![]() It is especially strange that he would jump from crimes like breaking and entering and robbery to murder. ![]() No one knows the exact details of his initial plan, or why he decided to kill MLK, as he never admitted his true reasoning against the crime. Ray began planning the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. It is suspected that it was in 1968 that James E. The Assassination Of Martin Luther King Jr. He instead moved around the United States, never settling in any place for long. After this, he tried to leave the United States to flee to Canada, but he failed. He served almost half of his time before he escaped the prison in 1967. Ray was sent to serve out his jail time at the Missouri State Penitentiary. He was arrested for this, and sentenced to 20 years in prison.Īfter his 1959 arrest, James E. One of his most serious crimes of this decade was his 1959 grocery store thefts. He was arrested for his crimes, but only served small jail sentences, which did little to reform him. Ray also committed several other small robberies. ![]() He was arrested again n 1952 for the crime of armed robbery. His crimes only grew more dastardly throughout the 1950’s. Ray’s time in prison did little to teach him a lesson. He was arrested for this crime and sentenced to serve three months in prison. Ray had tried to rob a cafe in Los Angeles, California. Ray’s criminal activities began after he returned to the United States (soon after his discharge from the military). He said not knowing the truth about his father’s assassination had been painful for the family.Īs a reporter and columnist for this newspaper, I had the chance to interview the incarcerated Ray numerous times before his death on April 23, 1998.James E. 17, 1997, while working for The Tennessean, I sat in the office of Reverend King’s youngest son, Dexter, then chairman, president and chief executive officer of the King Center for Non Violent Social Change in Atlanta, as he told me why his family felt Ray should have a new trial. ► Read More: People died for your right to vote No new evidence has been presented in the King killing since then. Watch Video: James Earl Ray and the Brushy Mountain Prison breakout of 1977īlakey, who served as chief counsel for the House Assassinations Committee, made his comments after Reverend King’s widow, Coretta Scott King, asked President Bill Clinton in the spring of 1998 to appoint a commission to examine what she said was “new evidence’’ regarding her husband’s death. Louis had established a $50,000 bounty for King’s death.” James Earl Ray was a racist, but there was circumstantial evidence that a businessman in St. “James Earl Ray did it, case closed! Whether anybody helped him indirectly has yet to be determined. Then, the (U.S.) House Assassinations Committee spent two years and $2.5 million investigating the case. ![]() “They laid out the evidence before he entered his plea, and he said, ‘OK.’ He said his lawyers were incompetent, and that proved false. Now he is presumed to be guilty until he proves his innocence. “James Earl Ray pleaded guilty to killing Dr. Robert Blakey, a law professor at Notre Dame University, told me on Apduring an interview as I worked as a columnist for The Tennessean. ► Read More: How The Tennessean covered Martin Luther King Jr.'s death in its pages Still, Ray shot Reverend King and if the King family wants closure in the matter they should finally accept that fact. Some even said Ray was a racist, but he claimed to me that he was never “hostile” toward anyone. Ray, a hardened thief, robber and a sometimes-moody liar, assassinated the Rev. More: Manhunt in the mountains: James Earl Ray and the Brushy Mountain Prison breakout of 1977 I have respect for the King family, however, as thousands of people converge on Memphis and in other places on Wednesday to commemorate the 50th anniversary of MLK’s death, the King family is dead wrong. “But they are unanimous on one key point: James Earl Ray did not kill Martin Luther King.” “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,” an article in the March 30 Washington Post said. Martin Luther King Jr. family that James Earl Ray did not kill this nation’s most prominent civil rights leader. There it was once again: A belief from the Rev. ![]()
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