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Birmingham, Alabama Sixteenth — Part 29
Page 174
174 / 249
BARHY SAID the man changed Hig:
story from ‘‘not knowing” to ‘not want-
ing to talk about it."’
_ Then, the man’s wife picked up the
phone extension, Barry said, and told
_ her husband the reporter was trying to
pin something on him. Barry said after .
that, “the conversation deteriorated,”
and the man wouldn't talk any more
about the incident.
The man, described by Barry as ‘‘a_
gad-about political figure In Georgia,”
later died from an apparent space heat-
er accident in his home. Miami police |
said the informer, Willie Sommerset,
died of natural causes.
In 1967, two Birmingham policemen
went to Miami and listened to the con-
versation a week after its existence was
reported. They returned and filed a one-
page memo in which they concluded
there was no proof the Klansman men-
tioned in the tape had anything to do
withthe church bombing. Besides, they
didn'i know where the man was, they |
reported.
BUT LAST WEEK Birmingham po-
lice asked for and received a copy of the
conversation from Miami police. Capt.
Jack LeGrand confirmed Birmingham
police now have od tape and are study-
ing it it.
The tape was made nine days be fore
Kennedy came to Miami Nov. 18, 1963, .
' to give a speech at the Orange Bowl, a
speech in which he promised to return
the Cuban Bay of Pigs brigade flag to
Cuban soil fotiowing the ill-fated Bay of
| Pigsinvasion of Anril1961.
After listening te the tape, Miami po-
: lice insisted Kennedy take a helicopter
_ to a spot near the Orange Bowl rather
_ than go by motorcade as planned.
cate speaks oi ‘‘a young ex-Marine who
; Feally knows his business,”
' “in town” and was well- known in
Chattanooga, Nashville and New Or-
f leans, and whoknewthe Klan. -
In the tape, the states’ rights advo-
sAcren-Hosenteld, a formersBizming-
hal whe. wae the firct
ham fire marshal who was tae tirst
investigator to reach the scene after the
church was bombed Sept. 15, 1963, said
the bombing was a dynamite explosion.
He sald he—and as far as he knows—
federal officials who sifted the debris,
did not come up with any bomb parts,
but he sald he could tell it was a dyna-
mite explosion because of the odor.
Knowledge of the Miami tape came
to light when Sommerset told Barry of
‘its existence. He and Sommerset went
over the taped conversation and Barry
reported the stOgyisestenat
At that time the FBI had practically
no comment about the tape.
The Miami tape leaves unanswered
questions.
Was information about the tape real-
ly turned over to the Warren Commis-
sion as the FBI claims? What evalua-
‘ tion did the FBI make of the incident?
Was the incident really a case of a
serious threat against the life of a presi-
dent?
Was it just wild talk in the night or
wasthere something to it?
who was |
THE MAN said the try to get Kenne- |
, dyi in Miami ‘‘is just a trial run,” and
* admitted, “It'll be a hard proposition to
. gethim."
; The man also talked of how “‘it's in
’ the works”’ to get King, calling him,
‘the Brown Bomber,’ and the men
' talked about where King lived in Ailan-
“ta,
Further, the man on the tape said the
Klansman told him the Birmingham
‘teembensint
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