April 4, 1968 Martin Luther King was killed by a single rifle bullet on , while standing on the second-floor balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. Shortly after the shot was fired, witnesses saw a man believed to be James Earl Ray fleeing from a rooming house across the street from the Lorraine Motel. Ray had been renting a room in the house at the time. A package was dumped close to the site that included a rifle and a binocular, both found with Ray's fingerprints. He supposedly acted alone, but seemed to get a lot of mysterious help, as if he were some kind of intelligence agency operative. He left lots of clues that he was some kind of a right wing racist, he supported segregationist George Wallace and tried to escape to racist segregationist Rhodesia. In 2015 Dylan Roof attacked a predominantly black Christian church and killed its pastor, he had posted pictures to tell the world he admired the confederacy and its legacy of southern US racism and Rhodesia.
Alternative Theory: Was it an attack by an American enemy who wanted to replace King's leadership with more radical people favored by communists?
also see Martin Luther King Conspiracy Theories
Similar: JFK, RFK
- JFK: Why The Communists Killed Kennedy- Our Media Love Castro & His “Progressive” Fellow Travelers More Than They Want The Facts About The Kennedy Assassination Assassin Lee Harvey Oswald was a communist member of the pro-Castro Fair Play for Cuba Committee and, after his arrest, tried to reach Communist Party USA attorney John Abt to act as his counsel.... his mother, atheist Madalyn Murray O’Hair, was a communist who was ordered to report to an office of the Fair Play for Cuba Committee and destroy any references in the files to Oswald’s involvement with the group. “We know Oswald was in the Russian embassy in Mexico City. We even know who he talked to" Oswald met with a Soviet KGB espionage agent connected with KGB Department Thirteen, which was in charge of assassinations. German newsman Wilfried Huismann showed in German TV his historic documentary "Rendezvous with Death" exposing Soviet controlled Fidel Castro as the mastermind behind the assassination of President John F. Kennedy.
- RFK Sirhan Sirhan was communist Palestinian terrorist: MEMORANDUM Sirhan’s car parked at W.E.B. DuBois Clubs meetings, Attorney General of the United States branded as under direction of communists, openly call for revolution and the violent overthrow of the American government and the destruction of capitalism. The postman said he had delivered to Sirhan pro-communist and anti-American mail from Jordan. Like Oswald both assassins were pro-Castro and anti-Americans, cold blooded murderers and political assassins. Pro-communists targeted RFK: Ralph Schoenman, who made frequent trips to Hanoi "If you want to hang Eichmann I would say that Bobby Kennedy should be the next one" "Who brought poison chemist, and toxic gases, and concentration camps, and bacteriological weapons to Viet Nam? The Kennedy brothers." since May 18th 1967, Robert Kennedy’s name has been on the list of Americans targeted for assassination by communists Radical William Ayers' forgotten communist manifesto: Prairie Fire hailed Sirhan Sirhan Legacy of Secrecy: The Long Shadow of the JFK Assassination [aliant attempt to construct a Grand Unified Field Theory of the JFK/MLK/RFK assassinations] Mayor Yorty himself who would publicly proclaim Sirhan a communist soon after Bobby's murder, saying that Sirhan “was a member of numerous communist organizations... Sirhan's notebook contained heavy doses of pro-communit revolutionary zeal and anti-Americanism, as if Sirhan were a member of the communist Party or interested in community ideology. But he wasn't [or was he?] June 4, 1968 Sirhan had thrown away an envelope "RFK must be disposed of like his brother" Robert F. Kennedy Assassination: The FBI Files google books Possible Communist Influence of Sirhan Special Counsel Kranz has found absolutely no evidence to indicate that there was any Communist influence, ...
- Dylan Roof 2015 provides closer signs of links to Russia and therefore provides a link to James Earl Ray. He was apparently the only living white person who still admired the old 1960s racist Rhodesia and South Africa, and confederate flag, attacked a black Christian church pastor, his manifesto counter-culture was posted on a Yandex Russian website and used old KGB terminology like "Negro" "almost every White person has a small amount of racial awareness, simply because of the numbers of negroes in this part of the country." It looks like it was ghost-written by somebody trained by the KGB, not a living white American. It looks like a nation-state clandestine false flag attack staged as racist murder. 9 killed 1 injured June 17, 2015 Charleston South Carolina Black church shooting In the evening a mass shooting took place at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in downtown Charleston, South Carolina, one of the United States' oldest black churches. The senior pastor, the Rev. Clementa C. Pinckney, a state senator, was among the nine people killed. Suspect Dylann Roof was captured the morning after the attack in Shelby, North Carolina. On his Facebook page his jacket unusually has flags of two former white supremacist regimes:apartheid-era South Africa and Rhodesia, symbols once but now rarely associated in recent times by white supremacists. Roof has a prior arrest record for drug possession and trespassing. Authorities are investigating if it was a hate crime, but FBI Director James Comey has refused to consider the rampage in Charleston an act of terrorism because it was not a political act. Dylann Roof's "manifesto" is FAKE? or Russian? hosted on a Russian Web host email/websearch provider yandex.com similar to Google.
- Marcus Wayne Chenault Mental Fanatic Kills MLK Mother Alberta King was shot and killed on June 30, 1974, at age 69, by Marcus Wayne Chenault, a 23-year-old black man from Ohio who shot her with two pistols as she sat at the organ of the Ebenezer Baptist Church. He was follower of Rabbi Emmanuel Israel
- Rabbi Emmanuel Israel. This man, described in the press as a "mentor" for Chenault, left the area immediately after the shooting. of Martin Luther King's mother. In the same period, Rabbi Hill traveled from Ohio to Guyana and set up Hilltown, using similar aliases, and preaching the same message of a "black Hebrew elite."[263] abovetop Black minister and gun collector who used the name Rabbi Emmanuel Israel. (born David Hill also used names names Abraham Israel and Rabbi Emmanuel Washington)
- House of Israel - Guyana Under Siege www.guyanaundersiege.com/Historical/houseofisrael.htm Sometime in the mid-60s, amidst all the Civil Rights protest in the United States, one David Hill formed the House of Israel in Cleveland, Ohio, where, by then, he already had a criminal record that started decades before. Well known in the Black community there as “Bishop,” Hill teamed up with the Reverend Earnest Hilliard (known locally as the radio personality, “Prophet” Frank Thomas), and became very active in the local business sector of Cleveland. 1969, Hilliard was found in his garage, shot in his head. Although Hill was questioned as a suspect, nothing came out of the investigation. locals who eventually discovered that the duo’s plan was a scam. a Chicago grand jury found him guilty of grand theft felony charges. Bail, which was originally set at $150,000, was eventually reduced substantially. A bondsman affordably posted it, and thus, Rabbi was released…only to jump bail thereafter. By late 1971, he failed to appear in court…suddenly convincing people that Rabbi had left the country, via the assistance of government officials (which he had bragged about). He would later be convicted in absentia on two counts of larceny. After arriving in Guyana sometime in 1972, he announced himself as Rabbi Edward Washington, in an attempt to cover his true identity, and began the House of Israel (again), which would become a thug ally of the ruling PNC government,
- BLACK SUPREMACIST hEADS GUYANA CULT - The New York Times 1979 - The followers of Edward Emmanuel Washington, a self‐proclaimed rabbi who is a fugitive from American justice, have been accused of being involved in breaking up anti‐Government rallies and otherwise harassing critics of the Government. Witnesses say they have sometimes been armed with heavy sticks, iron bars and knives. Some say that his followers were involved in the slaying of a Jesuit priest at a rally in Georgetown this summer.
- Another Cult Emerges in Guyana - "House of Israel," Led by Black U.S. ... culteducation 1979 - A self-styled rabbi urging his people to prepare for a racial Armageddon has become Guyana's most powerful cult leader since the Peoples Temple tragedy last year. Rabbi Edward Emmanuel Washington - a 50-year-old fugitive born David Hill in the United States - is called "Master," "king" even "god" by ...
- The “Other” Jim Jones: Rabbi David Hill, House of Israel, and Black ... jonestown.sdsu.edu Rabbi David Hill (also known as Edward Washington), minister for the House of Israel. Unlike Jones, Hill/Washington did not always avoid Guyanese politics. While Peoples Temple set about creating heaven on ...
- Black Rabbi Symbolizes Guyana's Attitude Toward Cults - The ... https://www.washingtonpost.com/...rabbi...guyanas.../4bbe7076-dd92-4d0d-bcea-d20a2...Nov 30, 1978 - In Cleveland, Ohio, it was just plain David Hill, a one-time felon and little-noted fugitive from justice who fled the country without pursuit. Here in Guyana, he is the Rabbi Edward EmmanuelWashington, head of "The Nation of Israel," who claims to be "the only true spirtual leader on earth." He is a man ...Like Peoples Temple leader Jim Jones, Washington has been welcomed here. And like the Peoples Temple, his group provides small service to the ruling Peoples National Congress in return. They show up at progovernment political rallies, demonstrate in favor of government-sponsored bills in Parliament and so on occasion have helped to disrupt opposition party political gatherings. arrival of "Rabbi" Washington about three years ago = 1975
- Black 'rabbi' emerges as new cult leader in Guyana — Douglas ...
https://www.coloradohistoricnewspapers.org/cgi-bin/colorado?a=d&d...01.2.11 Nov 14, 1979 - But in an interview with AP Writer Lew Wheaton, Rabbi Edward Emmanuel Washington was emphatic about the differences that separate him from the Rev. ... He had more than 900 people and only one was Guyanese; I'm the only American in the House of Israel " He said the House of Israelforbids suicide ... Washington called the Christian church “the black man's worst enemy" he arrived in Guyana in early 1972 after jumping bail in Cleveland, Ohio, the year before Cleveland court records show that David Hill was convicted in 1970 of blackmailing four eastside McDonald's restaurants, following a 1969 Hill-organized boycott of the eateries Washington said his boycott forced the restaurants to sell their franchises to blacks Fie was sentenced to four to 20 years in prison, but on Nov 17, 1971, while free on an appeals bond and while standing trial on a larceny charge, he fled the country 1940s supplied 300 workers a day in 1977 to break a strike by cane cutters. Members are required to study Hebrew, Swahili, Marx and Lenin Washington called the Christian church “the black man's worst enemy" and all churches were against the House of Israel - BLACK SUPREMACIST hEADS GUYANA CULT - The New York Times
www.nytimes.com/.../black-supremacist-heads-guyana-cult-opposition-groups-say-follo...Oct 21, 1979 - Article on Guyana-based cult organization House of Israel leader Rabbi EdwardEmmanuel Washington notes differences in Washington's cult and People's Temple (M) - Another Cult Emerges in Guyana - "House of Israel," Led by Black U.S. ...
https://culteducation.com/.../8037-another-cult-emerges-in-guyana-house-of-israel-led... Nov 15, 1979 - A self-styled rabbi urging his people to prepare for a racial Armageddon has becomeGuyana's most powerful cult leader since the Peoples Temple tragedy last year. Rabbi Edward Emmanuel Washington - a 50-year-old fugitive born David Hill in the United States - is called "Master," "king" even "god" by ... - Nurturing by Burnham of Rabbi Washington, Jim Jones in Guyana was ...
https://www.stabroeknews.com/.../nurturing-burnham-rabbi-washington-jim-jones-guya...Jan 26, 2015 - Lo and behold, when I got upstairs, it was none other than the Rabbi EmmanuelWashington grinning as he said to me “sit down man and let us talk.” He had read the Guyana Forum and he heard me publicly denounce the House of Israel as a practitioner of break down the door banditry. To make a long ...
*Tags
- Alias:
- Criminal history: convicted of his first crime, a burglary in California, in 1949. In 1952 he served two years for armed robbery of a taxi driver in Illinois. In 1955, he was convicted of mail fraud after stealing money orders in Hannibal, Missouri, and then forging them to take a trip to Florida. He served three years at Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary. In 1959 he was caught stealing $120 (equivalent to $1,000 in 2015) in an armed robbery of a St. Louis Kroger store.[6] Ray was sentenced to twenty years in prison for repeated offenses.
- Communist - KGB didn't like MLK, Bogus JFK Assassination Conspiracy Evidence
mcadams Mark Lane was a communist connected attorney who represented James Earl Ray at the committee's .....diplomats and responsible Dominicans" with increasing Communist activity. - Escape: He escaped from the Missouri State Penitentiary in 1967 by hiding in a truck transporting bread from the prison bakery.[7]
- Evidence: James L. Swanson “There’s dozens of pieces of physical evidence “The purchase of the rifle, the purchase of the binoculars, the purchase of the car, the stays at the motel. One thing that was found that Ray had abandoned at the murder scene was a radio engraved with a serial number that was in his possession when he was in prison in Missouri for committing a prior crime.” 123HelpM perfect evidence behind as well, a rifle with his prints, and a personal radio with his prison ID engraved on it. CBS News Wrapped in that blanket was not only the murder weapon - with Ray's fingerprints - but underwear with laundry tags traced to him, and his transistor radio, personalized with his prison ID Swanson adds, no one immediately came around to where the shot was fired, which allowed Ray to easily flee that part of Memphis.
- Gun: sniper grade as if he had military trainining: Remington Model 760 Gamemaster .30-06-caliber rifle and a box of 20 cartridges from the Aeromarine Supply Company. He also bought a Redfield 2x-7x sniper scope, which he had mounted to the rifle.
- KGB had a plan to eliminate King and replace him with communist backed radicals
- Mark Lane's JFK book was funded (without his knowledge) by the KGB, which he denied. He continued to advocate for murderers who smell like communist agents. Lane also wrote a book on the MLK conspiracy before Pepper did
- Mexico: then drove to Mexico, stopping in Acapulco before settling down in Puerto Vallarta on October 19, 1967.[8] While in Mexico, Ray, using the alias Eric Starvo Galt, attempted to establish himself as a pornography director. Using mail-ordered equipment, he filmed and photographed local prostitutes. Frustrated with his results and jilted by the prostitute he had formed a relationship with, Ray left Mexico around November 16, 1967.[9]
- Military experience: He joined the US Army at the close of World War II and served in Germany.
- Prison: escaped from prison with no apparent help, Charles Manson also spent time in prison
- Rhodesia: considered emigrating to Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), where a white minority regime had unilaterally assumed independence from the United Kingdom in 1965. It would be his intended destination after King's assassination.
- Wesley Swearington One of the people living at Jonestown was ex-FBI agent Wesley Swearington, who at least publicly condemned the COINTELPRO operations and other abuses, based on stolen classified documents, at the Jonestown site. Lane had reportedly met with him there at least a year before the massacre. Terri Buford said the documents were passed on to Charles Garry. Lane used information from Swearingen in his thesis on the FBI and King's murder.
*Timeline
1960, Ray, who was then in the Missouri State Penitentiary after a 23-month sojourn in the outside world, began boasting that there was money to be made in killing black leaders like H. Rap Brown, Stokely Carmichael, and King. This talk could easily have brought Ray to the attention of those in the prison who wanted King dead. washpost
There is a distinct possibility that Ray learned of this $50,000 bounty by late 1966, or early 1967.
1967
escaped from the Missouri State Penitentiary in Jefferson City, Mo., on April 23, 1967, by hiding in a truck that transported bread from the prison bakery. It was his third attempt at escape from the prison.
1968
March 17, Ray left for Atlanta. He had been nomadic during his first 10 months on the run; now he turned more deliberate, as though he had finally made the decision to go after King and whatever money it might bring. washpost
Ray hoped to reach segregationist Rhodesia--but he never made it. He visited Portugal but did not have the time or money to reach white Africa. Frustrated by the language problem in Portugal, he returned to England
1969
He confessed to the crime on March 10, 1969, his forty-first birthday,[27] and after pleading guilty he was sentenced to 99 years in prison.[28]
Three days later, he recanted his confession. Ray had entered a guilty plea on the advice of his attorney, Percy Foreman, an effort to avoid the sentence of death. Ray began claiming that a man he had met in Montreal back in 1967, who used the alias "Raul", had been deeply involved. Instead he asserted that he did not "personally shoot Dr. King", but may have been "partially responsible without knowing it", hinting at a conspiracy.
For a time, Mr. Lane represented James Earl Ray, t
Ray fired Kershaw after discovering the attorney had been paid $11,000 by the magazine in exchange for the interview and instead hired attorney Mark Lane to provide him with legal representation.[30] Lane was simultaneously the attorney for People's Temple and accused [MLK Jr.] assassin James Earl Ray. Lane and Buford also lived with and cared for a key witness in the Ray case, Grace Walden Stevens. According to some reports in the New York Times (2/4/79), Jones offered Mark Lane money to help free James Earl Ray. Later stories suggest that Buford and Lane were in collusion to bring Grace Stevens into Jonestown under an illegal passport (NYT, 12/8/79). Lane had co-authored a book with Dick Gregory, claiming FBI complicity in the King murder.[231] He was hired as the attorney for James Earl Ray, accused assassin, when Ray testified before the House Select Committee on Assassinations about King.[232
Perhaps the most disturbing of these is the connection that appears repeatedly between the characters in the Jonestown story and the key people involved in the murder and investigating of Martin Luther King.
1977
On June 10, 1977, James Earl Ray, confessed killer of Martin Luther King Jr., escapedfrom Brushy Mountain State Prison in Petros, Tenn.
1978 Mark Lane, attorney for James Earl Ray, stands by an enlarged change of address form during the session of the House Assassinations Committee in Washington, Aug. 18, 1978 ...
1979 According to some reports in the New York Times (2/4/79), Jones offered Mark Lane money to help free James Earl Ray.
1981 June 4, 1981: Ray is stabbed by black inmates.
*Communist theories
How Russia keeps exploiting anti-black racism in the U.S. ...
https://thinkprogress.org/russias-sordid-history-of-exploiting-anti-black-racism-in-the-...
Sep 26, 2017 - In 1967, Moscow aimed at removing Martin Luther King, Jr., from his leadership role within the broader civil rights movement. Per Andrew, KGB higher-ups approved a plan to “place articles in the African press, which could then be reprinted in American newspapers, portraying King as an 'Uncle Tom' who ..
The KGB's plan to eliminate the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
ourweekly.com/news/2014/jan/09/race-war/
Jan 9, 2014 - At exactly 6:01 p.m., Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is assassinated at the ...of Tennessee in Moscow, eight months prior to King's assassination.
The KGB and Martin Luther King - Spartacus Educational
spartacus-educational.com/spartacus-blogURL41.html
Oct 2, 2014 - The KGB and Martin Luther King. ... fund the publishing the books claiming that Kennedy was killed as a result of a right-wing conspiracy.
KGB's secret war against Martin Luther King Jr. - Notes from ...
cubanexilequarter.blogspot.com/.../kgbs-secret-war-against-martin-luther...
Apr 10, 2011 - KGB's secret war against Martin Luther King Jr.
KGB’s secret war against Martin Luther King Jr.
"Longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And He's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people will get to the promised land." - Martin Luther King Jr. April 3, 1968 Memphis, Tennessee
The world has been made well aware of the FBI’s wiretapping of Martin Luther King Jr. on the orders of then Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and monitoring of the Civil Rights Movement, but what was only learned decades later was that a campaign had been waged against Martin Luther King Jr. by the Soviet Intelligence agency known as the KGB.
In 1992 a high ranking Russian intelligence officer defected to the United Kingdom and brought with him notes and transcripts compiled over the previous thirty years as he moved entire foreign intelligence archives to a new headquarters just outside of Moscow.
The Russian intelligence officer’s name was Vasili Mitrokhin and the information he gathered became known as The Mitrokhin Archive.
In the groundbreaking book, The Sword and the The Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB by Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin published in 1999 details were obtained from The Mitrokhin Archive on Soviet efforts to replace Martin Luther King Jr. with a “more radical and malleable leader” such as Stokeley Carmichael to provoke a race war in the United States.
Pages 237 and 238 of The Sword and the Shield excerpted below detail elements of the campaign waged by Soviet intelligence and the active measures arrayed against the civil rights leader:
Vasili Mitrokhin died of pneumonia January 23, 2004 according to the British government.
The world has been made well aware of the FBI’s wiretapping of Martin Luther King Jr. on the orders of then Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and monitoring of the Civil Rights Movement, but what was only learned decades later was that a campaign had been waged against Martin Luther King Jr. by the Soviet Intelligence agency known as the KGB.
In 1992 a high ranking Russian intelligence officer defected to the United Kingdom and brought with him notes and transcripts compiled over the previous thirty years as he moved entire foreign intelligence archives to a new headquarters just outside of Moscow.
The Russian intelligence officer’s name was Vasili Mitrokhin and the information he gathered became known as The Mitrokhin Archive.
In the groundbreaking book, The Sword and the The Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB by Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin published in 1999 details were obtained from The Mitrokhin Archive on Soviet efforts to replace Martin Luther King Jr. with a “more radical and malleable leader” such as Stokeley Carmichael to provoke a race war in the United States.
Pages 237 and 238 of The Sword and the Shield excerpted below detail elements of the campaign waged by Soviet intelligence and the active measures arrayed against the civil rights leader:
“In August 1967 the Centre approved an operational plan by the deputy head of Service A, Yuri Modin, former controller of the Magnificent Five, to discredit King and his chief lieutenants by placing articles in the African press, which could then be reprinted in American newspapers, portraying King as an “Uncle Tom” who was secretly receiving government subsidies to tame the civil rights movement and prevent it threatening the Johnson administration. While leading freedom marches under the admiring glare of worldwide television, King was allegedly in close touch with the President. 83 The same operational plan also contained a series of active measures designed to discredit US policy “on the negro.” The Centre authorized Modin:University of Cambridge professor Christopher Andrew, who coauthored The Sword and the Shield with Vasili Mitrokhin wasinterviewed by Charlie Rose on PBS on September 28, 1999 about the book and towards the end of the interview discussed how the Soviets celebrated when Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated by James Earl Ray. Other Soviet archives documented efforts by the Soviet Union to stimulate and activate the Black Panthers in their struggle against the United States government.
Service A sought to exploit the violent images of the long, hot summers which began in August 1965 which race riots in Watts, the black Los Angeles ghetto, which resulted in thirty-six deaths, left 1,0332 injured and caused damage estimated at over 40 million dollars. The Centre seems to have hoped that as violence intensified King would be swept aside by black radicals such as Stokeley Carmichael, who told a meeting of Third World revolutionaries in Cuba in the summer of 1967, “We have a common enemy. Our struggle is to overthrow this system . . . We are moving into open guerilla warfare in the United States.” Traveling on to North Vietnam, Carmichael declared in Hanoi, “We are not reformists…We are revolutionaries. We want to change the American system.”85
- To organize, through the use of KGB residency resources in the US, the publication and distribution of brochures, pamphlets, leaflets and appeals denouncing the policy of the Johnson administration on the Negro question and exposing the brutal terrorist methods being used by the government to suppress the Negro rights movement.
- To arrange, via available agent resources, for leading figures in the legal profession to make public statements discrediting the policy of the Johnson administration on the Negro question.
- To forge and distribute through illegal channels a document showing that the John Birch Society, in conjunction with the Minuteman organization, is developing a plan for the physical elimination of leading figures in the Negro movement in the US. 84
King’s assassination on April 4, 1968 was quickly followed by the violence and rioting which the KGB had earlier blamed King for trying to prevent. Within a week riots erupted in over a hundred cities, forty-six people had been killed, 3,500 injured and 20,000 arrested. To “Deke” DeLoach, it seemed that, “The nation was teetering on the brink of anarchy.”86 Henceforth, instead of dismissing King as an Uncle Tom, Service A portrayed him as a martyr of the black liberation movement and spread conspiracy theories alleging that his murder had been planned by white racists with the connivance of the authorities. 87
Vasili Mitrokhin died of pneumonia January 23, 2004 according to the British government.
*Wikipedia
James Earl Ray 10/23/2015
James Earl Ray (March 10, 1928 – April 23, 1998) was an American convicted of the assassination of activist Martin Luther King, Jr. Ray was convicted on March 10, 1969, after entering a guilty plea to forgo a jury trial. Had he been found guilty by jury trial, he would have been eligible for the death penalty.[3] He was sentenced to 99 years in prison. He later recanted his confession and tried unsuccessfully to gain access to a retrial. In 1998, Ray died in prison of complications due to chronic hepatitis C infection.
Contents [hide]
1 Early life
2 Initial convictions and first escape from prison
3 Activity in 1967
4 Activity in early 1968
5 Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.
5.1 Capture and trial
5.2 Denial of confession
6 Second escape from prison
7 Conspiracy allegations
7.1 Later developments
8 Death
9 Name mix up
10 Notes
11 References
12 Further reading
13 External links
Early life[edit]
James Earl Ray was born to a poor family in Alton, Illinois, the son of Lucille (Maher) and George Ellis Ray. He had Welsh, Australian, and Irish ancestry, and was raised Catholic.[4] He left school at age 15. In February 1935 Ray's father, known by the nickname Speedy, passed a bad check in Alton, Illinois and pulled James out of first grade then moved to Ewing, Missouri where the family had to change their name to Raynes to avoid law enforcement.[5] He joined the US Army at the close of World War II and served in Germany.
Initial convictions and first escape from prison[edit]
He was convicted of his first crime, a burglary in California, in 1949. In 1952 he served two years for armed robbery of a taxi driver in Illinois. In 1955, he was convicted of mail fraud after stealing money orders in Hannibal, Missouri, and then forging them to take a trip to Florida. He served three years at Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary. In 1959 he was caught stealing $120 (equivalent to $1,000 in 2015) in an armed robbery of a St. Louis Kroger store.[6] Ray was sentenced to twenty years in prison for repeated offenses. He escaped from the Missouri State Penitentiary in 1967 by hiding in a truck transporting bread from the prison bakery.[7]
Activity in 1967[edit]
Following his escape, Ray stayed on the move throughout the United States and Canada, going first to St. Louis and then on to Chicago, Toronto, Montreal, and Birmingham. When he got to Alabama, Ray stayed long enough to buy a 1966 Ford Mustang and get an Alabama driver's license. He then drove to Mexico, stopping in Acapulco before settling down in Puerto Vallarta on October 19, 1967.[8] While in Mexico, Ray, using the alias Eric Starvo Galt, attempted to establish himself as a pornography director. Using mail-ordered equipment, he filmed and photographed local prostitutes. Frustrated with his results and jilted by the prostitute he had formed a relationship with, Ray left Mexico around November 16, 1967.[9]
Ray returned to the United States, arriving in Los Angeles on November 19, 1967. While in L.A., Ray attended a local bartending school and took dance lessons.[10] His chief interest, however, was the George Wallace presidential campaign. Ray harbored a strong prejudice against African Americans and was quickly drawn to Wallace's segregationist platform. He spent much of his time in Los Angeles volunteering at the Wallace campaign headquarters in North Hollywood.[11] He also considered emigrating to Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), where a white minority regime had unilaterally assumed independence from the United Kingdom in 1965.[12] The notion of residing in Rhodesia continued appealing to Ray for several years afterward, and would be his intended destination after King's assassination.[13]
Activity in early 1968[edit]
On March 5, 1968, Ray underwent a facial reconstruction (rhinoplasty), performed by Dr. Russell Hadley.[14] On March 18, 1968, Ray left Los Angeles and began a cross-country drive toAtlanta, Georgia.[15]
Arriving in Atlanta on March 24, 1968, Ray checked into a rooming house.[16] He eventually bought a map of the city. FBI agents later found this map when they searched the room in which he was staying in Atlanta. On the map, the locations of the church and residence of Martin Luther King Jr. were circled.[17]
Ray was soon on the road again, and drove his Mustang to Birmingham, Alabama. 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. He also bought a Redfield 2x-7x scope, which he had mounted to the rifle.[18] He told the store clerks that he was going on a hunting trip with his brother. Ray had continued using the Galt alias after his stint in Mexico, but when he made this purchase, he gave his name as Harvey Lowmeyer.[19]
After buying the rifle and accessories, Ray drove back to Atlanta. An avid newspaper reader, Ray passed his time reading the Atlanta Constitution. The paper reported King's planned return trip to Memphis, Tennessee, which was scheduled for April 1, 1968. On April 2, 1968, Ray packed a bag and drove to Memphis.[20]
Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.[edit]
Main article: Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.
F.B.I. most wanted fugitive poster of James Earl Ray
The Lorraine Motel, now known as the National Civil Rights Museum, where King was assassinated
Martin Luther King was killed by a single rifle bullet on April 4, 1968, while standing on the second-floor balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. Shortly after the shot was fired, witnesses saw a man believed to be James Earl Ray fleeing from a rooming house across the street from the Lorraine Motel. Ray had been renting a room in the house at the time. A package was dumped close to the site that included a rifle and a binocular, both found with Ray's fingerprints.
Capture and trial[edit]
On the day of the assassination, Ray fled north by car to Toronto, Ontario, where he hid out for over a month and acquired a Canadian passport under the false name of Ramon George Sneyd.[21] On June 8, 1968, a little more than two months after King's death, Ray was captured at London's Heathrow Airportwhile trying to leave the United Kingdom on the false Canadian passport. At check-in, the ticket agent noticed the name on his passport—Sneyd—was on a Royal Canadian Mounted Police watchlist.[22] At the airport, officials noticed that Ray carried another passport under a second name. The UK quickly extradited Ray to Tennessee, where he was charged with King's murder. He confessed to the crime on March 10, 1969, his 41st birthday,[23] and after pleading guilty was sentenced to 99 years in prison.[24]
Denial of confession[edit]
Three days later, he recanted his confession. Ray had entered a guilty plea on the advice of his attorney, Percy Foreman, in order to avoid a potential trial conviction, which could have led to a sentence of death. The method of execution in Tennessee at the time was electrocution.
Ray fired Foreman as his attorney, and derisively called him "Percy Fourflusher" thereafter.[citation needed] Ray began claiming that a man he had met in Montreal back in 1967, who used the alias "Raul," had been deeply involved. Instead he asserted that he did not "personally shoot Dr. King," but may have been "partially responsible without knowing it," hinting at aconspiracy. Ray told this version of King's assassination and his own flight in the two months afterwards to William Bradford Huie. Huie investigated this story and discovered Ray lied about some details. Ray told Huie he purposefully left the rifle with his fingerprints on it in plain sight because he wanted to become a famous criminal. Ray was convinced he was so smart that he would not be caught.[3] He believed Governor of Alabama George Wallace would soon be elected President, and Ray would only be confined for a short time.[3] Ray spent the remainder of his life unsuccessfully attempting to withdraw his guilty plea and secure a trial.
Second escape from prison[edit]
On June 11, 1977, Ray made his second appearance on the FBI Most Wanted Fugitives list, this time as the 351st entry. He and six other convicts had escaped from Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary in Petros, Tennessee, on June 10. They were recaptured on June 13 and returned to prison.[25] A year was added to Ray's previous sentence, to total 100 years.
Conspiracy allegations[edit]
Main article: Assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. § Conspiracy theories
Ray had hired Jack Kershaw as his attorney, who promoted Ray's claim that he was not responsible for the shooting, which was said to have been the result of a conspiracy of the otherwise unidentified man named "Raul." Kershaw and his client met with representatives of the United States House Select Committee on Assassinations and convinced the comun ballistics tests—which ultimately proved inconclusive—that they felt would show that Ray had not fired the fatal shot.[26] Kershaw claimed that the 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 jail. Kershaw convinced Ray to take a polygraph test as part of an interview with Playboy. The magazine said that the test results showed "that Ray did, in fact, kill Martin Luther King Jr. and that he did so alone." Ray fired Kershaw after discovering that the attorney had been paid $11,000 by the magazine in exchange for the interview and hired conspiracy theorist Mark Lane to provide him with legal representation.[26]
Later developments[edit]
In 1997, King's son Dexter met with Ray, asking him, "I just want to ask you, for the record, um, did you kill my father?" Ray replied, "No-no I didn't," and King tells Ray that he, along with the King family, believed him; the King family also urged for a new trial for Ray.[27][28][29] Loyd Jowers, a restaurant owner in Memphis, was brought to civil court and sued as being part of a conspiracy to murder Martin Luther King. Jowers was found legally liable, and the King family accepted $100 in restitution, an amount chosen to show that they were not pursuing the case for financial gain.
Dr. William Pepper, a friend of King in the last year of his life, represented Ray in a televised mock trial in an attempt to get him the trial he never had. Pepper later represented the King family in a wrongful death civil trial against Loyd Jowers. The King family has since concluded that Ray did not have anything to do with the murder of Martin Luther King, Jr.[30]
Death[edit]
Ray died in prison at the Lois M. DeBerry Special Needs Facility in Nashville on April 23, 1998, at the age of 70, from complications related to kidney disease and liver failure caused byhepatitis C.[31] Ray was survived by seven siblings. His brother Jerry Ray told CNN that his brother did not want to be buried or have his final resting place in the United States because of "the way the government has treated him." Ray was cremated and his ashes were flown to Ireland, the home of his family's ancestors.[32] 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. revealing what the former author knew about the assassination.[27]
Name mix up[edit]
Ray was once erroneously honored during a parade which intended to praise the actor James Earl Jones. Lauderhill, a suburb of Fort Lauderdale, Florida, accidentally created a plaque in January 2002 which read 'Thanks James Earl Ray for keeping the dream alive'.[33]
Notes[edit]
Jump up^ Leviton, Joyce (30 October 1978). "Why Did a Nice Girl Like Anna Sandhu Wed James Earl Ray? 'I Love Him,' She Says". 'People. Retrieved 4 January 2015.
Jump up^ Jerome, Richard (11 May 1998). "Dead Silence".People. Retrieved 4 January 2015.
^ Jump up to:a b c Huie, William Bradford (1997). He Slew the Dreamer: My Search for the Truth About James Earl Ray and the Murder of Martin Luther King (Revised ed.). Montgomery: Black Belt Press. ISBN 978-1-57966-005-5.
Jump up^ "Who killed Martin Luther King?: the true story by the alleged assassin - James Earl Ray". Books.google.ca. Retrieved 2015-07-29.
Jump up^ Gerald Posner, Killing The Dream 1998
Jump up^ The Martin Luther King Assassination – Philip H. Melanson – Google Books. Books.google.com. Retrieved2014-06-27.
Jump up^ Gribben, Mark. "James Earl Ray: The Man Who Killed Dr. Martin Luther King, chapter 3". truTV Crime Library. truTV. Retrieved 25 June 2006.
Jump up^ Sides, Hampton (2010). Hellhound on His Trail: The Stalking of Martin Luther King Jr. and the Hunt for His Assassin. New York: Doubleday. ISBN 978-0-385-52392-9., page 27
Jump up^ Sides, p. 33.
Jump up^ Sides, pp. 47–48.
Jump up^ Sides, p. 60.
Jump up^ Sides, pp. 62–63.
Jump up^ Gerald Horne. From the Barrel of a Gun: The United States and the War against Zimbabwe, 1965–1980 (2000 ed.). University of North Carolina Press. p. 24. ISBN 978-0807849033.
Jump up^ Sides, pp. 87–88.
Jump up^ Sides, pp. 90–91.
Jump up^ Sides, p. 98.
Jump up^ Sides, p. 302.
Jump up^ "Report of laboratory, FBI headquarters to Memphis, Apr. 17, 1968, FBI headquarters Murkin file 44-38861" (PDF). The Harold Weisberg Archive. Retrieved 5 May 2015.
Jump up^ Sides, pp. 118–120.
Jump up^ Sides, pp. 128–129.
Jump up^ "Why assassin James Earl Ray returned to Toronto | Toronto Star". Thestar.com. 2010-06-06. Retrieved2014-06-27.
Jump up^ Borrell, Clive (28 June 1968). "Ramon Sneyd denies that he killed Dr King". The Times (London). p. 2. Retrieved13 Jan 2009.
Jump up^ Waters, David; Charlier, Tom (24 April 1998). "Log Cabin Democrat: King assassin Ray dies after lifelong legal fight 4/24/98". Retrieved 9 December 2014.
Jump up^ "1969: Martin Luther King's killer gets life". On This Day 1950–2005: 10 March (British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)). March 10, 1969.
Jump up^ "Federal Bureau of Investigation – History of Knoxville Office". FBI. Archived from the original on 24 May 2008. Retrieved 25 June 2008.
^ Jump up to:a b Martin, Douglas (24 Sep 2010). "Jack Kershaw Is Dead at 96; Challenged Conviction in King's Death". New York Times. Retrieved 25 Sep 2010.
^ Jump up to:a b John Ray ( brother of James Earl) on Fox at YouTube
Jump up^ Today in History March 27 at YouTube
Jump up^ Sack, Kevin (28 March 1997). "Dr. King's Son Says Family Believes Ray Is Innocent". The New York Times. Retrieved 4 January 2015.
Jump up^ "Complete Transcript of the Martin Luther King, Jr. Assassination Conspiracy Trial". The King Center. Retrieved 17 January 2012.
Jump up^ "DeBerry Special Needs Prison Facility". Corbis Corporation. Retrieved October 2015.
Jump up^ "Autopsy confirms Ray died of liver failure". CNN(Nashville). 24 Apr 1998. Retrieved 25 June 2008.
Jump up^ Delves, Philip (2002-01-17). "Luther King assassin honoured by mistake". Telegraph. Retrieved 2015-07-29.
References[edit]
"James Gang". Snopes.com. 17 Jan 2010. Retrieved 11 Aug 2010.
Petras, Kathryn; Petras, Ross (21 Oct 2003). Unusually Stupid Americans: A Compendium of All-American Stupidity. Villard. ISBN 978-0-8129-7082-1. Retrieved 11 Aug 2010.
Further reading[edit]
Ray, James Earl, Who Killed Martin Luther King?: The True Story by the Alleged Assassin, Washington D.C.: National Press Books, 1992, ISBN 0-915765-93-4
Pepper, William, An Act of State: The Execution of Martin Luther King
Posner, Gerald, Killing the Dream: James Earl Ray and the Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Ray, James Earl with Saussy, Tupper, Tennessee Waltz: The Making of a Political Prisoner
McMillan, George, The Making of an Assassin
Heathrow, John, Why Did He Do It?
Melanson, Dr. Philip H., The Martin Luther King Assassination: New Revelations on the Conspiracy and Cover-Up, 1968–1991
Green, Jim, Blood and Dishonor on a Badge of Honor
External links[edit]
Roads to Memphis (American Experience, first aired Monday, May 3, 2010) – Public Broadcasting System (PBS).
James Earl Ray at Find a Grave
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VIAF: 8240150
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ISNI: 0000 0001 1467 2914
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" Lane’s conduct resulted in public misperception about the assassination of Dr. King and must be condemned"
Andrew and Mitrokhin, The Sword and the Shield - JFK Online
www.jfk-online.com/mitrokhin.html
In 1992, KGB archivist Vasili Mitrokhin defected to the UK with notes and copies of ....The KGB correctly identified the New York lawyer Mark Lane as the most talented of the first wave of conspiracy theorists researching the JFK assassination. According to one report made on him, probably by the New York residency: Mark Lane is well known as a person with close ties to Democratic Party circles in the US. He holds liberal views on a number of current American political problems and has undertaken to conduct his own private investigation of the circumstances surrounding the murder of J. Kennedy."
Misleading the House Select Committee
Mark Lane has been a purveyor or Martin Luther King conspiracy theories too, and he represented King’s killer, James Earl Ray, before the House Select Committee on Assassinations. After investigating Lane’s claims, the Committee chastised him:
Many of the allegations of conspiracy the committee investigated were first raised by Mark Lane, the attorney who represented James Earl Ray at the committee’s public hearings. As has been noted, the facts were often at variance with Lane’s assertions. . . . In many instances, the committee found that Lane was willing to advocate conspiracy theories publicly without having checked the factual basis for them. In other instances, Lane proclaimed conspiracy based on little more than inference and innuendo. Lane’s conduct resulted in public misperception about the assassination of Dr. King and must be condemned. (House Select Committee Report, Page 424, footnote 16)
Mark Lane (author) - Wikipedia Mark Lane wrote Murder In Memphis with Dick Gregory (previously titled Code Name Zorro, after the Central Intelligence Agency's name for King) about the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., in which he alleged a conspiracy and government coverup. Lane represented James Earl Ray, King's alleged assassin, before the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) inquiry in 1978. The HSCA said of Lane in its report, "Many of the allegations of conspiracy that the committee investigated were first raised by Mark Lane
According to former KGB officer Vasili Mitrokhin in his 1999 book The Sword and the Shield, the KGB helped finance Lane's research on Rush to Judgement without the author's knowledge. The Soviet agency allegedly use an intermediary—a friend of Lane who was a KGB contact—to provide Lane with $2000 for research and travel in 1964.Mark Lane called the allegation "an outright lie" and wrote, "Neither the KGB nor any person or organization associated with it ever made any contribution to my work." However, Rush to Judgement was never published in any of the countries behind the Iron Curtain before 1990.[citation needed]
James Earl Ray didn't kill Martin Luther King, said Dexter King
realhistoryarchives.blogspot.com/.../james-earl-ray-didnt-kill-martin-luth... Apr 4, 2008 On today, the sad anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King's assassination, I want to share a piece about the King assassination I wrote back in 1997. Ray died before he could ever get a real trial (the first one as a sham, as is discussed at length in most of the books on the case). But the King family, bless all their souls, pressed a civil case against Loyd Jowers, who confessed that he had paid someone else to shoot MLK. A jury who would later hear the suit assigned Jowers some measure of guilt but assigned a greater burden to the government and to "persons unknown." In other words, a jury in a trial found James Earl Ray not guilty, and found there was a conspiracy that has not been fully exposed
www.prnewswire.com/.../statement-by-mark-lane-former-attorney-for-ja...
WASHINGTON, April 23 /PRNewswire/ -- Mark Lane who at one time representedJames Earl Ray at the hearings before the House Select Committee ...
Mark Lane on Martin Luther King; Conferees Confront ...
www.umsl.edu/~skthoma/mlk.htm
University of Missouri–St. LouisMARTIN LUTHER KING, ALLOW MEDICAL TRANSFER AND TRIAL FOR JAMES EARL RAY, AND RELEASE 600,000 PAGES OF SECRET GOVERNMENT ...
Who Killed Martin Luther King Jr.?: Second Edition Amazon.com, Inc.Second Edition (9781569247112): James Earl Ray: Books. ... and a Preface by Mark Lane ("I am convinced that a federal grand jury presented with relevant ...
[PDF]. MARK LANE, James Earl Ray's attorney, says he knows ...
jfk.hood.edu/.../Lane%20Mark/Lane%20Mark%20Ray%20Lawyer/Item...
MARK LANE, James Earl Ray's attorney, says he knows the name 0! a. 21-C ' person involved in killing Dr. Martin. I Luther King Jr. iniiitili and will iden-.
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