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. HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate. After his capture, his sentence was extended by one more year to 100 years. In the meantime James Earl Ray had also heard about the bread box, probably through Westberg. While he was still in Los Angeles, Ray had the desire to immigrate to Rhodesia (now called Zimbabwe) where a white minority regime declared independence from England in the year 1965. He was of Irish, Scots, and Welsh ancestry. I've always had trouble accepting Ray as an assassin. The restaurant owner named Memphis Police . The paper stated that King had announced that this action would disrupt the normal course of business and, in fact, close down the nations capital. These claims led Kings estate to sue Jowers in 1999 for a symbolic $100 in a wrongful death civil action. They might not have been involved in the murder, McMillian observes of the FBI, but I wish people knew the really shameful things that they did.. I'll be out of here very shortly on a Petition for Habeas Corpus and I'll bring up all these problems and guess what, you might not be operating tomorrow. The paper then listed some of the ways Levison had supported and influenced King, as far back as 1956: He actively involved himself in fundraising drives for King. Jerry Ray had moved in with Stoner, and shot an intruder who broke into Stoner's office which was in the same building as the living quarters. A two month long manhunt spanning five countries was launched by the law enforcement agencies to nab him. rear of a roominghouse at 422 1/2 South Main Street, Memphis, Tenn. James Earl Ray purchased the rifle that was used to shoot Dr. King and transported 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. The greatest sin a convict can commit in prison is to escape. King still tried to hide ODell in his organization until July, 1963, when he accepted ODells resignation. As King put it, ODells release was not because of connections between ODell and the CPUSA but because of the emotional public response. He got a 99-year prison sentence, which he served until he died of liver failure due to hepatitis C on . He said that another person he met in Canada by the name Raoul was the actual person who plotted the murder and ultimately pulled the trigger. Even though he played an elitist liberal psychiatrist on "Frasier," Kelsey Grammer is a Republican in real life. Then Benny was transferred to L-Hall, an honor unit just outside the walls of the main penitentiary. But even if Ray had help, the evidence strongly pointed to him pulling the trigger. 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. Sometime before 4:00 p.m. on April 4, 1968, James Earl Ray parked his white Mustang on South Main Street and, under an assumed name, rented a room in the second floor rooming house directly above the grill. in the Q2 rifle. Each day he would go to the state capital to work as a programmer. When James Earl Ray bought the rifle that killed King, he mentioned that he was going hunting with his brother. Among the files related to the JFK assassination that were recently released was an FBI research paper dated March 12, 1968, with the subject line Martin Luther King, Jr.: A Current Analysis. The paper was written just a month before the controversial civil-rights activist was shot and killed on April 4, 1968. 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. Some of the books written about the assassination describe him as a major drug dealer in Jefferson City, which is ludicrous. 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 watched it all on the cell-block TV at Jeff City. Some in the community took offense to this assertion since the incident took place during Brown's Shelby County district attorney campaign and Brown brought his own lawyer with him during the 2014 incident, causing many to wonder if it was a ploy for publicity. There were always convict clerks assigned to the reception area, and the fingerprints could have been switched--either because Ray had paid someone to do it, or, just as likely, because some convict wanted to help Ray beat the system. [18][24][25], This article is about the person. Still, Ray shot ReverendKing and if the King family wants closure in the matter they should finally accept that fact. It was then learned he'd been the site engineer for the West German Pavilion at Expo '67 in Montreal. 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. The facts are these. The introduction to the paper observed that since 1956, King had occupied a prominent role in the drive for equal rights for Negroes in the Untied States. It continued by noting, The course King chooses to follow at this critical time could have momentous impact on the future of race relations in the United States, and for that reason this paper has been prepared to give some insight into the nature of the man himself as well as the nature of his views, goals, objective, tactics, and the reason therefore., The papers summary of Kings planned Washington Spring project is contrary to the image of King painted by most historians as a man who employed only the most peaceful means. Just before Ray's escape from Jeff City he was visited by his brother. As with most cases, the answer is yes. 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. McMillans false scenarios portray Ray as a rabid racist in prison. Who assassinated Robert F. Kennedy on June 5, 1968? The Galileo Case Revisited | Beyond the Cover. 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. As one example, Dan Smoot, a former FBI agent, was a steadfast anti-Communist who became associated with The John Birch Society and wrote for the societys American Opinion and The Review Of The News magazines. In 1983, President Ronald Reagan signed the holiday into law, and it was first recognized three years later. There it was once again: A belief from the Rev. In 1999, James Earl Ray was found innocent of killing Martin Luther King Jr. in the same way O.J. ", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Joe_Brown_(judge)&oldid=1134528878, This page was last edited on 19 January 2023, at 03:56. He is a male registered to vote in Wayne County, Michigan. Brown apparently raised his voice and interrupted a magistrate judge while representing a woman seeking child support in Shelby County Juvenile Court. and condition of the Q64 bullet. [12], Brown is an Independent candidate for the 2023 Memphis mayoral election. In the year 1968, Ray underwent through a facial reconstruction surgery to hide his identity in Los Angeles. The verdict did convict Loyd Jowers and "other parties known and unknown" for their parts in the vast US government conspiracy to assassinate King. people lost faith in the political system. That year, Kings son Dexter Scott King visited Ray in prison to draw attention to the familys push to appeal his case. McMillan is the primary source for the widespread belief that Ray was a major drug dealer in Jeff City; that he smuggled large sums of money out of prison; that he used that money to finance his travels after his escape. Shortly after Ray pled guilty to the King murder, Clay Blair's book The Strange Case of James Earl Ray was published. During the four-week trial in Memphis, a 12-person jury heard testimony from over 70 witnesses; but not Jowers, who didnt testify because there were no criminal charges at stake. I had met with him twice while in Memphis at Jims Grill, which was near the boarding house. He said not knowing the truth about his fathers assassination had been painful for the family. January 30, 1961. Brown was thrust into the national spotlight while presiding over James Earl Ray's last appeal of his conviction for the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Brown was removed from the reopened investigation of King's murder due to alleged bias. The next section of the FBI paper was subheaded Strong Communist Influence. It pulled no punches in stating: Another complicating factor in the picture is the degree of communist influence on King. He is the one who sits in leadership and is the most powerful person of a country. It got so that the very sight of King would galvanize Ray. On April 4, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot while standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. The 12-person jury verdict unanimous exonerated the "patsy" James Earl Ray for any role in the assassination of MLK. From 1961 through 1965 I used a substantial amount of amphetamine, and so did many of the people I associated with, and I never bought any from James Earl Ray. Weeks before Kennedy was killed an informant quoted an NSRP member saying it would happen, and providing details that coincide with what did happen in Dallas. James Lawson, a Memphis pastor and civil rights institution who helped mentor King, said he began visiting Ray in the Memphis jail in 1969 when Ray complained about being held in solitary. 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