Newspaper Page Text
Friday, April 5, 1968 Griffin Daily News
Memphis Police Look
For King’s Killer
By HENRY P. LEIFERMANN
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (UPD—Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr., the
nonviolent prophet of the civil
rights movement, was assassin
ated Thursday with a single shot
that triggered violence from
New York to Mississippi.
Riots erupted in Memphis,
Nashville, Tallahassee, Fla.,
and Raleigh, N.C., despite
President Johnson's televised
plea for calmness. Racial
disturbances were reported in
Harlem and Brooklyn and a 24-
hour curfew was clamped on
Memphis.
Memphis Police Chief Frank
Holloman announced early Fri
day that “certain evidence has
been found which we believe
will be helpful in apprehending
the suspect.”
Rifle Ends Life
The 39-year-old Nobel Peace
Prize winner was mortally
wounded by a single bullet from
a .30-06 Remington pump rifle
with a telescopic sight, fired
from the window of a commun
al bathroom in a flophouse
across the street from his hotel.
The bullet tore a gaping
wound in his neck and King fell
in a pool of blood on the second
floor balcony outside his room
at the Lorraine Hotel. He was
shot at about 7 p.m. EST. He
died an hour later.
“From evidence we have at
this time, only one man was
involved,” said Holloman. The
assassin was described as a
white man, six feet tall, 165-175
pounds, between 26 and 32 years
old.
He fled from the flophouse,
dropping the rifle and a suitcase
in the doorway before he leaped
into a late model white car and
sped away. Holloman refused to
divulge the contents of the
suitcase.
But he said the assassin had
bought a pair of binoculars in
DUFFEY’S
AZALEA SALE
50c “ ch
ONE GALLON CAN SIZE
(Only 8,000 to go at this low, low price)
See us at our new location ...
SMITH BROS. PACKING SHED in Concord, Ga.
PHONE 495-5187
ALL OTHER PLANTS AT REDUCED
PRICES FOR THIS SALE.
AZALEA LINERS, 10 In Pkg. 25c each
BE A HAPPY BUNNY
GET YOUR
EASTER MONEY
at
State Loan Co.
122 West Solomon Street
PHONE 227-1026
See z
• EARL STOKES OR
MRS. FRANCES HENDERSON
QUARTER & ROADSTER
HORSE RACES
Sunday, April 7- 2 P. M.
6 RACES and 6 JACKPOT EVENTS
OVER S6OO IN PRIZE MONEY
TOWALIGA RACE TRACK
Highway 20-2 Miles East of Hampton
I
ADMISSION: Adults $1.50 - Children 75c
the city Thursday.
President Johnson sent Atty.
Gen. Ramsey Clark to Memphis
today to meet with King’s
family and aides and discuss
the case with law enforcement
officials.
Presidential candidate Robert
F. Kennedy hired a charter
plane to take the widow from
Atlanta to Memphis today and
bring back King’s body. It was
not known when they would
arrive.
Presidential Appeal
Shock waves spread acorss
the world. President Johnson
cancelled his planned departure
today for Honolulu to discuss
Vietnam peace negotiations. He
appeared on nationwide televi
sion two hours after the killing
and urged citizens to “reject
the blind violence that has
struck Dr. King, who lived by
nonviolence.”
But Negroes battled police in
Memphis, Tallahassee, Nash
ville and Raleigh. The National
Guard was called out in
Memphis, Nashville, Raleigh
and Greensboro, N.C. the
assistant police chief of Nash
ville was injured when Negroes
stoned his car. Two Negroes
were shot and wounded by
police in Nashville and another
was wounded in Raleigh, where
two policemen were injured in a
clash that resulted in the use of
disabling gas.
Most of the violence in the
South centered around Negro
colleges. At Itta Bena, Miss.,
police shot and wounded two
Negro students when about 300
marched off the campus of
Mississippi Valley State College,
screaming "kill them” and
hurling bricks and shooting at
the two policemen facing them.
New York Mayor John
Lindsay walked the streets of
Harlem in an effort to restore
3
order and 7,000 policemen, due
off duty at midnight, were kept
on to cope with a rash of
looting, window smashing and
burning.
Looting In Memphis
Chief Holloman said Memphis
was “under attack. People are
looting, breaking into stores and
shooting, principally at police
cars.” However, the streets of
the city appeared deserted early
Friday.
King was in Memphis as a
proving ground for his massive
“poor people’s campaign.” a
6,000-man march on Washington
later this month. When the
march he led here last week
burst into a riot, his friends and
critics alike expressed doubt
that he could keep the
Washington demonstration non
violent. King insisted he could.
Wednesday night he told his
followers at a mass rally that
“like anybody, I would like to
live a long life...but I’m not
concerned with that.
"...I’ve seen the promised
land,” he told them. “I r ay not
get there with you, but I want
you to know tonight that we as
a people will get to the
promised land.”
Thursday at dusk, as he was
about to leave the hotel In a
Negro district to go to a
friend’s house for dinner, King
strolled onto the balcony. He
talked with his friends below.
Wednesday night he told his
the Rev. Jesse Jackson, said
King saw him standing with
Ben Branch, a musician who
was to play at a rally a few
hours later.
He asked Branch to play
A Memphis civil rights ’eader,
Hand.”
“I really want you to play
that tonight,” King said.
Last Words
Then he told his chauffeur,
Solomon Jones Jr., to start their
car. “I said ’lt’s cold outside,
Dr. King, put your topcoat on,”’
Jones recalled.
Jackson said he started to
speak to King again—“ Dr.
King” he called—and then he
heard the shot. “It sounded like
a stick of dynamite or a
firecracker,” he said.
“The bullet exploded his
face,” Jackson said. King
wheeled and fell on his back.
King’s aides, in his room,
rushed out, threw a blanket
over their fallen leader and an
ambulance rushed him to St.
Joseph’s hospital.
Over an hour later. Dr. Paul
Hess, assistant hospital admi
nistrator, announced King was
pronounced dead at 8:05 p.m.
EST.
He - said doctors did “every
thing humanly possible” to save
him.
Atlanta Mayor Ivan Allen
rushed to King’s home when he
heard the news and drove Mrs.
King to the airport. But while
waiting for a plane to Memphis,
word came that King was dead
and the mayor took Mrs. King
back home to her four children.
Sources said they planned to fly
to Memphis today.
AVID READERS
The people of North Africa
are among the world’s most av
id readers of daily newspapers.
More than 45 daily newspapers
are published in the United Ar
ab Republic, Libya, Tunisia, Al
geria and Morocco alone.
SLAVEHOLDINGS
Slaveholding in the south be
fore the Civil War was confin
ed to a very small segment of
the population. Only 384,000
southerners, out of a population
of more than eight million, held
3.9 million Negroes in slavery
in 1860.
B<" ■■ ■ ‘ v. - '' ' *• -m*
i . Z
■
' D
fk. Wl
O i
Ek
(U. S. Army Photo)
Safety Award
Donald W. Dorton (1), 821 West Taylor street,
Griffin, received a safety award from Lt. Col. Louis
A. Normand, director for supply and transportation,
Atlanta Army Depot. A graduate of Griffin High
School, Dorton served six years active duty with the
Navy, and has been employed at the Depot for eight
years. He is affiliated with Sacred Heart Catholic
Church, Veterans of Foreign Wars and the Griffin
Moose Lodge. He is employed at the Depot as a
warehouseman.
Maddox Delays
Caucus Call
Os Governors
ATLANTA (UPD—Gov. Lest
er Maddox, after consulting with
North Carolina Gov. Dan Moore,
has announced he will wait un
til after the April 15 meeting
of the nation’s Democratic gov
ernors to call a Southern gov
ernors’ caucus.
“Many of our Southern gov
ernors are in Vietnam and
Southeast Asia and would not
be back in time for a meeting,”
Maddox said.
The governor this week ad
vanced the idea of a meeting
of Southern Democratic govern-
Unprecedented 1 Happening r
now at your Chevrolet dealers,
an explosion of extra
■ I *
buying powerj
iRk *VH
Only the leader could do it! ; sA*
y,.,,
riM' ~
1 e " /..' r I m. ->< Impala ConvartiWa
You’ve never seen savings like this 1. Any Chevrolet or Chevelle 3. Any regular Chevrolet with rolet or Chevelle with V 8 engine,
on'6B Chevrolets and Chevellesl with 200-hpTurbo-FireVß, Power- 250-hp Turbo-Fire VB, Turbo 5. Buy any Chevrolet or Chevelle
You save on America's most pop- glide and whitewalls. Hydra-Matic and whitewalls. V 8 2-door or 4-door hardtop |— ———
ular VBs with automatic trans- 2. Any Chevrolet or Chevelle 4. Now, for the first time ever, model-save on vinyl top, electric QU
missions. Check these Bonus with 250-hpTurbo-FireVß,Power- big savings on power disc brakes clock, wheel covers and appear- JfyJ
Savings Plans. glide and whitewalls. and power steering on any Chev- ance guard items. =.2.™:—
ors in a move to get an accept
able coalition candidate for the
presidency before going to the
national Democratic convention
this summer.
The April 15 meeting of
Democratic governors from
throughout the nation will be
held in St. Louis.
Maddox said Moore, chairman
of the Southern Governors Con
ference, had advised him it
would be better to hold the re
gional meeting after the St.
Louis conference.
Man Dies Os
Injuries In
DC Violence
WASHINGTON (UPD —A
White man died today of
injuries received during a night
of violence and looting in a
Negro area near the Washington
headquarters of slain civil
rights leader Martin Luther
King.
Authorities said the dead man
and a companion had stopped at
a gas station near the King
headquarters, and were pulled
from the car and beaten.
The two managed to get back
in their car and fled the area.
But one was dead on arrival at
Fairfax County Hospital in
suburban Virginia.
Several hundred persons had
gathered around King’s head
quarters as word of his slaying
swept the capital. They broke
windows, stoned police cars and
looted stores over a 15 block
area on upper 14th St., N.W.
Police officials rushed Wash
ington’s entire 2,800-man force
into action and brought the
disturbance under control early
today. Eighty-eight persons
were arrested, 44 -of them
adults charged with burglary.
A number of persons, includ
ing at least three policemen and
one fireman, were treated for
minor injuries.
WEIGHTY WHALE
It is said that the blue or sul
phur-bottom whale is the lar
gest known creature ever to in
habit the earth. At maturity,
these whales reach 100 feet in
length and have a weight of 136
tons.
DIFFERENCE
In the U. S. House of Repre
sentatives, a commissioner dif
fers from a delegate in that a
commissioner represents an
area not Intended to become a
state. Delegates and commis
sioners have no voting rights in
the House.
at your pbo. t colli
Hiiisten
Funeral Home
(MUFFIN PHONE 3UI-MM
l||r
Bwßiw M * V
I™*' La **
k. «j'
EVICTED AT 91 —Miss Ethel Cazier looks through the last of
her pitiful belongings after being evicted from the apart*
ment where she lived for 42 years in Chicago—back rent.
Passersby made oft with some of her things and a poverty
war worker sold what was left for $47.10. A hotel room
was found for Miss Cazier.
fen neut
ALWAYS FIRST QUALITY®
NOW EVERY ONE
CAN HAVE FINE
CARPET!!
• Penney's Famous Quality
• You Can Count on Penney's!
We offer expert installation and the
finest cushion - All at one low price.
• No Down Payment
Penney's now has a complete selection
of the finest carpets made in America.