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The Assassination
On March 28, 1968, Dr. King led a march through Memphis, Tennessee in support of a garbage workers' strike. Which was intended to have been peaceful and non-violent. But the march disintegrated into rioting and looting. In order to recover the damage done by the out-break, a date for a new march was set for April 4, 1968.
On April 3, 1968, Dr. King arrived in Memphis and checked into room 306 of the Lorraine Motel. That night Dr. King gave a sermon at the Masonic Temple. On April 4, at approximately 5:45 p.m., Billy Knolls arrived to accompany Dr. King to dinner. As Dr. King, Jesse Jackson, Andrew Young, James Orange and the driver engaged in a conversation about dinner a shot rang out. Dr. King was thrown backwards to the floor with a single gunshot to the neck.
As the police ran towards the motel asking where the shot had come from several of the men assisting Dr. King pointed to the direction of the rooming house across the parking lot.
At approximately 6:05 p.m., the police found a .30-06 hunting rifle wrapped in a bundle near the front door of the Canipe Amusement Company, a shop next to the rooming house. Along with the rifle was found a pair of binoculars, two unopened beer cans, a tack hammer and pliers, a shaving kit, a hair brush, a pair of men's shorts and undershirt, the April 4th issue of the Memphis Commercial Appeal, and a radio with the number 00416 (Ray's inmate number at the Missouri State Penitentiary) etched on it. Two weeks later the finger prints on the riffle was identified as belonging to James Earl Ray. The largest FBI man hunt began and on June 8, 1968, James Earl Ray was apprehended at the Heathrow Airport , London as he prepared to go to Brussels.
The Confession
Arthur Haynes Sr. was hired as attorney for James Earl Ray. He and his son prepared the case to go to trial with what they thought enough evidence to prove James Earl Ray was incapable of committing the crime he was arrested for. But just hours before the trial, Mr. Haynes services were discontinued and Texas Lawyer, Percy Foreman took over as attorney for Ray. Because Mr. Foreman felt the evidence was so overwhelming in support of James Earl Ray being guilty, he urged his client to plead guilty to avoid the possibility of going to the electric chair. James Earl Ray then signed a 55 point statement confessing to the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., on April 4, 1968. Ray was sentenced to 99 years in prison. Three days later, Ray again changed attorney's. With his new attorney, J.B. Stoner, Ray asked to withdraw his confession. James Earl Ray has continued to profess his innocence since that day.
Who shot Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.?
If James Earl Ray didn't shot Dr. King, then who did? That question has been asked almost since the day Ray was identified as a suspect. Theory of conspiracies abound. We present the following events as they were, you make up your own mind.
The Evidence Against James Earl Ray
The gun found close to the scene of the crime match the gun type bought by Ray on March 29, 1968 in Birmingham, Alabama.
The gun, thought to be the murder weapon, found close to the scene of the crime, that matched the gun purchased by Ray, had James Earl Ray's finger print on it.
The radio found close to the scene of the crime had the number 00416 etched on it, Ray's Prison number.
While in the Missouri State Prison, April 21, 1967, Ray purchased a radio like the one found close to the crime scene
A man named Charles Stephens claimed he saw Ray leaving the rooming house bathroom.
A witnessed stated he saw Ray leave the rooming house in a white mustang. Ray owned a white mustang.
After being sentenced to 99 years in prison, Ray recanted his confession, stating that his lawyer’s convinced him to plead guilty to avoid the death penalty.
A congressional inquiry came to the conclusion that Ray carried out the murder as an individual, but left open the possibility that he could have been part of a much broader conspiracy.
A Conspiracy?
Charles Stephens, the eyewitness that claimed to have seen Ray leaving the rooming house bathroom, had first described the person as a "nigger." He changed his story once more before identifying Ray. And only after the FBI had paid $30,000 in bar tabs he had run up.
Two witnesses claimed to have seen someone leaving the rooming house bathroom. One of them, Bessie Brewer, stated she could accurately identify the person. The other witness, Grace Walden (Charles Stephens wife), stated it was definitely not James Earl Ray. Grace was later illegally committed to a metal institution, after which her hospital records were removed by the prosecutors.
The rifle bundle was found in less than two minutes after Dr. King was shot. Ray would have had to get back to his room, bundle the rifle and other belongings, get down stairs and out of the rooming house, drop the bundle, get in his car and drive away, in less than two minutes.
A service station manager told a defense investigator that he saw Ray several blocks from the rooming house at the time of the shooting.
The gun reported as being the murder weapon was never ballistics tested to see if it was in-fact the weapon that shot Dr. King.
At James Earl Ray’s evidentiary hearing, a former FBI ballistics expert testified that not even the most skilled gunman could have accurately fired a rifle in the manner claimed by the government prosecution. According to the expert, to effectively line up such a shot, the butt of the rifle would have had to stick six inches into the wall.
On the day of the assassination, there were branches from trees growing between the rooming house and the Lorraine Motel that blocked the view of the Motel from the rooming house bathroom. The City of Memphis ordered the sanitation department to cut those trees down on the night of the assassination.
Several witnesses stated they heard a shot from ground level. One even stated he saw what looked like a puff of smoke and someone getting up from a crouch position.
The Memphis police never put out and all-points bulletin on the white Mustang that was seen leaving the rooming house minutes after the shooting.
The day before Dr. King arrived in Memphis, someone claiming to be an advance security man dropped by the Lorraine Hotel and changed Dr. King’s reservation from a ground-floor room to a second-floor balcony room; none of Dr. King’s associates were aware of an "advance man," and his description didn’t match any of King’s friends or associates.
Shortly before the assassination, King’s police security detail was reduced from eight officers to two. Just hours before the assassination, one of the officers, Edward Redditt (who is black), was sent home because of a mysterious threat against his life. This left one officer at the scene.
The black firemen working at the fire station across the street from the Lorraine Motel were told to report to a different stations on the day of the shooting. The next day, they were told to return to their regular station. This was ordered by a city official who also was a former associate of J. Edgar Hoover.
King’s "aide," who was the first person to point at the rooming house bathroom window, was also deployed to the Memphis Police Department as an undercover agent for the 111th Military Intelligence Group.
A private ambulance arrived at the Motel seven minutes after the shooting, but the police would not let them drive Dr. King to the hospital, insisting instead to wait for the city ambulance to arrive.
Dr. King had been the target of the FBI’s Counter Intelligence Program (Cointelpro), starting in 1950. The Cointelpro program was created by FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover to destroy the Black Liberation movement. Which involved surveillance, wiretappings and smear campaigns.
J Edgar Hoover approved an FBI plan to use "friendly press contacts" to pressure Dr. King into staying at the Lorraine Motel. Dr. King usually stayed at another hotel when he came to Memphis.
The man in charge of the FBI’s surveillance and harassment of Dr. King, Cartha Deloach, was also put in charge of the investigation which indicted James Earl Ray.
William Sommersett, a Miami police informant, learned of a plot to kill Dr. King in Memphis. He reported what he knew to Miami police intelligence. On the day of the assassination, his report was forwarded to the FBI. The FBI ignored the report, stating they already possessed "all relevant information" on the case.
Conclusion
In any murder investigation there are some common questions asked; who had a motive, the opportunity, and the ability to commit the crime. Did James Earl Ray have a motive? Some knew Ray as a racist; motive? Motive enough to kill? There was also a $50,000 contract on Dr. King from a group of racist business men; motive? Ray was able to travel across the globe for two months with no apparent means of support. Did James Earl Ray have opportunity? Some one did, Dr. King is dead. Did James Earl Ray have the ability to commit the crime? According to Ray’s Army record, he was a poor shot.
It took a lot of planning to assassinate Dr. King. Could James Earl Ray have planned it all by himself? Ray was a career criminal, he had planned crimes before. Who ever planned and executed the assassination of Dr. King had to be smart. Was Ray that smart? If he was, why would he leave all that evidence just one door away from the rooming house?