Summary prepared by Fielding M. McGehee III. If you use this material, please credit The Jonestown Institute. Thank you.
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FBI Catalogue Identified Individuals Speaking
FBI preliminary tape identification note:Labeled in part “9/16/78 Mark Lane”
Date cues on tape: Contents of tape consistent with note
People named:
Don Freed, author and screenwriter, associate of Mark Lane
Martin Luther King, assassinated civil rights leader
Jimmy Carter, president of the United States
John F. Kennedy, assassinated US president
Richard Nixon, former U.S. President
John Mitchell, attorney general under Nixon
H.R. Haldeman, Nixon’s chief of staff
John Ehrlichman, Nixon’s domestic affairs adviser
Ramsey Clark, U.S. Attorney General under President Johnson [by reference]
Edgar Hoover, FBI director
Robert Jensen, FBI agent investigating King assassination
Arthur Murtagh, FBI agent investigating King assassination
Sam Devine, FBI agent
James Earl Ray, convicted assassin of Martin Luther King
Grace Walden, witness in investigation of King assassination
Jim McCraw, witness in investigation of King assassination
Charlie Stephens, witness in investigation of King assassination
Lloyd Jowers, witness in investigation of King assassination
Ed Reddit, Memphis police officer
(first name unknown) Richman/Richmond, Reddit’s partner
Frank Holloman, Memphis police and fire chief
Philip Canale, Memphis District Attorney
Merrell McCullough, undercover Memphis police officer
Renfro Hayes, investigator who assisted in Lane inquiry
Sammy Cook, friend of Renfro Hayes
Joseph W. Evans, judge in Grace Walden case
Alexander Anthony Eist, London police inspector
Jonathan Goldberg, English lawyer who exposed Eist
James Lawson, minister active in civil rights movement
Jesse Jackson, civil rights activist
Andrew Young, civil rights activist
Ralph Abernathy, civil rights activist
Billie Kyle, Memphis minister
Percy Sutton, former president, NAACP
George McMillan, author of book on King assassination
Priscilla Johnson McMillan, author and wife of George McMillan [by reference]
Lee Harvey Oswald, assassin of John F. Kennedy
Anastasio Somoza Debayle, President of Nicaragua
Reza Pahlavi, Shah of Iran
Svetlana Stalin, daughter of Josef Stalin, high-profile Soviet defector
Thomas Noguchi, L.A. county Chief Medical Examiner
Bible verses cited: None
Summary:
(This tape was transcribed by Kathryn Barbour. The editors gratefully acknowledge her invaluable assistance.)
Mark Lane, an attorney noted for his work to uncover alleged conspiracies in the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and civil rights leader Martin Luther king, speaks to the people of Jonestown one evening in September 1978. Lane had previously gone to Jonestown with writer Donald Freed, and each of the two men had pledged to tell the Peoples Temple story – Freed through a screenplay, Lane through his representation of the Temple in court, especially as the cases pertained to uncovering information which the government had allegedly collected on the group – and the purpose of Lane’s second trip may have been to cement the relationship between himself and Jim jones.
The speech which Lane gives focuses mainly on what he has learned in representing James Earl Ray, who had pleaded guilty – and then retracted his confession – in the King assassination. The case is on Lane’s mind, because he has recently appeared before a congressional committee which is investigating the assassinations of the 1960s, in hopes of clearing his client’s name. During the speech itself, Lane says little about the Temple, other than to suggest that the same forces that attempted to smear Dr. King might be familiar to Temple leaders – the intelligence establishment’s use of “the news media is very similar to the methods that have been used, probably by the same people, in an effort to destroy Peoples Temple” – but he closes with praise for the community, the accomplishments they have made, the principles under which they live, and the example they provide to the rest of the world.
FBI Summary:
Date of transcription: 6/18/79
In connection with the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s investigation into the assassination of U.S. Congressman LEO J. RYAN at Port Kaituma, Guyana, South America, on November 18, 1978, a tape recording was obtained. This tape recording was located in Jonestown, Guyana, South America, and was turned over to U.S. Officials in Guyana and subsequently transported to the United States.
On June 4, 1979, Special Agent (name deleted) reviewed the tape numbered 1B93-113. This tape was found to contain the following:
A recording of a lecture given by the attorney of JAMES EARL RAY, MARK LANE, where he states that GRACE WALDEN furnished him an interview about the assassination of MARTIN LUTHER KING, and also states that the FBI conspired to kill MARTIN LUTHER KING.
Differences with FBI Summary:
The summary is accurate and meets the FBI’s purposes.
Tape originally posted February 2019.