Ray watched it all on the cell-block TV at Jeff City. Among the evidence was a recording of Jowers in which he suggested he was interested in fabricating his story for financial gain. Then other inmates would blame Don for Ray's capture. 2023 A&E Television Networks, LLC. Brown then said, "OK, OK, I'll tell you what. 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. 15. ", 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. King was one of the worst enemies my people ever had. Her reference to my people was to her race, since she was black. Lee Harvey Oswald James Earl Ray Sirhan Sirhan . King's killing sent shock waves through American society at the time, and is still regarded as a landmark. Starting with his contribution to the presidential campaign of Wallace, Ray developed a strong animosity towards Martin Luther King Jr. Davis and Laster were both shot during that attempt. He might have eked out enough money to meet his basic needs (he didn't smoke), but not much more than that. All three bore the fingerprints of an escaped convict named James Earl Ray. 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. The bullet was imprinted with six lands and six grooves and On 30 January 1961, Dexter Scott King, the third child of Martin and Coretta Scott King, was born. Jerry Ray had moved in with Stoner, and shot an intruder who broke into Stoner's office which was in the same building as the living quarters. Ray was not married and details of his relationships with any women are not known. (Benny had taken two years of civil engineering in college.). In 1962, when King mentioned to Levinson that he was thinking of adding an administrative assistant to his staff, Levinson recommended ODell, who was then head of SCLCs New York office. James Earl Ray (born 1965) is listed at 42036 Queen Anne Ct Northville, Mi 48167 and has no known political party affiliation. UN Pushing New Age Spirituality on Schoolchildren, Arizona Poised to Make Pledge of Allegiance Mandatory in Schools. In the year 1952, he served a two year prison sentence for the armed robbery of a cab driver. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. 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. James Earl Ray Sirhan Sirhan Jack Ruby. The jury awarded the money to the estate, deciding that Kings assassination had likely beenthe result of a conspiracy that involved Jowers, not Ray, as well as ''others, including governmental agencies.''. The manhunt was the most expensive and biggest for the FBI (at that time). One of the most intriguing aspects of the New Times article on James Earl Ray/Jerry Ray/J.B. 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. Assassination. I spent virtually all of 1962 in solitary. 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. He reacted as if King's remarks were directed at him personally. "doesn't know anything.". The verdict in King vs. Jowers found a government conspiracy involving city, state, and federal agents complicit in the murder. Ray spent the rest of his life in prison and suffered with kidney and liver ailments in his last years. Judge Horne did have the authority to hold him in contempt. 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. Moreover, Jerry Ray and James Earl Ray are close. He escaped from the prison hiding in a truck that was transporting bread from the prison bakery. [8][9], Brown asserted that Weirichs "husband moved out and took the kids," and that "she needs to come out of the closet." While some speculate this was an attempt to hide his identity before killing King, others point to Ray's lack of care about disguising himself in other elements of the assassination plot. Ray had seven siblings. 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. 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. ), where he secured a second Canadian passport (May 16), and back to London (May 17?). Even after Ray died in 1998 from complications caused by hepatitis C, the family continued to assert there was, as Coretta King said in 1999, overwhelming evidence that identified someone else, not James Earl Ray, as the shooter, and that Mr. Ray was set up to take the blame.. It seems clear to me that there was a conspiracy to murder King, and that James Earl Ray was involved. Joseph Blakeney Brown Jr. (born July 5, 1947), known as Judge Joe Brown, is a former American lawyer and television personality. All rights reserved. Indeed, to them the perception is reality. (Emphasis in original.). Ray was convicted in 1969 after entering a guilty pleathus forgoing a jury trial and the possibility of a death sentenceand was sentenced to . It was important for the government to have a lone killer-since blacks across the nation were rioting, and proof of a white conspiracy to kill the black civil-rights leader would have caused a racial explosion. Four days after that, Martin Luther King, Jr. was dead. I got to know him better when he came to Jeff City with a sentence for robbery. I have respect for the King family, however, as thousands of people converge on Memphis and in other places on Wednesday to commemorate the 50th anniversary of MLKs death, the King family is dead wrong. Riots erupted in Memphis; one person was killed and sixty were injured. 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. The first year and a half I paid little or no attention to Ray. Benny taught me how to type. Meanwhile, William Bradford Huie, gathering information for his book, They Slew The Dreamer, had taken an interest in George Ben Edmondson. From the viewpoint of a man who served time with Ray in prison, then went on to become a journalist, and continued to follow the case, with some emphasis on Ray's mentality, how he escaped from prison, and why there is reason to believe white supremacists may have been behind King's murder. One of Kings sons Dexter had expressed his adamant belief that Ray was not his fathers assassin. 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. When ODell was again exposed, King went through the same routine of announcing his dismissal. [3], After graduating from law school, Brown moved to Memphis, Tennessee to work as an attorney for the Legal Services Corporation. Ray left school when he was just fifteen due to his familys financial condition. What Political Party was James Earl Ray part of? 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. 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. Raised in the Crenshaw District of Los Angeles, Brown graduated as valedictorian[full citation needed] from Dorsey High School. Benny and I studied programming together, and in 1966 we worked in the programming office together. An hour later, he was declared dead. All the seven prisoners who escaped from the prison were recaptured within two days and sent back to the prison. 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 . B. 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. His prints were found all over the hotel room in Memphis where the shots that killed King were thought to have come from, and they covered the murder weapon -a Remington hunting rifle he purchased in Birmingham, AL. 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. Was James earl ray white? Even though he immediately pleaded guilty to the murder of King, Ray tried all his life to reverse his sentence. He admitted to staying at the rooming house from where authorities said the bullet that struck Rev. In prison I knew men who would stab you to death over a carton of cigarettes, or for even a slight insult. 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. They were not going to have me, or any other convict, expounding on the subject of Ray. Ireland. 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. But what do you know about James Earl Ray, the man who assassinated Martin Luther King? Ray replied that he did not commit the crime. Some even said Ray was a racist, but he claimed to me that he was never hostile toward anyone. "just to throw the public off. (Credit: State of Tennessee, Earl Warren/AP Photo), Coretta Kings specific belief in Rays innocence is a little tougher to explain. 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. 14. Martin Luther King Jr.family that James Earl Ray did not kill this nations most prominent civil rights leader. In the course of our conversation, I pressed him for details regarding drug sales or any other illegal activities in which staff and/or inmates might have been involved. the Democratic Party won the presidency. Los Angeles was the site of Ray's first arrest, for burglary, in 1949, and he ended up serving 90 days in jail. Milteer, a Stoner associate, as he discussed NSRP plans with a Miami police informer. 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. But even if Ray had help, the evidence strongly pointed to him pulling the trigger. It's a seductive thought. 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. But a restaurant owner from Memphis was brought to the civil court in the year 1999 for being a part of the murder conspiracy. He was deemed not fit for military service due to the lack of discipline. Stoner campaigned for several political offices as a Southern Democrat in order to promote his white supremacist agenda. Christopher S. Bond (now U.S. Ray, who was on escape from a Missouri prison in 1968 claimed, however, that he had gone to a service station to get a tire repaired when the shot was fired. During the 1950 and 60s, the FBI surveilled and harassed King, his family and his associates. 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. He decided to assassinate him to stop blacks from getting equal status to the whites. We had no contact, however, since he was on the other side of the building. About two months later, Ray tried to escape, and he came to E-Hall. We miss you, James. Just before Ray's escape from Jeff City he was visited by his brother. In the 1960s John Larry Ray (another brother) owned a tavern in St. Louis, and that tavern was an unofficial headquarters for the Wallace for President campaign. For example, if you worked in the laundry you could charge people to starch and iron their clothes. However, the assessment of King got even worse. Declassified FBI Paper Reveals Martin Luther Kings Sexual Aberrations, Martin Luther King Day Based on MLKs Image, Not Reality, Martin Luther King: The Celebration of a Myth. people lost faith in the political system. The 12-person jury verdict unanimous exonerated the "patsy" James Earl Ray for any role in the assassination of MLK. (153) Although Ray had been sentenced from St. Louis, he was not part of the St. Louis "crowd.". As the paper notes: Through Levisons influence, other subversives were attracted to SCLC [The Southern Christian Leadership Conference, which King helped found]. 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). 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. Almost everyone felt sure the government would want to avoid a never-ending search for conspirators in the King case, and would accomplish that by presenting its evidence at Ray's trial. Most recently, after Ray's death in . King said he liked the idea. 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. 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. In the early 1990s, he started suggesting that the government might be behind the assassination. On the night of April 4, 1968 50 years ago now James Earl Ray killed the Rev. There were those who joked about Ray, because of the nature of his attempted escapes. He got a 99-year prison sentence, which he served until he died of liver failure due to hepatitis C on . 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. He employed such Communists as Bayard Rustin and Hunter Pitts ODell; and he worked closely with Carl Braden and James Dumbrowski. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. Stokely Carmichael of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), an extremist Black Nationalist organization, has conferred with King. He is the one who sits in leadership and is the most powerful person of a country. USA.gov, The U.S. National Archives and Records Administration 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). The George Wallace Democrat of the 1960's aligns with the and is the Republican Party we know today. 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. So, even if I conceded the possibility that Ray had sold drugs, it would have been in small quantities, and for a brief period of time. After his escape, Early Ray was continuously on the move and travelled across USA, Canada, and Mexico. James Earl Ray pleaded guilty to killing Dr. King; he challenged the plea and failed. 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. 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. James Earl Ray confessed to shooting King and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. You would also know who had just gotten a shipment of dope. A man named Vincent Harding is credited with writing most of it. If you saw the movie Boyz n the Hood, that was the way I grew up. While serving in the military, Ray was often charged with drunkenness and breaking arrest. With the release of this FBI document, however, it seems that the FBI and the JBS were on the same page regarding King. Wait Who? He was immediately extradited to USA. Westberg, in turn, liked James Earl Ray. After reading about the news in newspapers, he immediately drove to Memphis. On April 4, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot while standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. If this self-seeking rabble-rouser is allowed to go through with his plans here, Washington may well be treated to the same kind of violence, destruction, looting, and bloodshed.1. Milteer told the informant that a scheme was in the works to kill President Kennedy. He was unable to give me any specifics but just responded that "it was common knowledge.". He began to call him Martin "Lucifer" King and Martin Luther "Coon." 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. Then, the (U.S.) House Assassinations Committee spent two years and $2.5 million investigating the case. Using their logic, the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. should be attributed to a Democratic U.S. 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. Who Was James Earl Ray? Two weeks later, after Kennedy had been slain in Dallas, Milteer told the same informant, "everything ran true to form," and the right wing was in the clear because Lee Harvey Oswald . None. [12], Brown is an Independent candidate for the 2023 Memphis mayoral election. 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. The King family started to publicly voice the opinion in 1997. The damage to the clothing was consistent with the caliber After Ray was arrested for the assassination of Martin Luther King, it was widely believed that those erroneous prints were proof that the King conspiracy began in Jefferson City, and that someone employed at the prison was involved. According to press accounts, Brown became combative and irate after Horne refused to discuss details of the case that were not on the schedule. Ray died on April 23, 1998 at the Columbia Nashville Memorial Hospital due to Hepatitis C at the age of 70. 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. Although Westberg liked Ray, he never brought him around us. 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. six grooves with a right twist. In 1999, James Earl Ray was found innocent of killing Martin Luther King Jr. in the same way O.J. (In the period 1963-64, there were 550 serious assaults inside Jefferson City, including hundreds of stabbings, which is why, An egregious example of shoddy workmanship is the book. Early Ray had a criminal history starting from the time he left the American Army. 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. Some have indicated that King vs. Jowers was nothing more than a promotional stunt. The box was picked up, and Ray successfully escaped on April 23, 1967. While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. During the four-week trial in Memphis, a 12-person jury heard testimony from over 70 witnesses; but not Jowers, who didnt testify because there were no criminal charges at stake. McMillans false scenarios portray Ray as a rabid racist in prison. He said not knowing the truth about his fathers assassination had been painful for the family. He edited most of the chapters of Kings book Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community? Unfortunately, the scene described by McMillan could not have happened. 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. They laid out the evidence before he entered his plea, and he said, OK. He said his lawyers were incompetent, and that proved false. 1. "[10], In August 2015, Brown served five days in the Shelby County Jail after having been held in contempt of court in March 2014. Ostensibly only a New York City attorney and businessman, Levison is, in fact, a shrewd, dedicated communist. 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. His fathers name was George Ellis Ray and his mothers name was Lucille. 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. The first time I saw James Earl Ray, he had just arrived at the Missouri State Penitentiary in Jefferson City. Brown was sentenced to five days in jail,[7][15] but was later released on his own recognizance. ", The Miami police were sufficiently impressed with Milteer's seriousness that the Secret Service was alerted, and an imminent presidential motorcade into the city was canceled. Shortly after Ray pled guilty to the King murder, Clay Blair's book The Strange Case of James Earl Ray was published. a right twist by the rifle from which it had been fired. In the year 1959, he was caught stealing $120 from a Kroger Store in St. Louis. Ray was finally caught hiding in London in February 1968. James Earl Ray. Each day he would go to the state capital to work as a programmer. The ballistics tests proved to be inconclusive and Ray remained in prison. I had met with him twice while in Memphis at Jims Grill, which was near the boarding house. He is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity.[3]. In 1997, Kings son Dexter met Ray in prison and asked him whether he had killed his father. The King familys belief in Rays innocence was partly influenced by the strange case of Loyd Jowers, whod owned the restaurant below Rays rented room in Memphis. Corrections? Benny Edmondson thought it was hilarious that William Bradford Huie thought he was "Raoul." [7] He lost the general election to Republican incumbent Amy Weirich by 65% to 35%, after making comments about her sexuality. It is known that, after escaping from Jeff City, James Earl Ray went to Chicago, where Jerry Ray was living. He is a former Shelby County, Tennessee Criminal Court judge and a former arbiter of the arbitration-based reality court show Judge Joe Brown. The Q2 rifle-had general class characteristics of six lands and Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). According to Harding, King had already severely angered Johnson by delivering that speech, which could have made Johnson quite receptive to Byrds sentiment. James Earl Ray, who pleaded guilty to assassinating King, was renting a room above Jower's establishment and was allegedly an unwitting scapegoat. On January 26, 1976, 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. 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. 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. In June 1977 Ray escaped from Brushy Mountain (Tennessee) Prison and remained at large for 54 hours before being recaptured in a massive manhunt. Justice on Fire is OConnors detailed account of the terrible explosion that led to the firefighters deaths and the terrible injustice that followed. 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. Still, Ray shot ReverendKing and if the King family wants closure in the matter they should finally accept that fact. James Earl Ray was a racist, but there was circumstantial evidence that a businessman in St. Louis had established a $50,000 bounty for Kings death.. Martin Luther King Jr. Dexter King, son of slain civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr., meeting with James Earl Ray the man who confessed to killing King. 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. When James Earl Ray bought the rifle that killed King, he mentioned that he was going hunting with his brother. As noted, the committee concluded that James Earl Ray was the assassin of Dr. King. It wasn't until November 9, 1970--years after Ray escaped from Jefferson City--that inmates were allowed to purchase small black-and-white television sets, which they could keep in their cells. The shot that killed Dr. King was fired from the bathroom window at the In renouncing his guilt, Ray raised the spectre of a conspiracy behind Kings murder but offered scant evidence to support his claim. 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.. (In the period 1963-64, there were 550 serious assaults inside Jefferson City, including hundreds of stabbings, which is why Time magazine called it the "bloodiest 47 acres in America." 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). When The John Birch Society first made Kings communist connections known almost 50 years ago, most people were skeptical. In King vs. Loyd Jowers and conspirators unknown, there were 70 witnesses called; twelve jurors found in favor of the King family, which held a press conference after the verdict. 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.

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