But Westberg had been told that the guard did not open the bread box. in the Q2 rifle. Born in a poor family, Ray had a difficult childhood as his father could not support his family. But what do you know about James Earl Ray, the man who assassinated Martin Luther King? Ray confessed to the crime on March 10, 1969 and received a 99-year prison sentence, which increased to a 100-year sentence after he briefly escaped in 1977. Just before Ray escaped from prison in Tennessee he was visited by his brother. To believe that the King family was motivated exclusively by publicity, one must believe that all of its members were involved in selling out the truth of their loved ones assassination for three figures. Dexter and his family too believed that he did not commit the crime and urged the government to grant a new trial to Ray. I occasionally rented magazines from Ray, but other inmates usually had a larger selection, and better quality magazines. 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. 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. After several days, the prison officials concluded that Ray had actually escaped, and they put out an alarm. He is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity. [3], After graduating from law school, Brown moved to Memphis, Tennessee to work as an attorney for the Legal Services Corporation. Stoner certainly wasnt the only radical white supremacist running around, however-just the best known. [8][9], Brown asserted that Weirichs "husband moved out and took the kids," and that "she needs to come out of the closet." In 1999, James Earl Ray was found innocent of killing Martin Luther King Jr. in the same way O.J. "Somebody's gotta get him.". Very few conservatives are aware of the pledge's socialist origins. 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. 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. . Once, while pulling a robbery, the victims refused to give Ray the money, and he fell out of a window and damned near killed himself. 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. My review took issue with many assumptions in the book, such as those centering on Ray's involvement with drugs in prison, and how he escaped from Jefferson City. Ray, a white supporter of segregationist George Wallace, was a career criminal whod been convicted at least four separate times for robbing a cafe, a taxi, a post office and a grocery store. Could Chinas Petroyuan Give Rise to a New World Energy Order? Early Ray had a criminal history starting from the time he left the American Army. 15. All Rights Reserved. Ray fled from the scene immediately and could not be located immediately by the police. 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. King was visiting Memphis to settle a strike by garbage workers. As with most cases, the answer is yes. He is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity.[3]. James Earl Ray. Brown has spoken about how his upbringing shaped his philosophy. Happy 300th Birthday, Richard Price! It got so that the very sight of King would galvanize Ray. In that atmosphere, escape became almost impossible. 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. In prison I knew men who would stab you to death over a carton of cigarettes, or for even a slight insult. 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. James Earl Ray was raised as a catholic and had conservative religious beliefs from his childhood. No new evidence has been presented in the King killing since then. The verdict did convict Loyd Jowers and "other parties known and unknown" for their parts in the vast US government conspiracy to assassinate King. A Democratic Senator from West Virginia delivered an extremely incendiary speech on the Senate Floor that was directed specifically at President Lyndon Johnson, also a Democrat. Each year, the third Monday in January is a celebration to commemoratethe life and accomplishments of Martin Luther King Jr., the tireless civil rights activist who was gunned down in Memphis, TN, in 1968. 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. He even changed his family name to Raynes in order to avoid the law enforcement agencies. That was a bunch of baloney. We knew that anytime you try to escape from a maximum-security prison you run the risk of being shot. James Earl Ray was white. James Earl Ray could easily have placed complete faith in Stoner. Rays fingerprints were the only ones found on the gun, and there were no witnesses who had seen him with Raoul during the nine months they supposedly knew each other (Rays description of Raoul also changed a few times). 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. A year before, hed escaped from Missouri State Penitentiary while serving a 20-year sentence, and was on the lam at the time King was shot. a right twist by the rifle from which it had been fired. PRPhotos. At the Tag Plant I met Jerry Ward Davis, an Oklahoman who'd been shot in 1959 after kidnapping several guards (along with Rollie Laster and Ronnie Westberg) during an attempted escape that involved the use of zip-guns. It seems clear to me that there was a conspiracy to murder King, and that James Earl Ray was involved. 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. 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. [4] While on the bench he was known for his sometimes unusual sentences, such as, sentencing a child molester to confess to his church congregation and ordering a drug trafficker to apologize in a newspaper letter.[5]. But it turned out that rather than discharging this key Red, he had transferred and promoted ODell to a higher post within Kings Southern Christian Leadership Conference. After the King shooting, one person living at the rooming house where the shot was fired described the assassin as heavy set with receding hair. After buying the rifle, he came back to Atlanta where he came to know that King was planning a return trip to Memphis, Tennessee. The facts are these. Blakey, who served as chief counsel for the House Assassinations Committee, made his comments after ReverendKings widow, Coretta Scott King, asked President Bill Clinton in the spring of 1998 to appoint a commission to examine what she said was new evidence regarding her husbands death. Ray, although not personally motivated by racism, comes from a rural background where blacks are not highly regarded. 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. While serving in the military, Ray was often charged with drunkenness and breaking arrest. Assassination. For some 50 years, the federal. 1-86-NARA-NARA or 1-866-272-6272, The President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection, John McAdams (The John F. Kennedy Assassination Information Center), Dr. King was killed by one shot fired from in front of him. The explanation is much simpler. James Earl Ray lowers his head as State Safety commissioner Greg O'Rear, white hat, and Highway Patrol Maj. Mickey McGuire, dark glasses, lead him to prison in Nashville, Tenn., March 11, 1969. McMillans false scenarios portray Ray as a rabid racist in prison. Ray, was found by bloodhounds about eightmiles away from the prison shortly after the escape attempt. He was sentenced to twenty years in prison. I grew up in one of the toughest neighborhoods in South Central Los Angeles. https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/james-earl-ray-30416.php. Martin Luther King Jr.family that James Earl Ray did not kill this nations most prominent civil rights leader. James Earl Ray did it, case closed! Charley McCracken, a friend from the St. Louis City Jail, pointed him out to me in H-Hall, where the newly arriving convicts at the maximum-security penitentiary were oriented. Yes, the President is part of the political party. His fathers name was George Ellis Ray and his mothers name was Lucille. . (Benny had taken two years of civil engineering in college.). He began to call him Martin "Lucifer" King and Martin Luther "Coon." The only thing publicity could do was further humiliate them. 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. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. [3] He would later open his own law practice before being elected as a judge on the State Criminal Court of Shelby County, Tennessee in 1990. By that time I was classified as incorrigible. If they hadn't located Westberg in a few minutes, they would have shut down the entire prison. She told a congressional subcommittee that while she was a member of the Communist Party, she knew Martin Luther King to be closely connected with the Communist Party. Brown joined The American Opinion Speakers Bureau, and while on the lecture circuit, she told audiences that King was the hero of Americas Communists. Brown, who retains his law license, was reviewing a child support matter as a favor to an acquaintance. He also founded his own white supremacist party. nitrites would have indicated a close-range discharge). Brown then said, "OK, OK, I'll tell you what. [17] In audio obtained by WREG[18] and an available transcript on eonline.com,[19] Brown can be heard arguing that the judge didn't have the authority to sit on the bench. Brown was sentenced to five days in jail,[7][15] but was later released on his own recognizance. Dr. Martin . [12], Brown is an Independent candidate for the 2023 Memphis mayoral election. the Democratic Party won the presidency. There was one week in 1968 when much happened. Warren Mass has served The New American since its launch in 1985 in several capacities, including marketing, editing, and writing. . When prominent people die violently, they become martyrs in some peoples eyes, and there is a reluctance on their part even to consider anything that blemishes the heroic image they have formed of the individual. bullet and also revealed the absence of nitrites (the presence of I wholeheartedly applaud the verdict of the jury and I feel that justice has been well served in their deliberations, she said. He made the FBI Most Wanted List before his recapture. Indeed, to them the perception is reality. (Emphasis in original.). Ray fled to Toronto, secured a Canadian passport through a travel agency, flew to London (May 5), then to Lisbon (May 7? It contained a pair of binoculars, a newspaper with a story about King staying at the Lorraine Motel, and a .30-06 Remington Gamemaster that had fired one shot. The new trial was never granted. In March 2014, Brown was arrested in Memphis, Tennessee, and charged with five counts of contempt of court and getting "verbally abusive" during a child support case overseen by Magistrate Harold Horne. "Somebody's gotta get him," Ray would say, his face drawn with tension, his fists clenched. Senator) that an investigation be conducted into the allegations. 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. In fact, Kings family was as convinced of Rays innocence as the families of Nicole and Ron were convinced of Simpsons guilt. In March 2014, Brown won the Democratic primary for the position of Shelby County district attorney. Although Benny was eventually released from prison and returned to work for the engineering firm he'd been employed by at the time of his arrest in Canada, interest in him by then had died out, and the book was never published. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. We had no contact, however, since he was on the other side of the building. Along with the rifle, he also bought a 2X-7X scope to aim the target well. James. For the first 25 years after Kings death, Jowers did not claim any involvement in the murder. 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. 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. For the television series, see, "I left the Demo Pty Plantation long ago I'm an Independent", "Voters verdict: Weirich over TV's Joe Brown", "TV's Judge Joe Brown Arrested In Tennessee", "Former TV Judge Joe Brown Stumbles In Bid To Become Tennessee District Attorney", Judge Joe Brown uncorks a shocker taunting Weirich about her sexuality Memphis Flyer Jackson Baker July 2, 2014, "District Attorney Weirich sails to victory over challenger Joe Brown", "Judge Joe Brown in Jail for Contempt of Court", "Former TV judge Joe Brown can't practice law in Tennessee", "MSCS Chairwoman Michelle McKissack considers mayoral run", "Judge Joe Brown: The rant, the mugshot, the jokes", "TV's Judge Joe Brown jailed by real judge after courtroom argument, court says", "TV judge Joe Brown begins 5-day jail term", "Judge Joe Brown: Hear What He Said That Got Him Arrested", "Judge Joe Brown Begins Jail Sentence for Contempt of Court After 2014 Courtroom Outburst", "Joe Brown loses appeal over juvenile court outburst", "After the Campaign - Memphis Daily News", "Was Judge Joe Brown's Arrest A Publicty Stunt? The New American magazine, published twice a month in print and daily online, is the essential news source for freedom-loving Americans. He paid for a nose job in cash. In the meantime James Earl Ray had also heard about the bread box, probably through Westberg. [22] He was released from protective custody at the Shelby County Corrections Facility the morning of September 1, 2015. James Earl Ray knowingly, intelligently, and voluntarily He was a skinny guy with sandy hair and a cultured, slightly arrogant manner. In 1997, King told Ray personally that both he and his family believed him. Kershaw made Ray to take a polygraph test as part of an interview with Playboy. 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. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. As for how Welch was able to gather such damning information about King when the FBI files on the activist were classified, much has to do with the fact that there were many patriotic members of the FBI and other agencies who recognized that Welch and the society he founded constituted a trustworthy place to reveal what they knew. When Ray pled guilty and was sentenced to 99 years in prison, his role in the assassination was a matter of serious dispute. Meanwhile, William Bradford Huie, gathering information for his book, One of the most intriguing aspects of the, John Wayne Gacy Confessed to Killing Dozens (December 22, 1978). Ray watched it all on the cell-block TV at Jeff City. It was a clear case of arson, and five people from Marlborough were duly convicted of the crime. With the release of this FBI document, however, it seems that the FBI and the JBS were on the same page regarding King. Back in Memphis, Ray pleaded guilty, forfeiting a trial, and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. The day after a stabbing, for example, virtually everyone in the prison who is considered "solid" would know who had done the stabbing. Jimmy Carter, in full James Earl Carter, Jr., (born October 1, 1924, Plains, Georgia, U.S.), 39th president of the United States (1977-81), who served as the country's chief executive during a time of serious problems at home and abroad. As the paper notes: Through Levisons influence, other subversives were attracted to SCLC [The Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which King helped found]. A man named Vincent Harding is credited with writing most of it. The date was November 9, 1963. It would later be learned that Ray's classification card contained erroneous fingerprints, which were initially distributed nationally. Westberg once described Ray to me as, "Kind of countryfied, but he's okay." The 20-page paper, which was classified as. For some 50 years, the federal government has maintained that James Earl Ray was the gunman who assassinated King that day. Later, though, he claimed he left the prints to gain international notoriety. In September 1961, I tried to escape and pulled six months in E-Hall, a 100-year-old building whose third floor was for solitary confinement. Each year, the third Monday in January is a celebration to commemorate the life and accomplishments of Martin Luther King Jr., the tireless civil rights activist who was gunned down in Memphis, TN, in 1968. In her autobiography, Coretta Scott King wrote how glad she was that both Dexter and young Martin Luther King, III, had a chance to go with their father on . However, the assessment of King got even worse. As an indication of just how much Robert Welch, the Founder of The John Birch Society, was on top of Kings communist connection, he wrote the following words for May 1968 John Birch Society Bulletin just two months after the FBI report, which had been classified as secret: During this career of a brief dozen years, [King] was constantly surrounded by, and associated with, Communists. "[10], In August 2015, Brown served five days in the Shelby County Jail after having been held in contempt of court in March 2014. As President Ronal Reagan once wrote to former New Hampshire Governor Meldrim Thomson, who had sent a letter to Reagan urging the president not to sign the bill for a holiday honoring King, On the national holiday you mentioned, I have the reservations you have, but here the perception of too many people is based on an image, not reality. Stoner's hatred of blacks would not have been offensive to him Ray; he might have viewed it as a little extreme, but he would have admired Stoner for being a rebel and for having a network of trusted associates. six grooves with a right twist. Because of the 1959 incident, Jerry had so much heat on him that if the guards lost sight of him for even a few minutes, they panicked. Thorpe Menn, then book editor of The Star, sent it to me to review. William Francis Pepper (born August 16, 1937) is a U.S. lawyer formerly based in New York City who is most noted for his efforts to prove government culpability and the innocence of James Earl Ray in the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. Pepper has also been trying to prove the innocence of Sirhan Sirhan in the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy. Findings on Martin Luther King, Jr. But even if Ray had help, the evidence strongly pointed to him pulling the trigger. An hour later, he was declared dead. 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