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. I say that in the hope of creating an awareness of how this happened, and that the involvement of government in these events may cease with respect to other leaders who will emerge.. If the King family wanted a rubber stamp of their own view of the facts, they got it.". He also initially sought compensation for his story, and his friends and relatives acknowledge that he hoped to make money from his account. While Biden and the Democrats feel Black America is their voting plantation, if a black man or woman thinks for themselves, as Biden stated, you aint black as if their skin color has changed. Hearst Magazine Media, Inc. Site contains certain content that is owned A&E Television Networks, LLC. Ray, who was feeble and sick from hepatitis C, was asked by King about his involvement in the assassination. We may earn commission from links on this page, but we only recommend products we back. At the time, it was said to be the FBI's most expensive and biggest investigation in its history. Indeed, compelling evidence including Rays fingerprints on the rifle that was later determined to be the murder weapon seemed to point to him. 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. Martin Luther King Jr. met Malcolm X just once. 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. Ray's first conviction for criminal activity, a burglary in California, came in 1949. But there was no definitive evidence to prove the theory, and the Wallace supporters were dead by 1979. Within days, Ray filed a motion to withdraw his plea, claiming he had been coerced by his attorney and the FBI. Until her own death in 2006, Coretta Scott King, who endured the FBIs campaign to discredit her husband, was open in her belief that a conspiracy led to the assassination. Three days later, Ray recanted his confession. Yellin, Emily. 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 then repudiated his claims when required to testify to them under oath: At the time of the assassination, Loyd Jowers owned and operated Jim's Grill, a tavern below the rooming house where James Earl Ray rented a room on April 4, 1968. Now weve got to do something about this, weve got to give them something, just enough to quiet them down, not enough to make a difference. Johnson continued, Ill have those ni**ers voting Democrat for the next 200 years.. 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. Even the reference of aint is racist as to say those in Black America are not educated. 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. Do you also find that others, including governmental agencies, were parties to this conspiracy as alleged by the defendant? 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. In the U.S. Senate, Democrat Majority Leader, Robert KKK Byrd, was a former Grand Kleagle, a recruiter, for the KKK and opposed every policy benefiting Black America. You have reached your limit of 4 free articles. Most black families lacked fathers with policies encouraging the breakdown of the family through welfare programs. The photo still haunts us with what was lost. However, dont expect the Democrats to give in without a fight. August 29, 1968 #286 One week on the list After getting laid off in 1945, Ray enlisted in the Army, eventually getting stationed in West Germany. James Earl Ray was a racist and quickly drawn to Wallaces segregationist platform. He has spoken around the world to anyone who will listen, including recently at the National Civil Rights Museum at the Lorraine Motel, where King was killed. To understand why Biden feels this way, you must know the history of why Biden and the Democrat Party think they own the Black America. [9], Following his escape, Ray stayed on the move throughout the United States and Canada, going first to St. Louis and then onward to Chicago, Toronto, Montreal, and Birmingham, Alabama, where he stayed long enough to buy a 1966 Ford Mustang and get an Alabama drivers license. [23][24][25], Ray fled to Atlanta in his white Ford Mustang, driving eleven hours. Finally, on July 19, 1968, the FBI caught up with Ray in London and extradited him to the United States. By signing up you are agreeing to our, What Happened to Martin Luther King Jr.'s Last Campaigns, The 25 Defining Works of the Black Renaissance. 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. Housed at the Missouri State Penitentiary, Ray managed to escape the facility in 1967. * The request timed out and you did not successfully sign up. The original mug shot of James Earl Ray included with the memo from the FBI to the Belleville News-Democrat. 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. A confirmed racist and small-time criminal, James Earl Ray began plotting the assassination of revered civil rights leader .css-47aoac{-webkit-text-decoration:underline;text-decoration:underline;text-decoration-thickness:0.0625rem;text-decoration-color:inherit;text-underline-offset:0.25rem;color:#A00000;-webkit-transition:all 0.3s ease-in-out;transition:all 0.3s ease-in-out;}.css-47aoac:hover{color:#595959;text-decoration-color:border-link-body-hover;}Martin Luther King Jr. in early 1968. An avid newspaper reader, Ray passed his time reading The Atlanta Constitution. His family believes James Earl Ray was framed. Whitsett responded, Im not going to be silenced and has since sued the Michigan Democrat Party. 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. By the 1960s, Democrats like Governor George Wallace and Bull Conner fought against civil rights and turned hoses on black protesters. Im in the car business. This verdict is not only a great victory for my family, but also a great victory for America. Those prints were already among the FBIs records for wanted individuals. However, Jowers had long asserted he had no involvement in the event before suddenly and bizarrely claiming, twenty-five years after the fact, he had been paid to hire a hit man to kill Martin Luther King. [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. 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. On July 19, he returned to U.S. and the following March he pleaded guilty to murdering King. [49], Before his death, Ray was transferred to the Lois M. DeBerry Special Needs Facility in Nashville, a maximum-security prison with hospital facilities. Historical figures like Martin Luther King, Jr. tend to be the subject of complicated conspiracy theories, particularly when they are vectors for widespread societal change. 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. 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. 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. What Biden and the Democrats have done through the years is offer appetizers to Black America without ever delivering the full course meal. 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. Among those who could have been pardoned was James Earl Ray, who just a decade before had assassinated Martin Luther King Jr. in Memphis. Convicted assassin of Martin Luther King Jr. (19281998), Speeches, writings, movements, and protests, Initial convictions and first escape from prison, Martin Luther King Jr. assassination conspiracy theories, Interview with James Earl Ray by John Auble, United States House Select Committee on Assassinations, "James Earl Ray, 70, Killer of Dr. King, Dies in Nashville", "The assassin's brother: John Larry Ray marks time in Quincy, still trying to set the record straight", "James Earl Ray: The Man Who Killed Dr. Martin Luther King, chapter 3", "Report of laboratory, FBI headquarters to Memphis, Apr. Certainly he hated Dad. He was sentenced to 99 years at the State penitentiary. 17, 1968, FBI headquarters Murkin file 44-38861", "Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr", "Why assassin James Earl Ray returned to Toronto", "Ramon Sneyd denies that he killed Dr King", "Log Cabin Democrat: King assassin Ray dies after lifelong legal fight 4/24/98", "1969: Martin Luther King's killer gets life", "Federal Bureau of Investigation History of Knoxville Office", "Jack Kershaw Is Dead at 96; Challenged Conviction in King's Death", "Dr. King's Son Says Family Believes Ray Is Innocent", "Ray Acquitted In Mock Trial 25 Years After King Slaying", "Memphis Jury Sees Conspiracy in Martin Luther King's Killing", "Complete Transcript of the Martin Luther King, Jr. 23, 1998, at the age of 70. Ray himself countered that he was not the only one involved in the crime. The screen from the bathroom window was found on the ground below. In 2000, even after reviewing the results of the 1999 civil trial in Memphis, Kowalski concluded that Ray was guilty and that there was no government conspiracy. 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. What Political Party was James Earl Ray part of? The Rays struggled to make ends meet, and as a consequence, the family moved several times during the early part of Ray's childhood. Magazines, Digital It is a great victory for truth itself. He was constantly in and out of prison so he never voted. He was a segregationist but neither a Republican or a Democrat. [28] He stayed briefly in Lisbon, Portugal, and returned to London. Ray was convicted in 1969 after entering a guilty pleathus forgoing a jury trial and the possibility of a death sentenceand was sentenced In court, Ray answered the standard series of questions about whether he was knowingly and voluntarily admitting he committed murder. They sued Jowers for participation in a conspiracy to murder King. 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. We found no reliable evidence to support Jowers' allegations that he conspired with others to shoot Dr. King from behind Jim's Grill. The full transcript of the trial remains posted on the King Centers website. He has claimed that while in Montreal he met a man named Raul, of varying physical descriptions over the years, who enlisted him in several small gunrunning schemes, and instructed him to buy a rifle in Birmingham, Ala. On the afternoon of April 4, Ray checked into a boardinghouse in Memphis, with a bar called Jims Grill on the first floor. They were recaptured on June 13. [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. Ray moved around while on the lam, staying in Chicago, Los Angeles, Mexico and Canada over the next year. [26][27] He picked up his belongings and fled north to Canada, arriving in Toronto three days later, where he hid for over a month and acquired a Canadian passport under the false name of Ramon George Sneyd. [32][33], Airport officials noticed that Ray carried another passport under a second name. Democrats, Biden still trying to enslave Black America. Ray replied, "No. By 1924, the KKK was part of the Democrats party platform as they marched in unison in New York City to the Democrat National Convention. No other parties (including any branches or agents of the United States Government) were named as defendants in King v. Jowers, and no identification was provided by Jowers of the purported other parties with whom he colluded to assassinate King. The Democrats opposed all Amendments. Not everyone in the Kings circle agrees with the full extent of Peppers investigation, but they agree that Ray was framed. Kershaw claimed the prison escape was additional proof that Ray had been involved in a conspiracy that had provided him with the outside assistance he would have needed to break out of prison. Jowers, however, has never made his conspiracy claims under oath. Is this who we now are? 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. On June 10, 1977, Ray and six other convicts escaped from Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary in Petros, Tennessee. JFK conspiracy theories: The grassy knoll, Umbrella Man, LBJ and Ted Cruzs dad, Dave Garrow, a Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer of King, said that the King children are part of a larger population of American people who need to believe that the assassination of a King or a Kennedy must be the work of mightier forces rather than victims of small-fry, lifetime losers., People need to see something of a balance between effect and cause, Garrow said. However, the verdict was of no real significance given that virtually nothing was at stake (this was not a criminal trial, and the defendant was only being sued for a mere $100 and thus had little motivation for vigorously defending himself), allowing the King family to present a mostly unopposed version of events and guide the jury to return the verdict they desired. 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