Ray was also Stoner's bodyguard and chauffeur. Moreover, Jerry Ray and James Earl Ray are close. The incident was incredibly damaging to the cause of King and his Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). Said Byrd: Yesterday, Mr. President, the Nation was given a preview of what may be in store for this city by the outrageous and despicable riot that Martin Luther King helped to bring about in Memphis, Tenn. This is why I believe they steered FBI investigators toward convicts who really didn't know anything. The murder of Lee Harvey Oswald had closed the door to an open trial that might have answered the question of whether Oswald acted alone, or was part of a conspiracy. Months later, he recanted his confession, without effect. In only two decades, the white population fell by over 300,000; DC became majority-black in the late 1950s.. I served my six months, got out and was put right back in for using amphetamine. But almost immediately after her husbands assassination, she suspected that the FBI, which had investigated the murder, was involved in it. For years convicts had dreamed of escaping in the bread box, but everyone assumed it was searched in the truck tunnel (that they would poke steel rods through the garbage, for example). (153) He even changed his family name to Raynes in order to avoid the law enforcement agencies. The FBI paper then named another communist whose name is very familiar to those who have read articles about Kings communist connections in The New American, its predecessor magazine, American Opinion, and the monthly bulletins of The John Birch Society, the parent organization of both publications. Search for the Killer (April 4- June 8, 1968), the Young & Morrow rooming house Examine the rooming house where James Earl Ray stayed on the day of the assassination, the bathroom window documented as the site of the fatal shot, evidence recovered at the scene, and evidence leading to the capture and arrest of James Earl Ray. "[11], Responding to a bar discipline complaint filed regarding the contempt incident, Brown declared himself unable to adequately defend himself as a result of health issues including type II diabetes, hypertension, and stress. In my interviews with him, I've found him to be eerily unflappable. However, the assessment of King got even worse. McMillan, and through him Time magazine, are also the primary sources for the general belief that Ray financed his after-escape activities with money earned in Jeff City. The New American magazine, published twice a month in print and daily online, is the essential news source for freedom-loving Americans. In renouncing his guilt, Ray raised the spectre of a conspiracy behind Kings murder but offered scant evidence to support his claim. Stoner had trouble getting into the case, however, because no mainstream lawyer wanted anything to do with him. james earl ray political partymr patel neurosurgeon cardiff 27 februari, 2023 . McMillans false scenarios portray Ray as a rabid racist in prison. His fathers name was George Ellis Ray and his mothers name was Lucille. He is the one who sits in leadership and is the most powerful person of a country. On July 19, he returned to U.S. and the following March he pleaded guilty to murdering King. (Several authors have said it was "common knowledge" in Jeff City that you could go to England and acquire an ID the way Ray did. This time, Ray rented an apartment for $100 a month at 1535 N. Serrano Ave., a. Warden Swenson of the Jeff City prison immediately issued an edict that convicts could no longer correspond with editors. Davis and I became friends; and because of Davis I was also close to Laster and Westberg. The Ray brothers, however, are too unsophisticated to have pulled off the assassination of King, and Ray's subsequent escape to England. 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. . He was a loner. 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. I watched my parents tough it out on a daily basis, and I saw that what really kept them going was making a difference to others. Born in a poor family, Ray had a difficult childhood as his father could not support his family. Ostensibly only a New York City attorney and businessman, Levison is, in fact, a shrewd, dedicated communist. The bureau wiretapped his phone and monitored his movements, taking advantage of times when he seemed particularly upset or depressed. PRPhotos. But they are unanimous on one key point: James Earl Ray did not kill Martin Luther King.. Ray, although not personally motivated by racism, comes from a rural background where blacks are not highly regarded. Brown, who retains his law license, was reviewing a child support matter as a favor to an acquaintance. During the original taped conversation, Milteer also revealed a plot against Martin Luther King, one that involved an NSRP hit man named Brown. Tray after tray of bread would be stacked into a large box, and then the box would be loaded onto a pickup truck and hauled to the farms. The bread box would have to pass through the truck tunnel, where all incoming and outgoing vehicles were searched. In an article in The New American back in 1999, John F. McManus, former publisher of this magazine and president emeritus of The John Birch Society, provided further detail about ODell association with King: In 1960, King hired one Hunter Pitts ODell to his staff. In any event, the prison officials never placed him in the same category as Davis, Laster and Westberg, who would unhesitatingly use weapons while escaping. Now he is presumed to be guilty until he proves his innocence. I first met Benny Edmondson at the Algoa Reformatory in 1956, where he was teaching typing at the school. Even though he immediately pleaded guilty to the murder of King, Ray tried all his life to reverse his sentence. The paper quotes Kings statement explaining his strategy: To dislocate the function of a city without destroying it can be more effective than a riot, because it can be longer lasting, costly to society, and not wantonly destructive., Kings admission that the strategy he planned for Washington, D.C, would be costly to society is startling in view of a fact noted in The Urban Institute report, Our Changing City, which observed: 1950 also marked the start of the white exodus to the suburbs. The verdict did convict Loyd Jowers and "other parties known and unknown" for their parts in the vast US government conspiracy to assassinate King. 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. Its not clear when Coretta Scott King, widow of King, began to believe in Rays innocence. It would later be learned that Ray's classification card contained erroneous fingerprints, which were initially distributed nationally. Ray, a hardened thief, robber and a sometimes-moody liar, assassinated the Rev. Over the years, as book after book has been published on the King case, numerous conspiracy theories have been advanced: that the FBI was involved; that the CIA feared King would come out in opposition to the Vietnam War; that rival black leaders felt King's non-violent approach was a hindrance to black progress; that white supremacists wanted him out of the way for obvious reasons. it near 424 South Main Street, It is highly probable that James Earl Ray stalked Dr. King for a This tribunal on a General Sessions Court's authority is insufficient to establish you. The project, while stopping short of violent riots, nevertheless advocated widespread civil disobedience (a nonviolent, but nevertheless illegal activity) that King said he and 3,000 of his followers planned on staging in Washington that spring. Therefore, ironically, the society that King intended to bear the cost for his civil disobedience was to be ablack society. In June 1977 Ray escaped from Brushy Mountain (Tennessee) Prison and remained at large for 54 hours before being recaptured in a massive manhunt. With the release of this FBI document, however, it seems that the FBI and the JBS were on the same page regarding King. Davis and Laster were both shot during that attempt. When ODells position as a member of the National Committee of the Communist Party was revealed in 1961, King supposedly fired him. 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. When James Earl Ray bought the rifle that killed King, he mentioned that he was going hunting with his brother. All three bore the fingerprints of an escaped convict named James Earl Ray. At that time, King was well aware of Levisons and ODells communist affiliations. Ray watched it all on the cell-block TV at Jeff City. One of Kings sons Dexter had expressed his adamant belief that Ray was not his fathers assassin. All rights reserved. Simpson was found guilty of killing his wife Nicole and Ron Goldman in a civil trial. Judge Horne began increasing the quantity of days Brown could be held in contempt after Brown continued disrupting the court. The new trial was never granted. There were half a dozen guys who rented magazines, and they hawked their wares by the yard shack (a small rock building where the guards stayed). Judge Brown's lawyer filed an appeal, but the appeal was refused. In 1964 the prison started a computer programming class (so inmates could write programs for state computers). Senator) that an investigation be conducted into the allegations. Ray was not married and details of his relationships with any women are not known. The 12-person jury verdict unanimous exonerated the "patsy" James Earl Ray for any role in the assassination of MLK. On January 26, 1976, Time magazine devoted four pages to the King assassination, drawing heavily on material from McMillan's book, which was scheduled for publication later that year: In 1963 and 1964 Martin Luther King was on TV almost every day, talking defiantly about how black people were going to get their rights, insisting that they would accept with nonviolence all the terrible violence that white people were inflicting on them, until the day of victory arrived, until they did overcome. The Q2 rifle-had general class characteristics of six lands and When, without warning, Ray was allowed to plead guilty and was sentenced to 99 years, without a public trial, millions of people suspected a cover-up. Ray was never that type. Between 1998 and 2000, the Department of Justice investigated Jowers claims and the evidence in the civil trial, and concluded that Jowerss claims werent credible. period immediately preceding the assassination, James Earl Ray fled the scene of the crime immediately after the assassination, James Earl Ray's alibi for the time of the assassination, his story of "Raoul," Mr. Kershaw was a Tennessee lawyer who argued that James Earl Ray, convicted in the 1968 assassination of the Rev. Brown has spoken about how his upbringing shaped his philosophy. USA.gov, The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration An hour later, he was declared dead. In the year 1968, Ray underwent through a facial reconstruction surgery to hide his identity in Los Angeles. In 1997, Kings son Dexter met Ray in prison and asked him whether he had killed his father. As a former judge here, we have a rule in the 30th Judicial Districtit says every single Magistrate Referee has to be unanimously approved by every Circuit, Chancery, and Criminal Court Judge. Just before Ray's escape from Jeff City he was visited by his brother. A staunch segregationist, Earl Ray could not stomach the integration policies of King. For the first 25 years after Kings death, Jowers did not claim any involvement in the murder. Benny taught me how to type. His first prison break happened in 1967, when he escaped the Missouri State Penitentiary on a bread truck before fleeing to Canada. The facts tend to be the same, G. Robert Blakey, a law professor at Notre Dame University, told me on April 8, 1998 during an interview as I worked as a columnist for The Tennessean. They were not going to have me, or any other convict, expounding on the subject of Ray. There is an important flaw in that logic as well; the defendant was only sued for $100, which he was ordered to pay. pleaded guilty to the first degree murder of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. There were those who joked about Ray, because of the nature of his attempted escapes. I've seen it happen again and again. Although Ray had two attempted escapes on his record, he did not have nearly as much heat on him as Westberg. It was a clear case of arson, and five people from Marlborough were duly convicted of the crime. McMillans false scenarios portray Ray as a rabid racist in prison. Ray was one of a group of five inmates who escaped from Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary in June 1977, which Kershaw claimed 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 jail. 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. 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. 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.