Joseph Louw/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images. He shot and killed Martin Luther King on April 4, 1968. At one point, the owner of the bar beneath the boarding house where Ray stayed, Loyd Jowers, claimed that he had participated in a conspiracy to assassinate King. A former theater and television producer, Edward remains active in charity. This organization would later morph into the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei better known as the NAZI party. Had he been found guilty by jury trial, he would have been eligible for the death penalty. James Earl Ray being led to his cell by Shelby County Sheriff William Morris on July 19, 1968. They sued Jowers for participation in a conspiracy to murder King. Simpson was found guilty of killing his wife Nicole and Ron Goldman - in a civil trial. The UK quickly extradited Ray to Tennessee, where he was charged with King's murder. They were recaptured on June 13. Martin Luther King, Jr., original name Michael King, Jr., (born January 15, 1929, Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.died April 4, 1968, Memphis, Tennessee), Baptist minister and social activist who led the civil rights movement in the United States from the mid-1950s until his death by assassination in 1968. Trending. And he began to tell an unsettling story. A year before, hed escaped from Missouri State Penitentiary while serving a 20-year sentence, and was on the lam at the time King was shot. [21], After purchasing the rifle and accessories, Ray drove back to Atlanta. The verdict in King vs. Jowers found a government conspiracy involving city, state, and federal agents complicit in the murder. And after he returned to Illinois and robbed a taxi driver at gunpoint for $11, police easily arrested him in a dead-end alleyway. Ray met Anna Sandhu in 1977. 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. 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. Labels: James Earl Ray, MAGA, Martin Luther King Jr., Racism, Republican Party, Republicans. He was 70. 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. The verdict did convict Loyd Jowers and "other parties known and unknown" for their parts in the vast US government conspiracy to assassinate King. By Jerry B. Jenkins . Two years later, his young sister Marjorie, died in a fire after playing with matches and accidentally catching herself on fire. I think that contributed to the sense of conspiracy, like a What are they hiding? kind of thing. (Sides also appears in the PBS American Experience documentary on this subject, Roads to Memphis, airing Tuesday.). Actor James Earl Jones perhaps best known as the melodious, mellifluous voice of Darth Vader (or Mufasa, depending on your generation and general geekitude) was . According to Wikipedia: James Earl Ray's chief interest was the George Wallace Democratic presidential campaign. Pointing to the FBIs deep hatred of King, they suggest that his assassination was part of a larger conspiracy. Share Background Report Background Report Overview of James Earl Ray Lives in: Northville, Michigan Phone: View phone number Gender: Male The most serious of those came in 1959, when Ray, on parole for an earlier theft, robbed two St. Louis grocery stores, as well as another in Alton. Just a few days later, however, James Earl Ray changed his story. Doubleday. After returning to Alton and moving back in with his grandmother, he blazed through a number of odd jobs. There, James Earl Ray would cross paths with Martin Luther King Jr. By April 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. had become the face of the civil rights movement. He briefly escaped from prison in 1977 and survived a murder attempt in 1981. YouTube James Earl Ray in 1977. He died on April 23, 1998, Nashville, TN. Senator in Robert Byrd. You have reached your limit of 4 free articles. 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. 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. James Earl Ray (1928-1998) Some of us may have heard of Dr. Pepper's efforts, as attorney for the King Family, to defend James Earl Ray (the man wrongly imprisoned for the assassination of Dr. King) as part of an effort to bring the actual killers to justice. 10 Disturbing and Unexplained Facts About James Earl Ray, MLK's Assassin. 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.. Ex-wife of MLK assassin James Earl Ray charged with animal cruelty in Tennessee June 23, 2021 11:30am Updated Madison County Jail More On: The ex-wife of assassin James Earl Ray, who. But he found it difficult to adapt to the military's strict codes of conduct. Born on March 10, 1928, in Alton, Illinois, James Earl Ray came from a long line of criminals. The family accepted $100 in restitution to demonstrate they were not pursuing the case for financial gain, and they publicly stated that Ray, in their opinion, had nothing to do with the assassination. He pursued a life of crime but seemed to have been a clumsy criminal. Corrections? If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us! James Earl Ray tilstod drabet under den efterflgende retssag. Simpson was found guilty of killing his wife Nicole and Ron Goldman in a civil trial. By signing up you are agreeing to our, What Happened to Martin Luther King Jr.'s Last Campaigns, How Black Filmmakers Are Reclaiming Their History Onscreen. And Ray even pled guilty to murdering King after he was arrested. He pleaded guilty to murder on the advice of his attorney in order to avoid a jury trial. Along with his film debut in Dr. Strangelove , he scored a supporting role in the 1967 political drama The. 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. Whether he was guilty or innocent, James Earl Ray led an eventful life from behind bars. By 1969, James Earl Jones was no stranger to either the movie or TV screens. Later in life his pleas for a trial were encouraged by some civil-rights leaders, notably the King family. His brother said that Ray admired Hitler and that Ray had said that he would make the U.S. an all-white country, no Jews or Negroes. Ray was also known to have been a supporter of George Wallace, the segregationist governor of Alabama running for president, according to the Los Angeles Times. After all, the FBI stalked King and his cohort in order to, as Sides puts it, ruin and smear the civil rights movement. The ugly reach of that campaign has only become clearer over the years. It didnt help that Rays story kept changing. Ray died while that campaign was ongoing, but though the King family did win $100 in a 1999 wrongful death suit after the man charged as being part of a conspiracy didnt show up to the trial an official inquiry reiterated that the evidence against Ray was overwhelming and that there was no credibility to various theories that anyone else had been involved. The House Assassinations Committee examining evidence in the killing of Martin Luther King, Jr. (Credit: Bettmann Archive/Getty Images). [39][40][41] William Pepper, a friend of King during the last year of his life, represented Ray in a mock trial televised by HBO in an attempt to grant him the trial he never received. [20] He told the store owners that he was going on a hunting trip with his brother. After this, Ray was on the run and was captured in the UK. [36] However, Ray spent the remainder of his life unsuccessfully attempting to withdraw his guilty plea and secure a jury trial. A guilty. Investigators announced that James Earl Ray, an escaped prisoner, had fatally shot King. He made the FBI Most Wanted List before his recapture. James Earl Ray (born 1965) is listed at 42036 Queen Anne Ct Northville, Mi 48167and has no known political party affiliation. The day after the trial ended, Coretta King held a press conference in Atlanta to praise the decision. The other people involved in this conspiracy, Jowers said, included Memphis police officers, a Mafia member and the infamous Raoul. This organization would later morph into the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei better known as the NAZI party. On July 19, he returned to U.S. and the following March he pleaded guilty to murdering King. And after passing through Canada, Alabama, Mexico, and Los Angeles, he eventually made his way to Memphis, Tennessee in April 1968. He was a fervent supporter of George Wallace, the Alabama governor who notoriously gave the 1963 "Segregation Now, Segregation Forever," and he was passionate about emigrating to Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) to be a part of the white minority in power there at the time. One of Kings sons Dexter had expressed his adamant belief that Ray was not his fathers assassin. A man named Vincent Harding is credited with writing most of it. A consequence of Kings alleged involvement in those riots was that it caught the attention of some powerful politicians. Dexter King went so far as to name Memphis Police Department Officer, Lt. Earl Clark as his fathers assassin. Ray's life outside the Army proved even less stable. [17], Arriving in Atlanta on March 24, 1968, Ray checked into a rooming house. Menu. He was trying to depart the United Kingdom for Angola, Rhodesia, or apartheid South Africa[30] using the falsified Canadian passport. 4 There was no trial because of his confession. Barely 48 hours later, on March 31st, Johnson would publicly announce that he would not seek reelection. He's also known for films like 'The Great White Hope,' 'The Hunt for Red October' and 'Field of Dreams' as well as an array of TV shows. Bettmann/Contributor via Getty ImagesMartin Luther King Jr. giving his last speech, Ive Been To The Mountaintop, on April 3, 1968. (biography.com) He admitted that he killed Martin Luther King, so he . 4777. I do think [Ray] had help, but I never found any proof that a group helped him, says Sides. Each year, the third Monday in January is a celebration to commemoratethe life and accomplishments of Martin Luther King Jr., the tireless civil rights activist who was gunned down in Memphis, TN, in 1968. An hour later, he was declared dead. 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.. James Earl Ray Biography. Rays unreliability has meant the only way to find out what might have motivated him is to study the people he associated with and admired. In 1961, Russian spy Gordon Lonsdale used a false Canadian passport for his espionage activities in England, as did his associates in the British naval . James Earl is known for Fired Up! They quickly found the rifle with Rays fingerprints on it. Then, the House Assassinations Committee spent two years and $2.5 million investigating the case., James Earl Ray did it, case closed! While there, Ray attended a local bartending school and took dance lessons. The authorities didnt catch up to Ray until June 1968, when they found him in London trying to board a plane to Belgium. Ray then fired Kershaw after discovering the attorney had been paid $11,000 by the magazine in exchange for the interview and instead hired attorney Mark Lane to provide him with legal representation. In no uncertain terms, Byrd was calling on Johnson to stop Kings march on D.C. 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. Frustrated with his results and jilted by the prostitute with whom he had formed a relationship, Ray left Mexico on or around November 16, 1967, [11] arriving in Los Angeles three days later. [32][33], Airport officials noticed that Ray carried another passport under a second name. 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. Among the evidence was a recording of Jowers in which he suggested he was interested in fabricating his story for financial gain. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. James Earl Ray, Playboy Interview - A Candid Conversation About Conspiracy and Escape, September 1977 Written by Kennedys&King. Whats more, investigators determined that a white Mustang spotted leaving the scene was registered to a Mr. Eric Galt and the gun had been purchased by a Mr. Harvey Lowmyer. Most famously, in 1997 a dying Ray told Dexter King, his victims son, that he didnt do it. [15], On March 5, 1968, Ray underwent a rhinoplasty, performed by physician Russell Hadley. He was sentenced to 90 days in prison, but the lockup did little to reform him. [12] His chief interest, however, was the George Wallace presidential campaign. And it is committed, as Barack Obama once promised, to fundamentally transforming America. 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. But what do you know about James Earl Ray, the man who assassinated Martin Luther King? I went to Memphis to deliver a rifle to this man called Raoul, Ray explained to a journalist from The Tennessean. He even upheld his claims to the King family. 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. That year, Kings son Dexter Scott King visited Ray in prison to draw attention to the familys push to appeal his case. Ray was sentenced to a 99 year sentence, with another year added after his escape in 1977. All three bore the fingerprints of an escaped convict named James Earl Ray. Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom . He shot. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). 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. 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. 2023 A&E Television Networks, LLC. James Earl Jones was the voice of Darth Vader What political part was Hitler part of? Over several decades, federal investigators have routinely concluded that Raoul doesnt exist. On June 11, 1977, while housed at the Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary in Petros, TN, Ray and five other inmates escaped. This article was most recently revised and updated by, https://www.britannica.com/biography/James-Earl-Ray, James Earl Ray - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up), assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.: The assassin: James Earl Ray. Ray confessed to the crime on March 10, 1969 and received a 99-year prison sentence, which increased to a 100-year sentence after he briefly escaped in 1977. Findings by federal authorities and the House Select Committee on Assassinations are confident about some things. [14] The notion of living in Rhodesia continued to appeal to Ray for several years afterwards, and it was his intended destination after King's assassination. Both his Ray, Jerry, as told to Tamara . Author weaves memoir with fictional account of MLK's killer on the lam. The King familys belief in Rays innocence was partly influenced by the strange case of Loyd Jowers, whod owned the restaurant below Rays rented room in Memphis. Free shipping for many products! Somehow, Ray managed to escape from prison on two different occasions. After reading about James Earl Ray, learn about the first and only time that Martin Luther King Jr. met Malcolm X. Kershaw convinced Ray to submit to a polygraph test as part of an interview with Playboy. 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. 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. And teachers at his school where Ray often showed up barefoot and in ragged clothes noted that he violated all regulations. He travelled there on a Canadian passport. Riots erupted in Memphis; one person was killed and sixty were injured. In June 1977 Ray escaped from Brushy Mountain (Tennessee) Prison and remained at large for 54 hours before being recaptured in a massive manhunt. James Earl Ray in 1966, two years before the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. James Earl Rays mugshot from 1955. He was believed to have been en route to Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), which was at the time a haven for white supremacists. After getting laid off in 1945, Ray enlisted in the Army, eventually getting stationed in West Germany. His first prison break happened in 1967, when he escaped the Missouri State Penitentiary on a bread truck before fleeing to Canada. They said he lacked credibility and seemed largely motivated by financial gain. James Earl Ray killed Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee. The incident was incredibly damaging to the cause of King and his Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). He enlisted in the U.S. Army but was discharged for ineptness and lack of adaptability to military service in 1948. Fifty years later, some questions linger about why exactly the civil rights leader was targeted and whether the shooter acted alone. An hour later, he was declared dead. During the 1950 and 60s, the FBI surveilled and harassed King, his family and his associates. That claim prompted the family to push unsuccessfully for a new trial. So, are there are still remaining questions about how everything happened the day of Kings assassination? Indeed, a former agent from the FBIs field office in Atlanta said the bureaus tracking of King was second only to the way they went after Jimmy Hoffa. In 1975, a group of former FBI agents called on Congress to investigate this harrassment. What would it have taken for the Goldmans and the Browns to have believed Orenthals story that he was innocent? Whether he was guilty or innocent, James Earl Ray led an eventful life from behind bars. Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting. List price: $28.95. Surprisingly, it is indeed possible that officials recovered the wrong gun at the scene. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library, Washington, D.C. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library, San Jose, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=James_Earl_Ray&oldid=1134341249, American people who died in prison custody, People extradited from the United Kingdom to the United States, Prisoners who died in Tennessee detention, United States Army personnel of World War II, Short description is different from Wikidata, Wikipedia indefinitely move-protected pages, All Wikipedia articles written in American English, Pages using infobox person with multiple parents, Articles with unsourced statements from May 2022, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, 99 years in prison (1 year was added after his re-capture for a total of 100 years), This page was last edited on 18 January 2023, at 05:50. Huie investigated this story and discovered that Ray lied about some details. [8] He was sentenced to twenty years in prison for repeated offenses. [6] Ray left school at the age of 12. But Ray backed away from his confession just days later and insisted on his innocence in the decades that followed. CAPTION: Ray was apprehended (harnessed and handcuffed) for the murder of Martin Luther King Jr., in 1968 . These claims led Kings estate to sue Jowers in 1999 for a symbolic $100 in a wrongful death civil action. King and his associates came to town on April 3 and checked into the Lorraine Motel. [52], Ten years later, Ray's other brother, John Larry Ray, co-authored a book with Lyndon Barsten, titled Truth At Last: The Untold Story Behind James Earl Ray and the Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.[39], Convicted assassin of Martin Luther King Jr. (19281998), Speeches, writings, movements, and protests, Initial convictions and first escape from prison, Martin Luther King Jr. assassination conspiracy theories, Interview with James Earl Ray by John Auble, United States House Select Committee on Assassinations, "James Earl Ray, 70, Killer of Dr. King, Dies in Nashville", "The assassin's brother: John Larry Ray marks time in Quincy, still trying to set the record straight", "James Earl Ray: The Man Who Killed Dr. Martin Luther King, chapter 3", "Report of laboratory, FBI headquarters to Memphis, Apr. So who is James Earl Ray, the man charged with assassinating Martin Luther King Jr.? Its not clear when Coretta Scott King, widow of King, began to believe in Rays innocence. [50], Ray died on April 23, 1998, at the age of 70, at the Columbia Nashville Memorial Hospital from complications related to kidney disease and liver failure caused by hepatitis C.[51] His brother, Jerry, told CNN that his brother did not want to be buried or have his final resting place in the United States because of the way the government had framed him for murder. But even if Ray had help, the evidence strongly pointed to him pulling the trigger. In Truth at Last, we read how "James met CIA asset Jules Ron 'Ricco' Kimble. I Do Understand Racism'. [37] A year was added to Ray's previous sentence, increasing it to 10 decades. Ray was spotted at the scene and, almost immediately after the. Ray risikerede ddsstraf, sfremt han . I wholeheartedly applaud the verdict of the jury and I feel that justice has been well served in their deliberations, she said. James Earl Ray was a racist and quickly drawn to Wallace's segregationist platform. According to The History Channel, Ray had two fake Canadian passports and an apparent plan to settle in Rhodesia, an unrecognized state ruled by a white minority in modern-day Zimbabwe. Whatever the exact details were that led him to Memphis in April 1968, Ray rented a room at a rooming house under the name Eric Starvo Galt, near the Lorraine Motel, where King was staying. Ray was a racist and was quickly drawn to Wallace's segregationist platform. Whats more, Ray claimed that he only pled guilty to the assassination because his lawyer and the FBI had pressed him to do so. font size decrease font size increase font size; . In October 1974, James Earl Ray attempted to recant his confession for the murder of Martin Luther King, Jr., in Memphis, Tennessee. Later, though, he claimed he left the prints to gain international notoriety. Unbeknownst to Ray, however, under the de facto moratorium in place since 1967 and following Furman v. Georgia, a death sentence would have been commuted as unconstitutional. Did James Earl Ray Really Assassinate Martin Luther King Jr. Or Was He Set Up? His home life was no better. This doesnt mean that Ray couldnt have received assistance. Twice a week we compile our most fascinating features and deliver them straight to you. Housed at the Missouri State Penitentiary, Ray managed to escape the facility in 1967. Bettmann/Getty ImagesJames Earl Ray on July 19, 1968, shortly after he was arrested for killing MLK. But then, he filed a motion to withdraw his plea. Ray was convicted on his 41st birthday after entering a guilty plea to forgo a jury trial. He escaped from the Missouri State Penitentiary in 1967 by hiding in a truck transporting bread from the prison bakery. James Earl Ray walked through the gates of Brushy Mountain for the first time March 21, 1970, one year into a 99-year sentence and not quite two years since the death of King, gunned down by a . finds no conspiracy in King assassination", "Third Inquiry Affirms Others: Ray Alone Was King's Killer", "Autopsy confirms Ray died of liver failure". His body was cremated and his ashes were flown to Ireland, the home of his maternal family's ancestors. Both Ray and King arrived in Memphis in early April. 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). Peanut farming, talk of politics, and devotion to the Baptist faith were . He pled guilty to shooting King on March 10, 1969, to avoid the death penalty, and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. In fact, King's family was as convinced of Ray's innocence as the families of Nicole and Ron were convinced of Simpson's guilt. He later joined the U.S. Army at the close of World War II and served in Germany. I think there was a major conspiracy to remove Dr. King from the American scene, Lewis said. [9], Following his escape, Ray stayed on the move throughout the United States and Canada, going first to St. Louis and then onward to Chicago, Toronto, Montreal, and Birmingham, Alabama, where he stayed long enough to buy a 1966 Ford Mustang and get an Alabama drivers license. En route to Americas northern border, he would soon escape to Canada on April 6th. At the time, it was said to be the FBI's most expensive and biggest investigation in its history. In 1959, he was caught stealing $120 in an armed robbery of a Kroger store in St. Hardcover, 480 pages. A courtroom artist, Sandhu drew Ray during his trial for a prison escape attempt. He pursued a life of crime but seemed to have been a clumsy criminal. To people whod known Ray, the answer seemed obvious. "I think I have figured out the tea party," the actor recently said on the "Smiley and West" radio show. A part of his life was shaped by tragedy. Ray had been treated for liver disease over the years and according to the Tennessee Department of Correction, he died from that and kidney failure. He broke out of prisons so many times that he earned the nickname the Mole.. Ray had seven siblings. Dexter King, son of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., meeting with James Earl Ray the man who confessed to killing King. When Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee, the United States erupted into chaos and countless activists demanded to know who had killed the iconic civil rights leader. To improve this article ( requires login ) several decades, federal investigators have routinely concluded Raoul! 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