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10 - PEOPLE/(N-S)/James Earl Ray.md
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@ -11,7 +11,7 @@ tags:
- Assassination
- 1960s
category: "Criminals & Offenders"
summary: "James Earl Ray was the career criminal who pled guilty to the April 4, 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, recanted three days later claiming he was a patsy for a conspiracy organized by a mysterious figure called 'Raul,' and died in prison in 1998 with the conspiracy question still legally unresolved."
summary: "Career criminal who pled guilty to the April 4, 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., recanted three days later citing a man called 'Raul,' and died in prison in 1998."
born: 1928-03-10
died: 1998-04-23
location: "Memphis, Tennessee / Nashville, Tennessee (imprisoned)"
@ -41,12 +41,7 @@ Ray's account changed over the years but centered on a conspiracy organized by a
### HSCA Findings
The [[HSCA|House Select Committee on Assassinations]] investigated the King assassination in 1976-1979. The committee concluded:
- Ray had fired the shot that killed King
- Ray "was not a member of an organized conspiracy to assassinate Dr. King"
- But Ray's brothers John and Jerry Ray "may have assisted" in the planning of the escape from Missouri and possibly other aspects of the plot
- There was insufficient evidence to conclude that any government agency was involved in a conspiracy
The [[HSCA|House Select Committee on Assassinations]] investigated the King assassination in 1976-1979. It found that Ray fired the shot that killed King, that he "acted with full knowledge of what he was doing in the murder of Dr. King," and that his alibi and his "Raoul" account were "not worthy of belief."[^3] Its summary finding is that "there is a likelihood that James Earl Ray assassinated Dr. Martin Luther King as a result of a conspiracy."[^4] It concluded that "no private organizations or individuals, other than those discussed under section B," were involved, and that "no Federal, State or local government agency was involved."[^4] The Conclusion states that the committee found "substantial evidence to establish the existence of a St. Louis-based conspiracy to finance the assassination of Dr. King," that [[John Sutherland]] and [[John Kauffmann]] made a serious effort in late 1966 or early 1967 to solicit [[Russell Byers]], and that no direct link to Ray or his brothers and no payoff was found, though word of the offer likely reached Ray through the campaign activity of the [[American Independent Party]].[^5] On the brothers, it found it "highly likely that John and James robbed the Bank of Alton in Alton, Ill., on July 13, 1967," that [[Jerry Ray]] knew of the robbery and assisted in distributing the proceeds, and that [[John Ray]] had foreknowledge of the escape from the Missouri State Penitentiary; it judged the involvement of one or both brothers to be possible on three negative factors, and found strong circumstantial evidence of the involvement of a brother in a consulting capacity at the purchase of the murder weapon.[^5][^6]
The committee found that Ray's post-escape resources - his travel across multiple countries, his training in bartending and dancing in preparation for an undefined future, his Canadian documents - remained inadequately explained by his own account.[^1]
@ -58,3 +53,7 @@ In 1999, the King family filed a civil wrongful death action in Memphis against
[^1]: Sides, Hampton. *Hellhound on His Trail: The Stalking of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the International Hunt for His Assassin.* Doubleday, 2010. House Select Committee on Assassinations. *Report of the Select Committee on Assassinations of the U.S. House of Representatives.* Government Printing Office, 1979.
[^2]: Frank, Gerold. *An American Death: The True Story of the Assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Greatest Manhunt of Our Time.* Doubleday, 1972. Melanson, Philip H. *The Martin Luther King Assassination: New Revelations on the Conspiracy and Cover-Up.* S.P.I. Books, 1994.
[^3]: House Select Committee on Assassinations, *Report,* H. Rept. 95-1828, 95th Cong., 2d sess. (1979), summary Finding II.A (p. 5); "Conclusion," p. 371. https://archive.org/details/reportofselectco1979unit
[^4]: House Select Committee on Assassinations, *Report,* H. Rept. 95-1828, summary Findings II.B and II.C-II.D (p. 5). https://archive.org/details/reportofselectco1979unit
[^5]: House Select Committee on Assassinations, *Report,* H. Rept. 95-1828, "Conclusion," pp. 371-373; Byers, Sutherland and Kauffmann, pp. 359-364. https://archive.org/details/reportofselectco1979unit
[^6]: House Select Committee on Assassinations, *Report,* H. Rept. 95-1828, pp. 341-344 (John Ray and the escape; the Alton robbery). https://archive.org/details/reportofselectco1979unit