[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. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Labels: James Earl Ray, MAGA, Martin Luther King Jr., Racism, Republican Party, Republicans. Not long before Ray's death, Dexter King, Dr. King's son, visited the man presumed to be his father's killer. "I had nothing to do with killing your father," Ray said. Menu. 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. Three days later, Ray recanted his confession. In the years following Ray's arrest, questions arose about his exact involvement in King's murder. Speech of Senator Robert C. Byrd, Senate Journal, Appendix Two, March 29, 1968. 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. Over the next several years, Ray embarked on a number of small crimes, serving various jail times. But almost immediately after her husbands assassination, she suspected that the FBI, which had investigated the murder, was involved in it. Ray was sentenced to a 99 year sentence, with another year added after his escape in 1977. 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 . [7], Ray committed a variety of crimes prior to the murder of King. In that speech, none other than Robert Byrd pointed to the Memphis riots and the violent consequences as a warning to Johnson not to allow the marches King was planning on Washington in the coming weeks. He shot dead the minister as he was standing on a motel balcony. The evidence brought forth by attorney William Pepper was so powerful . He drifted around the Midwest, committing more crimes. Yet given the way the bureau had treated her and her family, her suspicion of the FBI and its conclusions about her husbands killer came from a very reasonable place, says John McMillian, a history professor at Georgia State University. During the 1950 and 60s, the FBI surveilled and harassed King, his family and his associates. For now, James Earl Rays legacy depends on who you believe. The story may seem outlandish and no one has ever definitively found Raoul but Kings family and some of his most ardent supporters have come to see Rays story as the truth. We strive for accuracy and fairness. 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. 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. [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. [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. 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. Kennedy's political opponents are believed to have received support from wealthy tycoons and the CIA agents in executing his assassination (Hald-Mortensen 75). Dexter told Ray that he, along with the rest of the King family, believed Ray, and the family also urged publicly that Ray be granted a new trial. James Earl Ray killed Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee. For some 50 years, the federal government has maintained that James Earl Ray was the gunman who assassinated King that day. With rates currently down to half that in 2018 (18%), these theories seem unlikely to go away any time soon. Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? Whether anybody helped him indirectly has yet to be determined. First pu 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. James Earl is known for Fired Up! But then, he filed a motion to withdraw his plea. 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 The FBI Investigation The committee's investigation Transactional analysis Ray's associates examined Examination of Ray's motive 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. He said his lawyers were incompetent, and that proved false. By then, Ray was long gone. "I think I have figured out the tea party," the actor recently said on the "Smiley and West" radio show. 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. 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. 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. Though intelligent, he was quick to anger. After shooting King, Ray immediately fled, setting off a manhunt that would last more than two months and cover five countries. He spent much of his time in Los Angeles volunteering at the Wallace campaign headquarters in North Hollywood. Four days after that, Martin Luther King, Jr. was dead. James Earl Ray hated him. 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. Ray himself countered that he was not the only one involved in the crime. 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. YouTube James Earl Ray in 1977. Ray told this version of the assassination and his own flight during the following two months to journalist William Bradford Huie. [2] James Earl Ray was the oldest of nine children,[3] including John Larry Ray,[4] Franklin Ray, Jerry William Ray,[5] Melba Ray, Carol Ray Pepper, Suzan Ray, and Marjorie Ray. One of Kings sons Dexter had expressed his adamant belief that Ray was not his fathers assassin. When authorities caught him in London, hed been planning to travel to Rhodesia, a former African state ruled by a white minority in present-day Zimbabwe. [citation needed]. Ray met Anna Sandhu in 1977. An hour later, he was declared dead. James Earl Ray is the disturbed man who assassinated Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1968. 10 Disturbing and Unexplained Facts About James Earl Ray, MLK's Assassin. En route to Americas northern border, he would soon escape to Canada on April 6th. Ray, a white supporter of segregationist George Wallace, was a career criminal whod been convicted at least four separate times for robbing a cafe, a taxi, a post office and a grocery store. He travelled there on a Canadian passport. But after HBO conducted a televised mock trial about the assassination in 1993in which Ray gave his first public testimony and was found not guiltyJowers declared that hed been part of a conspiracy to kill King, and that Ray had been set up to take to fall. Exactly what led Ray to kill King continues to be a source of debate, as does his role in the murder. font size decrease font size increase font size; . 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. Ray was convicted on his 41st birthday after entering a guilty plea to forgo a jury trial. James Earl Jones thinks he knows makes the tea party tick: racism. (2009), Gridiron Gang (2006) and The Lazarus Effect (2015). James Earl Ray (March 10, 1928 - April 23, 1998) was an American fugitive and felon convicted of assassinating Martin Luther King Jr. at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968. Entire books have been written about the role James Earl Ray played in the assassination of Dr Martin Luther King Jr in Memphis, Tennessee in 1968. Two years later, his father abruptly decided to move the family from Alton to Ewing, Missouri, after he was caught passing a bad check. A package was abandoned close to the site that included a rifle and binoculars, both found with Ray's fingerprints. Since then, many members of Kings family and some of his closest supporters have come to believe Rays story and that a larger conspiracy had actually killed King. Authorities say that when King stood on the balcony of the Lorraine around 6 p.m., Ray spotted him from a window at his boarding house, aimed a Remington .30-06 hunting rifle toward King, and fired a shot. If this self-seeking rabble-rouser is allowed to go through with his plans here, Washington may well be treated to the same kind of violence, destruction, looting, and bloodshed.1. 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. Take a look below for 27 more strange and bizarre facts about James Earl Ray. 2023 TIME USA, LLC. Barely 48 hours later, on March 31st, Johnson would publicly announce that he would not seek reelection. Digital Kershaw claimed the prison escape 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 prison. [38] The tests ultimately proved inconclusive. 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.. [19], Ray was soon on the road again and drove his Mustang to Birmingham, Alabama. 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. He had Ulster Scots and Irish ancestry and had a Catholic . The King family started to publicly voice the opinion in 1997. A guilty. 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. 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. Born on March 10, 1928, in Alton, Illinois, was the eldest of George and Lucille Ray's nine children. The bureau wiretapped his phone and monitored his movements, taking advantage of times when he seemed particularly upset or depressed. Then in 1977 to 1978, following a . But Ray backed away from his confession just days later and insisted on his innocence in the decades that followed. As Kings horrified associates shouted and pointed to where they thought the bullet had come from, Ray wrapped his gun in a blanket, dumped it in a doorway of a nearby building, and fled the scene. If you see something that doesn't look right, contact us! Political party politics did not play a direct role in his activities. Ray died in prison on April 23, 1998. James Earl Ray is the man who shot and killed civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee. 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. His home life was no better. An hour later, he was declared dead. In 1999, James Earl Ray was found innocent of killing Martin Luther King Jr. in the same way O.J. 1928. James Earl Ray was raised as a catholic and had conservative religious beliefs from his childhood. James Earl Jones is the American actor who voiced Darth Vader in the 'Star Wars' franchise. King vs. Loyd Jowers and conspirators unknown. For this, he was imprisoned for four years in Leavenworth. He spent many hours volunteering at the campaign headquarters in North Hollywood. The Nazi party Is the president part of the political party? James Earl. He said that a Memphis police officer was the one who had actually killed King and that Jowers had stashed the gun. Indeed, compelling evidence including Rays fingerprints on the rifle that was later determined to be the murder weapon seemed to point to him. Finally, Americans anguished over the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. had the who. But what about the why?. I found gaps in his movements that are mysterious and you just dont know who hes meeting with. On the night of the shooting, I had left the rifle with Raoul.. Indeed, the House Select Committee on Assassinations later speculated that Ray had killed King in order to collect a $50,000 bounty offered by Wallace supporters in St. Louis who wanted the civil rights leader dead. Huie investigated this story and discovered that Ray lied about some details. But until the day he died of liver disease and kidney failure on April 23, 1998, he never again admitted to killing Martin Luther King Jr. James Earl Ray (March 10, 1928 - April 23, 1998) was an American claimed to have been responsible for the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr, which he was convicted of.Ray was convicted on his 41st birthday after entering a guilty plea to forgo a jury trial. Its important to note that this verdict was not a criminal conviction, as is sometimes erroneously implied when this case surfaces online. [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 1952, he served two years for the armed robbery of a taxi driver in Illinois. Despite a stint in prison, Ray continued on this path into the 1950s. 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. They said he lacked credibility and seemed largely motivated by financial gain. . Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. At the age of 16, Ray left his parents and returned to Alton, where he moved in with his grandmother and landed work in the dye room of the International Shoe Tannery. the result of a conspiracy that involved Jowers, not Ray, as well as ''others, including governmental agencies. 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 no uncertain terms, Byrd was calling on Johnson to stop Kings march on D.C. 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. His father's name was George Ellis Ray and his mother's name was Lucille. In 1955, he was convicted of mail fraud after stealing money orders in Hannibal, Missouri. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. [6] Ray left school at the age of 12. Later, though, he claimed he left the prints to gain international notoriety. Then, Raoul threw it in the Mississippi River. In renouncing his guilt, Ray raised the spectre of a conspiracy behind Kings murder but offered scant evidence to support his claim. 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. Less than a year after the assassination, Ray pleaded guilty to the crime. This organization would later morph into the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei better known as the NAZI party. Even a 1978 special congressional committee said there was the "likelihood" that Ray did not act alone. [16] On March 18, 1968, Ray left Los Angeles and began a cross-country drive to Atlanta, Georgia. James Earl Ray was a Democrat. There was one week in 1968 when much happened. But within Martin Luther Kings family, there remains a persistent belief that Ray is innocent, and was set up to take the fall. [1], In February 1935, Ray's father, known by the nickname Speedy, passed a bad check in Alton, Illinois, and then moved to Ewing, Missouri, where the family changed their name to Raynes to avoid law enforcement. James Earl Ray has 7 siblings in His family: John Larry Ray, Suzan Ray, Melba Ray, Marjorie Ray, Franklin Ray, Jerry Ray . Since fleeing Memphis, hed gone to Canada, then London, then Portugal, before returning to the U.K. Joseph Louw/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty ImagesKings horrified associates point to the direction where they think the bullet came from as King lay dying at their feet. 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. 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. Later, in the early 1990s, he suggested a conspiracy involving the government had been behind the assassination. 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. "[45][46][47][48], Prompted by the King family's acceptance of some of the claims of conspiracy, United States Attorney General Janet Reno ordered a new investigation on August 26, 1998. Martin Luther King Jr. giving his last speech, Ive Been To The Mountaintop, on April 3, 1968. 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. Whether he was guilty or innocent, James Earl Ray led an eventful life from behind bars. Hardcover, 480 pages. James Earl Ray was a racist.. Investigators announced that James Earl Ray, an escaped prisoner, had fatally shot King. Ray was convicted in 1969 after entering a guilty pleathus forgoing a jury trial and the possibility of a death sentenceand was sentenced to . Both Ray and King arrived in Memphis in early April. King and his associates came to town on April 3 and checked into the Lorraine Motel. 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. The rifle with Rays fingerprints didnt create tell-tale grooves on bullets, which ballistic tests usually use to match a gun to a bullet. The next day, Ray checked into a room in a boarding house just across the street from where King was staying, according to the Washington Post. That doesnt mean there are no questions left. 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. On the map, the locations of the church and residence of Martin Luther King Jr. were circled. It contained a pair of binoculars, a newspaper with a story about King staying at the Lorraine Motel, and a .30-06 Remington Gamemaster that had fired one shot. Dr. King was killed while standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel, and police determined that James Earl Ray had shot him with a rifle from the window of a rented room across the street. Had he been found guilty by jury trial, he would have been eligible for the death penalty. The mock trial jury finally acquitted Ray. [28] He stayed briefly in Lisbon, Portugal, and returned to London. By Jerry B. Jenkins . The day after the trial ended, Coretta King held a press conference in Atlanta to praise the decision. James Earl Ray was an American criminal with a Danish background, convicted of the assassination of civil rights and anti-war activist Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Ray was convicted on March 10, 1969, after entering a guilty plea to forgo a jury trial. And teachers at his school where Ray often showed up barefoot and in ragged clothes noted that he violated all regulations. He escaped in 1967. 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. He was sentenced to 99 years at the State penitentiary. ), where he secured a second Canadian passport (May 16), and back to London (May 17?). He was 70. On March 28th, riots took place in Memphis and King was present; on March 29th, Democrat Senator Byrd threw down the gauntlet with Democrat president Lyndon Baines Johnson by delivering a fiery speech on the Senate Floor intended to get the president to stop Kings march; Johnson announced on March 31st that he would not seek reelection; a bullet would take the life of King days later on April 4th, one year to the day after delivering what many viewed as an incendiary speech at the time. Description. 191 Ben Barrack 18 Jan 2011 0 In 1999, James Earl Ray was found innocent of killing Martin Luther King Jr. in the same way O.J. 2023 A&E Television Networks, LLC. 2023 Biography and the Biography logo are registered trademarks of A&E Television Networks, LLC. [15], On March 5, 1968, Ray underwent a rhinoplasty, performed by physician Russell Hadley. He was believed to have been en route to Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), which was at the time a haven for white supremacists. No I didn't." More answers below Over several decades, federal investigators have routinely concluded that Raoul doesnt exist. Later in life his pleas for a trial were encouraged by some civil-rights leaders, notably the King family. And it is committed, as Barack Obama once promised, to fundamentally transforming America. Some have indicated that King vs. Jowers was nothing more than a promotional stunt. He got a job back in Illinois at the International Shoe Company but was laid off in 1945. He was sentenced to 90 days in prison, but the lockup did little to reform him. All Rights Reserved. A Democratic Senator from West Virginia delivered an extremely incendiary speech on the Senate Floor that was directed specifically at President Lyndon Johnson, also a Democrat. You can unsubscribe at any time. For some 50 years,. 1. Peanut farming, talk of politics, and devotion to the Baptist faith were . 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. [20] He told the store owners that he was going on a hunting trip with his brother. Ray was spotted at the scene and, almost immediately after the killing, his fingerprints were found on the gun. "Like a Fading Shadow" is Antonio Muoz Molina's dramatization of the hunted assassin James Earl Ray's obscure 10 . James Earl Ray, the petty criminal who confessed to assassinating Martin Luther King Jr., then recanted and spent decades seeking a trial, died April 23, 1998, of liver failure. FACT CHECK: We strive for accuracy and fairness. 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. 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