Playboy Payola: Jack Kershaw, Pt. 2
Weird Little Guys
iHeartPodcasts and Cool Zone Media
4.6 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 9 April 2026
⏱️ 47 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Decades before he sculpted a Confederate general out of old bathtubs, Jack Kershaw briefly represented his most famous client - Martin Luther King Jr's assassin, James Earl Ray. The relationship soured after Ray discovered his lawyer had pocketed a payment from Playboy magazine.
Sources:
James McKinley, "Playboy Interview: James Earl Ray," Playboy Magazine, September 1977
https://www.nytimes.com/1977/08/09/archives/polygraph-indicates-ray-lied.html
https://www.nytimes.com/1977/10/25/archives/james-earl-ray-wants-mark-lane-to-replace-his-tenth-lawyer.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/28/sports/the-barkley-marathons-few-know-how-to-enter-fewer-finish.html
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This is an IHeart podcast. |
| 0:02.5 | Guaranteed human. |
| 0:04.4 | No gloss, no filter. |
| 0:07.4 | Just stories. |
| 0:09.1 | Spoken without fear. |
| 0:10.9 | Person who is not generous can not be an artist. |
| 0:13.8 | The world will be at peace only when it is ruled by poets and philosophers. |
| 0:18.4 | Listen to my weekly podcast, the Pooja Abhawad show |
| 0:21.1 | and the I Heart Radio app, |
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| 0:24.2 | or wherever you get your podcasts. |
| 0:27.4 | Come for the honesty. |
| 0:29.2 | Stay for the fire. |
| 0:34.9 | QuarZo Media. |
| 0:47.3 | Right around this time of year, 58 years ago, it was pouring rain in Memphis, Tennessee. You could hear the wind wrapping at the windows and occasional peals of thunder in the recording of Dr. Martin Luther King |
| 0:55.6 | Jr.'s final speech. He arrived in the city around lunchtime on April 3rd and checked in to the |
| 1:03.8 | Lorraine Motel. He was exhausted and starting to come down with something and the weather |
| 1:09.8 | was getting worse by the moment, but he gave the speech anyway. |
| 1:14.4 | That night, he addressed a crowd of over 2,000 people packed into the Mason Temple. |
| 1:20.6 | It was, of course, a moving speech. |
| 1:25.3 | They always were. |
| 1:28.1 | And his words were about more than just the Memphis sanitation worker strike. |
... |
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