Q. Can you read it to us? Do you want to use this?
A. Yes. This is the one “Make it happen in Memphis.”
Q. There is an “R” at the top of it?
A. Yes, sir. This was made out to daddy. This would have been to daddy, “Make it happen in Memphis so—so we can control it.”
Q. (Mr. Pepper) So we can control it’?
A. You’ve got it there.
Q. It has been written out.
A. That’s what it says. That is signed by “CAT.”
Q. This is a better copy.
Mr. Toland: Why don’t you admit that one. That’s a better copy. A dollar a copy—
Q. (Mr. Pepper) Take a look at that.
A. I’ve got this one. Take your eye piece back. “Make it happen in Memphis so we can control it, CAT.” And “CAT” was Clyde Toleson.
(Ibid., 34–35, 37)
He said that a list, called a “Personal Prayer List” of Tolson and Hoover’s, had been carried and signed by Tolson (“CAT”—see Appendix K) and given to his father in the mid-1950s after Kennedy broke away from Senator Joseph McCarthy. At the bottom of the list, “Russell,” Ron’s Father, is advised that Senator McCarthy was a good friend who could be “useful” to them. The names, John Kennedy, Robert Kennedy and Martin King, seemed to constitute a strange wish list, not least since Senator McCarthy died in 1957. Ron was unsure of the date when Tolson delivered it (though autumn of 1956 appears to be the most likely time) and secondly, because the Kennedys had been close to McCarthy. But, in fact, Bob Kennedy only worked for McCarthy’s witch hunting committee for six months and resigned as a result of his discomfort with the committee’s tactics. He almost came to blows with Roy Cohn, the Chief Counsel, and eventually condemned the practices.
In addition, Jack Kennedy eventually condemned the Senator’s actions, and the two had a terminal falling out, though he was in hospital at the time of the Senate’s censure vote. Hence, Hoover, who was McCarthy’s principal ally in government and his main source of information on those individuals being investigated, developed an intense hostility for both Kennedys. It was also at this time that Dr. King was emerging as a formidable, dissenting black civil-rights leader, which brought him into Hoover’s sights. The Prayer List, prepared around that time before McCarthy’s death, appears to be the result of this animosity. In all likelihood, Hoover identified and targeted the three potential leaders who could eventually challenge his domain.
Ron indicated that Frank Holloman, even before he became Chief of Police and Fire, was involved. He had been the Special Agent in Charge of the Memphis FBI office before becoming the administrator of Hoover’s Office in DC. He regularly had lengthy meetings with Clyde Tolson, and was helping with various jobs ordered by Hoover/Tolson in the Memphis area. Notes were occasionally left for Tolson at the Mayor’s brother’s house.
Q. (Mr. Pepper) This is addressed “To Frank.” Which “Frank” is this addressed to?
Mr. Toland: Frank Holloman?
Q. (Mr. Pepper) You think it was Holloman?
A. I think it was. Yeah, for sure it was Holloman. It says “Frank met with Cat at Lehigh. Got orders to stop NAACP workers at crematory, Art.” I know about this note. That was to Frank Holloman.
The above-mentioned document was marked Exhibit 28.
Q. (Mr. Pepper) When would this have been written? In other words, was he head of police and fire at that point?
A. That was probably—that was either real close to Christmas of 1966 or first part of 1967.
Q. At that point in time he was not yet head of police and fire in Memphis.
A. Uh-huh. He had just retired from the feds.
Q. But what was he doing? Was he still out of the Bureau or was he in the office in Memphis?
A. I don’t know.
The Witness: Roy, when did he leave out of the office?
Q. (Mr. Pepper) He was with Hoover for about eight years.
Mr. Johnson: I think he was in Washington or Virginia. He was third in command in the office of operations.
(Ibid., 40–41)
Ron said that Maynard Stiles, who was part of Adkins’s inner circle, also was delivered a note from his father asking him to attend a “prayer meeting” at 5:30 p.m. It indicated that Marcello would be there. Stiles was clearly present at a number of sessions and quite close to Russell Adkins.
Stiles had testified in both the HBO and the King civil trials. In both instances he recounted how in his official capacity with the Sanitation Department, he sent a team to clean up the area—the crime scene—behind the rooming house at the request of the MPD.
In any event he was on the list Ron recited, under oath, of all those whom he personally knew and saw in attendance at the preliminary planning sessions for the assassination. The list included the following who had different jobs: Clyde Tolson, his father, Russell Adkins Sr., Frank Liberto, Chess Butler, Frank Holloman, Henry Loeb, Earl Clark, Jim Ryan, Louis Michaud (who owned a liquor ), Mr. Long, Mr. Holly, Maynard Stiles, Loyd Jowers, Jim Lannom, Tommy Smith (an inspector with the Memphis Police Department), two Tennessee Highway Patrol officers from the Summer Avenue Highway Patrol Identification Bureau, Russell Adkins Jr., Little Holly, Mr. Cohen, Mr. Fiveash, E. B. Bowen, and Ron himself.
The principal players who were the most involved, according to Ron, were O. Z. Evers, Holly, Frank Holloman, Frank Liberto, Henry Loeb, Sam Chambers, Chess Butler, and Jim Ryan. Stiles was not in this group.
According to Ron, Russell Jr. seemed troubled by the fact that their father used the words “nigger” and “coon,” but he agreed that there was a chance to use the “Feds”—Hoover and Tolson—to bring benefits to the community, but he heeded that, “… if you get into bed with those snakes … you got to snuggle up to work with them.” He knew the “Feds” were using him. He knew they were getting him to work with the Libertos and the likes of Holloman, but he thought he could still accomplish necessary things for his community. He also said that his father was “tight” with John Wilder, the Lieutenant Governor, who was one of Liberto’s lawyers and confidants.
When their father died in 1967, according to Ron, his brother Russell Jr. took over the assassination planning with Holloman. The Mayor’s job was to promote the sanitation workers’ strike.
Q. All right. Now, we’re into 1968. The sanitation workers’ strike hits.
A. Yes. Daddy is dead.
Q. Your father is dead?
A. Right.
Q. Who is taking over the—
A. Russell Jr. and Holloman.
Q. So Russell Jr. and Frank Holloman are running the assassination effort?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. What was done, to the best of your knowledge, to provoke the sanitation workers’ strike and anger to the level that it rose where it became a very serious, crippling strike in Memphis?
(Ibid., 72)
At one point, O. Z. Evers fell out of favor. Ron did not know why, but they began to talk about putting him down. Ron saw no justification for it. Then his stature rose and he was accepted again. They killed two sanitation workers, by plan—swallowed up in a garbage truck packing mishap—in order to heighten tension and, ostensibly, to induce Dr. King to come to Memphis.
Ron said that at a meeting at Berclair Baptist Church, two weeks before Martin was killed, he heard Frank Holloman say, “We’ve got to get on with this, we’ve just got to get on with it.” It became clear to him that Junior was not running the show, but rather it was Holloman who was in charge.
(For the avoidance of doubt I am asking the questions throughout the deposition.)
Q. Then you had a crisis where one or two sanitations workers were killed—
A. No. there was one of them.
Q. In the truck itself?
A. They squashed them in the truck.
Q. How did that happen? Do you know how that happened?
A. Somebody pulled the hammer, pulled the lever on the truck and mashed them up in there. They were up in there trying to get out
of the rain is what they was doing.
Q. They were working in the rain. They were trying to get out of the rain.
A. Right.
Q. And somebody—was it Jim Ryan?
A. No, I think it was Holly.
Q. You think it was Holly?
A. I think it was.
Q. Pulled the hammer and killed them deliberately?
A. Yes, sir, they was killed in the back of that truck. They was mashed up in there with that roller bar.
Q. Was it done with knowledge that they were in there?
A. Was their intent.
Q. Was their intent?
A. He knew they was in there when he did it.
Q. He knew. Why did he do it?
A. He didn’t tell me, Pepper. I don’t know. You are asking me the sixty-four dollar question. Was it black; was it part of the guys causing trouble? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Q. Was it something that they were trying to do to create more tension in order to bring Martin King in?
A. I believe so. We’ve all talked about that. We think that was the ticket that absolutely brought him in that caused his death. We think that’s the straw that broke the camel’s back right there, because that’s when Frank said, you know, we’ve got to get on with this, we’ve just got to get on with it.
Q. Frank Holloman?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Did you hear him say that?
A. I heard that at Berclair Baptist church in a meeting.
Q. Do you remember when that meeting was?
A. That was probably less than two weeks before they killed him.
Q. Less than two weeks before?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. So that would have been around the 21st, 22nd of March?
A. Somewhere this March, yes.
Q. He came in around that time, actually, then he went back.
A. Right.
Q. And he came in again to lead a March on the 28th.
A. They were set to kill him out there on Lamar Avenue. He stayed at a little old hotel out there called the Rebel Inn or some shit like that.
Q. He stayed at the Holiday Inn.
A. The Holiday Inn or something.
Q. He stayed at a Holiday Inn out there upon occasion.
A. They was going to pop him out there if that’s where he stayed. He didn’t show there. He went some other joint. They lost him, apparently. I know that O. Z. was having to—I know there was a frantic over the phone. I know he called my mama, even, and was trying to get ahold of Junior because he couldn’t get ahold of Junior. Junior was drunk at Robillio’s barbecue place. I think Junior was having a hard time dealing with this at this time because he actually wasn’t running the show, and I, it was actually Holloman running the show, and it was kind of like Junior was back where daddy had him while daddy had him, and Junior didn’t like that.
Q. So Holloman had sort of moved into—
A. He was part of the stick then. He was the point man then. Yeah, I think Junior had a problem with it, yeah.
(Ibid., 80–83)
Ron stated (under oath) that when Dr. King returned to Memphis on April 3, Jesse Jackson was instructed to arrange for the room change from the lower protected room 202, to the balcony room 306. Ron said that O. Z. called Jesse and told him to arrange the change of room. When asked how he knew this, he said that his mother called O. Z. “on Junior’s instructions” and got O. Z. to act. O. Z. then called Walter Bailey, who owned the motel, and told him that Jesse was coming to see him, and “… Jesse went down there and talked to the man and, or his wife Lurlee … and had him move Martin and Ralph up to 306.”
Ron said that Frank Holloman had given the instructions to Junior who in turn passed them to his mother, who called O. Z. He said his mom sent him to the garage to get his daddy’s phonebook and bring it in the house because she had to reach O. Z. Ron said he brought in the phone book and she called O. Z. while standing “… right beside her when she made the call.” She told O. Z. she needed to talk to him right away. He said he would call her back. She sat down in a chair and waited. When he called she said they needed to get Dr. King moved and they needed to get hold of Jesse or someone to get it done. They considered Solomon Jones but decided they couldn’t trust him so he got Jackson to do it.
Q. (Mr. Pepper) He is supposed to stay in Room 202. Somehow that room gets changed—
A. Right.
Q. And he gets moved up to 306.
A. Right. Jesse Jackson did that.
Q. Tell us what you know about how that happened, how that one got changed?
A. O.Z. called him and told him to move him outside, move him up and move him out, put him on the corner if you can. The man that owned the hotel, O. Z. contacted him.
Q. Walter Bailey?
A. Right. O. Z. contacted him and said that Jesse was coming to see him. Jesse went down there and talked to the man. I wasn’t there when it happened, but he talked to the man. It was a little while after that before I got there, but he went in there and he talked to the man and moved him up and moved him into, what was it—
Q. 306.
A. 306.
Q. Now, how do you know that O. Z. told Jesse to do this?
A. Because O. Z. called my mama and got instructions to do it.
Q. So O. Z. called your mother?
A. Right.
Q. And how did your mother give him instructions?
A. Because Frank Holloman had given it to Junior—I’m going to cut to the chase. Frank Holloman had given it to Junior, and Junior give it to mama.
Q. So Junior used your mother as the point person for that information?
A. No. Frank Holloman called Junior or Frank Holloman told Junior—I think Junior was with him then. Frank told Junior that they needed to get some stuff done. He said we can get O. Z. to do it; we just need to get mama to call him. O. Z. didn’t talk to a lot of people after that. When daddy went down, I mean, he helped and he did everything he could, and he did what Junior and them asked, but mama had more stroke with him than anybody did.
Q. So Junior told your mother when O. Z. calls—
A. No.
Q. How did—
A. Get ahold of O. Z.
Q. He told your mother to get ahold of O. Z.
A. If you will, get ahold of O. Z. It was him and mama on the phone. Mama just told me that she had to get hold of O. Z., get the phone book.
Q. Your mother told you this is what happened?
A. Right. Go out to garage, get daddy’s phone book and bring it in here. I said, all right.
Q. So you brought the phone book in with O. Z.’s number in it?
A. I brought his phone book in which had hundreds of numbers in it.
Q. Yeah. She called O. Z.?
A. Yeah.
Q. You were present during the call?
A. I was standing right beside her.
Q. You were standing beside her when she made the call?
A. Right.
Q. What did she say to Jackson?
A. She told—no, she didn’t talk to Jackson. She talked to O. Z. Evers.
Q. What did she say to him?
A. She told O. Z. she needed to talk to him and was he where he could talk. She said, This is Mae, Ms. Russell. He asked her if he could call her back. Apparently someday was there or whatever. She said, “Yeah, I’ll be waiting for your call, but I need to talk you to right away.” She sat down in the chair where—we had a chair that had looked like a school desk kind of like that had a phone thing on it, and I sat down, in the dining room chair, I turned the chair around to the table and sat down in the chair about as far as from you to me away from my mama and we sat there and waited for the phone to ring. The phone rang and it was O. Z. O. Z. said, “Ms. Mae, what can I do for you?” That’s what mama said he said. Mama told him that they needed to get ahold of Jesse or somebody and get him moved, would it be possible to get Jones to get it done. They didn’t trust Jones to get it done. So—he didn’t trust Jones to do it. S
o he got Jackson to do it. That’s all I know. I know that he got Jesse Jackson to get him moved or he told Jesse Jackson to move him, you know. The reason why I think that he didn’t—because this came up later on after, it may have been even been a year or two after, and I brought it up to mama.
(Ibid., 86–91)
Years later, when he asked his mother what the problem was with Jones, she said that Jackson (which was subsequently confirmed by Junior) was paying for everything. He was in charge of the money.
Ron said he did not know about any role that Abernathy might have played, but I always wondered why Ralph justified the move to room 306 by falsely saying that they had always stayed in that room, when in fact they had never had used that room overnight.
The Reverend Billy Kyles was instructed to get Dr. King out of room 306 at precisely 6:00 p.m. Ron said that his mother also told him that O. Z. told Kyles to get Dr. King out of the room at 6:00 p.m. Jesse was also supposed to be out there but he got “chicken shit” and went down to the parking area. His control of the money explains how he had the authority to force the Invaders out of the motel before the assassination. If, in fact he was controlling the SCLC money and paid for their rooms, he would have had the power to do so.
Ron recalled his brother Junior and Frank Liberto driving around and looking for the best shot around Jim’s Grill. They finally decided on the brush area behind it.
He said he heard Holloman tell Junior, “It has to be done right away. It has to be done right away; shoot him in the head.” Then, three days later, sixteen-year-old Ron heard Holloman tell Junior, “Shoot the son of a bitch in the mouth. I want the son-of-a-bitch shot; shoot the son-of-a-bitch in the mouth.”
A. I heard the conversation “shoot the son–of-a-bitch in the mouth.” I heard Frank Holloman tell Russell Jr., “I want the son-of-a-bitch shot, shoot the son-of-a-bitch in the mouth.’ I heard—
Q. You heard Holloman say that?
A. Yeah. In another conversation before that I heard Frank Liberto tell Junior, “It has got to be done right away; it has got to be done right away; shoot him in the head.”
Q. What is the timing of these two conversations?
A. That was probably three days ahead of that.
Q. Three days—the Holloman conversation three days?
The Plot to Kill King Page 35