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. FBI agents later found this map when they searched the room in which he was staying. Please try again later. 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. Two years later, his young sister Marjorie, died in a fire after playing with matches and accidentally catching herself on fire. On the night of the shooting, I had left the rifle with Raoul.. 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. That claim prompted the family to push unsuccessfully for a new trial. For some 50 years, the federal government has maintained that James Earl Ray was the gunman who assassinated King that day. Ray was convicted in 1969 after entering a guilty pleathus forgoing a jury trial and the possibility of a death sentenceand was sentenced to 99 years of imprisonment. The magazine reported that the test results showed "Ray did, in fact, kill Martin Luther King Jr. and that he did so alone." Assassination Conspiracy Trial", "The Execution of Martin Luther King William Pepper (ONE of TWO)", "The Execution of Martin Luther King, William Pepper (TWO of TWO)", "Justice Dept. Find many great new & used options and get the best deals for Tennessee Waltz : The Making of a Political Prisoner by James E. Ray (Hardcover) at the best online prices at eBay! After getting laid off in 1945, Ray enlisted in the Army, eventually getting stationed in West Germany. An hour later, he was declared dead. Three days later, Ray recanted his confession. 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 On the left is the death chart of Karl Harrer founder of the DAP or Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, the German Worker's Party. On June 8 he was apprehended by London police at Heathrow Airport as he was about to embark for Brussels; the FBI had established him as the prime suspect almost immediately after the assassination. [36] However, Ray spent the remainder of his life unsuccessfully attempting to withdraw his guilty plea and secure a jury trial. Maybe you would like to learn more about one of these? Simpson was found guilty of killing his wife Nicole and Ron Goldman - in a civil trial. Check here if you would like to receive subscription offers and other promotions via email from TIME group companies. [citation needed]. He had entered a guilty plea on the advice of his attorney, Percy Foreman, in an effort to avoid the sentence of death by electrocution, which would have been a possible outcome of a jury trial. For some 50 years,. 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. Carter, who has rarely used his full name-James Earl Carter, Jr.-was born October 1, 1924, in Plains, Georgia. 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. The incident was incredibly damaging to the cause of King and his Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). They'll arrive at your door as innocent as children, longing for the past. On April 4, 1967 a year to the day prior to Kings assassination King delivered his Beyond Vietnam speech at Riverside Baptist Church in New York City. [29] Ray was then arrested at London Heathrow Airport attempting to leave the United Kingdom for Brussels. A man named Vincent Harding is credited with writing most of it. 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. 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. He considered moving to Rhodesia (now known as Zimbabwe), a country with a predominantly white minority government. 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. [8] He was sentenced to twenty years in prison for repeated offenses. 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 . But not everyone was convinced that the story stopped there in part because Rays guilty plea stopped a trial from proceeding. After shooting King, Ray immediately fled, setting off a manhunt that would last more than two months and cover five countries. He pursued a life of crime but seemed to have been a clumsy criminal. 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 2023 Biography and the Biography logo are registered trademarks of A&E Television Networks, LLC. 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. 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. It didnt help that Rays story kept changing. [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?" Ray had seven siblings. A consequence of Kings alleged involvement in those riots was that it caught the attention of some powerful politicians. The bullet whizzed through the night and hit King in the jaw, causing him to collapse. As the official story goes, Ray followed through with the threat he made in prison. As with most cases, the answer is yes. He said his lawyers were incompetent, and that proved false. Both Ray and King arrived in Memphis in early April. Contents 1 Early life and education 2 Career 3 Personal life 3.1 Legal issues His home life was no better. I went to Memphis to deliver a rifle to this man called Raoul, Ray explained to a journalist from The Tennessean. He made the FBI Most Wanted List before his recapture. King vs. Loyd Jowers and conspirators unknown. 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. In March 1960 Ray started a 20-year sentence for the crimes. He left school when he was 15 and later joined the US Army towards the end of World War II but he struggled to adapt to . I wholeheartedly applaud the verdict of the jury and I feel that justice has been well served in their deliberations, she said. Wednesday marks 50 years since Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated on the second-floor balcony near his room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, where he had been supporting black sanitation workers on strike for better pay and working conditions. https://www.biography.com/crime-figure/james-earl-ray. [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. He died on April 23, 1998, Nashville, TN. 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. On the map, the locations of the church and residence of Martin Luther King Jr. were circled. Dedicated to the political vision and legacy of John and Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., . 1928. All Rights Reserved. He shot and killed Martin Luther King on April 4, 1968. One of Kings sons Dexter had expressed his adamant belief that Ray was not his fathers assassin. In renouncing his guilt, Ray raised the spectre of a conspiracy behind Kings murder but offered scant evidence to support his claim. James. 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. . And after he returned to Illinois and robbed a taxi driver at gunpoint for $11, police easily arrested him in a dead-end alleyway. 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. The parents of James Earl Ray are James Gerald Ray,Lucille Ray. (2009), Gridiron Gang (2006) and The Lazarus Effect (2015). 1. Ray met Anna Sandhu in 1977. The jury awarded the money to the estate, deciding that Kings assassination had likely beenthe result of a conspiracy that involved Jowers, not Ray, as well as ''others, including governmental agencies.''. Doubleday. But officials dont believe Jowerss story. Something triggered something in him, Sides says, but exactly what that trigger was is unclear. [19], Ray was soon on the road again and drove his Mustang to Birmingham, Alabama. James Earl Ray was a racist.. [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. James Earl Jones is the American actor who voiced Darth Vader in the 'Star Wars' franchise. 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. 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.. Later, in the early 1990s, he suggested a conspiracy involving the government had been behind the assassination. Public DomainJames Earl Rays mugshot from 1955. 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. Aggie Kenny who traveled to Memphis to cover the hearing, drew Ray as he attempted to argue that he was not well-served by his previous attorney, Percy Foreman. He signed an account of the murder in March 1969, and in exchange for his . And he asserted that he did not "personally shoot Dr. King," but may have been "partially responsible without knowing it," hinting at a conspiracy. Second Edition, Tennessee Waltz - the Making of a Political Prisoner. Over the next several years, Ray embarked on a number of small crimes, serving various jail times. 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. In 1999, James Earl Ray was found innocent of killing Martin Luther King Jr. in the same way O.J. James Earl Ray. [20] He told the store owners that he was going on a hunting trip with his brother. 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. [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. 2023 A&E Television Networks, LLC. Two years later, his father abruptly decided to move the family from Alton to Ewing, Missouri, after he was caught passing a bad check. 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. 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. He maintained that he was innocent of killing MLK until his own death in 1998. 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. I dont know what happened, but the truth of what happened to Dr. King should be made available for historys sake.. A part of his life was shaped by tragedy. This doesnt mean that Ray couldnt have received assistance. In 1955, he was convicted of mail fraud after stealing money orders in Hannibal, Missouri. He escaped from the Missouri State Penitentiary in 1967 by hiding in a truck transporting bread from the prison bakery. The first time he tried to steal from someone, he left behind his identification. Ray died at Columbia Nashville Memorial Hospital in Nashville, Tennessee, on April 23, 1998. In Truth at Last, we read how "James met CIA asset Jules Ron 'Ricco' Kimble. 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. YouTubeJames Earl Ray in 1977. So, are there are still remaining questions about how everything happened the day of Kings assassination? 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 is the man who shot and killed civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee. 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 . Using their logic, the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. should be attributed to a Democratic U.S. 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. 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