Ray, who was feeble and sick from hepatitis C, was asked by King about his involvement in the assassination. (In the event, the verdict referred only to "governmental agencies" rather than the U.S. government specifically, a term that could include anything from local police to the CIA.) After this, Ray was on the run and was captured in the UK. Estate of Martin Luther King, Jr., Inc. v. CBS, Inc. Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), African American founding fathers of the United States, Statue of Martin Luther King Jr. (Pueblo, Colorado), Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, San Francisco. WebJack Kershaw. Kings killing sent shock waves through American society at the time, and is still 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. The one time Jowers did testify under oath about his allegations in an earlier civil suit, Ray v. Jowers, he repudiated them. The man denied any involvement and cooperated with Justice Department investigators in 1999, who found work records showing he could not have traveled widely to meet Ray in 1967 and 68. On July 19, he returned to U.S. and the following March he pleaded guilty to murdering King. Did the news media, led by Walter Cronkite, lose the war in Vietnam? The original mug shot of James Earl Ray included with the memo from the FBI to the Belleville News-Democrat. The full transcript of the trial remains posted on the King Centers website. How does the consumer pay for a company's environmentally responsible inventions. 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 In March 1960 Ray started a 20-year sentence for the crimes. There, on March 30, 1968, he bought a Remington Model 760 Gamemaster .30-06-caliber rifle and a box of 20 cartridges from the Aeromarine Supply Company. Additionally, Jowers has been inconsistent about other aspects of the alleged conspiracy, including his role in it, Raoul's responsibilities, whether and how Memphis police officers were involved, and the disposal of the alleged murder weapon. For reasons unknown, Memphis public works employees cut down the bushes and destroyed a possible crime scene the next morning. He was sentenced to 90 days in prison, but the lockup did little to reform him. In fact, he did not testify in King v. Jowers, despite the fact that he was the party being sued. Moreover, Jowers' repudiations, even under oath, his failure to testify during King v. Jowers, his refusal to cooperate with our investigation, his reported motive to make money from his claims, and his efforts along with his friends to promote his story all suggest a lack of credibility. Unbeknownst to Ray, however, a death sentence would have been commuted as unconstitutional under the de facto moratorium in place since 1967 and following Furman v. Georgia. Why do you assume he was a Democrat? By that time, the Dixiecrats were rapidly becoming Republicans - so if he WAS a registered democrat, it was ju [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. If the FBI or CIA was involved, they had destroyed the documentation of it by 1979, he said. [49], Before his death, Ray was transferred to the Lois M. DeBerry Special Needs Facility in Nashville, a maximum-security prison with hospital facilities. The U.S. Justice Department concluded in June 2000 the "allegations originating with Loyd Jowers are not credible": After reviewing all available materials from prior official investigations and other sources, including the evidence from King v. Jowers, and after conducting a year and a half of original investigation, we have concluded that the allegations originating with Loyd Jowers and Donald Wilson are not credible. A Shelby County jury heard more than 70 witnesses over 30 days, ruled that Jowers and unknown government entities were liable, and awarded the Kings $100. Biden sought support from follow segregationists in the fight against desegregated busing. It is a great victory for truth itself. The Democrats opposed all Amendments. Republicans introduced the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to end slavery, give citizenship, and give Black America the right to vote. The Democrats were furious at Lincoln and resisted Black America gaining political power. Please try again later. The verdict came as the Justice Department was reinvestigating the case because of Jowerss claims and those of a former FBI agent who said he had found evidence in Rays car in 1968 linking him to Raul but had withheld it until 1997. 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. After returning to Alton and moving back in with his grandmother, he blazed through a number of odd jobs. This article was published more than4 years ago. No one saw the actual shot fired. All Rights Reserved. Jowers further maintained that Ray did not shoot Dr. King and that he did not believe Ray knowingly participated in the conspiracy. In exchange for his plea, prosecutors did not seek the death penalty and Ray was sentenced to 99 years in prison. Ray struggled to adapt to military life and was eventually discharged for ineptitude and lack of adaptability in 1948. They started the Ku Klux Klan as their league of fear to keep Black America in their place through terror, murdering black Republicans and implementing segregation, Jim Crow Laws, and Black Codes. Over the next several years, Ray embarked on a number of small crimes, serving various jail times. Pepper said Dexter King asked Ray, Did you kill my father? and that Ray answered, No, I didnt. He said Dexter King told Ray, We will do everything in our power to see that justice prevails.. As noted in the New York Times' report of the verdict, the one-sided presentation of the case allowed for no other result: John Campbell, an assistant district attorney in Memphis, who was not part of the civil proceedings but was part of the criminal case against Mr. Ray, said, "I'm not surprised by the verdict. finds no conspiracy in King assassination", "Third Inquiry Affirms Others: Ray Alone Was King's Killer", "Autopsy confirms Ray died of liver failure". [38], In 1997, King's son, Dexter, met with Ray at the prison and asked him, "I just want to ask you, for the record, did you kill my father?" He had consistently denied any knowledge of the case for a quarter-century, but now he alleged the gunman was a Memphis police officer who fired from the bushes behind the grill, then handed Jowers the murder weapon. Jowers also abandoned his initial allegation that he received $100,000 with which he hired a hit man to kill Dr. King, claiming instead that he merely held the money for the conspirators. Born in a poor family, Ray had a difficult childhood as his father could not support his family. On the map, the locations of the church and residence of Martin Luther King Jr. were circled. Although the Justice Department officially claims James Earl Ray assassinated MLK, a civil suit later determined that a Memphis cop was involved in a conspiracy to murder the civil rights leader. We may earn commission from links on this page, but we only recommend products we back. Coretta King and Abernathy, aware of the FBI campaign, immediately suspected FBI involvement after Kings death. What was milliard fillmore's Digital Democrats fought a bloody civil war against Lincoln and the Republicans plan to free Black America. The family accepted $100 in restitution to demonstrate they were not pursuing the case for financial gain, and they publicly stated that Ray, in their opinion, had nothing to do with the assassination. WebJames 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 He defended Ray in a mock trial on HBO in 1993 (Ray was found not guilty), and filed and tried the Memphis civil suit that found the government liable for Kings death. Pepper first visited Ray in prison in 1978 along with Ralph Abernathy, one of Kings closest associates. He can be emailed at mantecarepublicans@yahoo.com, Ceres a cleaner place now due to beefed up Code Enforcement staff, CUSD keeping watchful eye on declining student enrollment, City prepares for new digs for Public Works, Adamsville: Stanislaus County's short-lived & forgotten county seat, CUSD honors standout classified and confidential employees, Espinoza, Breshears represent Hawks at State, Tough draw for CHS girls in soccer playoffs, CV boys advance to Division-I semifinal round, CV grad Velasquez wraps up UC Davis soccer career, Theyre not getting away with it in Ceres. The U.S. Department of Justice found Jowers' claims were without merit and explained that he'd never been able to provide any support for later assertions about his involvement in King's death: When Jowers has confessed, he has contradicted himself on virtually every key point about the alleged conspiracy. However, dont expect the Democrats to give in without a fight. Kim LaCapria is a former writer for Snopes. Twenty years later, I remain absolutely convinced this well-supported finding is correct., The King family disagrees, with Martin King III adopting Peppers theory of Hoover directing the assassination. Rays unreliability has meant the only way to find out what might have motivated him is to study the people he associated with and admired. [28] He stayed briefly in Lisbon, Portugal, and returned to London. Most black families lacked fathers with policies encouraging the breakdown of the family through welfare programs. What Political Party was James Earl Ray part of? Within days, Ray filed a motion to withdraw his plea, claiming he had been coerced by his attorney and the FBI. Top of Page Ray moved around while on the lam, staying in Chicago, Los Angeles, Mexico and Canada over the next year. Was James earl ray white? Who killed Martin Luther King Jr.? Its hard to know exactly who. Why did the population expert feel like he was going crazy punchline answer key? Yellin, Emily. Ray's first conviction for criminal activity, a burglary in California, came in 1949. He spent many hours volunteering at the campaign headquarters in North The latter (King vs. Jowers) was a civil suit brought by agents of King's estate (including his widow, Coretta Scott King) against a man named Loyd Jowers, who claimed to have taken part in a conspiracy to assassinate King. Ray told this version of the assassination and his flight during the following two months to journalist William Bradford Huie. I wholeheartedly applaud the verdict of the jury and I feel that justice has been well served in their deliberations. Then figure out what the total cost of the trip would be.? Loyd Jowers was a Memphis restaurant owner who inserted himself into the narrative about King's death in the course of a 1993 television interview during which he claimed to have been party to a larger conspiracy to assassinate King. Your membership is the foundation of our sustainability and resilience. The rifle Ray had purchased in Birmingham was found near the front of the boardinghouse with Rays fingerprints on it. Evidence does suggest that Ray had little stomach for the integration policies that were sweeping the country. Hoover was so angry, he had hate in his heart. In a criminal trial the guilt of the defendant must be proved beyond a reasonable doubt, but in a civil suit the plaintiff need only support his claim with a preponderance of evidence to prevail. Whether youre a lifelong resident of D.C. or you just moved here, weve got you covered. The verdict presented by the parties and adopted by the jury is incompatible with the weight of all relevant information, much of which the jury never heard. For example, he not only identified two different people as the assassin, but also most recently claimed that he saw the assassin and did not recognize him. King was murdered in Memphis on April 4, 1968, and the FBI seized the car the following day in Atlanta. However, any claim made by Ray about his guilt or innocence should be weighed against his strong incentive to be freed from prison (where he died in 1998). Claim: The U.S. government was sued and found culpable for the murder of Martin Luther King, Jr., but the news media refused to report it. James Earl Ray died in 1998. For the King family and others in the civil rights movement, the FBIs obsession with King in the years leading up to his slaying in Memphis on April 4, 1968 pervasive surveillance, a malicious disinformation campaign and open denunciations by FBI director J. Edgar Hoover laid the groundwork for their belief that he was the target of a plot. While there, Ray attended a local bartending school and took dance lessons. [17], Arriving in Atlanta on March 24, 1968, Ray checked into a rooming house. The largest government investigation, led by the House Select Committee on Assassinations under chief counsel Robert Blakey, theorized in 1979 that Ray committed the killing in the hope of collecting a $50,000 bounty offered by supporters of then-presidential candidate George Wallace in St. Louis, where Rays brothers lived. The mock trial jury finally acquitted Ray. Check here if you would like to receive subscription offers and other promotions via email from TIME group companies. The one thing the conspiracy rumor correctly states is a 1999 civil trial reached a verdict that cited the existence of a conspiracy to assassinate Martin Luther King, Jr. What it neglects to mention is the relative worth of such a judgment: The verdict in question was civil rather than criminal, the sole named defendant was someone who stood to gain both publicity and money from repeating his claims, and the King family's motivation in bringing the suit was to validate their long-held suspicions a larger conspiracy was at play in the death of the civil rights leader. Martin Luther King Jr. met Malcolm X just once. He escaped from the prison in April 1967, and some believe he had help from prison authorities, as part of the opening stanza of the conspiracy. He continued to visit Ray until his death and presided over his funeral. [29] Ray was then arrested at London Heathrow Airport attempting to leave the United Kingdom for Brussels. Ray hired Jack Kershaw as his new attorney, and Kershaw publicly argued and promoted Ray's claim that he was not responsible for the assassination of King. On 2nd April, 1968, Ray packed a bag and drove to Memphis. In fact, the idea that there had been a conspiracy to kill King that, even if Ray fired the gun, he did so at the behest of larger forces began to spread right away, and not without some reason. His family believes James Earl Ray was framed. [10], While in Mexico, Ray, using the alias Eric Starvo Galt, attempted to establish himself as a pornographic film director. Andrew Young, the former U.N. ambassador and Atlanta mayor who was at the Lorraine Motel with King when he was shot there, agrees. I would not accept the fact that James Earl Ray pulled the trigger, and thats all that matters, said Young, who noted that Kings death came after the killings of John F. Kennedy and Malcolm X and just months before the slaying of Robert F. Kennedy. Among those who could have been pardoned was James Earl Ray, who just a decade before had assassinated Martin Luther King Jr. in Memphis. Kings two other surviving children, Dexter, 57, and Martin III, 60, fully agree that Ray was innocent. I want to make it clear that my family has no interest in retribution. He spent much of his time in Los Angeles volunteering at the Wallace campaign headquarters in North Hollywood. That if something has a huge evil effect, it should be the result of a huge evil cause.. Hoover once told a group of reporters, on the record, that King was the most notorious liar in the country., You are done: A secret letter to Martin Luther King Jr. sheds light on FBIs malice. Asked about the King familys suspicions, an FBI spokesman responded in a statement that the government has revisited the assassination four times: Findings from these reviews support the FBIs conclusion that James Earl Ray, acting alone, fired a rifle once, fatally wounding Dr. King on April 4, 1968, at the Lorraine Motel.. If the King family wanted a rubber stamp of their own view of the facts, they got it.". One is rudimentary research would confirm the claim's basics (i.e., the verdict in a wrongful death civil action did allow that "government agencies" participated in a conspiracy to assassinate Dr. King), leading readers to believe the entirety of the rumor was factual. ", And Gerald Posner, whose recent book, "Killing the Dream" made the case that Mr. Ray was the killer, said, "It distresses me greatly that the legal system was used in such a callous and farcical manner in Memphis. His sister Marjorie died in a fire as a young child in 1933. I do think [Ray] had help, but I never found any proof that a group helped him, says Sides. 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.). Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library, Washington, D.C. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Library, San Jose, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=James_Earl_Ray&oldid=1142126272, American people who died in prison custody, People extradited from the United Kingdom to the United States, Prisoners who died in Tennessee detention, United States Army personnel of World War II, Short description is different from Wikidata, Wikipedia indefinitely move-protected pages, All Wikipedia articles written in American English, Pages using infobox person with multiple parents, Articles with unsourced statements from May 2022, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, 99 years in prison (1 year was added after his re-capture for a total of 100 years), This page was last edited on 28 February 2023, at 17:21. Im in the car business. Instead, our sole concern has been that the full truth of the assassination has been revealed and adjudicated in a court of law. The U.S. government was sued and found culpable for the murder of Martin Luther King, Jr., but the news media refused to report it. [31] At check-in, the ticket agent noticed the name on his passport, Sneyd, was on a Royal Canadian Mounted Police watchlist. [2] James Earl Ray was the oldest of nine children,[3] including John Larry Ray,[4] Franklin Ray, Jerry William Ray,[5] Melba Ray, Carol Ray Pepper, Suzan Ray, and Marjorie Ray. Democrats, Biden still trying to enslave Black America. [6] Ray left school at the age of 12. As Sides points out, it isnt surprising that members of Kings family and his fellow civil-rights leaders would have suspected that some larger government conspiracy to kill the minister must been at play. Integration policies that were sweeping the country figure out what the total cost of the and... The country this page, but the lockup did little to reform him to james earl ray democrat Black America gaining power. 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