These are taken from my digests. They are thus not quotes, but instead are my restatements of what I believe was said.
The Mountaintop Speech the Night Before Dr. King Died
Testimony of Rev. Samuel Billy Kyles, Vol XI
The Mountain Top speech almost didn’t take place because that night it was thundering and lightning and raining. Dr. King thought that few would come to the Temple and he told Abernathy, Jessie Jackson, and myself and others to go over and have the meeting. He said he would stay at the hotel and work on the Poor People’s Campaign.
When we got there the place was more than half full. Even with the raining and thundering and lightning, people came. And when Abernathy walked in and I walked in and Jesse Jackson walked in the people started clapping. Abernathy’s preacher sense told him that they were clapping for Martin, expecting him. So Dr. Abernathy called Martin on the phone and said man you need to get over here. I’m not making a speech tonight. These people have come to hear you.
He talked about death more than I have ever heard him. He talked about that time he was stabbed in New York City. A woman stabbed him in the chest with a letter opener. He’s telling this at the meeting. He said of all the greetings I got, the most telling came from young girl who wrote: dear Dr. King, I read about your misfortune. In the paper said the blade was so close to your aorta that if you had sneezed he would have drowned in your own blood. And she put at the bottom: I’m glad you didn’t sneeze. So he did a whole litany on I’m glad I didn’t sneeze. If I had sneezed I would’ve missed the march. He just listed all the things he would have missed.
By that time we were on our feet, we were crying, and there was such passion and pathos in his voice. We didn’t know what to do.
And he said, I’m not fearing any man. I may not get to the Promised Land with you, but we as a people will get there. I thought about that. I’m so certain that he knew he wouldn’t get there but we couldn’t stand to hear him say, I won’t get there. So he said, I may not. He softened for us. I may not get there with you.
The FBI Whistleblower, Donald Wilson
Testimony of Dexter Scott King, Vol. X
A former FBI man, Donald Wilson, contacted my family, saying he had obtained some evidence from the white Mustang alleged to have been James Earl Ray’s vehicle. He was a rookie agent, and a senior agent had allowed him to tag along to the crime scene. When he opened the door, pieces of paper fell out and he picked them up and put them in his pocket. He said he decided to come forward after he saw my mother and me on CNN testifying in I guess Judge Brown’s courtroom and pleading for the truth to come out.
The white Mustang was one that James Earl Ray had ditched in a housing project in Atlanta; I believe it was Capital Homes. He tried to give me some history about his motivation, saying that when he joined the Bureau fresh out of Law School in Tennessee, he thought working for the Federal Bureau might contribute to civil rights. He seemed to be committed to making a difference in the cause of justice.
He said that his first day in training he was assigned to a black rookie agent, and at the rooming facility where they all stayed in Virginia, his black roommate was denied admission. He was sure that the top brass would come down on this resident manager and when they didn’t, he said he knew he had made the biggest mistake of his life. Director Hoover and the top brass did nothing to rectify the situation.
A few years later this black agent was killed in the line of duty, and at the funeral in Chicago Mr. Wilson saw the Director and everyone else talking about how great this guy was, and all he could remember was that when the guy really needed support they were nowhere to be found.
He said that once he started learning about the culture of the Bureau, he instinctively felt that had he turned in that evidence, it would have ended up missing.
In another incident, and I don’t remember if this was before or after the Mustang was discovered, Wilson and his partner saw a gentleman fitting the description of James Earl Ray, and they radioed HQ to see if they should apprehend him. They were told to come right back to HQ and sign off. Mr. Wilson said that from that incident he knew he was making the right decision, because he believed this could have been the man, but they were told not to proceed.
Since that time, agent Wilson has been character assassinated. He said his wife has been somewhat terrorized. Harassment tactics have been used to silence him, to intimidate him.
The first knee-jerk response from the media was that this guy was not even an FBI agent. Within minutes the claim shifted from he is not an agent, to he wasn’t on the crime scene detail (which is technically true, because the car was impounded and taken to the garage to be taken apart by special agents, and he was not part of that detachment) but he was definitely on the scene. Then ultimately there were quotes from former FBI agents saying that whatever he had was fabricated. How can you make that statement when you haven’t even seen what he has? I was amazed to see how he was attacked for coming forward.
The saddest thing about this whole episode is that agent Wilson was the epitome of the do-gooder government bureaucrat who joined the service to do the right thing, to serve his country, who believed in the Constitution. I could see his sincerity. I think he was almost naïve because he kept saying I want to make sure that Atty. Gen. Janet Reno gets this information personally. I remember thinking that he believed that if he forged ahead, the right thing would be done. I feel sorry for him because I don’t think he had a clue.
(A series of newspaper articles were marked as collective Exhibit 31.)
(A page from a telephone directory is projected on the screen.)
I have seen that document before, and I recognize writing on it saying the name Raoul. I recognize that is a copy of one of the pieces of paper that fell out of the Mustang.
(A second photocopy is projected.) I recognize this as a paper I was shown by agent Wilson. It looks like a schedule of payments that were to be made. This also came from the Mustang. I cannot make out the name at the bottom of the fuzzy copy. This document I recognize as one that was shown to me by the agent.
(The document is marked as Exhibit 32.)
At the time I talked with agent Wilson, he did not go into detail. I subsequently learned other information about further evidence, and I believe the Justice Department had subpoenaed that. I believe I learned this from a reporter with the Atlanta Journal Constitution and from an article he wrote about it. The additional evidence was a piece of paper or a card in Mr. Ray’s Mustang with the phone number to the Atlanta office of the FBI.
Black Authorities and Police Removed Early from the Scene
Testimony of Newsom, Wallace, Reddit, Williams, Melanson, Cohen (Vol. III); testimony of Richardson (Vol. VIII)
Testimony of Floyd E. Newsom (firefighter) (Vol. III)
From 1966 to 1968 I was stationed at Firehouse Number 2, across Mulberry Street from the Lorraine Motel. At the time of Martin Luther King’s visit to Memphis, police intelligence did surveillance out of that station. At least two officers were involved, I remember Officer Redditt and Officer Richmond. The windows in the locker room at the rear of the firehouse in the locker room gave a good view of the Lorraine.
On 4 April, 1968 I was on duty, and I was supposed to be at Firehouse Number 2, but I was not. After 10:00 the night of April 3, Lieut. Smith phoned and instructed me not to report to Number 2, but instead to report to Number 31 on the Overton Crossing across town. No emergency caused this change, and I was not needed at Number 31. I was needed on my own company, unless someone else was detailed to replace me.
I asked about this and eventually learned the police department had requested my transfer. This was unusual and unnecessary, and I don’t know the reason for it.
Two black firemen were assigned to firehouse 2. N. E. Wallace was assigned to the opposite shift. He too was detailed out on the night of the 3rd, detailed out to the airport. So both the black officers were removed from duty at that engine house, both absent from the station at the time of the killing.
I was active in the sanitation workers’ strike, attending meetings, serving as a monitor at demonstrations. The Fire Department wrote surveillance reports on my activities. You could say I was not trusted by the police and fire authorities, but nobody ever said I was unreliable. I was never late for work, and I was never disciplined for my community activities. After April 3 I never returned to Fire Station 2.
Testimony of Chief Norville Wallace (firefighter) (Vol. III)
I was at Station 2 from 1966 to November of 1968. At 8 pm the night of April 3 the Captain of Engine 33 told me to go to station 33 at the airport. I was surprised that I wound up staying out there a month. The morning of the 4th when I got off at 7 am, the officer in charge of station 33 told me I’d report back to 33 when I returned to work. I was told that I was transferred because I’d been threatened. I never received a satisfactory explanation.
There were two black firemen at Station 2—Floyd Newsom and me, and neither of us were allowed to be on duty at Station 2 on that day,
I had worked on the 3rd, and was scheduled to report back on the 5th. Mr. Newsom would have worked on the 4th. I was told the morning of the 4th not to report back to Station 2. Late the afternoon of the 4th I heard the news of Dr. King’s killing. I went to Station 2 to try to get a clean uniform. Main Street was blocked off. I was not allowed in the area.
I stayed out at the airport for a month, though I was not needed there. I was an extra man.
Lieutenant Edward E. Redditt (Memphis Police Officer) (Vol. III)
I became a police community relations officer in 1965, responsible to explain police workings to the community. I did surveillance of the sanitation workers strike, seconded to the intelligence bureau, to identify any disruptors from out of town, watching for out-of-town license plates, I saw no conflict between community relations and intelligence. I was protecting the community against disruption. I was still a detective.
Upon arriving at the Lorraine with Dr. King I noticed there was no security. In the past when we were assigned to Dr. King we stayed with him up the steps and down the steps. Nobody was there. Inspector Smith was in charge of security, and he said, you may go now.
I went across the street and asked the fire department if we could observe from the rear of the station. Willie B. Richmond, a patrolman, was assigned with me at that time. We took up positions there the afternoon of April 3. Early the next morning, Officer Richmond and I returned. I received a death threat on a payphone in the fire station. Later that day, Lieut. Arkin from the intelligence division came down to get me, saying the director wanted to see me at headquarters, He was not one of the officers I reported directly to. The threat was not unusual.
In the conference room, Dir. Holloman pointed to a man standing there, said he’d just flown in from DC, and there was a contract on my life, and they had prepared to send my family to safety, and I was to go home. We argued, but he didn’t want to hear my objections. I had never seen the man who conveyed the threat information before. They said he was from Secret Service. The name Phillip Manuel sounds familiar.
We went to my home in a cruiser. Lt. Arkin and I were in the car waiting for my security detail when I heard on the radio that Dr. King had been shot. I jumped out of the car and ran in the house because my mother-in-law was sick in bed and I didn’t want her to hear the news. She had a small transistor radio under the pillow and as I got inside she screamed out “Lord, take me! Don’t take Dr. King!” She died a week later.
Finally on Sunday, they said I could come back to work. I never heard anything else about the threat until later I heard that it was a case of mistaken identity and the actual contract was on someone in Knoxville. And then I heard it was St. Louis.
I think I was removed not because my knowledge of most of the people in the community made me untrustworthy, but because my knowledge might allow me to recognize someone I shouldn’t recognize.
Captain Jerry Williams (Memphis PD) (Vol. III)
When I started in 1949, I was one of the first black officers. I believe my first security assignment was around July of 1966, when James Meredith came to Memphis on his walk to Mississippi. In 1967 and 68 I was in Homicide and would be in charge of security for the police department whenever we had celebrities or dignitaries coming to Memphis. From 1967 until 1971 most dignitaries would have a police security detail for their safety.
The first two times Dr. King came to Memphis in 1968 I was assigned to provide security for him. The third time I was not.
The SCLC office in Atlanta headquarters would notify Rev. Ben Hooks and he would ask the Police Department for security. Inspector Don Smith, the security supervisor, would ask me to select officers for that duty. My usual unit consisted of Wendell Robinson, William Harris, and three reliable uniformed men. We’d have four to six detectives, and one female officer. All black officers. To my knowledge, none of those on that unit were assigned on Dr. King’s last visit.
I would stay with Dr. King throughout his visit. We would meet him at the airport, follow him to the hotel. We would get his itinerary. If he went to church we would lead the detail to the church.
On one occasion he stayed overnight at the Rivermont Hotel. We would go in and check the rooms, make sure the telephone wasn’t bugged, check under the beds, check everywhere. I would assign two officers outside his door. We would take turns every two hours all night long.
On Dr. King’s last visit to Memphis, arriving April 3, Wednesday, 1968, I was not asked to form the usual security unit. I was told that someone else would handle the assignment. I believe two white officers from the homicide office were assigned.
After I had retired I asked my inspector, who was also retired, why we weren’t assigned. He said we weren’t asked. We weren’t asked by somebody in Dr. King’s entourage. We black officers talked among ourselves and had different ideas about why, but nobody knew. I never raised the issue inside the department before my retirement. I don’t know why we were pulled off, and don’t know if the inspector’s answer was true or not. I just know we weren’t working that day on the assignment, and I was not in a position as a black officer to ask.
Memphis was then very segregated and there was much hostility. I took the camera out to the scene for the police photographers, and it seems to me that I could see the hostility and hatred on officers’ faces. I went out to St. Joseph Hospital and saw Dr. King’s body lying on a slab in the emergency room. At least 100 police officers lined the street from the police department north to the hospital and only one white officer came up to me and expressed any type of sympathy.
We would never advise him to stay at the Lorraine because we could not first furnish proper security there. He used to visit the Lorraine for meetings, but never stayed overnight.
Testimony of Dr. Philip Melanson (Vol. III)
My book The Martin Luther King Assassination was published in 1988. In Memphis I interviewed a number of people including law enforcement officers, one of them Inspector Samuel Evans, the commander of the Memphis Police Force Tactical Unit or Tac Squad. I was particularly interested in what happened to them at the time of the assassination.
The Memphis Police Department for Dr. King’s visit formed six tactical units that had not been formed before, riot control units consisting of 3 to 4 police vehicles, 2 to 3 officers per vehicle. The Tact 10 unit was in the area of the Lorraine before it was moved to the firehouse nearby. My understanding from Inspector Evans, and from the documents, was that on April 3 and up to the morning of April 4, four deployed tactical units totaling 10 or 12 cars were ordered to within a five block radius of the Lorraine.
On the morning of the 4th the tactical units were ordered to be withdrawn outside of the five block area. Inspector Sam Evans told me that he gave the order, and said the same to the House Select Committee. He told me that a member of Dr. King’s party, Rev. Samuel Kyles, had requested him to remove them. Rev. Kyles was a local pastor, and to my knowledge had nothing to do with the SCLC. It makes no sense to me in terms of law enforcement chain of command and the duties and responsibilities involved that a local pastor could make this request.
Captain Willie B. Richmond (Memphis PD) (Vol. VIII)
At the time of the sanitation workers’ strike in February and March and April of 1968, I was assigned to the Internal Affairs Bureau. My job was to observe workers and see if any trouble was going to come up. At some point I was assigned to a surveillance post in a fire station at Butler and South Main. I was in the sleeping quarters next to Mulberry Street at the rear of the fire station looking at the parking lot area of the Lorraine Motel. That morning I went out for a blood test, then went to the Internal Affairs office and was told to go to the station to relieve Reddit, because he was to be taken off duty because he had been threatened. I was to continue the surveillance by myself.
When Dr. King arrived in the city for that last visit, I was at the airport. I did not have any conversation with anyone connected with his group or with local clergy about having security or protection for Dr. King on that visit. My partner did and I was there for that conversation when he spoke with Rev. Samuel Kyles. At the time we were told that Dr. King did not want any police protection. I’m not sure, but I think it was Rev. Kyles that said this. I did not know that he held no position in Dr. King’s organization.
Leon Cohen (Retired NYPD officer) (Vol. III)
Mr. Walter Bailey was the owner and manager of the Lorraine Motel. He used to purchase food from our market. I’d see him two or three times a week, and we became friendly. I met his wife on several occasions but did not know her well.
I heard about Dr. King’s assassination on the radio on April 4. The next day I went to look over the scene, and took photographs from the lavatory of the rooming house, aiming toward the Lorraine, and other photos in the vicinity. I ran into Mr. Bailey right outside his office at the Lorraine between 8 and 9 AM. He seemed visibly upset.
He said, if they had listened to me, this wouldn’t have happened. He explained that the previous night, before Dr. King’s arrival. he got a call from a member of Dr. King’s group in Atlanta who wanted him to change the room where Dr. King would stay. Mr. Bailey was adamantly against that, because the inner court behind the office was secure, not exposed to public view. Instead, Mr. Bailey was instructed to move Dr. King to a balcony room. Mr. Bailey said he knew the person who had ordered the room change, but did not identify him.