He carried a picture of Hitler, his idol. 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." . Contents 1 Early life and education 2 Career 3 Personal life 3.1 Legal issues He escaped in 1967. Was Abraham Lincoln Black? Indeed, compelling evidence including Rays fingerprints on the rifle that was later determined to be the murder weapon seemed to point to him. The incident was incredibly damaging to the cause of King and his Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). James Earl Ray, fdd 10 mars 1928 i Alton, Illinois, dd 23 april 1998 p Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary nra Petros, Tennessee, var en amerikansk brottsling dmd fr mordet p Martin Luther King den 4 april 1968 i Memphis, ett dd som gav 99 rs fngelse. In 2011, the only irony greater than the left blaming right wing rhetoric for the violence perpetrated by an individual having no affiliation with the right, might be that the rhetoric of some very powerful people on the left may have had a direct role in the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. That is, of course, if one applies the logic of the left. Investigators announced that James Earl Ray, an escaped prisoner, had fatally shot King. Ray was born on March 10, 1928, in Alton, Illinois, the son of Lucille Ray (ne Maher) and George Ellis Ray. After shooting King, Ray immediately fled, setting off a manhunt that would last more than two months and cover five countries. Ray dropped out of school around the age of 12 but had trouble making anything stick. James Earl Ray On the left is the death chart of Karl Harrer founder of the DAP or Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, the German Worker's Party. It was a theory she maintained until her death in 2006 that has so far never been proven. Inside The Curious Question Of The Great Emancipator's Race, Meet Shoji Morimoto, The Japanese 'Do-Nothing Guy' Who People Can Rent Out Just For Company, What Stephen Hawking Thinks Threatens Humankind The Most, 27 Raw Images Of When Punk Ruled New York, Join The All That's Interesting Weekly Dispatch. Its important to note that this verdict was not a criminal conviction, as is sometimes erroneously implied when this case surfaces online. For now, James Earl Rays legacy depends on who you believe. James Earl Ray, a career criminal who had briefly served in the U.S. Army, shot the advocate of non-violent resistance. But officials dont believe Jowerss story. Among the evidence was a recording of Jowers in which he suggested he was interested in fabricating his story for financial gain. Riots erupted in Memphis; one person was killed and sixty were injured. Later, in the early 1990s, he suggested a conspiracy involving the government had been behind the assassination. 4777. James Earl Ray on July 19, 1968, shortly after he was arrested for killing MLK. Most of the public . These claims led Kings estate to sue Jowers in 1999 for a symbolic $100 in a wrongful death civil action. He considered moving to Rhodesia (now known as Zimbabwe), a country with a predominantly white minority government. Check here if you would like to receive subscription offers and other promotions via email from TIME group companies. James Earl Ray, Playboy Interview - A Candid Conversation About Conspiracy and Escape, September 1977 Written by Kennedys&King. On the night of the shooting, I had left the rifle with Raoul.. But then, he filed a motion to withdraw his plea. The 12-person jury verdict unanimous exonerated the "patsy" James Earl Ray for any role in the assassination of MLK. Born on March 10, 1928, in Alton, Illinois, was the eldest of George and Lucille Ray's nine children. At one point, he claimed a person named Raul told him to kill King, but theres no convincing proof of such an idea, according to Sides. He got a job back in Illinois at the International Shoe Company but was laid off in 1945. James Earl Ray in 1977. He insisted that a man he'd met in Canada, who went by the name of Raoul, had orchestrated the murder and ultimately shot King. Something triggered something in him, Sides says, but exactly what that trigger was is unclear. James Earl Ray killed Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee. Ray said he wasnt in the room when King was shot, but he was unable to consistently explain where he had been, or keep other important details in his story straight. He signed an account of the murder in March 1969, and in exchange for his . Kershaw and his client met with representatives of the United States House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) and convinced the committee to conduct ballistics tests that they believed would prove Ray had not fired the fatal shot. Contents 1 Background 2 Murder of King, Incarceration, and Death 3 Motive 4 Conspiracy Theories 4.1 Ray's claims 4.2 Loyd Jowers 4.3 Other claims 5 Modus Operandi 6 Known Victims 7 On Criminal Minds 8 Sources Background [7], Ray committed a variety of crimes prior to the murder of King. So who is James Earl Ray, the man charged with assassinating Martin Luther King Jr.? 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. They laid out the evidence before he entered his plea, and he said, OK,' explained G. Robert Blakey, a law professor who previously served as the chief counsel for the House Assassinations Committee. 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. I went to Memphis to deliver a rifle to this man called Raoul, Ray explained to a journalist from The Tennessean. Barely 48 hours later, on March 31st, Johnson would publicly announce that he would not seek reelection. Even after Ray died in 1998 from complications caused by hepatitis C, the family continued to assert there was, as Coretta King said in 1999, overwhelming evidence that identified someone else, not James Earl Ray, as the shooter, and that Mr. Ray was set up to take the blame.. An unexpected error has occurred with your sign up. During the four-week trial in Memphis, a 12-person jury heard testimony from over 70 witnesses; but not Jowers, who didnt testify because there were no criminal charges at stake. Ray pleaded guilty to the murder, something he'd spend the rest of his life trying to reverse, and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. Ray had seven siblings. . Art Hanes Jr. thinks about the James Earl Ray case every day. Speech of Senator Robert C. Byrd, Senate Journal, Appendix Two, March 29, 1968. Ray was born in Alton, IL,in 1928, the son of working class Scots-Irish parents. INTERVIEW OF JAMES EARL RAY BY JOHN AUBLE, KST-TV ST LOUIS - National Archives and Records Administration 1977-11-03 - ARC 43297, LI 233-MLK-150170 - DVD Cop. Ray was convicted on his 41st birthday after entering a guilty plea to forgo a jury trial. [16] On March 18, 1968, Ray left Los Angeles and began a cross-country drive to Atlanta, Georgia. [43] [44], Coretta Scott King said, "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. In fact, Kings family was as convinced of Rays innocence as the families of Nicole and Ron were convinced of Simpsons guilt. [19], Ray was soon on the road again and drove his Mustang to Birmingham, Alabama. [15], On March 5, 1968, Ray underwent a rhinoplasty, performed by physician Russell Hadley. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. There is an important flaw in that logic as well; the defendant was only sued for $100, which he was ordered to pay. While there, Ray attended a local bartending school and took dance lessons. An hour later, he was declared dead. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our. An international manhunt led to his capture in June 1968 at Heathrow Airport in London, where he was caught carrying two fake Canadian passports. "I believe you," Dexter responded and shook his hand. According to the New York Times, his uncle went to prison on the day Ray was born, his father was a known convict, and his great-grandfather was likely Ned Ray, a gambler and Wild West outlaw. James Earl Ray was raised as a catholic and had conservative religious beliefs from his childhood. No comments: Post a Comment. The Nazi party Is the president part of the political party? The King family started to publicly voice the opinion in 1997. Ray himself countered that he was not the only one involved in the crime. In 1949 he left for Los Angeles, where in October of that year police arrested him for robbing a cafe. He shot and killed Martin Luther King on April 4, 1968. He even upheld his claims to the King family. [22], On April 4, 1968, Ray killed civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. with a single shot fired from his Remington rifle, while King was standing on the second-floor balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. 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. Surprisingly, it is indeed possible that officials recovered the wrong gun at the scene. Soon, they seemed to have their answer. He said that a Memphis police officer was the one who had actually killed King and that Jowers had stashed the gun. Ray hired Jack Kershaw as his new attorney, and Kershaw publicly argued and promoted Ray's claim that he was not responsible for the assassination of King. Hes either the man who brutally assassinated Martin Luther King Jr. or a patsy who took the fall for a larger conspiracy sheathed in the shadows. James Earl Ray Martin Luther King Assassin--- === April 4, 1968 Martin Luther King was killed by a single rifle bullet on , while standing on the second-floor balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee.Shortly after the shot was fired, witnesses saw a man believed to be James Earl Ray fleeing from a rooming house across the street from the Lorraine Motel. Later in life his pleas for a trial were encouraged by some civil-rights leaders, notably the King family. He had Irish, Scottish and Welsh ancestry and had a Catholic upbringing. Omissions? U.S. House Select Committee on Assassinations, Martin Luther King Jr. Records Collection Act, King: A Filmed Record Montgomery to Memphis, The Witness: From the Balcony of Room 306, Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story, Joseph Schwantner: New Morning for the World; Nicolas Flagello: The Passion of Martin Luther King. Thinks About the james Earl Ray, an escaped prisoner, had fatally shot King motion to withdraw his.. 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