The Plot to Kill King

by William F. Pepper

  A. Quite peculiar. I mean, I was real curious on why thirty minutes before Dr. King was killed he was pulled off the detail, then all of a sudden he is in the bed at home asleep, then he is with a whore over here coming across town, you know. He has got three or four different stories as to what he was doing.

  Q. Right, Right. He didn’t really have a serious alibi about where he was at the time did he?

  A. Yeah, but he was pulled off the detail. He said thirty minutes before Dr. King was killed he was pulled off the detail. That sounds like the true story there. But I’m at home asleep or I was at a whore’s across town all that, that is just I think made up. The first time I think he said it right.

  Q. Right. Right. Have you ever had any further conversations or involvement other than what he was saying to you?

  A. No, because I got what I needed.

  Q. Yeah, I think you did. I actually think you did. What did he look like? What did his face look like when you confronted him with this?

  A. Just he was in the same demeanor as Frank Liberto when I just right out laid it down to him, just, “God damn it,” you know, like that, just his face crawled up. He cussed a lot, but that’s cab drivers.

  Q. Yeah, sure, sure.

  A. They don’t cuss like they used to now because they are all freakin’ African. It used to be you spoke another language and you cussed a lot. That’s how it was. Same with carneys. Cab drivers spoke a lot of the same verbatim as carneys, same kind of thing. It upset him, and I already had it, so why press him and really piss him off, you know.

  Q. Yeah, yeah.

  A. Because he feels like he is Teflon right now.

  Q. He feels he is Teflon. That means that he can never be touched, is that what he feels?

  A. That’s what he feels, yeah, because he has got his son up there in Langley and all that going on. You know, he has got contacts now.

  Q. So he has got some protection, he believes?

  A. Yes, he does.

  (Telephone conversation with Nathan Whitlock, November 3, 2015, 4–9)

  Strausser reacted defensively. “Brown won’t be elected, but anyway, King was a shit-starter. I only did what any good cop would have done at that time.”

  Caught off-guard, he effectively confessed. Nate confirmed this in a telephone conversation on November 3, 2015.

  As noted earlier, I would also learn that during my meeting with Strausser, there had been an FBI agent or agents in Memphis trying to learn which hotel I was using. Since I use different names, they were unsuccessful, but the mere fact that they were so active was worrying. It may only have been his nephew, but even so, what was the purpose?

  It is obvious that I lied to Strausser about Jowers incriminating him. On October 23, 2013, Lenny Curtis was still alive. I had promised to protect him and was not about to put him in danger.

  Lenny clearly put Strausser in the frame, as well as Holloman, then Mayor Loeb, Earl Clark, and the fireman in whose car Strausser drove off after practicing with the murder rifle all day.

  Strausser was not at home or on his way to work; he had also given me a different story, and neither was Earl Clark asleep at home, awakened by news of the killing. Both men were at the rifle range, with Clark leaving after lunch and Strausser departing in a red Chevrolet convertible around 5:00 p.m.

  Lenny gave us an essential window into the truth, which is only amplified by my interview with the primary assassin, and Nate Whitlock’s further information.

  Chapter 20

  MORE FLESH ON THE BONES

  Who are these people—high and low

  Who take it upon themselves to say

  Who lives and dies, are allowed to grow

  In their worlds of black and gray

  They love their own, but others hate

  From childhood on they follow rules

  Put on them as though by fate

  Nurtured by the culture’s school

  In their domain they reign supreme

  Denying any unwelcome foe

  Who brings along a different theme

  Such are they who encounter woe.

  A critical witness came forward near the end of 2009 and agreed to be deposed. The extraordinarily long deposition was taken on December 10, 2009, in Memphis, Tennessee, pursuant to the Tennessee Rules of Civil Procedure and pursuant to Post Judgment Notice by the plaintiffs in the case of Coretta Scott King, et al., against Loyd Jowers et al. (See Appendix I, for the complete transcript of the deposition.)

  The witness, Ronnie Lee Adkins, a.k.a. Ron Tyler, was deposed, with his counsel Stephen Toland present. As we shall see, it was Mr. Adkins’s testimony that unveiled the fatal connection of Hoover/Tolson, the Dixie Mafia, and the MPD and associated operatives in the assassination of Dr. King.

  According to the deposition, Ronnie’s father was Russell Lee Adkins, the first of three sons. At an early age Russell became involved with the running of heavy land-moving equipment, part of a local good-old-boy network. This led to a job a running the Mallory depots, military bases owned by the federal government that were used as staging areas where equipment was stored for various wars, including World War II and the Korean War.

  According to Ronnie, in the late 1930s or early 1940s, his father Russell became superintendent of one such plant on Jackson Avenue and eventually retired from that post to take a job at the city sanitation department running heavy equipment. He left the Mallory Depot around 1943 or 1944 and he went over to work for twenty years for the city of Memphis. Affiliated with the Engineering Division, he worked under Maynard Stiles.

  His older half-brother, Russell Jr. (twenty years older), quit school to join the Marine Corps, where he remained for nearly thirty-four years and where he was assigned to the CID, the Central Intelligence Division, of the Marine Corps, from 1955 to 1956. Born around 1932, he died in 2002.

  Ronnie said that Maynard Stiles, his father’s Public Works Department boss, often came out to their house and was close to his father, who retired in 1965 and died in July 1967.

  As for Ron, he said that he was frequently in trouble in school, changed schools regularly, and liked to fight. He did not graduate and was greatly upset by his father’s death. He brought a pistol to school and fired some shots, ending up in juvenile court. He was allowed to join the marines. He served six years (1969 to 1975) and was assigned to the CID.

  He said his father and associates were lifelong active Klan members and Masons. He sat in on meetings and recalled that his father said they would only have doctors who were Catholics because they would never tell about what was going on. It is for this reason that he only remembers Dr. Breen and Dr.Basil Bland taking care of their family, especially Breen, who was closest to them.

  His father became a 32nd Degree Mason. The Klan and the Masons worked closely together. Ron said that his father took him to his first lynching when he was just six years old.

  His father and grandfather got along well with Boss E. H. Crump, who ran Memphis. From the age of five until he was nine years old, his father took him along to meetings in the house and elsewhere. He would end up bringing coffee and doughnuts and sit around listening. He remembers John Wilder before he became Lieutenant Governor, attending along with Mayor Henry Loeb and Frank Liberto. Carlos Marcello and Clyde Tolson, FBI director Edgar Hoover’s deputy, also attended.

  Despite his father’s modest position, he had an enormous ability to get things done behind the scenes. He was a “fixer.” This power clearly emanated from his positions in the Masons, the Klan and the Dixie Mafia.

  According to Ronnie, the Klan and the Masons had different styles. The Klansmen were the heavies and the Masons were more subtle. Together they put Loeb into office.

  Ron said his father developed a close relationship with O. Z. Evers, a local black leader, and gave him money to start a business. He also referred to Chester (Chess) Butler, a “master” killer used by his father. His father bought a house for Chess, his wife and children, Danny, and Linda.

/>   Clyde Tolson, Hoover’s Deputy (whom Ronnie was told to call “Uncle Clyde” from the first time he came to visit them in the 1950s) flew into the old airport where the old National Guard planes were based.

  A. Marcello came up for meetings. But, hell, so did Clyde Toleson. [Tolson’s name is spelled incorrectly in the transcript.]

  Q. We’re going to talk about Toleson.

  A. I was told you called him Uncle Clyde. From then on he was Uncle Clyde.

  A. Another Clyde. When daddy said to call Toleson “Uncle Clyde,” I said, “Hell, we got an Uncle Clyde.” Of course, I didn’t say nothing. I thought well, all right.

  Q. That’s another “Uncle Clyde”?

  (Deposition of Tyler–Ronnie Lee Adkins Volume 1, December 10, 2009, 75–91)

  Tolson was a substantial connection for his father. He provided his father with funds from Hoover for different actions, including local-area killings. (See Appendix J for photographs of Tolson with members of the Adkins family, including Ron as a child.)

  Of particular interest to this case is that he brought the money which was to be paid to Harold Swenson, the Warden of the Missouri State Prison, in Jefferson City, Missouri, in order for him to arrange for the escape of James in 1967. At Hoover’s request, James had been profiled as a potential scapegoat, although the nature of the crime was not revealed. Ron told us about this assignment because he was an actual observer. He saw the money being delivered by Tolson and then, at his father’s invitation, he rode to the prison where the money was paid to Swenson by his father. This took place in November or December of 1966. Ray (who was always kept in the dark about this arrangement) successfully escaped from prison on April 23, 1967, and then (with the wrong fingerprints released) was monitored, controlled, given the protected “Galt” identity, and moved around until the plans for the assassination and his use were finalized. I came to understand that this use of inmates was not an uncommon practice.

  Hoover’s deputy, Tolson, came to visit four or five times a year for such purpose. Ron said that his father took some of the money and gave it to O. Z. Evers to pay some of their guys for particular jobs or information. O. Z. and Russell Sr. spoke roughly every other day. O. Z. provided information about the movements and according to Ron, the “comings and goings of Martin Luther King. This was in the early 1960.”

  Ron said that O. Z. dispensed money to, among others, Solomon Jones, Jesse Jackson, and Billy Kyles. The money was paid for their obtaining and passing on information.

  Tolson told his father that Jones, Jackson, and Kyles were also paid informants of the FBI, paid out of the Memphis office, but the money that came from Tolson was separate from the money they received from Holloman and the Memphis FBI Office. The Adkins money envelopes were wrapped up with rubber bands and paper with initials on it, “BK,” “JJ,” and so forth.

  His father gave part of that money to Jesse Jackson, and he gave part of that money to Billy Kyles.

  Q. (I continued)Now wait. Your father gave money to O. Z.?

  A. My father gave money to O. Z. O. Z. distributed that money under my father’s instructions.

  Q. So your father told O.Z. to give it to Jesse Jackson and Kyles?

  A. How this worked was he would tell my father who needed money and what the money was going to be used for to gather what information.

  Q. I see.

  A. That money was given to Solomon Jones, Jesse Jackson, and Billy Kyles.

  Q. Again, if we can get as close as we can to a time line here.

  A. I am going to say.

  Q. Jackson and Kyles, is that—

  A. That’s going to be early 1960s.

  Q. That would be in the early 1960s even?

  A. Yes, sir.

  Q. Right. So Jackson and Kyles are being paid off by O. Z. following your father’s instructions to provide information on Martin King’s comings and goings, his movements?

  A. Yes, sir. And besides that, daddy had so many connections—daddy had some good federal connections. This is something I hadn’t shared with you but I’ll share it with you today. We’re sharing today, right?

  Q. Right.

  A. Clyde Toleson told daddy that Billy Kyles, Jesse Jackson and Solomon Jones were all paid informants for the FBI, that they were being paid out of the Memphis office from—

  (Ibid., 109–111)

  FBI Special Agent Frank Holloman and others would come to their house every Sunday, as well as Carlos Marcello. For as long as Ron could remember, Carlos Marcello used to come to visit his father, bringing cigars. The local Mafia lieutenant, Frank Liberto, was also a frequent visitor.

  Ron told us, providing supporting documentation (see Appendix L) about a trip his father made with Clyde Tolson in 1964—apparently this was one of a number of trips taken by the two. They left New York on May 27, 1964, for Southampton, England, via Le Havre in France, returning on September 16, 1964. Ron was twelve years old at that time.

  A. Clyde—like I say, daddy said, HNIC, that was Hoover. I mean, daddy said, you know, he sent his sissy down here, he sent his faggot down here. That’s the old man. He said it the way he saw it. That’s all there was to it. I think Toleson was probably the closest guy to Hoover that dealt with daddy and I think that man in that picture.

  (Ibid., 120)

  Q. Ron, you’ve identified this as the ticket and brochure documentation of a trip from New York to Southampton via Le Havre and from Southampton back to New York, Le Havre departure, May 27, 1964, and return, September 16th, 1964.

  A. Yes, sir.

  Mr. Pepper: We’ll have that admitted.

  (The above-mentioned documents were marked as Exhibits 19 and 20.)

  Q. (Mr. Pepper) I’ll ask you, you were about twelve years old, and your dad took that trip alone with Mr. Toleson?

  A. Uh-huh, with Clyde Toleson, Uncle Clyde.

  Q. Do you know—Uncle Clyde. Do you know what the purpose of that trip was?

  A. All I know is when daddy got back off that trip, he called Junior to the house. He called Junior, he called Russell Jr., he called Jim, Jim Ryan, he called Holly. Mr. Cohen was there.

  Q. Okay. Now, he called this meeting when he got back from the trip?

  A. Yes, sir.

  Q. What was the purpose of the meeting?

  A. He said, “The coon had to go.”

  Q. He said, “The coon had to go”?

  A. He said, “The coon had to go.” That’s what he said in the meeting, “The coon has got to go.”

  Q. When he said, “coon,” he was referring to?

  A. Martin Luther King is the only one I know of. They called him the HNIC of the HNICs.

  Q. Yeah.

  A. He was referred to as the “coon.”

  Q. And he had to go?

  (Op. cit., 6–7, 9)

  He said that when his father returned from that cruise, his father called Junior (Russell Junior), Jim Ryan, Holly, Mr. Cohen (an insurance salesman and high-ranking Mason), and Mr. Fiveash to his home for a meeting. Fiveash, he said, was close to Frank and Charles Liberto, as well as with other mob figures named Robillio, Sarno, Popiano, and Gangliano. Fiveash was close to his father for many years and also a liaison with the mob. He lived about six blocks away.

  Ron said that the of day meeting his father began by saying, “The coon has got to go.”

  Late in the day, a radio announcer named Eddie Bond, who was to coordinate a kind of public relations campaign for what they called “the cause,” arrived to the meeting.

  The Dr. King action, for this Dixie Mafia/Adkins/Hoover MPD group, really began in earnest in 1964. Meetings were held at the Berclair Baptist Church (prayer meetings), the Masonic Temple (the goat pen) and at the house at 558 Storz Street. During this time, his father had meetings with Mayor Henry Loeb and Sam Chambers, who was Loeb’s successor after the first term. Ron would bring coffee and doughnuts. These meetings eventually (by late 1967 and early 1968) focused on how to get the garbage workers “pissed off.”

 
He described the focus on bringing Dr. King to Memphis where the hit could be handled. Tolson said they wanted it handled in Memphis where his father (Russell Sr.) could oversee it.

  A. They were talking about how they were going to disrupt the city. The plan was to disrupt the city because they was going to get King to the city because Toleson said that they wanted it handled in Memphis where daddy and them could handle it, where specifically daddy and them could handle it. The word that came down. Apparently the word come down from Hoover. That was his boss. I don’t think Clyde was doing that on his own.

  Q. So they were working on a plan to disrupt the city through a—

  A. So they could bring the—daddy called them the instigators. So daddy could bring the investigators down there so the workers would get King to town, is what it all boiled down to, and by getting him to town, then they could take care of him. I think they started—I think was going to try to kill him at the temple right outside the temple before the next day. I’m not sure that that was going to happen, but I think that was going to be a plan before he got popped the next day. So that would have been the 3rd. He got killed on the 4th, wasn’t it?

  Q. Right.

  A. So that would have been the 3rd?

  Q. The thrust of most of these meetings you are talking about had to do with the sanitation workers?

  A. Control of how it went down.

  Q. And getting them into effectively—goading them into a strike?

  A. Yes, sir. Which would bring help from the NAACP and bring help—I say the NAACP. That’s what they said. I’ve got some tape. Well, they are not on tapes, but we put them on CD, the records and stuff that they would play at these meetings and stuff, and one of them is called “The Flight of the 409.”

  Q. This seems to be a note from Toleson and I think you have a handwriting expert—

  Mr. Toland: That’s correct.

  Q. (Mr. Pepper) This is one of the ones being analyzed by the handwriting expert. What does that note say?

  A. I don’t know.