Sweet-Talking Percy [4]

Published Jan 24, 2022, 8:01 AM

Famous criminal lawyer Percy Foreman talks his way in by telling Ray that his will be the easiest case he ever argued. Then, at the last moment, he informs Ray that he must plead guilty. Was Foreman working for someone offstage?

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Welcome to the MLK Tapes, a production of I Heart Radio and Tenderfoot TV. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are solely those of the podcast author or individuals participating in the podcast, and do not represent those of I Heart Media, Tenderfoot TV, or their employees. Listener discretion is advised. We had witness statements, outlines of arguments. I mean, we had a complete ready file. He came through Birmingham and we offered him that file. We offered to sit down with him, We offered to outline our defense with him, to give him the witness state, every everything that we had. All he wanted to do, and all we did was feeding steak and scotch whiskey at the club in Birmingham and hear him ramble on about what a fabulous lawyer he was. Truth of the matter is, Percy Form was the biggest fraud and blow hard I ever encountered in over fifty years of practicing law. I saw absolutely no evidence, ever, either directly or second hand, of any inclination or willingness on his part to defend that case as it should have been defended. I called the Union Hall. I said, it's a matter of life and death. I said, I think these people of planning to kill Dr King. The authorities were parade. Oh, we found a gun that James L. Ray bought in Birmingham that killed Dr King. Except it wasn't the gun that killed Dr King. James Lvy was upon or the official story from my Heart radio intended for TV. The plan was to get King to the city because they wanted it handled in Memphis for dead in them could hamon and I've lived with us alone, monsieur, and they skied for me. The Lord told me to not the word. I've been wanting to tell it all my life. I'm Bill Claybury and this is the MLK tapes, speaking from experience. When one tries to open a conversation about who shot Martin Luther King, if the person you're talking to knows anything at all about the case, they immediately come back with but the guy said he did it, And the answer to that is a patient no he didn't. He always denied it, but of course James Earl Ray did in the end plead guilty. So how did that plea come about? And what does it tell us about the murder? As we heard in the last episode. Arthur Haynes Junior and Senior were criminal defense attorneys who came to represent James Earl Ray, the man accused of killing Martin Luther Kane. Ray was an escaped con He had been in Memphis that day and there did seem to be some connection between him and the murderer, Dr. King. But despite all the public posturing by the prosecution, Ray's attorneys were surprised to find that the actual case against Ray was weak. It seemed to them that the connection to the murder was that their client had been set up. They investigated, interviewed witnesses, and worked on the case for four months. As the trial approached, they thought they had good chances for an acquittal. Then the night before the trial was to begin, they were handed a note that said they had been removed from the case. Why did Foreman push his way into the case? Did you ever wonder about that? Did we ever wonder why and how Foreman got in the case? Only every day from that day until the day my father died. When I sat down with Ark Haynes Jr. In Birmingham, he tried to explain how famous criminal defense attorney Percy Foreman had pushed them aside, there were pressure points. How to pay for the defense was one of them. Ray had no money, and Haines father and son could not afford to work for nothing and pay all the costs of the defense. As well. Haines knew a successful investigative writer named William Bradford Huey, who was also from Alabama and who was interested in writing about the King murder. Huey's books included The Americanization of Emily, The Execution of Priva Slavik, and The Revolt of Mami Stover, all of which were made into movies. He also wrote Wolf Whistle, the story of the murder of the young Emmett Till, and Three Live from Mississippi, which told of the murders of the three civil rights workers in Nashoba County. The forward to this book was written by Martin Luther King. No one at the time knew what the real story was with Ray and King, but Hughey sense there was a book there and possibly a movie, and he was willing to put money up front to get access money that was needed to fund the defense of James Earl Ray two Art Haynes. It seemed like a promising offer and he brought it to James William Bradford hue the author who was writing for Look magazine, whom we had encouraged Ray to hire. Because Hughie was was a noted uh anti George Wallace, he was in the middle of a series of articles for Esquire, he had every credential being in DUCTR. King's camp, and he was from Alabama and close to us, so we we encouraged him to hire Hughie Haines Sr. Brought a deal to Ray where in simple numbers, Ray would receive of whatever Huey's books and articles brought in, Hughie would get and Haynes Judge Preston Battle would not permit anyone besides his attorneys and his immediate family to visit it or talked to Ray. So the arrangement was made for Hughie to submit questions to Ray and for Ray to write out his answers in Longhand. All that summer I had carried questions from Hughie to Ray and raise handwritten answers back to Hughie. We had facilitated that all two hundred pages of Ray's answers to Hughie's questions have been preserved and make for an interesting read if you can decipher Ray's handwriting. It's the same story Ray has told before of his prison break and is moving about the country at the direction of a man named Raoul. Hughie took these notes and actually traced race travels and found the people Race that he had worked for or met along the way. The one exception was Raoul. This was not surprising because Ray didn't know Raoul's last name, his address, or even if Raoul was his real first name. Race spent a great deal of time writing these pages, and at first he was satisfied with how his attorneys were going about things, but not everyone was. I suppose we were naive and that we thought we were lawyers hired to defend a murder case and that's what we were doing. There were all kinds of reported witness hangers on and people involved who wanted to be a part of it. Well. Jerry Ray was one of those. He wanted to come to Birmingham and have us support him and let him be part of the defense. Truthfully, we didn't have time for that. We were trying to manage our practice at the same time get that case ready for trial, and we just didn't have time or inclination to food Jerry Ray. We were polite but not responsive to that. But Jerry Raid did get himself involved. He visited James in prison, his attorneys in Birmingham and author William Bradford, Huwey and Huntsville, and he was also in touch with a certain attorney in Texas who had soon arrived in Memphis. According to everyone close to the case, James Earl Ray very much wanted to go to trial. As Jerry Ray would say, he didn't kill King, and he wanted his chance to prove it in court. He need but this is where the trouble started. James imagined a trial where he would be able to tell his story, where he, James Earl Ray, would be able to look the jurors in the eye and have them believe that he did not shoot Martin Luther King. But Arthur Haynes Senior was an experienced attorney and he knew that great danger awaited a defendant when he took the witness stand, especially if the defendant had, like Ray, a long record of criminal conduct that the prosecution could explore in great detail until less pretty much all the jury would remember as they concluded that such an outlaw should get what he deserved. So, as Arthur Haynes explains, they were not ready to promise Ray that he would take the stand. Our view of it was that we wouldn't know whether Ray was gonna testify or need to testify until the end of the state's case. Obviously, if he had testified, that would have killed the value of Hughey's connection to him. This is how Jerry Ray saw it. On Whomber firston making is sistime, I blew out in the heart build Alabama and talked to you, you take my way down because he want another contact beside the journey. So he was showing these contracts and so I told he hope. He said only again, and now you go back and tell James. He's not about to understand. He doesn't go. So I went back and told James you on the phone hand because when he's running stas So with a little help from brother Jerry, James began to fear that the case was not being pursued with his best interests in mind. He wanted to testify, and it seemed that Huey and his book was now standing in the way. And then the weekend before his trial was to begin, he received a visit from a famous Texas lawyer named Percy Foreman. Foreman was six foot four and weighed two hundred and fifty pounds, and had a huge reputation to go with it. He had grown up poor in the wiles of East Texas, quit school when he was fifteen, and made something of himself because he had an agile mind and a quick tongue. He put himself through law school and came out ready for bear. He had a knack for talking in a way that juries liked, and he was especially good at representing people accused of murder. In his forty years a criminal law he claimed to have represented over one thousand of those. Only one, as the story goes, was ever executed, and according to Foreman, only sixty six of the thousand spent even a day in jail. The more obviously guilty, the easier it seemed for him to get them off for a price. He was hated by the prosecutors he faced, and also hated by his clients when they felt the most vulnerable, as when he could have them sign over every asset they had. I don't represent wealthy clients, he once said, if they aren't poor when they come to me, they are when they leave. Foreman had been talking to Jerry Ray, so he knew all the right buttons to push. He told James that Haynes should not have made a deal like that with Hughie. Who is Hughie to give advice to his attorney based on what might or might not be good for a book. Foreman talked about all the famous people he knew in all the cases he had won, and how James's case would be the easiest one he ever argued, and added to that, Foreman said that unlike the Haines defense team, he was wealthy, wealthy enough to move forward without any literary contracts, and they'd figure out how to pay his fee after the trial. But for a retainer, he had James sign over the title to his Mustang and the Remington thirty six that he purchased in Birmingham, the one that was said to have killed King. Here's Ray for King jail the same made. He told me that if I would just miss things and are him, he wouldn't get involved in literary contrast, he financed trow trows over and he would get used to be then, so I agreed, and I signed some time and paper decade just missing Haynes and all right him well. On one of the national herring for the trial work, Foreman promised Batting would get involved any litter contracts. At that time, I didn't know he was negotiating with Hie to think for Hayes interesting to contract and said that at that time so Foreman's big promise to Ray was the case would not be driven by literary contracts, that he Foreman was rich enough to defend Ray without them. But a week after he had taken over the case, Foreman and Huie for Luncheon dallas Key described that meeting in his book he slew the dreamer quote Mr Foreman, like my three way contract. All he wanted was for Mr Haynes to get out of the way so he could have what Mr Haynes had. So you get Haynes out of the way, he said, and then god damn it, get to work and write us a good book, make us a good movie, and make us some money. I didn't think him myself. And then subsequently, in January of nineteen six nine, he came up there with a literary contract. Yes idea, and I signed in fair Way third. Yes, signed a literary contracts A thing I got to go to him. The contracts that Foreman had Ray signed on January nine and February three essentially stripped Ray of every remaining asset he had or might have. So why did he sign them? As Ray would explain later, Foreman had come to see him in late January saying the case was going very well, but he needed to bring in another attorney, John J. Hooker, and that was going to cost money. So Ray, not really having a choice, signed everything over to Foreman. Now, a Foreman had been telling the truth about representing from the start that a plea bargain was their only option, there would have been no reason for Ray to enter into these contracts. So as late as February three, Foreman was saying that they were going to trial and things were looking good. But just ten days later, after Foreman had plucked his client clean, as Bradford Huey would describe it, Foreman came back with bad news where he had to plead guilty. Now, I want to think we're thirteen. He came into prisiness Jerman Heart Danton, and he uh suggested a human playing, he says, and there's me and don't in thankfully and well anyway, when he came back to see me next time, he was talking about he said they might prosecute my brother Jerry rag and expiracing words and also he said they might be pressed my father James brother Jerry tells the same story a forman's about face and the first before we gave it said it's little busy because he's I read a lot, I erst whoever they are followed it and he did that up until uh a month before the Guildy plays that he started cries that they're gonna acute and they're going to do this, but so Jade fans to read me paiously little problem nyway and it would resigned. At this point, James Earl Ray was boxed in. He was stuck with Foreman, and Foreman refused to perform. He kept telling Ray that the prosecution wanted to turn him into barbecue form his word. Then he told Ray that if he insisted on going to trial, they would put his father and brother in jail. When Ray said he still wanted to trial, Foreman said flat out that he wouldn't defend him. He didn't feel up to it. Here is an interchange between Bill Pepper and Jerry Ray at the nine civil trial, not invisibly. He told me to the last my sier he still had made up the money he's still to fight doing for and he he told he told me that foreman told him if he did both of my hand and my John Earl back in the twenties, and is both charged me being the assessed of the word, I'm pretty sure you left, Jerry. That's certainly the James little Ray Black versus Forman got all about. This is the day of a letter Archer that m March Watson Arch nine, nineteen fifty and when is it going to be played here? Uh? Right, right right? I was right, was March following that this is a letter from his council on the eve of trop and this letter offers you offers hand five hundred dollars. What conditions was the over five hundred dollars we have abdybe played to the lea built embarrassment in coort and it was agreed with We understand that five hundred dollars was to be taking the higher a new lawyer and her decided a sad Yet this agreement signed the day before Ray entered his guilty plea as a strange document. Foreman signs on for a fee of a hundred and sixty five thousand dollars if such is produced by books for movies, and Ray is handed five dollars. The purpose of the five hundred is not stated in the contract, but according to both James and Jerry, it was so Ray could go find a lawyer to overturn the plea, as if five dollars could accomplish such a thing. But Ray is to get the five hundred only if he meets to conditions. He enters a plea of guilty of murder in the first degree, and he doesn't make a scene of any kind at the proceeding. And that's what unfolds. Are you leading murder in the place degree in this case because you killed Dr Martin lives the king under sex secumstances, it would make you legally guilty. But in the place degree under the law is explained to you by your lawyer. Ray's answer was barely audible on the recording system used by the court. What he said was quote yes, legally guilty. According to attorney Mark Lane, who would later represent Ray, Ray told him that when Foreman was using every kind of argument to put him into a plea. Ray blurted out that he didn't want to plead guilty because he hadn't shot king. Doesn't matter, replied Foreman. If you were involved in any kind of illegal activity with those who did, you are legally guilty. You are as guilty as the man who pulled the trigger. Foreman was referring to the concept of felony murder, where if three people say agree to rob a store, and they all agree that no one is to be heard, but something goes wrong and one man pulls a gun and kills the store clerk, all three men are legally guilty of the murder. Most states have such laws, though it is far from clear that such a concept would apply in a case where one man is purposely deceived about the crime and brought along only for the purpose of taking the blame. But Foreman's little lesson was most likely how the phrase legally guilty became part of raise plea. After the plea was entered, Ray's attorney, Percy Foreman, was invited to speak. He stood up and addressed the court. This is what he had to say. It's an honor to appear in this court. I never expected or had any idea when I entered this case that I would be able to accomplish anything except perhaps save the defendant's life. All of us, all of you, were as well informed as I was about the facts of this case, due to the fact that we have such an effective news media. Took me a month that convinced myself of that which the Attorney General of the United States and Jed Grohover of the FBI announced last July that there was no conspiracy. After that bit of self congratulations from Percy Foreman, Ray asked Judge Battle if he might say something. The judge agreed, and I'll read a slightly edited version of what followed Ray. I don't want to change anything that I have said. I don't want to add anything onto it either. The only thing I have to say is I don't exactly accept the theories of Mr Clark. In other words, I'm not bound to accept the theories of Mr Clark. This is an aside. But Percy Foreman, who had just referred to Attorney General of the United States, doesn't know who Ray is speaking about, so he asked, who is Mr Clark? Ray Ramsey Clark Foreman Oh Ray and Mr Hoover Foreman Mr who Ray, Mr j Edgar Hoover. I'm not trying to change anything. I just want to add something onto it. Judge Battle, you don't agree with those theories, Ray, I mean on the conspiracy thing. There is a bit of cross talk, and no one seems inclined to ask Ray what it is he's trying to say. Judge Battle then asks if he is still pleading guilty to first degree murder, and Ray says that he is. It was a short, tense moment. Ray had gone off script, but he hadn't cost a huge scene, so he would still get his five dollars. Three days after recording his guilty plea, James Earl Ray wrote to Judge Preston Battle and asked to have the plea overturned and allow him to go to trial. A few days later, he wrote again asking for the same thing. It was not clear how Judge Battle was going to rule on raised petitions. Often, in the interests of justice, such petitions are granted. But before Battle could make a decision, he was found slumped over his desk, dead from an apparent heart attack, and according to various accounts, Battle was slumped over raised petitions on which he was to rule. A new judge replaced Battle, and he didn't allow Ray to reopen the case. So Ray was led off to prison no trial. But Percy Foreman's statement at the end of the trial is curious. If Foreman was so certain that Ray had to plead guilty, why did he connive to get himself into the case, And what was all this talk about the easiest case I've ever argued? Did you ever feel that you could ever do more than save his life? Never had any time, and so told him from the day I came here, and he never expected anything else from the first and I never expected to accomplish this. This statement by Percy Foreman, made out on the street after race so called trial, is most certainly a lie, and a big one. Foreman says here that he told Ray on the first day that they met, that his only hope was to plead guilty and take a life sentence. But if that were true, why would Ray need to change lawyers. Haines father and son already possessed a plea offer from the prosecution, as art Hands revealed to me when we spoke, we ever offered a plea bargain. Oh, absolutely, we were offered a better deal that he took. I think there was a little anxiety on the part of the prosecution is to the strength of the case. Haines said that the deal they had been offered was better than the one Ray finally had to settle for. But it was better only in that it allowed him an earlier date from which he would be eligible for parole. Not much of a difference, because no one was going to let the convicted murderer of Martin Luther King out on parole. But if Ray wished to take a guilty plea in exchange for life in prison, he already had that. He didn't need the services of some fancy outside lawyer. But Ray wasn't thinking plea bargain. He was thinking trial, and he went with Foreman because Foreman says his would be an easy case to win. So why was Foreman now saying that he had always told Ray that his only chance was to plead guilty. Some insights into this are provided by the House Select Committee on Assassinations, which published a deposition of Foreman pursuant to a lawsuit brought by Ray concerning the representation he received attorney James Lassar asked Foreman exactly what he had done on behalf of his client. Did he hire an investigator? Foreman said he hadn't. Then how did he investigate the case? Foreman fumbled about and then said he hired six or eight Memphis Law School students who worked for him. What did he ask them to do? Foreman couldn't quite remember now? What were their names? He couldn't remember that either. Well, surely their names could be found on their pace ups. Foreman said they had been paid in cash. Well, where would their work product be Foreman didn't know, but he probably had it somewhere. Foreman then said he owned eighty vacant houses which were all filled with his case records, but he kept no list of what was where. Foreman did say he interviewed some witnesses, but he couldn't say where the records of this might be found. And so it went. But from these questions and answers, it became apparent that Percy Foreman had nothing to show that he had done any work on behalf of his client, James Earl Ray. When Percy Foreman appeared before the House Select Committee, he was asked if he had ever compared notes with Ray's previous attorneys. Did you ever consult with Mr Haynes, who had also reviewed the evidence, to see whether he agreed with you? Did you ever consult with with Arthur Haynes? Well? I went to Birmingham from Atlanta in November within a week, at ten days of accepting the case, and Mr Haynes, his wife and brother in law and his wife took me to a club. We spent the evening together and we talked as to what we said. I don't temporary recall, but I had difficulty getting the any information from Mr Haynes. I had to have him sighted for contempted battle to get whatever I did get. Foreman was so full of the larky. This is Art Hanes Jr. Reacting to Foreman's charge that he and his father withheld their files from Foreman. It should be remembered that Foreman pushed his way into this case and was the reason Haynes was dismissed. But the four month work product of Haines father and son did not suddenly belong to Foreman because Ray was now his client. Even so, according to Art Haynes Jr. They were willing to share the work they had done. He came through Birmingham and we offered him that file. We offered to sit down with him, We offered to outline our defense with him. All he wanted to do, and all we did was feeding steak and Scotch whiskey at the club in Birmingham and hearing him rambalong about what a fabulous lawyer he was. I saw absolutely no evidence, ever, either directly or second hand, of any inclination or willingness on his part to defend that case as it should have been defended. Attorney Mark Lane, who represented James Earl Ray in the late nineteen seventies, sought out Arthur Haynes Sr. And was generously given access to his files, as Foreman would have been had he had the interest. While they were meeting, Lane asked Haynes what he thought of Foreman, especially after their meeting at the club in Birmingham. Mr Haynes replied, my judgment is that the man never considered trying the case. As far as I can ascertain, he never prepared and he never investigated. He never considered giving James Earl Ray a trial. For what reason, I don't know. Ye, so Foreman said that the Haynes boys would not give him anything, while Haynes Junior and Senior claimed they were shocked by Foreman's lack of interest in the case. So who was telling the truth? Smart money would be on art Haynes Sr. Because, first of all, Judge Preston Battle never cited him for contempt in this matter. And second, Haynes was upset enough about the whole thing that a few days later he felt compelled to take the unusual step to write a letter to Judge Battle, a letter that is still in the official files. It is my distinct impression, he wrote that Foreman is disinterested in making a genuine effort to obtain the benefit from the fruits of our labor. His brief visit from a layover between planes has been the only contact we've had with him. At the House Select Committee hearing Congressman McKinney of Connecticut question Foreman on his hard cell of the plea bargain to Ray, You had a government case where ballistics were weak, You had a key eye witness who was an alcoholic. You had testimonial conflicts on when the bundle was dropped in front of the store. There were no prints found in the rooming house or in the bathroom, Solomon Jones, for for one, place the shooter outside of the area at the time. And finally, Ray had never in his background had any history of quote unquote violence. Doesn't that bring the odds down to a little better than a d I mean, you're a pretty tough lawyer. I've reviewed some of the work you've done, and wouldn't that give you a fighting chance for a reasonable doubt? The Foreman disagreed. My experience in a half a century of defending criminal case makes me evaluate case of a lot of standpoints that is not available to the average this passionate observer. So Foreman pulled Frank and said his years in court gave him special insight into what was winnable and what wasn't, even though on many occasions he had gotten people way more guilty than Ray appeared to be off scott free. But what was missing here was the follow up question. Foreman was a busy guy. Why would he push his way into a case if he knew from the start that all he would do is oversee a plea bargain that the prosecution had already offered, and after that deed had been done publicly pat himself on the back for pulling off this miracle and saving this man's life. None of this rings true. Let's return to the House Committee Chairman. I wonder if you could ask the committee clerk to hand him this reform on a copy of Martin Luther King Shibit f Dash two fifty three. I'll describe this exhibit for the record. This is a copy of a Look magazine article. It's dated April. The title of the article, excuse me is against conspiracy. The author is Mr Foreman, the witness today captioned his attorney for James Earl Ray. Do you recognize the article? Mr Foreman, I do. Did you write the article? I wonder if I could direct your attention please to the second paragraph in the article, and if you'd follow along with me. I'll read that for the record. When last November the brothers of James L. Ray sought me out and handed me a letter from him, the seeching me to represent him. Now this article, that language is not mine, Mr. That language is Bradford. You he rewrote this. I wrote it all your good writing. The issue here is this James Earl Ray said he never invited Percy Foreman to visit him in jail, that he just appeared and was given entry, and then pitched Ray as to why he would be the better choice for an attorney. Ray liked the part where he said he was rich enough that he wouldn't need to depend on literary contracts and that he'd be able to testify at his own trial, which is what he wanted. But for the House Committee, the issue was whether Foreman had been asked to appear by Ray himself, not his brother, and if he had not, Foreman was on shaky legal ground. Foreman had responded that Ray had written him a letter at his office in Houston asking for him to enter the case. I did receive such a letter. It came to my office on the eighth of about the eighth seventh or eighth of November, and I was in Wakeo, or near Wakeo, trying a law shoot when the letter came. It was read to be over the fall who read the letters to you by secretary? Did you have an opportunity when you return to your office to see Mr. But James Earl Ray insisted that he hadn't written any such letter, and that would be a rather bold story to tell because if he had, all Foreman would have to do to prove him a liar was produce it. But Foreman couldn't, He said, the letter was apparently lost with all his other files on the case. Foreman was becoming visibly uncomfortable. He had begun this discussion by telling the House Committee that he wrote the article in Look magazine. Then the story was that Hughie had polished a sentence or two. Suddenly it seemed safer to say that none of the words were his. The entire article was rewritten, every line of it. I was right like a lawyer with long six cylinder Latin words. Hugh he writes for the public. He translated to make it readable. I do not speak literally when I when I say all of its mind, I meant the sense and the spirit of the article. I do not mean the literal word by word. So let's take this explanation. What is Foreman's sense and spirit of the article and Look magazine? What does it tell us? Remember raise guilty plea fixed in the public mind. If there had been any doubt that James Earl Ray and no one else had murdered Martin Luther King, But why that was still up for grabs, and who would know better than Percy Foreman raised attorney just so everyone would understand what a regular guy he was. Foreman said early in the article that he always assumed that Ray was guilty, but that he took the case to save Rai's life. This is most certainly a lie, because, as Attorney Art Haines has told us, Ray already had a plea offer before Foreman showed up. In the article, Foreman goes on to group Ray with Oswald and her Hand, the alleged killers of John and Robert Kennedy, respectively, all of whom wanted, according to Foreman, a shortcut to fame. They wanted credit he wrote, top billing headlines, front page pictures. But Oswald, just before he was murdered, said he was a patsy. Sir Hands said he couldn't remember the crime, and Ray said he didn't shoot Martin Luther King. So whatever they did or didn't do, it doesn't seem as though any of them was looking for fame. But according to Foreman, Ray made special efforts to make sure that he got credit for this crime before he fled the murder scene. Foreman wrote, James Earl Ray carefully deposited on the sidewalk the murder weapon that he had wrapped in his own bed cover to protect his fingerprints on the rifle from being obliterated. Ray thought a war between the racest was imminent and he wanted to fire the first shot. The shooting of doctor King was to him the pearl harbor of that war. The presumption here is that because Foreman was Ray's attorney, he knew these damning things about Ray because Ray had told him. But Ray always said he had nothing to do with the package wrapped in the bedspread found on the street. He never told Foreman that he placed the package there, or that he wrapped it carefully so as not to erase his fingerprints. This is Foreman's invention. And of course, if Ray had wanted the rifle to point back to him so we would get credit for the crime, as Foreman was now saying, he could have just left it in his room and gotten a better start out of town. And Ray never said to anyone, much less Foreman, that he wanted to fire the first shot in a race war that he was trying to start. These are lies, rather vicious lies, vicious because they would shape the way people all over America would see Ray as a ruthless killer driven by hatred, So Percy Foreman pushed his way into the case, talking about what an easy when it would be, made himself scarce as he attended to other business, and then showed up one day saying that Ray had to plead guilty. And after Ray made the plea, Foreman published an article where he congratulated himself for saving Ray's life and then went on to assassinate his character. What was he doing here? Who was he working for? Is there anything in Foreman's subsequent history that might give us a clue? Turns out there is. In nineteen seventy five, Percy Foreman received a felony indictment for obstruction of justice from a federal grand jury in Texas. What did he do? In nineteen seventy just one year after Foreman leaned on Ray to plead guilty, Herbert and Nelson bunker Hunt, the sons of Texas billionaire H. L. Hunt, hired private detective John Kelly to do some illegal wire tapping, but he got caught. The Hunt brothers didn't want to go to jail, so they offered Kelly money if he would not testify against them, but Kelly didn't want to go to jail either. Then Percy Foreman shows up, offers his services to Kelly and promises to keep him out of jail. Kelly pays Foreman a retainer of one thousand dollars, but as soon as the ink is dry on their contract, Foreman approaches the Hunt brothers and says that he has Kelly Quote under control, and if the Hunts will give Foreman fifty thousand dollars, he will guarantee that Kelly will not incriminate them, As the indictment tells us. Foreman has paid his money and then goes back to Kelly, acting all concerned, and reminds him that the Hunts are very rich with mob connections and they would think nothing of killing him. So it's Foreman's recommendation as his lawyer, that Kelly go to jail and say nothing about the Hunts. After all, says Foreman, according to the indictment, the government can't help you a whole lot if you're dead. But by sheer acts sit in, Kelly finds out about the double cross, and Foreman and the Hunt Brothers are indicted for obstruction of justice, a crime that might well have cost Foreman a license to practice law, But the people Foreman is in trouble with are very wealthy and connected. There are negotiations, time goes by, and the charges are quietly dropped, but the facts are really not in dispute. Foreman found a weak client with powerful people on the other side. He signed up the client, chopped him around, and received fifty dollars for making sure the client pled guilty and didn't involve anyone else. Does that storyline sound familiar? Did Foreman do something of the same with James Earl Ray? Well, we think he did, and we think we have the evidence to prove it. So we will come back to this story later in the podcast and take a trip to Mr Foreman's office in Houston next time. On the Emilk tapes, Showers was in the frame right from the beginning, because he was the one who run Jim Squirrel. He looked back, he has stuck his frame in his socket. Lord hair was standing up and he like somebody had drained all the good d He was so white. Oh you're so r I said, Lord. I said, you know, they've been a lot of discussion about the fact you may have been involved in the Martin Luth King assassination. And he said, well, a lot of people talking about he said it. One thing, saure that blanket back is not coming back. But he said when he went to the back door, just as he got to the door, shot right now, and somebody came out of the bushes and handed him smoking rifle. He wanted me to tell the truth about seeing him with the rifle. He just wanted me change just a little bit by saying I saw him standing in the back door and a black man. Hey in my righte. Did James Earl Ray killed Dr Mark Luther King? No, they did not. Do you know who killed Dr King? I know who paid to do Thanks for listening to the m l K Tapes a production of I Heart Radio and Tenderfoot TV. This podcast is not specifically endorsed by the King Family or the King of State. D email KA Tapes is written and hosted by Bill Claper. Matt Frederick and Alex Williams are executive producers on behalf of I Heart Radio with producers Trevor Young and ben Keebrick. Donald Albright and Payne Lindsay are executive producers on behalf of Tenderfoot TV with producers Jamie Albright and Meredith Steadman. Original music by Makeup and Vanity Said. Cover art by Mr Soul two six with photography by Artemis Jenkins. Special thanks to Owen Rosenbaum and Grace Royer at U t A, The Nord Group, back Median Marketing, Envisioned Business Management, and Station sixteen. If you have questions, you can visit our website, the email k tapes dot com. We posted photos and videos related to the podcast on our social media accounts. You can check them out at the email k Tapes. For more podcasts from I Heart Radio and Tenderfoot TV, please visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows,

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  1. The MLK Tapes

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The MLK Tapes

According to the official story, on April 4th, 1968, a lone gunman assassinated Dr. Martin Luther Ki 
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