All language subtitles for Who Killed Martin Luther King

I was looking through the peephole of
the glass.

As I was watching Dr.

King, I saw him look over toward the
boarding house.

And then whenever he looked back, like
he was going to look into the parking

area, that's when he'd come up off of
the grating, and that's when he was

I would say I was the only one that saw
him get shot, actually get shot from the

front.

And it's not no pleasant sight.

I felt very bad inside that this had to
happen in Memphis, Tennessee.

The shame of fireman George Lonecky
watching Dr. Martin Luther King through

police spy hole at the moment of his
death was soon to be shared by many as

weight of world condemnation came down
on the city of Memphis on the 4th of

April, 1968.

This was the killing of a major world
figure.

How could they have allowed it to
happen?

There were even suspicions that the
Memphis authorities were accessories to

murder and involved in a cover -up.

Over 20 years later, the man convicted
of King's murder, James Earl Ray, still

protests his innocence.

In this film, we show new evidence that
there was indeed a conspiracy and that

the trail leads into the heart of
government itself.

position is that you are completely
innocent? Yes.

I don't have no responsibility for it.

I did commit certain, they probably
considered criminal offenses, but they

nothing serious. I probably wouldn't
have got over five or ten years for

aggregated.

Would you say that those criminal
offenses were related to the case?

No, most of them are related. I escaped
from Missouri prison in July 1967 and

went to Canada.

Most of them are related. They have
false driver's licenses and fictitious

and all that type of thing.

There's nothing really serious.

Obviously, an individual had to pull the
trigger.

I'm not 100 % sure if it would be James
Earl Ray. I really don't see how that

could be the case. It's possible, but I
don't believe. I believe there was

involvement by James Earl Ray.

The magnitude of the bombing, I don't
know. I think there were a number of

forces. I always say the forces of evil.
Who that represented, I really don't

know. I would hope that it wouldn't be
the government.

You see, when there's an assassination,
you have to have a lone nut.

Because a lone nut can kill somebody for
no reason.

If you admit that three or four people
were involved or that there was, to use

an overworked term, conspiracy, then you
have to say, well, the conspiracy had a

reason. Well, they don't ever want to
face that reason. What was the reason

Kennedy was killed? What was the reason
why King was killed?

By having a lone nut, you don't have to
ask that question.

We concluded that James Earl Ray was, in
fact, the person who murdered

Dr.

Martin Luther King.

We also felt that in all probability
there was a conspiracy.

However, we were unable to name any
conspirators.

I still have a dream. It is a dream
deeply rooted in the American dream. I

a dream that one day this nation will
rise up.

Live out the true meaning of its creed.

We hold these truths to be self -evident
that all men are created equal.

By the early 1960s, the government was
publicly supporting Martin Luther King.

Privately, they targeted him as a threat
to the stability of the United States.

President Kennedy said on one occasion,
mankind must put an end to war.

A war.

will put an end to mankind.

The world must hear this.

I pray God that America will hear this
before it is too late, because today we

are fighting a war.

I'm convinced that it is one of the most
unjust wars that has ever been fought

in the history of the world.

By 1968, King's stance on the Vietnam
War and his plans for a poor people's

march to disrupt Washington... put him
on a collision course with President

Lyndon Johnson.

When King came to Memphis in the spring
of 1968 to support the city's striking

garbage workers, he led a march which
ended in violent disarray. The National

Guard was called in, and an atmosphere
of tension and fear hung over the city.

We've got some difficult days ahead, but
it really doesn't matter with me now,

because I've been to the mountaintop.

After leaving a trail of false
identities, small -time crook James Earl

arrested at Heathrow Airport in London.

He was brought back to the States and
sentenced to 99 years after pleading

guilty to King's murder.

With a trial that lasted only two and a
half hours, suspicions were raised.

Was the verdict rushed through to cover
up a conspiracy?

I don't give a continental damn whether
there was a conspiracy or not. Well, Mr.

Pullman, did you ever ask your client
whether he was a part of a conspiracy,

whether he'd been hired?

No, I never asked him that, but I asked
him enough other questions to convince

me that he was not.

Did you ever feel that you could ever do
more than save his life? Never at any

time, and so told him from the day I
came in.

When Foreman came in the case, he was
off for a trial, at least he pretended

be, and everything went okay up until
sometime in February of 1969. We were

going to trial up until then, and one
time he came in with the...

Paper one mean signing saying that you
know, we enter a guilty plea He give me

list of reasons why we should enter a
plea He also said the newspapers done

convicted me by pretrial publicity So I
told him I didn't think that was the

grounds for an inner guilty plea because
I thought we could Overcome some of

this adverse publicity during your
trial.

He is the next gamut was that if I
didn't enter a guilty plea they might

brother Jerry Ray in prison for as a co
-conspirator.

He also indicated to defy forced him to
trial, he wouldn't put forth his best

efforts. Are you actually stating that
you never recommended to Mr. Ray that he

plead guilty? I have so stated, I state
again, I never have recommended to any

client. I did tell him the facts as I
saw them. I told him I thought he would

convicted. I told him I thought he would
be executed.

And I had to tell him that because that
was the truth.

Foreman's assertion that he didn't
coerce Ray into a guilty plea is belied

the letter he wrote to him on the eve of
the trial.

Foreman's fee was coming from a book
contract.

Ray asked for $500 so that his brother
could hire a new lawyer.

Foreman agreed, quote, contingent on the
plea of guilty going through without

any unseemly conduct on your part in
court.

So Mr. Foreman came to see me, and we
discussed it, and I told him that I

as in every case, where appropriate,
accept a guilty plea.

on the basis of a 99 -year sentence.

I talked to the governor of Tennessee,
the United States Attorney General, the

Department of Justice.

I did this as a matter of courtesy. They
did not ever interfere with the way I

conducted the prosecution of the case.

It's only recently become apparent that
there was a conflict of interest in the

court's appointment of Hugh Stanton Sr.
to assist Ray's lawyer, Percy Foreman,

in Ray's defense.

Stanton had also acted as lawyer for the
state's chief witness against Ray,

Charles Stevens.

Did you ever consider that Hugh Stanton
was in a conflict of interest

because he'd also represented Charlie
Stevens?

Was that ever considered?

No, as a matter of fact, I believe
you're right that Mr. Stanton did.

I believe Mr.

Stevens finally got somebody else. I
don't know, but no, we didn't consider

any... You're telling me something that
I...

If that's a fact, I had forgotten it.
But whatever it was, nothing came up to

bother us about it.

Dr. Bill Pepper is James Earl Ray's
current lawyer. As a journalist in 1967,

wrote a major article on the effect of
the war on the children of Vietnam, and

this brought him into contact with Dr.
King.

Disturbed by the circumstances
surrounding Ray's trial, he's been

investigating the assassination ever
since.

I think it's quite clear that...

The first suggestion of a guilty plea
was made by co -counsel Stanton on

December 18th, the very day he was
appointed.

He was appointed co -counsel in the
morning, as I recall from the record,

o 'clock that afternoon he was already
in the prosecutor's office having had a

quick word with Percy Foreman suggesting
that James Earl Ray should plead guilty

and the state should accept that plea.

It is also, I think, quite clear that it
was...

around 60 days later, when James had the
subject broke to him by Percy

Foreman at that point in time.

The effect of the guilty plea was to
prevent the state's case against Ray

scrutinized in public.

In our view, that case is seriously
flawed.

The state's case is that at 6 .01 p .m.
on April 4, 1968... In Memphis,

Tennessee, James Earl Ray shot Dr. King
with one bullet from a high -powered

rifle. King was standing on the balcony
of the Lorraine Motel.

The state said that Ray fired from the
bathroom window of a rooming house 200

feet away.

He then fled the scene, dropping a
bundle, including the rifle with his

on it, in a shop doorway.

Then he drove off in his white Mustang
down Main Street moments before the

police arrived.

James Earl Ray had been almost a year on
the run from the Missouri State

Penitentiary where he'd been serving a
20 -year sentence for robbing a

supermarket. Ray claims that in July
1967, he met a mysterious character

Raoul in Montreal.

Over the next eight months, he carried
out various assignments for Raoul.

taking packages across the Canadian and
Mexican borders for money.

Raoul gave Ray $2 ,000 to buy a Mustang
car.

In late March 1968, Ray says that Raoul
instructed him to purchase a rifle and

bring it to Memphis as a sample for a
gun -running deal.

Ray says that at 3 p .m. on April 4th,
he rented a room in a flophouse on Main

Street, as previously agreed with Raoul.

Later, Raoul asked Ray to leave while he
met up with gun dealers.

So I went down and got the Mustang.

I don't know what time it was that time.
I guess it was 10 minutes to 6.

My recollection may be wrong. I drove, I
thought it was three, four blocks north

and three, four blocks west and stopped
at the service station and asked them to

fix the tire, if they could fix the
tire. And this guy was, he said, no,

too busy this time of day. So then I
drove around. I was going to circle

back and park the car at the same place
that I'd picked it up.

When I got back up there, I'm...

I think there was a squad car blocked
off the street. Now, I don't know if

right there at the intersection or he's
about halfway down, but the street was

blocked off, and I seen two, three
people running around out here. So I

well, I better not go down there.
There's a police running around here. So

turned left, drove down to a
predominantly black section. So after a

got on to a main street, and I was going
to call this telephone number in New

Orleans and find out if they could
contact Ronald and see if anything

out here, because I thought maybe there
was guns around there.

It's some type of raid or something.

Anyway, when I was driving out there,
they said something about the... I had

radio on. It said something about Martin
Luther King had been shot.

I didn't think too much about that. And
then about 10 minutes later, when I was

on the outskirts of Memphis, or maybe I
was actually in Mississippi, it said

that they were looking for a white man
in a white Mustang in connection with a

shooting. So I decided then that I'd
better, you know, move on out of there.

drove on and cut off and went to
Atlanta. And from Atlanta, I, you know,

to Canada, caught a bus.

For 20 years now, Ray has claimed that
he was framed for the assassination of

Dr. King by Raoul, who, he believes, was
a professional gunman.

If the assassin had fired the shot from
the bathroom window, he would then have

had to get out of the bath, put the
rifle in its box, run to his room to

the bundle.

then run 85 feet across the hallway, go
down the stairs, drop the bundle in the

shop entrance before walking to his car
and driving away.

All rather implausible. It would have
required split -second timing before the

first policeman arrived at the scene.

Veteran assassinations investigator
Harold Weisberg has obtained more FBI

documents on the King case than anyone
else. He was one of the first people to

cast doubts on the state's case against
Ray in his book, Cover Up. That's

ridiculous.

He's required to have gone to his room
in the flop house and picked up the

widest collection of junk.

Bobby pins.

Bobby pins.

Cans of beer that hadn't been opened.

You know, a guy has been a crime like
that and he's fleeing for his life.

going to pick up a couple cans of beer
or a bobby pin?

The box didn't hold the rifle. He had to
put the rifle in that. All sorts of

other junk. A ridiculous collection of
it.

The one thing that that bundle served to
do was to point a finger at Ray.

We were in the fire station when we
heard the shot.

One of the first policemen to arrive at
the balcony was Sheriff's Deputy Vernon

Dollarhite.

Officer Maley and I proceeded north on
Mulberry to Hewling Street.

We turned west on Hewling and ran up
towards Main.

and there's an alley behind the
buildings where the shot was fired from.

I directed Officer Maley to take up a
position there.

He was armed with a shotgun and a pistol
and guard the alley.

I proceeded on up to Main Street.

I turned to go south on Main Street,
checking those buildings.

I proceeded on south, checking all the
doors of all the establishments.

There's one place called Jim's Bar and
Grill. The door was open. I entered the

building, and I told them there'd been
some trouble.

Everybody stay inside, and I backed out
of the building. At that time, I

observed a rifle, a blue suitcase, and a
green blanket laying on the sidewalk.

Did you see the package with the rifle
when you went into Jim'sville? I did

After I came outside, I turned to my
right.

Facing south, I immediately saw it.

I feel sure that I would have observed
it as I came down the sidewalk because

was very noticeable and I would have
seen it.

How long were you in Jim's Grill?

Not more than 10 to 12, 15 seconds at
the most.

Three different policemen have claimed
to be the first to find the weapon.

Astonishingly, even after 20 years, this
question remains unresolved.

But the fact is that Dollahite was
certainly in Main Street within less

minutes of the shooting.

I think it's very significant that a
bundle of the alleged murder weapon

appeared within two minutes on the
street after the assassination.

I think it's also significant that he
didn't see it the first time that he

out. And it is very possible that...
Someone was lying in wait in the

entranceway to the rooming house and
then only came out and dropped it

after he went into Jim's grill.

Do you think that person was the
assassin or was it somebody else?

I don't believe that person was the
assassin.

I believe that the person who dropped
the bundle in all likelihood had a very

specific role to play and it was placing
the bundle there. I don't believe the

assassin was in the rooming house at
all.

and that this is just a part of
disinformation.

So where do you believe the shot was
fired from?

After considering this issue over many
years and balancing the variety of

factors, I think it's quite likely that
the shot was in fact fired from behind

the rooming house, under the cover, and
from within the cover of the brush on

the bushes. It's the rear of the rooming
house.

Solomon Jones, King's chauffeur, was
standing under the balcony when King was

shot.

I interviewed Solomon Jones in the lobby
of the St. Joseph's Hospital

approximately about 7 .05.

This was a story he told all of us. As
soon as the shot was fired, he looked

over the limousine. He saw a sniper with
a white sheet on his face ducked back

down into the bushes.

A few seconds later, he rose out of the
bushes without the sheet, walked to the

wall, jumped down from the wall.

And you must understand that other
people were coming out of the fire

the same time, jumping from the wall.

Solomon said the person he saw in the
bushes joined in with the people jumping

from the wall, jumped from the wall,
walked on the premises, and he said he

scared. New York Times reporter Earl
Caldwell was staying in motel room 215

he heard the shot.

What I saw, this man just very clearly
rise out of these bushes. He was in sort

of a...

crouched, stooping position.

I did not see a weapon in this man's
hands, but I saw this figure directly

across from the motel. And also, of
course, the man in the bushes was a

man. From the day of the assassination
until this day, no police, no FBI agent

has ever come to me and said, what did
you see?

The only person the state named who
identified Ray as the man who left the

rooming house after the shot was Charles
Quitman Stevens.

Good customers.

Bought a lot of beer in my place.

Got drunk every day that I bought it.

On the day of the shooting of Martin
Luther King, he came downstairs in the

afternoons. Come down, I'd just gotten
to work at 4 o 'clock, so come down

4 .10 after I'd arrived at work.

He was too drunk for me to sell him
beer, then arrested, so I sold him two

quarts of beer to go.

We tracked down cab driver James McGraw,
who got a call to pick up Stevens from

the rooming house that day.

Mr.

Stevens, what do you think of that
picture? Does that look like the man?

Well, from the glimpse that I got of his
profile, it

doesn't.

It doesn't? No, sir. It certainly
doesn't.

For one thing,

he's too heavy. His face is too full.

He has too much hair.

and his nose is too wide.

So, Stevens was drunk that afternoon and
failed to identify a picture of Ray.

Yet he was regarded as such an important
witness that he was kept in protective

custody for weeks before the trial.

After Ray's conviction, Stevens claimed
the $185 ,000 in reward money. His claim

was rejected.

This is probably the most crucial
exhibit in the case. The rifle is so

guarded by the authorities that it's
never been filmed before.

Where's the evidence that this rifle
killed Dr. King?

We invited one of the most renowned
ballistic experts in America, Herbert

MacDonald, to review the ballistics
evidence in the actual bathroom from

the shot is alleged to have been fired.

He's using an identical rifle.

I'm standing on the floor and the
bathtub is no longer in this physical

configuration. With this setting, with
this scope on this rifle and that window

at three and a half inches, I'm looking
partially into the window.

But that only cut the light down very
slightly. I have a very excellent view

the balcony.

With this scope, it would be an easy
shot for someone like myself who knows

how to breathe and position themselves
for a shot and to very gently squeeze

trigger.

An inexperienced person, it would be a
more difficult shot, considerably more

difficult, especially standing in the
bathtub.

There was no evidence that Ray ever
fired a rifle in his life.

That's a mechanical skill, and to be a
good shot, you've got to keep it in just

like a constant pianist or a constant
violinist practices daily.

The only piece of physical evidence that
appeared to link the rifle to this

bathroom was a dent in the windowsill.

That is the exact width and length of an
indentation that I examined in the

windowsill in Memphis in 1974.

The dent, therefore, since it has no
microscopic characteristics...

It has no individual characteristics and
certainly does not reflect either the

geometry or any of the microscopic
scratches on the barrel.

They just would not be reproduced.

This dent could never have been made by
this weapon.

And the point about the dent is that it
was used to demonstrate as evidence that

the rifle was fired from this room.

They fed the dent from the rifle on the
window sill, therefore it was fired from

this room. That's ridiculous.

That does not prove anything.

I took several pictures of the bullet,
including every land and groove.

This is just one of them. I had been
told that the bullet was so badly

that identification would be impossible.

There is a great amount of lands and
groove area for comparison.

I would say that the FBI's decision not
to test fire the rifle.

When they want to see if a projectile
came from a specific rifle, it was a

poor case of judgment.

Their reasoning that it was mushroomed
and distorted so badly that it was

unsuitable for comparison purposes is
absolutely ludicrous.

It had excellent characteristics, and
they should have tested it.

Was the FBI's failure to test the weapon
just incompetence, or, more ominously,

are we beginning to pull back the veils
of conspiracy and cover -up among the

authorities?

Consider the actions of the Memphis
Police Department.

Usually when a king would come to
Memphis, well, even I, if

he was at the church or something, we
would, maybe I'd have maybe 20 men

that block.

He had plenty of security.

He was coming, we'd have men at the
airport to meet him, and we tried to

him more security than we could give
him.

If security was always supplied to Dr.
King, why was the seven -man police unit

attached to him stripped away only 24
hours before the assassination?

Under close questioning from the House
Assassinations Committee, Memphis Police

Director Frank Holliman denied that he
had authorized the removal or had known

about it at the time.

On top of that, it's a matter of public
record that three 12 -man police

tactical units were pulled back five
blocks from the vicinity of the Lorraine

Motel on the morning of the
assassination.

Now, on this occasion, the tax car units
were withdrawn at some point on the day

of the 4th of April, weren't they?

No, my cars was never withdrawn.

Well,

April 4th?

No, we still had cars in the area.

Wasn't it some suggestion that they were
pulled back at the request of one of

Dr. King's party, that they were pulled
back a number of blocks?

No, to my knowledge now, and all the way
they've been pulled back was on

my command.

Philip Melanson, author of the recent
book The Merkin Conspiracy, has made a

special study of the issue.

I questioned Sam Evans about the
withdrawal of the tactical units because

was a very important matter.

Evans told me clearly and forcefully
that the tactical units were withdrawn.

at the request of the Reverend Samuel
Kiles, a man in King's entourage, and

he, Evans, had received the order, the
request from Mr. Kiles, and had acceded

to it. And he told me that flatly two
years ago.

Could Melanson's book refresh Sam Evans'
memory?

No, I didn't pull my man back.

Why is Sam Evans now being evasive on
this important issue?

Is it because the official excuse for
removing the tax cars just does not ring

true?

For someone in the SCLC to have
instructed, quote -unquote, the Memphis

to move back those tactical units would
be laughable in that situation.

And it's absurd to think that the
Memphis Police Department would have

to that request. These tactical units
were riot control forces that were there

to keep the lid on the Lorraine and
monitor King.

And if he or anybody in his party had
told them to move back, I think they

have increased the surveillance net or
begun to look more sharply for trouble.

It's unthinkable that they would simply
be that accommodating.

Colonel Fletcher Prouty was chief of
special operations for the Joint Chiefs

Staff at the Pentagon in the 60s. When
Kennedy was killed, Prouty resigned,

suspecting an enemy within.

The policemen are taught to go to where
there's been a murder and solve the

murder. And just consider either of the
Kennedy cases or the King cases, the

thing you notice most is that the police
stood with their hands down and did

nothing.

There were no on -the -spot detectives.
There was nobody really looking into the

ballistics. There was no one checking
any of the things that the police would

have gotten into in the first place.

So there's where you begin to see the
cover -up patterns. Somebody has told

police department, stay away from this.

Now, they don't tell them that way.

They say, look, because this was Mr.
King in town, we have a special group of

Secret Service or a special group of
whatever here. And so the police think,

well, that's covered. We're not needed.
But in any event, they're away.

In Dallas, I know for a fact myself that
there was an army unit we intended to

use in Dallas for protection on the
streets, simply to watch everybody,

the windows, watch everything.

The commander of that army unit had
received a call, a very simple call,

we don't need your unit. He knows there
are other units, so he thinks they're

going to use somebody else's unit.

The next day he found out there were no
units there. Well, it's too late then,

you see. Who made the call to that
colonel?

In Memphis, there is evidence that the
secret service did influence the

activities of the police.

Ed Redditt was a detective in a
surveillance post at the fire station.

You could see the back of the back, and
you could see all of the courtyard of

Lorraine, like the office, the whole bit
from there, all the way down to the

corner of the building. You could see
everything around Lorraine.

Then Lieutenant Arkin arrived and stated
that I was wanted at the headquarters.

I said, for what? He said, I don't know.
He said, get in the car. Let's go. I

was told to bring you back.

As I viewed the room, there appeared to
be numerous law enforcement people from

all of the various agencies, local,
county, state, and nationally. Director

Frank Holliman stated that the man
standing across from me was a secret

from Washington, stating that there was
a contract out on my life.

At that time, he told an archer to take
me home and wait until someone arrived

to guard me.

Once we arrived at my house, while
seated in the car awaiting the security

me. Being there, I imagine, on more than
five or ten minutes, the radio by

Assault .King had been shot.

From various sources, we've been able to
piece together that the information

about the assassination attempt on
Detective Redditt did indeed come direct

Chief Holloman from a Secret Service man
in Washington.

This departmental communication reveals
that by 4 .15 that afternoon...

Lieutenant Arkin of the Memphis Police
Department had been alerted by a phone

call from the FBI that the assassination
threat attributed to Redditt was a

mistake.

So why was Chief Holloman sending
Redditt home at 5pm, three quarters of

later? He testified to Congress that he
was not told of the mistake at that

time.

Lieutenant Arkin, then head of the
police intelligence unit, can have no

excuse. He received the phone call and
then personally took Redditt home.

The reasons for his actions are
unexplained. He refused to be

this program.

The Reddit affair represents the
distraction of the Memphis Police

a false intelligence report from
Washington that was inputted into the

Police Department within hours before
the assassination, and that seemed to

distracted everyone in the department to
the extent that they were off on

missions and having meetings, and that's
very significant. The fact that Reddit

had a different assignment is not the
entire affair. Where that information

from about a false threat, why and how
it was taken seriously, and what its

distraction factor was is the
importance.

I think that has yet to be fathomed.

In the famous Lao photograph of the
associates of Dr. King pointing away

the motel and toward the rooming house,
there was for a long time a mystery

about the person who was kneeling over
Dr.

King, checking him for life signs.

That person was Meryl McCullough, who
somehow, when hearing the shot,

streaked up the stairs to the balcony
and checked Dr. King.

He was an undercover operative for the
Memphis Police Department, but reporting

directly to an intelligence officer of
the Memphis Police Department.

Part of a web of covert action conducted
by the security forces in Memphis,

Meryl McCulloch was just one of the
shadowy figures involved.

We learned from a police source that the
owner of the Lorraine Motel was a

police informer. So was Dr. King's
chauffeur.

The FBI had informers among black groups
in Memphis and in the heart of King's

party, the SCLC.

This hidden network was partially
revealed in a secret intelligence report

written by Lieutenant Arkin.

Apart from McCulloch, codename Max, the
report also discloses another agent as

yet unidentified, codename Bill.

Whether these spies had a sinister
purpose is unclear.

Certainly they failed to prevent the
assassination.

A decade later... the Memphis Police
Department was still concealing their

actions, providing the House
Assassinations Committee with a version

report that was clearly doctored.

Congressman, would it surprise you if a
document supplied to your committee by

the Memphis Police Department had in any
way been sanitized or doctored?

It would surprise me because I'm not
aware of any document given our

by the Memphis Police Department that
was sanitized or doctored.

The secret intelligence report was
definitely doctored. The version that I

which was the original version, was
fuller and material was excised for the

congressional report. It leaves out
crucial details such as Mr. McCulloch

his spying role. It leaves out many of
the other details and it factors in

things that didn't happen in the
original data.

Links between the police and the FBI
were unusually strong in Memphis.

Not only was Fire and Police Chief
Holloman running the Memphis FBI in the

60s, but he also worked for seven years
in charge of the office of FBI Director

J. Edgar Hoover.

The Communist Party of the United States
is a fifth column if there ever was

one.

It is far better organized than were the
Nazis in occupied countries prior to

their capitulation.

They are seeking to weaken America, just
as they did in their era of

obstruction.

When they were aligned with the Nazis,
their goal is the overthrow of our

government. During the course of our
investigation, we revealed the fact that

the mission of the FBI was to destroy
Dr. King. That is all documented in the

course of our reports, and we did
criticize him severely for

the illegal, unconstitutional way in
which his civil rights were violated.

It certainly was immoral, illegal, and
unethical for the Bureau to use

its power to try to destroy Dr.

King, and particularly to do so by
falsifying information.

And they did falsify it over and over
and over again.

And he should know, Arthur Murtag was
FBI agent in Atlanta for 11 years.

I was designated as the agent in
Atlanta.

to handle black probe the black probe
was a program set up to develop

and black organizations to keep the
bureau advised of the activities of

in connection with the civil rights
movement during that period i spent a

my time developing black informants and
these were generally paid informants

during that same period there was a
vendetta against king that

gained in momentum as the years went by,
and I was in a room with my

seven other agents for the whole period
while the wiretap was on.

Across the street from their office in
downtown Atlanta, the FBI took a seventh

-floor apartment for a 24 -hour -a -day
bugging operation on King's office,

house, and hotel bedrooms.

This was initiated by Hoover, who was at
first convinced that King was under

communist influence, then became
obsessed.

with the wiretap revelations of King's
sexual promiscuity.

The FBI were guilty of bugging and
harassing, but were they guilty of

more sinister?

It was about between 6 and 7. I remember
that it was beginning to get dark, and

I was standing at the sign -out desk
with another agent, and the news came

the radio that Dr.

King had been shot and killed in
Memphis.

And this agent at that... moment uh
turned to me and uh

hit his fist together like that and said
something to the effect by god we

finally got him did he say they finally
got him or we finally got him no he said

we finally got them got him that was
what it was the we that uh

stuck in my mind he didn't say they he
said we

I see the Constitution as a framework
which is in the process of development,

and it's our job as Americans to
constantly embellish the

Constitution and build it into a type of
system, not necessarily just a

document, that will result in equal
rights, equal opportunity for

all Americans.

And I take this very, very seriously. I
always have.

And when I saw the Bureau and saw the
way that it was working, saw what they

were trying to do to King, I felt that
we had within our own country a sort of

fifth column trying to destroy the
purposes of the Constitution.

It is not enough to simply say the FBI
did it.

or retired FBI agents or former FBI
agents killed Dr. King. I mean, that has

been a view that 10 years ago was
certainly much in vogue, but it's much

complicated than that.

In early 1968, Myron Billet, a gopher
for the mafia, drove two senior mob

figures, Sam Giancana and John Roselli,
to a meeting with federal agents at a

motel near the small town of
Appalachian.

in upstate New York.

At the meeting, the Mafia leaders were
offered a contract to kill Martin Luther

King.

The FBI and the CIA were the ones that
came up with the hit.

They wanted to come up with a new order.

They wanted to pay the mob a new order
and make a hit.

And Sam said, no way.

There's no way we're going to get
involved in nothing like that.

And that was it.

Who was it who made the suggestion?

The CIA now or the FBI now? CIA now.

Myron Billet is a dying man.

We think it's unlikely that he would
tell such a story now if it weren't

And it's documented fact that Rosselli
and Giancana were contracted by the CIA

to kill Castro.

If they rejected the CIA's offer on
King, there is evidence that a contract

local mob figures in Memphis may have
been affected.

In Memphis, we were aware of several
frightened witnesses.

Bill Pepper is taking us to see one of
them. I found a very fearful man with

John. I found him very fearful then, and
I find him now increasingly fearful.

The first night I saw him, he insisted
on retiring to a room in the back of the

garage general store and sitting with
the lights out. I saw him again, and he

always reminded me that he wasn't really
on duly paranoid, but that, in fact, he

had been shot at, and people had
attempted to kill him, and he had been

up.

He at one point was hospitalized.

There's a basis for his profound
uneasiness. I don't know whether he'll

us this afternoon.

Keep out the lights.

Well, we have a very frightened man.

He's just very, very afraid to come on
camera and to say anything about this

matter.

Tell us what's his story.

On April 4th, 1968, at 5 .15 in the
afternoon, John McFerrin went to Liberto

Latch Produce Company to do his
shopping. It was the last stop of the

coming back to summer.

Shortly after he entered the place, he
heard a man who he originally called the

Fat Man, Frank Liberto, on the
telephone.

Heard Liberto...

say words to the effect, shoot the son
of a bitch when he comes on the balcony.

Don't come around here.

Don't call me here.

Go to New Orleans and pick up your money
from my brother.

The conversation ended at that point.

The parent didn't think too much about
that conversation until 6 .30 p .m. He

heard that Martin Luther King had been
assassinated shortly after 6. Then it

made sense to him. He gave a statement
to the FBI, Memphis Police Department.

investigators, and eventually the House
Select Committee on Assassinations.

They all disregarded his comments and
ignored.

I've known John for 10 years. I believe
John had a crucial bit of information

that was never looked at properly, never
followed up, and disregarded. And the

only reason it would have been
disregarded was because it was

the scenario that became, in effect, the
official story.

What's the evidence of mafia involvement
with the CIA in assassinations? Colonel

Fletcher Prouty was head of special
operations in the Pentagon in the 1960s.

I certainly knew of plans that were
intended to bring about an

for example, in the case of Castro.

So they created an organization called
Mongoose. Mongoose was the cover word

it. Now, the objective of the Mongoose
program was...

to assassinate Castro by any means.

We even used mafia hitmen, skilled
mechanics, skilled killers.

Now, there's no reason to believe that
Mongoose ended when somebody decided

that, well, we're not going to kill
Castro this year, we'll let it go.

But Mongoose is an assassination
incorporated organization.

From your experience in government,
Fletcher, do you think it conceivable

secret intelligence unit could have
planned and carried out the

Martin Luther King?

you needn't have to include the word
intelligence unit it's just a secret

and there's no question about it being a
unit anybody that thinks today that

either kennedy assassination either one
of them or the king assassination and

others that we might go into we're done
by individuals just doesn't understand

that doesn't understand the business at
all the easiest way to see that the

program is laid on you know team effort
carefully planned and carried out begins

after the murder. It's how to get them
out of there and how to cover the thing

so people don't realize that a team of
gunmen did the job. Martin Luther King

was registered on the first floor.

Somebody went there ahead of time and
told the landlady of the motel that he

didn't want to be on the first floor. He
wanted to be on the second floor.

Nobody in King's party had made that
contact.

You see, that's the advanced planning.

Then afterwards, all the things that
happened, the chase of Ray halfway

the world and all the other things that
came up, are a cover plan which is so

complete that even to this day no one
has broken the system completely and you

can't get into the courts anyway they
claim that their file only had his

travels and world reaction to his death.
I have a memo to that effect.

But the documents that were released to
me show something entirely different,

and that is that they had an operational
interest in Dr. King. They were worried

about communist influences upon him, as
described by the FBI, and they were very

much concerned, as was the FBI, that
King's opposition to the war was

by communists and was a subversion of
the United States' Vietnam War effort.

From 1965 until after King's death.

A leading white civil rights campaigner,
J. Richard Kennedy, met regularly with

a CIA contact and briefed him on King's
actions.

He's agreed to talk about this for the
first time on television.

Here comes Martin Luther King.

He marches out and he says, a plague on
this war.

Don't fight in it.

Turn your guns the other way.

Well, the fact that millions of middle
class whites...

whose sons were going into this war and
who believed in it.

You just tug at this, boom.

What do you think they did? Just exactly
what they did. They quit.

With his own hand, he killed the
coalition and he killed the revolution.

Don't ever blame your allies if you're
the leader of the revolution.

You're supposed to get it right.

Kennedy believed that King was under the
influence of Peking -led Marxists

within the SCLC.

Well, first of all, you start with the
people in Beijing.

pays in the United States.

When they start moving from one field to
another, you have to assume that

Beijing has asked them to.

The Black Panthers and the Muslims, the
Black Muslims, had moved straight into

the King headquarters.

They had gotten out imprint books in the
thoughts of Mao.

They were selling them.

And a journal that purported to list the
financial contributions of the Mao

Zedong government in the United States
listed the Black Panthers.

the black Muslims, and several other
black organizations as being now on the

payroll of Mao Zedong.

Do you think the CIA, when you told them
about this, about King, took you

seriously? Did they take me seriously?

I don't know.

How are we knowing someone takes us
seriously?

I don't know.

I suppose I would have to judge by the
fact that they did work that sector of

the CIA. Let's be careful.

that agreed with Kennedy, the president,
and were friends of mine and agreed

with me. I think they took me seriously
on all these things because they were

facts.

You see, I didn't give these people
information. Let's be clear about

I never gave the CIA any information. It
would be absurd and pertinent of me to

think I could.

They had people all over the place.

They wanted information, they got it.

What they got from me was an
interpretation of information.

I think that Kennedy's statements about
King being controlled by Peking line

communists may appear to be absurd to us
now and absurd to us then if we had

known about them, but quite likely were
believed by the agency and by the people

who were reading them. And I think they
heightened the paranoia and the fear

about Dr. King and what would happen
should he not be stopped.

So when you run into data that says the
FBI did this or the CIA did that,

you have to be very careful or you have
to investigate a little further because

what it really is probably is the
overlap of the two.

The strongest evidence of an FBI and CIA
involvement with the assassination

begins with a trail that starts here in
Toronto with the aliases or alternative

identities used by James Earl Ray.

In 1967, two months after escaping from
prison, Ray began using different

identities at every opportunity.

Four names recur.

All four are real, perfectly innocent
people living within a one and a half

radius of each other in a Toronto
suburb.

All four had similar physical
characteristics to Ray.

One name, Eric Galt, was used by Ray
over an entire nine month period prior

his assassination.

When King was killed, the name of the
man police thought they were hunting was

Eric Galt.

A sharpshooter with relatives in
Rhodesia, Galt could indeed have been a

plausible assassin.

His similarities to Ray are remarkable.

Ray has a scar on his forehead, so has
Galt.

The scar on my forehead runs from one
eye across to the other one. It's right

over the bridge of the nose.

The other scar that I think Ray has
would be on the plastic surgery, which

on the tip of my nose.

One month before the assassination,
using Galt's name, Ray had plastic

on his nose. In addition, Ray and Galt
both have scars on their right hands.

Coincidences that really fascinated me
was the fact that when I was in Ottawa

an Ontario Council meeting, Ray, who had
been there, was in two blocks of where

I was.

While I was in Montreal on another
occasion, Ray was also in an area, was

couple of blocks of where I had stayed.

Identification that he would pick up on
me would be absolutely remote.

I don't think there's any way that he
has gotten my name out of some

How did Ray get access to these
identities?

It's recently come to light that Eric
Galt's details were in a top security

because of his work on a then -secret
defense contract for the Union Carbide

Company in Toronto.

There are files in every company that we
have defense contracts with, very, very

elaborate files, because they want to
know who they're dealing with. I myself

have had access to Canadian and
Australian and British material that

countries considered secret, top secret
and all, and in exchange we provided our

material. So if you were going to
fabricate a record for somebody or use

somebody else's record as a cover, that
could be done, even though it involved

two countries or three countries.

The alias of this question is crucial
because it was unexplained by official

investigations, and it's obviously
central to this case.

James Earl Ray was able to use the names
of people who looked like him, who were

totally innocent, and in the case of Mr.
Galt, who shared uncanny

characteristics with Ray, when Ray had
no capacity to have gone to Toronto and

scouted these names out or gotten them
from a file. And to me, that means they

were provided to Ray, which means a
conspiracy.

I really don't recall the Galt name
where I got it. And there's a couple of

others I don't recall the details of.

You weren't supplied with a package of
alias or identities at one stage?

No, I was never supplied with that. I
was supplied with money and things of

nature, but I was never given any alias.

It would have been more simple to give
me a passport than give me all those

phony names to look up.

It was here in July of that year that
Ray first started using the Galt name,

here also in July that he claimed to
have met the man he knew as Raoul.

After Ray's arrest in May 1968, a
Canadian journalist, Andy Salwin, in

evidence of Raoul, came across the
footsteps of a mysterious American a few

blocks from where Ray had been living in
Montreal.

His name was Jules Rico Kimball.

Kimball's girlfriend told Salwin that
Kimball kept guns and explosives in his

car. made frequent phone calls to New
Orleans, and was known to her as Rollo.

Was Kimball riled, or could he be linked
with Ray in any way?

Sowern couldn't get to him, could we?

So we came to New Orleans, a city
frequented by both Jules Rico Kimball

James Earl Ray, where in the 1960s the
CIA, the FBI, and the Mafia at times

worked together in an unholy alliance.

We came here on the trail of Kimball and
discovered that a famous district

attorney, now a judge, interviewed
Kimball as part of his inquiry into the

Orleans connection to the Kennedy
assassination.

In the early part of our investigation
into John Kennedy's murder, one of the

most interesting individuals we
encountered was Jules Rico Kimball.

We learned from him about his
relationship as, you might say, a spear

for the CIA here in New Orleans, his
relationship with David Ferry and Clay

Shaw, who were considerably more than
spear carriers, who were involved here

New Orleans with the New Orleans and the
murder of John Kennedy, and about Jules

Rico Kimball's trip to Montreal, a town
where he seemed to be knowledgeable, but

we weren't able to get much more than
that.

But in the final sum of things, spear
carrier or not, Jules Rico Kimball was a

small load, but a rich one with a few
specks of gold and

most useful in giving us insights into
the role of the covert intelligence

operation in the murder of John Kennedy.

Then we talked to New Orleans private
investigator Joe Oster, who'd done

extensive surveillance on Kimball in
1967 because he was a suspect in the

bombing of a left -wing union leader.

Could Kimball have been in Montreal at
the same time as Ray?

Up to now, nobody's been able to answer
this key question.

But there is a week in July 1967 when no
one can account for Kimball's

movements.

We interviewed his in -laws, interviewed
his relations, we interviewed his wife.

We had his home under surveillance, and
we cannot account for that week, week

and a half of where he was.

So he could have been in Montreal.

He could have been anywhere.

He could have been in Montreal.

Where is Kimball now? With the help of
Foster's contacts, we finally tracked

Kimball down to a federal penitentiary.

My name is Jules Ron Kimball. I'm 45
years old. I'm doing a double life

for organized crime and racketeering and
murder for underworld killings.

Worked for the government and CIA for
quite a few years. I worked on different

things. I was a Google client, a BFB
invasion to the assassination

of President Kennedy.

Can you tell us the story of how you got
connected to Montreal?

I had a contact there, and I would visit
up there.

At that time, CIA was working at...

They had a, I can't think of the name of
it right now, but it was the Quebec,

you know, the Free Canada, which was the
French were trying to take over there.

And I went up there, I started going up
there, went down and done, I had done a

couple of jobs up there for them.

Can you give me a clue as to what kind
of work you did up there for them?

I had done two murders for them there,
yes.

In Canada.

Were they political things?

Yes, some of the political things. There
was, I think, the CIA front.

See, CIA bail back anybody as long as
they can put a man on the inside.

Campbell says he was introduced to an
FBI agent in New Orleans and put on the

payroll of the FBI to undertake
assignments.

This agent told him to meet Ray at
Atlanta Airport and fly him to Canada.

Yeah, mister told me to pick him up.

Told me to pick up and go to Atlanta to
Charlie Brown Airport.

And this guy would meet me there.

And I went there, and I stayed there.
And he asked me, what's my name? I said,

yes, you're so passionate.

I said, okay, well, I'm ready to go. I
took him to a place on Mount Royal

Street, which is in Montreal itself.

And I had a contact there. It was a CIA
front in the building.

And I got him his fake identification
stuff.

He would give you a whole makeup, you
know.

Well, good one, you know, that would
stand any kind of security, you know.

you could travel with it just like if
you travel on your own and not even

about it, you know.

It was legitimate.

How do you know that this place was a
CIA front?

It, uh, uh, well, back when I first went
to Canada, I was given that

information.

I went there and I gave him a code and
he recognized me, you know.

I was told what to say when I got there
to him.

It was a business place.

And I just went there and no problem.

How did you know that the man you picked
up that day later on was James Earl

Ray?

I threw another contact I had.

They told me that they were going to use
him for a job at that time.

So did you fly him back to America after
his visit?

No, I didn't.

Not him. I threw somebody else back.

Now, his story is that he met a man
called Raoul.

It sounds like that part of Raoul was
you.

And they call me Rico.

So would you say that at least for the
Canadian part of Ray's story, you were

Raoul?

Ah, yes, uh -huh.

Yes.

Later in the interview, Kimball claimed
that he had assisted Ray after the

assassination.

Yeah, I blew it from down in Montreal,
yes.

And turned him over.

The people are.

Can you clarify that?

What did you do after the assassination?

What did I do after the assassination?
What did I do after the assassination? I

told you I flew into Canada after the
assassination.

So can I show you a picture in front of
you and ask you whether you recognize

him or have you seen him before?

No,

I don't believe I do.

There was a person that looked similar
to him in this Jim's grill I mentioned a

while ago.

But that's been 20 years ago, and it
would be difficult for me to remember

what he looked like. I gave a
description of the person I saw in

course, like I mentioned, that's been 20
years ago, and I don't think they'll

ever... His name is George Rico Kimball.

Yes.

Now, he's in prison at the moment. He
specifically alleged that he flew you

to Canada and assisted you in gaining
your...

identities from a character in Montreal.

Is there any truth in that at all? No,
there's no truth in that whatsoever.

I don't know.

I've never had any contact with him.

Possibly I've seen him, but I don't even
recall that.

He may be under some type of... Is he in
prison now?

Well, there's a possibility he's under
some type of pressure from the

government.

He may know something about the King
case, but he's trying to disinformation

things of that nature.

Every single statement that he gave us
turned out to be true without exception.

There was no dissembling.

The only, in retrospect, I can see from
going through his whole file here,

the only information that is not true is
what had been planted in his mind back

at that time towards the end of his
service for the CIA here in the city,

covert operations.

is where they have planted in his mind
the idea that he was really working for

the Ku Klux Klan or the white citizens
or something like that, which is kind of

a standard operating procedure for
intelligence agencies before they

somebody after they perform things. But
in the final analysis, Kimball himself

never lies.

I think there are several reasons why
Ray won't tell us more.

First of all, what he knows will
probably not make him look more innocent

he wants to claim to be innocent.

Second of all, I think he was
compartmentalized and kept in the dark

what he knows about the case may only
make him look worse and not be able to

turn over to law enforcement the
identities or position of the

it won't help them that much and it
won't help him that much. He wants to

he was framed by Raul. I think that Raul
does not exist and is a composite in

Ray's mind.

a series of shadowy figures, a network,
if you will, who helped him in the

Baffination conspiracy.

And I believe that some of the
characteristics Ray attributes to Raoul

characteristics of some of these people
who associated with Ray and helped him,

but there is no one Raoul.

He does not want to talk about who the
conspirators really might be or how they

might have provided him with aliases and
couriers.

Kimball's statement to us is the first
time that anyone has confessed to being

part of the conspiracy to kill King,
although he says he did not know that

the purpose.

In subsequent communications, he's been
more insistent about the CIA's central

role in the assassination, and further
alleged that he flew in two snipers to

Memphis the week before the killing.

Ray, he says, was not the assassin, but
a pawn.

We believe that the evidence of Ray as
the assassin is weak, that he had a

relatively minor role.

A House Assassinations Committee
investigator told us that if they could

got evidence of a Kim or Ray connection,
it would have been very significant.

Surely, now is the time.

to reopen this case.

I think we should challenge them to do
what is right. But I think that good

someday is going to triumph over evil.

And if there is evil, if it relates to
the Justice Department, if it relates to

the entire federal government, good will
one day prevail.

That's what my father taught us. That's
what my mother taught us.

That's hopefully what we embody as a
family.