Bettmann/Getty ImagesJames Earl Ray on July 19, 1968, shortly after he was arrested for killing MLK. Actor James Earl Jones perhaps best known as the melodious, mellifluous voice of Darth Vader (or Mufasa, depending on your generation and general geekitude) was . 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. What We Know About Why James Earl Ray Killed Martin Luther King Jr. Actor: Fired Up!. I think that contributed to the sense of conspiracy, like a What are they hiding? kind of thing. (Sides also appears in the PBS American Experience documentary on this subject, Roads to Memphis, airing Tuesday.). Riots erupted in Memphis; one person was killed and sixty were injured. 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. He's also known for films like 'The Great White Hope,' 'The Hunt for Red October' and 'Field of Dreams' as well as an array of TV shows. Estate of Martin Luther King, Jr., Inc. v. CBS, Inc. Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), Statue of Martin Luther King Jr. (Pueblo, Colorado), Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, San Francisco. 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 was convicted in 1969 after entering a guilty pleathus forgoing a jury trial and the possibility of a death sentenceand was sentenced to . A part of his life was shaped by tragedy. 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. Contents 1 Early life and education 2 Career 3 Personal life 3.1 Legal issues Findings by federal authorities and the House Select Committee on Assassinations are confident about some things. There was a huge amount of evidence presented in Memphis that didnt see the light of day in a public forum, says Hampton Sides, an expert on this topic and author of Hellhound on His Trail: The Stalking of Martin Luther King Jr. and the International Hunt for His Assassin. On September 16 th 1963 a young Southern White lawyer in Birmingham Alabama spoke these words after a black church was bombed and the police attacked peaceful protesters: "from anger and despair, from frustration and empathy. Using their logic, the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. should be attributed to a Democratic U.S. Dexter King went so far as to name Memphis Police Department Officer, Lt. Earl Clark as his fathers assassin. A man named Vincent Harding is credited with writing most of it. Martin Luther's goal, at least initially, was to repeal Jim Crow segregation laws where they existed. Ray was arrested at Londons Heathrow Airport on June 8, 1968, a few weeks after the crime. He travelled there on a Canadian passport. James Earl Ray (March 10, 1928 - April 23, 1998) was an American fugitive and felon convicted of assassinating Martin Luther King Jr. at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968. She graduated from Oberlin College, where she earned a double degree in American History and French. Magazines, Or create a free account to access more articles. [14] The notion of living in Rhodesia continued to appeal to Ray for several years afterwards, and it was his intended destination after King's assassination. Months later, he recanted his confession, without effect. This organization would later morph into the Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei better known as the NAZI party. He confessed to the crime on March 10, 1969, his 41st birthday,[34] and after pleading guilty he was sentenced to 99 years in prison.[35]. Ray was a racist and was quickly drawn to Wallace's segregationist platform. It didnt take long for investigators to determine a suspect. According to Wikipedia: James Earl Ray's chief interest was the George Wallace Democratic presidential campaign. He spent much of his time in Los Angeles volunteering at the Wallace campaign headquarters in North Hollywood. [12] His chief interest, however, was the George Wallace presidential campaign. At the age of 16, Ray left his parents and returned to Alton, where he moved in with his grandmother and landed work in the dye room of the International Shoe Tannery. He left school when he was 15 and later joined the US Army towards the end of World War II but he struggled to adapt to . All Rights Reserved. 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. Ray died while that campaign was ongoing, but though the King family did win $100 in a 1999 wrongful death suit after the man charged as being part of a conspiracy didnt show up to the trial an official inquiry reiterated that the evidence against Ray was overwhelming and that there was no credibility to various theories that anyone else had been involved. "I . 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. They laid out the evidence before he entered his plea, and he said, OK,' explained G. Robert Blakey, a law professor who previously served as the chief counsel for the House Assassinations Committee. Was James earl ray white? A courtroom artist, Sandhu drew Ray during his trial for a prison escape attempt. [43] [44], Coretta Scott King said, "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. Ray replied, "No. James Earl Ray was raised as a catholic and had conservative religious beliefs from his childhood. Ray Charles was a pioneer of soul music, integrating R&B, gospel, pop and country to create hits like "Unchain My Heart," "Hit the Road Jack" and "Georgia on My Mind.". He got a 99-year prison sentence, which he served until he died of liver failure due to hepatitis C on Apr. Doubleday. After all, the FBI stalked King and his cohort in order to, as Sides puts it, ruin and smear the civil rights movement. The ugly reach of that campaign has only become clearer over the years. Dr. King was killed while standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel, and police determined that James Earl Ray had shot him with a rifle from the window of a rented room across the street. On April 2, 1968, Ray packed a bag and drove to Memphis. 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 April4, 1968. So, are there are still remaining questions about how everything happened the day of Kings assassination? Both were aliases used by James Earl Ray. 1928. Maybe you would like to learn more about one of these? In 1933, Ray suffered his first real tragedy when his four-year-old sister died after playing with matches and setting herself on fire. Indeed, Ray seemed to struggle from the start. Share Background Report Background Report Overview of James Earl Ray Lives in: Northville, Michigan Phone: View phone number Gender: Male James Earl Ray's FBI wanted poster featured 1960 booking shots and a list of nine aliases. According to the New York Times, his uncle went to prison on the day Ray was born, his father was a known convict, and his great-grandfather was likely Ned Ray, a gambler and Wild West outlaw. James Earl Ray is infamous for assassinating civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968. INTERVIEW OF JAMES EARL RAY BY JOHN AUBLE, KST-TV ST LOUIS - National Archives and Records Administration 1977-11-03 - ARC 43297, LI 233-MLK-150170 - DVD Cop. 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. The two married in 1978 and divorced in 1992. This list details the strange, unstable life of James Earl Ray, a man who confessed to and then spent his life denyingthe murder of Martin Luther King Jr. James Earl Ray (March 10, 1928 - April 23, 1998) was an American criminal who assassinated Martin Luther King Jr. at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968.Ray was convicted in 1969 after entering a guilty pleathus forgoing a jury trial and the possibility of a death sentenceand was sentenced to 99 years of imprisonment. In 1935 the family suddenly left Alton and relocated to Ewing, Missouri, after police had started looking for Ray's father on a forgery charge. Who that James earl ray? He spent much of his time in Los Angeles volunteering at the Wallace campaign headquarters in North Hollywood. 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. When Kings son, Dexter, visited Ray in prison, Dexter asked Ray point-blank: Did you kill my father?. His claim was that the assassination was the result of a conspiracy of the otherwise unidentified man named "Raul who was a blond Cuban. After shooting King, Ray immediately fled, setting off a manhunt that would last more than two months and cover five countries. [37] A year was added to Ray's previous sentence, increasing it to 10 decades. He said that a Memphis police officer was the one who had actually killed King and that Jowers had stashed the gun. 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. Our editors will review what youve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. An hour later, he was declared dead. Ray had continued using the Galt alias after his stint in Mexico, but when he made this purchase, he gave his name as Harvey Lowmeyer. But Ray backed away from his confession just days later and insisted on his innocence in the decades that followed. James Earl Ray would have fit in just perfect with MAGA Before all the MLK quotes begin in a couple of weeks remember; MLK, didn't end racism. The paper reported King's planned return trip to Memphis, Tennessee, which was scheduled for April 1, 1968. Whats more, Ray claimed that he only pled guilty to the assassination because his lawyer and the FBI had pressed him to do so. What would it have taken for the Goldmans and the Browns to have believed Orenthals story that he was innocent? He is a male registered to vote in Wayne County, Michigan. He had Irish, Scottish and Welsh ancestry and had a Catholic upbringing. The jury also affirmed overwhelming evidence that identified someone else, not James Earl Ray, as the shooter, and that Mr. Ray was set up to take the blame. James Earl Ray is the man who shot and killed civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. on April 4, 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee. Hardcover, 480 pages. In 1952, he served two years for the armed robbery of a taxi driver in Illinois. Ray was spotted at the scene and, almost immediately after the killing, his fingerprints were found on the gun. At one point, he claimed a person named Raul told him to kill King, but theres no convincing proof of such an idea, according to Sides. Ray was born into a poor family on March 10, 1928, in Alton, Illinois. Read an Excerpt. https://www.biography.com/crime-figure/james-earl-ray. Omissions? Exactly what led Ray to kill King continues to be a source of debate, as does his role in the murder. The Nazi party Is the president part of the political party? (Credit: State of Tennessee, Earl Warren/AP Photo), Coretta Kings specific belief in Rays innocence is a little tougher to explain. 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