Who Killed Martin Luther King? (1977)| Dick Gregory Mark Lane Geraldo Rivera

ABC presents Thursday night specials [Music] [Applause] who killed Martin Luther King jr. dr. King as you already know is the most eloquent and effective civil rights spokesman in our history until he was shot dead on a motel balcony in Memphis Tennessee nine years ago the night before his assassination dr. King gave a speech that was a chilling premonition of his own death with me now because I've been to the mountaintop like anybody I would like to live a long life longevity has its place but I'm not concerned about that now I just want to do God's will and he allowed me to go up to the mountain look over and I see the promised land [Applause] [Music] I've seen the golden [Applause] first guest this evening is the comedian social activist humanitarian an old friend of dr. King Dick Gregory no god bless you let's hear how do you feel when you see that how do you know what can you say you know I I've reflected many many many many times on what we really love you know not what he meant on television but quietly in talking to you it was never Hong Ki those white folks of which many of us black folks feel we have to do to communicate with our brothers and sisters and he never said nothing with you quietly about that whole movement then he couldn't say it on worldwide television that never changed there was a piece about him in the midst of all the nonsense and I never understood it then I know it now you know I in st. Louis Missouri they named a street after me Dick Gregory place runs in the Martin Luther King Drive and I go bad and I look at that because that's the story of my life I bumped into K and it changed my whole life last year I ran from Los Angeles California to New York City not one insult at no time was my life in danger at all Martin knew that ten years ago that there will be a day when you as a black human being with a right or another black human can go all the way across this country and that was the piece that he had he knew and we didn't know what was going I know now that America isn't mature enough to accept all types of truths although we don't want to deal with the truth but when the truth is presented to us we can handle it and he knew that and that I didn't know how did you get involved in this inquiry the reinvestigation of his assassination when Mark Lane called me and said you know I have something I want you to hear and when I listened to mr. Murdoch I knew that was the connecting point I knew that was the one thing that would get it over it's a former FBI agent that will be speaking with author Murtagh later on in the program dick mentions Mark Lane he is is the co-author with Dick Gregory of a book on the King assassination the book is called Operation Zorro Mark Lane who I'm sure you all know is no stranger to this program he's a veteran conspiracy investigator he is an attorney he is an author and another friend hi mark hi how are you problem thank you again for again raising this question but it has to be raised in America I have to say that we have moved heaven and earth on this program trying to get an official spokesman from the Department of Justice to come on to contradict some of the things that you are about to hear from mark and dick and author Murtagh the FBI agent the people at the Department of Justice specifically a Michael Shaheen told us that they rely entirely on this official report of the Department of Justice task force to review the FBI Martin Luther King junior security and the assassination investigation and Mark before we start I want to read some of those official conclusions into the King assassination I'm quoting from page 64 in all the years following the assassination the FBI investigation has failed to reveal any connection between any alleged conspirators and James Earl Ray including those alleged by Ray himself moving on to recommendations on page 143 the task force does not fault the technical competence of the investigation conducted into the death of dr. King we found no new evidence which calls for action by state or federal authorities regarding the King assassination first of all I'd like you to reply to the official position the official position that the FBI and all of these years has not found any additional evidence regarding the death of dr. King is understandable when one looks at all the evidence which I think establishes beyond question that people employed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation must be considered to be prime suspects and the murder of dr. King therefore to allow a group in the Atlanta office called the destroy King squad established by mr. Hoover to destroy dr. King to conduct basically the entire investigation and to the murder of dr. King is to say that we don't really expect to find out anything from them and the conclusion that the task force of the Department of Justice has found no additional evidence I think that's probably true and that's because if you read the the opening of the task force report it states that that was not their job they were just going to look in to see how the FBI did in any event I think what is so clear now with the Gallup poll showing that 11 percent of the American people believe that Oswald did it alone 18 percent of the American people believe the James are raided it alone what is required for the American people is just there's not another Warren Commission report a sealed volume with conclusions but the evidence unfolded before our eyes so the American people can see the evidence and reach their own conclusions and that's what we have all been calling for all these years unfortunately Congress is now moving in that direction okay Congress is moving in that direction but set the scene for our viewers tonight Martin Luther King is in Memphis Tennessee there's a sanitation strike he's gone to support the sanitation workers in this struggle he's staying in the place called the Lorraine Motel yeah why was he there first of all okay it's April 1968 taken from that all right he had been there in March March 28th to lead a nonviolent demonstration which was what he always led of course that was turned into a violent confrontation we now know was done by Agent Provocateur is associated with the Federal Bureau of Investigation who turned a non-violent march into a violent confrontation with the Memphis police and in the in the melee none of the actions that followed one young black man was shot to death many many could were maced I think it was the first time mace was used against Americans in the streets of eret our cities and dr. King therefore was compelled to return all right so he's in Illinois a motel I also have to add in fairness because I have to play the part of devil's advocate to the extent that the official people have refused to come on the program they say that their investigation concludes that the FBI did in fact have a quote destroyed King squad that we'll be getting into but they say that they can take no criminal action against anybody responsible for those actions because the statute of limitation has passed or the Ghul T the guilty people rather have either died or retired and that the only people left in the FBI who could be held responsible at least administratively it would be unfair because they were only taking orders from their superiors the report also says that the FBI is cleared of any criminal involvement in the king death I kept saying as a matter of law sure they cleared themselves there's no question about that they said that there was no involvement but I think the Congress and looking at the facts may come to a different conclusion let's talk about the facts alright now we have dr. King in place at the Lorraine Motel he has a ten man security squad yeah at one point and then it was reduced to two men the man in charge is a dreaded black detective he's there because Reverend Billy Kyle's was dr. King's host asked the Reta be in charge of security he's there at four o'clock in the afternoon lieutenant Arkin of the head of domestic intelligence squad the Memphis Police drives up and says to Reddit Holloman has to see you at once Holloman was the director of fire and police in Memphis the only man ever to been the director of both and he just came in a short time before then he incidentally had been a high ranking official mr. Holloman had in the FBI for 25 years in fact he had been the chief inspector who personally ran mr. Hoover's office for eight years prior to this time one took over this new job Holloman called and read it and he said to read it you see this gentleman this man is from the United States Secret Service he's just flown down from Washington because it's a death threat against you a group in Mississippi has conspired with people in Missouri and the here in Tennessee with guns looking for you so I'm putting you at home read it protested but he was taken home and he kept on saying but I'm in charge of security there's only one man there he won't be able to do anything with me and the answer was this is a direct order and while reddit was in his car in front of his house saying can't I go back this is a delicate time dr. King will be leaving the Lorraine Motel they heard on the radio that dr. King had been shot okay summing up again a 10-man security force cut down to two men one of the two detective ed reddit is taken off the case he was the man in charge he was an am in charge okay we have a brief film clip now I'd like you to see ladies and gentlemen it was an interview conducted by ABC correspondent Gil Noble and detective Edie reddit the question asked of Detective reddit is why do you think you were taken off the case I think because whoever pulled the trigger I could identify that was detective ed reddit who was chief of Martin Luther King security detail in Memphis before he was removed from the case now mark you spoke with the alleged assassin James Earl Ray himself here's the interview dr. King was killed at about 6 o'clock what time did you first get to the room I would say about four o'clock maybe few minutes before 4:00 do you recall where you were when dr. King was killed well we've met investigations of those statements and interviewed various witness to things like that would try to pin down just where I was that and I was most most liked was either in a service station or just leaving it now it was in various different places running errands between four and six o'clock I think at this particular time we're referring to that that I was I had I had a flat tire night for that and they were these party was people were personnel was worthless excuse me let's pose use the auto that night and I was going to get it you know get it serviced and everything ready I think that's when the shooting took place what did you do after you had the tire fixing you went back toward the motel yes I believe that I ran into I know there's a lot of place in the area and the police cars blocking off the area you know I'm not positive one of them may have waved me off but I do recall a place in the area and I went the other direction naturally one as well is I was at the time I was a fugitive from Missouri and wouldn't made any difference anyway that was still left the area to you know place were in the area and how did how'd you first run the dr. King had been shot I would guess on the radio uh approximately 20 minutes later I was heading towards New Orleans and what'd you hear I think there was a report that he'd been shot and I didn't pay too much attention to that and I say 15 20 minutes later than he's reported they were looking for a white Mustang what's good [Music] well the time before I heard about Mustang I was going to New Orleans for I had some contacts and make possibly make a phone call and after I heard about the looking for the Mustang I I had to make certain assumptions that they were looking for me in the eye instead of going to New Orleans I went to Atlanta Georgia did you pull the trigger on the drive I know I didn't know that from James Earl Ray stay with us who are about to be joined by a former FBI agent he'll be telling us about an awful creation of J edgar Hoover's was called the destroy King squad that then more on the murder of dr. King after this Dick Gregory Mark Lane and I have been joined by a retired special agent for the FBI his name is off the Murtagh he joined the bureau in 1951 and served as a special agent until his retirement in 1971 he now practices law and is an associate professor of criminal justice at Clarkson College in upstate New York author welcome on the program what exactly was your assignment at the FBI I was a special agent in the FBI for 20 years in different parts of the country I spent the last 11 years in Atlanta did you witness or participate in any efforts by the FBI to discredit dr. King I did not participate in them but I was aware about 1962 that a very carefully orchestrated Vendetta had been organized to discredit dr. King the history of this goes back to the activities in Albany Georgia where dr. King made some criticism of the bureau and from that time on there was more time spent in connection with discrediting dr. King at least in the Atlanta office than there was on all the rest of the security work put together was there a destroyed King squad well a squad I remarked just before coming on that it probably would be better not to use the term destroyed Kings squad it wasn't called that its purpose certainly was to destroy cake it was called like any other squad it was a security squad of the Atlanta office and everything they did or most of what they did was designed to discredit dr. King like what well like keeping a wiretap on him for many years and taking the information off the wiretap anything that was unfavorable and attempting to peddle it to newspapers throughout the country and get it published this was a procedure that went on day after day and it was open everybody in the office I think knew it I I knew it I'm sure most other people don't how do you feel about that now well I feel the same as I did then I think it was a miscarriage of justice and it should have been stopped where were you when dr. King was shot I was in the office in Atlanta just getting ready to sign out to go home what was the response of some of your colleagues as we were walking out about ten minutes to 7:00 or five minutes to 7:00 we heard on the radio that played in the office the news of dr. King's death and our Noah the news that he had been shot and at that this fella who was a squad member and an agent literally jumped up and down with glee and he while I wouldn't want to demonstrate it but he actually physically jumped off the ground and said I'm glad the son of a [ __ ] I'm glad they got him I hope the son of a [ __ ] is dead and a few minutes later while we were signing out the news came over that dr. King had been killed and he went through the same antics of I'm glad he's dead and so on now I walked with him from down to where we parked our cars and I talked with him and I I said I don't understand your attitude and he went on to explain to me that he thought dr. King was a threat to the security of the United States and that he was happy that he was dead period do you think that that was a prevalent mood within I think that the bureau the agents that I knew that worked in particularly in the security area due to the system of selection of agent personnel there had been a group of agents selected that were for the most part extremely rightist in their thinking many of them were radicals on the right and I'm as opposed to radicals on the left as I am the radicals on the right but many of these people were radicals on the right and they were racist oriented and they fed the system that Hoover wanted and the effort destroyed King yes is it possible in your mind that as Mark and dick suggest in their book the FBI were members of the bureau past members deceased their living could or can be considered suspects and the assassination of dr. King of course no question about it whatsoever now I wouldn't want to thrust suspicion on all FBI agents by any manner it means but I knew agents that I would not trust in a circumstance involving the security of a person like dr. King I knew agents who hated and such so openly I recall an incident where an agent came in on the investigation where the civil rights workers were buried in Philadelphia Mississippi and a fella came in and I was sitting waiting to get into the inspectors office to get my instructions and I sit and talking to this fellow and I said what do you think about the death of these civil rights workers and he was an agent of man 40 years old he said I totally inspector a few minutes ago when I heard about the killing of those three civil rights workers if they are killed and it isn't some kind of a ruse I told them us a throw of joy went up by spying no there were that kind of people in the FBI not very many you see but enough to in my judgment make it very plausible that somebody in the FBI could have leaked information and could have a venison could have assisted in an assassination plot in against dr. King I don't mean to say that I know that they did I'm just saying that it should be investigated yeah I agree with you stay with us let's take a commercial break we'll be right back after this yeah we're back my guests are Mark Lane Dick Gregory and author Murtagh a retired FBI agent and dick and mark I want you to comment and respond to what you've heard author just say you know I said earlier that I think America is mature enough to to deal with the truth I just say that you know if if my father was an FBI agent and all the publicity coming out on the FBI I would feel much better than night after knowing that there's some Arthur Murray toss around with the FBI and I think that it is this type of individual that will overshadow all the wrongs of this nation and various organizations if like he say it happened if they can be cleaned out at the top and I love you and I thank God we have people like you well hearing mr. Murtaugh again it's just a chilling experience to think of what was taking place when you compared the speech that dr. King made with what people in the FBI were thinking about him I don't know how anyone in Congress could hear doctor there Arthur Mirta and not say this must be investigated thoroughly and we are all all of us are really grateful I learned in 1958 when a former a man who at that time was right after that time was became an assistant director he said to me in connection with the matter he said art you want to get this information to mr. Hoover and he said I know you're right and I know that what you're saying is of good principle and so forth and I admire a man of good principle but he said you've got to make up your mind that we don't have any place for people of principle in the FBI and you're either gonna have to give up your principles or get out of the FBI and I told him at that I said no way am I gonna get out of the FBI I'm gonna stay in and I'm gonna find out what's wrong with the FBI and at the opportune moment I'm gonna do something about it Arthur ona quote again from the Department of Justice Task Force official report quote from page 63 based on our review of the files the task force is satisfied that the FBI did a credible and thorough job in attempting to identify any possible conspiracy or persons who could have been involved in the murder do you think it's possible that the same people the same personalities who were involved in the FBI's efforts to discredit King could have conducted a thorough incredible investigation of his assassination I certainly do not think that they could for instance the gentleman that you said was in the Atlanta office when you were who jumped for joy at the news of dr. King's death was he involved in the subsequent investigation yes he had a I think there weren't very many agents involved in the actual investigation probably a lot of them had leads probably eight or nine actually shaped up the investigation in Atlanta and he would have been one of those eight or nine incredible I hope Congress is listening our next guest will be congressman Walter Fauntroy he's the US Representative from Washington DC who's formerly a close associate of dr. King and he was also one of the organizers of the historic march on Washington in 1963 congressman for Introit co-sponsored the Congressional resolution that called for the establishment of a house assassination committee and he's now chairman of the Martin Luther King jr. assassination subcommittee congressman thank you very much for coming on the program why don't we start with your bringing us up to date what is the status of the congressional inquiry right now into the assassination of dr. Cain we are pursuing two lines of inquiry first we are reviewing all available data on investigations conducted by state local and federal authorities on the matter and then secondly we're pursuing previously unpursued leads and some new leads that have come to us essentially begun the investigation what do you think about the evidence contained in the Gregory Lane book well quite frankly it was astounding evidence and it was that evidence which prompted me to to move in the house to said reopen the whole question in March of 1976 the whole question of the investigation had sort of failed in the rules committee but once I had gained access to this information and moved around the hill talking to leadership we decided to open the question of gain and resulted in that resulted in the committee being established tell me frankly what the sentiment is in Congress do you think a meaningful search for the truth is possible I think a meaningful search for the truth is possible and that in fact we're going to find out the truth I believe that I have been somewhat puzzled by the attitude I found among some people on the hill and in the country at large that seem to say leave it buried we don't want to know I think we're going to know dr. King used to say truth crushed to earth will rise again I think it's going to rise and this committee will preside over the resurrection of it I certainly hope so congressman thank you very much for coming on now even if we take as an established fact that James Earl Ray was a raging bigot who's blind hatred of the civil rights movement knew no rational bounds and even if we conclude that Ray had a wild yearning for recognition as some of the official historians say and even if we find that ray thought he could earn instant money from some grateful admirer if he could pull off the murder of dr. King even if we establish all those things as undeniable fact then still there are questions crying out for truthful answers who for instance provided James Earl Ray with the money he used to travel and purchase cars and cameras and even dancing lessons during his year of freedom following his escape from Missouri Penitentiary and including his murder of dr. King his alleged murder why was detective Eadie reddit removed from duty two hours before dr. King assassinated and finally why was the Justice Department investigation permitted to rely so heavily on the findings of the FBI investigators who have anything shared James Earl Ray's awful animosity toward dr. King and the cause dr. King did so much to advance the cause of justice and civil rights hopefully the Congressional select subcommittee will now put politics aside and continue its work with a meaningful search for the truth a great American was brutally murdered cut down in the prime of his life and in the midst of his mission and the American people all of us deserve to know who all was responsible we'll be right back after this

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Length: 27min 41sec (1661 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 01 2020