Judge Horne did have the authority to hold him in contempt. 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. . On July 19, he returned to U.S. and the following March he pleaded guilty to murdering King. 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. Ireland. Wait Who? There it was once again: A belief from the Rev. Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting. Twice a week we compile our most fascinating features and deliver them straight to you. Why did James Earl Ray have cancer? That is why he could never have been a major drug dealer. An hour later, he was declared dead. Manhunt in the mountains: James Earl Ray and the Brushy Mountain Prison breakout of 1977, How The Tennessean covered Martin Luther King Jr.'s death in its pages, Your California Privacy Rights / Privacy Policy. After this, Ray was on the run and was captured in the UK. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. But for veteran crime writer and crusading editor J. Patrick OConnor, the factsor a lack of themdidnt add up. He knew we viewed Ray as a not-too-bright hillbilly. Although Ray had two attempted escapes on his record, he did not have nearly as much heat on him as Westberg. In June 1977 Ray escaped from Brushy Mountain (Tennessee) Prison and remained at large for 54 hours before being recaptured in a massive manhunt. On the night of the shooting, I had left the rifle with Raoul.. 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. In King vs. Loyd Jowers and conspirators unknown, there were 70 witnesses called; twelve jurors found in favor of the King family, which held a press conference after the verdict. Read More:People died for your right to vote. 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. His prints were found all over the hotel room in Memphis where the shots that killed King were thought to have come from, and they covered the murder weapon -a Remington hunting rifle he purchased in Birmingham, AL. After this Ray was on the run and was captured in the UK. Ray pleaded guilty to murder and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. One day he walked away, and it was rumored he took $5,000 of state money with him. They were not going to have me, or any other convict, expounding on the subject of Ray. In the year 1977, Ray escaped from the prison for the second time along with six other convicts from the Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary located in Petros, Tennessee. Tray after tray of bread would be stacked into a large box, and then the box would be loaded onto a pickup truck and hauled to the farms. He volunteered for Wallaces campaign and was very disappointed when Wallace could not win the campaign. Speech of Senator Robert C. Byrd, Senate Journal, Appendix Two, March 29, 1968. From the viewpoint of a man who served time with Ray in prison, then went on to become a journalist, and continued to follow the case, with some emphasis on Ray's mentality, how he escaped from prison, and why there is reason to believe white supremacists may have been behind King's murder. Ray, a hardened thief, robber and a sometimes-moody liar, assassinated the Rev. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. After buying the rifle, he came back to Atlanta where he came to know that King was planning a return trip to Memphis, Tennessee. Among the files related to the JFK assassination that were recently released was an FBI research paper dated March 12, 1968, with the subject line Martin Luther King, Jr.: A Current Analysis. The paper was written just a month before the controversial civil-rights activist was shot and killed on April 4, 1968. Since Ray's arrest for the assassination, he has become mythified. The jury was clearly convinced by the extensive evidence that was presented during the trial that, in addition to Mr. Jowers, the conspiracy of the Mafia, local, state and federal government agencies, were deeply involved in the assassination of my husband.. We had no contact, however, since he was on the other side of the building. [3] He would later open his own law practice before being elected as a judge on the State Criminal Court of Shelby County, Tennessee in 1990. There is an important flaw in that logic as well; the defendant was only sued for $100, which he was ordered to pay. Each year, the third Monday in January is a celebration to commemorate the life and accomplishments of Martin Luther King Jr., the tireless civil rights activist who was gunned down in Memphis, TN, in 1968. One week prior to Kings assassination on April 4, 1968 he had gone to Memphis to show support for local sanitation workers. When prominent people die violently, they become martyrs in some peoples eyes, and there is a reluctance on their part even to consider anything that blemishes the heroic image they have formed of the individual. Kershaw made Ray to take a polygraph test as part of an interview with Playboy. Ray, whose previous history as a criminal was notable only for its ineptness, fled to Canada after the killing, assumed a new identity complete with credentials, then fled to England where he was arrested trying to fly out to another country. Its not clear when Coretta Scott King, widow of King, began to believe in Rays innocence. James Earl Ray could easily have placed complete faith in Stoner. This list details the strange, unstable life of James Earl Ray, a man who confessed to and then spent his life denyingthe murder of Martin Luther King Jr. I spent virtually all of 1962 in solitary. After he was recaptured, Ray hired attorney Jack Kershaw to promote his claim that he was not the person who actually shot King. pleaded guilty to the first degree murder of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The date was November 9, 1963. There were half a dozen guys who rented magazines, and they hawked their wares by the yard shack (a small rock building where the guards stayed). 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. As the paper continued, it provided documentation that what King planned for after the civil disobedience would not be so innocuous. I occasionally rented magazines from Ray, but other inmates usually had a larger selection, and better quality magazines. He said that another person he met in Canada by the name Raoul was the actual person who plotted the murder and ultimately pulled the trigger. Using their logic, the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. should be attributed to a Democratic U.S. 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. 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 a founder and the long-time chairman of the National States' Rights Party as well as the publisher of its newsletter, The Thunderbolt. We miss you, James. For the first 25 years after Kings death, Jowers did not claim any involvement in the murder. Los Angeles was the site of Ray's first arrest, for burglary, in 1949, and he ended up serving 90 days in jail. FACT CHECK: We strive for accuracy and fairness. As an indication of just how much Robert Welch, the Founder of The John Birch Society, was on top of Kings communist connection, he wrote the following words for May 1968 John Birch Society Bulletin just two months after the FBI report, which had been classified as secret: During this career of a brief dozen years, [King] was constantly surrounded by, and associated with, Communists. After several days, the prison officials concluded that Ray had actually escaped, and they put out an alarm. bullet and also revealed the absence of nitrites (the presence of . Jerry Ray had moved in with Stoner, and shot an intruder who broke into Stoner's office which was in the same building as the living quarters. While some speculate this was an attempt to hide his identity before killing King, others point to Ray's lack of care about disguising himself in other elements of the assassination plot. His first prison break happened in 1967, when he escaped the Missouri State Penitentiary on a bread truck before fleeing to Canada. It seems clear to me that there was a conspiracy to murder King, and that James Earl Ray was involved. The 20-page paper, which was classified as secret, was reviewed by the FBI/JFK Task Force in 1994, which denied the release of its contents. Yes, the President is part of the political party. Who Was James Earl Ray? In prison I knew men who would stab you to death over a carton of cigarettes, or for even a slight insult. James Earl Ray did it, case closed! Ray fled to Toronto, secured a Canadian passport through a travel agency, flew to London (May 5), then to Lisbon (May 7? Page 388 also a racist, was allegedly connected with the late Leander Perez, Louisiana political boss and virulent segregationist. Although Ray had been sentenced from St. Louis, he was not part of the St. Louis "crowd.". In the year 1968, Earl Ray brought a Remington Model 760 Gamemaster .30-06-caliber rifle and a box with 20 cartridges. The prison officials knew that Ray's escape, and involvement in the King assassination, would forever blemish their professional records as penologists. He is a male registered to vote in Wayne County, Michigan. James Earl Ray was the assassin of American Baptist minister and civil rights activist, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Ray was born in on March 10, 1928 in a poor Irish-American family of Alton, Illinois, and was raised a Catholic. By that time I was classified as incorrigible. Ray left school when he was just fifteen due to his familys financial condition. [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. "[21], Brown was warned that he would be held in contempt before these comments. And, although the FBI later claimed to have interviewed every convict in Jefferson City who had served time with Ray, they never tried to interview me, or Davis, or Laster, or Westberg or anyone I knew. Based on the results of a civil trial in 1999, Byrds speech would have almost necessarily have played an even more direct role if the verdict is to be accepted. Westberg, in turn, liked James Earl Ray. Top of Page USA.gov, The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration Some people had trouble, for example, believing Ray had arranged his international escape all by himself, since he had a track record of getting caught for more minor crimes. Because Ray had previously tried to escape by hiding out inside the prison, the officials assumed this was another bungled attempt, and they began a meticulous search of the prison, which covered 47 acres. The George Wallace Democrat of the 1960's aligns with the and is the Republican Party we know today. The New Times article also asserted that Jerry Ray, if he were involved, might have been duped himself-might have thought he was setting up something other than an assassination. 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. Thorpe Menn, then book editor of The Star, sent it to me to review. When James Earl Ray bought the rifle that killed King, he mentioned that he was going hunting with his brother. In the 1950s, Ray became notorious as a petty criminal, and by the end of the decade he was a failed pornographer who had served some jail time and successfully completed a prison escape. 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. In only two decades, the white population fell by over 300,000; DC became majority-black in the late 1950s.. "Somebody's gotta get him.". After the assassination, King's family did not trust the findings of the FBI, which had harassed the civil rights leader while he was alive. Benny was fascinated with the idea of escaping, although he never actually tried while inside the walls. Martin Luther King Jr. Ray was also Stoner's bodyguard and chauffeur. Back in Memphis, Ray pleaded guilty, forfeiting a trial, and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. I got to know him better when he came to Jeff City with a sentence for robbery. King was shot by Earl Ray when the former was standing in the balcony of his motel room. 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. Although it is often. James Earl Ray knowingly, intelligently, and voluntarily 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." . One of Kings sons Dexter had expressed his adamant belief that Ray was not his fathers assassin. Ostensibly only a New York City attorney and businessman, Levison is, in fact, a shrewd, dedicated communist. This is the real thing and as an officer of the court he should have known better. While attending law school, Brown worked as a substitute teacher. Brown was thrust into the national spotlight while presiding over James Earl Ray's last appeal of his conviction for the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Brown was removed from the reopened investigation of King's murder due to alleged bias. An egregious example of shoddy workmanship is the book The Making of an Assassin by George McMillan. Stoner is the following: Over the years, state and federal authorities have come to suspect that Stoner's violent rhetoric cannot be dismissed merely as fascist ravings. in the Q2 rifle. six grooves with a right twist. It would later be learned that Ray's classification card contained erroneous fingerprints, which were initially distributed nationally. Born in a poor family, Ray had a difficult childhood as his father could not support his family. James Earl Ray. 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. Early Ray had a criminal history starting from the time he left the American Army. Starting with his contribution to the presidential campaign of Wallace, Ray developed a strong animosity towards Martin Luther King Jr. He employed such Communists as Bayard Rustin and Hunter Pitts ODell; and he worked closely with Carl Braden and James Dumbrowski. 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. He shot. I wholeheartedly applaud the verdict of the jury and I feel that justice has been well served in their deliberations, she said. In the hours and days after the Tucson shootings, the left wing media in America attempted to blame the Tea Party and right wing rhetoric for the deaths of six and the injuries of thirteen. James Earl Ray, who pleaded guilty to assassinating King, was renting a room above Jower's establishment and was allegedly an unwitting scapegoat. nitrites would have indicated a close-range discharge). Benny and I studied programming together, and in 1966 we worked in the programming office together. (Several authors have said it was "common knowledge" in Jeff City that you could go to England and acquire an ID the way Ray did. What would it have taken for the Goldmans and the Browns to have believed Orenthals story that he was innocent? Joseph Blakeney Brown Jr. (born July 5, 1947), known as Judge Joe Brown, is a former American lawyer and television personality. Ray was finally caught hiding in London in February 1968. Also, after he moved to St. Louis he lived in south St. Louis, an area known for its racism. As a former judge here, we have a rule in the 30th Judicial Districtit says every single Magistrate Referee has to be unanimously approved by every Circuit, Chancery, and Criminal Court Judge. He got a 99-year prison sentence, which he served until he died of liver failure due to hepatitis C on . In 1999, James Earl Ray was found innocent of killing Martin Luther King Jr. in the same way O.J. He filmed local prostitutes during their work hours in pursuit of his cinematographic dream, but he eventually left Puerto Vallarta after being jilted by his girlfriend who, coincidentally, was also one of the prostitutes he filmed. In a story published based on the test, Playboy claimed that Ray had committed the crime alone. Jerry was returned to solitary in 1963 for making zip-guns, and a few days later I was put in B-Basement on suspicion of stabbing an inmate who'd volunteered to help the guards search the Tag Plant for the rest of the zip-guns, which were never found. Benny was eventually placed on the FBI's 10-Most-Wanted list and was captured in Canada, where he was posing as an engineer and had married a school teacher. You would also know who had just gotten a shipment of dope. Indeed, to them the perception is reality. (Emphasis in original.). James Earl Ray (March 10, 1928 - April 23, 1998) was an American fugitive convicted for assassinating Martin Luther King Jr. at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968. It endangers the premise of the place. His body was cremated and his ashes were flown to the land of his forefathers, viz. Some of the books written about the assassination describe him as a major drug dealer in Jefferson City, which is ludicrous. He might have eked out enough money to meet his basic needs (he didn't smoke), but not much more than that. Laster made several more desperate attempts to escape, including one attempt to saw out of death row (during which a guard captain was blinded). Declassified FBI Paper Reveals Communist Associates of Martin Luther King, UN Biodiversity Beijing-Wall Street Convergence. Westberg once described Ray to me as, "Kind of countryfied, but he's okay." James Earl White (born July 16, 1964) is a former member of the Texas House of Representatives for District 19, which encompassed Polk, Hardin, Jasper, Newton, and Tyler counties. Each day he would go to the state capital to work as a programmer. The Committee Believes, on the Basis of the Circumstantial Evidence Available to it, that there is a Likelihood that James Earl Ray Assassinated Dr. Martin Luther King, JR., as a Result of a Conspiracy. And killed on April 4, 1968 he had gone to Memphis to support. 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