This organization would later morph into the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei better known as the NAZI party. Updates? "I believe you," Dexter responded and shook his hand. 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. A confirmed racist and small-time criminal, James Earl Ray began plotting the assassination of revered civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. in early 1968. A man named Vincent Harding is credited with writing most of it. 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. All three bore the fingerprints of an escaped convict named James Earl Ray. As the official story goes, Ray followed through with the threat he made in prison. That claim prompted the family to push unsuccessfully for a new trial. Both his Ray, Jerry, as told to Tamara . U.S. House Select Committee on Assassinations, Martin Luther King Jr. Records Collection Act, King: A Filmed Record Montgomery to Memphis, The Witness: From the Balcony of Room 306, Martin Luther King and the Montgomery Story, Joseph Schwantner: New Morning for the World; Nicolas Flagello: The Passion of Martin Luther King. 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. Was James earl ray white? Representative John Lewis, a civil rights activist who later became a U.S. congressman and served 17 terms before his death in 2020, agreed. He escaped from the Missouri State Penitentiary in 1967 by hiding in a truck transporting bread from the prison bakery. James Earl Ray on July 19, 1968, shortly after he was arrested for killing MLK. Ray dropped out of school around the age of 12 but had trouble making anything stick. He enlisted in the U.S. Army but was discharged for ineptness and lack of adaptability to military service in 1948. The rifle with Rays fingerprints didnt create tell-tale grooves on bullets, which ballistic tests usually use to match a gun to a bullet. 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. For some 50 years,. 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. 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. Trending. 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. In the years following Ray's arrest, questions arose about his exact involvement in King's murder. He claimed that, as a fugitive, he had met a blond Cuban named Raoul or Raul. Ray said he worked for Raoul in a gun-running enterprise, and he bought a .30-06 hunting rifle for him in Birmingham, Alabama. The first time he tried to steal from someone, he left behind his identification. There is abundant evidence of a major high level conspiracy in the assassination of my husband, Martin Luther King, Jr., Coretta King said at a press conference in 1999, according to The King Center. James Earl Ray was a racist.. For this, he was imprisoned for four years in Leavenworth. In Truth at Last, we read how "James met CIA asset Jules Ron 'Ricco' Kimble. "[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. James Earl Ray died, in prison, on April 23, 1998. YouTubeJames Earl Ray in 1977. [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. The Nazi party Is the president part of the political party? 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. An avid newspaper reader, Ray passed his time reading The Atlanta Constitution. On the night of the shooting, I had left the rifle with Raoul.. Those prints were already among the FBIs records for wanted individuals. The parents of James Earl Ray are James Gerald Ray,Lucille Ray. They said he lacked credibility and seemed largely motivated by financial gain. Ray risikerede ddsstraf, sfremt han . A confirmed racist and small-time criminal, James Earl Ray began plotting the assassination of revered civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. in early 1968. Twice a week we compile our most fascinating features and deliver them straight to you. 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. 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. Ray was a known criminal, on the lam after escaping a Missouri state prison when he committed the assassination, and had more than two dozen known aliases for himself before he was put behind bars again. 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. 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. Bettmann/Getty ImagesJames Earl Ray in 1966, two years before the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Ray was convicted in 1969 after entering a guilty pleathus forgoing a jury trial and the possibility of a death sentenceand was sentenced to . Ray struggled to adapt to military life and was eventually discharged for ineptitude and lack of adaptability in 1948. Toward the end of his life, Ray, whose sentence had been extended to 100 years after he escaped from prison in 1977, had the support of an unexpected ally: the King family. Over the decades, the story twisted and turned. He was 70. Less than a year after the assassination, Ray pleaded guilty to the crime. 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. James Earl. He drifted around the Midwest, committing more crimes. James Earl Ray, a career criminal who had briefly served in the U.S. Army, shot the advocate of non-violent resistance. It was a theory she maintained until her death in 2006 that has so far never been proven. James Earl Ray is infamous for assassinating civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968. 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. 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. He even upheld his claims to the King family. Simpson was found guilty of killing his wife Nicole and Ron Goldman - in a civil trial. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. He travelled there on a Canadian passport. FBIs infamous Martin Luther King Jr. tapes. He briefly escaped from prison in 1977 and survived a murder attempt in 1981. Ray was a racist and was quickly drawn to Wallace's segregationist platform. Corrections? 1928. The verdict in King vs. Jowers found a government conspiracy involving city, state, and federal agents complicit in the murder. 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. Eventually, Ray drifted west to Los Angeles. Finally, Americans anguished over the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. had the who. But what about the why?. 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. He maintained that he was innocent of killing MLK until his own death in 1998. More answers below James Earl Ray being led to his cell by Shelby County Sheriff William Morris on July 19, 1968. Share Background Report Background Report Overview of James Earl Ray Lives in: Northville, Michigan Phone: View phone number Gender: Male Whats more, Ray claimed that he only pled guilty to the assassination because his lawyer and the FBI had pressed him to do so. He later joined the U.S. Army at the close of World War II and served in Germany. Author weaves memoir with fictional account of MLK's killer on the lam. 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. JAMES EARL RAY WANTED POSTER Rare original wanted poster, 10 1/4" x 16", issued by the FBI on April 19, 1968, seeking information leading to the arrest of JAMES EARL RAY (1928-1998), the assassin of civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. on charges of "Civil Rights - Conspiracy - Interstate Flight - Robbery". He was convinced that he would escape capture because of his intelligence and cunning, and he also believed that Governor of Alabama George Wallace would soon be elected to the presidency, so that Ray would only be confined in prison for a short time, pending a presidential pardon by Wallace. For 72 hours after his guilty plea, James Earl Ray stayed quiet. One of Kings sons Dexter had expressed his adamant belief that Ray was not his fathers assassin. Investigators announced that James Earl Ray, an escaped prisoner, had fatally shot King. One week prior to Kings assassination on April 4, 1968 he had gone to Memphis to show support for local sanitation workers. Contents 1 Early life and education 2 Career 3 Personal life 3.1 Legal issues Ray was a racist and was quickly drawn to Wallace's segregationist platform. James Earl Ray Biography. "I had nothing to do with killing your father," Ray said. Indeed, Ray seemed to struggle from the start. Back in Memphis, Ray pleaded guilty, forfeiting a trial, and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. There is abundant evidence of a major high-level conspiracy in the assassination of my husband, said Coretta Scott King, Kings widow, in 1999. Then, Raoul threw it in the Mississippi River. Ray had continued using the Galt alias after his stint in Mexico, but when he made this purchase, he gave his name as Harvey Lowmeyer. This doesnt mean that Ray couldnt have received assistance. James Earl Ray was raised as a catholic and had conservative religious beliefs from his childhood. [37] A year was added to Ray's previous sentence, increasing it to 10 decades. In 1949 he left for Los Angeles, where in October of that year police arrested him for robbing a cafe. Read an Excerpt. Along with his film debut in Dr. Strangelove , he scored a supporting role in the 1967 political drama The. Born on March 10, 1928, in Alton, Illinois, was the eldest of George and Lucille Ray's nine children. 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 April 4, 1968.After this, Ray was on the run and was captured in the UK. 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. Ray hired Jack Kershaw as his new attorney, and Kershaw publicly argued and promoted Ray's claim that he was not responsible for the assassination of King. Magazines, Or create a free account to access more articles. Evidence does suggest that Ray had little stomach for the integration policies that were sweeping the country. After this, Ray was on the run and was captured in the UK. According to Harding, King had already severely angered Johnson by delivering that speech, which could have made Johnson quite receptive to Byrds sentiment. [20] He told the store owners that he was going on a hunting trip with his brother. Then in 1977 to 1978, following a . That year, Kings son Dexter Scott King visited Ray in prison to draw attention to the familys push to appeal his case. An international manhunt led to his capture in June 1968 at Heathrow Airport in London, where he was caught carrying two fake Canadian passports. He was a democrat. After getting laid off in 1945, Ray enlisted in the Army, eventually getting stationed in West Germany. But not everyone was convinced that the story stopped there in part because Rays guilty plea stopped a trial from proceeding. He shot and killed King in Memphis on April 4, 1968, confessing to the crime the following March. Over the next several years, Ray embarked on a number of small crimes, serving various jail times. 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. 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. James Earl Jones thinks he knows makes the tea party tick: racism. But while at the Missouri State Penitentiary, Ray took a fateful step. 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. He spent many hours volunteering at the campaign headquarters in North Hollywood. [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. 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. [13], He considered emigrating to Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), where a predominantly white minority regime had unilaterally assumed independence from the United Kingdom in 1965. But Ray soon proved to be an inept criminal. * The request timed out and you did not successfully sign up. Dedicated to the political vision and legacy of John and Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King Jr., . 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. Hardcover, 480 pages. https://www.biography.com/crime-figure/james-earl-ray. (2009), Gridiron Gang (2006) and The Lazarus Effect (2015). Ray, who was feeble and sick from hepatitis C, was asked by King about his involvement in the assassination. Some have indicated that King vs. Jowers was nothing more than a promotional stunt. [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. [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. 10 Disturbing and Unexplained Facts About James Earl Ray, MLK's Assassin. Until his last day, James Earl Ray denied the crime, saying that it was part of a larger conspiracy involving contacts from Canada and even insinuating that the U.S. government had a role in it as well. Top 250 Movies Most Popular Movies Top 250 TV Shows Most Popular TV Shows Most Popular Video Games Most Popular Music Videos Most Popular Podcasts. The incident was incredibly damaging to the cause of King and his Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). 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. A. In 1959, he was caught stealing $120 in an armed robbery of a Kroger store in St. James Earl Ray is the disturbed man who assassinated Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1968. He carried a picture of Hitler, his idol. For all Joe Biden's talk about "semi-fascist" and "un-American," "ultra-MAGA" Republicans, it is the Democratic Party that has far more radically changed. Four days after that, Martin Luther King, Jr. was dead. All Rights Reserved. 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 (fdt 10. marts 1928, dd 23. april 1998) var en amerikansk morder, der blev dmt for at have drbt Martin Luther King jr. den 4. april 1968, fem r efter Kings verdenskendte "I Have a Dream" tale i 1963.. James Earl Ray blev idmt 99 rs fngsel for mordet p King. Among the evidence was a recording of Jowers in which he suggested he was interested in fabricating his story for financial gain. Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? Art Hanes Jr. thinks about the James Earl Ray case every day. Soon, they seemed to have their answer. Martin Luther King Jr. giving his last speech, Ive Been To The Mountaintop, on April 3, 1968. And teachers at his school where Ray often showed up barefoot and in ragged clothes noted that he violated all regulations. The UK quickly extradited Ray to Tennessee, where he was charged with King's murder. It didnt take long for investigators to determine a suspect. But he found it difficult to adapt to the military's strict codes of conduct. James Earl Ray was a Democrat. The facts are these. He pursued a life of crime but seemed to have been a clumsy criminal. And what actually happened on that terrible day in Memphis? In the hours and days after the Tucson shootings, the left wing media in America attempted to blame the Tea Party and right wing rhetoric for the deaths of six and the injuries of thirteen. This had long been a consequence of the compromise made a lifetime earlier to end Reconstruction. There are records of Ray receiving plastic surgery in Los Angeles about a month before Kings murder in Memphis. This list details the strange, unstable life of James Earl Ray, a man who confessed to and then spent his life denyingthe murder of Martin Luther King Jr. 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.). FACT CHECK: We strive for accuracy and fairness. And Ray even pled guilty to murdering King after he was arrested. He was sentenced to 99 years at the State penitentiary. In 1952, he served two years for the armed robbery of a taxi driver in Illinois. Months later, he recanted his confession, without effect. Four decades later, Sides, an editor-at-large for Outside magazine and the author of the historical books Ghost Soldiers and . 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 mock trial jury finally acquitted Ray. 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. 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. 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. The day after the trial ended, Coretta King held a press conference in Atlanta to praise the decision. Digital King died about an hour later. They'll arrive at your door as innocent as children, longing for the past. Even a 1978 special congressional committee said there was the "likelihood" that Ray did not act alone. Ray himself countered that he was not the only one involved in the crime. 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. Had trouble making anything stick have been a clumsy criminal newspaper reader, Ray embarked on a hunting trip his! The Lazarus Effect ( 2015 ) gun-running enterprise, and was sentenced to 99 years in prison, April... Following Ray 's nine children serving various jail times use to match a gun to a bullet eldest! 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