Orders to Kill

by William F Pepper Esq

  On that last day of August the National Security Agency (NSA) was formally brought into the recently formed SOG loop of the combined intelligence agency effort to counter the evergrowing antiwar/economic justice forces. Following a meeting with Yarborough, the NSA launched Operation MINARET to monitor international cable traffic and assist the efforts of the ACSI counterintelligence section to identify foreign governments helping “black radicals” and antiwar groups.

  IN EARLY SEPTEMBER Yarborough learned about the plans for a massive antiwar demonstration to be addressed by Dr. King on October 21 at the Pentagon. He began to prepare for the confrontation by increasing surveillance and developing a program of infiltration of antiwar groups.

  The government’s worst fears were realized in the October 21 demonstration. The sight of masses of people attacking the citadel of American power not only appalled but, because of their impotence, humiliated the senior government and military officials who observed them. They believed that there was every possibility that what they viewed as a revolutionary force might not be consistently contained, particularly in light of the depletion of available trained forces in CONUS due to the war. Secretary McNamara asked Chief of Staff Harold Johnson what he was going to do about the rising emergency. Johnson turned and asked the same question to his ACSI—Yarborough.

  The shock of the demonstration reverberated throughout official Washington, and at a senior level the decision to form and use a specialized 20th SFG alpha team was clearly made. On October 23, Gardner, following a request from the ACSI’s office, received the roster of the 20th SFG and selected the eight-man Memphis team which was to become Alpha 184.

  MEANWHILE, in Birmingham Raul gave James money to buy the Mustang and asked James (who was puzzled by the request) to buy some photographic equipment which he ordered by mail from a Chicago company. Since Raul may have been involved in pornography in Houston, this could explain why he wanted the equipment, or it may have been simply to make it appear that James was involved in stalking activity.

  James was keeping in touch occasionally with Raul. Following his instructions he went to Mexico, arriving on October 7. He remained there until he went to Los Angeles on November 19. As he cleaned out his car before crossing the border, he discovered the L.E.A.A. business card with the name and address of Randy Rosen (son) written on it.

  As James made his way to California, units of the 20th SFG containing specialized sniper teams were deployed to recon cities that the army contended might “explode” next spring and summer. The teams were ordered to make street maps, take aerial photos, establish communications nets, command posts, sniper sites, and operational plans.

  In autumn and early winter of 1967 some of the members of the 902nd MIG’s Alpha 184 team were practicing daily for their mission at a site near Pocatello, Idaho. The “shoot” was from a triangular formation, and during these sessions at least, though this seems to have ultimately changed, three shooters were practicing.

  In autumn 1967, James’s relationship and activities with Raul were on hold. Raul, however, knew how to contact him (through L.A. general delivery) and James had the New Orleans telephone contact number.

  In early December James was instructed by Raul to travel to New Orleans. This he did, sharing the driving with Charlie Stein, a briefly known acquaintance. During that visit to New Orleans, James met with Raul. Raul told him that he would be needed for another gunrunning job into Mexico and that he would contact him in a few months’ time.

  ON DECEMBER 4, in Atlanta, as President Johnson was meeting with the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Martin Luther King announced the formation of SCLC’s Poor People’s Campaign with demonstrations planned for Washington, D.C., in the spring.

  On January 10, an increasingly nervous president ordered Chief of Staff Harold Johnson to “use every resource” under his command to defuse the anticipated spring civil disturbances.

  Around this time another approach to the mob was made. A contract was offered to kill Dr. King, previous efforts having been unsuccessful. Minor gangster Myron Billet attended a meeting in the small town of Apalachin, New York, a favorite mob meeting place. Though most of the time was spent on other matters, three government agents (from the CIA and FBI) offered one million dollars to Carlo Gambino and Sam Giancana to arrange for the killing of Dr. King. The offer was not accepted. The agents indicated that it would be placed elsewhere.

  Presumably Marcello, whose operative Red Nix had failed to carry out the earlier contract, was approached, since he eventually came back into the frame and turned to members of his organization in Memphis to finally complete this contract.

  ON FEBRUARY 12, the day the Memphis sanitation workers went out on strike, the 111th established a “special security detachment” to be under the direct control of the ACSI, General Yarborough, for “immediate deployment” in emergencies.

  Ten days later on February 22, an informant of the 111th MIG reportedly indicated that Martin Luther King would become involved in supporting the strikers. This was almost a month before he actually came to Memphis.

  Three days later, a 20th SFG recon team entered Memphis, coming in through the Trailways bus terminal. One of their tasks was to map egress routes in the northern section of the city.

  On February 28 Hoover’s seconded FBI agent Patrick Putnam met with the 902nd MIG’s Gardner and CIAB director Colonel Van Tassell.

  ON THE WEEKEND of March 15 James was instructed by Raul to leave Los Angeles and drive to New Orleans where he would receive further instructions. At this time Memphis produce man Frank Liberto asked Loyd Jowers to repay a “big” favor. Jowers, who had been alerted earlier by another mutual acquaintance, was told by Liberto that the brush area behind his Jim’s Grill was to be used as a sniper’s lair for the assassination of Dr. King, who would at some time in the next three to four weeks be staying at the Lorraine Motel which was directly opposite the brush area. A gun would be provided.

  Jowers was told that the police would not be there. A patsy was also going to be provided and Jowers would be handsomely paid. Liberto explained that the money came out of New Orleans.

  Also on that March 15, J. Edgar Hoover met one-on-one with the 902nd MIG’s Gardner, who was the coordinator of the military mission.

  It is clear that by March 15, not only had the die been cast but various wheels had been put in motion so that the assassination would be carried out in Memphis during the course of Dr. King’s visits to that city in support of the strikers.

  On the next day, Saturday, March 16, the massacre of civilians began in the village of My Lai, Vietnam, and Senator Robert Kennedy announced his candidacy for the presidency on an antiwar platform. Dr. King addressed the powerful California democratic state council on that day and on the following Sunday, March 17, as ASA agents listened, he discussed on the telephone the arrangements for his travel from L.A. to Memphis, where he was scheduled to address a strikers’ rally on Monday evening (March 18) at Mason Temple.

  Dr. King flew to Memphis and addressed nearly 15,000 people. 111th MIG agent Marrell McCollough was in the audience. King promised to return to lead the march which was planned for March 22. He then went to the Lorraine Motel where he met with local leaders, after which he went to the Rivermont Hotel where the four-man black detective team led by Jerry Williams provided security all night. During this stay he was electronically surveilled and the phones in his suite were tapped and monitored by ASA agents, with the assistance of Jim Smith of the MPD special services/intelligence bureau.

  On March 22 the planned march to Memphis was cancelled due to a heavy snowstorm and rescheduled for March 28. Also on March 22 James arrived in New Orleans, a day late. Raul had already gone to Birmingham with instructions for James to meet him there at the Starlight Lounge, the next day. They met and at Raul’s insistence set out immediately for Atlanta. In Atlanta Raul told James to stay close to the rooming house because he might be needed quickly to go on a trip to Miami. He also asked James to leave the side
door open so that he (Raul) could come and go without being seen.

  IN BIRMINGHAM, on March 22, 20th SFG second in command Major Bert E. Wride conducted a two-hour briefing on the Memphis situation and plans. At the same time, President Johnson announced that General Westmoreland had been replaced by General Creighton Abrams, as commander of the Vietnam forces.

  At 7:30 a.m. on March 28 in Camp Shelby, 20th SFG Alpha 184 team captain Billy R. Eidson was given his orders on the Memphis deployment. Later that day, the rescheduled march was broken up by provocateurs and Dr. King was led to the Rivermont Hotel by an MPD motorcycle officer, even though he had reservations at the Peabody Hotel. He was given his usual suite, making it possible once again for his activities and conversations to be monitored by the waiting ASA agents. The disruption of the march placed the army on “full alert focus” in Memphis. George C. Moore of the FBI’s Division Five (counterintelligence) sent a Memphis field office report to Yarborough and then late that afternoon Moore went over to Falls Church, Virginia, to meet with Gardner of the 902nd MIG.

  The day after the aborted march, Dr. King tried to bring things together in a meeting with the Invaders who he tended to believe (incorrectly) were responsible for the previous day’s violence. The session at the Rivermont was overheard and taped by ASA agents who cabled the transcripts to the Pentagon. They learned that King was personally determined to return to Memphis and complete his march on Friday, April 5.

  That same day, March 29, Raul, whom James hadn’t seen for over five days, returned and announced that the gunrunning operation was set. He said they had to leave immediately for Birmingham. Once there, he instructed James to buy a rifle at the Aeromarine Supply Store. When James came back with a .243 caliber Raul told him to arrange to exchange it for a 30.06, which James did the following day. Before departing, Raul instructed James to meet him on April 3 at the New Rebel Motel in Memphis and bring the gun with him.

  ON MARCH 29, even as Dr. King was addressing the problem of provoked violence in Memphis, various congressmen and senators delivered scathing attacks on him. The media picked up the theme.

  On that day the FBI prepared a draft article for placement through “cooperative” sources, taking Dr. King to task for leading a violent march and also for staying at white-owned hotels. It urged him to stay at the “fine Hotel Lorraine.” The combination of the bureau and the press (articles appeared across the country) was formidable. Subsequently, a decision to stay at the Lorraine was made.

  Around this time Jowers received a regular produce delivery from the Liberto-controlled M. E. Carter produce company which contained in the bottom of the box the sum of $100,000 in cash, which had been delivered from New Orleans. Considering Jowers’s role this appears to be a lot of money and raises the possibility that Jowers may also have been disbursing funds under instructions to designated MPD and possibly other officials. During this period Jowers was visited on two occasions by Raul, who discussed details of the proposed hit with him.

  On March 31, while Martin King preached at the Episcopal Cathedral in Washington, D.C., his aides Andrew Young, James Orange, and James Bevel flew to Memphis to begin preparations for the march. Their meeting that evening in the Lorraine with the Invaders was overheard by ASA agents. At some point the reservation for Dr. King’s room was changed from a cloistered secure room (202) to a highly exposed one (306).

  ON THE MORNING OF APRIL 3, Dr. King arrived in Memphis where he was met not by the usual security team of black detectives, but by a specially formed group of white detectives who had never before been used as a security detail for Dr. King. They would be removed late that afternoon and were not formed the next day. This was significant. The black detectives had been assigned to protect Dr. King on previous visits. Now, during a visit when the tension in the city and hostility toward him was at an all-time high, the special black security team was not formed.

  Shortly after King arrived at the motel, checking into room 306, Psy Ops officers Reynolds and his partner Norton were met around noon (when the firemen on duty had begun their afternoon—noon to 5 p.m.—nap) by fire station 2 Fire Captain Carthel Weeden, who provided them with an observation post on the flat roof on the east side of the fire station, overlooking the Lorraine. Hourly surveillance reports on activities at the motel began to be transmitted to 111th MIG agents stationed in the IEOC inside the MPD’s central headquarters.

  Soon after the SCLC group arrived in Memphis that morning, one of their number, controller Jim Harrison, the deep cover FBI informant inside SCLC, called the Memphis SAC Robert Jensen, in order to check in and tell him that he was in town with the group in case he was needed for anything.

  Also on this day, in the back of the fire station, MPD intelligence bureau officer Detective Ed Redditt and patrolman Willie Richmond surveilled all activity going on at the motel. The TACT units were pulled back on the orders of Inspector Sam Evans who controlled those units. TACT 10, which had used the Lorraine as its base, was ordered out of the immediate area of the Lorraine Motel. Its new base, beginning on April 4, was to be the fire station. This pullback constituted a further removal of a security force from the immediate area of the Lorraine.

  On April 3, James, transporting the Aeromarine rifle, checked into the New Rebel Motel where he was joined by Raul late that evening. At that meeting Raul told James to meet him at Jim’s Grill at 3:00 p.m. the next afternoon and wrote the address down for him. Raul left, taking the rifle with him.

  Sometime around this time a rifle connected with the assassination scenario may have been stored on the premises of a Liberto business located within blocks of the Lorraine.

  Martin Luther King, whose room was under constant eye-to-eye MPD and 111th MIG surveillance as well as electronic surveillance by ASA agents, went that evening (April 3) to address an overflow crowd at Mason Temple in the presence of an 111th MIG team and 111th MIG/MPD undercover agent Marrell McCollough.

  At the request of the MPD, between 10 and 11 p.m. that evening the only two black firemen at fire station 2—Floyd Newsom and Norvell Wallace—were ordered not to report to their regular station the next day, April 4. Their new assignments were to fire stations in distant parts of the city. It appears likely that Newsom and Wallace were removed because they were potential witnesses who could not be controlled.

  ON APRIL 4, Captain Eidson began briefing his Alpha 184 team at 4:30 a.m. at Camp Shelby. They were shown target acquisition photos of the Lorraine Motel and their targets Dr. King and Andrew Young, who were described as enemies of the government. Young was a target as he was viewed as potentially the most effective successor of those likely to pick up the torch. No firing was to occur until the order was given by Eidson. Each member of the team was told where to go when they arrived in Memphis. They would be met and taken to their prearranged positions.

  Within thirty-five to forty minutes they were on their way. Shortly after in Memphis, Loyd Jowers got ready to open up Jim’s Grill for the day and began to prepare, as usual, for the breakfast crowd. He told Bobbi Smith not to follow her usual routine of taking breakfast upstairs to recuperating rooming house tenant Grace Walden. Presumably this was because the area was to be used for some staging activity for the operation.

  At 10 a.m., even as the Alpha 184 team drew nearer to Memphis, ACSI Yarborough and USAINTC commander Blakefield left the Pentagon for what was to be a nearly four-hour meeting at Bailey’s Crossroads with senior CIAB officers and others. At 2:10 p.m. the meeting broke up and they returned to the Pentagon.

  At the fire station Reynolds and Norton climbed back up to their surveillance perch on the roof and continued the routine established the day before, passing reports along to the MPD-based agents of the 111th MIG. The 111th MIG and ASA agents were also in place from early morning in the immediate area of the Lorraine. Also in position was the MPD surveillance team (Redditt and Richmond) in the rear of the fire station.

  SOMETIME in late morning Jowers was visited by Raul who gave him a rifle to
hold, saying he would pick it up later. Jowers dutifully put it on the shelf under his counter.

  Dr. King got up late that morning. There was an SCLC executive staff meeting set for the afternoon and a court hearing on the city’s application to enjoin the march was scheduled for that morning. Andy Young had been assigned the task of attending the hearing and reporting back. Sometime after he left, MPD chief MacDonald took up a position near the Butler Street entrance to the Lorraine, walkie-talkie in hand.

  In Memphis, Captain Billy Eidson introduced Warren and Murphy to Lieutenant Eli Arkin of the MPD intelligence bureau. Arkin reportedly told them that their assistance was essential to save the city that Dr. King’s forces were preparing to burn down. They then met up with their contact around 1:00 p.m. Warren named him and said he believed he was a CIA agent. They were taken to their perch on top of the Illinois Central Railroad building where they assumed a state of readiness. In the course of the afternoon Captain Eidson put Warren on the radio with MPD inspector Sam Evans who described the layout of the Lorraine. He also advised them that “friendlies would not be wearing ties.” (The only government agent we have identified who was physically close to Dr. King at the time of the killing was Marrell McCollough who was not wearing a tie. It is also interesting to note that James was wearing a tie although Raul, reportedly, was not.)