On the night of the shooting, I had left the rifle with Raoul.. Raised in the Crenshaw District of Los Angeles, Brown graduated as valedictorian[full citation needed] from Dorsey High School. But they are unanimous on one key point: James Earl Ray did not kill Martin Luther King.. [3], After graduating from law school, Brown moved to Memphis, Tennessee to work as an attorney for the Legal Services Corporation. Senator in Robert Byrd. 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. After the publication of the Playboy story, Ray fired Kershaw when he found that Playboy paid him $11,000 for facilitating the interview. [3] Brown has spoken about how his upbringing shaped his philosophy. Law enforcement agencies believe that he started indulging in criminal activities as he could not support himself financially. Therefore, I challenge your authority to hear it. 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. One day he walked away, and it was rumored he took $5,000 of state money with him. He told the clerks at the Aeromarine Supply Company in Brimingham, Alabama (from where he brought the rifle) that he was going on a hunting trip with his brother. 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. 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, Shortly after Ray pled guilty to the King murder, Clay Blair's book. James Earl Ray. King was shot by Earl Ray when the former was standing in the balcony of his motel room. 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. The House Assassinations Committee examining evidence in the killing of Martin Luther King, Jr. (Credit: Bettmann Archive/Getty Images). There was one week in 1968 when much happened. Who assassinated Robert F. Kennedy on June 5, 1968? Updates? "[20] The shot that killed Dr. King was fired from the bathroom window at the Brown was sentenced to five days in jail,[7][15] but was later released on his own recognizance. The scandal was so bad it led to the downfall of Warden Nash, who then shot himself.). "[21], Brown was warned that he would be held in contempt before these comments. Westberg was warned, and hurriedly got out of the box, which was then filled with bread. It was then learned he'd been the site engineer for the West German Pavilion at Expo '67 in Montreal. 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. 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? In the meantime James Earl Ray had also heard about the bread box, probably through Westberg. The coffee was contraband. Very few conservatives are aware of the pledge's socialist origins. A man named Vincent Harding is credited with writing most of it. Ray was convicted in 1969 after entering a guilty pleathus forgoing a jury trial and the possibility of a death sentenceand was sentenced to . Of the 2,500 men in the prison, fewer than 20 had ever tried to escape from inside the walls. Stoner is the following: Over the years, state and federal authorities have come to suspect that Stoner's violent rhetoric cannot be dismissed merely as fascist ravings. Wait Who? Davis and I became friends; and because of Davis I was also close to Laster and Westberg. King was visiting Memphis to settle a strike by garbage workers. Now he is presumed to be guilty until he proves his innocence. 2023 A&E Television Networks, LLC. 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. Rays father forged a check and hence had to shift his family to Ewing, Missouri to escape enforcement authorities. He was deemed not fit for military service due to the lack of discipline. Jack Kershaw Is Dead at 96; Challenged Conviction in King's Death. Therefore, ironically, the society that King intended to bear the cost for his civil disobedience was to be ablack society. [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. King was fired. 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 All rights reserved. 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. Could Chinas Petroyuan Give Rise to a New World Energy Order? But almost immediately after her husbands assassination, she suspected that the FBI, which had investigated the murder, was involved in it. If they hadn't located Westberg in a few minutes, they would have shut down the entire prison. 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. Ray was finally caught hiding in London in February 1968. 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 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." Justice on Fire is OConnors detailed account of the terrible explosion that led to the firefighters deaths and the terrible injustice that followed. Along with the rifle, he also bought a 2X-7X scope to aim the target well. 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." . 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. His fathers name was George Ellis Ray and his mothers name was Lucille. Findings on Martin Luther King, Jr. One of Kings principal advisors is Stanley David Levison. It would later be learned that Ray's classification card contained erroneous fingerprints, which were initially distributed nationally. James Earl Jones. He is a male registered to vote in Wayne County, Michigan. The Q2 rifle-had general class characteristics of six lands and He volunteered for Wallaces campaign and was very disappointed when Wallace could not win the campaign. PRPhotos. ), where he secured a second Canadian passport (May 16), and back to London (May 17?). Doesnt the controversy between Galileo and the Catholic Church prove this? In March 2014, Brown won the Democratic primary for the position of Shelby County district attorney. Ray was not married and details of his relationships with any women are not known. He might have eked out enough money to meet his basic needs (he didn't smoke), but not much more than that. This time, Ray rented an apartment for $100 a month at 1535 N. Serrano Ave., a. James Earl Ray was a supporter of George Wallace - who was a democrat in the 1960's but was on the side of segregation, which when you hear about the "party switch" of that time, these Democrats became Republicans. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! The only thing publicity could do was further humiliate them. He believed that King was a serious threat to the dominance of white people in the USA and wanted to stop him through any means. [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]. After Kings violent death, and the sealing of most government files related to King, the natural tendency of people to not want to speak ill of the dead set in. Some of the books written about the assassination describe him as a major drug dealer in Jefferson City, which is ludicrous. Although it is often. James Earl Ray knowingly, intelligently, and voluntarily Its not clear when Coretta Scott King, widow of King, began to believe in Rays innocence. We miss you, James. One week prior to Kings assassination on April 4, 1968 he had gone to Memphis to show support for local sanitation workers. In the year 1952, he served a two year prison sentence for the armed robbery of a cab driver. There were no cellblock TVs in Jefferson City in 1963 and 1964. 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. He was a fervent supporter of George Wallace, the Alabama governor who notoriously gave the 1963 "Segregation Now, Segregation Forever," and he was passionate about emigrating to Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) to be a part of the white minority in power there at the time. James Earl Ray confessed to shooting King and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. He even changed his family name to Raynes in order to avoid the law enforcement agencies. Its important to note that this verdict was not a criminal conviction, as is sometimes erroneously implied when this case surfaces online. Then Benny was transferred to L-Hall, an honor unit just outside the walls of the main penitentiary. They write new content and verify and edit content received from contributors. Meanwhile, William Bradford Huie, gathering information for his book, They Slew The Dreamer, had taken an interest in George Ben Edmondson. The damage to the clothing was consistent with the caliber Some even said Ray was a racist, but he claimed to me that he was never hostile toward anyone. The massive publicity surrounding Benny's capture caused Gold Medal Books to contact him and ask him to write 20,000 words of autobiographical data, so they could bring out an "instant" paperback book about him. But what do you know about James Earl Ray, the man who assassinated Martin Luther King? 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. I know they interviewed some inmates, but they did not interview the people most likely to know something (and also the most likely to tell them to go to hell). Although Ray had been sentenced from St. Louis, he was not part of the St. Louis "crowd.". The box was picked up, and Ray successfully escaped on April 23, 1967. When I got out the third time, I worked in the Tag Plant. The King family started to publicly voice the opinion in 1997. Ray spent the rest of his life in prison and suffered with kidney and liver ailments in his last years. 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). January 30, 1961. That is why he could never have been a major drug dealer. On April 4, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot while standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. The ballistics tests proved to be inconclusive and Ray remained in prison. 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. Most recently, after Ray's death in . 15. 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. [4] By 1978, Brown became the first African-American prosecutor in Memphis, and he later directed the Memphis public defender's office. 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 Such a conclusion must be drawn from a premise that the King family was willing to publicly, wrongfully, and unjustifiably vindicate Ray in order to accuse others simply to gain notoriety. That description comes closer to Jerry Ray than to James Earl Ray. As with most cases, the answer is yes. 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.
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