Campbell said Jowers had been recorded saying that he would tailor his story for financial gain. The Democrats opposed all Amendments. He had a vehement hatred of folks of color.. What Biden and the Democrats have done through the years is offer appetizers to Black America without ever delivering the full course meal. 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.. Because Ray suddenly pleaded guilty in 1969, less than a year after the shooting, there was no trial. All of this is therefore a very slender thread on which to hang the claim that the "U.S. government was proved responsible for King's assassination." Ray was white and was quickly drawn to Wallace's segregationist platform. The paper reported King's planned return trip to Memphis, Tennessee, which was scheduled for 1st April, 1968. After shooting King, Ray immediately fled, setting off a manhunt that would last more than two months and cover five countries. The Democrats were furious at Lincoln and resisted Black America gaining political power. 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. His son RFK Jr. doesnt believe it was Sirhan Sir How the assassinations of 1968 led the NRA to become the lobbying force it Two sprinters gave the black-power salute at the Olympics. This article was published more than4 years ago. In segregated D.C., few officials feared rioting. She was also a guest speaker for the womens branch of the KKK. Ray told Huie that he purposefully left the rifle with his fingerprints on it in plain sight at the crime scene because he wanted to become a famous criminal. Ray replied, "No. With rates currently down to half that in 2018 (18%), these theories seem unlikely to go away any time soon. They want to hold onto their plantation and if anyone from Black America balks, they will put that black person back in their chains. 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. 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. I wholeheartedly applaud the verdict of the jury and I feel that justice has been well served in their deliberations. Is that your verdict? 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. 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. .css-m6thd4{-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;display:block;margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;font-family:Gilroy,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif;font-size:1.125rem;line-height:1.2;font-weight:bold;color:#323232;text-transform:capitalize;}@media (any-hover: hover){.css-m6thd4:hover{color:link-hover;}}Idaho Murders: What Led Police to Bryan Kohberger, Adnan Syed: A Complete Timeline of His Trial, Appeal and Killing of Hae Min Lee. Pepper wrote three books outlining the conspiracy, most recently The Plot to Kill King in 2016, which were largely ignored by the media. But they are unanimous on one key point: James Earl Ray did not kill Martin Luther King. Hoover had ordered surveillance, wiretaps and listening devices placed in Kings rooms starting in 1963, apparently infuriated by Kings criticism of the FBI for not having black agents or investigating civil rights cases. No I didn't." Bradley Beal hits season high as Wizards fight to the finish in Atlanta, Caps trade away two more veterans, add young defenseman Rasmus Sandin, Commanders cut Carson Wentz and Bobby McCain, clearing cap space. He was a democrat. All Rights Reserved. In court, Ray answered the standard series of questions about whether he was knowingly and voluntarily admitting he committed murder. 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. The 68 riots A Pearl Harbor in politics: LBJs stunning decision not to seek reelectio Who killed Martin Luther King Jr.? James Earl Ray, a career criminal who had briefly served in the U.S. Army, shot the advocate of non-violent resistance. [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. The Republican Party fought the KKK with the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871 to stop their terror, which was opposed by Democrats. He signed a detailed stipulation of facts to the shooting, having had weeks to review it, asking only that a reference to his activities for Wallace be deleted. For example, in an impromptu, recorded conversation with a state investigator, Jowers characterized a central feature of his story that someone besides Ray shot Dr. King with a rifle other than the one recovered at the crime scene as "bullshit." ", 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. In 1955, he was convicted of mail fraud after stealing money orders in Hannibal, Missouri. What We Know About Why James Earl Ray Killed Martin Luther King Jr. Long Waits, Short Appointments, Huge Bills. An unexpected error has occurred with your sign up. 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. King was then assassinated by James Earl Ray, a Democrat. Two years later, his young sister Marjorie, died in a fire after playing with matches and accidentally catching herself on fire. In summary, we have determined that Jowers' claims about an alleged conspiracy are materially contradictory and unsubstantiated. Even a 1978 special congressional committee said there was the "likelihood" that Ray did not act alone. Certainly he hated Dad. [31] At check-in, the ticket agent noticed the name on his passport, Sneyd, was on a Royal Canadian Mounted Police watchlist. He was trying to depart the United Kingdom for Angola, Rhodesia, or apartheid South Africa[30] using the falsified Canadian passport. Important information from the historical record and our investigation contradicts and undermines it. That if something has a huge evil effect, it should be the result of a huge evil cause.. He left Toronto in late May on a flight to England. 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). However, dont expect the Democrats to give in without a fight. Pastor Darrell Scott has endorsed Trump as the most pro-black president hes seen in his lifetime with prison reform, historically low black unemployment, and encouraging school choice. Findings by federal authorities and the House Select Committee on Assassinations are confident about some things. WebJack Kershaw. Could James Brown keep Boston from erupt That stain of bloodshed: After Kings assassination, RFK calmed an angry Fifty years after Kings assassination, promise and pain on the avenue that For one musician, D.C. was the place for black entertainers. By 1964, Democrats knew they were losing the battle against Black America. The rear of the boardinghouse faced the Lorraine Motel across Mulberry Street. Pepper first visited Ray in prison in 1978 along with Ralph Abernathy, one of Kings closest associates. [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?" 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. [18] He bought a map of the city. Rays lawyer J.B. Stoner was a known white supremacist, and Ray who also made clear his admiration for Hitler had done volunteer work for the 1968 presidential campaign of Alabamas former segregationist Governor George Wallace, who had gone head-to-head with King in Birmingham, Selma and Montgomery. Was James earl ray white? After getting laid off in 1945, Ray enlisted in the Army, eventually getting stationed in West Germany. Our investigation of these most recent allegations, as well as several exhaustive previous official investigations, found no reliable evidence that Dr. King was killed by conspirators who framed James Earl Ray. [8] He was sentenced to twenty years in prison for repeated offenses. The UK quickly extradited Ray to Tennessee, where he was charged with King's murder. The magazine reported that the test results showed "Ray did, in fact, kill Martin Luther King Jr. and that he did so alone." Ray began claiming that a man he had met in Montreal back in 1967, who used the alias "Raul," had been involved in the assassination. It pains my heart, said Bernice King, 55, the youngest of Martin Luther Kings four children and the executive director of the King Center in Atlanta, that James Earl Ray had to spend his life in prison paying for things he didnt do.. No. As far as I knew, he was a common bandit who suddenly tried for his 15 minutes. The biggest notoriety he had was as an escape artist. Tennessee In the five decades since Martin Luther King Jr. was shot dead by an assassin at age 39, his children have worked tirelessly to preserve his legacy, sometimes with sharply different views on how best to do that. He got a 99-year prison sentence, which he served until he died of liver failure due to hepatitis C on Apr. Housed at the Missouri State Penitentiary, Ray managed to escape the facility in 1967. [29] Ray was then arrested at London Heathrow Airport attempting to leave the United Kingdom for Brussels. He was a democrat. On October 10, 1959, Ray and James Owens, an ex-convict, held up a Kroger store in St. Louis. But not everyone was convinced that the story stopped there in part because Rays guilty plea stopped a trial from proceeding. According to Jowers, a Memphis produce dealer, who was involved with the Mafia, gave him $100,000 to hire an assassin and assured him that the police would not be at the scene of the shooting. 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. Best Known For: James Earl Ray is infamous for assassinating civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968. Kim LaCapria is a former writer for Snopes. finds no conspiracy in King assassination", "Third Inquiry Affirms Others: Ray Alone Was King's Killer", "Autopsy confirms Ray died of liver failure". And the total amount of damages you find for the plaintiffs entitled to is one hundred dollars. President Lyndon B. Johnson sold them into the Democrat plantation stating, These Negroes, theyre getting pretty uppity these days and thats a problem for us since theyve got something now they never had before, the political pull to back up their uppitiness. A part of his life was shaped by tragedy. Jowers further maintained that Ray did not shoot Dr. King and that he did not believe Ray knowingly participated in the conspiracy. Mr. Ray was set up to take the blame.. But that biography doesnt explain why or how Ray moved from committing property crime and supporting racists, to killing a national icon. In exchange for his plea, prosecutors did not seek the death penalty and Ray was sentenced to 99 years in prison. But there was no definitive evidence to prove the theory, and the Wallace supporters were dead by 1979. Kings two other surviving children, Dexter, 57, and Martin III, 60, fully agree that Ray was innocent. 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. 1995 - 2023 by Snopes Media Group Inc. They were recaptured on June 13. Magazines, Digital [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]. Im in the car business. 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. King was murdered in Memphis on April 4, 1968, and the FBI seized the car the following day in Atlanta. A package was abandoned close to the site that included a rifle and binoculars, both found with Ray's fingerprints. An avid newspaper reader, Ray passed his time reading The Atlanta Constitution. 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. Not everyone in the Kings circle agrees with the full extent of Peppers investigation, but they agree that Ray was framed. Wednesday marks 50 years since Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated on the second-floor balcony near his room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, where he had been supporting black sanitation workers on strike for better pay and working conditions. All Rights Reserved. A bunch of self- centered people trashing Target stores? Yes, the President is part of the political party. Not long before Ray's death, Dexter King, Dr. King's son, visited the man presumed to be his father's killer. Ray's first conviction for criminal activity, a burglary in California, came in 1949. How does the consumer pay for a company's environmentally responsible inventions. He died an hour later at St. Josephs Hospital. Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? 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 April 4, 1968. You can unsubscribe at any time. Im satisfied beyond a shadow of a doubt, Lawson said, that James Earl Ray neither pulled the trigger nor plotted to kill Martin Luther King.. 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. Those prints were already among the FBIs records for wanted individuals. Snopes and the Snopes.com logo are registered service marks of Snopes.com. A courtroom artist, Sandhu drew Ray during his trial for a prison escape attempt. Ray was born on March 10, 1928, in Alton, Illinois, the son of Lucille Ray (ne Maher) and George Ellis Ray. That doesnt mean there are no questions left. 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. 18 % ), these theories seem unlikely to go away any time soon first... But there was the `` likelihood '' that Ray did not seek death. Burglary in California, came in 1949 he died of liver failure due to hepatitis C on Apr verdict! Close to the site that included a rifle and binoculars, both found Ray. Sign up a career criminal who had briefly served in their deliberations quickly extradited Ray to,. 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