Coup d'Etat, Part II
Chapter 17
Conspiracies Galore
Intermittently, in the months following the mini-trial, on the few occasions when the question
arose, officials and unofficial officials (those who do the dirty work of government without official tie to
it) allowed as how the possibility of a conspiracy could not be entirely, 100 percent, ruled out. Of course,
all insisted, there was no proof of one, and how hard it had been sought! From the minor Memphis police
official to the former Attorney General of the United States, all hewed the same line, that of government
in the new American era of political murders: No conspiracy. This time, however, there were hidden
escape hatches.
Some spoke and wrote carefully, so they could later refer back to their exact words, interpreting
them to show the oracle had been aware of the possibility, remote as it might have seemed. Formulations
varied, with the official and with the need. From the immediate one-man-alone version of the Attorney
General whose department pretended it had proof of a conspiracy to get jurisdiction and then ignored all
the many evidences of it; through his variation to gloss over the conflict with the FBI and to assert
jurisdiction; through the Huie juvenility of a "little conspiracy" because there may have been one of
"little" men; through the prosecution denial and that of all the great abdicating liberals, there were
countless variations on the same theme. Only some of King's former associates, who thereupon clamped
their tongues, insisted there had been a conspiracy.
We have examined enough of these. Before we ask ourselves the same question, there is one
comment requiring special note at this point, that of the hanging judge, the man who did what he knew
was wrong, what violated the .legal ethic, Judge Battle. When the chips were down, when he had to be
counted, he said a mouthful. It was carefully hidden, ignored. The press preferred his piety, that "if this
Defendant was a member of a conspiracy to kill the decedent, no member of such a conspiracy can ever
live in peace and security, or lie down to pleasant dreams, because in this State there is no statute of
limitations in capital cases such as this ... in the majority of cases, Hamlet was right when he said,
"Murder, the ugh it hath no tongue, will speak with the most miraculous organ.'" But what the judge
actually said, thus carefully obscured, is not that there had been no conspiracy - not even that there was no
evidence of a conspiracy. I add emphasis to his unnoted words to make their real import clear. This is
from page 103 of the transcript seen by so few and studied by none:
It has been established by the prosecution that at this time they are not in
possession of any evidence to indict anyone as a co-conspirator in this case. Of course,
this is not conclusive evidence there was no conspiracy. It merely means that at this time
there is not sufficient evidence available to make out a case of probable cause against
anyone.
Aside from being an unintended disclosure of improper intercourse with one side of the case over
which he was to preside "impartially," knowledge of the state's case and beliefs, what this really says is
that there was sufficient reason to believe there had been a conspiracy to kill – only there was not in hand
evidence sufficient to make specific charges against specific co-conspirators. It really says there is reason
to-believe the evidence might yet come out, for even the statement the prosecution did not have enough
evidence to indict "at this tine" is further qualified by the claim the prosecution "are not in possession of
that evidence.
Coup d'Etat, Part II
We know the state was doing everything in its power not to find such evidence. Witness the
pittance spent on the so-called "investigation." We also know the federal government was equally
determined not to find this kind of proof, beginning with the determination by the Attorney General
himself in advance of any investigation that there had been no conspiracy. The tragic abdications of the
black leaders require no elaboration.
From whence, then, was this indictable evidence to spring? Full-born from thin air? From the
mouth of the jailed Ray, whose death-warrant it could be? This is the responsibility of public authority.
Public authority remained, as it had been,. determined to avoid it, knowing it exists, while proclaiming its
non-existence.
This is also the obligation of writers, but on this subject they find publishers ranked behind the
government. The subject is taboo. There is no major magazine that will underwrite such an investigation
or print the existing-evidence. No book publisher will consider it.
As when John Kennedy was, murdered and kissed off into history with that dubious epitaph of a
fake, inadequate investigation and the sick formality of a contrived, dishonest official Report, the people,
in their great good sense, knew better. That the people, too, have no voice.
There was a poll, that popularity of the era of American political murders, but almost no one ever
heard of it. I doubt any poll has been less published and less publicized. It was taken by the Harris
Survey. Even Harris subdued it, angled it to underplay what it really discloses.
Although a majority of Americans are convinced that James Earl Ray
assassinated Martin Luther King and that Sirhan Sirhan killed Robert Kennedy, the
conspiracy theory in both cases finds widespread support. A substantial 66 percent of the
public is convinced that the murder of Dr. King was "a conspiracy rather than the work of
one man."
In the Ray case, "37 percent flatly say they 'disapprove of its handling' and exactly the same
percent say they are satisfied."
Because there had been a "trial," I suggest this really means 63 percent of the people say they are
not satisfied with the handling of the case.
"A black packinghouse worker in the Omaha stockyards" is quoted as saying "When they wipe
out all three men that fought hardest for the blacks, you gotta believe there's something big behind it."
It is only when the interpretations of the pollster are laid aside and the se statistics he gathered are
examined that the real result of the poll becomes apparent. Significant as it that, after the Memphis
"trial," 66 percent believe there was a conspiracy, there is deeper significance. Nationwide, after the
"trial, only 12 percent were satisfied there had been no conspiracy. When this is broken down by region,
only seven percent expressed belief there had been no conspiracy. Seventy-one percent were convinced
there had been. We do not know the racial breakdown of these interviewed, for the numbers are not
given. But it is safe to assume that most of the se expressing the southern belief were not black.
Coup d'Etat, Part II
So, in the south, the region of the crime, only seven percent would say they believe the murder
the work of a single man.
Racial breakdown is given only "nationwide." Among blacks, only six percent believe the
murder not a conspiracy, only 11 percent express uncertainty, and a whopping 83 percent are convinced
there was a conspiracy.
After the enormous officially-inspired campaign to convince the people the murder of the great
black leader was the work of a single man seeking his day of glory, after the courts had acted and decided,
there are incredible statistics, when only seven percent of southerners and only 12 percent of the entire
nation are satisfied there had not been a conspiracy.
To this must be added the common misconception of what constitutes conspiracy. Most people
believe there had to be more than one killer for the murder to have been a conspiracy. The actuality is
that the murderer need only have had any kind of associate or assistance to constitute "conspiracy."
It is the prevalent style to treat the reader as a schoolchild, carefully mustering at a single point all
the evidence of a point to be made. The successful popularisers, of whom Huie is a convenient example,
simplify their writing (which requires less reader thought and is considered better and more successful for
this reason) and add the twos and twos. I do not have this contempt for the reader. I do believe he recalls
what he reads, that on this subject he reads for a purpose not entertainment, but knowledge and
understanding. Therefore, I will not here recapitulate all the foregoing evidences of a conspiracy, like the
multiple Rays and white Mustangs, the utter improbability of any one man entirely alone having been
able to do all that is attributed to the single Ray/Galt/Sneyd/Willard/Lowmyer/Lowmeyer, or the hiding of
"star witness" Charles Stephens "to keep him from being disposed of by the non-existing conspirators!
Throughout this book, where it has seemed appropriate, there is more than enough evidence of a
conspiracy; more than needed to show Ray could not have been entirely alone, the requirement for there
not to have been a conspiracy. I will not demean the reader and his intelligence or lengthen an alreadylong book with its repetition.
Nor will I rest with the over-simplified question, "was there a conspiracy." Conspiracy is any
combination to do wrong. The King murder was the end-product of a conspiracy, without doubt, and in
what follows I will present evidence of it not already addressed. But the question is not this simple,
cannot rest with this limited expression.
As with Presidents, with King there were, certainly – unquestionably - conspiracies that did not
succeed only because the successful one did, was first. At this moment, it is not possible to isolate from
the many known to have existed the single one that did succeed.
It could have been the Milteer/NSRP one, incredible as that may seem when it is the NSRP that
took over Ray's "defense." Or it could have been the others of which the government was well aware and
against which it allegedly was and had been 'protecting" the victim.
There is also the question, "was Ray the victim of a conspiracy." The available evidence pretty
clearly establishes he was framed with the murder while playing a different role in the conspiracy, that of
decoy. Whether or not he was consciously part of a conspiracy he knew was intended to kill the black
leaden is neither unequivocally clean nor essential. It is enough that he did play a role in it. But when all
the forces of society combine to pin what the evidence categorizes as a "bum rap" on him, when he is
ordained the murderer with misrepresented and nonexistent evidence while the requirement of the law is
"beyond reasonable doubt and to a moral certainty," we have to. ask if-this, too, is happenstance or
Coup d'Etat, Part II
conscious and deliberate, a conspiracy. His own lawyer combined with the prosecution, blackjacked and
then blackmailed him into pleading guilty and holding his tongue. Indeed, it is possible to ask if there
was not still another conspiracy against the friendless convicted, a conspiracy to fleece him atop it all.
If the literary answers about his lawyers, the prosecution, the judge and the relationship between
all cannot be answered "beyond responsible doubt and to a moral certainty," this does not relieve the
writer of his responsibility to present what he knows for the reader's determination. So, new and
unpublished evidence on this will follow, too.
Let us begin with the crux, evidence of conspiracy in the murder.
To Kill?
First, let us correct the erroneous formulation of Judge Battle. To prove there had been a
conspiracy, it was not necessary to be "in possession of enough evidence to indict anyone as a coconspirator." That is the requirement if and when co-conspirators are to be charged and brought to trial.
To establish whether or not there had been a conspiracy, it was sufficient to prove whether or not one
man, Ray or any other, could have done what he is said to have done entirely alone. If Ray could or did
not do everything attributed to him alone, he had help. If he had help there was a conspiracy. Unknown
conspirators are included indictment as "John Does" or as "and others unknown." This is not at all
uncommon.
The judge knew better. His incorrect formulation is a guilty one. Even he had to know there is
evidence the King murder was a conspiracy. As we have seen, he later, out of court, acknowledged some
of the facts proving it.
At first, before the official "line" was established, there was open disbelief of the Attorney
General's denial of a conspiracy. As more and more of Ray's activities came to light, it became more and
more obvious that he was not without assistance. Save among government apologists, this never
changed.
To cite but two examples, a "police spokesman" in Toronto told Jay Walz, of the New York
Times, on June 10, 1968, "He didn't come cold into the city. There was help of some kind." And as late
as after the mini-trial, after it had examined that record, Time magazine (March 21) had these comments:
"The circumstances of King's murder carried more than a whiff of conspiracy" and .".. not a single one of
the questions that nag the public's curiosity was even answered." Pointedly, it noted "Even Ray wanted to
talk about a conspiracy at his trial, but neither the prosecution nor the defense was interested and Ray was
swiftly sidetracked by Judge H. Preston Battle."
It is not because there is no evidence of a conspiracy that there is no official answer. It is only
because there was official determination to avoid all the proofs of it.
Before he had his change of heart (his is a pocketbook heart), Huie was one of the foremost
conspiracy-minded writers. He did not change his position after his initial articles appeared in Look, nor
had he a month after Foreman took over the case. From the public record, it is not possible to date Huie's
changed position. It seems to coincide with Foreman's assumption of Hanes's majority financial interest
in Ray. When he was in Los Angeles in December 1968, Huie appeared on KNBC-TV. His remarks were
recorded by Dr. Stephen Pauley, a member of the San Diego Assassination Inquiry Committee but a
resident of Los Angeles:
Coup d'Etat, Part II
He knows of at least four people who put up the money for the King
assassination. "One or two of these men were wealthy and of the extreme right. All the
money, in my opinion, came from Louisiana."
There were also plots to kill President Kennedy in Louisiana" There was
Kennedy-assassination talk in New Orleans and Kennedy assassination money being
spent before he was assassinated. New Orleans is the place where the money came from
to assassinate Dr. King and there is certainly that connection between the two."
He knows the names of two wealthy and prominent New Orleanians but "I can't
tell their names because if the Justice Department can't arrest these people, I can't charge
them with having paid the money for the murder of Martin Luther King."
He emphasized, "Our system is simply not prepared to deal with conspiracies.
Knowing something can be one thing in this country and being able to prove it and
provide the signed statement is something else."
lf Huie was making up all of this, what dependence can be placed on anything he says? If he was
not making it up, how can his later declaration Ray was the lone murderer be credited? Here it is
important to note that to note that he and Hanes have been careful to leave the conspiracy door open, to
suggest in many ways and to state openly that there had been a conspiracy, with Ray the trigger man, in
their later formulations. As late as his April 18, 1969 appearance in Washington when he was promoting
the Look trilogy, on the subject of conspiracy, Huie denied he had "turned full cycle in his thoughts," said
he believed someone other than Ray had rode the decision, and Hanes also believed "someone other than
Ray had made the decision."
These anchors to windward by the se with greatest access to Ray and whose expressed opinions
changed with their financial interests are not without credibility and significance because their insistence
on the existence of a conspiracy, even the puerile "little conspiracy" invented by Huie, is what lawyers
call "declarations against interest." They persist when it is more to their interest to say there was no
conspiracy.
Ray, who had never pulled a good, clean job by himself and who had spent most of his adult life
in jails because of his incompetence as a petty crook, did not have the capacity to pull this big one and all
it required entirely alone. Another writer, with established competence, addressed this point, and in doing
it changed his clear and public record of having pooh-poohed the possibility of conspiracy in the
Presidential assassination.
Truman Capote, whose book, In Cold Blood, was a best-selling study of murder, appeared on the
Today show after the mini-trial. NBC and Johnny Carson also have strong anti-conspiracy attitudes in all
the political murders. In reporting this, Time of May 10 said "Capote's credentials make him worth
listening to." These credentials include in-depth interviews with 100 murderers during the previous nine
years. Capote said of Ray:
I have studied his record very carefully, and in my experience with interviewing
what I call homicidal minds he's simply not a man capable of this particular kind of very
calculated and cruel, exact and precise kind of crime.
Coup d'Etat, Part II
Capote believes Ray's only function was to throw the FBI off the assassin's trail. "This was a
setup," he declared, in ridiculing what the alleged assassin is said to have done:
The central factor of what happens is that, after the assassination, this assassin
rushes out of the rooming house and what does he do? He does a very amazing thing.
He takes a suitcase and very carefully drops it up in front of a store. And in this
there is all the evidence, "very carefully left," including Ray's fingerprints.
Capote is not alone in finding the King murder out of character for Ray. His brothers agree.
Both insist there was a conspiracy, neither believes he was the shooter. We have already seen a number
of Jerry's statements. He said in them and he insists to me that, from the first time he spoke to James after
his arrest, James has insisted there was a conspiracy. In doing this, James eliminates the pretended
motive of the Huie-like apologists, that he wanted his "day of glory," for when James insists there, was a
conspiracy, he insists he did not do the job and denies himself that fake "day of glory" of the amateur
literary end legal shrinks. Before James was captured, Jerry pointed out what the record at no point and
in no way disputes, that James "never was a man of violence."
"Look at all the money he came into all of a sudden," Jerry said the first of May 1968.
Buying Mustangs, taking dancing lessons, taking trips to Mexico. You don't get
that kind of money from sticking up grocery stores, and my brother wasn't the kind to
stick up Currency exchanges.
Jerry the feared the people who "used him" would kill James, so he appealed publicly for him to
surrender.
John Larry Ray speaks less often, as Jerry explains it to me he can lose his cool easily. John
immediately said that "if Jimmie did it, then it was for money and that means somebody else was in on
it."
There remains this essential and missing evidence about how James Earl supported himself in
what for him was lavish living for so long a period of tine, in so many states and countries and on two
different continents. As Jerry put it so well, "you don't get that kind of money from sticking up grocery
stores," especially when the robberies are as inept as James Earls', so utterly amateurish. What
explanations officials offer do not make sense and cannot be believed. From the punk who cannot heist
his "bread" from the bread shop, suddenly Ray becomes the real professional, the smoothie, able to
smuggle narcotics into jail, smuggle his loot out, both without detection and, more, without any evidence
of the, sale or use of narcotics in the jail ever showing up.
Coup d'Etat, Part II
Gavzer's story of March 19, 1969, reporting his investigation of just this point, recounts an
excellent credible investigation. It is one that should have been made by officials and put into evidence and was not. The only possible explanation of this omission in the face of the great pressing need for it is
that it dared not be alleged on the count record. Instead, Canale said it out of court, to reporters:
After Ray pleaded guilty … Canale ... said Ray had sent "a lot of money" out of
the Missouri prison ... Canale also said there was evidence Ray made money by
trafficking in drug's in the penitentiary ... Asked to detail the money Ray supposedly sent
out of the prison and to whom he sent it, Canale said the figure was in the neighborhood
of $7,000. He did not say to whom it was sent.
Canale's figure of "in the neighborhood of $7,000" is far, far short of what Roy is known to have sent.
Members of Canale's staff said Ray sent these alleged funds to his sister, Carol Ann Tepper, in St.
Louis. It is also alleged they "were deposited to a Pepper Printing Co." The press could not reach Mrs.
Pepper and "it was not immediately possible to find any record of a Pepper Printing Co."
Can anyone believe that, that, if the FBI on Canale had anything remotely within credibility on
this central point, this vital deficiency in their no conspiracy" case, they would have failed to leak it when
everything else that glossed over their deficiencies and incriminating Ray was so carefully and repeatedly
fed the press? This can no more be believed than that they would have failed to present the evidence in
court, where they need only have "narrated" it, not even subjecting it to cross-examination or any other
kind. If it could not stand this or leaking to the press, the "evidence" does not exist.
Which is precisely what Gavzer's investigation proves.
Moreover, this claim involves no fewer than two additional crimes, and there has been neither
charge nor prosecution for them. Narcotics violations involve the federals. Selling them in jail and
illegally getting out the proceeds involve others and make several state cases. They do not exist.
Prisons do keep records of money inmates send out. Ray's totaled $210. He sent $102 to Jerry
and used $108 to buy merchandise, like the $9.75 transistor radio and a $4 pair of shoes, legal briefs from
the West Publishing Company and minor things from mail-order houses. The most expensive item he
bought is this radio. Is it within reason that a man as loaded and successful as Canale portrays alleged
dope-magnate Ray would content himself with so cheap a radio, or shoes of such low quality? Or that,
having escaped with all this boodle, he would have worked for eight weeks as a dishwasher, one of the
most disagreeable of menial tasks? He did, at Klingeman's Indian Trail Restaurant, Winnatka, Illinois,
running the risk of discovery, identification and return to jail, a needless heard if he had any money.
In his seven years at the Jefferson City pen, Ray had a total of only $909.29, of which he earned
$242.03 and got $667.26 from friends and relatives. A balance of slightly over $10 was left account
when he broke out. The most Ray ever had in his account was on June 19, 1963, when he got two $50
money orders. One was from an attorney who represented him, Phillip L. Baker, of Independence,
Missouri, the other from John Larry. Baker recalls that he was asked to send Ray this $50 by a brother
when paid his fee. These two $50 family contributions account for the $102 that Ray sent back to his
family five days later, on June 24.
Coup d'Etat, Part II
To believe the Canale fiction, we have to believe that, while Ray was dependent upon handouts
from his family for the minor needs of prison life he was simultaneously shipping his loot out to the same
family.
Warden Harold Swenson was asked if Ray could have made money in prison by dealing in drugs
or operating a racket.
"There is nothing to support that at all," Swenson said.
"It is always possible, if you are talking about extreme possibilities, but if
anyone was dealing with drugs to make that kind of money, then we'd have found out
simply because we would be able, to see the effects of it. If the men get whiskey, we can
soon spot a drunk. If a man gets high on drugs, he can't hide it for long,"
Drugs are smuggled into prisons, but usually by friends and relatives, amateurs, not professional
pushers.
Missouri Department of Corrections Director Fred Wilkinson labeled the Canale story
"nonsense." He said,
No one seems to have wondered where Ray would have gotten his drugs. Do
you know of any supplier who would risk sending drugs into prison when the outside
market has nowhere near the same dangers?
Both officials, who acknowledged the outside possibility Ray might have smuggled his alleged
racketeering profits out through a corrupt prison employee, also say there is no evidence of it.
That much narcotics, $7,000 worth, would show, as would the withdrawal symptoms of the
users. The responsible officials, who had every interest in knowing the truth, both disprove Canale's outof-court contrivance. The failure of any state or federal official to prosecute the se who smuggled in the
drugs or the money out also disproves what appears to be the desperate invention of a desperate
prosecutor who had no case in court, where he got away with it through a deal with the "defense," but still
had to face a questioning press.
Just about the same is true of Ray's alleged smuggling between the United States and Canada and
Mexico. If there were any proof of it, there would have been federal action followed by that of Canadian
and Mexican officials, and there was not.
In fairness to Canale, however, it is necessary to acknowledge federal incompetence in all other
aspects of the case, to admit FBI improvisations, each designed for meeting momentary emergencies and
each unembarressedly disputed by the next.
When, on April 20, 1968, Hoover added Ray to his "Ten Most Wanted Fugitives," asking him the
first 11th man on the list of ten, he said of the man known never to have fired a shot or to use real force in
Coup d'Etat, Part II
any of his robberies, "Ray should be considered armed and extremely dangerous." This was an open
invitation to shoot first and ask afterward, an invitation to a legal murder. With Ray dead, Hoover and
everyone else would have been off the hook.
Hoover charged Ray conspired "to interfere with a Constitutional Right (sic) of a United States
citizen" when he had no semblance of any evidence of it, no reason to believe he would get any, and
when the Attorney General himself was loud and repetitious in the contrary representation..
And of the man to whom all these special skills of the most adept criminal were imputed by
Hoover, Canale and every other official, Hoover said he "was given a General Discharge die to ineptness
and lack of adaptability for military service."
Some apprenticeship for so spectacular a crime, :ineptness" in the simple soldier's life!
Less than a month later, the customary leak, this one to Drew Pearson on Ray's fineness, appeared
in his May 16 column this way: .".. so far as the FBI can tell, (Ray) committed no crimes following his
escape from the Missouri penitentiary." We have already seen Pearson's later contradictory FBI version,
of Ray's allegedly having robbed a bank right where he escaped jail, also proven false. Well, after the
mini-trial and the prevalent questions and adverse editorial comment, after Gavzer's unequivocal and
unequivocating article had already shot down Canale's unsubstantiated and unbelievable "explanation" of
Ray's financing, on March 24 it appeared all over again, in Pearson's column, credited to the FBI:
The fact that Ray seemed to have plenty of cash caused the FBI to suspect at first
that he had to have collected a payoff from somebody who wanted Dr. King dead. The
FBI was able to trace Ray's money back to profits from smuggling narcotics into prison
and to a series of holdups ...
All without prosecution by the dauntless Hoover, with all the se who necessarily conspired, if this
were to be in any way possible, scot-free and unworried? This would be a new Hoover, not the one of his
abundant public relations.
Here also Pearson had FBI information about Ray's claim to have had a "boss" he called "Raoul."
"The FBI could find no evidence "could ever existed outside Ray's imagination."
And here the extent of that largest manhunt in history became a "painstaking $3.5 million
investigation."
In Louisiana, telephone calls are still a nickel. Did they spend a nickel of this $3,500,000, while
looking for "Raoul," to call 389-7561?
With all these leaks, so many to Pearson alone, how comforting it would be if any one had been
accompanied by any evidence of any real checking-out of the available indications of precisely such a
person, the se leads Ray gave Huie and the se Charles Stein personally observed. But no disproof was
ever leaked, only the unquestionable FBI word. The reader has a wide choice in taking the word of the
FBI. It can be:
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The word of the FBI that had no record of Ray's participation in any crime; or
The word of the FBI that had proof of crimes he committed, including smuggling
across international borders and into and out of jail, and-of a half-dozen robberies,
according to this Pearson article, in three countries; or
The word of the FBI that had him in London awaiting a plane to Brussels or the
word of the FBI that had him at that moment en route to London from Lisbon; or
The word of the FBI that alleged he was part of a conspiracy to assert nonexistent jurisdiction, or the word of the FBI convinced there had been no conspiracy; or
The word of the FBI that had him in Mexico (leading to the arrest and unpleasant
detention of unidentified Americans) when he was in Canada; or
The word of the FBI that Robert Kennedy had bagged it to tap King's telephone
when Hoover was plaguing Kennedy and each succeeding Attorney General for
"authorization" - which really meant so Hoover could later blame him - and this as late as
two days before the murder, none of the previous "authorized" or unauthorized tapping or
bugging having produced a scintilla or evidence that the apostle of non-violence was any
kind of threat to the "national security," not even in Hoover's special definition.
There are many instances of the dependability of the word of the FBI from which the reader can
make free selection in evaluating the dependability of its void that ray had no collaborator, no help of any
kind. More will follow.
All of the police are more or less in the same boat for this inept, petty crook conned them all. It
thus is less than fully persuasive when the Canadian police peremptorily dismiss "the fat man" known to
have visited Ray just before he flew to London from Toronto. Their story is that Ray, supposedly just
waiting to leave the country, having long since completed the arrangements and fulfilled the necessities
(although it seems a prerequisite duplicate birth certificate was never issued, according to Canadian
authorities), did the most natural thing in the world for a mean about to go to another part of the world,
separated by thousands of miles of deep Atlantic: He applied for a job. He was about to mail the
application when he lost it in a telephone booth 200 feet from where he was then living, 962 Dundas
Street West. The finder, with no return address on the unsealed envelope, found Sneyd's name and
address on the inside. He recalls nothing else, not the address for example. So, he walked the short
distance and returned it, to a silent, frightened Ray who "didn't even say thank you."
Dick Bernabei has high regard for Toronto Star reporter Earl McRae. He says McRae "ran this
story to the ground, as far as he could go with it," and is "convinced" the "fat man" could have been "an
illicit contact." What the Toronto Star said in its copyrighted story of June 12 is that Manuel Reis, a
cabdriver, drove the "fat man" and an unidentified companion away from Dundas Street - three blocks - to
a bank. No wonder Reis described his fare as a "big fat man," using a cab for a three-block trip (as Ray
did in Atlanta). Reis picked up his fare, not at 962, but across the street, at 955. Anthony Sczepura, the
tenant, reported not calling the cab. This is one of four cases of cab's going to that address or very close
to pick up fares standing on the street waiting for them, one at least said to resemble Ray.
It is not the FBI or the Canadian police alone who have established the dependability of the police
word in this case. Remember Scotland Yard's assurance that Ray, already proven to have been in
London, was arrested on alighting from a Lisbon plane? The FBI, in a single day, gave its work on this
same point - both ways.
We have abundant examples of the dependability of the given police word.
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What is no less interesting is the police, especially the FBI, non-word, the deafening silences
about the se things entirely contrary to Ray's having been either the murderer or entirely alone.
Going along with the "fat man" story is that of the "small man." Two days after Ray left for
London, a "short, slight" man was looking for him. While a meager description, it is close to that given
by Grace Hays Stephens, Charlie Stephens' common-law wife: much shorter than Ray and weighing no
more than 125 pounds. Hanes says that, in the trunk of the Mustang, the FBI found "a man's clothing,
much too small for Ray. It would fit a man who weighs 125 pounds." About the "small man," the small
clothes, Grace Hays Stephens' description of the man she saw flee the flophouse, silence.
Another very loud example is silence about the overflowing ashtray in the Mustang found in
Atlanta, where it had been so carefully arranged in advance to leave it, no doubt, with a non-conspirator.
Ray is a non-smoker. Who, then, filled the ashtray when, from all accounts, Ray was entirely alone in his
car? And what was the result of the inevitable police dusting of the can for fingerprints, other than Rays
(there is no proof he drove the car to Atlanta), the testing and examination of the butts from the cigarettes
Ray didn't smoke? UPI's Henry P. Leifermann prepared a 1engthy story for the first Sunday after the
mini-trial, a journalistic cliché. It is always done. The first in his catalogue of "unanswered questions" is
about "an ashtray full of cigarette butts" (also observed by countless others). That, the "non-conspirator"
who got Ray his Alabama driver's license in Birmingham while Ray was in California, and "a tailored
Canadian suit," Leifermann said in his lead, "are likely to become 'grassy knolls' (a reference to the
unanswered questions in the Presidential assassination) of the Martin Luther King assassination."
That "tailored Canadian suit" is worth some police comment, but there is none. Here is
Leifermann's:
On July; 2l, 1967, Edward J. Feigan, owner of English and Cottonwood, Ltd., a
tailor's shop in Montreal, Canada, measured Ray for a suit, the suit he wore when arrested
in London June 8. Ray was living at 2589 Notre Dame St. in Montreal when he ordered
the suit. But before it was made, tailor Faison, in checking Ray's address, found orders to
forward it to 2608 South Highland in Birmingham.
How did Ray know he would be in Birmingham later? Why would an escaped
convict return to the U.S.?
To these real questions might be added how Ray knew the exact address at which he would stay
when he was a total stranger to that area - if he had no co-conspirator?
The word of the police is missing in the receipt of the "modern photo book store"/"Modern Book
Store" coupon case, although Beas1sy used this coupon in his "narrative." This cannot be because the
vaunted FBI could not trace out the records.
Nor is there any police word on Ray's purchase of the rather unusual camera equipment, where
the word of the prosecutor is also missing. It is not because Beasley and the FBI did not know, for all the
records were turned over to the FBI, including sales slips and Ray's letters. More again Gavzer's
reporting is first-rate, as is that of the Chicago Sun-Times. Both are dated May 22, 1969. They tell a
story strongly suggesting conspiracy and making sense in no other interpretation, which is enough to
explain prosecution and FBI muteness.
Coup d'Etat, Part II
It dates to the 1967 period of the purchase of the suit in Canada, for shipment to the Birmingham
address Ray, it would seem, could not spontaneously have known he would have had. Beasley does say,
in the guise of pretending an exhaustive investigation was made, in giving the notion there was no
unturned stone in Ray's path, that everything of significance was put into evidence – even to explaining
the origin of his clothing - that Ray ordered the suit on July 21, 1967, and later requested it be sent to him
at Birmingham. But he does it in a way that denies its meaning. He does not do even this wrong thing
with the camera equipment. He lays great emphasis on that Polaroid camera Ray had and its shippingbox to carefully left behind, but somehow he forgot to mention a single Polaroid picture Ray ever took.
Did he have and carry a camera only for not taking pictures with it, especially a camera that instantly
develops its picture's?
As is Ray's expenditures on clothing, buying a tailor-made and more expensive suit two days
after buying a ready-made one, the expenditure for this camera equipment is not consistent with a man
worried about keeping himself alive and going on petty thefts. Nor are the circumstances.
In fact, ordering it by mail and with extra costs added is, in itself, strange unless one wanted a
sharp record made.
What Ray did, after reaching Birmingham, is to buy "at least $337.24 in camera equipment that
could be used for underground surveillance" from Superior Bulk Film Co., in Chicago. He used one of
their order blanks, ordered a Kodak Dual Projector M95Z, a Kodak Super 8 camera, model d38, with
zoom (or variable telephoto) lens, an HPI combination 8-mm. film splicer and a 20-foot, remote-control
cable. They received his postal money order October 3. At the outset, it should be noted that none of this
ever turned up in his property, nor is there any record of his having sold any of it.
All this equipment is readily available throughout the country. Birmingham, certainly, is not a
city Kodak overlooked. Yet Ray ordered it by mail, leaving a traceable record, and in great urgency,
saying he wanted it shipped quickly. In fact, tightwad Ray paid $17.11 in extra shipping charges because,
like the rifle, he could have made the purchases locally without the delay in mail both ways.
Gunnar Burke, manager of Superior Bulk, said,
It is not unusual for someone wishing to make a film from a hidden position to
use such a camera with a remote-control cable. I can see the possibilities of a person
doing surveillance work using such a camera.
He described this as
highly-sophisticated equipment but not hard to operate because it is nearly all automatic.
It was the best we had at the time, much better equipment than the average customer
would buy.
Coup d'Etat, Part II
One of the features of the camera Ray ordered is four speeds. This means that, unlike the more
common ones, it had a "slow motion" setting that really meant it would take many more frames of
pictures in any given time span, and that its "fast motion" settings, which take fewer pictures than
standard sped, permitted the camera to take for a longer period of time without exhausting its film supply.
The combination, added to the telephoto lens, which brings the object closer, and the zoom feature of the
telephoto, which permits focusing for maximum benefit over whatever distance separates the camera and
subject, scales an ideal combination for surveillance. One journalistic inference is that Ray intended
using it to stalk King, from the distance and without being seen.
Without these features, adequate home-movie cameras are readily available for less than a fifth
the D38's $160 price.
When Superior Bulk filled the order, they were temporarily out of the D33. They sent the rest of
the order and included a Crestlline camera, on a loan basis, until their new D33 shipment arrived.
On October 5, Ray wrote and said he could not use and was returning Crestline because it "has
only one speed and I wanted the Kodak M8 which has 4."
He was so anxious to get this equipment in a hurry and so willing to spend money needlessly, a
rarity in a tightwad, that he first. phoned Superior and then wrote them. He wrote, "As I think I told you
on the phone, I will have to leave for Mexico Saturday" and wouldn't be able to wait. With all this need
and $160 involved, an unattached man, moving aimlessly about on his own, independent of any superior
authority or commend? He did not want it sent to Mexico because of the high customs rate and said he
would send his address instead and they could mail his refund.
And do you know, by May 22, 1969 - the need year - that tightfisted Ray had not gotten the
refund and had been content not to get it. He did not annoy Superior.
But on October 22, 1967, politely, he wrote from Puerto Vallarte, Mexico. Superior received the
Crestline camera November 2 and mailed the refund eight days later. It did not reach Ray. He wrote
again from Los Angeles, giving his new address, 1535 North Serrano Street.
Here he used a typewriter, another object that, conveniently, has not surfaced in that $3,500,000
FBI investigation. It hardly seems that if the FBI tried real hard, in a specific, limited neighborhood, it
could not have found it. The machine was not in Ray's property, in any of the convenient deposits he left
for investigators to find.
In this letter, Ray said he would be in Los Angeles "for five months."
And in the fifth month thereafter, Ray left Los Angeles, Never to return!
Does this sound like the aimless wandering of a man not in any way under the central control of
another? He knew when he got to Los Angeles just how long he would remain there. He knew before
leaving Birmingham that he would be leaving on a special date and not. later.
All of this story unfit for the official record, the judge and jury, is consistent only with the
existence of a long-standing conspiracy in which Ray got and followed instructions and knew in advance
where he would be and for how long. It is anything but the normal activity and conduct of the free and
unattached wanderer, unworried about a livelihood while he was, for him, living it up. It is anything but
consistent with every account of how really parsimonious Ray was.
Coup d'Etat, Part II
Glaringly, it is entirely inconsistent with Ray's known personal interests and needs. He carried a
Polaroid, yet there is neither official nor unofficial record of the-finding of a single picture of his taking.
For what conceivable reason, other than the one suggested by the company, did he want a movie camera
and the best - a splicer and a projector, when he had no interest in personal pictures and took none? He
had no need for photographic surveillance were he to be the lone assassin and he entirely independent of
others. If he intended using it to spy on King, that would have been in one of the places King was
regularly, like his home, office or church. In Atlanta, not the Birmingham he was about to leave. Yet,
with ample opportunity to kill King at each of these places - each also carefully marked on the map so
needlessly but carefully left to be found - he never made the effort.
One of the more reasonable inferences is that Ray was buying this equipment, in his name, with a
clear record made of it (all the major items have traceable serial numbers), for another, who would use it
and might leave it as clues pointing to the sucker-decoy.
If Ray was so utterly alone in the murder, why did he go to all the trouble of successfully
establishing the required false identities for cover, go right down to King country, and than not tackle the
job, especially if his motivation were his 'day of glory"? Does it make sense that he world do all this in
the summer of 1967, only to remove himself for non-stop vacations, first to Mexico and then to Los
Angeles? Each move was made by a. predetermined date, as his move to Birmingham had been, when he
had no ostensible reason for being any particular place at any particular time. Did he, alone, plan five
months in advance when be would cross the entire country to kill King? Does it make sense that, if this
were a murder of "principle," dedication to a cause, requiring that he consider King a great hazard to his
"principles" and the country, he would not have killed him immediately he was ready, by, August 1967,
but postponed it for leisurely vacations in Mexico and California, punctuated by this to New Orleans, also
for no special reason? This does not make sense. If he were motivated by what to him was principle or
that kind of sickness through which he could regard such a crime as his "day of glory," he would have
done his job as soon as possible, without any delay at all.
To me, all of this is pretty clear evidence Ray was part of a conspiracy he did not control and in
which he was never intended to be the murderer. It is entirely inconsistent with his being independent - or
his being the murderer - or his being alone. And it is opposed to any of the attributed motives he could
have had.'
Not unlike this ignored evidence of a conspiracy involving the strange order of special camera
equipment and Ray's out-of-character conduct in it is the officially misrepresented and inadequately
investigated case of a mysterious, faked radio broadcast on the non-existent chase of the alleged escaping
murderer and his white Mustang that led police away from the more likely escape routes and directed all
attention away from them. The original broadcast was made on the citizen's band. Almost immediately,
it was repeated on the police radio. The official position is that, while this was a fake broadcast, it was
merely the youthful prank of a couple of amateur operators. If this is the case, in addition to all the other
criminal offenses involved, it is a violation of the law enforced by the Federal Communications
Commission. If it did nothing else, the FCC could have been expected to revoke the licenses of those
involved.
Typically and predictably, there was no FCC investigation.
That federal agency explains it did nothing because the FBI was investigating the hoax.
Foreseeably, the FBI did nothing.
What this means is that the only agency technically equipped and with the real experts necessary
to trace the hoax and punish the offender did nothing.
Coup d'Etat, Part II
The incident could not be ignored - except, naturally, in Court, in Beasley's "narrative." Instead,
after the mini-trial, it was explained away. As reported in the New York Times of March 11,
It was a prank, said Memphis Attorney General P. M. Canale. He said that the
state knew the identity of two teen-aged boys who made the broadcast, but that it does
not have sufficient proof to bring then to trial.
One way not to have "sufficient proof is not to investigate. As we have seen, there was no real
investigation by the Memphis police, an expensive futile, bumbling and usually undirected FBI excusefor an investigation, and here, with clear jurisdiction and responsibility, the FCC also abdicated.
There was immediate understanding of the significance of this fake broadcast, although it was
little noted in the press at the time. Had Matt Herron been able to continue his investigations, it is likely
he might have been able to follow some of the promising leads he had to a productive end. Because of his
knowledge of the strange mishaps in the investigation of the Presidential murder, Matt was even more
electrified by this remarkable parallel and immediately pursued it as vigorously as he could.
What happened in Dallas is that as soon as the President was shot, one of the two, police
frequencies was immediately blocked, made useless. The official "answer" is only a partial one,
assuming it is both correct and innocent. The claim is that just by accident the microphone switch that
turns on mobile transmitters got 'locked" in a police car. Thus, no other police car could use that
frequency, nor could the base station be heard by any of the cars whose radios were set to that band. The
Warren Report is barren on this rather remarkable coincidence.
Of course, the exact content of all Dallas police broadcasts was the most important investigative
information for the Commission. Therefore, it quietly accepted a disreputable summary to begin with,
getting but a fraction of what was recorded, much of that wrong. When this turned sensitive stomachs, it
asked for a complete transcript, which it again accepted without complaint, knowing it, too, to be
inadequate and wrong. Finally, it directed the FBI to make a dependable transcript for it, but for only a
certain few hours. So, to this day, there is no complete, accurate and honest transcript of all the Dallas
police radio dispatches for the period beginning with the President's murder to and including that of
Oswald two days later.
This record did not embarrass the President's Commission. In Memphis, the state took less
chance of embarrassment by completely ignoring the paralleling strange coincidence, if this is what it can
be considered to be. Now, it happens that the Memphis police broadcasts are also recorded. They could
have been offered in evidence, made part of the record if only as a gesture by the state to show it was
hiding nothing that might bear on conspiracy. Instead, the state remained mute on the subject.
However, the Commercial-Appeal did get a transcript and did publish it, well before the minitrial. After that proceeding, when I wrote asking for a copy, my letter was not answered and I was not
sold a copy of that issue of the paper. It certainly is unusual how the press, which claims to be the
public's watchdog over government, falls in line behind the government in every murder in the era of
political murders.
Although Canale told the pres he knew the identities of the two teen-age boys making the single
Coup d'Etat, Part II
broadcast, Gavzer found one and promptly got a denial that amounts to a challenge. Again predictably,
the state has been silent. Why need it comment at all after the verdict is in? So they made a little
mistake, and maybe there was a conspiracy, but the case is settled, isn't it?
This young man said "I never did it" and "I can prove it." It would seem that he can because he
can prove he was not near his amateur broadcasting equipment at the time of the broadcast. It is in the
basement of his home. He was not. He knows two respectable, substantial men who "heard it all, from
beginning to end, and they know my rig and my voice. They could testify it wasn't me."
More, neither the Memphis police nor the FBI got the names of these men from him. This, no
doubt, facilitated Canale's statement quoted above. Aside from delineating the character-of the
"investigation," this raises an interesting point. There is a difference between the teen-age and mature
voices. Not one of the quotations I have seen from any public official or anyone else identifies this voice
as that of a teen-ager. The police heard it. They rebroadcast it as one of their cars heard it coming in on
Channel 15, the citizens' band receiver of a steamfitter who flagged them down so they could hear and
rebroadcast it.
Had the police, not to mention the responsible federal agencies like the FBI and FCC, done what
Matt Harron did, they would have had a list of people who might have been listening in at that time and
might have recorded the original fake broadcasts. By not conducting an investigation, the hazard of
coming up with the most irrefutable proof of a conspiracy was neatly avoided.
This was a false broadcast, and it did have the effect of leading all pursuers away from the most
likely escape routes. Assuming it was a prank having no connection with the crime is assuming it was not
part-of a conspiracy what was supposedly being investigated. But suppose it was not a prank? Then it
was by a co-conspirator and Ray, even if he were the murderer, could not have been alone. There was
still a conspiracy to track down.
Here is what happened:
A 25-year-old steamfitter was driving his red Malibu convertible eastward on Jackson Avenue,
with the top down. He had just heard the broadcast at identifying the possible getaway car as a white
Mustang when, on his CB set, he heard a voice ask, "Can someone give me a land line to the police
department?" The caller got an affirmative reply, to which he responded with this message, I am chasing
the white Mustang with the man in it that shot King."
Almost immediately, this steamfitter saw Police Cruiser 160 stopped at a traffic light. He shouted
to it, "I have a man on the radio who says he's chasing the white Mustang with the man who shot King!"
The non-driving officer got into the steamfitter's car, they pulled into a parking lot, and he turned up the
volume so the driving policeman, Lt. R. W. Bradshaw, could remain in the cruiser and hear the CB
broadcast, Bradshaw radioed what he heard to the dispatcher who, in turn, broadcast it on the police
frequencies.
Among the cruisers immediately in the phantom chase were 36 and 42. By this time, the
unidentified voice was describing non-existent gunshots being fired from a blue Pontiac it said had joined
the chase.
At least one other person is known to the police to have heard the original CB broadcast. He is a
television repairman, known on the air as "Lily White," a bizarre and provocative touch. There is only
minor disagreement between him and the steamfitter. It can, perhaps, be easily resolved. The steamfitter
said he was listening to a mobile transmitter "because of the way the strength of the signal changed." Lily
Coup d'Etat, Part II
White, who appears to be technically better informed, says it was a constant signal, coming from a base or
fixed station. If it is understood that the mobility of the steamfitter's receiver, until he parked, took it into
and out of areas of greater and lesser signal strength, it can be understood that this might have caused the
fading of the signal he received. His mobile receiver may also have had less opportunity for pulling in the
signal than Lily White's fixed receiver. The location of each is also a factor.
On the other hand, if Lily White is in error and the steamfitter is right, there is no possibility at all
this high-school student could have been broadcasting from his basement and the prosecution story on
this evidence alone is fraudulent.
The entire false broadcast lasted about 10 minutes. They were the crucial minutes of the escape.
If two receivers with movable aerials were adjusted to the point of maximum signal strength on the
broadcast, it would have been a simple matter to project the resultant lines to an intersecting point which
would have been the location of the broadcaster. Under the circumstances, it is reasonable to believe the
police, not knowing this was a fake, designed to deceive them, felt they had no need to triangulate and get
this fix, if they had the equipment. The broadcasting voice kept giving its changing location. To a mind
not married to a no-conspiracy preconception, this could have been the entire purpose of the false
broadcast.
With all the many base CB units permanently installed in the Memphis area, would it not be nice
to know investigators had checked them out and really learned that none had gotten a fix on the
broadcaster? Technically, even if but a single set got a fix, that line could be projected on a map and
investigators could have checked the licensed CB units along that line. This would not have been an
insuperable task, especially not for the FBI which spent so much time and money in such arcane pursuits
as examining and tracing hairs in the course of spending $3,500,000 on their investigation. The range of
transmitters is limited by the frequencies permitted them and their relatively low power. Some can reach
only a few miles under the best conditions. Or did any one listening recognize the voice? If a local voice,
it certainly had been heard before.
If such rudimentary and obvious investigations were conducted, there is no available evidence of
it, no FBI or prosecution claim of it. There is no reason to believe there was any genuine investigation.
There is every reason to believe it had to have been made and that, without it, none of the investigation
could be credited.
Gavzer asked the student who, like the steamfitter, prefers anonymity, "Why have the police
concentrated on you?"
"I don't know why," the student said. He also pointed out that, in the area in which he lives, there
are other known amateur operators - who are not the same as citizens' band operators, anyway.
But this student calls Canale a liar. Canale's entire "no conspiracy' case rests upon this CB
broadcast being no more than a prank. He fails to accept the direct challenge to his truthfulness and
credibility by the young man. This does not persuade that Canale has confidence in his own information,
not even that he really believed it when he said it.
It is not Canale alone who told this yarn, nor did its official telling await the outcome of the minitrial . The press, which early learned of the spurious broadcast, kept asking the police questions. In one
of the early stories at the time of the crime, by Bill Burris in the New York Post, the steamfitter is
confused with a student:
Coup d'Etat, Part II
Memphis police, meanwhile, have in custody two men reportedly involved in the
transmission of radio messages minutes after the assassination that falsely told of a chase
of the killer's get-away car. One, a 22-year-old part-time student whose identity was kept
secret because of threats against him, told of relaying the messages received on a citizens'
band radio in his car to a police lieutenant in a nearby patrol car.
This is a kind of "prank," by police description, if the innocent man who did what obviously the
"prankster" wanted is known to him or them and his life is threatened for it. It is obvious, if the police
had the man in custody and did not prosecute, they had no case at all, no proof they had the right man.
Later, at the time the trial was originally scheduled, in a November 16, 1968, UPI dispatch from
Memphis, Leifermann identified the police frequencies over which the fake information was relayed as
P1 and P2. He said that
minutes after the assassination ... it was thought the phony chase was a plot by
accomplices to lure police into another part of town. But the Memphis Police
Department has leaked to several reporters hints that two teen-aged ham operators have
confessed they were responsible for the phony chase broadcast and did it as a prank.
Confessions and no prosecution? No FBI or FCC action? Impossible! Then why did the police
lie?
Those reports are not consistent with Canale's claim, one having the men "in custody" and the
other having them "Confessed." They also are not consistent with the strong denial by the student and his
offer of proof of innocence. Coupled with the lack of interest by the FBI and local police in those who
heard and might identify the voice and could prove his innocence, this suggests authorities were
improvising and are covering either their proof of existence of a conspiracy or their inability to trace the
fake broadcast to its source and prove it was not part of a conspiracy. In turn, this concentrates more
interest in that broadcast, what it reported and the immediate consequences.
The report of threats against those with knowledge, however, is indication of a conspiracy, for if
this were but a prank and the pranksters were known, why threaten anybody? Threats must be taken
seriously, regarded as possibilities because of the other overwhelming evidence there had been a
conspiracy. This is one of the reasons I am not able to publish all the details Matt Harron early learned of
those who know in advance of its commission that the murder was planned and by whom. It is also why I
do not here use his information on this broadcast.
Enough is available in the press. Gavzer, is a "no-conspiracy" parrot in his writing about the
Presidential murder, prepared an excellent article for use January 21, 1969, although most major-papers
ignored it. Restricting quotation to it serves the purpose adequately and jeopardizes nobody.
Adequate and superior roads fan out from Memphis like spokes from a hub, in almost all
directions. The fugitive fleeing the city had a variety of choices, depending upon his intent. If it were to
cross the state line as fast as possible, thus getting outside the jurisdiction of the police where the crime
Coup d'Etat, Part II
was committed, that would have taken him across the Memphis-Arkansas bridge to Interstate Highway 55
North in less than 10 minutes. Gavzer's timing, to the first town in Arkansas, West Memphis, is 6.2 miles
and a greater distance than merely crossing the state line. Without violating any traffic regulations,
running any red lights or doing anything else to attract police attention, this was done in 10 minutes 22
seconds. That included having to stop for four red lights and two left turns. If one begins with the
official account of the time the fugitive left, he would have been in Arkansas by 6:10 p.m., certainly by
6:15 at the outside.
Memphis is on the Arkansas border, separated from it by the Mississippi River. It also borders on
the State of Mississippi. If the fugitive, not without cause, considered that state the one least likely to be
unfriendly to him or one in which he could most expeditiously find friends, the routes there were simple.
The most likely better highways are US 51, 61, 78 and Interstate 55 South. If his objective were to go
south on southeast, getting into Mississippi as fast as possible but also getting onto the road on which he
could make best time, the probable route use Interstate 55 South. This was timed at almost exactly 19
minutes. If he did this, which seems probable, he was in Mississippi not much after 6:20, almost certainly
by 6:30.
By that time of Leifermann's November 17 story, he could accurately report of the police that "at
the time of the assassination, it was the night the phony chase was a plot by accomplices to lure police
into another part of town." In the New York Times of June 19, Homer Biggart wrote that "several police
cars that had been stopping white Mustangs in the city raced toward the scene of the chase, which by now
was reported to be at 100 miles per hour."
One of the problems is knowing exactly when the police radio indicated belief the getaway car
might have been a white Mustang. Of the dozens of makes of cars, the phony broadcast accurately fixed
on a Mustang, and of the many colors, it said white. Of course, this false broadcast also fixed in police
minds the idea the actual getaway car was a white Mustang. Of this there is no proof. No one disputes
the assumption, but it is no more than an assumption.
Without connecting it with the murder, at 6:25 the police radio broadcast a report of a white
Mustang going at "a high rate of speod" toward US 51 North, on Danny Thomas Boulevard. But if the
getaway car was as late as 6:15 leaving Main Street, it would have passed the point described in the
broadcast by that time, of the broadcast, without speeding. Two minutes later, a white Mustang not going
north was stopped two miles away ftom the area of the 6:25 broadcast. And at 6:35 a brasdcast described
Police Car 421 chasing a white Mustang north on Danny Thomas Boulevard, away from any direct route
into Arkansas or Mississippi.
If we do not know the exact moment the precisely accurate description of the alleged getaway car
was aired in the phony broadcasts, this determination resting on the necessarily imprecise estimates of the
steamfitter (Lily White is not quoted on this), the first call from Car 160, after the steamfitter had been
hearing the broadcasts, after a base station had offered the broadcaster a land line, after Lieutenant
Bradshaw's partner had gotten into the steamfitter's Malibu and they had pulled into a parking lot and
after the lieutenant had heard enough from the steamfiter and the broadcaster to comprehend and call the
dispatcher, was at 6:35. The dispatcher then aired this alarm:
White male, east on Sumner from Highland, in a white Mustang, responsible for
this shooting. Cars 36 and 42 pull down. Subject is exceeding the speed limit west on
Sumer from Highland.
Coup d'Etat, Part II
This is more than five miles east of where Car 421 was chasing the white Mustang, even farther
in the wrong direction. Just after this alarm, Car 421 caught the car it was chasing and told the dispatcher,
at about 6:36, it "checks okay."
It is at about this point the tape -recording made by a private citizen and excerpted by the
Commercial-Appeal begins. In it, of course, only the dispatcher's rebroadcast paraphrasing of what
Bradshaw told him can be and is included. And it is about this point the phony broadcaster begins
describing a blue Pontiac joining the chase. There was interference on Bradshaw's broadcasts and the
dispatcher repeatedly told him "you're being cut out" and asked him to repeat his messages. Then this:
A blue Pontiao north on Mendenhall from Summer. 160 advises this car as
speeding over 75 miles an hour north on Mendenhall from Summer. There are
threewhite males in this car, a blue Pontiac.
At 6:41 the dispatcher interpreted Bradshaw's information this way: "The subjects on the way to
Raleigh, north on Jackson, north on Jackson toward Raleigh." Raleigh is a small town on State Route 14,
to the northeast, about five miles away. Then Can 36 reported it had seen a Pontiac convertible on Macon
Road in the northeast suburbs. The answer to Car 36 was in the dispatcher's neat pararphrasing of
Bradshaw at 6:44: "... blue Pontiac hardtop seen northbound at Jackson and Stage, approximately 100
miles an hour."
At 6:47, "160 advising the blue Pontiac is shooting at the white Mustang following. The Mustang
has a citizens' band, following the blue Pontiac going out on Austin Peay. The subject firing at the white
Mustang." Then, "160 advising that they're approaching the Millington Road that goes into the Naval
base … blue Pontiac is firing upon the white Mustang. The white Mustang has a citizens' band unit ...
160 advising the white Mustang is firing at the blue Pontiac."
Another coincidence in this false broadcast is that it includes the report of a citizens' band radio in
the fleeing white Mustang, for that fits the description of the second white Mustang on South Main Street.
By this tine, Ray was certainly off and going safely out of Memphis and out of Tennessee,
however he went. How truly remarkable it is, if this is all just another "coincidence," that he hoaxer or
hoaxers picked exactly the right moment for their "prank,", to &Doc:rib:a emaatly the right kind aad
color. of car and sand tha polios on a vildagooso chasa in the wrong diractinn. All police attantion and
conaidarabla tine and . effort were roausod _,achy opposite whora thay should have been, at tha crucial
tima, Ard how imaginative a "prankser", selaoting just the wrong directLono, adding a sunbattle to the
chase, and with random, improvised sslacLion (which is what is required of an rnrchoarsad, prepared,
sp)ntanaous jobs, the police position), giving co realistic a running account, oompleta with locations, that
not until long aftar it was too lat5 did tha polica undarstand they had been diverted by a false broadasat.
But aa.an if a claim by an anonymous "Shelby County authority" is tens, that tnoro had been
logged at 6:11 a police broadcast of a white Nustang that could hate been connected with the crime, given
Coup d'Etat, Part II
the east of the official atoay, Ray could still have been across the state lino by than.
Pailusc of the fabled ftSI, the polica or the prosecutors to set to tha bottc.is of this broadcast,
which could not batter have :suited the needs of a succascful escape in a conspiracy, find_ suspicion of
the ina volrament of public authority. Wa have already soon the amplo ground ' for 'aaliaviag prblic
authority could bravo bean involrad, especially in the intarvio-as 1,i^-„t Horron rtaordo.d. with sararal
withaaaas, included, to the dagroa thcy can ba without endangering the lives of th000 who had the
information in ._=a first part of this hook. .0na of the se is spooific in pinpointiag advanaa ktowladga of
the plan to Ma:odor ahg by tha police. Thera is mora that came to light latar.
.
Emaotly fitting this fad :a broadcast is an incredible police failure that did not coao to light until
14, 1969, mare, than' two montho after the niaitrial, more than a yaar after the murder, again as o
no-suit of Gavasr's investigation.
It had seen asautod, immodiatoiy, that ovary usual police procedura had UL..._ pvt into affact
forthwith, `•_;G. Poston,. fop aanpo, wrote in the 1''aw )rk '-",o of April 6, 1965, of By's escape, "There
soome lit tle doubt thnt ho was able toflaa the city, eluding city police and the Arkansas state troopers
guardiag bridges ovar the Ilissiosippi" After the minitrio:1., when. Judge Battle confessed his
bowildormant about certain paints, all beariag on conspiracy, ha said Inc woo mystified about how Ray
could h.ava postod al' tha polioa oadblocks,. the t would have.bean established oursuant to an "all-points
alert." 'To Ma," Le had said,
the escape
miraculous. I don't sea how he .got from hare to Atlanta in that whita Iluotang
with an.all-poiata bulletinOut."
only,
Complatoly inoradible as this: may seen, the automatic police procedure was novar out. ihto
effect. Thera not-or wars any eahoral alarm issued, by tha Idamphis or any other police:, for the Itistang
or any parson.
Awdthis, too, wa tract consider no mora than a:oath-or coincidence, for if it ware hot it is tha .:cot
traubliag indication that someone high in the polioo &apartment wanted the mardorar to escape - and that
indicatas a cono7irsoy with police involvement or participation.
Thia totally 1aaonaaivabla fact was rapanaa by Gavaan in aa font to rafute tha angnnent ther had
been a conspinacy. Aftar writing that :Ian:this l'olica Chiaf ;ktrny I= "confirmtd", 3o long after tha crima,
tht.
hana naz no all-points bnllatin iasna& to stop' Ray, Gaysar
Tha wadespnaad halief anang laweenforoemant offiaens and cons. quantly ths nublic - that a
bnlletin had :Jaen isanad and that Ray had aaaaad iote eat:: daspite it contnibuted to the anspician that ha
might have been part of a conspiracy rather than a lone killor.
This 'automatic alarm" was not issued because at the tima of the 6:11 bnoadcaat that could have
been taken by tha hoaens, if they had heard it, as proof. of ths involvement of a white 2tstang, ItItx
e:zplained, "We did not know fon sure or have proof that a white Dastang was Ana . volvad."
Wall, her about aftor 6:11? Silence.
Shelby County Sheriff William r..ESrris, whoae office is the automatle channal for the automatic
rapatitionaof anch Mamphis police alerts to the Tan;assae, Arkansas and :,lississippi at:at:a pblica, said, "I
r.evor received any co=nication that night ragardiag a white Ilastang or_ any roquast to tnansmit an alert
to any G_
palioa agancy."
"Tts'abason wa did not at out an automatic all-points is that the Lamphie :olio a Dspartment did
not raveat it,' the Tennessee high-nay patrol ss _d.
Govennor :3nfond Ellington's special assistant for law enforcement, Claude Armann, had
"assumed" a "blockade would have :Dam sot up. "'.ihare is a blockade eystam that has all been planned
Coup d'Etat, Part II
out and goes into effect on a zignal," he stated.
But Tet. oh:ached ths records and:as spseific: "Thora was not an all-paints btllotin put out on the
white Lustang."
Of convaa, all was great confusion at the tine of the mul'der. B-rb the essence cf tha
palicatfunation is to cope with confusion, It is f.^. this"
his cantingnay they antist, arc trainad, and establish their 'autonatic" procednnas.
Can it be both ways, that the "hoaxer a" knew of the escape in. a white ,l:15tanand 6aigno the
mialoading bnoadcast so admirably lash.-ion ad anound this knowladgo to lead tha police as tray. rhile
they did not havo such evc-lance:' And if the police' did have the knowlodgs, how can their fainm to issue
tha "antontic" all-pints be ire
-d es:cept as indication of their involvement?
Eoreotar, the reason given for the failure to broadcast an allpointa alarm aften ths police did speak
to Canape and the others claimed to have 5°:_. tha danarture of a white Z1natang cannot ba credited
without all tha accotnts, latar repranantad. in thl minitnial, boing discredited. If th mini-trial stonies about
ths white :Iusang are t . a, than there is no Iocslbla e.wonsa for police failure to sound ths "automstic"
alarm, at th
e_ latest by 6:30 p.m. If. the police did not have enough raason to tnansmit this
alarm, ths whita nstang stories as pne.7 aentod in cotrt are not as initially repsrtad to ..he police. Either
way, this casta the heaviest, blackest shadow across i:amphis public. authority.
A:: .tit about the Bessie Brawan stony, imoaadiatoly given to the polica, on the allagad
observation of to alleged 'star witnass", Charles Staphont, of the man latan said to have baan Ilay, or of
the Canipe and other obaonvtions of the dropping of tha rifle end a6ditional incriminating evidanoa':'
These were inmadiately reparted to the police, rho no latar than tha Lima they spoke to Ers, Bnewar and
Stephan:: had a description, accurate or otharwiao, raquiring an in.madiate allapoins alarm for
man.
Onca sgain, it cannot ha°hath waya, tha roaaon for not sounding the alarm that. there was no
cocoa and the stories about the white tang and the roan having been told, as represented, by the nitnesses
later eft:ad.
_
476
_''or some st
_easo., with :bout LO polite ostensibly "protect
..
out of sight .in the a. jacsnt fire _ t__.. C_1s
wont ono Si._ in Stront at the oo:
It is difficult to e _ __a
this away.
'race ;?, ;5, that they all just poured out of hid-to
,ions a,ieD':y the
r'og: _ ....J1 pa'sIt is becaus
thorn to support.
R2i...'!' r, there vas th unheard-of, a strike by sanitat iron workers against . the city. e .In the deep
south, who e T r heard of blacks dari_l
ts to oppose public authority, in any wad or fore r2? In. itself , this was -ragard ed as "subve si.ve." To the ._en his police, as to Hoover, din hinoel.': represented "s
bversio"
Yes, they were actually spying, with two black off icors of the "sub e i` s squad among the se
hidden in the fire suet.ioh, And along with A; a_tS, there ..:., the mysterious t.aT'_:"- .. iron their assigned
duty in that fire s cation. of black f.iremo n not conspit:uously o se.cnious.
ThAo ca
out. in ..._'t E :•rosy's .nv:.otigat?.on. Later, it vas indirectly
confirmed by Hanes and ^fro Hays, '
On April 3, two black officers boson observing the Lorraine Motel through the rear windows of
Engine House To. 2. This was Wednesday, the day before the radar, Their n
s are R ick and
Richardson (also
irt•ent ?ied as "Richman"). Thsy arrived around 1 p.n. One watched through t:_. glass panel of the
S uth'; os s roar doer, the o .h r lay atop a row of lockers along the t ' wall rab_7 ee looking out a window.
Y Soaks tike that night they i rel ie ved. On of then was overboard to say, "Hell, I
sure hate to .so down to that temple tonight,' referring to a protest meeting at . __ Masonic Temple.. CJ._-
Coup d'Etat, Part II
of two white Off co s who visits.
the blsok
v
. briefly is .. Lieutenant .'?a i r.
On that sane day, there were two unmarked police cruisers parked on Butler Street, cast of -- Y_
_'y and in front of th motel. Police
l•.c.- ' lso in the motel U11
i'"' ____ 3 9inL on ?%i_r, and those, he vas
lot
About 10 pairice_ en were
observed by blacks around the motel the day before the nardc .
Some of the blacks believe the =fro fit .•_an were transferred Iron
their. normal assignments at . -ie e
us ~a:O. 12 bec use the polio; were
soing to use thatthe__ collection point and for spying. At first,
It
J t pJ to b a h°t ss et. T' complaint, "Son-one told V ..
motel people thero are _police) in the fire station', was overheard.. The transfers Cohered
.
Among the thing. the black officers on the ._etel' arc: known to have done, this being observed
and overheard, is to watch who vas go-in`; into what roOns.
eddis, who was a.t.'_'nd i2_ near the door, was heard to say to a blast._ firsrhneoon transferred to
2'er steticu, "Hell, they cen see a a ; easily y as I can sae then." Ho was also herd to ask this black
with
fl3'?. _,t•.f0;' 50.._. news- _
_
which to CO'7oi tut7.9 window. `--''t9 j'13'a:'..II
Savo addict.: the __ :.spe_ . _ and masking taps with. which to att. h Y.
The pohic _ s n m ado two peepholes in ths p , . They had a pair of binocu c-._J, ,._rich they
permitted the black fi.reman to use.
a,
As t£''?. black spies 3S Di_'G~Je down the numbers of v..".: rooms entered and, U_ oS _:_;?.Olv',
the I_u.%..:5 of the se entering, when known, one :'.a$ a..,cYT'd to say of the . second ..cc, frog: _"ulbor y
Street on the p deck, 'That
room rest bei.sadopaa=tais
rats more of then going in and out of
that room."
reddi^.t- is said to have been checking up on a black first?n nenad Hall. Fa woo heard to ask
another black fireman about hi.... The transfers,. t
'"''
O:_° v18.C'iis +i1 }.1:.~ this angina h
.^,.1SG were ors dorod in baste, One
tee-„ rectived.his
born. by e 7 :- late
t. )o night. P
d on i moori~cs i'ada within the -lira dspartmsnt,
those transfers are believed to, have been ordered by highest authority.
.._Ol.a 1a.•ol7.,_ent of _..r,
authority.
"festnt: Thllon3n.,
foonsn agent, hsadsd both olice and fins
Changoo of disordonly conduct ware filod. against Kays by ies:phis Attcnn.ey hnsoell
Thonpson, nho had boom asscoisted with Esnss.whon
Hoys wso hi i=ostigitton. This nslationshIp did not bsgin nail scno
tins in uly, nlhns Konos bsonno Ry's ttorney. In thsa di moo, Kays
cInintc:1 to 133 the first to loann shat Kstt hod disco
ad dnring tbso
o oosh ,nns.no noodsn, thst a "gsh's. of fhhnnssn and polioonno.
nano 'Ioo::in th.notshpeopholo at the on nine Kotel when the fatal shot tans fired)", in the words, of. the
UPI aoconnt. Hays "said he told the npson and accused Thhnpson of telling ... Pency Fone=,. who said in
court last Friday ho nee-dad norsntins to ... talk with the se fironen
477
and policomon Thongh Ponsnan did not elabonato about the 'pnopholes' in bin count:noon
statement last Fniday, Hays said a ;aewspa:per had been pasted oven the vindon of a fire stntiornacnose
from the Lorraine, Ilotel. He saicl policaman-ware lool:ins; thhonsh holes pnnched in tha papas, in ordon
Coup d'Etat, Part II
to obsere the se. who visited King in his motel room."
Hays vas. out out because "he has not been paid for the work he did-on the case."
Esaring on the transfer of black firamen the, night before this murder, U:'I, fnom Atlanta, c: toted
Dr. Ralph Abernathy, King's sucoessor' in the SOLO, as saying "that no-venal black. londons in llampMs
.
reported suopioious events on the. day of the =dun ... the Rsv. Janes Lawson said Nag,o pnliccnsn on tha
beat of tie Lornaino Kotel ...wane removed that day after having received thi-eatoning phone calls ..',"
Punthor confirshtion that this was common I:nos:ledge in. Ham-phis is in
the quotation from Revsnand. Jams novel, which follows.
'
In that climate, such threats need not have cone from conspire-tons. And, -acids suspicion of
that thsy regarded as "subvension'', the-n is anothepossible en:planaton of police spying on King and his
essociateo. the y claim to have feared 'black- militants" who raganded lain as "an Uncle Tom" would
attempt to harm lain. Panticulanly if this is true is than:- little possibility of s::chsirg the .police feline-ac
that bag 'n with. the firins of that shot, for it moans thay anticipated are at:-tanpt to cosht.T.t the cnina.
regard] _ of nhy the police ware spying on the nan they roro
supposedly protecting, there is no doubt they wen, little doubt they sah him ttnush and folled by the.
ioullet, saw the pooition hc use in -when it hit bin; and knew the only sources of that sh?t.
The position of King's body is necessary evidence in snppont of the pnoet.tion claim
It is
missing in any fonm in the
trial.
Through the se police, I. note parenthetically, it could hove been adduced if consistent with that
prosecution claim. Th.at it ire not cannot he attnibutad tb emhar:,sassnent from its becoming 1nnown
King- was being spied. upon, for that, as reported abovs, was alneady known. It can only he ha-cause that
the spying polios saw doss not. support the prosecution clain.
Now, if -bloc shot cane froththe din.act ion the prosecution says it did, the police in the firehouse
would have known it inhediately. They thehcfona 1:new it could hove come, -from only one of two
placos: the bushes along Knlhonry. Stnaet on the buildings along South Kain Street. But, there is no
evidonoe at all that any of the about 40 policemen . went directly to South_ .sin Street. All the ovidonce is
that not one di f:. This mnst be tahon to neon that they all believed the shot hod not coma fron any
building fnonting, on South KaIn. Otherwise, how can
failure of any police to go inhsdintely to South 1:lain be os:plainsd?
On the other hand, if any of the u - a single one - did rush to South Esin, how can there be anyeAplans.tion for his not knowing, at onoe all that was suhsequently roported from thane; how could ha
have failed ' to sea Ray fleeing, dnopping his nultitudinons identifications and riflo, see the depart n' whit3 Nustang? Her could he have failed to repont the car loot-ins and ths Police have fanned to hnoadcnst the
"autonatic" alert pnonptly, certainly within leas than five minutos oftho firing of the shot?
Still again, it cannot be bath wayo. The Kempia police did
obeenee tlle murder, eoo try end H'I.6e the feet, proeecution did snpe press it a; the minitriel.
Either theysngaged immedietely in at least a cover-up, or they saw what contradicts What was leter
claimed and are Cs least part of the apparent framing of Ray. .
Nor-a sinister end O5 C3 interpretetion is posible.
Peveneo(3 72se vo,esl 1-:ad been ninon to Kng »n.+<„-..,031•- noel in
the SOLO. At a January 19 news conference in Philadelphia, whsre he repreeente the SOLO,
Bevel announeed "j have evidence that eul free." Ray. "He's not gilty"
Foreman had no interest in what Bevel knew.
Abernathy supported hii assistant. On January 23, he said Bevel's offer to hole the man accused
of murdering King is a wey of moving "non-violence into a new dimension in Ameriean life." Eeadded,
speaking of Bevel, "I have absolute confidence in his judgment and integrity ... If a conspiracy exists, and
I believe it does, it must be fully exposed."
Abernathy also said Hegro leaders in Nemphis believe that psrsons other than Ray were aware of
the plan to. kill Dr. King, He cited as reaeons orders to remove two 7egro firemen and a Negro policeman
from the immediate area of I:1o LorreineNotel ths day of the assassination.
Coup d'Etat, Part II
Nothing happened, except the mini-trial, after which Bevel was Interviewed by. Claude Lewie, of
the 1"'hiladephia Bulletin. His story appeared on Naroh 17.
Bevel said "there definitely wao a-conspiracy" and that the I'S= learned of the plot" a couple of
days before the murder, when, "due to an error by _,a
is postal authorities ... s letter 'addressed to a
white woman was delivered. to a black woman who lace ths.sams -name ...I" The letter contained
"information that Dr. Hinz was to be assassinated
while he was in Nem::his
Asked why King went there despite the
threate, Bevel replied,
"We had received threats many tines before and we sort cf got
used to thsm. decided that if we were going to effect changes
for the or blacks and the poor whites, we could not do it while
peeking around!.,
round, corners. Dr. King often said if someone was bent on murdering him, there was little he
could Co about it...." Me. Bevel said ths letter coneerning the death plot vae immediately turned over to
Nemphis police officiale,.
who took no special security preeautnoon s.
Nr. Bevel also said a tip on the plot against Dr. King had cone fron"a store where teeny Nee:phis
policemen are known to frequent." A black polieemon in Nenhie who asked not to be identified agreed
with Ur. Bevel that "bleck policeman who would ordinerily bo assigned to the area of the Lorraine Motel
..a woos
removed from the area thee day of the killing" Other h; phis
citizens cherged that black firemen. in the area were removed
.
Nr. Bevel pointed out that FBI agents held up Dr. King's plane ... before his trip to Nemphis to
sear eh the aircraft becauoe they knew of a plot on his life "et least a day before the murder ..." A ?:::phis
minister pleaded for a half hour not to let. Dr. King enter th city because he had knowledge of the
eseassination plot. The ministerls name was not diseloood beceuce, hr. Bevel said, "his life would be in
immediate danger" ...
Bevel hoped to open up the "black community to toll what they know" and the t, this, in turn,
night "presute the Memphis police to re-lease information!' they had and were
Be
sup e' ssi j.
bacnme emotional as he spore to Louis; saying Amerioa is "be-coming a nation of sheep who-are
willing to have the wool pulled over its eyoe" and "Amsrica will lose confidence in itself if it cenoot turn
tc its government for truth and justice. If a Dr. King and the Kennedys can. bs murdered off without
adequate .invest igatien, our government is beeoming a closed shop ..."
Amen!
Nhen ie phhode
for offieial eod. nt on Eetelle aceu
setions, pollee refueed to comment on. Devel's charges, saying the chief of polioe was
'unavailable for comment'."
:deh of this closely parallels what-1:att Herron leerned. att
Could not interest the 31 in it. He tried.
Tf dll :f tbtee thing: thrt did hrpp?- hrt shor ' not bdve, these sutpicious things involving the pelico
are added together, they do point an accusing finger at the police. It is not unreasonable to interpret then
as substantiating what ha -t learned, that the police knew in advance King would be murdered when he
returned to 1:emphis, that he "would not live to lead that march."
To tbein of this chills the spine.
Plots involving the police are not the only ones reported from Nemphis. Ti. e dated April 2d,
1963, reports some people "maintained" the hilling "was e. made-in-hemphisundortig" and this "was
given some support last week by a Kemphian who told Zi" and the TZI "he had overheard a loco...
bnsinessmnn giving an unknown triggerman urgent'order:a to hill King on the balcony of his'. motel and
even specifying the, price for the job ... and the pickup point for his fee" (Pen Orleans). -
Coup d'Etat, Part II
After the mini-trial, in ita iesue dated Direh 21, 1969, Tien added detail's. Its informant had been
John Ii.eYerrin, a Hemphis hn-Ego merchant "who hoe alse notified I'M agents and
lapanforcemant
offieials. However, an intense investigation failed to produce corroborative leads, Lesides, there were
fears for licarrin's safety underlined by a recent 'incident' at one of N,e:'arrin's enterprises ... shots have
been fired of late at the windows of his sore."
KeTsrrin told Ted Poston of the New Yon Post, whose story ap-'eared Perch 19, 1'.)9, that
just an horr bafora King ccc shot down ... ha had overheard a white :lemphis buoineasman tell a
mysterious caller, "I'm not going to pay you a damned thing until the job is done. You ca.n shoot the son
of a bitch on the baleon" and "Naw, I don' want your ---- around this. place. You can pich up the
~yi5,OOO from my . brother in ten Orleans."
This i3 the hind of story not uncommon in dramatic events. It is alwaye possible, with even a.
roeponsible pereon, that there is con-fusion or mieunderstondin. . However, this story is redliniscent of
Lomd.t's information, reported earlier. And it is consistent with common, advance knotledge of the plan
to murder, whichmeano it, like the other similar ineidente, ic not consistent with either Ray's being the
murderer or there not having been a conspiracy,
It is also consIntent with the prevailing racial tension, then at its higheet point because of the
esetreme bitterness of reaetion to the garbageme,s strihe. Hanes; it shuld be recalled, had said, "It woudnt
curpriso me at .all" when asked if he had been "set up" by the se who plOtted the murder, because he had
been the segregationist mayor of Eirmirghem and _2.d defended .three Ku Klu.d Klansmen accused-in the
:h-e. Viola Liuszo m.-_ v.._ .
(Another of Ihnesds representations of Hit e'en charged with. brutal violeneo flared into
internecine warfare end a major rupture in the beeheeted rsnhe in the early fall of 1969. Ea had been hired
to defend 17 charged merely with misdemeanors after an eastern North Carolina shcotout. (rejection
to.the raising of ;12,500 needed for his fee split the Klanemen,)
Not until after repeated evidences that Ray is not a racial emtremist appeared in the papers did
any evidenee he might be turn up. e.3b. of this con he interpreted ae part of en. assumed character and par
soralit; , a trail left to be pichcd up andsuggest raoism. Of the miny availahle e=mples, Charles Stein and
his sister say Ray ashod the m to register for George liallooe in 0olionia in return for taloing Charles to
New Orleane. He succeeded in giving Stein the impression ho was "some hind of politicion" and that, at
Wallace headQuarterz, "they all
knaa hm. Hut Walla
— Galiforfi:A campaign coaadinator, 7abant
tore, says nona of than knaw Ray and thorough chach of all thair many
files ahowad no sign of any of tha naMas asaoaiatad with Pay. It appaara that, daapita has prosalytisirc
with. tha Stains, oven if ha woe for Walla-at?, Ray did not Naha time to add hia own nama or any alias of
the mnny ha had to Wallace petitions.
Eafora it waa hnatn t1aaL; :Cud 15 Ca-it a aa ania la an aaaaand na a, Stain said, aft:anoticing tha
extra pains Roy went to when uaing the name Galt, as when checking into motels, ha "thought he was
eatablisha. ins a fictitious identity" .
If Ray was planting a seed, the vina grow. After the mini-trial, when Canalei wee asked what he
believed the aot Tv WaS, he replied, "There is evidaroa Ray was a racist." How good. and persuasive this
evidenco is can be evaluated by its omission from the Baasley "narrative", even when there waa no
opposition.
In. all. of this thara was a dead giveaway. That is in the alias "Galt", tha official and unofficial
eolplanations of how ha got it, and
a careless esror made in it. Ray is credited with the impossible, learn-in about throsimilar-loohing
men who lived in tha same naighbortoad without knowing each othar.' (Thar:: is alao. a "John Willard",
the name anador which 'he ragistBred at the flophouao, in that neighborhood.) Each resemble::: ban, on',)
down to similar and similarly located saars. Ray is said to have learned of 'abase man and to haveasaumad their acreall by him:elf by going car birth notices in nawspapar files;
He could not hays gotten the identity of ties Erie S. Galt he. 2'as:amles from grar. 'ilea. for could
Coup d'Etat, Part II
ha 11_-Y' found tha name "Eric Starvo Galt' this maY--bacause tha real Galt is not "Starvo." His middle
name is "St. Vinoant." In writing it, he uaas the not Enatraordinary tiny
circle foe a pariod and Ilia a4a'lattar "v" looks like a capital latter with an eastra twist. Ray was
given not tha nano alone. no was also given the si:ls!aurs. The signature of the suture Eric St. Vincent
Galt is not inaludad in his 14rt,12, record.
This was known before the mini-trial. Its anp-preasion from the narrative. whiah convoy-a czactly
the opposite imprassion, does not ac-cord with honesty or honesty of intantiona This supprassion is the
most daliberata misrepresentation, is a violation of all legal sthios and coda:3 and is a deliberate Irene-up,
for it is solid evidence of conspiracy. Somaona had to Lava supplied Ray with his varicus idantitiea,
ncldin- soma doaumants with thansignature of Eric St. Vin _?t Galt. Nor is this somathins Pay could have
picked up in that ndasouri jail, anothar, of the fictions contrived to on;:plain a. ay knonledga ha had to
have cotton from othars.
It was well enough known to have been on the front page of the raw Yo" r•'
of
12,
1°63, . so it .is safe to assume Hoover, Ganale,
-aaa.at_a:;so—a."
'
Easiay,_Dwyar, and avail Foreman, later about it. Ties Associated Press distributed this signature
by wire hotot
A funny thins happenad to tha reallt on tha long way to the Mini-trial. After hia name appaarad in
the papers as used by Ray, a truck drive_ pulled into the Union Carbide: plant where ho works. He
approachad Galt with what appaarad to bs a nawapapar clipping of batter than. uaval c;aality,as Galt told
Dick Barnabai. It was one of 2 sarioa of pictv.ras tahan in Dallas: Thia ona was not ':.,'own to have, been
,ii.''' liahed and shnwad trampa in custody. One of t7caa isntha ran campared with the FBI ahatch in tha
first part of this book, that of the man wanted for killing King Pointing to this man in the piature, a deadrioz:o. for the in
s she teh, the troohdrItse told Ce-.It, "Thoro,o
Tte pioture was unhnown to ths rsol C;slS. ThS truchor's ewplaostion os hard to ersdit. Ke said he
found the picture on the
t of his oruoh after a stop scmewhsrs in ths Unitod S;
s.
This sa a rather ortraordinary "truehdrivor" with rathsr
es=p.-.ionsl hhowlodRs, to 1:no7, of ths 'C000ibls sinnificance of a ptottos he claims was 1:.
_..1.y loft on ths seat of his track by.person and moans and for reasons ti _n to ham.
It is appropriate to the es:race inary fiction that Ray was utterly alone, that there was no
conspiracy, as it is to the entirely unproven claom that he is the murdsror.
Those ara not all the strong indications, if not absolute proofs, that ring wao murdorsd as the
consoquanos of a conspiracy of which, in sans capacity, soomingly that of decoy, Ely was part. With the
se re-ported carlior, in other contexts, the y seem to be mere than enough to invalidato the of 'i cial
fictions, the shabby pretense of evidence foisted off on a complaosnt country by dishonsst officials and
their unofficial apologists to part of the framing of Ray and, with him, of history.
And the co-conspirators, on the basis of the ovidonee including to actual sr-.ere, are unlcnown,
unspprshendsd, unsought.
This'is the statsof Ariarican justice and frssdom, ths augury for the future of Amerioan society, in
the era of political murders.
To Frama?
To. t!^.:.5 point in our analysis of the also of Jacos Earl Ray as the murder sn of Dr. Kartin Luther
King, Jr., and of the evidence indicatin5 there had bean a conspiracy in this murder, we have been pretty much limit& to t'3° public
Coup d'Etat, Part II
record. What we havo dons is compara what
was levslcd against the accused and then "convicted' alleged murderer with thc roidilysavallable
evidence, to show that evidonco was ignorsd or supprsssd, misrepresentsd and distorted,. t;-fisted into
meanings it dose rothavo, and lied about. We hens sssa thst mitnssses were said to have s6en what they
did not see and could not have and that witnesses who should have been used vero not. . This was
possible only because, onos again, as in the official investigation of the murdsr of Prssident Kennedy, the
functioning of Aroue icanlaw and justice wsre fructratod and by-passed.
Those things ..era possible only bocauoo the rn was no trial. That came to pass only beosusa it
was the will of 's'oroy Po:roman, one of the great trial Lawyers, who decided there would b-c no trial and
forced his decision on ,__a reluctant dsfendant. Ks did this by. throats, by intimidation, by an unusual
hind of blachmsil, and by nasrspresentation. To lay such chsrsos to a lawyer in a sarious matter. that it can
be done from ths avai f able rscord
ono -s:' duplication of the Presidential
assassination tragsdy, for thsoe are liho the malfeasances, misfeasances and nonfoosaross of the W"more
Commission lawyers. Thsy also ignored whst was uh000sonial to their prods:terminations, p'::conceptions, to an official posstion substituted for a do__,_..,_.___. ion o' fact as re(,luirsd by our
conosyts of Isw and justice. And t_ -y, li:c the Komphis prosecutors, twisted, distorted, riorspresontsd
and, although they did not "narrate" evidenoo as hoasley did, in ways that spa comparable, the y, in effect,
also lied about the evidonco.
In. tin case of the Warrsn Commission, there mas no defense counsel. the rs vas a nalhetossty
countsrfeit, the sorriest prstenso that the top officials of tit. Amsrican Bar Association would loot: out for
ths intsrost: of ties accused, these murdered, Oswald. They did this by doing nothing or, worse acting as
auiliery to the Colsmioio, which was the-3 prosottion, not the ecluivolont of a court of justice. In the
litsrsry enor;:ity of the Commissions Rspert ard so-called svidotoe,
an . sstimatsd 10 00,00 words, or the sanctuary Cr hidfan ovidrose, ostimated at 30'0 cubic Cost in volume, which is a fantastic total of words, unestimstsd and beyond
estimate, thsro is no single instsnoe I have soon.
in o.diligcnc
of th:, verbal inn
tty n
' o: offioial oniony single oocasion did any one thing in t.:o in-tan
of the mnndonod
accussd, his repntation on his heirs.
What this says is that the y botnnyed.thein nlghto-sacned rnst. the y did this unfailingly, without
deviation even on:: time.
ihev 121 tWO la :,77:03 PUS a "pUbliC dfnnder" nhn cocp,7-1
junot of the pnosecution. First there was Hnes thenFonenan, Then, aften it was too late he
obtained the aninated dirnstsr t
of the P,
that vcnon
h'.'. :n fo:'n itself wanting h.s ccnorlssion of the urine changed aGaiist lain, its
own having plotted it. But Ray's legal nuin
cannot be
to Stun._', not evon against his brothen Jorny, who really arnnnged it. This is
because the obligations umdentaken by American law-yes when tlsey undertake the defonse in cnimiral
cases wene forGotten and because of the abdications of their respnsibilities, which anc not pi'inarily
ob;nining convictions, by the lawyens of tha.pnosecution,
As I ihink
render nay aGrec aftan he emaminob what follows,
Hanes also nndo 7s:non:an possible, for there is credible reaoon to behi-.e that,. oven. after Ray fired him,
Hanes could have prevented .._,is by rot acocding to the conditions making it achievable. In consider
what follows. the readcr should keep in mind the public records of Ray's "del ndons", for we will now be
dealing with what was not public.
In hio June appearance on the Dick Ccvett Show, Foreseen boasted, "1 enforce the low nagainst
the state." Asked "is then::: any orina too odious" for him, lee drawled, "The nore odious the crine, the
more the skilled lawyer Is "required." And for this bisarne application of his skills, he oid he bad gotten
no "bnead", the slang of the question put to hin. One:, when ached how it felt to defend the se. accused of
horrible crimes, this sniling,open-faced non who looks like the personification of goodness said, "I.ly fee
Coup d'Etat, Part II
is punishment enonh."
True!
But tie vast sums he e: tracts, the rings and othon jewelvy and . whatever hc wants fnom wonen,
the wanehouee full of convertible on desirable niscellany, do not pnovo his fns "is punIshnent enonGh"
nearly n3 well, as nhat he of fnom and did. to Jane Earl Ray.
In telling the story to tais select, we have faithfully quoted. what FoneMan and Bane and their
ally/agcnt/snpplien Hnie have said of their perfonmances an. their nrrangenants, What they have said is
what it suited them to say.
What they have not said, what they hay.' said 'that. is not so, and what they have Given other than
tnuo meaning is what we now cmanine We do this fnom their onoc-socret dealings, the contracts they
emtorted free Roy and ea;.. ether end their once-socnet letters having the effect of contnacts. I have ahen,
Never so.s' a arise cow milked as the noughly and completely as the criminal, the defendant
James Earl Pay. Not c na spilled drop of cream or nilk was tc be wasted, and none was to remain with
hiMn I believe what onay the counts can decide, that, in their milking, the lawyers transgressed ainst
the law and the ethics and codes of their once-honorable caning.
It all began with a contract "entened into" when Ray could not have ontered into This not be
illegal, but it is not factual or truthfnl. It seens to have been drafted before Hanes ever sow or speke to
Ray, net to have been drafted byHanes but to have been werked out with Huic and his lawysn in advance
of Hanes's seeing Ray seed Cgettir
nayla flgl''Oent tO it.
The finst one begins, with a blank in which the date, "8", wac later written in, "AGneonent
entered into this ,q day of July" and what appeons, in the indistinct typinG, to be a typognaphical error, "1
O
9:)."
On nly. 0, 198, James Earl Rny.was.not en the United States and was unable to entcn into this
contract because he was in a Dnitish jail, Wands woth Pnison. Eta did not reaoh the United Staten until
Jul;;' 19. Hanes did not got tr coo him until July 5, This agneement concludes, on its.
thitd p . with thrl. ioo n witneso whortof, t,
tioo h to..
bovo onooutod thio ogroonsut as of the dato first abovo writton" Thls
soy:. the ogtoose n t wao ot-:eoutod July 8, whon it w n
os ot p000iblo for
y to htuo Oitorod into it ootoopt tbtough Fan-so, as his egont or roprcontativo. Undor this
sontonco appear the threo signoturoo ovor the
roo:oe, tith En:1.o dsignatod, as the contract pro71doo, as "Author",
IlLay and 7-1't000
"?.sy" ord. ":Paros",
In an %_
effort to get around this inposoiDili ty, yot also,
1t soons to a non-lnwyor, contrary to the contract proper,. there is a separate shoot attoohod. It is for t,-k:
notarising of the signatures.
In each osse, nano of the signatory is typed it, but in no cans is the ro a signo:uro. There is; in
each cass two blanks, the first for the date, the soeor4 for the nano or function of the r:, con adniniotering
ths oath The second ban has 'Notary Public:" uritten n. This could as well have been dono in ths typing,
unless a natio or a different function wore oiopootod. The notary is Arthur Foneo, Jr., the pa:. .mar of
Arthur Hanos ;.o woll es his.son, and thereby party to the oontraot.
Apporoitly because it followo the sequence of the contract proper, the order in 1hioh the nooses
appear is Enie, Roy anal Eanes. Unliho the contract prop)r, the nonth is not typed in, furthor indication it
was not proparod
tins the cont root woo. In the first and third oases,
the date writ:Ion in is July 8. With Ray, the dote.' is August J. These blanks soon. ;t:,, hare been fillod in
by Honoo rather than his son.
The Olustion tide poison in ny' rind,
toohnicol one, is hen Ray
could Ipgolly :G:'? :J' into a contract
4couted" July 8, 24 days after it vas
Coup d'Etat, Part II
Tho pu'p000 of the contract is sot forth in provizion I(d):
Author proposes to writ:a literory notoriol dealing with the
assaooln-tion of War tin 7,utbor Jr., the alleged participation of Rly
ond 'no Trial, for the purpose of ostoblisho iug the t2uth tith reap-act thsroto.
Eanoo is 6ofinod in 1(c) rs
y,s attorn::.
For so-._ v.:Do-on rot without ruostion, -oho fifth provision is initiolod e .and Tkuss olono
It is ths financial agroonont. Urdor at, eanee is to pay Tosoo ord Roy each "thirty per cent of the gross
rocoipto."
LI r&.-ipts aro to "Lo paid to and colloe'sod by Author's
agnt, Noi P,r)wn, Inc.," of :evorly
Colif:-;rnic.
The u` 20 o'otftouo intorprototiov of this initialing is that, with it n00000ar,T ,._d Roy not
avoiloblo on July 8, Hanoo ootti for hi, Tire
noro oh,7ious aeaoon for e !.oft r'
rather thtn a Now York literary
agent io that the greatest revenue was o7pootod to be fa:on the nov:oo.
Ono otisr protiolon is iniviol od, 6(::)), asoin LT" Fonoo and Enie only. It is striokon out and tbo
word 'Etolu'od", in Eanools bndw.citins, appears ::'ono the initials. It is the provision under which Euio
could aro,yats tbs contract if Ls "does not have an intervieN with Ray within.30 c- 3 of this sre:on:lit o.
the date ,,_on a. first enters the United ,Stoto,'. This, o;onz othor things, lootoo no dtbit at the
tilts) ties cont2oot woo draftod, it toe known Ray uao not in the Onitod
Statoo cnd ni;ht not bo on the Gate of o:oocution It also vas writ-ton
bofo:e it ,.o. known :::anphls anthoritioc would not par-it Fula access to Roy. Eth.so .h..o to sot this
provision eliuinasod because it gave Fuio outonatio piat to ahrostato the contract. Trrnolation: Cut off
Eanos's noncy. Again, e:;oopt with :7onoo as his asent or repr000ntativo, Ray did
not initial talc. shrhLo. Noithar initiolng is doted.
Tho ot proviolono rest? relatively norcsol. T':y do grant Euio
rather gone-oio rights and relieve bin of al,00t ony obligation o.-Aoopt to poy if he oakoo in any noney.
He does not 1:n -vs to trite anything
unfor ths o.:oo.000n:7, door, not havo to toko io on: reo n3 frcn vhioh there world be
30
percent orch for Ray end Eonoo prodded for
ii s. fl:th
p 'ores Coal,
Whet dote not soon to be noracal is that this contraet provides
Han olo nonoy not in the :'U'._ of it ogroosrent bottoon bin and Ray, nor
as an egoeomtht be:;tI Lit on:: Htie as ?y's _no„eeoery re',hoetentetive
or partnori The ordiolry arrehgomhnt would havc been. batwoen Honhe and Ray, with. a : tipulation of
what Ray was to pay Hones for his ervices. the re woe na pr,._'la-' if ITaneo wonted to do th uoual. Ho
would hive reeohod an uoderoteOding with Hay ia gland, have cotimItted thtt undorstanding to popar and
ay would hate signed it. The utual arrangomont,
thtteeo letomto ol'ent and only lt'ye
olieot, ttold thho hoe
oot__
been obsonvc. if Hanes had been worried about Ry's paying him, ha then could h:ve eteeoutod an
additiohl-agreoment undar which. y would assign thie 30 percent ahare of Huie's groeo to Kanes Roy
and Huie,
ordinarily, toold have had their own agreement, givirg sale 40 percent of his gross take.
Asido from giving Ray nothing at all, eneept any 30 percent that might accrue to 1:'`.:_, and
taking everything from him, there are a number of things wrchg vhtth this contheact, the contract Hula
and Hares certainly never e:epeoted to be oa:mined by others.
Huie, acido from getting a good thing, did not live up to his . contractual obligations, inoluding
e.taminng the trial and "ostabItshing the tru:th" with r'esyoct to it and "the alleged participation of Ray" in
the assesaintion. Inotead, he wrote in advance Of the "trial" vhht amounts to ar additional indictment and
Coup d'Etat, Part II
a conviction of .co tmen who el:-pected him to be his literary defendor.
20. ITewspeper Discussion of Lending Litigation.
Denepaper publiestions by a I s y e r as to pending or antieie pa
_:ad
;ion nay interfere with .
fair trial in the a.? I ..
Hanes is
parties to the contract, Hanac and Ray, not just one
and othertiee trejudice the du= adosinistrstion of juetics. Generally
of then, Hanes. reproeents himself and his own financial interest .
they are to he eondeorned. . Ti the en en eircnnetan - ces of
while ha repraeonts Ray and Ray's competitive, conflicting interact. This will soon ho amplified. Ray vas
partionla case . juetify o statement to the ublic, it
rRt ioepreeented by any leelyar :t_)ot. nartv to the oontroot, without his own sglfish intarestc in it.
i.e unprofessional to take it anenymovely. An 3.7 rsfereneo to the
Hanac's interacts co nos oolnelce Stith Ray's and are competitive
vieh on op,„)osso to the u. Hanes is not
faots ehould not go beyond quotation f r i - th:e records and pap .re on
without Conflict o:i interact.
file in the-court; but even in etrssle ceses it is
Eoreotor, in advance of the trial, Zones, in return for None y, contracted to "impart" to Huio
better to avoid any 2
per t st at ement ,
"such informotion with respeot to .the aseassination. of Hartin Luther King, Jr., thh allegod participation
If, aside from the personal writing and the frequent sounding off,
of Ray" and other thiage as ha "may have or reasonably nay be able toobtain." He contracted to Kuie the
i t is "unprof:o3ienal to rake" such ccmmasnt a o n y m o u s l , ha'?. about a l l
right to use this "or any part thereof. in his writing." Acting as Ray's lawyer, he
eithor parmitted, which is
those nawo steries quotin "sources close to the defense' and I sourecs . close to
eccceseive politonose, or got Ray to sign away rights which include the ee to a fair trial.
the 1 r o e e e u t i e n T h e an ewer is both sides never engaged in other than
"unprefesoienal. conduct,
to the accompanying and so ewpressive silence cf
pigeon for suer ifise . and a c o w f o r m i l k i n g ?
the lords of the bar, Idltb.onts this open violation of
Thus,
while the
reo'tea rement
of thethe2.e::
and his,olientle
wero
opp000d
to it, and
all deoent
standards
of the law,
profession
and itsinterests
practice,.
neither
could
hate
tried t b eviolation
papers.Court
As the
canonand
says,
would'
wh7en it vas
a aeorning
ofthe
Stg)rome
decisions
thethey
ordarknew
Judghthis
Dottie,
Z:111os
. case in
"interfere
withthe
a fair
otherwise
prejudice
the due
adninistratloo
arrshiged for
_tie to havo
legaltrial...
rigit toand
peblish,
in advanoo
of the trial,
thh "truth"
about
of justice"
But who oared, as long cc there was a
the aseassination and Ray's allaged porticipatibn is it, however it is poscible for =one to
undoretand and ostablish thatelusive, truth, urdar such ciooute)ances. He then want furthor and, on behalf
of him-self and his client, Ray, gavo Huie the abtolute right to boat whet he
would use and write about; the right to suPprhes anythitg ho wanted to suppress, wit:). or withont reason
and she the u or not it was in Ray's i'7ter..
self ti withoit flay's having any chance to O=ine it and dhoitefor whether tt use or was not in his
interest, aseuming he could and
without himhotf, were he to dooide it vas against RaY'a interest as the dafandont or Die ce Ray's
lawyer, having the right or' powor to do any-thing to pravcnt it.
Thus, Ln one fell swoop, Eenoc surranderad the interest of his client (the me:a-who hired hiel to
protest against just this), his own interests, and violated the ethics of the legal profession, if not the ltw
and court docisione - for pay, 'very ample pay.
It is not just a writer's impassion:ad denunoiation vhon I say lTonos violated the Coda of
Professional Ethics of the American Ear Association. It is to literal fact. The rare invocations of this code
are ogairet the ee who support unpopular political priconers or ehnrh thair
ic:t, not agoinst Ehttblishmontariane. There heh been abject silence from the bar osecoiation. Ent
Kanee contraoted to violate Canon 20, for a cc-cu iderablo sun of morhy and the prospect of much more.
He furthen became: involvod, in.22ted violations, as the roader will
been '.notoo heretefore ester.reeding toe tett
Coup d'Etat, Part II
The language of the canon. is precise. It does not say that only the defendant can suffer. Society
also bas its rights, and these inolude the apprehension and proper punishment of the se really guilty and
found guilty in court sin a fair End opelntrViolation of this canon by either side denies thn rights of the
other side. Hanes thus also denied society its rights. Lut he did got Paid, which is what seems to have
intercsted him nest of all. And he got abundant publicity, which does help the practice of. law and attraets
clients.
A. we hovo seen, Hanes also went such further. In advance of the, trial, he joined in the olat:or
his client and. proclaimed the guilt of the man he woo so abunTantly rowarded for 'defending'.
.
It is against public interest for there to be the kind of pretrial publicity Hanes loads possible end was part of. It was against
Ray's intcree too. It was an irlportart part of hee denial of truth
about the aseossination. And it veotef in one fallible end vory conercisl humen estelusive access to
whatever Rey knew and said of the assassination and of his alleged participation in it. Huie is the
writer to
an seen the se 20,000 word
Ho used only part of than, the
part he wantoo, the part that suitod his preoonoeption, the preconception be freely adndts
even boas to about - that Ray woo guilty.
If t.hsU, were not enough, there is a separate letter on the letter-head "=.iem Bradford
Hartselle, Alabama, to "Rear Art", dated,
in typing, 'July 8, 1963." This is ample cation it wes not prepared at the. sane tine the agreessent
was, for the data oculd not be included in the agreement. It nay or smay not have been Prepared July 8,
but it cortednly ..ac rat agrecd to on that Cate because it has Ray's undated signature at the end of the
seeoral reps, in typing end in writing, Ray was then in the British jail, not Alabama. On the seoond page,
Soy's absence is even aokncssledged, in several places.
The first sentence is either a lie or proef that Hanes and Hilie
did enter into a eontraot on July 8
tholat_ Ray. It also rakes clear
that ths agreement is between Huie and anes. The first claueof that
first sentence reads, "This letter is meant to be part of our gresmentilt Elie. wnote th letter. Ho
addressed it to Hanes. The "our", therefore,
uesns Hui:: ati. He:nee, not Ray. The escort clause is "sisned on this date." Rey ceold not base
"eignod on this dote", and ho didn't.
Clearly end unequivecally, this letter says that on July 8 Hula
Hanee sig:sef en agreement, an agreement between the two,of then.
only, "Eeor Agreement."
The -question immediately ari3es, Lh7 _- 3..1t
C
::
..
=tii . 1, the o ia.'
c
could
no, hate bs
.to __ .:: l d
provisions of his le
.:-:', ,._ti:
all the . signatoriss .lip _in..g t___ new c0. taa( .tine Ray
.
I Co r.oi; kr,
the _...r...s_ 01 all the „_hle to this qua:
?. anc its and {-L.
C
, but one
..'._ l' obv._. ._ t
_2:
the. y ! . '.i__, o°
contract.. The date en whin h _1 'd
his c h a o s is as_lb Is:sow'?. rzo'__,ic_.ted. It cannot Lave been ths
date typed on the-letter, July G.
1._is
., two L2..'z?VraphS preceding, the last are iU.'i•"'.2°r proof the let-ter ag '3ene:1t was written
?..._en fay was in the foitisa jail. They stipu_i,
late t^3t will be dons "on Ray:' rc"G..:,": 'a " and "after Ray's. 3'Et1?i"T?"
The last S •_° lte___ e indicate.` that uh0 2 the letter was drafted Ray was not. avai' -ble to sign it
and that Hanes 'had the power and riC t to not f nn Ray is contracts aad understandings where their
interests coo.i0 and did conflict. It roads, I._t'T oue _ siE^atars, along with that of .-:ay :'!'iss d h` yea under y0
Po n of Atto_'_'_ol, will attest A' onont "
Coup d'Etat, Part II
This proves
°. -_? had Cot .__ from Ray, in t:2'iti?-.;, tom..., "legal" -,.,1"h'•:: to
act for Ray anon way's and f: ne5le interests
in conflict.
Iim._nn-g the provisions, had flay understood than, to which he 'night not have ^
,
,0t ~” ~':
is that of the Sacon... ,t"l";_ L .`iC.ph, 1:11=3
"L'S>d9S'S'G._i.t..and,_<_.g"
,
that "a' l ':_a
.: - by nu.lis... ' merely loans, returnable
in full ^if if, f sr ..a__' reason ._.atct''__',ths book is '>'2Ot complet<:d and ccceobeci t
The advances a.'3 described as loans from which ?U.ie is to pay
"you and Ray 7_?.. I an e'asoo_ ob..±_ and writing this took." and, "in
effect, ba.oa s from
to the two of you."
This, need
...Sy s.i.' course, is %.nnsenSE%. Elsie is ,_ n0 pauper. T .!he only to pay in .d~-i ice of collsetio i
was i on3s t s insistence on ...mediate cash. Ray hal
personal need for it. In fact, Hain could not have
. consultodlain about this.
If, in notrospec'J, Lane's _olbc:2_
of Onnr li'ry'yan's advice,
"taho cash'', same -al,. : for selfish reasons, it in no way alters two facts: This nas nnct in his Cllr
_:
internist, and the lawyer Ran s r'e;
resonte
The l a.:..;~n.ag_ "you and Ray" J.ice_.... 'th-_._~1' Li~. ~.i ,' ~-i_ u
doubt that
u
The
.A~
,u
_
`"'J any ;JU 1•: ~.. .
regandod I'ca.. esme't'.t" as bet:;. ~ ' ...end the add ss e, Panes, the:
I you." Also, as .._ shall so s, the1,... 1'?_.u:
e to Ray's fl tt_ 'J
share,
altaol in the contract and in this !.etto, - sophistry, a fiction
and a deception.'
offers to ::~ _a..~-E the 17aCiJ~;?1•^ s _ er
T;1ii c::'_:il c:'.~'
~c ., by r: tO the two of
you a _rea
le" (o:phhasls in origins...) if they
1ld ai": -s to e
'a' _._. c 3 of paynents which. called f on $10,000 0 signing of fib':,a first,
or book,. conb'act / and "On the first ':a; Ray has bean ledrod in a j_.ii in the UnitJd States (sti!1.
anothen proof Ray vas not party to it, l i.-. out his co
- is i:coll:ded and Hams did not sign it with his
power of
attorney), I will nay X5,000
Each nn nth t:'<e1'o fte., for the ensuing. five
-o._,._1.;,
C.&:_ t o___.'! *5,000. For CO" o St__ ..`,t'. :'-eaaO.a,
$.10,000 on signing u of the 90.07' contract and s. monthly paynento of
$5,000 each, which total 400,000, a _ i co iflict with the third paragraph from the and. Thera this
lnnCo"CE apliea,:a.
n sho: , on signing, on ray's i s i•u"i S, and during the first five= months his r•„hark)., I an
oblgt_a. myself to pay you
and ;J, nncl
t~ ,, t,, ' ob o::_ ag ca aaab,
total of 35,000.
Iiot o:2 does this letter specify on poy'?ents, the last skim io .thiy :J;: _..o, rather than the five ia'th
y payments in this par'agraph, bob t':;:: is no provision of. (again) "our Ag;': snt,", for the payment of any s1:._
c
time-, ineludirg this
a oi.$3 ,000. There is no
s7'm t._entions:1
any point in "out, i.greenont."
f?:_-- -bn. _nsso with money, t'.:.•'_s bad .rivh._.sti ., this citation of nnr_- ;ist-ent provisions, this
apparel" ,hanky-panky with. uca`c , is beyond sa f p° a_2a t,_o"!. I con saCgest -oniti that it is tasa.;1as
vss insisting on got,
thst had. to cotov'm Luis's ern rssonrcss, on. the ohslhss ths dsss tuand out to be i.0 J pssofitsbls than stspsotsd. Ths arithmstis is
srronssus, Hnis hsre obligstss hisssIf to
pay Lsnes
..C.,000 at ths vsry mihimtm, rsgssdlsss of shy sirsumstsnsss
Coup d'Etat, Part II
moneys oeorhing
Hanes andor said 'dhssio Alkoment.
This is a very lorge mouthful.
::Laout
or condition
-s owanining the jaly 5"aame, agreomont" it is not poosible to hn.co4
how there could ba the apparont impossibility of Roo-leaving any. "interest .in any
s scopt
thsse:
A too_ to
oontrsot
is sigrod
and aT:reemoot.
is
moneys
acoraing
To-les._
under said
which had not hs...,,o,
turns] to the Unitsd States- both _.
d.
.
.
,
is nonshs
suchofprovision
the "3asio
Agreement'.
Olctsi,
ttis is ul in
ihtsrssS
so ,.ay,
anless he.The
tsrs .dlYisicn of spoils there, in the
fifth provision - the first initialed by-Hanes and Hu is but not by Ray - is spcific:.
to Hanes
hisand
30 Ray
psrsont.
the30ovont
ho did
involvod fron
kneneither
ho Wonldn't),
eaohInget
peroerst
and(t..._
thereeveryono
is no assignment
to the it mode
other.
no diffsrsnoe
to him uhsn hs gi, sal of his needs bsing msrs than adsquately providod by or:saizsd society.
Hovever,
this doss
soon
to say
much
what there
is no reference
to incomPletion
the
Theoriginal
only othsr
provision
is that
if and
when
the ohoot
full publishing
advance
is paid,
basic
agreamont
or the
letter
supplement,
that beforehand
Hanes
did atonRa's
and acceptance
of theonbook,
..n added
signture
a connact.
one in hich, from the foregoing, it would sc.:cm Ray asoignod
only
property
of any
value, the literary rights
tobook
his story,
to Hones.
might
incoto uoaldhis
be
eAnTirsd.
Huic
anticipatsd
of hisere.
five months
afterOne
Ray's
rsturn.
conjecture that, with Ray havingcomplstion
aSked Hanes
Hanes
got to England
to engage
Ones
Hanes
had
Huie's
signture
on
thsss
papers,
there
nss
no
neod
for
him.
to
ros
his
pswor of
Huie to write his story, Hanes was suff-:':ciently _for esighte to latch onto ths ontirs
property
for
himself.
Ths,
there
is
a
purpose
seevod
by
tha
strange
subsoquent
attorney andogre:ems:its,
sigh for Ray.ontting
He hadHula
all the
signaturss
histointerest
uithhuie's.
looked
bad enough,
in and
seeming
cut Rayrsquirsd
n. the pions
HanesItwas
conniving
if ever snxamirod
lao-at
making
dral interest
obvious
with his
dtsl sirturss.
ard doing all anoutsidsr,
this while he
was,him
with.
properhis
unction,
tellingtmore
he prcsS
he didn't
:allow
if ha wouldleayss no doubt that Hanss's part of the action" is irrcvosably his, cc:: uhot may.
This lettsr sgsoemont
Eachrof these is an abnormnl contrsst, each not the easy and propsr *way to acsomplish its
ostsnsib*s purposss. Together, the y ara
an. even St*'.. '8_^ combination. I bslisys ths courts and bar associations should intorost
thsmssIvss - but not only in thsss two.
What Hallos
Snticipate di& coms to pass uhtn Ray fired Hanes. After that, thsse contracts still
gusrnteed'Eanss his out, whether or net he ass Rsy's lsnysr. This mode probIsms for everyone but Ray. Es
got no monsy, had no. prospect of getting any, and .had the lawyer he sp parshtly the ughts ho uanted,
The only problsm it moant for Esnss Was, could thsre bs any furthsr loot? If thsrs wore to be, ho uould
gat his share, which is mors than his public ststsmonts or the ss two cot,trsots say. I'tsnss's sole remaining
vorry nss, uould thsrs be any me,'- boodle.?
Euie bnd all the problemo of the mon in the
Per on,
howsysr,
had ths very groat problem cf gat"_. -o pai, sn item of greats:_ than usual importsnss with. him,
for 100 psrear. t of sny possibls income was committed, regardless of uhot these tao contracts shoe. That
is ossposed in the second of the tss 6osumonts us no:; arolyss.
Thsrs is,
_C ';g that part of the dosumsntotion ha to obtsined,
vhatis titled
In tto uppe loft-hand corn:sr
are ths ibis world seam to indicsts its
proparation on. Dsoeaber 6 by a lac
shoe_ initisIs are JJ3 acrid its
typing by a typist whose initials ato
Co rts nsu know uho these
psopls ors.
This smendirg agre=ont bsgino uith the samo difficulties uith dates, but that uould appoar to be
not the uajor problem. The typing in ths-first ssntenos says it is "entsred into this dsy, of Dscembsr
ay snd Hanes Only, vas_. it was=slly conummaed, the casts written in is 529" andtho
month Is chansd, in hsn&sltttsrsd
The newt Over
poragraph
says
Hones noelse.,
longer
represonts hay
cspitals, to "Jshnsry."
and sbovs
evsrything
this moans
at in any way
and For non does.
the contrast, es:posted to bs ceo during ths month of Dssombsr, and ono would prssuto el:7:ns to
the dots it vas prsporod, vas not, in fact, agrosd to -until the vsry end of the follouing month. In turn, this
suss gasts at lesst oro signatory was holding out.
Thers is no apparsnt reason fog Nuis or Ray to i-nc-c held bask, . with -thsirintsrssts =bonged.
This leoves only Hanes.
As soon as ths oripinel contrsct and letter ars rsferred.to in 0-ho "Amhdstory.Agrsemont", the re
is this second reference (paragraph is of the first provision):
Ray and lisnss hsve entsrad into a csrtsin document entltlsd.
"sgrssmsmt" &a-Sod July 5, I963.(hsrsin the "Assignhont Agrsemsnt")
undsr uhich Rsy assigned to _lams a portion of his interest in any
take the coo.
Coup d'Etat, Part II
Good roan, that Hanes. He pPofitad from his F3I and CIA experience. He had. all the "action",
and ha. hs1d onto it.
Thsra is no apparent roason for Raines to get any of the take except as his fee. It seems safo to
assume the contracts are sobrohen up ar4 worded in part to make it seem that this is what happened, that
ths 30 per cent allocated to Hanes is his foc for defending Ray.
In nothing that over appeared in any form in the press is there the slightest indication Hones-had
such. anb "assisnnent cement" or any other hind with. Ray.. the language of the :sic agreement and the
supplementary letter, if ever cxsminad by an ontzidor, not only contains no reforonce to it, ba.t conveyed
the, docePtive, opposite imprsssion.
Thore is no description of what "portion" Ray assigned to Hanes. It is without meaning called
only "a portion." So, the tis still soorot.
Paragraphe.(c of the first provision says Ellie hnd written and was then writing "notarial ... which
be publishod in issues of ROoh :ig
zinc." As of Eithor Docember 6 or January 29, this ,could refer only to what was writton and nc-publishe
O. what van published in the issue
dote: .ApriI 15 His first two articles hod already appoared. This paragraph also
that sono of the "material will be po:alished in book fern by Doll T-obihir Co.,
Inc., piarsuant to a contract :n!oth Author (tho
vorkirg title of which book is TIT.57Z T-I'IE DREA=
How intoresting this is, especially t-t
conbitod. On the one
Land unless Hu wroto what :1.'so would not air_, did not print, h'
writing his April 15
pcas, which says Ray was the lone hiller, end
slmolton.7iousl hs was writig a booh noyLng
meaning more than
ono person, did tie Fay sure was in fine', trustworthy hands, Remember, this contract was not
signed until Janaeary 29.
"Eeoauoo the parties are dosiroac of etfocting certain releases (tho last broakdown of the first
provision), Eancs doss hereby transfer-and assign to Ray all Hanes rights, title and interest in, to and
under said basic agreonont and the Assign-end Agresnont" (tho first sentence of.the socond provioion).
This should be. explainod. Under des hosic agreomot, Hanos had only 30 peroont interost to assign to
anyono, the other 30 roontch=h being Ray's and the remaining 40 peroent b3ing huts's. If Hanes did not
have any fnrther share 1...:
_ the assignment
.
agroomont, no parpose sorved by including it here. The rest of this
s-rotision
tuos Hsnos intsrsst snd,e)
furthsr osrses that he shall not hsrsafter writs or 2ohorise to bs vrlttsn any litsrory matsrisl relating
to ths mosdss of Buthsr King, J., Ray's sllogad psrticipition in It or Fty:s coming trial for such mardsr, or
the lifa or aotivitiss of Rsy, and that he shall not hsroaftsr mohs or authorlso to bs isdo mo,oioo, Loosooic, nooion piosors, tsios vision and/or othar adaptation of any
kind 'slating to any such subjoets.
Etnos vat, at the time this contract was initiated, according to his own public statsmonts, sngaged
in just ouch negotiations with
tnis provision without recourse by anyone, it is. safs toassums that no one, least of all Foramsn,
objected - or objected enough to dare wash' - all of this out in opsn court.
Escapt for thes movie provisions and possibly the -dramatic, in
writing for the April 15 issue of and in promotional appearansss, '
Hanes violotod all t::.. other rastricions But this involvsd, acoording
to Torsmsn, 05,00 of which "I get 60 psrcont", so possibly Foromsn .
felt suffioisntly rswardod to
och this contract volation,
Daztths contract releases Hu -le and By of any obligation to Hsnos and stipulates that Esnas hao
rooeived everything to which he is entitlsd. In tui-n, ..µ n
y aol Huie rolease Hanes. Thsse ps1sases include "oral agrees mants", of which tharo is no
Coup d'Etat, Part II
available rscord It may,-of course, be a mars praesutiion. Hanes also egrsas to nessonte and deliver to' the
othsrs "any furthar instruments naessscry. or desirable to implemsnt or effectuate this agresmant. But it
does net say for free.
In the sisth provision, Rey achnowledges "there aro no Lion_ ; Or othsr oompenostlon of any
Lind" duo from Ellie.
Nystoriously, in Provision 7, Hula replaces his own as ant as agent, and Porsman, as Ray'S
attorney, bscomso the man who looks out for Ray's. finonsial intorests, rop1scins Esnss in this rospact
also, and assuming' he. same confliot intarost.
The othsr contracted arrangsmsnts are continued and in the last prOvision, hula alone in given the
right to assign his intersst. It will he apparent none: misted for Ray to be sbls to assign,
The throo arties signed the ngrasm-snt and, under "APPROVED AS T0.= Foroman signed,
"Porcy Fors-man, as Attorney for jamss Earl Day."
Ths one thins missing from this contract is what Hanes Sot for giving up his hunk of Ray in
psrpetuity.
That. "portion", as wo shell see, was 100 percent of what rammed sftsr He:is got his .40 paroont
of the Erps. With the lewsst contsmporanocus estimats of the value of Ray, not in pernetuity but in the
msdiatc, 1"'oromnn's estimate, bsing
Hence was voluntarily giving
up only a little loss then a quarter Of a million dollars. With good for-tuns, even more oonld bs
anticipated.
For nothing?
Hanes's record, especially that immsdiatoly preceding, makes this impossible to bolieve.
Hare there is reasonable osplanation of the almost two-month da isy in v'_-- signing of the
agroemsnt under.which Zanes ssemad to rsturn to Ray all of his interest of any hind in arty possible
income. Hanes was holding out for his price whsa he was bought off.
Who could buy him out? Who wanted to?
Rot Roy, who _.sad nothing and could pa;; nothing.
Rot Huio, who by this time was holding a very bad bard, had gore dseply in ths hole, on-the di a_,
and had only a minority rota rest, anyway.
Orly Foremin, unless there are unison interests, which does not
sso p,ohahio, oonTh
tho sonhoo.of whotovcr it was.what Foreman hod in nind, hs should rot roolly have ei:psotod any mojor roSurh iron his
hond1ina; of TiaY.
11T:is=:so ha' i:ot it J7z''o 7.a.:T,
ooning fron whot Ray Lot fro a Huo's inooro, whence woo it to co
"
isonwhile, if hs got it from ay, as ho did in the not docoroont wo cooisine, hs innodiotely
assumod an additional conflict of intcrcst. lnanoially :ih',.oroste, ho hss the ha.noo onflioS
He also
has tns conflict botwoon Ry's legal interost and his own finanoial interosts, for anything 'not in. RsY's legal interest
and in orema's financial interest is such a confliot.
I. there ony doubt making the deal under which Ray got a tougher sontencs then would otherwiso
seom to have can likely, the deal he judge lauded in just the se tarns, was not ir. Ray's interest? And is
there any doubt that, without this deal, t^_
out! be no real salable
proporty through which Huio could recoup or Coca which Foreman could get anything, the roturn of
whatever it coot to buy out Hansa', his on costs and fees, or profit? Onoo there was a trial, everythin
coning out in
that trial would bc tnblic domnin, ovary riter
property, without cost
or.paynent of Eoy kird, as set forth earlier in this booh.
Even moro p3 p1
dd and hod..- to bolievs is the t Forcnnn bought
out o_ so without any contraot with Ray. From the dcoulsonts I havo, which rny net lco complete in thio
respect althou,gh the y seen to bo,
there was no such 6007_ with Ray until an later, February 3. Of couxcc,
thsro may have ben another docunant under the legal table, lihe the Hans-Ray contraot of July 5, not
Coup d'Etat, Part II
referred to in any of the other dooumonts. Eaat I have nelthsr record of any nor reason to believe there
wao any.
This moans that, froOl the tine he got .,he case in early rovotlbor until February 3, Poroman had
no cortainty he would get anything. As we shall see, ho did, fron that unerptying teat, Huie, but not for
two and a half months aftor he got. the case away from Hanes, as Hanes oharaotorizod it.
How very unlike the poblic record of which this sane Percy Fore:son boosts. Eo in the ran whosc
rocs are "punishnont onough"!
On. February 3, '_'o smart did secure an affidavit fron attesting,
I ... hhvc sighsd over, given, oonveysd and tranoferrod and do, by this instrunont haranow givo,
asoign, set over and trans fer to b_-_ .,t- FORI=T, o°'
f Houotcn, Harris County, Torsos, all of that rigt title and interost in and to the prooeeds the t
would othsrwiso have accrued to co
undo_ all the o +.c._ agreovonts, plus.
any other right or rights that night be or have been nine be cause of the writAugand subsequent
purbliostion (sic) c2 such writing by said Author.
This tsars overythin and forever. It even directs thht paynent be made directly to Foronan i his
own naro End as his own pope*y" rather throat s he 's lawyer.
more nonumontol conflict is hard to conceive.
Or a morn ,thorough'and oompaoto omptying of. the "client" of every-thin hc had or, in erpstoity,
night hope to have
This is es:aotly what Sorry Ray said, leadiog to For. smonls oomnont the
newspapers found printoblo only as "bull."
Tho second "whoreas" of this vacuuning of ovary cent does prove one of Foreman's points, wham
ho pretended at first to ha,Ao no concern about noncy and than said has had, humbly, done no more than
assuno hanos
ntcrost. This clauoo says the July 5 agreoont was an assignnont by Ray of "at .first a portion of
his interoot In any nonoys accruing to Hanos under soid Rsoio ..grzoomont," - a basic agreoront that did
not es7ist oh Jlcly 5. It odds, ord lator the said Ray did assign to the said 7a-nos all of his interest in said
noneys so accruing"
This losves no doubt
Hanoo got overy cent Euie didn't, e.wactly-wbht Fore ran uourd up with.
'Ziaert io oleo no. dou this io not provided' fbi ' the July 5
ueleoo thio affidavit nizaneprozonts it. This, oleo-1.e contr._ j to ths longuego of ths later basic
agrees...ant. It, would seem there is some kind of other Rey-Ronee, d.oc=nt or the July 5 contract is s.
cleaning-out at all cf Re yls intsrest.
We have not yet fathomed the great and selflees dedication c.f ttoot ii:.Mont
1.h: o:on..,o oi
the ir their totolit..
of ocoisitmnt to. law and justioc, unimpedod by any financial or yes anal considerations. Et-fore
continuing with this glorification of the Lego.!_ p-rofoosion, this ecf
coat of goodness and decency, I
note. a tacit:1.Acality. .
Every cent Ray had or could hope to have as Foreman's-. for these things: "for and in
consideration of" monies Foreman had .aleady ad.
vaneod for Ray, "serviees heretofore rendsred" in his behalf, F.oraman's "agreenent to represont no at
thetrial or trials", and nothing else. Asido from. the undisolosed.funde. Foreman may have "advanced" for
Ray., which Sculd not be, large, what does this amount to? Herely getting the trial postponed and then
preventing it - and condemning his client to
guilt o' a crime to which h.is cliont
inn.ocenco. Eut in legal
work, Foreman did nothing else, not early enough, even at 200-snhouse rate,to oorn a quarter of a
million dollars or more. .His 2putn s.je. soreee for all this was ploading Rey guilty hile. Ray prooleid hZe
On
,t000.e.
Coup d'Etat, Part II
innocence of the charge of murder:
By eliminoting the trial, Foreman did more than preserve any literary income he night cspeot. He
also eliminated any real work los might be compacted to do in return for this rathar.lar2;e inome, under
his own appraisal.
Huis- is also a fine, doe:not, kind and the ughtful non. All heart. To understand this, all one need4o is read the pleasant. note he wrote "Dear James. ..Tarl", dated L'srcah 7, 1969. Ray than was about to
be put away for as long as he could esipect to live, without resource and with-cut posolbility of over
getting a cont from the literary property that vas originally his.
First, Hu:le says he i3 unclosing the original, three-way agreement and the -jotter agrooment "by
which f agood to advance S.35,000 in anticipation. of eern.hgs" and "Receipts from your attorneye for the
which I have adranoed to date, (0,Joo to Ea-s'los E-.nd 0.0,000 to E'.
Fores:sn.)"
He sends a copy of the "Supplomontary Agreement which was si"nod . by Hr...Poramsn, Ihs.
Hanes, you and ma", This can be: interpreted to betokon _ii. t:, underetanding that Foreman was a
signatory to the contracted arrangements, not just Rey's lawyer. And ho asko nay to sign "another copy so
that we can have two copies. bearing all four signaturos."
These aro all the agreements "etsisting between you and. ma", ho tells Ray an, with no show of
modeety, adds, "you will not, that l have followod them to ties letter. I will continue to do so,"
This is one way of saying, be "found flay guilty without a trial and sought the '.coat poesible
cirOulation. far .hit de _.'_o._, _esc.~o._d over the objection of the man whOse interact ho pretended to
be serving, "to the lotto_."
He forecasts "additional earnings" above the "thie project ha8 earned." Eow cool con yea be with
a man eb.o't to have the guarantee he will spa yid the rest of his life in jail, for which you hsvo paid, when
you write him. a comforting note?
Vow, if.by 'earnings" Huie marls mere than g': v5 Inc:tam, mano that the dictionary says tea word
meant:, the deal aloe got him out of the financial hole he had claimed to'
o be in, Thee:: new "earnings" are to
come from ti_: April 152;::_ article, "foreign. mmgaai.nes and- from Dell Publishing Company,
which will -publiall the book in Hay."
Poi, book to be published in 1--arsh7 ie a late date for it not to have been completed, which pretty
ctrongly suggests that, so far as Hula is concerned, he had comploLoci it.
The nazt soh's., io...ropetitious. in an 2 ointting way:
ire will ptblish nort artiolo on Oprit 15th. The book,
i; THE will ha publithoad aboute:ihy 5t."
To ooy the "nort" artiolo is to ouggoot there willbe other:a fol- . lowing it. If Euio ozpaotod no
further. Look articles, ha would have said, "my lost ariole. Knowing it wouide pt1b1ishod-April 15,
wltich
oi, the propoitory tork oopi000 onO the noazina printod by. April 1, also means he had writ ton it
before he
this letter.
Vey 15 Is a later publication date for the book than ho gave in the December broadcast recorded
by Dr. Palley. On KBO-TV, Huia g.8.7e the old "workine title, "They Slew the Dreamer", and
publication date
of Vorch 18. So, after all of his investisation, long after he hod writ-ton the se first two articles
and Lack had publishod than, Huie woo still talking of Ray's innocenco of the charge, which ha also says
be never believd, even bofcra he knew anything about the, ceso, or of a conspiracy. 5y Decomber, ho
should have'written a book this for I.:arch 18 publication. Bookpulishing tile'es tires, usually much nore
time than that.
Yet, by Virch 7, hc had alreadyccipleted an entirely Jiff :.. ':t bock, one saying Hay alone "slow
the dreamer"? And an important lona., zinc artiolo saying the same thing?
chango of mind about
the
basic facts of too eeoc soons to coincide rather smugly with :?oreman's entry into it and the roalization. a
Coup d'Etat, Part II
trial 9ou1_d end all. the literary proporty for which he had said and labored so nuh.
Noble soul, that Hnie, even if ha writes with dollars rather than the spirit of a Zola. the ughtful,
too!
"I an currontly nogbtiatlng with Casio Poati, the film producor,
over picture rights. 1111
you informed.!' This is a kind touch.,
becauce nay would hot a cont from it and everyone else would, by
F,:uie's spelling out what kind ofmurderor ho balieves Ray to boo
"We noad a picturo of you to use or, the, front covor of the book," Euio sayo, thus ending any
doubt about the roal poarposco of that e:^_i'l _a effto.'t to got an ozolusive picture, praeontod ae soma
kind of urgent conotitutionsl right Roy was boing donied. It is the mounl lofty conmorolal right of the
mnroonarios.
Eort to the last poragraph boings,'"Jerry keeps in touch with no."
True. 1 asked Jerry about it. his account, .u.tich I on no loss inclined to telievetho arythih
Euiosayo, is not in the sane tono as Die's chatty, soemingly friondly, 1:....r
If Jorry sooms a llttlo
do
fonsive, it nny ezplainod by his oonfasoicn to, re that h3 is responsible for his brother's
disastrous choice of Foroman.
Jerry says ho met Huie lout onoo,
Novomber 1, that thn only
other times thay spoke wore by phone. On that occasion,
Hu:1.e wont over the controctswith no and showed me how touch
ho had already paid Hanes. It amountod to thirty the us-and .,. Here it what convinced ma (James
Earl) needcd another lawyer. H. said ho also felt that James _'a 'l wos irhooentand that Dance vas a good
lawyor _.Olt the outcome would bo the
soma whothor Janos took the staid or not, but if he took the stond then he, Tuie, would have no book,
Ellie told ac that he . had. told ones that James must not take the stand.
Euio 4'-...,__ told no that if I worked with him that he would pay all of my ezpanses plus put re on
as salary.
1.ly job was suppoced to be going down and visiting Jamas Earl every woot plus tolling him that
Euie was doing everythingfor his best irterost. Fs also told ma that if worse care to worse for jamoo Earl
that he had connoctions in politics and that he would seo to it that James would never want for anythin,
that 'no horm would come to him.
Aftsr guy told you all cf that I cm.suro if your brother
was in a fiz
lor to James' that you would rocom7.1ond a new
lawyer 213o.
It would be a very uncoOl Huie who told Jerry that, iierc James to
tka the stand, t wonld 'sitt;e no it is so,
have had no hook, as we
ve soon.
Jei says ho also told Hula that
Jawas uodsulppybecouse aver ybody was making nonay off of hin and he was ponnylass. Hu:10
rapCktrf that he could change v.. _ con-tract t?..__:. 2 ... it orinlnallv was .,. T
t
not want to --r' along with that. Huie repled, Hines does w'- t T
tell hi. 1 an the one that is putting cut to
That;'a when I made up ny nind that Janes neodod another lawyer.
ls Haie braggart enough to tell Jerry he controlled Hanes? Hanes is rather a biz shot in that part
Of the cotuatry. But the fact is,. Enie did not pay :linos all the . money due bin vader' the ir July 8
agreement..
all, actor di3 to the lattor fron-wioh I have b een quo ti, Hu:le had P2,Lf anas, as of iiwooh 7.
1969, a total of But,. by two menthe earlier, be should have paid Hanes not lese than V40,000 - ,;ilO,000
on the siEnInz.of the book contract, about July 15-20, and
for sLk months, baginning with Ray's return in July. So, while it nay seen berd.to believe, Hula
did do what Jerry quotes him as sayinE would Co.
Coup d'Etat, Part II
And it is quite literally true
Janso did rut gat a penny.
Should he have, been other than "unhappy'
At. the end of it &II, this man who hod just ordained Ray's solitary guilt in ow change for what
ha hoped would amount to more tha'n 30 }lieas, porisea if it is your desiroyou _a^_ count on me to keep
in. touch with you indefinitely. I'? l hem p you in any way I can.
Is :h r: anythin3 more wonderful than unending fricndehip, the real, germinal Alfonso and Gaston
bit, the:dependale, trustworthy nan standinE by? Ray, criminal that he is (murderer in Hula's. book), must
have dropped a vagrant tear when lea real thiattouch ing pledge of unendin3 'halp."
Lucky P:ay, to have such stalwart, selfless friends!
aturally, icy latter to Ray, addressed to hin in care of 0nnale and offering fifferont "help" than
Hula's, never reached .. n. This Is the word ho sent me through Jerry, Isn't it strange that neither Car'._._
nor the jail nor the United States nail roturnod it?
Thera ars two other letters of importo!noe that l have. (There tny be others that I do not have.)
These two ara from 'Zoreman to Ray, earlier referrod to as Foreman had ropaoesentod then to tbe press. It
nay be no re informative to the reader if ha can road whot was in very fow papers, completely in none
Both are dated Larc' 9, 1969, and are on tha letterhead of Fore,-ran's law office. Larch 9 was tha
Sunday before the mini-trial, an unusual day for tha writing and handdelivering of business letter It
happens also to bathe tine Ray was reportodly trying to back out on the deal that could maan so nuch to
Foreman and, inoan entirely different way, to bin.
Through the great trial lawyor's elliptical use of lanEus3o - and some of it is quite t's-a opposite,
brutally blunt -- a little more: of the financial arrangonant and Foreman's milk of 'znnan kind:class do
cone cut. The orrors are in the original, makinE one wonder if a stenographer worked that Sunday:
You have asked - that I advance to Je'rr y Ray five (;500) Of the 3.5,000' , roferring to the first
five the usand dollars paid by .
Bradford iuio On January 29th, Lr Enie advancod an additional $5,000. It that time 1 bad spent in ewcass
of ;39,500 on your case. Sitoe then1 have spent in ewcoss of &,000.
Pore:so as bofita.s -,200-an-hotan man, is both a fast and a bspender. Be
tha 0033 R'over 12, if ono accepts the e date of the
court procood:;ng at which it was stated. In the newt 10 wooks, with no sign of an an stigation, he spent
V;,500? But ho curer let Jerry, who war; jobless, ac, the smell sun of iy .0 t.
Jern is ths
who.got :-oresn the es rSItSt Of
wha t on:somay think of . a, his beli6ts CO nhis rocord, olso gave up roguIsr orploymant to help, as he
undtrstsnds halping, Jerry had no appsront sot roe of any incomo at all. Its uoo doing things for Js mss
iarl,
sayo, and this is roazonabls to boliavo. So, when beforo
Jshoary 29, Roy asked the .roc ous, pIsasatt and cis• so wealthy Foro::.otsn
for a pittanos from t5.s rooey he.to'd
wry i'o ths brotho ttyi-g to
help him, thst ssnorouo defender did not give it. by ..'.r ::h 9 he still had not.
riot. thst ho would not. He comas right out In this letter and says, "But I an willing to"
still as
an "advance." As lawyars sit
be expected to do, but in a rathan un1swyarly way, he attaches a Oondition:
And this advance, also, is contingent upon the plea of guilty and sentonca going through on
...arch 10, 1969, without any unsssmly conduct on your pant ip. court,
In plainer English, Ray's gotta keep his you shut and the deal goes through or his brothar doesn't
gat helpsds
Foreman.says ha is willing to let jerry have this "adv n
ace" of
$500 - "just this one $500.00" - and add it to his take when the loot . rolls in.
Thera are xo stone graphsr's initials, but there is a ''tPF-!Y" code at the bottom and a P.S. In it,
Foromhn is less than helpful toEly'o defence sins' the aye suit, Ito sayo that if there is any net at=
o
over costs, loten the hayo litigation is settled, he will credit it against the $:165,C'00 to which,
Coup d'Etat, Part II
with the sana preconditions, he agrses
to limit hinsalf. At $200 an hour, how much can To:main of what a second-hand car and a
secondhand rifle are worth?
.
Tam othar letter of the sane Sunday, also with no stenographer identification and withthe same
P2-4 cods at the botton, remindo Ray of what he will not liholy ever forgst, the "you have haratofore
assignsd to no all of your royalties .... These are my property unsonditiorally." lit:a J.' Edgar hoover
pretonding his unsavory Investigations for which he
sties or blaoLmails the attorney genaral's
approval
originate with the attorney gsnersl rathsr than with him, Foreman smssrs it on, saying tint Roy "authorised
and _2C_ ..nett,! no to negotiate a plea of guilty Fare the clever Hlawyen is making s false reoord making
it
seam the idea was Ray's.
ad ho not dsoiro Ray's signature on these
lsttero, he probably would havo said Ray begged him, as hs said in pub-lie. ]t is not Py'i6oa. The availabla
record 5howo Ray opposed Foromsn had bsgun ..oring on the deal and on Roy to accept it.acon after ha
had the ease, within a half-hour after "Public Defender" Stanton joined hin:
I asked Jerry Ray what he knew about this, if J0u3s really did ask Poraman to cop the plea. He
tells re
it is partly true, but it was Foreman's idea, rot James'. James wouldnt srite Forst:an ... that. Janes
wrote Foreman a letter tolling him why he wouldn't plond guilty, mainly because ha was not guilt;.
Foreman kept bugging him about it. So, one day while ForDran was visiting him and badgering him about
it,
James "wrote tt down on a piece of pap or", that is, what Foreman asked hiP to write.
It is In this lettor that Foreman omito the spaoifioation. that "you" net engsgo in "any unseemly
conduct", the ra is no doubt he includes Jones Earl whoa he stipulates 'the reduced fee he offers is only if
"no embarrsssing circumetances take place in the court room." ..Of courss, it wee possible Jerry night
kiOk up a fuss. Foreman could also intorprat thst so an "embarrassing cicumstance." Tha formulation of .
this mitten inoludss both Rays.
With James Earl waverins, wanting to back cut on the doal, what. does the wily Foreman, who
has not given the needy brother the small can askad of h. ?_n of the $10,000 of cores Earl's money Hula
had dished
Ld his littls dool tossther
hisplient's objoo
tion? prsmisos to kick baok his majority shara of the loot over
o.
estiritsd this to total f.C'3,("e7)0. Others anticipotad more. the bait was too nu oh foe'
both Rays. It hold than in. line.
This .i.ndnsss of Foreman's reduoins hls e..xpsot'od fee by more nonsy than Jamso F:sl had soon
in his entira life, iS eplainad:
This will shorten 'ho trial considorably. In consideration of the tima it will save ru, I are willin to
mako the following adjustmant of my fee arrangement with you.
This is trua
It did save timo. It was true in the moment of crisis,
wh . n Ray was hacking on. Lut it net also true 59'_1x,._ Foreman finally got Ray to agree, to the guilty
plea. The propar ond appropriate ti ms for Fora man to make this concession in his esoorbitant fee vas
than, when Ray agresd to wh;:t would save. Foreman all this tima. Ths 'alma of this agreeis the .;ins Foreman should have chsnsed his contract, but be didn't. Fe hold onto this eswoessive
fee, this unduly larse sun he. had, in effact, es;torted. Not until he seceded a bludgeon did ha contract the
kickback.
There is no doubt Percy the Great is a great trial lawyer. He has the scruple and conscience to go
with it. And the cunning.
Tho foregoing is unstinting testimony to his skill.
Hones isno slouch in the milking end of .tho law. Only he isn't as smooth as Forsman. Ha insisted
on a trial, having gotten hissOO,000. Jerry thinks this worried Euie, who feared loss of evrything,. And
there is little doubt Jomoo did not want to go to trial in Novamber.
Coup d'Etat, Part II
vonoar what Hones got for selling out his 60 percent interest in Euie's gross, for his pieta of Ray.
.
We know what Foreman is to got and part of what he did set. It
would be int.:nesting to know what it cost him.
We know what Ramsey Clark, J. Fdgar ;Hoover and the PSI, 1:,h:3 rest of the fed_.l governsant
and the 113mphis authorities got out of it. .%. Thsy got a ocrropt dacision that soemed to buttrass them.
The official racord is in to soon to support thsm. Ths once is "solvd."
That thsy did not get is the support and approval oftha broad msss of the Isople. Only a few of the
sa Calling themoelves libsrels and intellectualz and the se either without interest or unable to evaluate can
obvious aeally support public authority in this case.
In th' oontsott of tbo hidden provisions of tbo secret contracts, I again draw attention to Jorry
Ray'a ststoments that anount to charges against Poreten. I asked again how Fors:man got the case. His
_,J-t should be corsidared alons with the se secret records of no fleaoins of his brothsr in the name of
dofending him. Jerry is ezplicit. I cannot prove h3 is ish. the resdar can decido who.thsr is is or seeno to
be. This is what Jsrry wrote ma August 2, 1969:
.1 was constantly after Jamas to fire Arthur Fanas on account of I know he vas ropresentins Euie
instead of James. Without Jamas' consant I called Percy FOreman in Co -tuber of.65'and asked hire if he
would take the ease. Percy Foremen said ha would. I
' in return told Jsmos about it, and he said he didn't want Foreman in It as ns wos satisfied at the
present with. Arthur Hanes. I flow down to Hartoell, Ala., on ths first of Fovember to see 'lure. Aftor ray
visit with him, I knsu for sure that James needed another lawyar, so I celled Prace-en again, Foreman told
no to have Jones to write aim a letter roqusstins hire to coma down. 1 in return told Janos that; I had
talked to Foramon and he would coma down and take Aio case if he would write him a letter. Still, Jot:as
refused to write Forerun a letter raquosting his coning down, Ti;.. was sunning out, so just a for: days
bofore.tho trial, I call;,... FesyForsman and asked hin to msot no in hOsophis, HO agreod to ovsn the ugh
Jsmos hadnt raquastod him to eoms down.
v b_
John 'and I rest Percy Foroman at tha airport and went straight to a motel. Parcy.Foraman
wantedto look ova-2 the
oos.
ttnt
hsd with Arthur Fsnos glO Tuis. I shosod
him tha oestrssts and hs asid they could ho broksn. Thsn ws ctllod a ssb and wort to ths Shs1by COurty
jsil.
rsports wors wrong, as John or I wasn't prsssnt whsn Eoroy lotomsn tslksd to ssmas, A gusrd by
the nsms of Osp3in Smith took Poromsn up to Jsmas' cell wbile John and I wssitod
cnT72 0,,n
hondwrittsh-nots from Jsmss rscuestitg that ha vsntsd Arthur Haras do nothing further in his
bsbalf and that ha wishsd to employ Percy Foreman to rspresent him.
So that's
Forsmanot into the cass, and I feel guilty
as hell, as if it wasn't for ma hs would nover have euployed
Percy Forsman.
It is the height of impropriety for a lolryor to spesk to another lawyer's client without advance
roquest from the client. From this rssord, it sssms as the ugh Foreman did just that, which is the charge
Hshes rakso sgsinst him. In this case, as hhsw Jamss Earl Ray did not want
unless Jerry lies. I
believe ha is truthful about this.
PerharS the sshsming and ranipulations of Ray's "defenders" do
not constituto a sonspirsoy against hiM, ',Shay could not bstter have suscesdsd in th: purposes of
such a conspirasy had they consciously sonnivsd, howevsr, for to3sthsr, thsy framed }.T their
commercial. interssts
wore enough to motivate all of thsm, and ,he pursuit of the bucks thsy could gst through using him was all
they needed. Flit hs r Ramsey Clark PO?" J. Edgar .7ooVsr nor any ons elss had to roach out and draw the
m close, whispsr in thsir ears. Whsther or not anybne aid really mskes no differonos. The result is the
same. If thsrs had been such a contpiracy , who is there to prosscuts it, with all the se who could either
involved
Coup d'Etat, Part II
or its benofisiariss?
If Ray is not guilty of ths murdsr itself, who vas thsre to defend him ergespt the so
hired at
thsir own terms, so generou3 to than? Could ha hsys given thenrars than 100 psroont? (Ana mightit not be
asked, could their lusts bs sated with nothing less, not even a. fow peonies for Pin and the se in his
fardlyWho tried to kelp him?)
Ho had Hu:to, the estsblishsd, rsspeotsd writor who could command a wido sudienoe, and
through him and ths nortssl commsrcial intsrsts thst are mors sucosssful than high prinsipls in publicizing
books and othsr uritings, hs could e:spsot. and hs gotts very 1srge audiehos. For what? Euis's
insistcnoe.on his .singular guilt.
1T-sic ssuld not hays asses Sed tha available evidonse and concludsd it estsblishss Rsy as the
msrdsrsr or the lone murdsrsr. It proves othsrwiss. T..; doss psrsuado he had to `o °s hod an involvsmsnt.
It nest strongly suggests his role was that of a decoy, with Vas purposo of leading pursuit sway from tha
ma?. killer. ;'hsthsr or nst Jsmas Earl Ray is , a racist, whsthsr or not hs was conscious of his role, this is a
sufficiently invidious part for him to h. _e playsd in ons of ths nero vicious crimas. Prom ths evidonee,
itwould seem hs had to have known he
uas boing ss-, up as a dosoy. It rsquirsd little imagination to undsrs stand for whst purpose or who
would i.. tha victim. ThAs is
terribls
thing for a men to hays dohs, snd for ithe should be punished. Put only in strietsst.conformity
with ths law, only for what ho alone did,
toe whnt ha didnst dosor for what another did.
Writers of nonsfiotion assuma obligations no. lc-as significant in a society calling itself frss, no
less saorsd, than. lawysrs.' Psrhaps it is bscauss I have scent so many yssra, suit. long and
rewarding yosrs, seeking ths truth abot thsss politioal murders that,
ns a writer, s may view Hui:Os unfaithfulnsss to our calling moro harshay then othsrs. 3o t
unfaithful ha has basil and is. It waS his solfs sppointsd task and his oohtrastsd obligation. to amiss,
prsssnt and asssss the evldoneo. . Thla means the evidsnos he could gsts It was his trust to do more
thsn boil the rot, stewing out more dollsrs.thst he COG p. it.with. Es nsver.hsd any such intsntion. Tis
would buy whst ,ha ascusod had to esy and thsn, with his own infallibls literary Codsight,
0I't:,.d,s:dn vi'm'd the co.n.otion Hoy vast the
C;
f Z17 r ouoht:did hove loon.. .fo no othor, and had
1it
solis ,
m.d.dve faced finin.cidl disactsr, for 1
gii.t.
"wokin title, "Tbs
of the
so-ioa,00 d,
nillod the x,
n, hhe murdor ers. - H s
,
.
-o.
.
ln-L;O
guilty did Kt:is change his title and his conept. But it nover ohahgod oo for os Bay's sullt of
mu2dor i.e conoor4od, anA Huis was, as hs know, Rayls hired dofendor, the mdu upon whom Hay
dopsndod for the prssontation of whstevor evidence there vas contrary to the charga of murder against
him. Hnowing this, and knowing his corn fis:ed belief that Ray
was the murderer, it was dish? _t of him to accept this rosponsibility.
Bs sought ani adoeptsd it because of his Godly conoept of self and.boosus3 the lure of -the money he
could make was too gr3at.
By contract, Huie
d available all that Hanes learned. Vary early, Hgin: s learned enough to
cast great doubt on the indictmnt. Add-in this to whot ha. could have piokcd up in the newspapers, as` I
did, Hu e had :tors ovidcnc3 than th3 minimum to satisfy himself and b3 potential sudisnoe that the
charge of murder could not be, custainod in op= court.
It is, of course, possible for a non to commit a murder and for it not to he poosibls to prova it in
op= court beyond r3asonablo dont and. to a morol c3rtainty. Wh3n this happens, it is the-obligatiOn of
Coup d'Etat, Part II
the honeot writ3r to show it did happen, prove there is a case with evidence cot admissible in court.
Writers need not risen the legal requir3-mont. This, hewevor, Huic did. not do, did not even try to do, d'ia
substituted his own judgment for foot without at any time getting into t4s crots; of the evidence, the ss
thipss we have. analyzed in this book, likethe medical and ballistics fact, the depsnddhility of the
witnesses, what they did and did not sso. Without the most serious study of this evidence, it ..:e not
possible ton an honest writor to reks a judgment.
So, Et:is, did not study and report the evidence and its nesning.
Had hs, he would have lost his potentially profitable commercial trdets psrhhps even his standing
and his future ability to sell what
writos.
If he lead sat down with Hoover and Candle and done their bidding, ha could not more
offeotively have Cons for t`!'....4 what-thsy might have ached of 'S_.__. H3 sorved the purposes of any
conspiracy with government against the accused.
In this, Hanes was a perfect partn3r.
Pacts cannot be condemned for his willingness to defend KluNers, for that is his duty as e lawyer.
But when his willingness to undertake such a dzfErhs is bracTketed with his oarcor as segrogetiodist
mayor of Birmingham at the time of the greatest black sufforin that city,
1?'_. '^ hs was responsible for a police chiof with so brutal
racist record and In his name
that chief turned vicious dogs against black humane, it is not unfair to conoludsthat Hanes, too, Is a racist.
Thsrsfors, ha Croamed up a racist conclusion to ths murder, that blacks had perpetrated it. This falsity, for
which there is no evidence at all, no Ioglo to support it, either, achieved wide and porsisting acceptanes,
in itself as- evil a thing as anything Hanes or any othsr participant in this dohAa2: of justico did. D3fonsd
ofy his chant did not require proving who
committsd ths crime. race-ely requirsd proving the case against him
vas not provon, Yet r^ made up a fiotion sorving the same purposos
as the murder its3lf and publicized it. This Is a formula so crippling to the defence that, in court, h ray
viall have failed when the prosecution. case woo eAwh he should net have.
With his preconcoptions, with this formula as with his other, Gron-si7s,ilo formula,
nss was
a walking, talking racist entrsmist adjunot of ths prossoution and the fadsrsl goornmont, especially Hoover
(who ha went so far cut of his way in his Look ar)iolo to praise, for —oh
ths work of the 731 in this case),
bait foos''17ano,:,„
Twi
oirotos.peotion,
r000adsd, with oo witheot connivanoo from Kulto lotoh
onto 7sjority it.ttros% in Ray's litorary and nevie va luc
_.
o.
wos
williog, for menoy, to roprooent, both. himself ond Ray in the osoie doal. Rey wound 2 with
notMng, - none of the case ond no oompetont Iogol dofonoo.
.Ol,othof o_ noO K.,io „loSod Oho', oion.i.inoo poosib.1 h..
.,tt approve, or p3rhapo ho' lei_
'J. for that ot-ro hunh for himsolf - he was and hao been oilent about this 6oal, in which h was the vital
spark,
ot took everything, from Ray and gavo hie nothn: no legal dofenoo.o,
110 pnlic, litorary defonso.
Onoe gain, no cone olouoly plotted conspirooy could have been ..o-^a effoctivo. Hanes and Hui..,
soparately and togoth3r, served the purposes a doliborated con.spiracy would have, served.
Percy the Croot.iisroat. He is, wIthout doubt, one of the cost competent, ono Of the noable,
imngln.otivo and suocossful of all trial lawyors. With this lc _.l brillio.noo, ho blends and projects an
image of 'purity and simplicity, like that of the otoried tnilkaid.. ho swosot country girl (Ivor sg,uoozod
and pulled a toot like ?oroy Foromon. He.io th.3 losal milkor who drad.nod the udder and than hickod the
; cew, smiling all t-. whllo, a swoot, uhca000mo whllooalling the cOw barren,
If
is possible to conclude that the real 2oroy Foreman, the
Coup d'Etat, Part II
monegubbr the woman-to:nor, the warohoueo-stockor, the poopleofleecor, noedod no oth3r motivo for
what he did, that is not enough.. Ho also know the con000pnonoca of what ha did. Ho could riot have
boliovod he was saving, Ra-;Is lifo, and i.e could soot have: caned the prosecution c1°?, £.& ho voo
Istorto .say ho did - sayins also that it woe all public, all in
the pop ors -• and belioved the was any real proopoot that, in
;hi. t,
. Ray would hays been olootroouted. Ho had no reason to believe Ray would hove been
convicted., not If Foromon, in th.e oourtrools, did as Foreman could.
Wh.nIFororson. said, as he did on the Dick Caeott oho;, that the ' evidenoo againot Ray hod been
publish_. in full,
aloo aid that the
evidonco osainst Roy is no.moo and no moro substantial than we have just soon. That does not survive
tha oritical os;ominotion of a lone writor. Gould it poosibly have.withstoo ono of the se brilliant courtroom performonoes of the truly groat trial lawyor, this rool-lifo Porry RToson?
It could notForeman either did not know the evidoncp, whoh is crIninol enough, or ho did hnow itwhich is
more criminal. Father way, hio is. a guilty cc:?.; So. the more so because it.is so inconsistont for hits and
with his long and Inorodibly su00000ful rocord, so often asainot groat-or odds end subotontial ovidenoe,
Substantial witnoosos.
Suppeco it could he proven that Foroeon had mot secretly in some dark bnckroom somowhor3
with Hoover, Cl' Clark, or (lanalo, or anyone spooking for any of the m? What could be t:non have do ..e
that could., in any way, havo bettor ouitod their dociros, c:aro compotoly sorvod the end of ony conocious
conspiracy':
Therc is nothing hacouad have done, nothing that bettor suited the only pozoiblo purposo of a
oorepiraoy agoinot his client (which I repeat :18 also a oonopilaoy ogainet the law, against justioc,
againot
the national honor and any gnuino, rational concept of national soc=ty)
Ouco, for whotovor purp000, Feromhn hornowogglod Ray into plosding Guilty, he got evory pObIlo official off the hook. Hoovorls unholiovablo incompetenoo suddonly booamo r:orvolous
policowork, Clark's spontanoouo broken-record roitoration of no conopirooy”, hegltuing the day after the
=odor ond novor ending, the rowith b000me politiool and legal wiodom,; or:6 the reoconspiraoy pooturo
of govorrnent was, for to firot time, oustained in oour'o. That. i.emphis mimicry of an Inyostigation, oo
o6ont it got loss the n would bo inteotod in the sorlore invoetigotion of the ntreor of a 5_.._' G,. dorelict
and vas so mt,oh loos than was spent on keeping
C:eeoelie .sep:sesse
C __7 , as le eet.ld
withou euc:beh, tas hidden,
and :ksep
wes juetifl;ed.
:'tke no mistake shoot this, it was impertent to lemphie, to :rem-phis officislom, ::em__..is
business, to the 'siemphis pride nd co_._. __.nee.
thie theretis the nest competent auhoity, the late Judge- . Bttie tbe tirtisoi -i: to ee Se-s, Ass,
of the minitra, he hed a few choice comments in self- and iletTihisjustifioaticn (T.102ff):
.. I don't propose to keep us are much Ionge, but I. think that the Court should make a few
remark.s at this plaee tho
proceedings.
The fact was recOgnized soon after this tragic murder'took place that there wesne possible
ce,nclualen to the case which would satisfy .everybody. And it ..as doidnd at that time that the only
thingthe judge' who drew the un.lu.eky number, which was ma, could do Was to try this case ae nearly as
possible like all other cases aad totscrupulously follow the law and the dictates of his own conscience. I
feel I have dons. this.
This is not'word-for-.wood with the Blair tranceript, but the sense is identical. Perhaps the official
reporterimproVed the judge's memors.ble word.s that proved to be his epii;aphKc.emphis has been blamed for the death of Dr. King, to me, wrongfully and Irrationally Keither
the decedent nor his ki:llor lived here and their orbits merely intoreacted here.
There followed his justification of the. dccl on the grounds there world not have, been on
Coup d'Etat, Part II
eloctroeution anyway and may have been en acquittal.
I cannot let this occasion p.-se without paying tribute to Ken-phis, Southern America and
Weeterm free world justice and security which was 'truly a tears effort involving scores and even hund;aads of persons . the police departments of Canada, of 'ns.sice, of
Portugal, of England, of the
the local police, the State
of Tennessee., the ehseriff's offisos
Itr. Charles solves, the
sheriff's office liaison with the hews media and finally amici curiae committee. ..e and if I have
overlooked anyone I want cs-pec.islly to thank them too.
That is nice, epeeial thanks for these he conk: not recall. Ac-cording to Blair's transcript, not the
judge but the court reperter did "overloo Eome In the Blair ereion, the first. thanked is the FI
no.wt th.o Department. of Justee. Kothing unfair abou eiter, especially with this "as nesrly as possible like
all other psses and so sorupulout a folic:wing of the law.
This coo, J, nor no one else, h.-nets whet the future will .bring, but I s.ubmit that up to now we
heve not den., too bdly here fop a "decadent rivel. town"
Jf I Ley be permitted .a. light, touch to a solemn ooeasioh 'I would like to parosphraee. the. great .
nd eloquent Winston Churchill, who, in defient reply to an Ards threat that they were going to wring
Erglsndls neck like: a chicken, said, "Soma chicken, some neck."
I would like to reply to our 1,:emphis critic, "Some river, some town"
Is there anything else?
Can there be "anything else" after such soaring, C'.ourchillian elociushi W'hat could possibly
follow so appropriate peroration?
For an iconoclastic writer, one thing:: Q.E.D, guodprat demonwhat was to be demonstrated.
This role, too, Foreman filled, as as less an euthority'rhea
Ju
B
dge ettie
is sci (T.10), foss the 731, the Department of Suet-ice, all
1-ksmphis officieadom and the others see may have oerlooked, altheuhe seems to have included
everyone.
,i.t, mohoo
differenoo so lay, if ch at all, or to
or to__ o o anLtionil honor and intogoity, or the rderer still froo ono
his
r acoomplioes uoknoon ond also fre, whether Foremen totuolly
sat dooi ond.ogrood to do what ha did at the biddins ond in the inter-sot of othsro, for the result i.e.the same. 3 with a3 with Hanoo, a!! with then oollectivoly.
.1.t, it O000 not.wear on whetner oo not there was a talkingoott of mho?: would. appen, aa soon
cs the crime mas comMitted, which would be. o conspiracy, thhurchillian judge,. if that is whot he was,
did address this.. Ee d9say, ''And it was decidod at that time that the only thing the judge mho drew the
unlucky number, which was me, could do ...' So, Offici&ls did_ of together and plan ahead, sort out what
they would and would not oo, what they walitad to hopoen, 1ittle.things lihe.that.
Only, ely did th3 good judge have. to embroil the guiltless _?"is-.
I mould like to believe it possiblo something might be done about all this and the denial of justice
in which it ended, a denial
to 'the accused who by it was convicted, to the country, to the se. ..lose . to and followers of the
martyred victim.
Unless something Ls_ done, the honor the nation, already debased by everything last happened in
the Presidential murder, its official investigation and. official treatment of the se unwilling to accept the
holed-up verdict of the eminenees, mill not soon recover.
As in earlier writing, again I ask, when me have a differett President, does the government suffer
Coup d'Etat, Part II
a crisis in credibility? I answer with a question,. could it have earned discredit more? Can anyone, here or
abroad, trust government when government plays such. unseemly gat.,_ with justice
d history, so
abuses the law and. all democratic
cone-opts?
The trial vas a Shelby County triol in form only. The entire case, the invootigation and the
doctrine, the "solutlon, more fedora l.
hone as have the failure of all Of society, however, not just of govornment:
The lawyers wore all the most commercial, 'with the interests of juotioe and the accused
sublimhted to their own uninhibited lust for money. Eotoept Co:: the new
co
c:_. .. oounsel,
Stoner, mho is so
muchvorto, the ugh he believes his fascism, and is With moro oinlster conflicto, b000neo his can peopleplotted the murder of King as they did co the Presdent.
The pre:es, which in soma cases did sook out the fact, contents itself with jlctioc it hnoms is
injustioe, and, with the piety of the psoudoindignotion of the editcrial.page,diwises its abandonment of
the responsibilities of a free profs in e fr oocioty It is silent mhon an hon3st press cannot be.
The associations of lames, at least some of whom must read some of the papers I raadand quote,
had to know of some of the shady dealings. As when the. looecident was murdered end' the accused mas
sysematically and Openly denied all of his rights, and when a Report intelligent non cannot credit .._.s pal
mad off on all of us, they, toe, preserved the unoeemly silonoe of the cowardly, preferring the security
and avoidance of criticism so bought.
The blaok:s and their leaders, all self-blackmailing and huMble. . They should be afire, seeking
vangoahoo, the rurdersni a:ad his fellow conspirators; rooting coot the se traitors to our lams and
traditions who mode this. frightful and frightening mlsoorriago possible. They assure the ottoopt and
sueoecs of future politicol
r,riero of which they and
their frionds will be the victims.1:.o.t of their silence? Is it loss
dishonorable Or more when the y say there was a conspiracy to kill their moat popular loador and failed,
from the first, to produoe their sons to unmosk it and refueed,then and since, to help their white brothers
501,
me
the effort?
d,
-Lllee refuso to e. spend to lotters from the se zcekintz the truth they fail to seeb:'?
it not seem thety are oostent with.'thc foul murder' of their own and all it sym'solis,ae bccansc it
maes pessible the slitde o2 oticer leaders,
. ms,n: who mould not otherise have th:) cheemr:e by this murdar settirs it?
hoe: cqually silent they .arc whcn he is defamed by his eneety whp is . their sneiert sre-T: 7t
the 7n.flie:ndble; the: ale othlTh't
pick up the delieerately.-laid trail of a petty t'e. the men who Is responsiblo for this ne4 rame-up
of than and of justice to the:m.1
.
Can better be Lai of. the se who sad they .,,.:+. paace.and re mute at the unsolved murder
of their broher, as they were and are at the unsolved murder of the Pre .... nt who ohaned his course
toward peace and only than. uos murdered'3
. Hare wo .1.e7e fact opposite to what is IsEally ordained as
fac-t-_o ceesplete abandonment of everythins held dear; the prostitution of thee courts, the
dcbassment of j!Jtica, the framinz of man an with him, of theor of thee pst and. the prospect of the future;
Coup d'Etat, Part II
jp0arsay
to the frcodom C. all
theose who have it and the se
from all of society there is nuuGh bnt
Tao awful crime' of silenc
0 ocoh it
end