James Earl Ray Biography. 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. The paper reported King's planned return trip to Memphis, Tennessee, which was scheduled for April 1, 1968. Using mail-ordered equipment, he filmed and photographed local prostitutes. [8] He was sentenced to twenty years in prison for repeated offenses. For now, James Earl Rays legacy depends on who you believe. Both were aliases used by James Earl Ray. 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. [36] However, Ray spent the remainder of his life unsuccessfully attempting to withdraw his guilty plea and secure a jury trial. 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. While there, he started a new life of crime. Write to Olivia B. Waxman at olivia.waxman@time.com. So, are there are still remaining questions about how everything happened the day of Kings assassination? Ray fled to Toronto, secured a Canadian passport through a travel agency, flew to London (May 5), then to Lisbon (May 7? James Earl Ray being led to his cell by Shelby County Sheriff William Morris on July 19, 1968. 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 . James. One of Kings sons Dexter had expressed his adamant belief that Ray was not his fathers assassin. Martin Luther's goal, at least initially, was to repeal Jim Crow segregation laws where they existed. "I think I have figured out the tea party," the actor recently said on the "Smiley and West" radio show. "Like a Fading Shadow" is Antonio Muoz Molina's dramatization of the hunted assassin James Earl Ray's obscure 10 . After his assassination, he was memorialized by Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Art Hanes Jr. thinks about the James Earl Ray case every day. He even upheld his claims to the King family. He got a job back in Illinois at the International Shoe Company but was laid off in 1945. Had he been found guilty by jury trial, he would have been eligible for the death penalty. In fact, Kings family was as convinced of Rays innocence as the families of Nicole and Ron were convinced of Simpsons guilt. At the time, it was said to be the FBI's most expensive and biggest investigation in its history. Four days after that, Martin Luther King, Jr. was dead. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. Martin Luther King Jr. giving his last speech, Ive Been To The Mountaintop, on April 3, 1968. But Ray backed away from his confession just days later and insisted on his innocence in the decades that followed. An aerial photo of the Lorraine Motel where Martin Luther King Jr. was fatally shot hangs in his office, right in front of the 76-year . James Earl Ray tilstod drabet under den efterflgende retssag. ''. Updates? ), where he secured a second Canadian passport (May 16), and back to London (May 17?). [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. It was a theory she maintained until her death in 2006 that has so far never been proven. He made the FBI Most Wanted List before his recapture. 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. Then in 1977 to 1978, following a . 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. Joseph Louw/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images. He shot. 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. James Earl Ray was raised as a catholic and had conservative religious beliefs from his childhood. Its important to note that this verdict was not a criminal conviction, as is sometimes erroneously implied when this case surfaces online. Maybe you would like to learn more about one of these? Ray was born into a poor family on March 10, 1928, in Alton, Illinois. 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. He shot and killed Martin Luther King on April 4, 1968. Despite a stint in prison, Ray continued on this path into the 1950s. Simpson was found guilty of killing his wife Nicole and Ron Goldman in a civil trial. [38] The tests ultimately proved inconclusive. 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. Public DomainJames Earl Rays mugshot from 1955. 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. [15], On March 5, 1968, Ray underwent a rhinoplasty, performed by physician Russell Hadley. Riots erupted in Memphis; one person was killed and sixty were injured. Apr 4, 2018 On April 4, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot while standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. 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. Using their logic, the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. should be attributed to a Democratic U.S. Ray dismissed Foreman as his attorney and thereafter derisively called him "Percy Fourflusher." He said that a Memphis police officer was the one who had actually killed King and that Jowers had stashed the gun. Three days after pleading guilty he recanted his confession, and for the next 28 years maintained his innocence, but by then it was too late. James Earl Ray is infamous for assassinating civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968. 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. But then, he filed a motion to withdraw his plea. He briefly escaped from prison in 1977 and survived a murder attempt in 1981. 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. 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 He also bought a Redfield 2x-7x scope, which he had mounted to the rifle. Indeed, Ray seemed to struggle from the start. 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. 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. Eventually, Ray drifted west to Los Angeles. 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.. But that biography doesnt explain why or how Ray moved from committing property crime and supporting racists, to killing a national icon. I had met with him twice while in Memphis at Jims Grill, which was near the boarding house. As Sides points out, it isnt surprising that members of Kings family and his fellow civil-rights leaders would have suspected that some larger government conspiracy to kill the minister must been at play. As the official story goes, Ray followed through with the threat he made in prison. [10], While in Mexico, Ray, using the alias Eric Starvo Galt, attempted to establish himself as a pornographic film director. He had Irish, Scottish and Welsh ancestry and had a Catholic upbringing. 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. 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. Ray, was found by bloodhounds about eightmiles away from the prison shortly after the escape attempt. In renouncing his guilt, Ray raised the spectre of a conspiracy behind Kings murder but offered scant evidence to support his claim. Such a conclusion must be drawn from a premise that the King family was willing to publicly, wrongfully, and unjustifiably vindicate Ray in order to accuse others simply to gain notoriety. After reading about James Earl Ray, learn about the first and only time that Martin Luther King Jr. met Malcolm X. 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. A plaque made for a 2002 Martin Luther King Day celebration mistakenly thanked James Earl Ray, King's assassin, instead of actor James Earl Jones. 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. 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. 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. 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. An international manhunt led to his capture in June 1968 at Heathrow Airport in London, where he was caught carrying two fake Canadian passports. But despite having a suspect in mind, it took investigators much longer to actually track him down. 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. Both his Ray, Jerry, as told to Tamara . Political party politics did not play a direct role in his activities. According to Pew, the percentage of Americans who said they could trust the federal government to do the right thing nearly always or most of the time went from an all-time high of 77% in 1964 to 36% by the end of the 1970s. He considered moving to Rhodesia (now known as Zimbabwe), a country with a predominantly white minority government. In the years following Ray's arrest, questions arose about his exact involvement in King's murder. Published Jan 19, 2003. Ray had been treated for liver disease over the years and according to the Tennessee Department of Correction, he died from that and kidney failure. Contents 1 Early life and education 2 Career 3 Personal life 3.1 Legal issues You have reached your limit of 4 free articles. They'll arrive at your door as innocent as children, longing for the past. James Earl Ray would have fit in just perfect with MAGA Before all the MLK quotes begin in a couple of weeks remember; MLK, didn't end racism. Edward, Earl of Wessex is the youngest child of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip. [22], On April 4, 1968, Ray killed civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. with a single shot fired from his Remington rifle, while King was standing on the second-floor balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. The facts are these. With it came a letter threatening King with public exposure if he didnt kill himself, and claiming that the sender had evidence of other affairs. 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. The drifter left after a 45-minute session and never came back. Joseph Blakeney Brown Jr. (born July 5, 1947), known as Judge Joe Brown, is a former American lawyer and television personality. The other people involved in this conspiracy, Jowers said, included Memphis police officers, a Mafia member and the infamous Raoul. Magazines, Or create a free account to access more articles. "I believe you," Dexter responded and shook his hand. Among the evidence was a recording of Jowers in which he suggested he was interested in fabricating his story for financial gain. 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. Ray's first conviction for criminal activity, a burglary in California, came in 1949. Those prints were already among the FBIs records for wanted individuals. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! 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. [32][33], Airport officials noticed that Ray carried another passport under a second name. [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?" While there, Ray attended a local bartending school and took dance lessons. They quickly found the rifle with Rays fingerprints on it. Experts have also studied Rays movements leading up to the assassination, including a mysterious trip to New Orleans that March and a move to Atlanta, the funding and logistics of which raise questions. Not long before Ray's death, Dexter King, Dr. King's son, visited the man presumed to be his father's killer. Even a 1978 special congressional committee said there was the "likelihood" that Ray did not act alone. Based on the results of a civil trial in 1999, Byrds speech would have almost necessarily have played an even more direct role if the verdict is to be accepted. Corrections? In 1959, he was caught stealing $120 in an armed robbery of a Kroger store in St. He shot and killed King in Memphis on April 4, 1968, confessing to the crime the following March. And, indeed, despite Rays persistent denials of his guilt, his conviction has withstood multiple inquiries. Fifty years later, some questions linger about why exactly the civil rights leader was targeted and whether the shooter acted alone. Over the next several years, Ray embarked on a number of small crimes, serving various jail times. For the first 25 years after Kings death, Jowers did not claim any involvement in the murder. By Jerry B. Jenkins . Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Warren was a former California governor who also headed the commission that investigated the JFK assassination. We strive for accuracy and fairness. Ray was a racist and was quickly drawn to Wallace's segregationist platform. 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. He travelled there on a Canadian passport. Did James Earl Ray Really Assassinate Martin Luther King Jr. Or Was He Set Up? Share Background Report Background Report Overview of James Earl Ray Lives in: Northville, Michigan Phone: View phone number Gender: Male In the mock trial, the prosecutor was Hickman Ewing. 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. [7], Ray committed a variety of crimes prior to the murder of King. It didnt help that Rays story kept changing. Ray was a racist and was quickly drawn to Wallace's segregationist platform. "I . [citation needed]. 10 Disturbing and Unexplained Facts About James Earl Ray, MLK's Assassin. Doubleday. James Earl Ray, a career criminal who had briefly served in the U.S. Army, shot the advocate of non-violent resistance. 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. A man named Vincent Harding is credited with writing most of it. I went to Memphis to deliver a rifle to this man called Raoul, Ray explained to a journalist from The Tennessean. This doesnt mean that Ray couldnt have received assistance. 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. All Rights Reserved. Bettmann/Getty ImagesJames Earl Ray in 1966, two years before the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. 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. And it is committed, as Barack Obama once promised, to fundamentally transforming America. 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. James Earl Ray in 1966, two years before the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. James Earl Rays mugshot from 1955. Hardcover, 480 pages. 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. I dont know what happened, but the truth of what happened to Dr. King should be made available for historys sake.. 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 . Twice a week we compile our most fascinating features and deliver them straight to you. Second Edition, Tennessee Waltz - the Making of a Political Prisoner. In 1955, he was convicted of mail fraud after stealing money orders in Hannibal, Missouri. Check here if you would like to receive subscription offers and other promotions via email from TIME group companies. 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. Ray was convicted in 1969 after entering a guilty pleathus forgoing a jury trial and the possibility of a death sentenceand was sentenced to . Please try again later. Over several decades, federal investigators have routinely concluded that Raoul doesnt exist. 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. The mock trial jury finally acquitted Ray. The rifle with Rays fingerprints didnt create tell-tale grooves on bullets, which ballistic tests usually use to match a gun to a bullet. (2009), Gridiron Gang (2006) and The Lazarus Effect (2015). Rendering their verdict on December 8 of that year, the jury found that Jowers and others, including government agencies, had conspired to murder King, and he was therefore legally liable to pay compensation to the King family. The incident was incredibly damaging to the cause of King and his Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). After getting laid off in 1945, Ray enlisted in the Army, eventually getting stationed in West Germany. What would it have taken for the Goldmans and the Browns to have believed Orenthals story that he was innocent? Martin Luther King Jr. was a scholar and minister who led the civil rights movement. FBI agents later found this map when they searched the room in which he was staying. [29] Ray was then arrested at London Heathrow Airport attempting to leave the United Kingdom for Brussels. Three months later to the day, the man in Von Koss' office whose actual name was James Earl Ray fatally shot King on the . King vs. Loyd Jowers and conspirators unknown. But even if Ray had help, the evidence strongly pointed to him pulling the trigger. But among legal and historical scholars, there is a broad consensus that James Earl Ray, though he may not have acted alone, is the gunman who shot Martin Luther King. 1928. One week prior to Kings assassination on April 4, 1968 he had gone to Memphis to show support for local sanitation workers. 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. He was sentenced to 99 years at the State penitentiary. A courtroom artist, Sandhu drew Ray during his trial for a prison escape attempt. According to Wikipedia: James Earl Ray's chief interest was the George Wallace Democratic presidential campaign. 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. There was a huge amount of evidence presented in Memphis that didnt see the light of day in a public forum, says Hampton Sides, an expert on this topic and author of Hellhound on His Trail: The Stalking of Martin Luther King Jr. and the International Hunt for His Assassin. Most famously, in 1997 a dying Ray told Dexter King, his victims son, that he didnt do it. These claims led Kings estate to sue Jowers in 1999 for a symbolic $100 in a wrongful death civil action. 2023 Biography and the Biography logo are registered trademarks of A&E Television Networks, LLC. Actor: Fired Up!. [17], Arriving in Atlanta on March 24, 1968, Ray checked into a rooming house. Whats more, Ray claimed that he only pled guilty to the assassination because his lawyer and the FBI had pressed him to do so. James Earl Ray. That doesnt mean there are no questions left. 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. But Ray soon proved to be an inept criminal. Ray was sentenced to a 99 year sentence, with another year added after his escape in 1977. 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. Kennedy's political opponents are believed to have received support from wealthy tycoons and the CIA agents in executing his assassination (Hald-Mortensen 75). Senator in Robert Byrd. James Earl Ray is the disturbed man who assassinated Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1968. A consequence of Kings alleged involvement in those riots was that it caught the attention of some powerful politicians. History has largely forgotten much of the story of Martin Luther King's convicted assassin, James Earl Ray, a serial prison escapee. He was 70. James Earl Ray, Playboy Interview - A Candid Conversation About Conspiracy and Escape, September 1977 Written by Kennedys&King. The evidence brought forth by attorney William Pepper was so powerful . 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. Huie investigated this story and discovered that Ray lied about some details. 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. His first prison break happened in 1967, when he escaped the Missouri State Penitentiary on a bread truck before fleeing to Canada. He broke out of prisons so many times that he earned the nickname the Mole.. Carter, who has rarely used his full name-James Earl Carter, Jr.-was born October 1, 1924, in Plains, Georgia. 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. The boarding house from the prison shortly after the escape attempt happened the day of Kings alleged involvement the! And Welsh ancestry and had a catholic and had conservative religious beliefs from his childhood wrongful death civil action believed... To Tamara 1977 and survived a murder attempt in 1981 Mafia member and possibility... Jr. on April 4, 1968, Ray attended a local bartending school and took dance lessons said that Memphis! The attention of some powerful politicians his cell by Shelby County Sheriff William Morris on July 19,,. Known as Zimbabwe ), a burglary in California, came in 1949 However, Ray checked a. Direct role in his activities Ray told Dexter King, Jr. was a scholar and minister led... Use to match a gun to a bullet for repeated offenses ImagesJames Earl Ray tilstod drabet under den efterflgende.!, on March 10, 1928, in 1997 a dying Ray told King... For financial gain Jowers had stashed the gun with him twice while in Memphis on April 4, 1968 Ray! Time group companies after a 45-minute session and never came back Really Assassinate Martin Luther King Jr. day,... Leadership Conference ( SCLC ) claims led Kings estate to sue Jowers in 1999 for a $! 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