WEBVTT - Who Are You? [3] 0:00:00.520 --> 0:00:03.360 Welcome to the MLK Tapes, a production of I Heart 0:00:03.480 --> 0:00:07.200 Radio and Tenderfoot TV. The views and opinions expressed in 0:00:07.240 --> 0:00:10.399 this podcast are solely those of the podcast author or 0:00:10.440 --> 0:00:14.120 individuals participating in the podcast, and do not represent those 0:00:14.160 --> 0:00:18.599 of I Heart Media, Tenderfoot TV, or their employees. Listener 0:00:18.600 --> 0:00:25.599 discretion is advised. We received a letter Dear Mr Haynes, 0:00:26.320 --> 0:00:28.880 I'm here in jail. I've been accused of a murder. 0:00:28.920 --> 0:00:31.280 I don't know anything about it. Will you please come 0:00:31.320 --> 0:00:36.720 help me? Signed Raymond George Snead in England. We couldn't 0:00:36.720 --> 0:00:40.839 talk to Ray without a police officer right there with us, 0:00:41.400 --> 0:00:43.960 so as far as we were concerned, he was Raymond 0:00:44.000 --> 0:00:47.800 George Snead. And when he came back to the United States, 0:00:47.840 --> 0:00:50.240 he was brought down on a charter flight with FBI 0:00:50.320 --> 0:00:54.640 agents and all of that, and came in late late 0:00:54.680 --> 0:00:58.280 one evening. It was dark, and they landed at the 0:00:58.320 --> 0:01:02.279 far side of the airport, and police cars and vans 0:01:02.360 --> 0:01:05.360 came to the airplane to get the Great Mystery Man, 0:01:05.480 --> 0:01:08.840 because there was some doubt as to his identity in 0:01:08.880 --> 0:01:12.880 the first place, and certainly there was doubt as to 0:01:12.959 --> 0:01:16.240 whether he was the leader of a Revolutionary Army, or 0:01:16.760 --> 0:01:20.280 or what was going on. The great mystery Man was 0:01:20.880 --> 0:01:25.680 grabbed from his aeroplane, put in a caravan of vans 0:01:25.720 --> 0:01:29.759 and police cars, and taken to the Shelby County, Tennessee jail. 0:01:30.720 --> 0:01:32.920 And in that jail there was a special floor that 0:01:33.000 --> 0:01:37.800 had not been developed yet, old concrete floor. And on 0:01:37.880 --> 0:01:41.480 that floor in the jail was a jail within a jail. 0:01:42.560 --> 0:01:45.520 It was a cage. It was a four sighted cage 0:01:45.720 --> 0:01:50.520 with the heavy traditional iron bars. When he got there 0:01:50.560 --> 0:01:53.520 that night, my dad and I went to see him 0:01:53.520 --> 0:01:56.640 for the first time in the United States. By then 0:01:56.680 --> 0:02:00.240 the whole circumstances were such that there was probably doably 0:02:00.440 --> 0:02:04.200 rightly a bit of paranoia on the defense side. My 0:02:04.320 --> 0:02:09.520 dad was a very savvy man. He deemed the most 0:02:09.560 --> 0:02:13.520 secure place in the jail was the shower stall. So 0:02:13.600 --> 0:02:15.880 the first time we met Ray in the United States, 0:02:16.440 --> 0:02:20.480 my dad Ray and I. We're sitting need a knee 0:02:21.160 --> 0:02:24.320 on the floor of that shower stall. And the first 0:02:24.320 --> 0:02:28.600 thing out of anybody's mouth was my Dad looking at 0:02:28.639 --> 0:02:37.080 this client of ours and saying, who are you? I 0:02:37.200 --> 0:02:39.920 called the Union Hall. I said, it's a matter of 0:02:39.960 --> 0:02:43.000 life and death. I said, I think these people are 0:02:43.000 --> 0:02:47.359 planning to kill Dr King. The authorities were parade. Oh, 0:02:47.480 --> 0:02:50.240 we found a gun that James L. Ray bought in 0:02:50.360 --> 0:02:54.679 Birmingham that killed Dr King. Except it wasn't the gun 0:02:54.720 --> 0:03:00.160 that killed Dr King. James L. Ray was upon in 0:03:00.200 --> 0:03:04.560 the official story from My Heart Radio and tender Foot TV. 0:03:05.240 --> 0:03:09.760 The plan was to get King to the city because 0:03:10.040 --> 0:03:12.720 they wanted it handled in memphisfore dead in Nam cat 0:03:12.760 --> 0:03:16.440 Hamon and I've lived with it alone, mansieur, and they 0:03:17.120 --> 0:03:20.720 skied for me. The lawd told me to not the word. 0:03:21.160 --> 0:03:23.760 I've been wanting to tell it all my life. I'm 0:03:23.760 --> 0:03:35.920 Bill Claiburn and this is d MLK tapes. At the 0:03:35.920 --> 0:03:39.280 top of the episode, you heard Judge Arthur Haynes Jr. 0:03:39.400 --> 0:03:43.160 Describing the first time he met James Earl Ray, the 0:03:43.240 --> 0:03:46.760 man accused of killing Martin Luther King. Haynes grew up 0:03:46.760 --> 0:03:49.920 in Birmingham, Alabama, and after high school, he went to 0:03:49.960 --> 0:03:53.160 Princeton and then the law school at the University of Alabama, 0:03:53.480 --> 0:03:57.120 where he graduated in the spring of nineteen He then 0:03:57.240 --> 0:04:01.440 joined his father's law practice. Art Haynes, Sr. Was a 0:04:01.480 --> 0:04:05.200 fierce segregationist who had been mayor of Birmingham from nineteen 0:04:05.240 --> 0:04:08.680 sixty one to sixty three. In his first year in office, 0:04:08.680 --> 0:04:12.320 he closed over a hundred parks, playgrounds, and swimming pools 0:04:12.440 --> 0:04:15.880 rather than integrate them as required by a federal court order. 0:04:16.600 --> 0:04:20.120 He was also mayor when Sheriff Bull Connor said dogs 0:04:20.120 --> 0:04:24.000 and fire hoses on peaceful demonstrators, many of them children. 0:04:24.760 --> 0:04:27.480 Haynes was by a narrow vote put out of office 0:04:27.480 --> 0:04:30.359 in nineteen sixty three, and he began a practice in 0:04:30.400 --> 0:04:35.600 criminal law. In nineteen sixty civil rights activist Viola Leozzo 0:04:36.000 --> 0:04:39.240 was shot dead while driving participants back and forth in 0:04:39.279 --> 0:04:42.880 the Selma to Montgomery Freedom March, and three clan members 0:04:42.880 --> 0:04:46.239 were charged with the murder. When their first attorney died, 0:04:46.560 --> 0:04:49.520 Art Haynes assumed their defense and won the case by 0:04:49.520 --> 0:04:51.920 way of a hung jury, though the men were later 0:04:51.960 --> 0:04:56.080 convicted in a federal court a year later. Art Haynes Jr. 0:04:56.120 --> 0:04:59.160 Would Join his father, and in June of nineteen sixty 0:04:59.200 --> 0:05:02.400 eight they idle letter from James Earl Ray in London 0:05:02.880 --> 0:05:07.159 asking for help. As a criminal defense attorney. More often 0:05:07.200 --> 0:05:10.280 than not, you defend criminals. In the case of our 0:05:10.400 --> 0:05:13.120 Haynes and his father, they defended some of the worst, 0:05:13.520 --> 0:05:16.359 including Bob Chambliss, who murdered four little girls when he 0:05:16.360 --> 0:05:19.920 blew up the sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham. But 0:05:20.120 --> 0:05:23.120 Chambliss would be the very last criminal that our junior 0:05:23.120 --> 0:05:26.320 would defend. The whole thing made him so sick inside 0:05:26.520 --> 0:05:29.200 that he turned his back on criminal law, left his 0:05:29.240 --> 0:05:32.760 father's practice and went on to have a distinguished legal career. 0:05:33.320 --> 0:05:36.440 He served eighteen years as a judge in Alabama, and 0:05:36.480 --> 0:05:39.000 when he left the bench, he became an adjunct professor 0:05:39.200 --> 0:05:42.400 at the University of Alabama Law School, and he began 0:05:42.440 --> 0:05:46.800 a civil practice that specializes in arbitration. I sat with 0:05:46.880 --> 0:05:51.560 him in his law office in Birmingham. I'm here to 0:05:51.640 --> 0:05:55.040 talk to you today because at a particular moment in time, 0:05:55.400 --> 0:05:59.080 you and your father, the late Arthur Haynes, Sr. Became 0:05:59.120 --> 0:06:02.359 the defense attorne is for one James Earl Ray. You 0:06:02.480 --> 0:06:06.560 graduated from law school in sixty seven, and one year 0:06:06.680 --> 0:06:10.840 later found yourself representing the man who's accused of murdering 0:06:10.920 --> 0:06:15.640 Martin Luther King. I was very well aware that uh 0:06:15.680 --> 0:06:20.640 I was part of history. I also knew that statistically, 0:06:20.680 --> 0:06:24.760 at any rate, I would outlive all the other participants. 0:06:24.760 --> 0:06:27.559 Haynes then told me the story you heard about getting 0:06:27.600 --> 0:06:30.400 the letter from some guy in London asking for help 0:06:30.440 --> 0:06:33.640 with a murder. He knew nothing about. The man writing 0:06:33.680 --> 0:06:36.040 the letter turned out to be James Earl Ray, and 0:06:36.080 --> 0:06:39.880 the man murdered was Martin Luther King. Not having any 0:06:39.920 --> 0:06:43.120 idea of where this story would lead, Haines father and 0:06:43.240 --> 0:06:47.280 son decided to take the case over the next four months. 0:06:47.520 --> 0:06:50.320 They would be the ones and the only ones in 0:06:50.440 --> 0:06:53.039 contact with Ray, and they would be the ones getting 0:06:53.040 --> 0:06:55.719 the first look at the evidence, which is why what 0:06:55.960 --> 0:06:59.279 ar Hanes Jr. Has to say about it today is important. 0:07:00.120 --> 0:07:03.479 I asked him about Ray. Was he the person you 0:07:03.560 --> 0:07:06.799 expected to meet? What what were your impressions of him? 0:07:07.120 --> 0:07:11.240 Ray is every man and no man. He was invisible. 0:07:11.320 --> 0:07:16.040 He was remarkably nondescript. You could dress him in a 0:07:16.080 --> 0:07:19.720 tuxedo and send him to a debutante ball, or dress 0:07:19.800 --> 0:07:22.720 him in in ragged sweat clothes and send him to 0:07:22.840 --> 0:07:26.200 a homeless camp, and he would be equally in place 0:07:26.240 --> 0:07:32.000 at either place, a remarkably colorless person. Did Ray ever 0:07:32.120 --> 0:07:35.280 say to you that he shot Martin Luther King? Never? 0:07:35.360 --> 0:07:39.320 He denied it. From day one, moment one until the 0:07:39.400 --> 0:07:43.320 last moment he did wind up pleading guilty, But he 0:07:43.400 --> 0:07:46.600 told me later that he had done that because he 0:07:46.720 --> 0:07:50.480 realized that the lawyer who took over for us had 0:07:50.520 --> 0:07:53.880 done nothing to prepare the case for trial. Did you, 0:07:54.040 --> 0:07:56.400 when you took over the case begin your own investigation? 0:07:56.480 --> 0:08:00.800 Did you interview witnesses? Oh? Absolutely good, gracious, we had 0:08:00.800 --> 0:08:03.840 a complete trial file. I guess I probably talked to 0:08:03.880 --> 0:08:06.880 every one oh in Memphis. So we worked on that 0:08:06.960 --> 0:08:12.320 case from his arrest in June of solidly until the 0:08:12.360 --> 0:08:16.520 trial in the fall of and you thought you had 0:08:16.520 --> 0:08:20.440 a pretty good chance going to trial. We were absolutely confident. 0:08:21.440 --> 0:08:24.360 What was the evidence that the authorities had that they 0:08:24.400 --> 0:08:27.480 say proved that James el Ray murdered Martin with the King? 0:08:27.760 --> 0:08:30.680 We'll see, that's the problem. There was a lot of talk. 0:08:30.760 --> 0:08:34.800 For instance, the authorities would parade, Oh, we found a 0:08:34.880 --> 0:08:38.560 gun that James ol Ray bought in Birmingham. There's no 0:08:38.600 --> 0:08:40.680 doubt about it. It was the rifle that Ray bought 0:08:40.720 --> 0:08:46.400 in Birmingham. It simply wasn't the gun that killed Dr. King. Moreover, 0:08:46.880 --> 0:08:52.000 perhaps the only legitimate witness in the whole area was 0:08:52.040 --> 0:08:55.680 a man named Knips, who ran the amusement shop where 0:08:55.720 --> 0:09:00.439 the package was thrown down. Mr Knips was prepared justifi 0:09:00.679 --> 0:09:04.600 that the package was thrown down that contained the rifle 0:09:05.400 --> 0:09:10.439 before the shot that killed Dr King was fired. When 0:09:10.520 --> 0:09:13.760 Judge Haynes refers to the package, he's talking about a 0:09:13.800 --> 0:09:17.520 strange collection of things, including some books, cans of beer, 0:09:17.800 --> 0:09:21.760 a small radio, underwear, and a rifle with raised fingerprints, 0:09:22.240 --> 0:09:24.360 all of it tied up in a bedspread and found 0:09:24.400 --> 0:09:26.839 on the street in front of a small store owned 0:09:26.840 --> 0:09:31.200 by Mr Guy Knipe. When you talked to Mr Knight, 0:09:31.600 --> 0:09:35.040 did he have a clear recollection of the package? Well, 0:09:35.120 --> 0:09:40.160 sure is, and he said that he believes it was 0:09:40.240 --> 0:09:43.920 ten minutes before the shot that the package was dropped off, 0:09:44.200 --> 0:09:46.160 and that would make sense because the street would be 0:09:46.160 --> 0:09:48.600 empty then and somebody could do that and not be seen. 0:09:49.280 --> 0:09:52.559 Do you believe he was sincere? Oh? I absolutely, He 0:09:53.600 --> 0:09:57.400 had no motive or stake in it, and truthfully was 0:09:58.080 --> 0:10:00.559 not particularly excited to be involved, but he was willing 0:10:00.600 --> 0:10:05.920 to be. You'll see the fire station overlooks the Lorraine Motel. 0:10:06.640 --> 0:10:13.520 That fire station was packed with city policeman, federal agents, 0:10:13.559 --> 0:10:17.920 of spectators, curiosity seekers and others who were looking out 0:10:18.040 --> 0:10:21.320 over the Lorraine Motel to see the activities of Dr 0:10:21.400 --> 0:10:25.360 King and his entourage. The moment the shot was fired 0:10:26.480 --> 0:10:31.240 and Dr King went down, that fire station erupted like 0:10:31.320 --> 0:10:37.720 a beehive, police going in all directions. The very idea 0:10:38.160 --> 0:10:43.679 that someone could fire that shot stopping a room, very 0:10:43.679 --> 0:10:48.480 carefully wrapped that package, put the gun in it, and 0:10:48.679 --> 0:10:52.920 tie it and then drop it is, in our way 0:10:52.920 --> 0:10:57.720 of thinking, simply preposterous and unbelievable. When they put their 0:10:57.760 --> 0:10:59.959 so called trial on, which wasn't a trial at all, 0:11:00.040 --> 0:11:02.840 It was just a show where they brought forth what 0:11:02.920 --> 0:11:05.559 evidence they said they would have brought forth had there 0:11:05.600 --> 0:11:09.040 been a trial, And in that proceeding they referred to 0:11:09.080 --> 0:11:15.520 their eyewitness, one Charlie Stevens. Oh, good, gracious, Charlie Stevens 0:11:15.640 --> 0:11:18.840 was drunk as a goat when Dr King was killed. 0:11:19.840 --> 0:11:23.760 We had a taxi driver who was going to testify. 0:11:24.000 --> 0:11:29.079 Stevens had called a cab and the cab driver refused 0:11:29.480 --> 0:11:32.319 to lead him in the cab because he was too 0:11:32.440 --> 0:11:35.120 drunk to ride in a cab. So if your star 0:11:35.240 --> 0:11:38.520 witness is too drunk to ride in a cab, we 0:11:38.600 --> 0:11:42.400 felt his testimony was worth nothing. Tell me what was 0:11:42.440 --> 0:11:46.120 the official authorities, what was their official motive? What did 0:11:46.160 --> 0:11:49.559 Ray kill King? According to them, We were never quite 0:11:49.559 --> 0:11:52.160 clear on that there was some noble that there was 0:11:52.200 --> 0:11:56.480 a convict in Missouri who was going to say that 0:11:56.640 --> 0:12:01.679 Ray had made some racist comments years before. But it 0:12:01.720 --> 0:12:08.439 was a very very weak and probably untrue declaration. Had 0:12:08.520 --> 0:12:12.040 Bray ever done engaged in violence that you know of? 0:12:12.600 --> 0:12:14.840 Nothing we know of he He was, of course a 0:12:14.920 --> 0:12:18.800 petty criminal. He had no history of violence that we 0:12:18.800 --> 0:12:22.520 were aware of. We should note that James Earl Ray 0:12:22.679 --> 0:12:25.320 did own a pistol, though we did not carry it 0:12:25.360 --> 0:12:28.959 around in his everyday life. He might brandish the weapon 0:12:29.080 --> 0:12:31.280 during a hold up, but there was no record of 0:12:31.360 --> 0:12:35.960 him ever shooting someone. Now back to our hands, I'm 0:12:36.000 --> 0:12:40.240 telling you, Bill, Martin Luther King was not on James 0:12:40.240 --> 0:12:44.040 Earl Ray's radar screen, part of his life or his 0:12:44.200 --> 0:12:50.079 interest at all. A convict doing time is interested in 0:12:50.280 --> 0:12:54.280 his daily bread and survival. That was James Earl Ray. 0:12:54.360 --> 0:12:58.439 He had had no interest in politics, or world affairs 0:12:58.559 --> 0:13:02.040 or anything. We tried everything in the world to evoke 0:13:02.840 --> 0:13:08.040 any kind of reaction from Ray, arranging from ductr King 0:13:08.080 --> 0:13:13.960 deserved to die to whoever killed him should be summarily executed. Nothing, 0:13:14.400 --> 0:13:20.920 no reaction one way or the other. Ray told art 0:13:20.960 --> 0:13:23.480 Hanes from the start that he did not shoot King, 0:13:24.080 --> 0:13:26.800 and Haines was unable to find in Ray even the 0:13:26.880 --> 0:13:30.080 semblance of a motive for such a crime. Of course, 0:13:30.120 --> 0:13:32.400 the press found it easy to brand him as a racist, 0:13:32.760 --> 0:13:34.439 and when they wanted to put a little frosting on 0:13:34.480 --> 0:13:37.520 the cake, they would say he was a hardened criminal. 0:13:38.120 --> 0:13:40.960 In that regard, it might be useful to review rays 0:13:41.080 --> 0:13:46.480 rap sheet. Discharged from the army for failure to adapt 0:13:46.480 --> 0:13:52.200 to military life. Sentenced to ninety days for stealing a typewriter, 0:13:53.880 --> 0:13:57.240 two sentenced to two years in prison for stealing eleven 0:13:57.280 --> 0:14:01.760 dollars from a cab driver. Five served three years, and 0:14:01.880 --> 0:14:07.240 Leavenworth for stealing money orders nine sentenced to twenty years 0:14:07.360 --> 0:14:11.400 Missouri State pen for stealing a hundred dollars from a supermarket. 0:14:12.120 --> 0:14:15.880 That's it, except for a bunch of escape attempts. A 0:14:16.000 --> 0:14:18.319 rap sheet, of course, is not a complete record of 0:14:18.360 --> 0:14:21.680 a person's criminal activity. It's just the record of crimes 0:14:21.720 --> 0:14:24.600 he's been caught at. So we can assume from this 0:14:24.640 --> 0:14:28.040 list that Ray pulled off other robberies and hold ups. 0:14:28.040 --> 0:14:31.120 But the list does illustrate the kinds of crimes he 0:14:31.240 --> 0:14:34.920 was inclined to commit. And nowhere does it appear that 0:14:34.960 --> 0:14:38.360 he wants to be a famous criminal. And why would 0:14:38.400 --> 0:14:42.480 that matter? It would matter because of what William Bradford 0:14:42.560 --> 0:14:45.600 Huey said in an article for Look magazine following Raised 0:14:45.640 --> 0:14:48.840 plea of guilty. Hughie had been putting up money for 0:14:48.920 --> 0:14:52.280 Raised defense, and in return he got the inside track 0:14:52.400 --> 0:14:55.520 on race story by way of handwritten accounts by Ray 0:14:55.640 --> 0:14:57.920 of where he had been and what he had done. 0:14:58.840 --> 0:15:01.840 Hughie had written two previous articles for Look where he 0:15:01.880 --> 0:15:03.920 said he would show that there was a conspiracy to 0:15:03.960 --> 0:15:08.880 assassinate King, but Hughie suddenly changed course and in his 0:15:09.000 --> 0:15:13.200 final article said that James Ray alone had murdered King. 0:15:14.600 --> 0:15:17.800 But why did Ray kill King? Did he hate black people? 0:15:18.120 --> 0:15:23.040 Did he hate King? No? According to hue Ray felt 0:15:23.080 --> 0:15:26.680 insecure about his position in the world, so he wanted 0:15:26.720 --> 0:15:28.920 to make sure that everyone knew that he was the 0:15:28.920 --> 0:15:32.400 one who killed King. This was the explanation that the 0:15:32.480 --> 0:15:35.320 nation received by way of Look magazine from a man 0:15:35.400 --> 0:15:39.320 who had inside information from Ray himself. But Ray never 0:15:39.360 --> 0:15:42.080 told him that. Huie just came to it on his own. 0:15:43.120 --> 0:15:45.600 But Hughie never spent any time at all with Ray. 0:15:46.480 --> 0:15:50.000 But Judge Haynes had spent many hours with him, what 0:15:50.120 --> 0:15:54.240 did he think? Did Ray ever demonstrate anything to you 0:15:54.600 --> 0:15:57.080 to indicate that he wanted to be known as the 0:15:57.120 --> 0:15:59.720 man who killed King? Why? Certainly not. He did not 0:16:00.000 --> 0:16:03.440 it vehemently from the beginning. He was an escaped con 0:16:04.120 --> 0:16:06.240 He didn't care. He just didn't want to go back 0:16:06.240 --> 0:16:09.560 to the penitentiary. So how was it that Ray came 0:16:09.600 --> 0:16:13.320 to Memphis. Well, his brother Jerry and Ray himself are 0:16:13.360 --> 0:16:32.280 about to tell us. And we gave up real boring 0:16:32.720 --> 0:16:36.080 journey at in person plays. We lived out of them. 0:16:40.760 --> 0:16:43.720 These are the words of Jerry Ray, James Earl Ray's 0:16:43.800 --> 0:16:48.480 younger brother, testifying at the civil trial. In the court 0:16:48.560 --> 0:16:51.320 recording here was muddy. So we've taken the liberty of 0:16:51.360 --> 0:16:55.200 reading Ray's words from the trial transcript. We came up 0:16:55.280 --> 0:16:58.240 real poor during the depression days. We lived out on 0:16:58.240 --> 0:17:00.880 a far most of the time. But back there in 0:17:00.920 --> 0:17:05.200 the depression, everybody had it bad. James had been born 0:17:05.240 --> 0:17:08.720 in ninety eight in Alton, Illinois, the oldest of eight. 0:17:09.440 --> 0:17:13.399 His mother, Lucille, was nineteen. James was followed by his 0:17:13.440 --> 0:17:17.440 sister Marjorie, brother John, and then Jerry there were seven 0:17:17.520 --> 0:17:21.280 years between Jerry and James asked if he had noticed 0:17:21.280 --> 0:17:24.360 any signs of racial hatred, and his brother Jerry said 0:17:24.400 --> 0:17:28.840 he hadn't. No, he never did, have no hostility towards 0:17:28.880 --> 0:17:32.639 any race, not only Blacks, but Hispanics or anybody. The 0:17:32.680 --> 0:17:35.639 one thing he tried to do is live and let live. 0:17:36.200 --> 0:17:38.040 Before he went into the army. He was a hard 0:17:38.080 --> 0:17:41.440 worker and he just lived a life of crime after that. 0:17:42.480 --> 0:17:44.800 It's true that James Earl Ray did not have an 0:17:44.880 --> 0:17:47.800 arrest record before entering the army in nineteen forty six, 0:17:48.560 --> 0:17:52.040 but he was already traveling a difficult road. He had 0:17:52.080 --> 0:17:54.800 to do first grade twice because of some forgery trouble 0:17:54.800 --> 0:17:57.639 where the family had to leave town. His father was 0:17:57.680 --> 0:18:01.480 frequently drunk and his mother was always signet. She gave 0:18:01.520 --> 0:18:04.200 birth eight times and lost Marjorie when the six year 0:18:04.200 --> 0:18:07.960 old caught fire standing next to a stove. James left 0:18:07.960 --> 0:18:10.480 school in the middle of eighth grade and went to 0:18:10.520 --> 0:18:13.640 live with his grandparents, where he would sometimes spend evenings 0:18:13.680 --> 0:18:16.880 with his uncle Earl. Evenings had often ended up at 0:18:16.880 --> 0:18:20.480 Big Marie's brothel, where Ray would sometimes run errands for 0:18:20.520 --> 0:18:24.160 the girls, as he called them. The behavior he fell 0:18:24.200 --> 0:18:28.600 into is what he had seen all his life. Jerry 0:18:28.680 --> 0:18:31.919 Ray watched his older brother from a distance of seven years, 0:18:32.680 --> 0:18:35.159 but he did have one insight about James that is 0:18:35.160 --> 0:18:40.200 worth mentioning. If he uh makes friends with somebody, he's 0:18:40.320 --> 0:18:45.240 easily led around, easily led around. That's what his brother 0:18:45.320 --> 0:18:48.920 said about him. According to the St. Louis Post Dispatch, 0:18:49.200 --> 0:18:51.800 James met a guy named Rife who had stolen some 0:18:51.840 --> 0:18:55.600 postal money orders. Rife recruited Ray to help cash them 0:18:55.640 --> 0:18:59.639 until they got caught. James went to federal prison in Leavenworth. 0:19:00.240 --> 0:19:02.480 He got out three years later and ran into a 0:19:02.520 --> 0:19:05.480 guy named Owens, and they robbed a grocery store for 0:19:05.520 --> 0:19:08.720 a hundred and twenty dollars, but they were caught twenty 0:19:08.760 --> 0:19:11.760 minutes later because a witness notified the police about his 0:19:11.840 --> 0:19:16.960 vehicle for that robbery. Ray was sentenced to twenty years. 0:19:19.720 --> 0:19:22.679 James hated prison life, and his record is filled with 0:19:22.760 --> 0:19:25.919 various attempts to escape, which always put more years on 0:19:26.680 --> 0:19:29.000 enough so that in the spring of nineteen sixty seven, 0:19:29.200 --> 0:19:32.880 after having served six years, he still had eighteen years 0:19:32.960 --> 0:19:36.120 left on his twenty years sentence. But James came up 0:19:36.160 --> 0:19:39.040 with yet another scheme and he rode out of Jefferson 0:19:39.119 --> 0:19:42.000 City Prison in style, hidden under loads of bread in 0:19:42.040 --> 0:19:45.639 a bakery truck. It required the help and probably the 0:19:45.640 --> 0:19:48.760 permission of some people on the inside, and James would 0:19:48.800 --> 0:19:52.760 never say who those people were. After his escape, Ray 0:19:52.880 --> 0:19:55.480 said that he walked along a railroad for six days 0:19:55.760 --> 0:19:58.920 until his feet were swollen and bloody. Then he caught 0:19:58.920 --> 0:20:01.480 a bus to Chicago and met with his brothers, John 0:20:01.480 --> 0:20:05.440 and Jerry. It is also possible, perhaps likely, that Ray 0:20:05.560 --> 0:20:08.080 was picked up by his brother John somewhere along the way, 0:20:08.480 --> 0:20:11.000 and the two of them drove to Chicago, where the 0:20:11.000 --> 0:20:13.920 brothers gave him some money and James answered an ad 0:20:13.920 --> 0:20:17.000 for work at a restaurant. Ray took the work under 0:20:17.000 --> 0:20:20.160 his brother's name, John Raynes, and he used his brother 0:20:20.240 --> 0:20:23.760 social Security number. The plan was to earn enough money 0:20:24.040 --> 0:20:28.320 to buy an old car and drive to Canada. James 0:20:28.320 --> 0:20:31.200 worked hard at the Indian Trail restaurant and one of pay, 0:20:31.320 --> 0:20:34.560 raise and the respect of the owners, Clara and Harvey Klingman. 0:20:35.359 --> 0:20:38.880 There was something about him that they liked. After Ray 0:20:38.960 --> 0:20:42.560 had been captured and brought back to Memphis, Clara Klingman 0:20:42.680 --> 0:20:44.919 was shocked to hear that the person she knew as 0:20:45.040 --> 0:20:49.040 John Raines was really James L. Ray, the man who 0:20:49.040 --> 0:20:52.800 had murdered Martin Luther King. She could not believe that 0:20:52.800 --> 0:20:56.600 he had harbored such invisible hatred. She had seen none 0:20:56.600 --> 0:21:00.359 of it. Whatever he is and whatever he is done, 0:21:00.400 --> 0:21:03.639 she would say, while he was here, we saw a 0:21:03.680 --> 0:21:08.960 spark of dignity in John Raines doing so well. Ray 0:21:09.040 --> 0:21:11.320 might have stayed on at the restaurant, but he was 0:21:11.359 --> 0:21:14.800 a wanted man and a social Security number was not his. 0:21:15.760 --> 0:21:18.960 So after eight weeks he left, bought an old car 0:21:19.200 --> 0:21:22.040 and went to Montreal, where he hoped to discover what 0:21:22.119 --> 0:21:25.840 he needed to get a Canadian passport. Ray had been 0:21:25.880 --> 0:21:28.440 in Montreal just a couple of days. When he was 0:21:28.480 --> 0:21:32.359 sitting at a table in a neptune bar, a man approached, 0:21:32.720 --> 0:21:36.920 pulled out a chair and sat down. From this point 0:21:37.000 --> 0:21:39.760 on the voice of James Earl Ray that you will 0:21:39.800 --> 0:21:44.560 hear is from a deposition he gave in and answers 0:21:44.600 --> 0:21:50.960 to questions asked by Attorney Lewis Garrison. Where you first 0:21:51.000 --> 0:21:59.879 met in Montreal, Canada and a place called bar in Montville, 0:22:00.640 --> 0:22:03.879 East Mark, Yo. And what was your unforted person going 0:22:03.920 --> 0:22:05.800 in my drawways? Your tune to do when you got there, 0:22:06.440 --> 0:22:09.119 I try to get try to get some tel dipars 0:22:09.119 --> 0:22:11.920 and leave the counting. How long would you been there 0:22:11.960 --> 0:22:15.600 when you met raw at this Neptune bar. It's just 0:22:15.720 --> 0:22:17.600 day exactly been all right? He hadn't been over it. 0:22:18.160 --> 0:22:20.680 I said week, last, a week wheter week? It probably 0:22:20.680 --> 0:22:23.040 have wait six seven days. I wouldn't want to get 0:22:23.119 --> 0:22:26.720 hit down. Just how many days? And when he came in? 0:22:26.960 --> 0:22:29.080 What what attracted you to him? Or how did you 0:22:29.080 --> 0:22:31.760 get the current sation? Started him? I didn't started conversation 0:22:31.880 --> 0:22:34.280 and in in sit down started conversation maybe just talking about 0:22:34.280 --> 0:22:38.520 general things and and you and this gentle start up 0:22:38.520 --> 0:22:41.000 the conversation general things such as a weather or something 0:22:41.040 --> 0:22:44.880 like that. And how long did you said to you? Really? Well, 0:22:44.880 --> 0:22:46.639 I don't know. I wan't too long. I mean, I 0:22:46.720 --> 0:22:49.440 mean i've been how are you conversation bars feed less? 0:22:49.600 --> 0:22:51.720 What you just get some kind of teach you? But 0:22:52.080 --> 0:22:53.880 we didn't sit there too long, and I don't think 0:22:53.920 --> 0:22:56.320 we just started talking and I was can you tell 0:22:56.400 --> 0:23:01.439 us just about to row about sad person? Was was 0:23:01.520 --> 0:23:05.639 a fast with ten uh traffic? Leven or half of 0:23:05.800 --> 0:23:09.880 found where it really taller you or short in you well, 0:23:10.080 --> 0:23:13.080 but with Tana, I just simon the ground and five 0:23:13.160 --> 0:23:16.080 with a year nine or maybe somewhere in that general 0:23:16.240 --> 0:23:19.360 or again that it's hard to estimated bet with weight, 0:23:19.560 --> 0:23:22.600 but I didn't think it would be any can't wait 0:23:22.640 --> 0:23:25.240 a whole lot, but I've got any waited by earn 0:23:26.440 --> 0:23:29.040 forty or forty five pounds. I just can't can't leave 0:23:29.080 --> 0:23:32.080 start on someone weight like that cod here here, I 0:23:32.240 --> 0:23:36.800 had a kind of a it's a dark hair dark 0:23:37.800 --> 0:23:42.040 which I called a slight red tanda. The talk like 0:23:42.200 --> 0:23:45.000 you have been someone who had been uh Ripken, Canada, 0:23:45.119 --> 0:23:49.560 or Detroit or someone in uh tweople of Mississippi or 0:23:49.920 --> 0:23:54.240 told you what was your intrusion on? Well, yes, some 0:23:54.359 --> 0:23:56.800 much spanis accident. And I had a lot of association 0:23:56.800 --> 0:24:00.119 with Mexican that been in Mexico before and that and 0:24:00.280 --> 0:24:07.160 les was a lot of time, so I certainly used 0:24:07.200 --> 0:24:15.240 that person. Ray said that in their first meeting he 0:24:15.280 --> 0:24:18.560 had mentioned that he wanted travel documents. Raoul said he 0:24:18.640 --> 0:24:20.960 might be able to help with that. They agreed to 0:24:21.000 --> 0:24:22.840 meet again, and did so a day or two later. 0:24:23.600 --> 0:24:27.200 When the conversation became specific, Raoul told Ray that he 0:24:27.240 --> 0:24:30.240 could help him get a Canadian passport and other documents 0:24:30.320 --> 0:24:33.719 he might need, but it would take some time. In 0:24:33.760 --> 0:24:36.320 the meanwhile, he had some work to offer if Ray 0:24:36.400 --> 0:24:39.720 were interested. It involved carrying some things across the border 0:24:39.720 --> 0:24:43.320 and race car. According to Ray, Raoul's promised to get 0:24:43.400 --> 0:24:45.919 him the documents he desired was the very thing he 0:24:46.000 --> 0:24:48.760 most wanted to hear, so he ended up crossing the 0:24:48.800 --> 0:24:51.439 border a couple of times carrying things hidden under the 0:24:51.440 --> 0:24:55.520 back seat of his car. Ray didn't know what he 0:24:55.560 --> 0:24:58.800 had been transporting for Raoul, but he was well paid 0:24:58.840 --> 0:25:03.400 for his time. However, the promised documents were not produced, 0:25:04.160 --> 0:25:07.080 but they were still being offered. So when Raoul said 0:25:07.080 --> 0:25:09.800 he wanted ready to go to Alabama, where he would 0:25:09.800 --> 0:25:11.960 buy Ray a much nicer car to be used for 0:25:12.000 --> 0:25:16.680 a few errands, Ray agreed. So one day in late August, 0:25:17.000 --> 0:25:19.639 Jerry Ray got a call from James and agreed to 0:25:19.640 --> 0:25:22.439 meet him in Chicago, where James said he'd give Jerry 0:25:22.440 --> 0:25:25.239