he stayed there close to
three months.
Q. What did he do after this job?
A. Well, he saved up a few dollars that
he could save up, and he bought an old car.
I think it was a '57 Dodge because he was
talking when he escaped, when John was there
too, when he got out, he had to get out of
the country, see, and he had to leave because
he had all this time to back up. And not
only the 20 years then for escape and
everything. So he told John -- John heard
that too, and he told me, he said I'm going
to try -- I'm going to save up some money and
go to Canada and try to figure out a way to
get out of the country. And so that's what
DANIEL, DILLINGER, DOMINSKI, RICHBERGER, WEATHERFORD
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he did. He saved up. He worked there about
three months and he bought an old junker, old
Dodge. Then I met him the night before he
took off and then he took off and went to
Canada.
Q. Do you recall the date that you met
him before he left for Canada?
A. No, I don't recall. It was about a
day before that he took off for Canada.
Q. Which month was it?
A. That was in July.
Q. Was it --
A. July of '67.
Q. Was it toward the end of July?
A. It was either the middle or late part
of July, and the only reason I know, my
birthday is the 16th, so it was a little bit
after that.
Q. Sometime after that?
A. Yeah.
Q. And he left and went to Canada?
A. And went to Canada.
Q. Did you have any contact with him
when he was in Canada?
DANIEL, DILLINGER, DOMINSKI, RICHBERGER, WEATHERFORD
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A. No.
Q. When was the next time you saw or
heard from your brother James?
A. Well, the next time I heard from him
and I can't, you know, quote the days because
I don't keep diaries or nothing, but I guess
it was about six, seven weeks afterwards.
And I think it was in September, probably
late September. He had this pay phone, where
I didn't have no phone in my room.
I worked at the country club where
you get room and board, and we had this pay
phone in the hallway. And he had the
number. That's how you get a hold of me.
Well, he called one day or one evening and
told me to come to Chicago because he knew my
day off. He arrived where so I would have
the day off. He said don't bring your car in
because I'm going to give you my car, and so
then -- so then I took a train.
They had the Northwestern that runs
in down in the loop and he met me down
there. And we spent the night together, had
breakfast together, and he was talking to
DANIEL, DILLINGER, DOMINSKI, RICHBERGER, WEATHERFORD
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me. And he was all happy and, hell, he was
-- he had plenty of money on him. So he
said I'm going to go down to Birmingham and
buy a late model car. He said you can have
this. He said I'm working now, and he
mentioned Raul.
I can't exactly remember how the
Raul came in. I worked for a guy named
Raul or something like that, but then he
said -- he had a big box of stuff. He said
take this to Union Station -- that's a
railroad station downtown Chicago -- and mail
this down to me at Birmingham and mail it to
Eric S. Galt. He said from now on I'll be
known as Eric S. Galt. And so that's what I
did, and he gave me the car. Then I took him
to the station, and later on I mailed that
stuff down to him as Eric S. Galt.
Q. So he came back from Canada. He had
a job so he told you.
A. He told me he had a job working down
there.
Q. He was working for somebody he met in
Canada?
DANIEL, DILLINGER, DOMINSKI, RICHBERGER, WEATHERFORD
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A. Yeah, and he mentioned his
name -- Raul.
Q. Somebody called Raul?
A. Yeah.
Q. Did he tell you what the job was?
A. No. I knew it was something
illegal. I figured it was dope or car theft
or something. You know, I didn't know what
it was, and I didn't actually care that much,
but I knew it was something illegal because
he was trying -- he said he was working this,
you know, this guy he called Raul to get
enough money so he could get out of the
country, you know, get out of Canada and the
United States totally.
Q. So he was doing -- taking on this
job, whatever it was, so that he could get
out of the country?
A. Yeah, get out of the country.
Q. That was the reason he went to Canada
in the first place?
A. Yeah, and I didn't actually -- I kind
of wish I had of now because, you know, I'd
know more to testify to, but I didn't know
DANIEL, DILLINGER, DOMINSKI, RICHBERGER, WEATHERFORD
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more about it. But right then I wasn't even
inquisitive because I knew he was doing
something illegal and then met some guy over
there and this guy is paying him to run dope
or whatever he's doing. And I don't even
think half the time he knew what he was doing
because they just had him drop a car off in
Mexico and drop one off in New Orleans.
Q. So after he saw you, you talked with
him in Illinois and he went to Birmingham,
did you have any contact with him over the
course of the next year?
A. Well, up until the time King got
killed, from the time we left Chicago when I
seen him last, he called me three times.
Q. And what did he say on those?
A. It wasn't nothing. It wasn't nothing
but just I'm working or asking how the family
is and this and that. And every call would
be under three minutes because I hear him put
the change in and the operator would never
come on. It would be less than three minutes
each call. So probably -- I probably talked
to him about six, seven minutes since the
DANIEL, DILLINGER, DOMINSKI, RICHBERGER, WEATHERFORD
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last time I met him when he left Chicago
until King got killed.
Q. That's the only contact you had with
him?
A. The only contact I ever had with him
after that.
Q. Have you ever known your brother
James over all the years you knew him when he
was free or when he was inside even --
A. Yeah.
Q. -- did you ever know him to engage in
violence?
A. Never. He never had. He never
had -- the most violent thing he ever did was
rob a store, you know, the Kroger store.
That's the most violent ever, but there never
was no violence used in that, you know. And
in fact, before that he was always, you know,
like a burglar. You know, like breaking in
and stealing money, but then when he got with
that -- I mentioned his name before --
Owens. Owens did robbery, see, so then he
went in on the robbery.
Q. In the course of this time when he
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was on the run after he returned to the
United States and those three phone calls
that you had with him, did he ever mention
Dr. Martin Luther King?
A. No. The King name never came up when
we was in the hotel when we met together and
stayed all night or in no phone calls. The
King name was never mentioned, and the last
thing James was thinking about was, you know,
Jackson or King or Kennedy or any of them
people because he was trying to stay out of
prison.
Q. So there was no mention of them?
A. No.
Q. Was there any mention of any activity
that he was being asked to do related to
Dr. King?
A. No, never nothing.
Q. Now, eventually he went to England,
was extradited and was imprisoned in the
United States?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Did you have more contact with him
after that?
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A. Oh, yeah, I was coming down here to
Memphis back in '68 when they brought him
back about every week, and I'd drive down and
we'd visit. And what they had -- like Mark
Lane said, he was treated worse than
prisoners of war, you know, the guys they
tried in Nuremberg. He had a TV set on 24
hours a day and the lights. They xeroxed all
of his mail, and they had him on TV all the
time, you know, hooked up. And so when we
would visit, he would have to write me notes
and flash them because otherwise they would
know everything that he knew.
Q. Did he give you the impression that
he was determined to go to trial?
A. He was determined. He was
determined. That's the only thing he wanted
was a trial because he said he'd have to go
to trial. He said only way I can, you know,
convince the people that I'm not guilty and
try to show the people where I'm at was take
a trial. That was the first trouble he had
with his first attorney Haynes because
William Bradford Huie told Haynes that James
DANIEL, DILLINGER, DOMINSKI, RICHBERGER, WEATHERFORD
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Earl Ray can't take the stand because if he
takes the witness stand, I don't have no
book. So that's when he replaced him.
Q. Well, there was a contractual
relationship between a book writer and his
first lawyer?
A. Yeah, Arthur Haynes went over to
England, the first attorney James had, and he
brought a contract over for him to sign that
he would represent him if he signed that
contract where he'd get all the royalties off
the books, you know. And so then William
Bradford Huie was the one that paid him the
money.
In fact, before he fired Haynes on
November 1st of 1968, I flew down to
Harpersville, Alabama and talked to Huie.
Huie paid my way down there because he wanted
another contact besides the attorney so he
was showing me these contracts, and he's
talking about changing them around where
James would get the money because his idea
was he'd pay your money. He'll even brag
that everybody has got their -- you know,
DANIEL, DILLINGER, DOMINSKI, RICHBERGER, WEATHERFORD
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paid.
And so I told him -- he told me, he
said the only thing is now you go back and
tell James he's not going to take the witness
stand because if he does, I don't have no
book. So I went back and told James you
ought to fire Haynes because Huie is running
the case.
Q. Well, the writer told you that James
shouldn't take the witness stand when he went
to trial?
A. Yeah, that was later on in a -- later
on in a phone conversation with the -- later
on in a conversation with Mark Lane --
Q. Well, we'll come to that
conversation.
A. Yeah.
Q. And in the event, James did not have
a trial?
A. No, he never had no trial.
Q. How did that come about when he was
so determined to have one?
A. Well, what he done when Arthur Haynes
told him he couldn't take the witness stand
DANIEL, DILLINGER, DOMINSKI, RICHBERGER, WEATHERFORD
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and James said that's the only way I can, you
know -- because he couldn't give these
lawyers like Haynes -- every time you give
him some information, a phone number or
something, he'd give it to Huie. And he said
how can I get a trial when they know
everything I'm going to testify to.
And so when he got rid of Arthur
Haynes, then he got Percy Foreman, and Percy
Foreman came in and said this is going to be
the easiest case I ever had in my life.
There's no evidence at all against him, and
he did that up until about a month before the
guilty plea.
Then he started crying saying
they're going to execute him, they're going
to do this, do this. And so James asked him
to resign from the case because he was
determined to go to trial anyway, and Foreman
wouldn't resign. And Judge Battle said if he
fired Foreman, he had to go to trial with a
public defender.
Q. So the result was that he didn't go
to trial?
DANIEL, DILLINGER, DOMINSKI, RICHBERGER, WEATHERFORD
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A. No, he didn't go.
Q. He pled guilty?
A. Yeah, Percy Foreman pled him guilty.
Q. I'm going show to you a letter,
Jerry, that was written to James Earl Ray by
Percy Foreman.
(Document passed to witness.)
Q. Take your time, please, and read it.
A. Yeah, I know all about this.
Q. What is the date of --
A. This is May the 9th --
Q. What is the date of that letter?
A. March the 9th, 1969.
Q. March what?
A. 9th.
Q. March 9th, 1969?
A. Yeah.
Q. And when was the guilty plea hearing?
A. Right around that time.
Q. If I may inform them, it was
March 10th. As a matter of fact, it was
March 10th --
A. Yeah.
Q. -- the following day.
DANIEL, DILLINGER, DOMINSKI, RICHBERGER, WEATHERFORD
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A. Yeah.
Q. And what is the purpose of that
letter from Foreman, his attorney, to James?
What does he tell him there?
A. Well, James told me -- you know, I
went down there when Foreman tried to get him
to plead guilty. And he said he's still, you
know, was fighting against it. He said what
I'll do, I'll have Percy Foreman to give you
$500 before I'll plead guilty. Then you can
go down and get another attorney to reopen
the case in which I used the money, the $500,
I flew down to New Orleans. This is even in
a book because the guy I went down to see
about an attorney, he didn't trust me. He
didn't know what I was coming down there for
so he notified the police and the FBI. And
we met in the park and the police was all out
in the park.
Q. Let's focus on this. This is a
letter from his counsel on the eve of trial,
and this letter offers you -- offers him
$500.
A. Yeah, if --
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Q. Under what conditions was he offered
$500 by --
A. Yeah, if he don't do no -- if he
pleads guilty and don't embarrass him in the
court. That was the agreement.
Q. And that $500 --
A. And he went along with the guilty
plea. He put in a guilty plea.
Q. We understand that $500 was to be
taken to hire a new lawyer to try to set it
aside?
A. Yes.
Q. Was there in fact an application to
set aside that guilty plea shortly
thereafter?
A. As soon as James got to Nashville, he
wrote a letter to Judge Preston Battle and
asked him to take the letter for motion for a
new trial and that Percy Foreman has been
relieved. And when Battle died a few
days -- I don't know, 20 days or whatever it
was after the guilty plea, he had three
letters from James asking for a trial.
MR. PEPPER: Your Honor,
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plaintiffs move admission of this letter.
(Whereupon, the above-mentioned
document was marked as Exhibit 19.)
Q. (BY MR. PEPPER) So he pled guilty and
was sentenced to 99 years. Did there come a
time when you had further contact with
William Bradford Huie?
A. Yes, back in -- I think October I
believe it was of 1977 when James Earl Ray
escaped from Brushy Mountain Prison. His
attorney then was Jack Kershaw, and I
knew -- I had known Mark Lane, an attorney.
And Playboy came out with a dirty story about
my brother so I recommended to James that he
get Mark Lane to represent him. So Mark Lane
took over the case. Just before he escaped,
the trial was supposed to start. That was in
October.
Q. Let me try to move you through to the
point at hand. Did you have a conversation
with William Bradford Huie around that time,
October of 1977?
A. Yes, sir. The day after the escape
trial, I called William Bradford Huie.
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Q. And James had been in prison then for
approximately eight years?
A. Yeah.
Q. And in the course of that
conversation, did Bradford Huie make an offer
to you --
A. He made --
Q. -- to take to James?
A. Yeah, he made an offer, and we got it
on tape. He made an offer that we taped for
$220,000 if I get him in to see James.
Q. Well, he wasn't paying $220,000 for a
visit.
A. No, no.
Q. What was the offer?
A. $220,000 if he would tell him about
killing King and he had to give him, you
know, a story about that he killed King and
that -- he said that's the only way a book
will sell if you write a book that he killed
King.
Q. What would James do with $220,000 if
he was in prison?
A. Well, he said that -- he explained
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that -- he started off with that Blanton was
the governor, and he said we get James out
through Blanton and you and James both can
live good in another country.
Q. So he was going to arrange a pardon?
A. Yes, through Governor Ray Blanton.
Q. Did you record that telephone
conversation?
A. Yeah, it was all taped. Me and Mark
Lane taped it.
Q. And was there a transcription of that
recording?
A. Yes.
Q. Let me show you this transcription.
(Document passed to witness.)
Q. Would you tell the Court and the jury
what is the heading of that transcription,
the date, time and place?
A. It's October 29, 1977, a.m. -- 9:45
a.m. Jerry William -- Jerry Ray or William
Ray, Bradford Huie, Oak Ridge, Tennessee,
rural Scottish Inn.
Q. Would you just look through that
transcription and see if you recognize it as
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the transcription that was made of the tape
recording of that conversation?
A. Yeah, that's it.
MR. PEPPER: Plaintiffs move the
transcription into evidence.
(Whereupon, the above-mentioned
document was marked as Exhibit 20.)
Q. (BY MR. PEPPER) What happened to the
tape of that conversation?
A. Mark Lane made the tape and he turned
the copy over to the House assassination
Committee that was investigating the King
assassination of Kennedy at the time, and he
kept the other one.
Q. So the House Select Committee on
Assassinations had a copy of that tape
recording?
A. Yes, had a copy of it.
Q. That same committee decided that
there was no Raul?
A. Yeah.
Q. Is that right?
A. That's right.
Q. And that in fact James got his money
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that he said Raul gave him from robbing a
particular bank in Alton, Illinois?
A. That's right.
Q. Did James rob that bank in Alton,
Illinois to the best of your knowledge?
A. No. I don't know who robbed that
bank. It's still unsolved. I know they had
claimed that me and James robbed the Bank of
Alton.
Q. They not only claimed that, there was
a front page, column one article in the New
York Times on the 17th of November 1978. I'd
like to show you that article.
(Document passed to witness.)
A. Yeah.
Q. Now, that article claims, does it
not, that the Times investigation, the FBI
investigation and the congressional
investigation all --
A. Yeah.
Q. -- concluded that you and your
brother robbed that bank?
A. Yeah, robbed that bank.
Q. Did you take any steps yourself as a
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result of those charges?
A. Well, what happened was I was in
St. Louis and James was testifying in
Washington in front of the assassination
committee, and they said we're going to prove
you and your brothers robbed the Bank of
Alton and used the money to finance the King
killing. So a friendly reporter there named
James Alber (spelled phonetically) -- Mark
Lane had called him the same day they accused
us when he got a recess from the
assassination committee and asked him to take
me over there and waive the statute of
limitations.
And so Alton, Illinois is only about
20 miles from St. Louis, Missouri. So we
drove over there and we went in the police
station. First, we went in the bank and they
had a different president then. And so then
we went down to the police station and I
turned myself in and waived the statute of
limitation so they could prosecute me. And
they said are you here to confess to the
crime. I said I can't confess to a crime
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that I didn't commit, but I said Congress
accused me of committing a crime so I'm here
to stand trial. He said you never was a
suspect.
Q. The police officials in Alton,
Illinois said you never were a suspect?
A. Never was a suspect.
Q. Did they ever explain to you how this
type of article got written?
A. No, no. They was mystified that, you
know, they even accused me of doing anything,
and so I don't know if it was FBI making
stuff up or where it's coming at. But it
became -- and like I say, I knew I couldn't
have been a suspect because I worked from '65
to '68 in the North Brook -- Sportsman's
Country Club in North Brook. Never was late,
worked six nights a week, never was late or
never missed a day.
Q. Did they tell you that they had been
interviewed by the New York Times?
A. No, they didn't say anything.
Q. There was no reporter from the New
York Times that interviewed them?
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A. Not that I know of.
Q. Did they tell you they had been
interviewed by a House Select Committee
investigator?
A. No.
Q. Did they tell you they had been
interviewed by the FBI?
A. No. As far as that, no, nobody had
ever talked to them about it as far as I know
because they didn't say anything about it to
me.
Q. Yet somehow this appears column one,
New York Times, byline Windell Walls, Junior.
A. Yeah.
Q. 17th of November.
A. See, I don't know if this has
anything to do with it, but in 1981, F. Lee
Bailey had a TV show called Lie Detector on
and they threw me out there. We did two lie
detector tests, and I got tapes of the test
put away. And one, if I was involved in the
King assassination and the one was was I
involved in any bank robberies. And we did
two shows and both showed I was innocent. I
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wasn't involved in no bank robberies or no
Assassinations.
Q. Mr. Ray, let me show you an FBI
air-tel dated on July 19th which supplements
one of 7-26-68, and it has to do with an FBI
review of all fingerprints related to bank
robberies at the time in question.
(Document passed to witness.)
Q. What is the conclusion of the
bureau's analysis of all of the fingerprints
of suspects at that time with respect to
James Earl Ray? This is a comparison of your
brother's fingerprints.
A. According to this, they took
fingerprints and it wasn't his. They
couldn't pick up his fingerprints.
Q. What's the last two or three words?
A. The last -- no identification
effected.
Q. And that was in '68?
A. That was in -- let's see, where is
it? 8-1-68 I think. Yeah, or 8-2-68.
Q. About a year after --
A. The bank was robbed.
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Q. -- the bank was robbed and some nine
years before the allegations again surfaced?
A. Yeah.
Q. Did you testify before the Select
Committee on Assassinations?
A. Yes, I testified.
Q. Did they raise this issue with you?
A. Yeah, they raised the bank robbery.
I couldn't believe it when they raised the
bank robbery. I told them, I said, what, are
you pulling a joke here? I said I've been
over to the bank and the police station and
turned myself in. Oh, we're not playing no
joke he said and so -- but then they
basically got off that bank. And at first,
he started on the banks and the races and all
this other stuff. Every time they had a
different reason the reason he killed King.
Q. Do you know what the House Select
Committee on Assassinations concluded with
respect to whether or not your brother was a
racist when racism was a motive in this
crime?
A. Yeah, even they admit that wasn't
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true, that he wasn't a racist. They went
through his background, our whole family
backgrounds, and they couldn't find nothing
in our backgrounds.
Q. Moving on, Mr. Ray, did it ever occur
to you in the course of your brother's
imprisonment, either to him or to you, to
contact the family of the victim in this
case?
A. I thought about the King family a lot
over the years, and in a way I wanted to, but
James -- I talked to James about it. He said
don't bother them people. He said they've
had, you know -- they've lost that. He said
they're liable to look at you and think
you're the brother of the murderer. He
didn't know how they felt, see, and it wasn't
until he was dying then a lady reporter from
the New York Times called me up. And I don't
remember her name.
And she asked me if I would talk to
the King family if I had a chance, and I said
sure I'd talk to them. And I told her the
same thing. I said if me and James ever
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talked to them, he goes we'd be out of order,
you know, trying to talk to them. And then
this reporter told Dexter or Coretta King
what I said and that's how we got talking
together.
Q. And that's how the communication
started?
A. Yeah, that's how the communication
started.
Q. Were you surprised when they took a
position in support of a trial for your
brother?
A. I was because I knew it was going to
hurt them bad because the government media,
they're going to really come down on them
like they come down on the Ray family. So it
surprised me because I knew for all these
years they've been getting good press, and
all at once, the press is going to turn
against them.
MR. PEPPER: Thank you, Mr. Ray.
THE WITNESS: Thank you.
MR. PEPPER: No further
questions.
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THE COURT: Let's see if
Mr. Garrison has any questions for you.
CROSS-EXAMINATION
BY MR. GARRISON:
Q. Mr. Ray, you and I have talked
previously a few times.
A. Yes, sir.
Q. And you understand we're here trying
to get the truth.
A. Yeah, that's what we're after, the
truth.
Q. Let the chips fall where they may.
You understand that, don't you?
A. Yes.
Q. Let me ask you something. Going back
to the time that your brother escaped from
prison, how long had he been serving then?
How long had he been in the prison there?
A. He had already been in seven years
and he had a 20-year sentence.
Q. And had he made some effort to escape
before this time?
A. Yes, he had tried to escape before.
Two or three times -- I forget exactly.
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Q. Did he ever state to you that he had
any contact or any influence with a warden of
that prison?
A. No, he never did. In fact, like I
said, I only visited him a couple times in
seven years at the prison. And John, I don't
know, my other brother, he visited him maybe
four or five times. But when I went down
there them two times, it was just a friendly
visit.
Q. And when he escaped, you said I
believe that you met him the next day?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. And where was that that you met him?
A. Well, John brought him up. John
picked him up when he escaped and he brought
him to the Fairview Hotel. That's on South
Michigan Avenue in Chicago.
Q. And his plan at that time was to get
a job and then try to get into Canada?
A. Yeah, he -- the next day -- we all
three stayed together that night, and the
next day John drove back to St. Louis and I
went back to North Brook. But before we did,
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we each give him $100.
Q. Okay. Mr. Ray, let me ask you
something. You -- after the assassination,
you talked to your brother I know several
times or at some time to confer with him?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Did you ever ask him who he thought
did the assassination?
A. Not completely. He knew some way
that they know who done it and that it's
being covered by the FBI, but he didn't know
who done it or why it was done. And
everybody got their own speculations and
that's why even until the day he died, he
fought to get these files released that's
locked up and won't be released for another
30 years. And Clinton said they could be
released, but they still won't release them.
Q. Why are those files sealed for 30
years? Have you been told?
A. Like James said before he died, they
didn't seal them files to protect me.
Q. Who sealed the files?
A. The assassination committee, they had
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them sealed and then I guess with Congress.
Q. Let me ask you, as you know, I've
spent two days taking your brother's
testimony in prison. Did you ever see him
with this person called Raul?
A. No, no, I never -- I only heard him
mention his name one time. That's when he
came back from Canada.
Q. Did you -- did he tell you that Raul
was financing him and helping him?
A. Yeah, he said he was working for
Raul.
Q. What kind of work was he doing for
Raul?
A. I don't know. I knew it was
something illegal. I assumed gun or drugs or
something because he's telling me about
taking them cars to different cities, you
know, and dropping them off so I figured it
was narcotics.
Q. Do you know -- did you have any
discussion with your brother before he
entered a guilty plea? Did you have any
conference with him about that?
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A. Yeah, I came down to visit him. See,
everything we said was taped so you have to
watch what you say and they got the lights
and everything because I didn't want to see
him plead guilty. I knew what struggle he
was on, but he told me too the last time I
seen him he still hadn't made up his mind.
He was still fighting to go to court, and he
told me that Foreman told him if he didn't
plead guilty, they was going to put my dad in
prison which my dad had jumped parole back in
the twenties and was going to charge me as
being an accessory to the murder.
Q. Let me ask you, did you know he was
going to escape before he did?
A. No, I didn't know that. John did. I
didn't.
Q. You had no knowledge?
A. No. I was working up in North
Brook. I was working there like I say six
nights a week.
Q. Did he ever mention to you as to how
he came up with these aliases that he had,
where he got those names from? He had
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several aliases.
A. No, I never did -- I knew a couple of
them -- a Harvey Lomar he used. I grew up
with a guy named Harvey Lomar, a friend of
mine in Quincy, Illinois, but the other one
like the Eric S. Galt and the Ramone Sneyd, I
didn't know how he got them.
Q. Mr. Pepper asked you about the
congressional committee. You testified in
that, didn't you?
A. Yes.
Q. All right. And the conclusion was
that your brother was the one that did the
assassination, wasn't it?
A. I think their conclusion -- if I
remember right, they claimed that he heard of
a $50,000 bounty while he was in the Missouri
prison and he went out and killed King but
didn't pick up the bounty and took off. That
was actually kind of a sad joke. Here you're
going to go out and commit a crime and all
this money spent traveling all over the world
and don't pick up the bounty. Yeah, there's
supposed to have been two guys, Sutherland
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and Kauffmann, in St. Louis supposed to have
been racists that put up the $50,000 bounty,
but they was both dead.
Q. Mr. Ray, had you ever heard anything
about a bounty from someone in Missouri on
Dr. King's life?
A. No. The only thing I heard is what
the assassination committee -- when they came
out, that's the first I heard of it.
Q. Did your brother ever mention to you
that he was ever in a place called Jim's
Grill at any time?
A. No, I don't -- see, the only thing I
can remember, he was telling me about where
he was at at the time that King got killed.
He was at a service station trying to get a
tire fixed, but he never did hardly mention
Jim's Grill to me. I'm not saying he wasn't
in there because I don't know.
Q. Let me ask you this. Did he tell you
that the day this happened that he had gone
up to this rooming house and had registered
as a guest, paid some money? Did he ever
tell you that or did he tell you what he was
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doing there?
A. Oh, yeah, he told me that I think it
was at the DeSoto Motel he had bought this
gun -- was in Birmingham I think it was. And
then he -- then Raul said it was the wrong
one and he had to take it back and get
another one, and he told him to meet him at
that motel in DeSoto. Then he picked the gun
up or Raul picked the gun up that night and
later on told him to rent a room on this
place on Main Street.
Q. Did he tell you that he had gone into
the rooming house and had taken any of his
clothing or personal items?
A. No, I didn't ask him what he brought
in there. I never did -- the only thing I
knew, he went in there and they had -- later
on that night had Raul and another guy in
there. And he said that Raul used his car a
lot, that Mustang, so Raul told him he
wanted to use the car later that time and he
wanted to talk to this guy, you know, by
himself anyway. So James told him, he said
I'll go get the tire fixed. He had a flat
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tire coming in, and that's when he went up to
get the tire fixed.
Q. He spent some time in Atlanta, did he
not, before the assassination?
A. Yeah. He lived in Atlanta. I can't
remember the name of the place he lived at,
but some apartment places in Atlanta.
Q. Okay. Mr. Ray, let me ask you this.
You're aware of the fact that after the
assassination, a map was found that your
brother owned that had a home, business and
another location where Dr. King stayed that
was supposed to be part of his property.
You're aware of that, aren't you?
A. Yeah, I've read that.
Q. Have you ever seen the map?
A. No. The only thing I know is what I
read. I read something that something was
circled -- a church or --
Q. A church and his office I believe was
circled.
A. Yeah.
Q. Did you ever see the Mustang that was
supposed to be driven by your brother -- the
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white Mustang?
A. No. I've never seen it in my life to
this day because I never did see James after
he left Chicago. Then when they took the
Mustang, I think they sold it to somebody
here in Memphis -- a car lot.
Q. After the assassination on April 4th,
1968, when did you hear from your brother
again? Did you talk to him any more after
that, the 4th?
A. No. After -- I can't remember for
sure. I think it was about two months before
the assassination. Then the next time I
talked to him is when they brought him back
from England to Memphis.
Q. So you had not talked to him from the
assassination up until he was brought back?
A. Until he was brought back. And
within a week after he was brought back, I
drove down and visited him.
Q. Did you know where he was during that
time?
A. Oh, no, no. See, the FBI would keep
me in their office all day long after they
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had discovered they was looking for James
Earl Ray. And the FBI, they would take me
downtown. I was working at night and in
there all day because the FBI told me if he
ever gets in touch with you, will you let us
know, and I said you'll know before I know.
Q. Well, did he ever mention anything
about the fact that this Raul had indicated
to him that they wanted to assassinate
Dr. King? Was anything ever said about that?
A. No, no, no. Huh-uh, no. He never
had got involved in anything like that -- no
murder or nothing like that. The only thing
he was trying to do was just make enough
money to get out of the country, and he said
that guy's paying him good.
Q. Mr. Raul was paying him?
A. Yeah. He only mentioned Raul's name
once by name, and right after that he said
he's paying him good. And I believe he was
talking about the same person.
Q. Let me ask you this. Mr. Ray was
never seen anywhere with this Raul that you
know of, was he?
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A. Well, I don't think Mr. Pepper
brought or Attorney Pepper brought this up,
but James sent me down twice -- once right
after the guilty plea. That's what that $500
was for, to go down to New Orleans, because
he'd meet Raul in the Bunny Lounge. That's
on Canal Street.
Q. What was the name of that?
A. The Bunny Lounge -- Bunny lounge.
And it's on Canal Street. And James told me
exactly where it was at, and I went in there
and had two barmaids -- and I mentioned
Raul, you know, like on a friendly term.
Otherwise, you get suspicion and they want to
know what's going on. And the barmaid hadn't
heard of Raul. Then I asked another one
about Randy -- Randy Rosenson because one
time after Raul used a car, when James got
it back, it had a card stuck down in the
side. And on it, it had Randy Rosenson's
name on there and a phone number. And so
then James sent me down again in about '72
and trying to run this guy down. So then
that's when a barmaid said, well, that's
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probably Randolph Rosenson.
So I go back, and James then -- she
says something about he lives in Miami. And
so then I go back in and James had me fly
down to Miami and go to check up on Randolph
Rosenson. They subpoenaed him in front of
the assassination committee, but I don't know
what the outcome was. But anyway, his card
was found in James' Mustang after Raul used
it one time.
Q. When your brother testified before
the assassination committee, were you there
present?
A. No, I was in St. Louis. I watched it
on live TV.
Q. Were you surprised that he entered a
guilty plea?
A. Yeah, I was. I was. I was. Most
people -- I've talked to a lot of people that
in a way don't believe he's guilty, but why
would he plead guilty to something like this
if he didn't do it and --
Q. Did you ever ask him that very
question?
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A. Yeah, well, he kicked himself after
he got out of that place they had him in,
see, and he said that's the worse mistake I
ever made in my life because it's hard to
overturn. But like Mark Lane and them talked
about that.
That was worse where he was at than
the Nazis they put on trial in World War II
after Nuremberg because they had the lights
on, the heat on, they had a policeman in
there with him 24 hours a day and he'd
breathe everything he done. And he couldn't
get no visitors. If he did, he had to write
notes to them unless you wanted the state to
know what he was talking about. Then on top
of that, Foreman said they were going to put
me in prison and put my dad in prison if he
didn't plead guilty.
Q. Did you ever know that your brother
owned a rifle of any type? Did you ever know
of any type rifle he owned?
A. No, huh-uh. He wasn't a good shot
anyway, see, if he shot anything. I think
they classify you when he went in the Army
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and he was a poor shot.
Q. Mr. Ray, was your brother in Los
Angeles some of this time after he escaped
from the Missouri prison?
A. Yeah, he spent time -- I didn't know
about it at the time. I found out later he
was out in L.A. a lot.
Q. But you learned he was in Los Angeles
some of the time?
A. Yeah.
MR. GARRISON: That's all, Your
Honor.
THE COURT: All right.
MR. PEPPER: Nothing further,
Your Honor.
THE COURT: All right. Mr. Ray,
you may stand down. You can remain in the
courtroom or you're free to leave.
THE WITNESS: Okay. Thank you.
(Witness excused.)
THE COURT: At this point we're
going to take break.
(Jury out.)
(Break taken at 11:40 a.m.)
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THE COURT: Let's bring the
jury out, please, sir.
(Jury in at 12:07 p.m.)
THE COURT: Call your next
witness.
MS. AKINS: Good morning, Your
Honor. We have two statements -- FBI
reports, 302's. Both are taken or one taken
April 25th, 1968.
Mr. Ray Alvis Hendrix, Room 14, Fox
Hotel, 106 Vine Street, Memphis Tennessee,
advised that he is employed by the Corps of
Engineers, U.S. Government on the Dredge
Oakerson. Mr. Hendrix stated he worked about
six months in nice weather and is off the
other six months of the year.
Mr. Hendrix stated that on the
evening of April the 4th, 1968, he and Bill
Reed, who resides in Room 4 of this hotel,
ate their dinner at Jim's Grill located at
418 South Main Street, Memphis, Tennessee.
He stated they left the grill at
approximately 5:30 p.m. and slowly walked to
the Fox Hotel. He said they walked on the
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east side of South Main Street.
Mr. Hendrix commented that when they
left Jim's Grill he forgot his jacket and had
to return for the jacket. He said he learned
later that while he was getting his jacket,
Bill Reed looked at a white Mustang that was
parked almost in front of Jim's Grill. He
said he did not notice this Mustang or any
other cars parked in front of Jim's grill.
He stated, however, that when he and
Bill Reed approached the intersection of
Vance and South Main Street, Bill Reed pulled
him back to the curb because the car was
turning the corner. He said this car was a
white Mustang and that after the car turned
the corner Bill Reed commented to him that
this was the Mustang that was parked in front
of Jim's Grill which he looked at while he,
Hendrix, was retrieving his jacket.
Mr. Hendrix stated he did not see
who was in the car but believes there was
only one person. He said he could not
describe him and would not be able to
identify the driver of this car.
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Mr. Hendrix stated that as they were
returning to their rooms or possibly or just
entering their rooms, they heard sirens in
the immediate area and going south on South
Main Street. He said he later learned that
the sirens were from police cars that were
going to the scene of the murder of Martin
Luther King. He said as near as he can
recall, he heard the siren about 6:00 p.m. or
just a few minutes after 6:00 p.m. on
April the 4th, 1968.
Mr. Hendrix stated that the Mustang
had turned the corner and proceeded east on
Vance Street, did not turn the corner very
fast or made the tires squeal. He said he
did not watch which way the Mustang turned or
how far it traveled on Vance Street.
Mr. Hendrix also stated he could not
furnish any information as to the cars parked
or traveling in the immediate area of Jim's
Grill at the time that he and Bill Reed
left. He also stated he could not furnish
any information concerning individuals in the
immediate area of Jim's Grill at the time he
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left to return to his room.
THE COURT: What's Mr. Hendrix's
first name?
MS. AKINS: Ray Alvis Hendrix.
THE COURT: Thank you.
MS. AKINS: Your Honor, the
second statement, also FBI report number 302,
was taken April the 15th, 1968, by
Mr. William Zinny Reed. These are pages 66
and 67.
Room 6, Clark Hotel, 106 Vance
Street, Memphis, advised he is employed as a
salesman for a photography firm and is
currently working in the Memphis area. Mr.
Reed stated that on April the 4th, 1968, he
and Ray Hendrix stopped at Jim's Grill, 418
South Main Street for something to eat. He
said he was in Jim's Grill for some time and
feels that he arrived there at approximately
4:30 p.m. and believes that he left between
5:15 p.m. and 5:30 p.m.
He said when he left, he picked up
his hat and he and Ray Hendrix paid their
check and left Jim's Grill. He said that
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they left the entrance of Jim's Grill and
proceeded north on South Main Street for 10
feet when Ray Hendrix remembered he left his
jacket in Jim's Grill. Mr. Reed stated he
waited in front of Jim's Grill while Hendrix
went back for his jacket.
He commented that while waiting, he
looked and saw a white Mustang was parked
near the entrance of Jim's Grill. Mr. Reed
stated he does not have a car and is in the
market for a car and was considering buying a
Mustang and therefore he looked this car
over. He said he believed the car was an off
white color, that it was not dirty but was
not exactly clean either.
He said he believes this car had not
been recently washed. He said he does not
recall the color of the interior but believes
that it was a dark color. He said he does
not recall seeing anything inside the car
other than five cartons lying on the back
seat. He described these cartons as being
the size of a tin package cigarette carton.
He said these cartons were red and
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white in color, but does not remember any
lettering on the cartons nor does he remember
whether the white or the red was dominant.
He said when he saw these cartons he felt
that the owner of this car was probably a
traveling salesman -- that the owner of this
car was probably a traveling salesman.
Mr. Reed stated he does not know
whether or not any stickers were in the
window of this car and he did not look at the
license. He said he does not recall if the
Mustang had whitewall tires and if it had
wheel covers.
Mr. Reed stated that after Hendrix
obtained his jacket from Jim's Grill, they
proceeded north on South Main and walked on
the east side of South Main Street. He said
when they arrived at the intersection of
Vance and South Main, he was about ready to
walk off the curb when for some unknown
reason he looked around to see if there were
any cars coming. He said as he looked back,
he saw a white Mustang about ready to turn
the corner and go east on Vance from South
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Main Street.
He said he does not know if this is
the same car he saw parked in front of Jim's
Grill but added it seemed to be the same
car. He said he did not see who was in the
car but believes it was a white male with a
white shirt, but does not recall if this
individual had a tie or hat on. He said he
had the impression this person was not young
but was not old. He said he would have no
way of estimating the age of this person.
Mr. Reed said the Mustang proceeded east down
Vance Street. He has no idea where the car
went after it turned the corner.
Mr. Reed stated that he went to his
room and that he had been in his room for
quite some time, possibly as much as 15
minutes when he heard numerous sirens in the
immediate area going down toward Jim's
Grill. He said he learned later that Martin
Luther King had been shot and that the sirens
he heard were from officers going to that
immediate area.
Mr. Reed advised he could not
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furnish any additional information concerning
any cars parked on the street or any people
in that immediate area.
Your Honor, we move that these
statements be marked as plaintiffs' exhibits.
THE COURT: You want to do them
as collective or marked separately?
MS. AKINS: They can be
collective, Your Honor.
THE COURT: Please mark them as
Collective 21.
(Whereupon, the above-mentioned
documents were marked as Collective Exhibit
21.)
THE COURT: Also, ladies and
gentlemen, the new face that you see with
Mr. Pepper and his group is Mr. Dick
Gregory. All right. Call your next witness.
MR. PEPPER: Thank you, Your
Honor. Your Honor, plaintiffs call
Lieutenant Willie B. Richmond.
WILLIE B. RICHMOND,
having been first duly sworn, was examined
and testified as follows:
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DIRECT EXAMINATION
BY MR. PEPPER:
Q. Good afternoon, Mr. Richmond.
A. Good afternoon.
Q. Thank you for joining us here this
afternoon. Would you state your full name
and address for the record, please?
A. Willie B. Richmond.
Q. And your address?
A. 1411 Favell Drive, Memphis,
Tennessee.
Q. What is your present occupation,
Mr. Richmond?
A. I'm retired.
Q. And where were you employed
previously?
A. Memphis Police Department.
Q. And when did you first join the
Memphis Police Department?
A. February the 1st -- February the 2nd,
1965.
Q. Nineteen sixty --
A. Five.
Q. Five. And when did you officially
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retire?
A. April 26, 1997.
Q. So you're a long-standing police
officer?
A. Thirty-two years.
Q. And what was your final rank?
A. Captain.
Q. You reached captain. Now, on the
occasion of the sanitation workers' strike in
February and March and April of 1968, during
those turbulent times, what was your
assignment in the police department?
A. I was assigned to the Internal
Affairs Bureau at that time during the
sanitation strike.
Q. Would you be kind enough just to pull
that mike a little closer to you?
A. (Witness complies.)
Q. You were assigned to internal
affairs?
A. That's correct.
Q. And what did that assignment entail?
What did it mean to be assigned to internal
affairs?
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A. Observe workers to see if any trouble
was going to come up.
Q. Did there come a time when you were
assigned to a surveillance post in the fire
station number two on South Main Street?
A. If that was the one that was at
Calhoun and Main, it was.
MR. PEPPER: All right. Why
don't we just pull that out so we refresh
Captain Richmond's memory.
(Map exhibit set up.)
MR. PEPPER: Permission to
enter, Your Honor?
THE COURT: Yes, sir.
Q. (BY MR. PEPPER) Mr. Richmond, this is
the fire station we're talking about here
(indicating) which is on South Main on the
corner of Butler and South Main. Do you
recognize it?
A. Yeah, that's it. Butler and South
Main.
Q. All right. And where were you on
surveillance duty when you were assigned
here?
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A. I was in the back where the sleeping
quarters is next to Mulberry Street. There's
a sleeping quarters back there.
Q. Back here in the rear of the fire
station?
A. Right.
Q. And where were you looking in
particular during your surveillance duty?
A. I was looking at the parking lot area
to the Lorraine Motel.
Q. But from here across to the Lorraine
Motel?
A. Right.
Q. Do you recall when you started, when
you took up that position first?
A. That particular day, I had gone out
that morning -- but I came back -- to take a
blood test because I was getting married that
coming Sunday.
Q. All right.
A. And I went back down there later on
that evening about maybe 2:30, 3:00.
Q. You came back around 2:30, 3:00?
A. Correct.
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Q. And you then resumed your
surveillance?
A. Correct.
Q. Were you alone or did you have a
partner with you?
A. I had a partner.
Q. And who was that?
A. Detective Redditt.
Q. So the two of you shared that duty?
A. That is correct.
Q. Did there come a time that afternoon
when you were left alone on duty?
A. When I had finished my blood test, I
went back to the office, internal affair's
office, and I was told to go down to the
station to relieve Redditt because he had
been threatened.
Q. So you were told at that point to go
down to the station and relieve him. He was
going to be relieved of responsibility, taken
off?
A. Correct.
Q. And you were going to continue the
surveillance by yourself?
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A. That is correct.
Q. To whom did you report when you were
carrying out this surveillance activity?
A. I called the office and usually I
talked to -- it was then Captain Gerald Ray
or Inspector Time (phonetic), and I can't
remember which one I talked to now.
Q. But you would speak with one of those
two officers?
A. One of the two. Most of the time it
was Ray.
Q. Captain Richmond, let me pass this
report to you.
(Document passed to witness.)
Q. Do you recognize this document?
A. Well, it looks like the statement I
gave on April the 9th, 1968 to Lieutenant
J.D. Hamby.
Q. Right. This is a statement you gave
to Lieutenant J.D. Hamby on April 9th, 1968?
A. That is correct.
Q. Now, this retraces your activity on
this surveillance duty from April 3rd through
the assassination; is that correct?
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A. That is correct.
Q. If you'll turn over to page 2, we're
still on April 3rd. Is there anything of
particular notice or moment that's taken
place on April the 3rd that you can see?
A. No, sir, not in particular.
Q. You see a reference to the Invaders
about midway down that page? Reference to
the Invaders occupying rooms 315 and 316?
A. I see it.
Q. Were the Invaders of particular
interest to you at that time?
A. No, sir.
Q. You were just commenting that they
were there?
A. That's it.
Q. Now, when Dr. King arrived in the
city for that last visit, were you at the
airport?
A. I was.
Q. Did you have a conversation with
anyone connected with either his group or
with the local clergy having to do with
security or protection for him on that last
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visit?
A. I didn't, but my partner did.
Q. Your partner did. Were you present
when that conversation was taking place?
A. I was there.
Q. And with whom was the conversation?
A. I believe he spoke with Reverend
Kyles.
Q. Reverend Samuel Kyles?
A. Right.
Q. And what was the gist of the
conversation with respect to security
protection for Dr. King?
A. At that time we was told that
Dr. King hadn't wanted any police protection.
Q. You were told that Dr. King didn't
want any protection.
A. Police protection.
Q. Any police protection. And this was
told to you in this conversation by Reverend
Kyles?
A. I think it was Reverend Kyles. I'm
not sure, but I believe it was Reverend
Kyles. He was the one that said it I
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believe.
Q. He was the one who said it you
believe?
A. Uh-huh.
Q. Were you familiar with what position
Reverend Kyles held in Dr. King's
organization?
A. No, I was not.
Q. And you didn't know he held no
position in Dr. King's organization?
A. I did not.
Q. If you'll move on to page 3 of your
statement, Captain Richmond, about two-thirds
of the way down the page, do you notice your
note? And I'll read it. "At 2:05 p.m.
Reverend Samuel Kyles arrived and went to
room 307 and departed at 2:23 p.m." You see
that note?
A. Yes.
Q. Do you know who was in room 307 at
that time?
A. Well, at that time, no, I did not.
Q. Let's move on to page 4, please.
A. (Witness complies.)
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Q. The first full paragraph. Would you
read the first full paragraph starting at "at
approximately 5:50 p.m." to us, please?
A. Okay. It says, "Approximately 5:50
p.m., John Smith, Milton Max, Charles Cabbage
and one female colored and approximately six
or seven more of the Invaders opened the door
of their rooms, and I could see them
gathering their belongings. They then
brought them down the stairs and placed them
in the trunk of a light blue Mustang, license
number BL 3750, and they left the motel.
They was going west on Butler to Main."
Q. If I could just interrupt you there.
So at 5:50 p.m., your eye witness recording
sees the Invaders just bustling out of --
hustling out of that motel, leaving the
hotel?
A. They left.
Q. And that's within 11 minutes of the
shooting?
A. Approximately.
Q. Would you continue reading the next
paragraph, please?
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A. "Immediately after the Invaders left,
the Reverend Samuel Kyles came out of room
312 and went to the room where Martin Luther
King was living. He knocked on the door and
Martin Luther King came to the door. They
said a few words between each other and
Reverend Martin Luther King went back into
his room closing the door behind him, and the
Reverend Samuel Kyles remained on the porch."
Q. Right. So you're telling us there
from your eye witness report that Reverend
Kyles knocked on Martin Luther King's door at
about ten minutes to six or shortly after ten
minutes to six, said a few words to Dr. King
after he opened the door. Then when the door
was closed, Dr. King went back into his room
and Reverend Kyles remained on the -- you
call it the porch, but on the balcony?
A. The balcony.
Q. Now, a little further down in the
next paragraph, you record Martin Luther King
coming out onto the balcony. Do you see that
reference there? And if you could read from
the words "at this time the Reverend Martin
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Luther King returned. " Do you see that?
A. I see it.
Q. Would you read that note, please?
Middle of the next paragraph.
A. Okay. "At this time Reverend Martin
Luther King returned from his room to the
gallery and walked up to the handrail. The
Reverend Kyles was standing off to his
right. This was approximately 6 p.m. At
this time I heard a loud sound as if it was a
shot and saw Doctor Martin Luther King fall
back on the handrail and put his hand up to
his head.
At 6:01 p.m., April 4th, 1968, I
reported this to the inspection bureau. I
returned to remain there and keep
surveillance. Also, here now and at the time
I heard the shot, the men of the tact squad
which consists of the sheriff deputy and the
Memphis police department was in the fire
house number four. I immediately hollered to
them I believe that King has been shot.
At this time the men of the tact
squad scramble out of the fire house
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immediately going in all different
directions. Some went to the hotel. Some
went down the street. Later, the fire
department ambulance arrived approximately
five minutes later and departed to the
hospital with Reverend King."
Q. That's fine, you can stop there.
These were your recollections at the time
contemporaneously as you observed what was
going on at the Lorraine; is that right?
A. Correct.
Q. Nowhere in these notes do you record
Reverend Kyles going into Reverend King's
room 45 minutes, an hour before the shooting,
do you?
A. No, I don't.
Q. And if he had done so, is it fair to
say that you would have recorded this entry?
A. I recorded pretty much everything
that went on. I don't have my notebook now,
but we carried little small notebooks.
Q. Right.
A. And I wrote everything down as I saw
it.
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Q. As you saw it?
A. As I saw it.
Q. That was your duty.
A. Correct.
MR. PEPPER: Thank you very
much, Captain Richmond. Plaintiffs move
admission of Captain Richmond's report into
evidence, Your Honor.
THE COURT: All right, 22.
(Whereupon, the above-mentioned
document was marked as Exhibit 22.)
MR. PEPPER: Nothing further.
CROSS-EXAMINATION
BY MR. GARRISON:
Q. Captain Richmond, let me ask you a
couple of questions. I notice on this same
report that you were just reading from you
were asked a question, did you see anything
suspicious, anyone acting boldly, and your
answer was that you did not see anyone acting
with suspicion or anyone that created any
concern to you; am I correct, sir?
A. That is correct. I didn't.
Q. Sir?
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A. I did not.
Q. You also were asked for your
impression of where the shot came from, and
you said it sounded to you like it came from
the northwest side of the fire station toward
the street side?
A. That's exactly where it sounded like
it came from to me.
Q. It sounded like the north/northwest
from the police station? That's what you
said in this report I believe.
A. Yes, uh-huh.
Q. And that's where you thought it came
from at first, isn't it?
A. I have no idea where it came from.
That's what it sounded like to me.
MR. GARRISON: That's all I
have.
MR. PEPPER: Nothing further,
Your Honor.
THE COURT: All right. You may
stand down, sir. You can remain in the
courtroom or you're free to leave.
THE WITNESS: Thank you.
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(Witness excused.)
THE COURT: Do you have a short
witness?
MR. PEPPER: I'm afraid not.
THE COURT: All right. Then
we'll take our lunch break and we'll resume
at 2:00.
(Jury out.)
(Lunch recess taken at 12:35 p.m.)
THE COURT: Bring the jury in,
please.
(Jury in at 2:15 p.m.)
THE COURT: All right. We're
ready to proceed.
MR. PEPPER: Thank you, Your
Honor. Your Honor, plaintiffs call as their
next witness Mr. Douglas Valentine.
DOUGLAS VALENTINE,
having been first duly sworn, was examined
and testified as follows:
DIRECT EXAMINATION
BY MR. PEPPER:
Q. Good afternoon, Mr. Valentine. Thank
you for making this journey, being with us
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this afternoon. Would you please state for
the record your full name and address?
A. My name is Douglas Valentine, and I
live in Longmeadow, Massachusetts.
Q. Thank you. And what do you do for a
living, Mr. Valentine?
A. I'm a writer -- a twice published
writer.
Q. And what is your specialty of writing
and research?
A. The intelligence operations of the
United States Government.
Q. Would you tell us some of the books
that you have written?
A. I've had two books published. The
first was titled The Hotel Tacloban. It was
about my father's experiences as a prisoner
of war in World War II. That book was
published in 1984, '85 and '86. My second
book was called The Phoenix Program, and that
was published in 1990 and 1992.
Q. Would you summarize for us what the
scope and the concern of The Phoenix Program
was?
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A. The Phoenix Program was created by
the CIA in Vietnam in 1967 as part of a
recognition that the war could not be won
militarily and that a second other war had to
be waged against what was called the Vietcong
infrastructure which was a jargon for the
shadow government of the Vietcong.
Q. Now, in the course of your research
and work with respect to the Phoenix Program
and that book, did you come upon information
that has a bearing or is relevant to this
case?
A. Yes, I did. I interviewed hundreds
of people who participated in the Phoenix
Program, including military intelligence
personnel officers and enlisted men who were
assigned to the Phoenix Program in Vietnam.
Some of these military intelligence personnel
upon returning to the United States were
assigned to military intelligence groups in
the Continental United States and began to
conduct surveillance and Phoenix type
operations against anti-war demonstrators and
people in the Civil Rights Movement.
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Q. What was the range of activities that
these groups were involved in?
A. The military intelligence groups
actually had lists of prominent members of
the anti-war movement and the Civil Rights
Movement. Particularly they focused on
Vietnam veterans against the war, but they
had an entire range of targeted individuals
that they surveilled, including such
well-known people as Abbie Hoffman and Jerry
Rubin. But they also acted as agent
provocateurs in demonstrations that would
insight riots at demonstrations in order that
the police could be called in and arrest
individuals.
Q. And break up demonstrations?
A. Break up demonstrations that the
military intelligence personnel had started,
some of the problems that they had started
themselves.
Q. Now, the military intelligence
structure covered the entire Continental
United States, did it not?
A. That's right. There were seven
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military intelligence groups in the
Continental United States spread pretty much
evenly across the country.
Q. And the one that was connected with
this region in the southeast was the 111th
military intelligence group?
A. That's correct.
Q. Was there any particular information
that you happened to come upon with respect
to the 111?
A. Yes, and I included a passage in my
book in The Phoenix Program about that. One
of the intelligence -- military intelligence
individuals who had been in the Phoenix
Program in Vietnam came back to the United
States afterwards and worked in a military
intelligence group -- another one, not the
111. But there was common knowledge within
all of the military intelligence groups about
each other's activities.
And this individual heard a rumor at
the time that the 111th military intelligence
group had been conducting 24-hour a day
surveillance of Martin Luther King and that
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they had actually been in Memphis on April
4th, 1968 and had taken photographs of the
assassination of Martin Luther King.
Q. So the scuttlebutt or the rumor was
that there had been 111th military
intelligence group officers in Memphis at the
time of the assassination in a vantage point
with cameras running?
A. That's right.
Q. And that they actually captured the
assassination on film?
A. That's correct.
Q. Have any of those photographs ever
surfaced to the best of your knowledge?
A. Not to my knowledge.
Q. Did you speak with more than one
source with respect to their existence?
A. No, I did not. I spoke with one
source.
Q. With one source. Now, could you give
us an overview of another intelligence group,
the 902nd military intelligence group and
what you learned about that organization?
A. I thought I knew a lot. I thought I
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knew almost everything about the various
military intelligence groups, but I didn't
learn about the 902nd until 1996 in the
course of researching the book that I'm
writing now which is a book about federal
drug law enforcement. And I did an
individual -- an interview with an individual
named Phillip Manual who in 1975 was a staff
investigator for the Senate Subcommittee on
Permanent Investigations.
And in the course of interviewing
Mr. Manual, I asked him about his background,
and he said he had been in the 902nd military
intelligence group. So in the course of my
interview with him, this was interesting to
me so we temporarily digressed from the
subject that I was interviewing him about and
he explained -- I asked him about the 902nd,
and he refused to discuss the subject. He
said it was a very secret organization and he
had promised not to talk about it.
So I subsequently filed a Freedom of
Information Act request for information about
the 902nd. And I filed that Freedom of
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Information Act request in October of 1996,
and I received a unit history from the United
States Army on the 902nd. And that's --
having read that unit history is basically
the extent of my knowledge of the 902nd.
Q. Right. That was published by the
Department of Defense?
A. By the United States Army, and it was
published in 1994 as a 50-year anniversary
unit history. The 902nd was created in 1944,
and this history was written in 1994 as a
50-year commemorative exercise.
Q. Do you know where the 902nd military
intelligence group was based in 1968?
A. I believe it was based in Washington
D.C.
Q. Do you know that Mr. Phillip Manual
was here in Memphis on April 4th, 1968?
A. I know that, yes.
Q. Do you know what his role was here in
Memphis on April 4, 1968?
A. What I know about his role here, I
gathered from having read Orders to Kill Him
(sic).
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Q. What did you gather was his role?
A. That he had arrived in Memphis I
believe on April 3rd, and on April 4th at
3:00 -- between 3:00 and 4:00 p.m., he met
with a lieutenant from the Memphis Police
Department. And I believe that man's name
was Arkin. And based on what Mr. Manual told
Lieutenant Arkin, Lieutenant Arkin went to
the fire station where a Memphis Police
Department officer named Redditt was
stationed and was observing the Lorraine
Hotel, and Lieutenant Arkin asked that
Mr. Redditt leave his post and return to
police headquarters.
Q. Have you subsequently tried to locate
Mr. Phillip Manual?
A. Yes, I have.
Q. Have you had any success in finding
him?
A. No, I have not.
Q. Any trace of him whatsoever?
A. None whatsoever.
MR. PEPPER: Thank you. Nothing
further, Your Honor.
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CROSS-EXAMINATION
BY MR. GARRISON:
Q. Mr. Valentine, you said at
some -- the 111th was photographing the
assassination? Is that information you
obtained?
A. That's what I was told, yes.
Q. Did anyone ever tell you who the
assassin was? Did they determine that?
A. Nobody ever told me who the assassin
was.
MR. GARRISON: Thank you.
MR. PEPPER: Just one further,
Your Honor.
REDIRECT EXAMINATION
BY MR. PEPPER:
Q. Mr. Valentine, did you ever ascertain
what was the actual vantage point from which
those photographs were taken in your own
investigative work?
A. No, but what I was -- I'm sorry.
Q. From your own personal investigative
work, your own knowledge, did you ever
ascertain that?
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A. No, I did not.
MR. PEPPER: Thank you very
much. Nothing further.
(Witness excused.)
MR. PEPPER: Plaintiffs call
next Mr. Carthel Weeden.
CARTHEL WEEDEN,
having been first duly sworn, was examined
and testified as follows:
DIRECT EXAMINATION
BY MR. PEPPER:
Q. Good afternoon, Mr. Weeden.
A. Good afternoon.
Q. Thank you for joining us here today.
A. Okay.
Q. Would you state for the record,
please, your full name and address?
A. Carthel Weeden, 6732 Tunger Ridge
Drive, Olive Branch, Mississippi.
THE COURT: Could you please
spell Carthel?
A. C A R T H E L.
THE COURT: Thank you, sir.
A. Need me to spell Weeden?
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W E E D E N.
Q. (BY MR. PEPPER) Mr. Weeden, what do
you currently do for a living?
A. I got a little construction company.
Q. Are you basically retired?
A. Well, I am from one job.
Q. What is the job that you're retired
from, Mr. Weeden?
A. Memphis Fire Department.
Q. And when did you join the Memphis
Fire Department?
A. 1951.
Q. When did you retire?
A. July 7, 1982.
Q. That's a long career.
A. Yes, sir.
Q. What was your position from beginning
to end in the Memphis Fire Department?
A. I started as a private. I finished
as a district chief.
Q. So you went all the way --
A. I went all the way through the ranks.
Q. All the way up.
A. Yes, sir.
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Q. And in 1968, where were you
stationed?
A. Fire station number two.
Q. Fire station number two.
A. Main and Butler.
MR. PEPPER: We're going to put
up the graphic just so we fix this location.
(Map exhibit set up.)
THE WITNESS: I guess I'll have
to put on these to be able to see that far.
MR. PEPPER: Your Honor, may I
approach?
THE COURT: You may.
Q. (BY MR. PEPPER) Mr. Weeden, this is
the downtown Mulberry Street/South Main
Street area. Can you see this all right?
A. Yeah, I can see.
Q. And there's the corner of
Butler -- Mulberry, Butler and then South
Main Street (indicating).
A. Yes, sir.
Q. And here of course is the Lorraine
Motel.
A. Yes, sir.
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Q. East of -- and over in here is
Memphis Fire Station number two.
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Is that the fire station where you
were stationed in 1968?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. And what was your position when you
were at that station?
A. Captain.
Q. So you were captain?
A. Yeah, of the station.
Q. Of the station.
A. Yeah.
Q. That means you were the senior --
A. I was senior captain, yeah.
Q. Senior captain and administrative
officer of the station?
A. Right.
Q. Right. Now, these were very
turbulent times in 1968, in early 1968, were
they not?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Did you have all kinds of police
units and other individuals around the fire
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station?
A. They were in and out, yes.
Q. On April 4th, 1968, the day of the
assassination, were you on duty?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. And on April 4, 1968, were you
approached by two Army officers?
A. That's what they indicated, they were
two Army officers.
Q. And what did they ask you to do?
A. They wanted a look-out vantage for
the Lorraine Hotel.
Q. They wanted a vantage point of the
Lorraine Hotel, these Army officers. And did
you put them somewhere?
A. I put them on the roof of the number
two fire station.
Q. You put these Army officers on the
roof of the number two fire station on the
4th of April, 1968?
A. In the morningtime.
Q. They came in the morningtime?
A. Right.
Q. Did you see them leave?
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A. No, sir.
Q. Did you go up there on the roof with
them?
A. I did.
Q. And were they carrying anything?
A. They had some briefcases or some
items with them, yes.
Q. Did you come to learn what was in
those briefcases?
A. No, sir.
Q. Did they tell you what was in the
briefcases?
A. They said they wanted a vantage point
for doing some photo -- photograph --
Q. Photographic work.
A. Right, right.
Q. So you came to believe that they had
camera equipment in those briefcases, did you
not?
A. Well, that's what they had indicated
to me. I placed them on the roof and then
left.
Q. Approaching again, can you tell us
roughly or exactly on that roof which vantage
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point were they occupying?
A. They was near that -- I guess it
would be the northeast corner there.
Q. The northeast corner of the roof?
A. Yeah. That's where they was placed.
There's a hose tie right there by that.
Q. Right.
A. Yeah, and of course as you approach
up on the roof, you can walk to the edge and
look right down on the street.
Q. So it's a clear vantage point, isn't
it?
A. It's a clear vantage point. There's
a parapet, a wall that was there, but it's
very small. It's about that high
(indicating).
Q. Would anything impede their visual
view --
A. No, sir.
Q. -- their lens view of the Lorraine or
the brush area here?
A. It could all be seen from that
vantage point. It could have been whatever
they wanted to do. It would nothing be in
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it -- keep it from being a vantage point to
do what they had indicated to me they wanted
to watch.
Q. Right. So there would have been
nothing blocking their --
A. No, shouldn't have been at all. But
if I remember correctly, it was a hedge, you
know, there on I guess it would be north of
the fire station in that parking lot area
there. Hedge had been grown up there. Well,
they wasn't very big trees.
Q. But they were above that?
A. Yeah, they were above the fence row
there.
Q. Did you stay with them for any period
of time?
A. No, sir.
Q. You just left them?
A. I placed them at a vantage point that
they seemed to like and left them.
Q. You left them to do their task,
whatever it was?
A. Right.
Q. Did they at the time show you any
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military identification?
A. Well, I'm sure they did or I wouldn't
have carried them up there but I -- you know,
we had a lot of people coming in and out at
that time, you know.
Q. Sure.
A. We was trying to do our best to do
what they wanted to be done.
Q. I'm sure you would. Mr. Weeden, has
any law enforcement officers ever asked you
about that day and what you did?
A. No, sir.
Q. Nobody has ever spoken to you?
A. No, sir.
Q. Does that seem strange to you? You
were the captain of that fire station in such
a critical position.
A. You want me to answer that or just --
Q. You can answer.
A. Yeah. I don't know what to say
except I was there.
Q. And you've never been spoken to about
this?
A. No, sir.
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Q. Did any member of the House Select
Committee on Assassinations, any investigator
for the House Select Committee ever speak to
you about this incident?
A. Not at all.
Q. Any researchers or book writers ever
speak to you about this incident?
A. No, sir.
Q. My, my. Thank you very much,
Mr. Weeden.
MR. PEPPER: Nothing further.
CROSS-EXAMINATION
BY MR. GARRISON:
Q. Mr. Weeden, you had been stationed at
the fire station sometime on April 4, 1968 I
guess; is that correct?
A. Do what, sir? I didn't hear you.
Q. You had been stationed at the fire
station sometime on April the 4th of 1968; is
that correct?
A. At that time I had been there
approximately a couple years.
Q. All right, sir. Had you ever been in
a place called Jim's Grill? Had you ever
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been in that establishment?
A. Not except for maybe an inspection.
We did make, you know, inspections back
then. I think we had had a card on it. I'm
sure I had been in it, but not for any other
purpose.
Q. Had you ever heard the name of
Mr. Jowers mentioned at any time --
A. No, sir.
Q. -- before this occurred?
A. No, sir.
Q. And now, let me ask you something.
You were at the fire station on the day of
the assassination; am I correct, sir?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. In fact, you were over on the balcony
for just a very short time, weren't you?
A. You're talking about that I carried
the guys on the roof?
Q. No, sir. When Dr. King was shot, you
were on the balcony there where he was shot
for just a few moments?
A. I went across to help the ambulance
back up to pick him up.
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Q. In fact, I believe you told me that
you helped put his body onto the stretcher?
A. We did. We loaded him on the
stretcher.
Q. Let me ask you this. When you first
arrived up on the balcony where he had been
shot, was anyone there?
A. Well, there was people around but...
Q. Was anyone trying to do anything for
him?
A. Not as I remember.
Q. Now, did you see the wound where he
was shot?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. All right. You examined it pretty
closely?
A. No, sir, I just...
Q. But you did see the wound where he
had been shot?
A. I did see the wound.
Q. Could you tell, Mr. Weeden, if it
appeared that that wound went up or down in
his area where he was shot?
A. In my opinion, it went up.
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Q. And that's from what you could see
there?
A. Right.
Q. Did you stay there until --
A. Until the ambulance -- we loaded him
up and they carried him away.
MR. GARRISON: That's all.
Thank you.
MR. PEPPER: Nothing further,
Your Honor.
THE COURT: All right. You may
stand down, sir.
(Witness excused.)
THE COURT: Call your next
witness.
MR. PEPPER: Plaintiffs call
Reverend Walter Fauntroy.
WALTER E. FAUNTROY,
having been first duly sworn, was examined
and testified as follows:
DIRECT EXAMINATION
BY MR. PEPPER:
Q. Reverend Fauntroy, thank you for
joining us this afternoon.
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A. Thank you.
Q. Would you state your full name and
address for the record, please?
A. My name is Walter E. Fauntroy. I
live at 4105 17th Street in Washington D.C.
Q. Reverend Fauntroy, would you tell the
Court and the jury of your association with
Martin Luther King, Junior?
A. Well, for the past 40 years I've been
the pastor of my home church in Washington
D.C. Ten of those years was spent as
director of the Washington Bureau of the
Southern Christian Leadership Conference
where I had responsibility for relating to
the agencies of the federal government that
had relevance for our struggle in the decade
of the sixties -- the White House, the
Congress, the Department of Justice in large
measure, and the Interstate Commerce
Commission in the sixties.
The decade of the seventies and
eighties were spent as a member of the
Congress of the United States where, again,
some background of my work with Dr. King in
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organizing the march on Washington in '63 and
the Voting Rights Act March of 1965 and the
Meredith Freedom March from Memphis to
Mississippi to Jackson in '66 had prepared me
for 20 years of working the Congress where my
first goal was to achieve home rule from the
District of Columbia which we were able to
achieve in the year 1974. And thereafter, I
went to work on a second goal which I had in
going to the Congress and that was to have
the House of Representatives investigate the
assassination of Martin Luther King, Junior.
Q. And that became a serious undertaking
of yours, the formation of this
investigation?
A. It certainly did. I had gone through
what we now know to be the infamous counter
intelligence operation that the FBI ran on
Dr. King called Telepro. And I had never
been satisfied that the explanation given for
the assassination of Dr. King, namely, that
one man by himself was able to get out of
jail and follow Dr. King as he did along the
routes which we later traced, shoot him and
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leave Memphis and make his way to Canada and
there get the passports of three persons who
looked like him in route to Southern Rhodesia
to join the militia. It never made since to
me.
And one of my colleagues on the
banking committee, Henry B. Gonzales of
Texas, had the same view with respect to the
assassination of President Kennedy that it
didn't make sense. And we teamed up to
introduce a resolution that called upon the
U.S. House of Representatives establishing a
select committee to investigate those
Assassinations. And I became chair of the
committee investigating Dr. King's
assassination.
Q. So you as a congressman became the
chairman of the subcommittee that dealt with
the King assassination?
A. That's true.
Q. And you chaired that subcommittee
throughout the entirety of the investigation?
A. Without question.
Q. And when did that investigation
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actually begin?
A. As a matter of fact, it didn't get
really under way until six months after the
Congress had authorized it. That because the
staff director of our choice, a prosecutor by
the name Richard Sprague, whom we had
selected because of the excellent work he had
done in Pennsylvania in prosecuting and
bringing about the conviction of Mr.
Fitsimmons who was the president of the
Teamsters who had been accused and then
convicted of having his predecessor killed.
Mr. Sprague was a very thorough prosecutor
and not long after we hired him and he went
to work, there developed a very serious
controversy about his conduct of the initial
days of the investigation that delayed us
about six months.
Q. What was the nature of the conduct of
Dick Sprague that caused controversy?
A. As I recall, it was a disagreement
between him and the chairman of the Full
Committee, Mr. Gonzales, that was resolved by
Mr. Gonzales resigning as the chair and
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Mr. Sprague being dismissed as the chief of
staff.
As I recall, the controversy had to
do with his intent to make available to the
committee all records, not only the FBI, but
the CIA and military intelligence which
became quite controversial for some people,
not for me.
Q. So Dick Sprague wanted to have all of
these files available to the committee --
military intelligence, CIA, FBI records. He
wanted them available for your investigation
and that was met with controversy?
A. It was met with controversy. It
never surfaced as the heart of the
controversy. There seemed to be some
personality problems that, quite frankly, I'm
not competent to deal with with respect to
Mr. Gonzales. But Mr. Gonzales resigned.
Mr. Sprague was fired and Mr. Blakey was
hired and we finally got to work about in
August of that year.
Q. At the time Mr. Sprague was making
his request for these unexpurgated materials,
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was there a media campaign that went on
against him?
A. Quite frankly I can't remember, but I
found him to be a very thorough and affable
person and one who I had looked forward to
giving us the kind of staff direction that I
thought was necessary.
Q. So we're six months down the road and
now you're investigation starts.
A. Yes. I mentioned that because when
we were forced to bring the investigation to
an end -- and the Congress works on two-year
cycles -- we admittedly concluded our
investigation without having thoroughly
investigated all of the evidence that was
apparent.
Q. Why did you conclude the
investigation without looking at all of the
evidence?
A. Because there were not the votes in
the House of Representatives to extend into
the next Congress, an appropriation to allow
us to continue. I think had we had the six
months, we may well have gotten to the bottom
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of everything.
Q. You think you would have done a
better job if you had more time?
A. Oh, without a question, yes. As a
matter of fact, I came away from the
investigation with the view that we had not
explored a number of leads that were apparent
to us. In the first instance, we had not
been able to identify any credible witness
who placed James Earl Ray at the scene. We
had not been able to establish that the gun
which was fired at Dr. King was fired from
the window above, and quite frankly, we had
evidence in my judgment which was credible
from three persons whose views were that the
gunshot came from the bushes below. Nor had
we been able to trace the bullet that entered
Dr. King's body to the gun which had
Mr. Ray's fingerprints on it.
And of course it was almost amusing
when we examined Mr. Ray -- and I sat through
hours of cross-examination of him -- that
Mr. Ray was really competent to be able to
carry out the operation of breaking out of
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jail and traveling around the country and
getting a hold of roughly $10,000 to sustain
himself during that period and of course get
-- there was three passports all by himself
without some help. I was disturbed also
because while he could not hit a target a
hundred feet away with an M-1 rifle, the
marksman or the person who shot Dr. King
obviously was able to do that from about 200
feet away so that these were questions on our
minds.
There was a fellow by the name of
John Paul Speaker who had been suggested as
the person who may have informed Mr. Ray of a
$50,000 offer that had been made to his
brother-in-law, a young man by the name of
Russell Byers, by two men, Kauffmann
and -- John Kauffmann and John Sutherland.
The result of -- we never had a chance to
trace that thoroughly, although the committee
concluded that there may have been a low
level conspiracy since we had not been able
to determine that and we were never able to
get Mr. Speaker to speak.
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And we turned all of that
information over to the FBI with a request to
the Justice Department with a request that
they follow up on those and other deeds that
had many of us with reservations about
closing the investigation.
Q. Were you uncomfortable with the
conclusions of the investigation?
A. I was uncomfortable with the
conclusion that it appeared that James Earl
Ray acted alone, had killed Dr. Martin Luther
King, Junior. I was uncomfortable for
several reasons. One was that we were
never -- I was never satisfied with the
conclusion on whether there was a Raul or
not a Raul. It appeared, as I recall, that
of the $10,000 that -- and that's about
$40,000 now in 1998 (sic) terms. The
$10,000 -- about $7,000 or more of it was
untraceable, and Mr. Ray's testimony had been
that Mr. Raul had given him that money in
return for his gun running as a part of an
underworld operation and so that troubled
me.
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And of course I was troubled with
Mr. Speaker who was at the time or had been
convicted of having killed a person with
malice aforethought and for pay and had spent
only about two or three years in jail.
Q. Wasn't there a consideration by the
committee that Mr. Ray may have gotten the
money from a robbery of a bank in Alton,
Illinois?
A. As a matter of fact, the staff gave
us three possible scenarios. One was that
Ray had received it from Raul, but we had
only evidence -- only evidence you had of the
existence of a Raul was Ray's testimony and
we had no credible evidence at that time that
such a person existed. The second was that
he might have robbed banks during the course
of that period, and we were satisfied that
that was not an option because the FBI had
itself thoroughly researched that and
concluded that there were no known robberies
that Ray could have been associated with.
The third option was that a bank
which he and his brothers robbed in Alton,
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Illinois had been the source of about
$27,000, about nine of which would have gone
to James Earl Ray, but again, we had only
hearsay. There was no conviction or no
judgment that they had in fact robbed the
bank and had been punished therefore.
Q. In fact, isn't it true that the
police chief of Alton, Illinois and the
president of the bank said that the Ray
brothers were never suspects?
A. That is what I heard, and again, not
having the opportunity to investigate and
corroborate a number of statements, we just
didn't have time to finish up.
Q. Since the conclusion of the House
Select Committee's investigation, have you
developed more information of your own
knowledge and have you had further thoughts?
A. I have not developed information on
my own, but I have been impressed with a
number of persons that I consider to be
providing us with scientific and reliable and
objective and verifiable data that would be
worthy of investigation. I was appalled
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quite frankly at reading a book by Mr. Garrow
on the FBI and Martin Luther, Junior, which
detailed in far more graphic terms than we
had come to know in the committee. The
extent of J. Edgar Hoover's hatred for
Dr. King and the determined effort that he
and the FBI made to, quote, remove him from
the scene.
As I recall, we had concluded as a
committee -- well, this is not a conclusion
that I think was written, but our staff
director shared with me -- Mr. Blakey shared
with me the fact that he felt we could
develop a case for negligent homicide against
the FBI in terms of the climate created by
the FBI that made it almost inevitable that
someone would attempt to take his life.
There was a book by a Curt Gentry
written about 1981 which really upset me. It
described -- it was called J. Edgar Hoover
and His Secrets -- the Man and His Secrets.
And it dealt with a connection that he
established between J. Edgar Hoover, Carlos
Marcellas of the Mafia and two Texas business
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people, Kirk -- Clint Merchaser and E.L.
Hunt, which brought to mind particularly the
testimony of a gentleman by the name of
McFerran who had said that he had overheard a
gentleman by the name of Laberto shouting
over the phone that afternoon. You know,
kill him, kill him on the balcony. And I was
really upset about that during the
investigation and had been assured that
really it was just Mr. Laberto's word against
Mr. McFerran's word.
Q. You're saying your committee's staff
assured you that as chairman of that
subcommittee that it was only Mr. Laberto's
word against Mr. McFerran's word and that
there was nothing else?
A. There was nothing to corroborate on
either side.
Q. What they told you --
A. That's what -- that's what we
concluded, and it troubled me as with many
aspects of this case because we had
difficulty finding corroborating evidence of
what seemed on the surface to be the fact. I
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mean anyone who talked with James Earl Ray
knew that he wasn't a rocket scientist and
knew that this level of sophistication could
not have been made available unless he had
had the kind of sophistication that I know
the Mafia has and that our intelligence
agencies have from time to time.
Q. So the intervening years after the
committee concluded its work, issued its
report in 1979, you've maintained an interest
in the case and have continued to read on
your own and digest research that's been
done; is that right?
A. Yes, against the background of having
gone through it with him.
Q. Yes.
A. And I was with him many times when it
was apparent that we were dealing with very
sophisticated forces.
Q. And what was the nature of those
sophisticated forces in terms of their impact
on the movement as you saw it?
A. Well, let me just say this because it
is a point of interest. When I assembled my
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staff and learned about bugging and about
surveillance as its practiced by the FBI, I
took an interest in my own church and my own
phone at home and asked them if they would
not find somebody who could check my phones
out.
And I recall in the sixties one of
my members who worked as a maid offering me a
television set. Well, in the sixties, you
know, I didn't have a television set at the
church so I said I'd like to have one, and
she gave me a television set. That was a
lovely set. It was a black-and-white set.
It stayed in my office throughout the sixties
and even while I was in Congress.
And when the people went through my
office, they found a bug on it that enabled
persons to drive around the block of the
church and pick up anything that was going on
in the church. Well, that was sort of
amusing, but it sort of signaled me what we
joked about a lot in the sixties, namely
that, you know, Uncle Bubba is listening -- I
mean J. Edgar Hoover is listening. So that
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was amusing, and I learned also that there
was a bug in my phone at home that wore out
about three years. A fellow told me it talks
about 500 hours, and I do recall that every
time the phone would get a little funny, I
would call and the same fella would show up
to repair it so those kinds of laughable
things were sort of in my mind.
Q. Formed a pattern?
A. Yes.
Q. Right. Well, Reverend Fauntroy, if
you were uncomfortable at the time of the
conclusion of the investigation after all the
time that's elapsed and all that you've
thought and considered since then, how do you
feel now about the results of that
investigation?
A. Well, of course two things have
really perked my interest, and that was an
article done here in Memphis in the
Commercial Appeal by Stephen Tompkins which
brought a lot of things into focus that I
think would bear thorough investigation
indeed had we known them at the time or had
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any inkling that those things were in fact
even talked about, we would have followed
those leads. The fact that I had never heard
of this 902 group, military intelligence
group here before reading that article.
I had sensed that military
intelligence may have had some surveillance
role on African American leaders over the
years, but what Mr. Tompkins laid out in
terms of the perception by some people in the
country that blacks were ripe for subversion
by the Kaiser, by the communists and that
leadership had been under surveillance like
that, it really perked my interest anew in
whether or not we knew all that happened
before and on April the 4th, 1964 (sic).
Q. The Tompkins article is in evidence
in this case already.
A. Oh, good.
Q. Did your committee ever receive any
information, any evidence at all to consider
with respect to the involvement of military
intelligence and these activities?
A. To my recollection, not at all.
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Q. Did your committee ever receive any
information at all, any records at all,
documents with respect to the involvement of
the Central Intelligent Agency in this
instance?
A. Absolutely not to my recollection.
Q. Did your committee ever receive
unexpurgated files, surveillance and other
files of information from the Federal Bureau
of Investigation with respect to this event?
A. We received so many files from the
FBI, I just -- you'd have to be more
specific.
Q. I'm talking about unexpurgated field
reports with respect to surveillance
activities and --
A. No, no. No indications that
government was paying any more special
attention to Dr. King or our movement or to
my church study.
Q. On your new black and white
television set. Reverend Fauntroy, I mean
this is exactly what prosecutor Dick Sprague
wanted to accomplish for the committee,
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wasn't it, the opening up of these types of
files?
A. Quite frankly, you know, I've never
talked to Mr. Sprague since that time, but I
do know that one of the things that got him
in trouble was that he wanted to open that
whole area up. And there was lot of
publicity about that.
Q. You were chairman of the
subcommittee, Blakey was council Total
Committee. Why was that area not opened up
to the best of your knowledge at this point
in time?
A. Quite frankly, I cannot remember. I
cannot -- I want to -- after reading the
Tompkins article, I wanted to kick myself.
Q. This Court and jury have heard
evidence that there were photographers
surveilling the Lorraine Motel and that
immediate area at the time of the killing,
heard evidence that there was photographic
surveillance in place, military officers.
Did you ever hear anything of that sort?
A. Not at all, and had I heard it,
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believe me, we would have been on that case.
MR. PEPPER: Reverend Fauntroy,
thank you very much. Nothing further.
THE COURT: Cross-exam.
CROSS-EXAMINATION
BY MR. GARRISON:
Q. Let me ask you, Reverend Fauntroy, a
question or two. Do you know what
specifically led the committee to the
conclusion that James Earl Ray was the
assassin and acted alone? Was there anything
specific you recall now that led to this
conclusion?
A. I think the thing that was persuasive
for most members was the number of
contradictions in Mr. Ray's description of
what happened on that day and before with
respect to Raul and with respect to what he
did. I do recall as well that there were
persons who testified that they did not see
Mr. Ray at the gas station, for example, when
the word had been that he had been at the gas
station and others had seen him. The
witnesses who were identified turned out not
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to be credible or denied that they were there
and had what appeared to be credible stories
as to where they were at the time so that the
propensity in the record of Mr. Ray to
contradict himself tended to weigh on the
side of the option that -- there were options
that were given us about Raul and about
where the money came from.
Q. You mentioned about the hatred of the
FBI for Dr. King. What do you recall about
that statement from them?
A. Well, I do remember something that
very much disturbed me, and I was director of
the Washington bureau so I got most of the
information. There were cartoons done after
Dr. King's speech on April the 7th, 1967 --
April the 4th, 1967, a year to the day before
he was killed. There were editorials. There
were cartoons suggesting that Dr. King was a
danger to the American way, that he was an
ally of the communists, that something needed
to be done about him.
It was on the basis of those kinds
of articles that were crafted in the FBI in
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their offices and then fed out to a network
of stations and newspapers that really made
discussion of a December the 23rd, 1963 memo
that had been circulated among FBI personnel
calling them to a meeting to discuss what
they were going to do to remove Martin Luther
King from the national scene. And it was on
the basis of that information that Mr. Blakey
confided with me that a case for negligent
homicide could be developed on the basis of
the evidence we had on what the FBI did to
create a climate and to persuade the public
that Martin Luther King was a danger to the
American way.
Q. You remember specifically anything in
your statements by J. Edgar Hoover that he
made about Dr. King and his work?
A. I certainly do. I remember
statements that resulted. He said that
Dr. King was the most notorious liar in the
country, and that prompted Dr. King, Andy
Young, myself and Ralph Abernathy to have a
meeting with Mr. Hoover in Washington at his
office. And he never answered the question
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why he said it. As a matter of fact, he
spent most of the time explaining to us how
efficient the FBI was and how thorough they
were and how many black people they had
hired, but he never answered that question
and we went away amused. We thought maybe he
thought that we might really go off on him in
the room there, but, no, he never answered
those questions.
Q. Despite of all that, Reverend
Fauntroy, who did the United States
government assign to investigate the
assassination?
A. Well, it is the responsibility of the
federal government of the FBI to do that and
they did. And we took into account all that
they did. One of the things that we -- for
example, we never -- I never knew about James
Russell Byers from the FBI investigation. As
a matter of fact, one of my staffers came
down to Memphis, see, and found it in the
records that this man had said that he had
been offered $50,000 and that he had been in
the habit of taking stolen goods over to a
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hotel here and that two gentlemen, James
Kauffmann -- John Kauffmann and John
Sutherland, had something called fix-a-cold
cough medicine that turned out to be drugs
that they were making. But we found a great
many -- we didn't know about John --
Mr. Speaker, John Paul Speaker, who was
allegedly a cell mate of James Earl Ray and
believed to have suggested to him there was
$50,000 out there for anybody who would
assassinate Martin Luther King, Junior.
Q. Did the committee ever find any
indication that there was a person called
Raul that was in James Earl Ray's life?
A. They never -- we were never able to
establish the existence of a Raul or
corroboration from anybody that a Raul
existed. Jerry and John, James Earl Ray's
brothers, suggested that they knew that their
brother was in touch with somebody that he
called Raul, but it was all hearsay coming
from the brother.
There was some indications -- and I
can't remember the details of it. It sort of
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reminds me of the Jowers case, but there was
a hotel manager in California who recalled
James Earl Ray getting a call on the 27th or
30th of March telling him to go to Birmingham
and that they had -- they had seen this man
before with him, but we never tied that down.
MR. GARRISON: Thank you, sir.
REDIRECT EXAMINATION
BY MR. PEPPER:
Q. Reverend Fauntroy, did you ever see a
photograph -- did your staff ever show you a
photograph of a man whom James Earl Ray
identified as Raul in November of 1978?
A. No, they did not, although I have
seen a photo since then.
Q. Why wouldn't they have shown you that
photograph?
A. You know, I just don't know. It may
well have been that our staff was not aware
of what Mr. Tompkins stated some years
later. It may -- I know that our staff knew
nothing about the Loyd Jowers connection.
Q. Now, I'm just dealing with this Raul
issue.
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A. Yeah.
Q. What I'm getting to with the point of
hindsight and the advantage of hindsight is
the question of how that committee formed
with millions of taxpayers' dollars -- and
I'm taking you really as a prisoner of the
staff of that committee in a sense because
you were chairman. You didn't conduct the
investigation yourself. How the committee
staff could not locate a figure whom James
Earl Ray himself identified only one time
from a photograph that he saw in '78 which
the person 21 years later has been identified
by four other people independently as Raul,
why the staff couldn't do that job or why it
has to be done privately?
A. I wish I could answer that question.
And on hindsight as I said after I've seen
the work of so many scholars who have been
working in these areas, I wish I had known
and I wonder what our staff new.
Q. The other area that interests me is
your recollection of the reaction in the
country to Martin Luther King's speech at
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Riverside on April 4, 1967 when he formally
holds no holds bar opposed the war in
Vietnam. Do you recall what the reaction was
across the land?
A. It was at that point that these
editorials, these cartoons began to appear
around the country and because, again, my
responsibility was for the national office
there in Washington, I got to get regular
versions of the same editorial -- this man is
dangerous and regular caricatures of a man
whom I considered the singularly most
important man with a most important message
for this, the most violent century in the
history of mankind. It was we've got to
learn to live together as brothers, and so it
hurt me.
And the effect of it was their
organization found many of its supporters
refusing thereafter to contribute to our
effort, and I do remember one call that I'll
never forget from Dr. King at a time when he
was very discouraged about what had happened
because he had taken a position that
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conscious told him was right. And it was on
an evening when I was just finishing up a
sermon for the next day and quoted to him an
English Methodist preacher who said on some
issues, cowards ask the question is it safe
to take a position, and expediency asks the
question is it politics, and vanity asks the
question is it popular, but conscious always
asks the question is it right.
And I said to Martin there are some
things you have to do not because they're
popular or politics but because they are
right, and I think that sort of helped him
through that period and we survived it.
Q. Was there a similar reaction of fear
with the announcement of the march on
Washington, the one that was planned in
April -- not April but in the spring of '68,
the poor people's campaign?
A. Yes, but I tell you, I was shocked by
the killing. I was shocked because we had
lived for about a decade to that time with
threats to Dr. King on his life. In fact, in
New York City, he had been stabbed by a
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demented woman, but it had become sort of
routine just to dismiss those kinds of
threats. It just never occurred to me that
the prospect of our doing not a one-day march
on Washington, but as Dr. King promised, a
demonstration that would last until this
nation ended a war in Vietnam and got serious
about the war on poverty. So that there was
talk about the risks, but really that was not
the question.
The question for us was whether or
not there might be provocateurs who would
deliberately start things, and quite frankly,
the reason we came back to Memphis was
precisely because we feared that if we did
not settle it here and make it very clear
that we were not going to brook any violence
as a part of our demonstration in Washington,
that we might not be able to carry it out
because Dr. King was determined that we're
not going to have a demonstration that
degenerates into violence.
Q. Lastly, Reverend Fauntroy, did there
come a time in 1977 when you became aware of
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a threat on James Earl Ray's life?
A. Oh, certainly. In 1977, not long
after we had gotten into the investigation in
earnest, we heard that Mr. Ray had broken out
of the prison here in Tennessee.
Q. Brushy Mountain Penitentiary?
A. Yes, which was very troubling because
I was afraid that perhaps persons who feared
he was telling the truth might want to take
his life. As a matter of fact, we were so
concerned about it that a former colleague of
mine in my first year of the Congress, Ray
Blanton, had left Congress and had become
governor of this state, and I suggested to
our chairman, Mr. Stokes, that we call him
and ask him that he make sure that every
effort was being made by the state to capture
Mr. Ray before some people from the FBI who
were reported to us to be down here on a
state matter.
Q. And in fact, weren't there upwards of
30 FBI SWAT team snipers that descended on
this state as soon as Ray escaped?
A. I don't know that. I have no
DANIEL, DILLINGER, DOMINSKI, RICHBERGER, WEATHERFORD
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evidence, but that's what we heard and that
alarmed us. And we called Mr. Blanton and my
information is that he acted and the FBI was
asked to leave and Mr. Ray was recaptured and
we all breathed a sigh of relief.
Q. Yes.
MR. PEPPER: Unfortunately
nothing further. Thank you very much.
THE COURT: All right. Thank
you. You can stand down or you can remain in
the courtroom or you're free leave.
(Witness excused.)
THE COURT: Let's take our break
now.
(Jury out.)
(Break taken at 3:23 p.m.)
THE COURT: Bring the jury out,
please, sir.
(Jury in at 3:53 p.m.)
THE COURT: Mr. Pepper.
MR. PEPPER: Thank you, Your
Honor. Plaintiffs call Ms. April Ferguson.
APRIL R. FERGUSON,
having been first duly sworn, was examined
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and testified as follows:
DIRECT EXAMINATION
BY MR. PEPPER:
Q. Good afternoon, Ms. Ferguson.
A. Good afternoon.
Q. Thank you very much for joining us
this afternoon.
A. Thank you.
Q. Would you state your full name and
address for the record, please?
A. April R. Ferguson. I live in
Memphis, Tennessee.
Q. What do you do for a living?
A. I'm an attorney.
Q. And how long have you been an
attorney?
A. About 21 years.
Q. Were you an attorney in 1978?
A. I had just been admitted to the bar.
Q. Were you a part -- at that time were
you a part of the James Earl Ray defense
team?
A. I'm sorry?
Q. Were you a part of James Earl Ray's
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defense team at that time?
A. Well, it was a post conviction
attempt to gain him a new trial, and I was
working with Mark Lane and Charles Galbreath
who was a retired judge in Nashville.
Q. In the course of that work, back in
1978 in the effort to seek a trial for
Mr. Ray, did there come a time when you
received a communication from an inmate who
was housed in the county jail?
A. Yes. Actually my memory of that is
necessarily unclear after all these years,
and I do have an affidavit that I had
prepared at that time that you have provided
me with if I could use that to refresh my
memory.
Q. Yes, if it's all right with the
Court.
THE COURT: You may, yes.
A. Thank you. Our office received a
call. It was directed to Mr. Lane. The
party asked for Mr. Lane, and I spoke to him
on January 30th, 1979. And he called several
times asking for Mr. Lane, and Mr. Lane was
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traveling. So he asked that someone from the
office come to see him so I got permission
from his attorney to visit him and did go
with our secretary to visit him in the jail
downtown here in Memphis -- that was the old
jail -- on January 31st, 1979. His name was
William Kirk, K I R K.
Q. And what did -- when you went to
visit Mr. Kirk, what did he tell you?
A. Well, we asked if we could tape
record our conversation. He would not allow
us to do that, and he also asked that we not
use his name. But of course we had his name,
and the secretary and I both took notes. Her
name was Barbara Rabbito, R A B B I T O. He
told us that he'd been in the Shelby County
Jail from 1972 until the time we interviewed
him on robbery and extortion charges, and in
August 1976, he was on furlough from the
Missouri Penitentiary for armed robbery. He
was arrested in Memphis on another charge and
unable to bond out, and he started serving
his sentence in the Shelby County Jail. And
then between October 1976 and February of '77
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in the Shelby County Jail, he had met a
person named Arthur Baldwin whose name at
that time was quite well-known to Memphians.
I don't know if it is anymore.
Q. How was Mr. Baldwin's name
well-known?
A. My own personal recollection of
Mr. Baldwin is that he was the owner of
several clubs where there were girl dancers.
I don't remember if there was gambling or
anything like that. I just remember that
that was what Mr. Baldwin was known for.
Q. Okay. So he said he was contacted --
this inmate, William Kirk, said he was
contacted by Mr. Baldwin?
A. Well, he had met him, and then
Mr. Baldwin was apparently serving a sentence
for some kind of non-violent crime like
income tax evasion or he didn't know really
what it was, but he said Baldwin had already
talked to -- and I don't know how he knew
this -- to Mr. Kirk's codefendants. And
these also were names that were known to
Memphians or to me anyway -- Albert Tiller
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and George Tiller. I think they were called
the terrible Tiller brothers by a lot of
people.
And apparently Mr. Baldwin had
offered them $2,500 to do a job stopping
somebody from attending a board meeting.
Then the job was offered to Mr. Kirk, and
Mr. Kirk didn't say whether he took that job
or not. But he did say he and Mr. Baldwin
were friends, that he had saved him from some
sort of unpleasantness in the jail. He also
told us that in June 1977 he was released,
but then he was arrested two weeks later for
a robbery in Germantown. He got out again
and he stayed out until November of 1977
where he was arrested in Jackson, Tennessee
and brought back to Memphis, was released
again in December.
Then he went and started visiting
Mr. Baldwin at his place of business when Mr.
Baldwin had been released, and then he said
he was offered a murder contract by
Mr. Baldwin for $5,000, and he was told that
there were three more pieces of business in
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Memphis for larger sums of money. And Kirk
told us that he didn't take the murder
contract and was back in jail when it was
carried out against a person named David
Macnamee (spelled phonetically) in Memphis.
And he further related that Baldwin was from
the state of Washington and that he had been
in the Memphis area since '75 or '76.
Then Kirk had to go back to Missouri
on a warrant. Then he came back to Tennessee
in March of 1978, and in September of '78, he
was sentenced to 65 years on the various
cases he was facing in Tennessee. But in
June or July of 1978, he had a telephone
conversation with Mr. Baldwin during which
time Baldwin mentioned another murder
contract for $5,000. This time with James
Earl Ray as the target, and my recollection
is that Mr. Ray was then at Brushy Mountain,
but I'm not absolutely sure.
Q. Yes, I think that's right.
A. And Kirk said to us that he didn't
know if he was being offered the contract so
much as just being told that the word needs
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to get out that this contract is available.
Q. This was a contract on James Earl
Ray's life?
A. Yes.
Q. And the contract was put out by the
same Arthur Baldwin?
A. Well, it's unclear from what Mr. Kirk
told us as to who was really letting out the
contract. You know, whether it was Baldwin
or somebody else.
Q. Baldwin was communicating it in any
event?
A. Baldwin communicated it.
Q. It wasn't clear where it was coming
from?
A. Right.
Q. Right. Kirk became apprehensive
about carrying out this contract, did he?
A. He didn't. He was not in a position
at that time to take it up. I mean he was
not in that facility. He didn't indicate
that he was interested in taking it up.
Well, I think he did say later that he didn't
want to. He had heard from those who had
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been at Brushy Mountain that James Earl Ray
was, quote, good people, closed quote, and
there was no need to kill him. He therefore
decided to tell Ray's attorney, and that
would have been at that time either Mr. Lane
or Mr. Galbreath.
Q. Right.
A. He -- Mr. Kirk got the impression
that Mr. Baldwin was working as an agent or
informer for the federal government. He
didn't say how he got that impression except
that it later turned out that Mr. Baldwin was
responsible somewhat for the exposure of
Governor Ray Blanton and his pay for pardon
scandal. I don't think you were here when
Governor Blanton left office early.
Q. Right.
A. So Kirk while he was out of jail
visited Baldwin frequently and was surprised
that although Baldwin had a comfortable home
here in Memphis, they frequently went to the
Executive Plaza Inn near the airport for
meetings, and it was his impression that
Mr. Baldwin was helping the federal
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government in their investigation and that he
was being protected by the federal government
for being prosecuted for state violations of
the law, although he wasn't clear what those
violations were. And he was afraid -- Kirk
was afraid that this assassination plan of
Mr. Ray had originated with the federal
government, but he didn't tell us any sources
for that.
Q. Well, he did indicate and you
indicate in the affidavit that Baldwin
operated occasionally from rooms at the
Executive Plaza Inn near the airport?
A. Yes.
Q. Do you recall whether he said
that -- whether Kirk said that the phone
call -- and this was communicated by
telephone, wasn't it, this last offer?
A. Well, he just says -- yes, in June or
July of 1978. When we talked to him, I
recall that he was in a jail cell, and he had
no papers or memoranda or anything with him
so I don't know how...
Q. Just giving you this recollection?
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A. Yes. I don't know how accurate he
was.
Q. But in any event, he thought -- he
had the impression that this contract on
James Earl Ray's life had originated with the
federal government?
A. Well, he knew that Mr. Baldwin had
already been working for the federal
government so it's hard to say. That was
just his impression.
Q. That was his impression.
A. And I honestly can't recall -- it's
only through looking at this affidavit that I
can recall these details because I recall the
visit. I recall going there with Ms.
Rabbito, and then I recall preparing this
affidavit so we could recall what was said.
But beyond that -- I don't recall being
allowed to do any follow-up. I don't think
he wanted to speak to us anymore.
Q. You don't recall hearing anything
more about this?
A. Oh, certainly Mr. Kirk became
notorious --
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Q. Yes.
A. -- for other things later but..
Q. But not this?
A. We weren't able to follow-up on this
anymore.
Q. All right. Ms. Ferguson, let me just
show you this copy of the affidavit and ask
you to look at it and compare it. This is
dated the 16th day of February 1979.
(Document passed to witness.)
A. For some reason it's got two page 5's
on it that are identical, but that is what I
recollect -- that's a copy of what I have.
This is exactly the same as what I've been
looking at.
Q. Do you recognize your signature on
that?
A. Oh, I see. It's not two pages. Yes,
it's my signature.
MR. PEPPER: Move to admit, Your
Honor.
THE COURT: All right.
(Whereupon, the above-mentioned
document was marked as Exhibit 23.)
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Q. (BY MR. PEPPER) Did you ever hear
anything more about this contract that
Mr. Kirk told you Mr. Baldwin had given to
him?
A. I may have, but so many years have
passed since that subject was pursued and so
many bits and pieces of information were
gathered together and then we weren't able to
pursue them that we would put a little piece
here, put it down and file it away and then
not be able to follow-up on it. I do recall
that when Mr. Kirk made a spectacular escape
from one of the Tennessee facilities that I
recalled who he was then, but I personally
can't recall what follow-up, if any, was
done.
Q. This section of plaintiffs' case is
dealing with cover up. One series of
activities of cover up happened to be
assassination, killing, a murdering of
people. That's why this is important.
A. Thank you.
Q. At that point in time you were
involved. Where is Ms. Rabbito today, do you
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know?
A. I wish I knew. She moved to Northern
California. I heard she was planning a
marriage, but beyond that, I don't know. I
lost track.
MR. PEPPER: Okay. Thank you
very much.
THE WITNESS: Thank you.
MR. PEPPER: Nothing further.
MR. GARRISON: I have no
questions, Your Honor.
THE COURT: All right. You may
stand down.
(Witness excused.)
MR. PEPPER: Plaintiffs call
Mr. Jimmy Adams, Your Honor.
JAMES E. ADAMS,
having been first duly sworn, was examined
and testified as follows:
DIRECT EXAMINATION
BY MR. PEPPER:
Q. Good afternoon, Mr. Adams.
A. How are you doing?
Q. Thank you very much for joining us
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here today. Would you state your name and
address for the record, please?
A. James E. Adams, 168 Shamrock in
Arkansas.
Q. Thank you. And what do you do for a
living?
A. I drive a cab.
Q. Your testimony is in a portion of the
plaintiffs' case that deals with cover
up -- various aspects of cover up. How long
have you been driving a taxi cab in Memphis?
A. Since 1966.
Q. Have you driven consistently from
that period to now?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. You've had a long history of driving
a cab?
A. (Witness nods head.)
Q. Are you familiar with the defendant
in this action, Mr. Loyd Jowers?
A. Fairly. I mean I know of him, yes.
That's about it. I knew he was in the cab
business a lot.
Q. You knew he was in the cab business
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for quite a period of time?
A. Yeah.
Q. Which company do you drive for now?
A. I drive for Yellow Cab Company.
Q. For Yellow Cab. Was there a time in
the not too distant past where you drove
three people who were connected with a media
organization to the airport?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Did you come to know which media
organization these people were connected
with?
A. I think it was Fox Network, and I
think it was getting a lie detector test or
something is what they was talking about.
Q. They were taking a lie -- giving a
lie detector test to whom?
A. To Loyd Jowers.
Q. These media people were giving a lie
detector test to Loyd Jowers?
A. Right.
Q. Could it be that those people
represented the ABC Network?
A. It may have been. I just know they
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was some kind of a TV crew, and the guy that
gave that test was supposed to be an FBI
agent. And then I found out he was not. He
was an ex-FBI agent or something is what they
told me anyway.
Q. These were people you drove -- where
did you pick them up in Memphis?
A. From the Hotel Peabody.
Q. You picked them up at the Hotel
Peabody, and they instructed you to drive to
the airport?
A. To the airport, right.
Q. And how were they seated in your cab?
A. Well, the one that actually gave the
lie detector test was sitting in the front
seat with me, and there was a lady behind him
and there was a little short man behind me.
Q. Do you remember when that was,
Mr. Adams, approximately?
A. No, not right off hand. I hadn't
really checked.
Q. And did you overhear conversation in
your cab in front of you, beside you, behind
you as you drove to the airport?
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A. Yes, sir.
Q. And would you tell the Court and the
jury what was the nature of that
conversation?
A. Well, the man in the front seat asked
the man in the back seat about what do you
think about this Jowers fellow, and I
didn't -- I had the window rolled down and
couldn't exactly hear what he said, but when
I heard Jowers, which I know, I rolled the
window up a little bit.
The man in the front seat said I
couldn't get the man to waver at all. He
said I actually tried to get him to tell a
lie where I could get a feel for him. He
said normally I can get a feel for people
like him. And then the man in the back seat
said, well, maybe he was on some kind of
drugs, and he said, well, yeah, but what are
you going to do, give him a urine test right
there in front of everybody, you know.
And then the lady next to him said
it was hard to believe that he could remember
all these little details over 30 years ago.
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And then the man next to her said, yeah,
unless he had something to do with it, and
then the man asked me -- I mean I asked him,
I said you all talking about Loyd Jowers, and
he said, yeah, do you know him? I said,
yeah, I know him. He said you think he's
capable of doing something like this, and I
said yeah. And then he said he probably done
it himself, didn't he? And I said probably.
Q. But coming back to the initial
exchange that you overheard, really against
his own interest, this examiner was saying I
couldn't get him, meaning Mr. Jowers, to
waver at all. To lie at all?
A. Well, he didn't lie. He said waver.
Q. Waver.
A. You know, that's the words that he
said. He said waver at all. He said I
couldn't get the man to waver at all. He
said I actually tried to get him to tell a
lie where I could get a feel for him. He
said normally I can get a feel for people
like this.
Q. So he tried to get Mr. Jowers to tell
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a lie, but he couldn't get him to waver at
all?
A. That's what it sounds like.
Q. That's what he said to you?
A. Yes.
Q. Well, not to you, but that's what he
said in front of you?
A. Yeah, that's what he said.
Q. Did you come to know what were the
publicly made results of that lie detector
test?
A. Well, as soon as I heard this, I
told, you know, another driver that was kind
of involved in this case, James Millner, that
they gave Loyd Jowers a lie detector test.
And I said whatever he said, that he passed
the test. That's what I told him because
that's the way they talked in the cab.
Q. So you were under the impression that
Mr. Jowers passed the test, right?
A. Right.
Q. What did the media actually report
about Mr. Jowers in that test, do you recall?
A. Well, after I found out it was going
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to be on TV, I watched -- I got the last part
of it where he was telling him about the
gun -- the man handed him the gun and all
that. And then the man went in the room and
he come back out and asked Mr. Jowers did he
want to know the results of his test. And he
says yeah, and he said, well, you lied about
everything.
And he said are you in this for some
kind of money deal or something like that,
and he said, no, I ain't making a dime out of
this. And I heard somebody in the background
say this interview is over with, and they
walked out.
Q. So a national television program
aired this program focusing on the lie
detector test and announced to the world that
Mr. Jowers lied.
A. Right.
Q. But in your cab --
A. It sounded like he was telling the
truth.
MR. PEPPER: Thank you,
Mr. Adams. No further questions.
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CROSS-EXAMINATION
BY MR. GARRISON:
Q. Mr. Adams, you've known Mr. Jowers
some time I gather, haven't you?
A. Quite a few years. It just happened
to be that I knew he was in the cab business,
and I've seen him here and there, and I've
talked to him occasionally. But it seemed
like when he was at one cab company, I was at
the other cab company, but we have -- I've
worked at the cab company that he was working
at at one time which was Veterans Cab
Company.
Q. He never talked to you about anything
about the assassination of Dr. King, anything
he had to do with it, has he?
A. No, sir.
Q. And as far as the questions that were
asked you, they didn't really tell you what
questions they asked him, did they?
A. No.
Q. None of the people in the cab company
told you what questions they asked him, did
they?
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A. No, they didn't.
Q. But you saw the TV where they said
that he failed the polygraph test, a lie
detector test; is that right?
A. Yeah, I seen that on TV.
Q. That what the examiner said, that he
failed the test.
A. That's what the examiner said.
Q. Thank you.
A. That was the same guy that was in my
cab.
MR. GARRISON: Thank you, sir.
MR. PEPPER: Nothing further,
Your Honor.
THE COURT: All right, sir. You
may stand down. You can remain in the
courtroom or you are permitted to leave.
(Witness excused.)
MR. PEPPER: May we approach,
Your Honor?
THE COURT: Yes.
(Dr. Pepper and Mr. Garrison
confer with the Judge at the bench without
the court reporter present.)
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MR. PEPPER: Your Honor,
plaintiffs call Ms. Yolanda King to the
stand.
THE COURT: All right, sir.
YOLANDA KING,
having been first duly sworn, was examined
and testified as follows:
DIRECT EXAMINATION
BY MR. PEPPER:
Q. Good afternoon, Ms. King.
A. Good afternoon.
Q. Airport difficulties notwithstanding,
thank you for joining us here this afternoon.
A. Thank you.
Q. Would you state your full name and
city of residence for the record?
A. Yolanda King. I live currently in
Los Angeles.
Q. What is your current work activity or
profession?
A. I work as an actress and producer.
Q. And you are the daughter of Martin
Luther King, Junior?
A. Yes, I am.
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Q. Would you tell the court and jury
your reason, as you see it, for this lawsuit
being brought? Since each of the plaintiffs
have a separate interest, in addition to a
joint interest obviously, it's important that
we hear why you think this action is being
brought.
A. Well, I think even as a young
person -- younger person, I always felt that
there was more information, there was much
more to the facts than what had been reported
and what had been concluded. And while I
personally emotionally could not pursue it
myself, I thought it was very important
always that the full truth be known, that the
actual truth be known. And so it has been
actually for me personally a real sense of
peace that this is happening, the fact that
more and more of what actually happened will
be revealed to the American people.
Q. Thank you. Now, does the factor of
money or money judgment against the defendant
in this case enter into your interest in it?
A. No, not at all. There really -- that
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is not a consideration, was never a
consideration. It has always been for me,
for the family a question of allowing the
truth to go forth.
Q. So the family is not interested nor
has it requested any large amount of damages
from the defendant?
A. Absolutely not.
Q. Have you participated in discussions
with other members of the family about the
action, and is it your sense that this is
their feeling as well?
A. Very much, very much. We, I think,
all came to an understanding and a unity of
understanding at different times and
different points in our lives. I think
perhaps I was one of the first, but I'm the
first born so -- and older and closer. But I
think we have all come to a very unified
decision in terms of the importance of what
is happening here and also the reason why it
is so important and so significant.
Q. How old were you, Ms. King, when your
father was taken from you?
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A. I was twelve.
Q. And you were the eldest of the
children?
A. Exactly, uh-huh.
Q. And do you remember that loss and
that tragedy even today?
A. Oh, very much, very much. While it
took me a long time to really mourn the
loss -- for a long time I pretended that he
was just away, and because he was away a lot,
it was easy to do that. I was an adult when
I really mourned my father and really the
significance and the impact of the loss. I
allowed that to come forth, but it is -- I
guess you never get to the point where you
ever really get over it completely.
Q. Do you think this process, as taxing
as it may be for the members of the family,
is helping in that whole reconciliation?
A. Yes, and in the healing -- in the
healing. I know for myself personally I am
able to look at it in a very different way
than I was previously and to really -- really
find the sense of, as I said earlier, peace
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about how things -- what happened and why.
And while needless to say we don't know all
of the facts, more and more has come to
light, and I just think it's extremely not
only personally important, but important for
the country as well.
Q. Yes. The defendant in this case of
course is Mr. Lloyd Jowers. Should he be
found libel, which is what happens in a civil
proceeding as His Honor has explained to the
jury at the outset -- should he be found
libel and culpable with being a participant
with other unknown co-conspirators, how would
you feel about Mr. Jowers? Would you have
enmity toward him? What would your feeling
be for the defendant should that verdict come
down?
A. I think a large part of the reason
because we grew up with a very strong and I
think a very honest faith and that faith and
belief has taught us and we've seen in action
the power of forgiveness and the importance
of it, I would not -- I do not feel any kind
of negative feelings towards Mr. Jowers. I
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think that he was part of what was
unfortunately a result of the climate that
was created and encouraged during that time.
MR. PEPPER: Ms. King, thank you
very much.
THE WITNESS: You're welcome.
MR. PEPPER: No further
questions.
MR. GARRISON: I don't have any
questions of Ms. King. Thank you.
THE COURT: Very well, ma'am.
You may step down.
(Witness excused.)
THE COURT: How long did you say
your deposition is?
MR. PEPPER: It's about 40
minutes.
THE COURT: Forty minutes.
MR. PEPPER: We're prepared to
move it over, Your Honor.
THE COURT: Let's take a vote.
Well, we've already got some no's. I can
understand. It's getting rather late, and it
gets dark pretty early now. So let's stop it
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here, and we'll resume tomorrow at 10:00.
(Jury out at 4:30 p.m.)
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