Ray moved around while on the lam, staying in Chicago, Los Angeles, Mexico and Canada over the next year. [6] Ray left school at the age of 12. Those facts leave no surprise as to why a man such as Ray would murder a man whose lifes work was focused on racial equality. Housed at the Missouri State Penitentiary, Ray managed to escape the facility in 1967. However, President Trump has pumped fear into the Democrats as his policies are benefiting Black America. What are the disadvantages of shielding a thermometer? 1995 - 2023 by Snopes Media Group Inc. For those lucky black children who werent aborted, Biden and the Democrats to this day block school choice for black families who want to take their children out of failing schools. The family wasnt seeking money, just information. On April 4, 1968, Ray stood in the bathtub of the bathroom, balanced his rifle on a window ledge and shot King as the civil rights leader was standing on a balcony outside of his motel room. He did not claim any involvement in the assassination or significant knowledge about it. In December 1993, Jowers appeared on ABC's Prime Time Live and radically changed his story, claiming he participated in a plot to assassinate Dr. King. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our. Jowers stashed the rifle behind the bar and said it was later picked up by Raul and tossed in the Mississippi River. He at first fled to Canada but, unable to get on a ship and flee overseas, he returned to the U.S. and made his way to first Alabama, then Mexico, and later Los Angeles. Who killed Martin Luther King Jr.? Asked about the King familys suspicions, an FBI spokesman responded in a statement that the government has revisited the assassination four times: Findings from these reviews support the FBIs conclusion that James Earl Ray, acting alone, fired a rifle once, fatally wounding Dr. King on April 4, 1968, at the Lorraine Motel.. She was also a guest speaker for the womens branch of the KKK. Hoover was so angry, he had hate in his heart. It is important to know that this was a SWIFT verdict, delivered after about an hour of jury deliberation. Kings two other surviving children, Dexter, 57, and Martin III, 60, fully agree that Ray was innocent. Over the next several years, Ray embarked on a number of small crimes, serving various jail times. For the King family and others in the civil rights movement, the FBIs obsession with King in the years leading up to his slaying in Memphis on April 4, 1968 pervasive surveillance, a malicious disinformation campaign and open denunciations by FBI director J. Edgar Hoover laid the groundwork for their belief that he was the target of a plot. He escaped from the Missouri State Penitentiary in 1967 by hiding in a truck transporting bread from the prison bakery. In 1977, James Earl Ray, who assassinated Martin Luther King Jr., escaped from Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary in the town of Petros in Morgan County, Tennessee. Im in the car business. The full transcript of the trial remains posted on the King Centers website. We strive for accuracy and fairness.If you see something that doesn't look right,contact us! According to Wikipedia: James Earl Rays chief interest was the George Wallace [ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Wallace ] Democratic presiden He was constantly in and out of prison so he never voted. He was a segregationist but neither a Republican or a Democrat. An FBI WebJames Earl Ray Escapes. James Earl Ray was capture in Nashville,Tennesee. No. As far as I knew, he was a common bandit who suddenly tried for his 15 minutes. The biggest notoriety he had was as an escape artist. Tennessee Recordings and photos of King having sex with women other than his wife were offered to reporters and government officials, often by Hoover himself, and sent to King associates. (Video: The Washington Post). The jury also affirmed overwhelming evidence that identified someone else, not James Earl Ray, as the shooter, and that Mr. Ray was set up to take the blame. This case overlooked so much contradictory evidence that never was presented, what other option did the jury have but to accept Mr. Pepper's version? [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. [36] However, Ray spent the remainder of his life unsuccessfully attempting to withdraw his guilty plea and secure a jury trial. 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 April4, 1968. 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. It didnt help that Rays story kept changing. But that biography doesnt explain why or how Ray moved from committing property crime and supporting racists, to killing a national icon. Furthermore, the Justice Department's investigation determined no physical evidence whatsoever supported Jowers' multiple and conflicting accounts of his involvement in King's assassination, and Jowers stood to profit from his assertions: It was not until 1993, during a meeting with the producer of a televised mock trial of James Earl Ray, that Jowers first publicly disclosed the details of the alleged plot, including the names of the purported assassin and other co-conspirators. Twenty years later, I remain absolutely convinced this well-supported finding is correct., The King family disagrees, with Martin King III adopting Peppers theory of Hoover directing the assassination. Our investigation of these most recent allegations, as well as several exhaustive previous official investigations, found no reliable evidence that Dr. King was killed by conspirators who framed James Earl Ray. Fifty years later, some questions linger about why exactly the civil rights leader was targeted and whether the shooter acted alone. Something triggered something in him, Sides says, but exactly what that trigger was is unclear. That doesnt mean there are no questions left. [26][27] He picked up his belongings and fled north to Canada, arriving in Toronto three days later, where he hid for over a month and acquired a Canadian passport under the false name of Ramon George Sneyd. Was James earl ray white? He got a 99-year prison sentence, which he served until he died of liver failure due to hepatitis C on Apr. Whether youre a lifelong resident of D.C. or you just moved here, weve got you covered. Im satisfied beyond a shadow of a doubt, Lawson said, that James Earl Ray neither pulled the trigger nor plotted to kill Martin Luther King.. Investigators announced that James Earl Ray, an escaped prisoner, had fatally shot King. Ray began claiming that a man he had met in Montreal back in 1967, who used the alias "Raul," had been involved in the assassination. I had nothing to do with killing [Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.]. However, Jowers had long asserted he had no involvement in the event before suddenly and bizarrely claiming, twenty-five years after the fact, he had been paid to hire a hit man to kill Martin Luther King. While there, Ray attended a local bartending school and took dance lessons. finds no conspiracy in King assassination", "Third Inquiry Affirms Others: Ray Alone Was King's Killer", "Autopsy confirms Ray died of liver failure". Its hard to know exactly who. [38], In 1997, King's son, Dexter, met with Ray at the prison and asked him, "I just want to ask you, for the record, did you kill my father?" In 1935 the family suddenly left Alton and relocated to Ewing, Missouri, after police had started looking for Ray's father on a forgery charge. What We Know About Why James Earl Ray Killed Martin Luther King Jr. Long Waits, Short Appointments, Huge Bills. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. You have reached your limit of 4 free articles. I wholeheartedly applaud the verdict of the jury and I feel that justice has been well served in their deliberations. Coretta King and Abernathy, aware of the FBI campaign, immediately suspected FBI involvement after Kings death. He was a democrat. For both our family and the nation, Coretta King said after the verdict, we had to get involved, because the system did not work.. Biography and associated logos are trademarks of A+E Networksprotected in the US and other countries around the globe. In segregated D.C., few officials feared rioting. Did the news media, led by Walter Cronkite, lose the war in Vietnam? Martin Luther King Jr. met Malcolm X just once. Is this who we now are? Dexter King called his family together, his brother Martin said in an interview, and urged them to file a civil suit against Jowers as a means of seeking the truth. In recent years,Pepper has tracked down witnesses in Memphis who support his theory of the case: that J. Edgar Hoover used his longtime assistant, Clyde Tolson, to deliver cash to members of the Memphis underworld, that those shadowy figures then hired a sharpshooting Memphis police officer, and that officer not Ray fired the fatal shot. [12] His chief interest, however, was the George Wallace presidential campaign. We do not believe that Jowers, or those he accuses, participated in the assassination of Dr. King. But he found it difficult to adapt to the military's strict codes of conduct. No vast sums of money were awarded (the Kings sought only $100), and Ray was not exonerated. Pepper was sued once for defamation, by an Army soldier he accused of participating in the conspiracy, and a South Carolina judge entered an $11 million default judgment against him in 2000. Is that your verdict? Even a 1978 special congressional committee said there was the "likelihood" that Ray did not act alone. Thats quiet an assumption. James Earl Ray was in and out of prison before he committed murder so he wasnt allowed to vote. He thought the democrat He was sentenced to 99 years at the State penitentiary. [20] He told the store owners that he was going on a hunting trip with his brother. In summary, we have determined that Jowers' claims about an alleged conspiracy are materially contradictory and unsubstantiated. Ray was born in 1928 and grew up outside St. Louis. Ray pleaded guilty to the murder of King on March 10, 1969. 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. I do think [Ray] had help, but I never found any proof that a group helped him, says Sides. 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. By the 1960s, Democrats like Governor George Wallace and Bull Conner fought against civil rights and turned hoses on black protesters. [15], On March 5, 1968, Ray underwent a rhinoplasty, performed by physician Russell Hadley. The Republican Party was formed in 1854 as an anti-slavery party with Abraham Lincoln as their first president. [17], Arriving in Atlanta on March 24, 1968, Ray checked into a rooming house. Even those who believe that Ray, who died in prison in 1998, killed King tend to think that he received assistance from someone, whether it was his two brothers or the FBI or the mafia. James Earl Ray, the man who confessed to killing Martin Luther King Jr. later recanted and insisted he was set up by a man named "Raul." I found gaps in his movements that are mysterious and you just dont know who hes meeting with. James Earl Ray was a supporter of George Wallace - who was a democrat in the 1960s but was on the side of segregation, which when you hear about t In a criminal trial the guilt of the defendant must be proved beyond a reasonable doubt, but in a civil suit the plaintiff need only support his claim with a preponderance of evidence to prevail. There, on March 30, 1968, he bought a Remington Model 760 Gamemaster .30-06-caliber rifle and a box of 20 cartridges from the Aeromarine Supply Company. I want to make it clear that my family has no interest in retribution. The man who was charged with King's murder, James Earl Ray, confessed to the crime and pled guilty; he then recanted his confession, hinted at a conspiracy, and sought to withdraw his guilty plea and secure a trial. In court, Ray answered the standard series of questions about whether he was knowingly and voluntarily admitting he committed murder. Today, Planned Parenthood is predominately in the black community with half of all black pregnancies ending in an abortion. Jowers also reported that he hired a hit man to shoot Dr. King from behind Jim's Grill and received the murder weapon prior to the killing from someone with a name sounding like Raoul. [21], After purchasing the rifle and accessories, Ray drove back to Atlanta. He spent many hours volunteering at the campaign headquarters in North Ray was white and was quickly drawn to Wallace's segregationist platform. This article was published more than4 years ago. Biden befriended Byrd and shared the same policies that shackled Black America. That thank you got her censured by Democrats to silence her as she stated Democrats have ousted her from the Democrat Party and hinder her abilities to do her job. The jury also affirmed overwhelming evidence that identified someone else, not James Earl Ray, as the shooter, and that Mr. Ray was set up to take the blame. "I believe you," Dexter responded and shook his hand. We were living in the period of assassinations,Young said. King was murdered in Memphis on April 4, 1968, and the FBI seized the car the following day in Atlanta. Ballistics tests could not prove that the rifle dropped outside the boardinghouse, a Remington .30-06 Gamemaster, either did or didnt fire the fatal shot, because the gun did not create distinctive grooves on the bullet, as most guns do. Nor have any of the conspiracy theories advanced in the last 30 years, including the Jowers and the Wilson allegations, survived critical examination. The New York Times. Idaho Murders: What Led Police to Bryan Kohberger, Your Privacy Choices: Opt Out of Sale/Targeted Ads, Name: James Earl, Birth Year: 1928, Birth date: March 10, 1928, Birth State: Illinois, Birth City: Alton, Birth Country: United States. Questions and speculation may always surround the assassination of Dr. King and other national tragedies. WebJames Earl Ray was a supporter of George Wallace - who was a democrat in the 1960s but was on the side of segregation, which when you hear about the party switch of that time, Among those who could have been pardoned was James Earl Ray, who just a decade before had assassinated Martin Luther King Jr. in Memphis. Ray's life outside the Army proved even less stable. His family believes James Earl Ray was f Arnold Hirsch, influential historian of urban segregation, dies at 69. His son RFK Jr. doesnt believe it was Sirhan Sir How the assassinations of 1968 led the NRA to become the lobbying force it Two sprinters gave the black-power salute at the Olympics. Ray struggled to adapt to military life and was eventually discharged for ineptitude and lack of adaptability in 1948. Although the Justice Department officially claims James Earl Ray assassinated MLK, a civil suit later determined that a Memphis cop was involved in a conspiracy to murder the civil rights leader. 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.). In 2000, even after reviewing the results of the 1999 civil trial in Memphis, Kowalski concluded that Ray was guilty and that there was no government conspiracy. Jowers also abandoned his initial allegation that he received $100,000 with which he hired a hit man to kill Dr. King, claiming instead that he merely held the money for the conspirators. He paid $8.50 for a weeks stay. So, despite 50 years of evidence fingering James Earl Ray and a consensus about his role among most scholars who study King, some people remain unconvinced. The one thing the conspiracy rumor correctly states is a 1999 civil trial reached a verdict that cited the existence of a conspiracy to assassinate Martin Luther King, Jr. What it neglects to mention is the relative worth of such a judgment: The verdict in question was civil rather than criminal, the sole named defendant was someone who stood to gain both publicity and money from repeating his claims, and the King family's motivation in bringing the suit was to validate their long-held suspicions a larger conspiracy was at play in the death of the civil rights leader. He had consistently denied any knowledge of the case for a quarter-century, but now he alleged the gunman was a Memphis police officer who fired from the bushes behind the grill, then handed Jowers the murder weapon. On 2nd April, 1968, Ray packed a bag and drove to Memphis. But Rays sudden guilty plea stopped all official investigations. Pepper first visited Ray in prison in 1978 along with Ralph Abernathy, one of Kings closest associates. The rear of the boardinghouse faced the Lorraine Motel across Mulberry Street. I believe Ray was a bluedog democrat but according to Mr. Kings son there is some strong doubt as to whether he was the one who killed his dad. He is the one who sits in leadership and is the most powerful person of a country. Check here if you would like to receive subscription offers and other promotions via email from TIME group companies. Exactly what led Ray to kill King continues to be a source of debate, as does his role in the murder. Later, in the early 1990s, he suggested a conspiracy involving the government had been behind the assassination. To understand why Biden feels this way, you must know the history of why Biden and the Democrat Party think they own the Black America. Biden authored a crime bill that forced more black males into prison. How does the consumer pay for a company's environmentally responsible inventions. The source of his money is the single biggest question.. And contrary to the rumor's assertion, the 1999 civil case involving Jowers was widely reported by major news outlets at the time (including, as referenced above, the New York Times). [42], In 1998, and continuing into 1999, Pepper represented the King family in a wrongful death civil suit against Memphis restaurant owner Loyd Jowers, whose restaurant was near the Lorraine Motel. ", And Gerald Posner, whose recent book, "Killing the Dream" made the case that Mr. Ray was the killer, said, "It distresses me greatly that the legal system was used in such a callous and farcical manner in Memphis. Born in a poor family, Ray had a difficult childhood as his father could not support his family. According to the criminal justice system of the state of Tennessee, James Earl Ray fired the shot from the second-floor bathroom of the boardinghouse. Its still a mystery to me, Bernice King said. Pepper said Dexter King asked Ray, Did you kill my father? and that Ray answered, No, I didnt. He said Dexter King told Ray, We will do everything in our power to see that justice prevails.. James Earl Ray began a record of scrapes, big and small, with the law serving terms in Joliet and Pontiac prisons in Illinois and Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary in Kansas. For this, he was imprisoned for four years in the federal United States Penitentiary Leavenworth. [19], Ray was soon on the road again and drove his Mustang to Birmingham, Alabama. 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. Please attempt to sign up again. 9 December 1999. Jowers further maintained that Ray did not shoot Dr. King and that he did not believe Ray knowingly participated in the conspiracy. A courtroom artist, Sandhu drew Ray during his trial for a prison escape attempt. That some Americans didnt trust and still dont trust the governments conclusion on Kings murder says a lot about what was going on in America in the 1960s and 70s, when the Vietnam War and Watergate torpedoed Americans trust in government. President Lyndon B. Johnson sold them into the Democrat plantation stating, These Negroes, theyre getting pretty uppity these days and thats a problem for us since theyve got something now they never had before, the political pull to back up their uppitiness. He spent much of his time in Los Angeles volunteering at the Wallace campaign headquarters in North Hollywood. The photo still haunts us with what was lost. Inspired by the failed jail break by James Earl Ray, the man convicted for the assassination of civil rights activist Martin Luther King and serving a 99-year sentence, The magazine reported that the test results showed "Ray did, in fact, kill Martin Luther King Jr. and that he did so alone." BND archives Ray blinked in the original photo. In 1949 he left for Los Angeles, where in October of that year police arrested him for robbing a cafe. Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? James Earl Ray was a career criminal, starting as far back as a 1949 conviction for armed robbery. As such, he would not have been able to vote reg I dont know, but Im not assuming anything, and Im not going to make up a conspiracy, which seems to be a popular thing these days. Kim LaCapria is a former writer for Snopes. Magazines, Or create a free account to access more articles. Karen Whitsett, a black state senator from Michigan, simply said, Thank you to President Trump for saving her life through the treatment of hydroxychoroquine. I believe thats exactly what happened, said Martin King III. Write to Olivia B. Waxman at olivia.waxman@time.com. Officially: Case closed. 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King was then assassinated by James Earl Ray, a Democrat. 17, 1968, FBI headquarters Murkin file 44-38861", "Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr", "Why assassin James Earl Ray returned to Toronto", "Ramon Sneyd denies that he killed Dr King", "Log Cabin Democrat: King assassin Ray dies after lifelong legal fight 4/24/98", "1969: Martin Luther King's killer gets life", "Federal Bureau of Investigation History of Knoxville Office", "Jack Kershaw Is Dead at 96; Challenged Conviction in King's Death", "Dr. King's Son Says Family Believes Ray Is Innocent", "Ray Acquitted In Mock Trial 25 Years After King Slaying", "Memphis Jury Sees Conspiracy in Martin Luther King's Killing", "Complete Transcript of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Instead, our sole concern has been that the full truth of the assassination has been revealed and adjudicated in a court of law. Kershaw convinced Ray to submit to a polygraph test as part of an interview with Playboy. Ray died at Columbia Nashville Memorial Hospital in Nashville, Tennessee, on April 23, 1998. Now weve got to do something about this, weve got to give them something, just enough to quiet them down, not enough to make a difference. Johnson continued, Ill have those ni**ers voting Democrat for the next 200 years.. Given the minor sum of money awarded, a jury would have little incentive to not find in favor of an account supported by both sides of a flawed case. Blakey said recently he had tried to prove a conspiracy but could not. 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. Evidence does suggest that Ray had little stomach for the integration policies that were sweeping the country. Ray himself countered that he was not the only one involved in the crime. Rays lawyer J.B. Stoner was a known white supremacist, and Ray who also made clear his admiration for Hitler had done volunteer work for the 1968 presidential campaign of Alabamas former segregationist Governor George Wallace, who had gone head-to-head with King in Birmingham, Selma and Montgomery. 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. Andrew Young, the former U.N. ambassador and Atlanta mayor who was at the Lorraine Motel with King when he was shot there, agrees. The original mug shot of James Earl Ray included with the memo from the FBI to the Belleville News-Democrat. They sued Jowers for participation in a conspiracy to murder King. 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. He had entered a guilty plea on the advice of his attorney, Percy Foreman, to avoid the sentence of death by electrocution, which would have been a possible outcome of a jury trial. The Justice Department also found the evidence presented in the civil trial to be lacking in credibility: The evidence introduced in King v. Jowers to support various conspiracy allegations consisted of either inaccurate and incomplete information or unsubstantiated conjecture, supplied most often by sources, many unnamed, who did not testify. I dont know what happened, but the truth of what happened to Dr. King should be made available for historys sake.. Ray told this version of the assassination and his flight during the following two months to journalist William Bradford Huie. Democrats fought a bloody civil war against Lincoln and the Republicans plan to free Black America. Email from TIME group companies from the prison bakery delivered after about an hour of jury deliberation family James! 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