Brown has spoken about how his upbringing shaped his philosophy. The box was picked up, and Ray successfully escaped on April 23, 1967. I watched my parents tough it out on a daily basis, and I saw that what really kept them going was making a difference to others. At the Tag Plant I met Jerry Ward Davis, an Oklahoman who'd been shot in 1959 after kidnapping several guards (along with Rollie Laster and Ronnie Westberg) during an attempted escape that involved the use of zip-guns. In any event, the prison officials never placed him in the same category as Davis, Laster and Westberg, who would unhesitatingly use weapons while escaping. Happy 300th Birthday, Richard Price! (Credit: State of Tennessee, Earl Warren/AP Photo), Coretta Kings specific belief in Rays innocence is a little tougher to explain. The crisis at the Democratic National Convention marked a . On March 28th, riots took place in Memphis and King was present; on March 29th, Democrat Senator Byrd threw down the gauntlet with Democrat president Lyndon Baines Johnson by delivering a fiery speech on the Senate Floor intended to get the president to stop Kings march; Johnson announced on March 31st that he would not seek reelection; a bullet would take the life of King days later on April 4th, one year to the day after delivering what many viewed as an incendiary speech at the time. Brown, who retains his law license, was reviewing a child support matter as a favor to an acquaintance. William Francis Pepper (born August 16, 1937) is a U.S. lawyer formerly based in New York City who is most noted for his efforts to prove government culpability and the innocence of James Earl Ray in the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. Pepper has also been trying to prove the innocence of Sirhan Sirhan in the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy. I don't recall that your name's ever been submitted, sir. Guys told me he would hound you relentlessly if you owed him a quarter, but he wouldn't threaten you with violence. I wholeheartedly applaud the verdict of the jury and I feel that justice has been well served in their deliberations, she said. Yes, the President is part of the political party. Corrections? The first year and a half I paid little or no attention to Ray. There were half a dozen guys who rented magazines, and they hawked their wares by the yard shack (a small rock building where the guards stayed). On June 11, 1977, while housed at the Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary in Petros, TN, Ray and five other inmates escaped. Martin Luther King Jr. PRPhotos. He was immediately extradited to USA. While attending law school, Brown worked as a substitute teacher. But what do you know about James Earl Ray, the man who assassinated Martin Luther King? However, the assessment of King got even worse. This should have been driven home years ago when a surreptitious tape recording was made of J.A. When authorities caught him in London, hed been planning to travel to Rhodesia, a former African state ruled by a white minority in present-day Zimbabwe. Long before Ray was captured-before anyone could have known the details of what had happened in Memphis--the U.S. government had committed itself to the lone assassin theory; to such an extent, I was told later by white extremists in the South, that they were surprised by the government's failure to question even such notable racists as J.B. Stoner or leading figures in the Ku Klux Klan. There is an important flaw in that logic as well; the defendant was only sued for $100, which he was ordered to pay. He guided King in deciding whether to accept or reject public appearances. Unfortunately, the scene described by McMillan could not have happened. He was a loner. For some 50 years, the federal government has maintained that James Earl Ray was the gunman who assassinated King that day. I occasionally rented magazines from Ray, but other inmates usually had a larger selection, and better quality magazines. Tray after tray of bread would be stacked into a large box, and then the box would be loaded onto a pickup truck and hauled to the farms. He also founded his own white supremacist party. For years after Ray's capture there was a close association between Stoner and Jerry Ray, James Earl Ray's brother. Westberg, in turn, liked James Earl Ray. In the year 1952, he served a two year prison sentence for the armed robbery of a cab driver. Westberg was warned, and hurriedly got out of the box, which was then filled with bread. He was about five years older than me. While attending law school, Brown worked as a substitute teacher. In September 1961, I tried to escape and pulled six months in E-Hall, a 100-year-old building whose third floor was for solitary confinement. He employed such Communists as Bayard Rustin and Hunter Pitts ODell; and he worked closely with Carl Braden and James Dumbrowski. A Democratic Senator from West Virginia delivered an extremely incendiary speech on the Senate Floor that was directed specifically at President Lyndon Johnson, also a Democrat. A two month long manhunt spanning five countries was launched by the law enforcement agencies to nab him. Starting with his contribution to the presidential campaign of Wallace, Ray developed a strong animosity towards Martin Luther King Jr. In fact, Kings family was as convinced of Rays innocence as the families of Nicole and Ron were convinced of Simpsons guilt. In 1983, President Ronald Reagan signed the holiday into law, and it was first recognized three years later. The shot that killed Dr. King was fired from the bathroom window at the The incident was incredibly damaging to the cause of King and his Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). James Earl Ray, an escaped American convict, is arrested in London, England, and charged with the assassination of African American civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. On April 4,. Encyclopaedia Britannica's editors oversee subject areas in which they have extensive knowledge, whether from years of experience gained by working on that content or via study for an advanced degree. Assassination. . nitrites would have indicated a close-range discharge). But it turned out that rather than discharging this key Red, he had transferred and promoted ODell to a higher post within Kings Southern Christian Leadership Conference. There it was once again: A belief from the Rev. Absence of witnesses to corroborate Raoul's existence, Rental of room 5-B at Bessie Brewer's roominghouse, Irreconcilable conflicts of interest of Foreman and Hanes, Foreman's failure to investigate the case, Coercion by Foreman and the Federal Government, Ray's belief a guilty plea would not preclude a new trial, How to File a FOIA Request for Archival Records. James. Indeed, to them the perception is reality. (Emphasis in original.). He was transferred to the maximum security facility called Lois M. DeBerry Special Needs Facility in Nashville which had hospital facilities. ", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Joe_Brown_(judge)&oldid=1134528878, This page was last edited on 19 January 2023, at 03:56. Could Chinas Petroyuan Give Rise to a New World Energy Order? Most of my friends were people I'd known in reform school, or people I'd met through them. Using their logic, the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. should be attributed to a Democratic U.S. The verdict did convict Loyd Jowers and "other parties known and unknown" for their parts in the vast US government conspiracy to assassinate King. So Westberg, who was assigned to work in the kitchen at that time, figured a man could get in the bread box, have a tray of bread placed on top of him, and pass right out of the prison (the box also had a lid over the top tray of bread). In my many discussions with people such as Laster, Westberg and Davis on the subject of escape--and how to avoid capture afterward--no one mentioned that method.). Dexter and his family too believed that he did not commit the crime and urged the government to grant a new trial to Ray. In March 2014, Brown was arrested in Memphis, Tennessee, and charged with five counts of contempt of court and getting "verbally abusive" during a child support case overseen by Magistrate Harold Horne. But Westberg had been told that the guard did not open the bread box. He was a democrat. The prison officials knew that Ray's escape, and involvement in the King assassination, would forever blemish their professional records as penologists. All Rights Reserved. James Earl Ray was a racist, but there was circumstantial evidence that a businessman in St. Louis had established a $50,000 bounty for Kings death.. Even though he played an elitist liberal psychiatrist on "Frasier," Kelsey Grammer is a Republican in real life. [4] By 1978, Brown became the first African-American prosecutor in Memphis, and he later directed the Memphis public defender's office. and condition of the Q64 bullet. Simpson was found guilty of killing his wife Nicole and Ron Goldman in a civil trial. In March 2014, Brown won the Democratic primary for the position of Shelby County district attorney. Judge Brown's lawyer filed an appeal, but the appeal was refused. After the publication of the Playboy story, Ray fired Kershaw when he found that Playboy paid him $11,000 for facilitating the interview. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Of the 2,500 men in the prison, fewer than 20 had ever tried to escape from inside the walls. Their goal was to cover all aspects of true crime: Read More, Contents Copyright 1998-2020 by Crime Magazine | J. Patrick O'Connor Editor | E-mail CrimeMagazine.com, Designed by Orman. Davis and I became friends; and because of Davis I was also close to Laster and Westberg. According to press accounts, Brown became combative and irate after Horne refused to discuss details of the case that were not on the schedule. On April 4, 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot while standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. . Almost everyone felt sure the government would want to avoid a never-ending search for conspirators in the King case, and would accomplish that by presenting its evidence at Ray's trial. Benny Edmondson thought it was hilarious that William Bradford Huie thought he was "Raoul." "[21], Brown was warned that he would be held in contempt before these comments. As President Ronal Reagan once wrote to former New Hampshire Governor Meldrim Thomson, who had sent a letter to Reagan urging the president not to sign the bill for a holiday honoring King, On the national holiday you mentioned, I have the reservations you have, but here the perception of too many people is based on an image, not reality. He is a former Shelby County, Tennessee Criminal Court judge and a former arbiter of the arbitration-based reality court show Judge Joe Brown. "Somebody's gotta get him.". That was a bunch of baloney. In that speech, none other than Robert Byrd pointed to the Memphis riots and the violent consequences as a warning to Johnson not to allow the marches King was planning on Washington in the coming weeks. Judge Horne began increasing the quantity of days Brown could be held in contempt after Brown continued disrupting the court. Later in life his pleas for a trial were encouraged by some civil-rights leaders, notably the King family. Some people had trouble, for example, believing Ray had arranged his international escape all by himself, since he had a track record of getting caught for more minor crimes. Different convicts had different hustles to make money. Because of the 1959 incident, Jerry had so much heat on him that if the guards lost sight of him for even a few minutes, they panicked. Barely 48 hours later, on March 31st, Johnson would publicly announce that he would not seek reelection. An hour later, he was declared dead. Two weeks later, after Kennedy had been slain in Dallas, Milteer told the same informant, "everything ran true to form," and the right wing was in the clear because Lee Harvey Oswald . But for veteran crime writer and crusading editor J. Patrick OConnor, the factsor a lack of themdidnt add up. The US will celebrate the life of Martin Luther King Jr on Monday, January 18, 2021, remembering all of the tremendous strides the activist-led in promoting civil liberties for all Americans. assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.: The assassin: James Earl Ray, This article was most recently revised and updated by, https://www.britannica.com/biography/James-Earl-Ray, James Earl Ray - Student Encyclopedia (Ages 11 and up). While taking dancing classes, he was attracted to the presidential campaign of George Wallace. He is the one who sits in leadership and is the most powerful person of a country. Who Was James Earl Ray? He shot. It was then learned he'd been the site engineer for the West German Pavilion at Expo '67 in Montreal. Brown apparently raised his voice and interrupted a magistrate judge while representing a woman seeking child support in Shelby County Juvenile Court. On the night of April 4, 1968 50 years ago now James Earl Ray killed the Rev. And by the way, what is that, Magistrate, sir, with due respect. I'll be out of here very shortly on a Petition for Habeas Corpus and I'll bring up all these problems and guess what, you might not be operating tomorrow. It is known that, after escaping from Jeff City, James Earl Ray went to Chicago, where Jerry Ray was living. Was James earl ray white? On the night of the shooting, I had left the rifle with Raoul.. Weeks before Kennedy was killed an informant quoted an NSRP member saying it would happen, and providing details that coincide with what did happen in Dallas. James Earl Ray was the assassin of American Baptist minister and civil rights activist, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Ray was born in on March 10, 1928 in a poor Irish-American family of Alton, Illinois, and was raised a Catholic. Simpson was found guilty of killing his wife Nicole and Ron Goldman - in a civil trial. One thing never mentioned about Ray's time in Jefferson City is the fact he had a nearly exemplary conduct record, with the exception of the two escape attempts. Earl Rays family had problems with the law enforcement ever since he was a child. He admitted to staying at the rooming house from where authorities said the bullet that struck Rev. Although Ray had been sentenced from St. Louis, he was not part of the St. Louis "crowd.". A year before, hed escaped from Missouri State Penitentiary while serving a 20-year sentence, and was on the lam at the time King was shot. Godspeed." Likewise, this statement is attributed (without sourcing) to Limbaugh in 101 People Who Are Really Screwing America. Thorpe Menn, then book editor of The Star, sent it to me to review. King's convicted killer, James Earl Ray, pled guilty to his murder, received a life sentence, and died in prison of natural causes 29 years later. The 20-page paper, which was classified as. In 1999, James Earl Ray was found innocent of killing Martin Luther King Jr. in the same way O.J. Let us know if you have suggestions to improve this article (requires login). James Earl Ray, (born March 10, 1928, Alton, Illinois, U.S.died April 23, 1998, Nashville, Tennessee), American assassin of the African American civil-rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. (Benny had taken two years of civil engineering in college.). It got so that the very sight of King would galvanize Ray. people lost faith in the political system. Joseph Blakeney Brown Jr. (born July 5, 1947), known as Judge Joe Brown, is a former American lawyer and television personality. All three bore the fingerprints of an escaped convict named James Earl Ray. James Earl Ray. Over several decades, federal investigators have routinely concluded that Raoul doesnt exist. [3], After graduating from law school, Brown moved to Memphis, Tennessee to work as an attorney for the Legal Services Corporation. While serving in the military, Ray was often charged with drunkenness and breaking arrest. Senator in Robert Byrd. Findings on Martin Luther King, Jr. In June of 2008, Harding spoke at Stanford University and said the following: Many people within the movement said, Martin, you cannot raise your voice against Johnsons war because Johnson is our man and if you raise your voice against Johnsons war, Johnson being Johnson, is not going to like it.'. That description comes closer to Jerry Ray than to James Earl Ray. This time, Ray rented an apartment for $100 a month at 1535 N. Serrano Ave., a. Ray fled to Toronto, secured a Canadian passport through a travel agency, flew to London (May 5), then to Lisbon (May 7? Benny was fascinated with the idea of escaping, although he never actually tried while inside the walls. McMillans false scenarios portray Ray as a rabid racist in prison. All the seven prisoners who escaped from the prison were recaptured within two days and sent back to the prison. As an indication of just how much Robert Welch, the Founder of The John Birch Society, was on top of Kings communist connection, he wrote the following words for May 1968 John Birch Society Bulletin just two months after the FBI report, which had been classified as secret: During this career of a brief dozen years, [King] was constantly surrounded by, and associated with, Communists. I've always had trouble accepting Ray as an assassin. Christopher S. Bond (now U.S. As one example, Dan Smoot, a former FBI agent, was a steadfast anti-Communist who became associated with The John Birch Society and wrote for the societys American Opinion and The Review Of The News magazines. But among legal and historical scholars, there is a broad consensus that James Earl Ray, though he may not have acted alone, is the gunman who shot Martin Luther King. Stokely Carmichael of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), an extremist Black Nationalist organization, has conferred with King. The 12-person jury verdict unanimous exonerated the "patsy" James Earl Ray for any role in the assassination of MLK. I first met Benny Edmondson at the Algoa Reformatory in 1956, where he was teaching typing at the school. The damage to the clothing was consistent with the caliber He even changed his family name to Raynes in order to avoid the law enforcement agencies. But within a few days of confessing, Ray began to claim his innocence, arguing that that he had been set up by a man he knew only as Raoul. It was Raoul, Ray said, who had directed him to buy the gun and the binoculars, and rent the room across the street from the motel. The paper stated that King had announced that this action would disrupt the normal course of business and, in fact, close down the nations capital. Ray died on April 23, 1998 at the Columbia Nashville Memorial Hospital due to Hepatitis C at the age of 70. Declassified FBI Paper Reveals Martin Luther Kings Sexual Aberrations, Martin Luther King Day Based on MLKs Image, Not Reality, Martin Luther King: The Celebration of a Myth. [4] While on the bench he was known for his sometimes unusual sentences, such as, sentencing a child molester to confess to his church congregation and ordering a drug trafficker to apologize in a newspaper letter.[5]. Then, the (U.S.) House Assassinations Committee spent two years and $2.5 million investigating the case. In only two decades, the white population fell by over 300,000; DC became majority-black in the late 1950s.. Rays father forged a check and hence had to shift his family to Ewing, Missouri to escape enforcement authorities. James Earl Ray, who pleaded guilty to assassinating King, was renting a room above Jower's establishment and was allegedly an unwitting scapegoat. We knew that anytime you try to escape from a maximum-security prison you run the risk of being shot. His perceived inability to deal successfully with those problems led to an overwhelming defeat in his bid for reelection. a right twist by the rifle from which it had been fired. 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