Jerry Ray told me in the 1970s he had taken pictures of the countryside around the prison and had sent them into James Earl Ray. [4] By 1978, Brown became the first African-American prosecutor in Memphis, and he later directed the Memphis public defender's office. 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. 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. 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. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Four days after that, Martin Luther King, Jr. was dead. "Somebody's gotta get him," Ray would say, his face drawn with tension, his fists clenched. Benny Edmondson thought it was hilarious that William Bradford Huie thought he was "Raoul." One of the most intriguing aspects of the New Times article on James Earl Ray/Jerry Ray/J.B. 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. 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. He made the FBI Most Wanted List before his recapture. Indeed, to them the perception is reality. (Emphasis in original.). The King family started to publicly voice the opinion in 1997. Very few conservatives are aware of the pledge's socialist origins. The verdict in King vs. Jowers found a government conspiracy involving city, state, and federal agents complicit in the murder. ", 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. The Q64 bullet was a .30-06 caliber bullet of Remington-Peters manufacture. 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. A consequence of Kings alleged involvement in those riots was that it caught the attention of some powerful politicians. Brown claimed that the sentence was excessive, and that he should have only been fined; Dan Michael, the Shelby County Juvenile Court chief magistrate that found Brown in contempt, responded that "This is not Hollywood. I got to know him better when he came to Jeff City with a sentence for robbery. He boiled when King came on the tube. [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]. He began to call him Martin "Lucifer" King and Martin Luther "Coon." 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. In renouncing his guilt, Ray raised the spectre of a conspiracy behind Kings murder but offered scant evidence to support his claim. The verdict did convict Loyd Jowers and "other parties known and unknown" for their parts in the vast US government conspiracy to assassinate King. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. Barely 48 hours later, on March 31st, Johnson would publicly announce that he would not seek reelection. 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. [23] After his release, he compared himself to notable civil rights activists who spent significant time imprisoned for their activism like Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela, and Stokely Carmichael. [6] It was during this time that Brown caught the attention of the producers of Judge Judy. and other allegedly exculpatory evidence are not worthy of belief. Ray was convicted in 1969 after entering a guilty pleathus forgoing a jury trial and the possibility of a death sentenceand was sentenced to . After this, Ray was on the run and was captured in the UK. In order to hang onto your drugs, people had to know that you would kill them without hesitation. James Earl Ray was an American assassin convicted for the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. After his conviction, he spent all his life in prison. Manhunt in the mountains: James Earl Ray and the Brushy Mountain Prison breakout of 1977, How The Tennessean covered Martin Luther King Jr.'s death in its pages, Your California Privacy Rights / Privacy Policy. But what do you know about James Earl Ray, the man who assassinated Martin Luther King? He volunteered for Wallaces campaign and was very disappointed when Wallace could not win the campaign. 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. The bullet was imprinted with six lands and six grooves and In the five decades since Martin Luther King Jr.was shot dead by an assassin at age 39, his children have worked tirelessly to preserve his legacy, sometimes with sharply different views on how best to do that, an article in the March 30 Washington Post said. 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. In no uncertain terms, Byrd was calling on Johnson to stop Kings march on D.C. The House Assassinations Committee examining evidence in the killing of Martin Luther King, Jr. (Credit: Bettmann Archive/Getty Images). Jerry was returned to solitary in 1963 for making zip-guns, and a few days later I was put in B-Basement on suspicion of stabbing an inmate who'd volunteered to help the guards search the Tag Plant for the rest of the zip-guns, which were never found. All Rights Reserved. Long before Ray was captured-before anyone could have known the details of what had happened in Memphis--the U.S. government had committed itself to the lone assassin theory; to such an extent, I was told later by white extremists in the South, that they were surprised by the government's failure to question even such notable racists as J.B. Stoner or leading figures in the Ku Klux Klan. While taking dancing classes, he was attracted to the presidential campaign of George Wallace. 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 . He employed such Communists as Bayard Rustin and Hunter Pitts ODell; and he worked closely with Carl Braden and James Dumbrowski. Westberg was the first to learn that the bread box wasn't searched. [16] Brown surrendered to the Shelby County Sheriff on August 27, 2015, to serve his five-day sentence at the Shelby County Corrections Facility in Memphis. Milteer told the informant that a scheme was in the works to kill President Kennedy. Later, though, he claimed he left the prints to gain international notoriety. Just once, he was caught with three packs of cigarettes, a pound of coffee and a ballpoint pen. Meanwhile, William Bradford Huie, gathering information for his book, They Slew The Dreamer, had taken an interest in George Ben Edmondson. Ray was also Stoner's bodyguard and chauffeur. 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. 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. In the early 1990s, he started suggesting that the government might be behind the assassination. For some 50 years, the federal government has maintained that James Earl Ray was the gunman who assassinated King that day. Levison has spent the major part of his life advancing communist interests. Ray fled from the scene immediately and could not be located immediately by the police. Since retiring from the staff several years ago, he has been a regular contributor to the magazine. Justice on Fire is OConnors detailed account of the terrible explosion that led to the firefighters deaths and the terrible injustice that followed. Months later, he recanted his confession, without effect. Just before Ray escaped from prison in Tennessee he was visited by his brother. That was a bunch of baloney. (Credit: State of Tennessee, Earl Warren/AP Photo), Coretta Kings specific belief in Rays innocence is a little tougher to explain. 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. This doesnt mean that Ray couldnt have received assistance. With the release of this FBI document, however, it seems that the FBI and the JBS were on the same page regarding King. Why did James Earl Ray have cancer? 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 Therefore, ironically, the society that King intended to bear the cost for his civil disobedience was to be ablack society. Simpson was found guilty of killing his wife Nicole and Ron Goldman in a civil trial. He also founded his own white supremacist party. Judge Horne began increasing the quantity of days Brown could be held in contempt after Brown continued disrupting the court. it from Birmingham, Ala., to Memphis, Tenn., where he rented a room at 422 1/2 South Main Street, and moments after the assassination, he dropped 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. 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. He knew we viewed Ray as a not-too-bright hillbilly. On the night of November 29, 1988, near the impoverished Marlborough neighborhood in south Kansas City, an explosion at a construction site killed six of the citys firefighters. In order to hang onto your drugs, people had to know that you would kill them without hesitation. It stated that King had allied himself with black nationalist groups that planned to seize the initiative and escalate the nonviolent demonstrations into violence. It continued: King has met with black nationalists and attempted to solicit their support. 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. "[21], Brown was warned that he would be held in contempt before these comments. Christopher S. Bond (now U.S. He was a democrat. Now he is presumed to be guilty until he proves his innocence. 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. In one instance, the FBI sent him a tape that allegedly contained audio of him having an affair. [22] He was released from protective custody at the Shelby County Corrections Facility the morning of September 1, 2015. 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. Omissions? Brown has spoken about how his upbringing shaped his philosophy. At the same time I was getting more involved in art, and my thoughts were turning away from escape and toward trying to make parole. The explanation is much simpler. The President, Milteer said, would be shot "from an office building with a high-powered rifle," and a patsy would be picked up within hours . He was a loner. B. 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. USA.gov, The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration James Earl Ray had traveled to Montreal while on the run, and claimed that he'd met a man named "Raoul" in Montreal, and that Raoul had furnished him with money, and eventually masterminded the King assassination-using Ray as the fall-guy. This is the real thing and as an officer of the court he should have known better. Back in Memphis, Ray pleaded guilty, forfeiting a trial, and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. Ray, a hardened thief, robber and a sometimes-moody liar, assassinated the Rev. https://www.thefamouspeople.com/profiles/james-earl-ray-30416.php. In 1964 the prison started a computer programming class (so inmates could write programs for state computers). Stoner had trouble getting into the case, however, because no mainstream lawyer wanted anything to do with him. A mock trial of Ray in which he was represented by Dr. William Pepper was later telecast on TV to criticize the government for denying him the trial. The prosecutors have enough efficient evidence in establishing guilt against James Earl Ray concerning the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. First, James Earl Ray was in close enough vicinity of the Lorraine Hotel to successfully fire a clear shot to kill Dr. King from only a block away. 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. 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. 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. I went to Memphis to deliver a rifle to this man called Raoul, Ray told me. However, immediately following King's killing, U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark announced that the killing was the work of a lone assassin. Even though he immediately pleaded guilty to the murder of King, Ray tried all his life to reverse his sentence. Articles from Britannica Encyclopedias for elementary and high school students. Born in a poor family, Ray had a difficult childhood as his father could not support his family. King was fired. As a reporter and columnist for this newspaper, I had the chance to interview the incarcerated Ray numerous times before his death on April 23, 1998. Different convicts had different hustles to make money. Weirich responded: "Its a sad day that someone that out of touch with reality considers himself a viable candidate for one of the important positions in Shelby County. 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. Thorpe Menn, then book editor of The Star, sent it to me to review. All rights reserved. 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. a right twist by the rifle from which it had been fired. We had no contact, however, since he was on the other side of the building. It seems clear to me that there was a conspiracy to murder King, and that James Earl Ray was involved. It was even rumored that on the second attempt he'd gotten tired of hiding out, and had deliberately set off an alarm so he could get caught and get something to eat. No one else I knew did either. 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. Earl Rays family had problems with the law enforcement ever since he was a child. 1. In March 2014, Brown won the Democratic primary for the position of Shelby County district attorney. Unfortunately, the scene described by McMillan could not have happened. 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. An hour later, he was declared dead. ), where he secured a second Canadian passport (May 16), and back to London (May 17?). Among the first to rear his head in Ray's defense was J.B. Stoner, a lawyer who was also head of the National State's Rights Party (and who would later be charged with the bombing of a Birmingham church in which several children died). Even though he played an elitist liberal psychiatrist on "Frasier," Kelsey Grammer is a Republican in real life. Drupal theme by ThemeSnap.com, That is why he could never have been a major drug dealer. Now confident that he could not be recognized, he again began a cross-country drive to Atlanta, Georgia. Jerry began to follow my lead, and that became a source of friction among me, Laster and Westberg. and condition of the Q64 bullet. the Democratic Party won the presidency. Mr. Kershaw was a Tennessee lawyer who argued that James Earl Ray, convicted in the 1968 assassination of the Rev. Among the evidence was a recording of Jowers in which he suggested he was interested in fabricating his story for financial gain. [13], Brown is twice divorced and has two sons from his first marriage.[14]. 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. Early life [ edit] 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. James Earl White (born July 16, 1964) is a former member of the Texas House of Representatives for District 19, which encompassed Polk, Hardin, Jasper, Newton, and Tyler counties. 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. nitrites would have indicated a close-range discharge). We miss you, James. 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. The bread box would have to pass through the truck tunnel, where all incoming and outgoing vehicles were searched. The incident was incredibly damaging to the cause of King and his Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). At that time, King was well aware of Levisons and ODells communist affiliations. George M. Camp, head of the Missouri prison system, wrote to Cleaver, saying: My findings are that there is nothing whatsoever to substantiate any conclusion that James Earl Ray financed either his escape or his activities after his escape through any means while he was an inmate at the Missouri State Penitentiary. He got a 99-year prison sentence, which he served until he died of liver failure due to hepatitis C on . I served my six months, got out and was put right back in for using amphetamine. The Revenge of George Wallace On the night of the shooting, I had left the rifle with Raoul.. Whatever noble goals King proclaimed, the subversive company he chose to keep severely neutralizes any good he may have aspired to and creates serious doubts about the sincerity of his stated mission. Never afraid to share his political views, Grammer is known for his conservative values. Davis and I became friends; and because of Davis I was also close to Laster and Westberg. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. The verdict did convict Loyd Jowers and "other parties known and unknown" for their parts in the vast US government conspiracy to assassinate King. He edited most of the chapters of Kings book Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community? Benny was eventually placed on the FBI's 10-Most-Wanted list and was captured in Canada, where he was posing as an engineer and had married a school teacher. [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. 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. Raised in the Crenshaw District of Los Angeles, Brown graduated as valedictorian[full citation needed] from Dorsey High School. But even if Ray had help, the evidence strongly pointed to him pulling the trigger. Twice a week we compile our most fascinating features and deliver them straight to you. 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. Over the years, parties other than Ray have filed additional lawsuits related to the assassination. Although Ray had been sentenced from St. Louis, he was not part of the St. Louis "crowd.". 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). The manhunt was the most expensive and biggest for the FBI (at that time). But what do you know about James Earl Ray, the man who assassinated Martin Luther King? 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. But within a few days of confessing, Ray began to claim his innocence, arguing that that he had been set up by a man he knew only as Raoul. It was Raoul, Ray said, who had directed him to buy the gun and the binoculars, and rent the room across the street from the motel. Ray, was found by bloodhounds about eightmiles away from the prison shortly after the escape attempt. Benny was fascinated with the idea of escaping, although he never actually tried while inside the walls. It is known that, after escaping from Jeff City, James Earl Ray went to Chicago, where Jerry Ray was living. 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. Westberg, in turn, liked James Earl Ray. Also, after he moved to St. Louis he lived in south St. Louis, an area known for its racism. During the six years that James Earl Ray was an inmate at the Missouri State Penitentiary, he kept primarily to himself and, other than for the fact that he attempted to escape on more than one occasion, he had only one conduct violation during that entire time and that was for the possession of three packages of cigarettes, a ball point pen and one pound of coffeeIn addition, you might be interested to know that prior to the Governor's receiving your Mailgram, I personally discussed the allegations and conclusions in the Time magazine article with the author himself, Mr. George McMillan. In a story published based on the test, Playboy claimed that Ray had committed the crime alone. 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. Shortly before his seventh birthday, in 1935, his father passed a bad check and the Rays fled to Ewing, Missouri, where they changed their name to Raynes to avoid . There was, however, some question in our minds about Ray's coordination. It got so that the very sight of King would galvanize Ray. Whether anybody helped him indirectly has yet to be determined. None. He was sentenced to twenty years in prison. Brown apparently raised his voice and interrupted a magistrate judge while representing a woman seeking child support in Shelby County Juvenile Court. 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. According to Harding, King had already severely angered Johnson by delivering that speech, which could have made Johnson quite receptive to Byrds sentiment. No new evidence has been presented in the King killing since then. and chemically, revealed the presence of lead from a disintegrating 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. There are records of Ray receiving plastic surgery in Los Angeles about a month before Kings murder in Memphis. The damage to Dr. King's clothing, when tested microscopically That year, Kings son Dexter Scott King visited Ray in prison to draw attention to the familys push to appeal his case. Ray had seven siblings. This tribunal on a General Sessions Court's authority is insufficient to establish you. 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