One of the most intriguing aspects of the New Times article on James Earl Ray/Jerry Ray/J.B. He simply hounded you (not that Ray was a coward, or afraid to fight, but he wasn't the type to start the fight). period immediately preceding the assassination, James Earl Ray fled the scene of the crime immediately after the assassination, James Earl Ray's alibi for the time of the assassination, his story of "Raoul," Christopher S. Bond (now U.S. So, even if I conceded the possibility that Ray had sold drugs, it would have been in small quantities, and for a brief period of time. He earned a bachelor's degree in political science from the University of California, Los Angeles and a Juris Doctor from UCLA School of Law. pleaded guilty to the first degree murder of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. What Political Party was James Earl Ray part of? In 1967, he returned to the United States (Los Angeles) from Mexico and took dancing classes in a bartending school. He made the FBI Most Wanted List before his recapture. Ray believed in white supremacy and had strong prejudice against the black people. FBI investigators at the time traced the shot to a rooming house across the street, and witnesses directed them to a large bundle dropped on the sidewalk after the shooting. Benny Edmondson thought it was hilarious that William Bradford Huie thought he was "Raoul." Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. James Earl Ray Sirhan Sirhan Jack Ruby. All Rights Reserved. King was visiting Memphis to settle a strike by garbage workers. I know they interviewed some inmates, but they did not interview the people most likely to know something (and also the most likely to tell them to go to hell). When I tried to mail my review to The Star, the prison officials refused to allow it to leave the prison. Ray, although not personally motivated by racism, comes from a rural background where blacks are not highly regarded. The damage to Dr. King's clothing, when tested microscopically Westberg was the first to learn that the bread box wasn't searched. James Earl Ray, a 40-year-old convicted armed robber who had escaped from the Missouri State Penitentiary in Jefferson City, Mo., on April 23, 1967, pleaded guilty on March 10, 1969, in Shelby County (Tenn.) Criminal Court to the first degree murder of Dr. King. On January 26, 1976, Time magazine devoted four pages to the King assassination, drawing heavily on material from McMillan's book, which was scheduled for publication later that year: In 1963 and 1964 Martin Luther King was on TV almost every day, talking defiantly about how black people were going to get their rights, insisting that they would accept with nonviolence all the terrible violence that white people were inflicting on them, until the day of victory arrived, until they did overcome. Ray pleaded guilty to murder and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. In my many discussions with people such as Laster, Westberg and Davis on the subject of escape--and how to avoid capture afterward--no one mentioned that method.). HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate. The incident was incredibly damaging to the cause of King and his Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). The Galileo Case Revisited | Beyond the Cover. He was a skinny guy with sandy hair and a cultured, slightly arrogant manner. Jerry Ray was J.B. Stoner's campaign manager when Stoner ran for Governor of Georgia against Jimmy Carter. Why did James Earl Ray have cancer? James Earl Ray, (born March 10, 1928, Alton, Illinois, U.S.died April 23, 1998, Nashville, Tennessee), American assassin of the African American civil-rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. Ray was one of a group of five inmates who escaped from Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary in June 1977, which Kershaw claimed was additional proof that Ray had been involved in a conspiracy that had provided him with the outside assistance he would have needed to break out of jail. https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/james-earl-ray-30416.php. Martin Luther King Jr., and there should be no question about that fact. I spent virtually all of 1962 in solitary. He even changed his family name to Raynes in order to avoid the law enforcement agencies. In the five decades since Martin Luther King Jr.was shot dead by an assassin at age 39, his children have worked tirelessly to preserve his legacy, sometimes with sharply different views on how best to do that, an article in the March 30 Washington Post said. In March 2014, Brown won the Democratic primary for the position of Shelby County district attorney. The Revenge of George Wallace It is clear why tyrants wish to keep people from learning about Price and reading the powerful words he wrote defending freedom and Is Christianity the enemy of science? Who assassinated Robert F. Kennedy on June 5, 1968? Rays father forged a check and hence had to shift his family to Ewing, Missouri to escape enforcement authorities. [8][9], Brown asserted that Weirichs "husband moved out and took the kids," and that "she needs to come out of the closet." Then, the (U.S.) House Assassinations Committee spent two years and $2.5 million investigating the case. When James Earl Ray bought the rifle that killed King, he mentioned that he was going hunting with his brother. The cartridge case (Q3) found in the Q2 rifle had been fired James Earl Ray, (born March 10, 1928, Alton, Illinois, U.S.died April 23, 1998, Nashville, Tennessee), American assassin of the African American civil-rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. Ray had been a small-time crook, a robber of gas stations and stores, who had served time in prison, once in Illinois and twice in Missouri, and received a suspended sentence in Los Angeles. I grew up in one of the toughest neighborhoods in South Central Los Angeles. For the first 25 years after Kings death, Jowers did not claim any involvement in the murder. Jack Kershaw Is Dead at 96; Challenged Conviction in King's Death. Julia Brown, author of I Testify: My Years as an F.B.I. He escaped from the Missouri State Penitentiary on April 23, 1967; and in Memphis, Tennessee, nearly a year later, on April 4, 1968, from a window of a neighbouring rooming house, he shot King, who was standing on the balcony of a motel room. In order to hang onto your drugs, people had to know that you would kill them without hesitation. He was a loner. Such a conclusion must be drawn from a premise that the King family was willing to publicly, wrongfully, and unjustifiably vindicate Ray in order to accuse others simply to gain notoriety. He might have eked out enough money to meet his basic needs (he didn't smoke), but not much more than that. Ireland. . But what do you know about James Earl Ray, the man who assassinated Martin Luther King? Dexter King went so far as to name Memphis Police Department Officer, Lt. Earl Clark as his fathers assassin. All three bore the fingerprints of an escaped convict named James Earl Ray. Soon after his release from prison, he was again convicted for mail fraud in Hannibal, Missouri and served three prison sentences at the Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary. On April 4, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot while standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. In an article in The New American back in 1999, John F. McManus, former publisher of this magazine and president emeritus of The John Birch Society, provided further detail about ODell association with King: In 1960, King hired one Hunter Pitts ODell to his staff. Ten years after his death, Rays brother John Larry Ray wrote a book along with writer Lyndon Barsten called Truth At Last: The Untold Story Behind James Earl Ray and the Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. We miss you, James. While attending law school, Brown worked as a substitute teacher. Over the years, parties other than Ray have filed additional lawsuits related to the assassination. 15. [3] Brown has spoken about how his upbringing shaped his philosophy. in the Q2 rifle. Since retiring from the staff several years ago, he has been a regular contributor to the magazine. Doesnt the controversy between Galileo and the Catholic Church prove this? January 30, 1961. All the seven prisoners who escaped from the prison were recaptured within two days and sent back to the prison. USA.gov, The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration Unfortunately, the scene described by McMillan could not have happened. After he was recaptured, Ray hired attorney Jack Kershaw to promote his claim that he was not the person who actually shot King. Thorpe Menn, then book editor of The Star, sent it to me to review. James Earl Ray was a racist, but there was circumstantial evidence that a businessman in St. Louis had established a $50,000 bounty for King's death." . The only thing publicity could do was further humiliate them. This should have been driven home years ago when a surreptitious tape recording was made of J.A. If it hadn't been for the two escape attempts, Ray would almost certainly have been paroled by the time he actually did escape. In 1983, President Ronald Reagan signed the holiday into law, and it was first recognized three years later. In prison I knew men who would stab you to death over a carton of cigarettes, or for even a slight insult. After this Ray was on the run and was captured in the UK. Sometime before 4:00 p.m. on April 4, 1968, James Earl Ray parked his white Mustang on South Main Street and, under an assumed name, rented a room in the second floor rooming house directly above the grill. The prosecutors have enough efficient evidence in establishing guilt against James Earl Ray concerning the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. First, James Earl Ray was in close enough vicinity of the Lorraine Hotel to successfully fire a clear shot to kill Dr. King from only a block away. He shot. They laid out the evidence before he entered his plea, and he said, OK. He said his lawyers were incompetent, and that proved false. James. Indeed, to them the perception is reality. (Emphasis in original.). He is a former Shelby County, Tennessee Criminal Court judge and a former arbiter of the arbitration-based reality court show Judge Joe Brown. Corrections? Stokely Carmichael of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), an extremist Black Nationalist organization, has conferred with King. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. In June 1977 Ray escaped from Brushy Mountain (Tennessee) Prison and remained at large for 54 hours before being recaptured in a massive manhunt. The Q2 rifle-had general class characteristics of six lands and Mr. Kershaw was a Tennessee lawyer who argued that James Earl Ray, convicted in the 1968 assassination of the Rev. These claims led Kings estate to sue Jowers in 1999 for a symbolic $100 in a wrongful death civil action. On June 8 he was apprehended by London police at Heathrow Airport as he was about to embark for Brussels; the FBI had established him as the prime suspect almost immediately after the assassination. Those who express skepticism at the results of the 1999 trial in which James Earl Ray was found innocent of assassinating King have an incredible hurdle to overcome the belief of the King family, which sides with Ray. Ray, who was on escape from a Missouri prison in 1968 claimed, however, that he had gone to a service station to get a tire repaired when the shot was fired. This claim got some support from the 1978 special congressional committee which opined that Ray might not have acted alone in the assassination as it required meticulous planning. Meanwhile, William Bradford Huie, gathering information for his book, One of the most intriguing aspects of the, John Wayne Gacy Confessed to Killing Dozens (December 22, 1978). His law license was entered on the disability inactive list (suspending his ability to practice law in Tennessee), and the discipline case was placed on indefinite hold until such a time as Brown is healthy enough to face the complaint. Starting with his contribution to the presidential campaign of Wallace, Ray developed a strong animosity towards Martin Luther King Jr. With it came a letter threatening King with public exposure if he didnt kill himself, and claiming that the sender had evidence of other affairs. Those of us who had been involved in escape attempts did not consider Ray a joke. In only two decades, the white population fell by over 300,000; DC became majority-black in the late 1950s.. But for veteran crime writer and crusading editor J. Patrick OConnor, the factsor a lack of themdidnt add up. On January 26, 1976, My findings are that there is nothing whatsoever to substantiate any conclusion that James Earl Ray financed either his escape or his activities after his escape through any means while he was an inmate at the Missouri State Penitentiary. Later in life his pleas for a trial were encouraged by some civil-rights leaders, notably the King family. ), where he secured a second Canadian passport (May 16), and back to London (May 17?). On the night of November 29, 1988, near the impoverished Marlborough neighborhood in south Kansas City, an explosion at a construction site killed six of the citys firefighters. The cells that I was associated with in Cleveland were continually being asked to raise funds for Martin Luther Kings activities. She also said, Mr. As for how Welch was able to gather such damning information about King when the FBI files on the activist were classified, much has to do with the fact that there were many patriotic members of the FBI and other agencies who recognized that Welch and the society he founded constituted a trustworthy place to reveal what they knew. nitrites would have indicated a close-range discharge). After this, Ray was on the run and was captured in the UK. He told the clerks at the Aeromarine Supply Company in Brimingham, Alabama (from where he brought the rifle) that he was going on a hunting trip with his brother. He was a founder and the long-time chairman of the National States' Rights Party as well as the publisher of its newsletter, The Thunderbolt. Now confident that he could not be recognized, he again began a cross-country drive to Atlanta, Georgia. Warden Swenson of the Jeff City prison immediately issued an edict that convicts could no longer correspond with editors. USA.gov, The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration As a reporter and columnist for this newspaper, I had the chance to interview the incarcerated Ray numerous times before his death on April 23, 1998. But within Martin Luther Kings family, there remains a persistent belief that Ray is innocent, and was set up to take the fall. Dexter and his family too believed that he did not commit the crime and urged the government to grant a new trial to Ray. The murder of Lee Harvey Oswald had closed the door to an open trial that might have answered the question of whether Oswald acted alone, or was part of a conspiracy. For some 50 years, the federal government has maintained that James Earl Ray was the gunman who assassinated King that day. Dexter King, son of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., meeting with James Earl Ray the man who confessed to killing King. Declassified FBI Paper Reveals Martin Luther Kings Sexual Aberrations, Martin Luther King Day Based on MLKs Image, Not Reality, Martin Luther King: The Celebration of a Myth. The coffee was contraband. Some have indicated that King vs. Jowers was nothing more than a promotional stunt. The first year and a half I paid little or no attention to Ray. He was unable to give me any specifics but just responded that "it was common knowledge.". While on the lam in the 1950s, Ray lived in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico under the pseudonym Eric Stalvo Galt. While there, Eric Galt ordered video equipment through the mail to start up a business as a small-time pornographer. [4] By 1978, Brown became the first African-American prosecutor in Memphis, and he later directed the Memphis public defender's office. The bread box would have to pass through the truck tunnel, where all incoming and outgoing vehicles were searched. PRPhotos. And by the way, what is that, Magistrate, sir, with due respect. Raised in the Crenshaw District of Los Angeles, Brown graduated as valedictorian[full citation needed] from Dorsey High School. In her autobiography, Coretta Scott King wrote how glad she was that both Dexter and young Martin Luther King, III, had a chance to go with their father on . He was named after the church where his father held his first pastorate. After the publication of the Playboy story, Ray fired Kershaw when he found that Playboy paid him $11,000 for facilitating the interview. The first time I saw James Earl Ray, he had just arrived at the Missouri State Penitentiary in Jefferson City. No vehicle traffic would have been allowed in or out until he was found. He reacted as if King's remarks were directed at him personally. people lost faith in the political system. Jimmy Carter, in full James Earl Carter, Jr., (born October 1, 1924, Plains, Georgia, U.S.), 39th president of the United States (1977-81), who served as the country's chief executive during a time of serious problems at home and abroad. Judge Brown's lawyer filed an appeal, but the appeal was refused. Brown, who retains his law license, was reviewing a child support matter as a favor to an acquaintance. The paper quotes Kings statement explaining his strategy: To dislocate the function of a city without destroying it can be more effective than a riot, because it can be longer lasting, costly to society, and not wantonly destructive., Kings admission that the strategy he planned for Washington, D.C, would be costly to society is startling in view of a fact noted in The Urban Institute report, Our Changing City, which observed: 1950 also marked the start of the white exodus to the suburbs. Rays fingerprints were the only ones found on the gun, and there were no witnesses who had seen him with Raoul during the nine months they supposedly knew each other (Rays description of Raoul also changed a few times). [2] He earned a bachelor's degree in political science from the University of California, Los Angeles and a Juris Doctor from UCLA School of Law. Brown apparently raised his voice and interrupted a magistrate judge while representing a woman seeking child support in Shelby County Juvenile Court. The prison officials knew that Ray's escape, and involvement in the King assassination, would forever blemish their professional records as penologists. In the year 1968, Earl Ray brought a Remington Model 760 Gamemaster .30-06-caliber rifle and a box with 20 cartridges. Because of the 1959 incident, Jerry had so much heat on him that if the guards lost sight of him for even a few minutes, they panicked. Over the years, as book after book has been published on the King case, numerous conspiracy theories have been advanced: that the FBI was involved; that the CIA feared King would come out in opposition to the Vietnam War; that rival black leaders felt King's non-violent approach was a hindrance to black progress; that white supremacists wanted him out of the way for obvious reasons. We had no contact, however, since he was on the other side of the building. I watched my parents tough it out on a daily basis, and I saw that what really kept them going was making a difference to others. A confirmed racist and small-time criminal, James Earl Ray began plotting the assassination of revered civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. in early 1968. To believe that the King family was motivated exclusively by publicity, one must believe that all of its members were involved in selling out the truth of their loved ones assassination for three figures. James Earl Ray was a racist, but there was circumstantial evidence that a businessman in St. Louis had established a $50,000 bounty for Kings death.. 2023 www.tennessean.com. The manhunt was the most expensive and biggest for the FBI (at that time). (Benny had taken two years of civil engineering in college.). After the King shooting, one person living at the rooming house where the shot was fired described the assassin as heavy set with receding hair. Although it is possible to live in the same prison with someone for 10 years and never speak to him, it is still an intimate atmosphere. The US will celebrate the life of Martin Luther King Jr on Monday, January 18, 2021, remembering all of the tremendous strides the activist-led in promoting civil liberties for all Americans. McMillan, and through him Time magazine, are also the primary sources for the general belief that Ray financed his after-escape activities with money earned in Jeff City. Ray had seven siblings. Drupal theme by ThemeSnap.com, That is why he could never have been a major drug dealer. The ballistics tests proved to be inconclusive and Ray remained in prison. Somehow, Ray managed to escape from prison on two different occasions. This tribunal on a General Sessions Court's authority is insufficient to establish you. The damage to the clothing was consistent with the caliber A two month long manhunt spanning five countries was launched by the law enforcement agencies to nab him. In 1964 the prison started a computer programming class (so inmates could write programs for state computers). the result of a conspiracy that involved Jowers, not Ray, as well as ''others, including governmental agencies. On the first one he'd fallen and stunned himself; on the second he'd hidden in a ceiling. That investigation declassified scores of memos detailing the bureaus abusive behavior, but did not reveal any evidence that the FBI had formally plotted his death. 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