So, are there are still remaining questions about how everything happened the day of Kings assassination? "Somebody's gotta get him," Ray would say, his face drawn with tension, his fists clenched. 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). Jerry Ray was J.B. Stoner's campaign manager when Stoner ran for Governor of Georgia against Jimmy Carter. We knew that anytime you try to escape from a maximum-security prison you run the risk of being shot. 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. But within Martin Luther Kings family, there remains a persistent belief that Ray is innocent, and was set up to take the fall. Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting. Ostensibly only a New York City attorney and businessman, Levison is, in fact, a shrewd, dedicated communist. This claim got some support from the 1978 special congressional committee which opined that Ray might not have acted alone in the assassination as it required meticulous planning. Read More:How The Tennessean covered Martin Luther King Jr.'s death in its pages. There was one week in 1968 when much happened. Each day he would go to the state capital to work as a programmer. six grooves with a right twist. In the year 1959, he was caught stealing $120 from a Kroger Store in St. Louis. He made the FBI Most Wanted List before his recapture. J.B. Stoner, however, would certainly have had the know-how for both, plus the white-supremacist background to explain why he would do it. An egregious example of shoddy workmanship is the book The Making of an Assassin by George McMillan. The Ray brothers, however, are too unsophisticated to have pulled off the assassination of King, and Ray's subsequent escape to England. In one instance, the FBI sent him a tape that allegedly contained audio of him having an affair. Some of the books written about the assassination describe him as a major drug dealer in Jefferson City, which is ludicrous. Hunter Pitts ODell, former National Committee member of the CPUSA, was employed by SCLC. Dexter and his family too believed that he did not commit the crime and urged the government to grant a new trial to Ray. Benny and I studied programming together, and in 1966 we worked in the programming office together. In order to hang onto your drugs, people had to know that you would kill them without hesitation. 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. When Ray pled guilty and was sentenced to 99 years in prison, his role in the assassination was a matter of serious dispute. 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. 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). Law enforcement agencies believe that he started indulging in criminal activities as he could not support himself financially. [8][9], Brown asserted that Weirichs "husband moved out and took the kids," and that "she needs to come out of the closet." And, although the FBI later claimed to have interviewed every convict in Jefferson City who had served time with Ray, they never tried to interview me, or Davis, or Laster, or Westberg or anyone I knew. Twice a week we compile our most fascinating features and deliver them straight to you. For the first 25 years after Kings death, Jowers did not claim any involvement in the murder. Justice on Fire is OConnors detailed account of the terrible explosion that led to the firefighters deaths and the terrible injustice that followed. Kelsey Grammer. Soon after his release from prison, he was again convicted for mail fraud in Hannibal, Missouri and served three prison sentences at the Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary. 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. "[20] He was transferred to the maximum security facility called Lois M. DeBerry Special Needs Facility in Nashville which had hospital facilities. The cells that I was associated with in Cleveland were continually being asked to raise funds for Martin Luther Kings activities. She also said, Mr. Among the evidence was a recording of Jowers in which he suggested he was interested in fabricating his story for financial gain. ", 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. In the meantime James Earl Ray had also heard about the bread box, probably through Westberg. 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. Four days after that, Martin Luther King, Jr. was dead. All Rights Reserved. James Earl Ray was the assassin of American Baptist minister and civil rights activist, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Ray was born in on March 10, 1928 in a poor Irish-American family of Alton, Illinois, and was raised a Catholic. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). No vehicle traffic would have been allowed in or out until he was found. Martin Luther King Jr. So Westberg, who was assigned to work in the kitchen at that time, figured a man could get in the bread box, have a tray of bread placed on top of him, and pass right out of the prison (the box also had a lid over the top tray of bread). and other allegedly exculpatory evidence are not worthy of belief. The verdict in King vs. Jowers found a government conspiracy involving city, state, and federal agents complicit in the murder. That description comes closer to Jerry Ray than to James Earl Ray. What Political Party was James Earl Ray part of? It's a seductive thought. King's killing sent shock waves through American society at the time, and is still regarded as a landmark. However, the assessment of King got even worse. 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. He decided to assassinate him to stop blacks from getting equal status to the whites. 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.. 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," 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. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. I've been amazed over the years at the naivet of authors who have written about Ray's activities in Jeff City; the things they put forth as facts just simply couldn't be true. 14. Los Angeles was the site of Ray's first arrest, for burglary, in 1949, and he ended up serving 90 days in jail. More:Manhunt in the mountains: James Earl Ray and the Brushy Mountain Prison breakout of 1977. 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). He is a former Shelby County, Tennessee Criminal Court judge and a former arbiter of the arbitration-based reality court show Judge Joe Brown. FACT CHECK: We strive for accuracy and fairness. After several days, the prison officials concluded that Ray had actually escaped, and they put out an alarm. 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. In that atmosphere, escape became almost impossible. Happy 300th Birthday, Richard Price! He is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity. I grew up in one of the toughest neighborhoods in South Central Los Angeles. 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). Raised in the Crenshaw District of Los Angeles, Brown graduated as valedictorian[full citation needed] from Dorsey High School. 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. Benny Edmondson thought it was hilarious that William Bradford Huie thought he was "Raoul." This time, Ray rented an apartment for $100 a month at 1535 N. Serrano Ave., a. 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. I got to know him better when he came to Jeff City with a sentence for robbery. 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. That is why he could never have been a major drug dealer. Judge Horne did have the authority to hold him in contempt. Could Chinas Petroyuan Give Rise to a New World Energy Order? Westberg was involved in several more escape plots, but he had so much heat on him he could never personally use the routes he discovered. James Earl Ray was a racist, but there was circumstantial evidence that a businessman in St. Louis had established a $50,000 bounty for King's death." . There is an important flaw in that logic as well; the defendant was only sued for $100, which he was ordered to pay. 15. PRPhotos. Absence of witnesses to corroborate Raoul's existence, Rental of room 5-B at Bessie Brewer's roominghouse, Irreconcilable conflicts of interest of Foreman and Hanes, Foreman's failure to investigate the case, Coercion by Foreman and the Federal Government, Ray's belief a guilty plea would not preclude a new trial, How to File a FOIA Request for Archival Records. When I got out the third time, I worked in the Tag Plant. Milteer, a Stoner associate, as he discussed NSRP plans with a Miami police informer. The 20-page paper, which was classified as. 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. Still, Ray shot ReverendKing and if the King family wants closure in the matter they should finally accept that fact. One thing never mentioned about Ray's time in Jefferson City is the fact he had a nearly exemplary conduct record, with the exception of the two escape attempts. The jury was clearly convinced by the extensive evidence that was presented during the trial that, in addition to Mr. Jowers, the conspiracy of the Mafia, local, state and federal government agencies, were deeply involved in the assassination of my husband.. Was James earl ray white? The New Times article also asserted that Jerry Ray, if he were involved, might have been duped himself-might have thought he was setting up something other than an assassination. He told Jerry and me that he'd actually gotten into the box once, but the guard missed him and launched a search. In 1967, he returned to the United States (Los Angeles) from Mexico and took dancing classes in a bartending school. Those of us who had been involved in escape attempts did not consider Ray a joke. His body was cremated and his ashes were flown to the land of his forefathers, viz. After the publication of the Playboy story, Ray fired Kershaw when he found that Playboy paid him $11,000 for facilitating the interview. The new trial was never granted. The restaurant owner named Memphis Police . PRPhotos. Just before Ray's escape from Jeff City he was visited by his brother. Jerry began to follow my lead, and that became a source of friction among me, Laster and Westberg. assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.: The assassin: James Earl Ray, This article was most recently revised and updated by, https://www.britannica.com/biography/James-Earl-Ray, James Earl Ray - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up). James Earl Ray, a 40-year-old convicted armed robber who had escaped from the Missouri State Penitentiary in Jefferson City, Mo., on April 23, 1967, pleaded guilty on March 10, 1969, in Shelby County (Tenn.) Criminal Court to the first degree murder of Dr. King. Stoner had trouble getting into the case, however . The day after a stabbing, for example, virtually everyone in the prison who is considered "solid" would know who had done the stabbing. Warden Swenson of the Jeff City prison immediately issued an edict that convicts could no longer correspond with editors. According to press accounts, Brown became combative and irate after Horne refused to discuss details of the case that were not on the schedule. They would rather ignore the facts than become disillusioned. Of the 2,500 men in the prison, fewer than 20 had ever tried to escape from inside the walls. McMillans false scenarios portray Ray as a rabid racist in prison. He escaped from the Missouri State Penitentiary on April 23, 1967; and in Memphis, Tennessee, nearly a year later, on April 4, 1968, from a window of a neighbouring rooming house, he shot King, who was standing on the balcony of a motel room. Very few conservatives are aware of the pledge's socialist origins. Its not clear when Coretta Scott King, widow of King, began to believe in Rays innocence. The Galileo Case Revisited | Beyond the Cover. They were not going to have me, or any other convict, expounding on the subject of Ray. 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. One day he walked away, and it was rumored he took $5,000 of state money with him. Simpson was found guilty of killing his wife Nicole and Ron Goldman in a civil trial. Barely 48 hours later, on March 31st, Johnson would publicly announce that he would not seek reelection. Indeed, a former agent from the FBIs field office in Atlanta said the bureaus tracking of King was second only to the way they went after Jimmy Hoffa. In 1975, a group of former FBI agents called on Congress to investigate this harrassment. and condition of the Q64 bullet. Different convicts had different hustles to make money. 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. Even though he played an elitist liberal psychiatrist on "Frasier," Kelsey Grammer is a Republican in real life. 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. He earned a bachelor's degree in political science from the University of California, Los Angeles and a Juris Doctor from UCLA School of Law. His perceived inability to deal successfully with those problems led to an overwhelming defeat in his bid for reelection. and chemically, revealed the presence of lead from a disintegrating Omissions? 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. Shortly after Ray pled guilty to the King murder, Clay Blair's book The Strange Case of James Earl Ray was published. As the paper continued, it provided documentation that what King planned for after the civil disobedience would not be so innocuous. I occasionally rented magazines from Ray, but other inmates usually had a larger selection, and better quality magazines. He guided King in deciding whether to accept or reject public appearances. The shot that killed Dr. King was fired from the bathroom window at the 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. 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. The 12-person jury verdict unanimous exonerated the "patsy" James Earl Ray for any role in the assassination of MLK. Brown has spoken about how his upbringing shaped his philosophy. [2] He earned a bachelor's degree in political science from the University of California, Los Angeles and a Juris Doctor from UCLA School of Law. Warren writes from Texas and can be reached at wmass@thenewamerican.com. 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. Since retiring from the staff several years ago, he has been a regular contributor to the magazine. A member of the Republican Party, White was first elected in District 12 in 2010, which then included Angelina, San Jacinto, Trinity, and Tyler counties.He left office on August 11, 2022. But for veteran crime writer and crusading editor J. Patrick OConnor, the factsor a lack of themdidnt add up. In March 2014, Brown won the Democratic primary for the position of Shelby County district attorney. The Rays would have had many opportunities to meet racists. Lee Harvey Oswald James Earl Ray Sirhan Sirhan . 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 damage to Dr. King's clothing, when tested microscopically 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. , viz those of us who had been involved in escape attempts did not the! To hang onto your drugs, people had to know that you would kill without! Allied himself with black nationalists and attempted to solicit their support March 2014, Brown won the primary! Being shot wife Nicole and Ron Goldman in a bartending School to Jeff City immediately! Overwhelming defeat in his bid for reelection kill them without hesitation actually gotten into the box,... Covered Martin Luther King, began to follow my lead, and five people from Marlborough were duly convicted the! 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