I want to make it clear that my family has no interest in retribution. [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. During a rainstorm on February 1, 1968, two black sanitation workers in Memphis lost their lives when the trucks compactor He was a democrat. Please attempt to sign up again. Biden befriended Byrd and shared the same policies that shackled Black America. This article was published more than4 years ago. He had entered a guilty plea on the advice of his attorney, Percy Foreman, to avoid the sentence of death by electrocution, which would have been a possible outcome of a jury trial. Im certainly clear that there has been a conspiracy, from the government down to the mafia there had to be more than one person involved in all of this. [38] The tests ultimately proved inconclusive. Toward the end of his life, Ray, whose sentence had been extended to 100 years after he escaped from prison in 1977, had the support of an unexpected ally: the King family. They were recaptured on June 13. 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. [32][33], Airport officials noticed that Ray carried another passport under a second name. James Earl Ray died in 1998. According to the criminal justice system of the state of Tennessee, James Earl Ray fired the shot from the second-floor bathroom of the boardinghouse. Many leaders like Candace Owens in the black community have begun to spread the message of #Blexit, a movement that encourages Black America to leave the Democrat Party. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our. I had nothing to do with killing [Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.]. King was then assassinated by James Earl Ray, a Democrat. More Memphis witnesses came forward, including a former girlfriend of Jowers, who said she saw him with the rifle shortly after the gunshot rang out, and saw him break it down and place it in the bar. 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. Those are about the only facts that arent in dispute. Whitsett responded, Im not going to be silenced and has since sued the Michigan Democrat Party. Pepper became convinced of Rays innocence and continued to investigate the case even after Ray died. The two men parted ways. [8] He was sentenced to twenty years in prison for repeated offenses. Ray dismissed Foreman as his attorney and thereafter derisively called him "Percy Fourflusher." Pepper first visited Ray in prison in 1978 along with Ralph Abernathy, one of Kings closest associates. 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. For those lucky black children who werent aborted, Biden and the Democrats to this day block school choice for black families who want to take their children out of failing schools. He drove away in a white Ford Mustang before the area was barricaded, went to Atlanta and then to Canada and England before being arrested in July 1968. Magazines, Or create a free account to access more articles. I Am a Man: The ugly Memphis sanitation workers strike that led to MLKs assassination, The King family has lauded Pepper repeatedly, and he was honored by the Southern Christian Leadership Conference for his unceasing commitment in the pursuit of justice., I think the people of this country are entitled to know the truth, Pepper said. James Earl Ray is infamous for assassinating civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968. The FBI had just caught James Earl Ray at Heathrow Airport in London. A bunch of self- centered people trashing Target stores? The Republican Party was formed in 1854 as an anti-slavery party with Abraham Lincoln as their first president. [52], Ten years later, Ray's other brother, John Larry Ray, co-authored a book with Lyndon Barsten titled Truth At Last: The Untold Story Behind James Earl Ray and the Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.[39]. 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 about being held in solitary confinement. He spent many hours volunteering at the campaign headquarters in North In 2000, the report authored by assistant attorney general Barry Kowalski found that Jowers had changed his story repeatedly and that neither he nor the ex-FBI agent were credible. 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. We are going to continue our conversation about the King assassination. We may earn commission from links on this page, but we only recommend products we back. Your membership is the foundation of our sustainability and resilience. 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. James Earl Ray, the man who confessed to killing Martin Luther King Jr. later recanted and insisted he was set up by a man named "Raul." On April 4, 1968, Ray stood in the bathtub of the bathroom, balanced his rifle on a window ledge and shot King as the civil rights leader was standing on a balcony outside of his motel room. The rifle Ray had purchased in Birmingham was found near the front of the boardinghouse with Rays fingerprints on it. His chosen profession was theft and armed robbery, and after his third felony conviction in 1959, he was sentenced to 20 years in the Missouri State Penitentiary. King was then assassinated by James Earl Ray, a Democrat. What was milliard fillmore's And contrary to the rumor's assertion, the 1999 civil case involving Jowers was widely reported by major news outlets at the time (including, as referenced above, the New York Times). Ray told this version of the assassination and his flight during the following two months to journalist William Bradford Huie. U.S. public has turned against Ukraine war intervention, Ceres needs safer bike lanes, more animal control, Angel Richardson's Christmas Parade | Studio209, CIF D-4AA State Championship: Escalon vs Northwood | The Blitz Season 10, CIF D5-AA Regional Championship: Hughson vs Ripon Christian | The Blitz Season 10. He also initially sought compensation for his story, and his friends and relatives acknowledge that he hoped to make money from his account. In the years following Ray's arrest, questions arose about his exact involvement in King's murder. What Political Party was James Earl Ray part of? In December 1993, Jowers appeared on ABC's Prime Time Live and radically changed his story, claiming he participated in a plot to assassinate Dr. King. Pepper was sued once for defamation, by an Army soldier he accused of participating in the conspiracy, and a South Carolina judge entered an $11 million default judgment against him in 2000. Conspiracies have long gripped the American imagination, from JFKs assassination in 1963 to Deputy White House Counsel Vince Fosters suicidein 1993 to Democratic National Committee staffer Seth Richs slayingin 2016. [49], Before his death, Ray was transferred to the Lois M. DeBerry Special Needs Facility in Nashville, a maximum-security prison with hospital facilities. Best Known For: James Earl Ray is infamous for assassinating civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968. More to the point, however, Jowers (who didn't even testify) was the only named party in the civil suit brought by the King family, and the judgment awarded in that case was a paltry $100, widely described as a token award to mark the trial's outcome. Born on March 10, 1928, in Alton, Illinois, was the eldest of George and Lucille Ray's nine children. In exchange for his plea, prosecutors did not seek the death penalty and Ray was sentenced to 99 years in prison. He escaped from the Missouri State Penitentiary in 1967 by hiding in a truck transporting bread from the prison bakery. Its still a mystery to me, Bernice King said. 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. The Democrats opposed all Amendments. 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. After getting laid off in 1945, Ray enlisted in the Army, eventually getting stationed in West Germany. On April 4, Bernice King will lead commemorative events in Atlanta, including a wreath laying at her fathers grave, a ceremony awarding Martin Luther King Peace Prizes, a reception for children and a March for Humanity through the city. I do think [Ray] had help, but I never found any proof that a group helped him, says Sides. Ballistics tests could not prove that the rifle dropped outside the boardinghouse, a Remington .30-06 Gamemaster, either did or didnt fire the fatal shot, because the gun did not create distinctive grooves on the bullet, as most guns do. 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. The most serious of those came in 1959, when Ray, on parole for an earlier theft, robbed two St. Louis grocery stores, as well as another in Alton. You can unsubscribe at any time. An avid newspaper reader, Ray passed his time reading The Atlanta Constitution. Campbell said Jowers had been recorded saying that he would tailor his story for financial gain. 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. He spent much of his time in Los Angeles volunteering at the Wallace campaign headquarters in North Hollywood. Kings killing sent shock waves through American society at the time, and is still 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. The UK quickly extradited Ray to Tennessee, where he was charged with King's murder. A courtroom artist, Sandhu drew Ray during his trial for a prison escape attempt. 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. You come up with a better outcome, with evidence to support it, Ill support your theory. He remains adamant that Ray was the gunman but likely had help that should have been investigated in 1968 and was not. The year women refused to stay silent, tossed their bras and redefined poli To fight the status quo, the activists of 1968 harnessed the power of fashi MLK was dead. [42], In 1998, and continuing into 1999, Pepper represented the King family in a wrongful death civil suit against Memphis restaurant owner Loyd Jowers, whose restaurant was near the Lorraine Motel. 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 was white. At that point, Hardin 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. Frederick Rudolph Yokom. His friends and relatives acknowledge that he hoped to make money from account! 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