The Mammoth Book of Celebrity Murders (25 page)

The fact that the police arrived on the scene almost immediately was mainly because there were already a number of them assigned to keep an eye on King and his party. A couple were already at
the fire station, one positioned at the back of the station from where he could clearly see the hotel where King was staying, and in fact had a perfect view of the balcony outside Kings room. When
the news of the attack broke, additional police officers raced to the Lorraine Hotel as well as fanning out along the shops and premises of South Main Street, from where it was suspected the shot
had been fired. One of the first people to be questioned was Lloyd Jowers, owner of Jim’s grill, who had been serving his dozen strong crowd from behind the counter. Describing the man who
had taken the upstairs room, he initially helped the police with their investigation, but later added a twist of conspiracy with a claim that he too had been involved in a plot to murder King. But
for now the police were intent on finding the one man who all the evidence pointed at – James Earl Ray.

After the shooting Ray went on the run, abandoning his Mustang in Atlanta, where the police impounded the vehicle hoping to secure further evidence against him. From Atlanta Ray headed to
Canada, where he had travelled the previous year after escaping from prison having been held on another charge. Throughout this period the papers carried Ray’s photograph and once again trial
by media was in progress using the basic facts as disclosed by the police as the main evidence. To further cement Ray’s likely guilt was the fact that he was a known villain, a prison escapee
who was now on the run again. The police ran a massive investigation and media campaign to capture Ray, which finally delivered a breakthrough when he was caught and arrested at London’s
Heathrow Airport, just two months after the murder. During his brief spell in London Ray had also managed to rob a bank, thus cementing the notion that if nothing else he was a career criminal.

The evidence against Ray would seemingly be beyond doubt. Having escaped from jail he was on the run at the time of King’s murder. He was known to hold strong racist views and had been
heard to pass comments in relation to King and his activities. He was the occupier of the room from where the fatal shot was reportedly fired and was seen fleeing the scene shortly after
King’s assassination. A bag containing a rifle he had bought just six days earlier, which matched the type used to kill King, was surprisingly found on the sidewalk. The gun had Ray’s
fingerprints all over it and other material in the bag belonged to him. After the attack Ray took decisive action to avoid being caught by the authorities, eventually fleeing to London, where he
further enriched his reputation as a career criminal by robbing a bank. By any standards it would be difficult to conclude that Ray was not the killer, yet a lot of the evidence was circumstantial
– he was in the area of the shooting and he did flee the scene, but this did not prove he did it. The gun of course did have Ray’s fingerprints all over it, but it was never
conclusively proven to be the actual murder weapon. The bag was also conspicuously found on the sidewalk; it wasn’t even hidden in a bin or thrown into the bushes but was placed in such a way
that anyone would find it. Did Ray dispose of the bag badly or did someone else place the bag where it would be easily found?

These questions and others did not need to be asked in the initial period following Ray’s arrest. There were few who doubted his guilt, including the lawyer who would have to defend him
and the press and media who had already presented their conclusions. It was therefore of no surprise to anyone when Ray pleaded guilty to the charge of murder, avoiding the need for an expensive
court case and in the process winning himself a 99-year prison term, a softer option than the guaranteed death penalty should he be found guilty by jury – a verdict that most thought was
assured, should he elect to have his day in court.

So in March 1969 Ray accepted the sentence, knowing full well that the rules prevented him from appealing against the decision. Yet this is what he did just three days later, recanting his
confession and pleading to have his case heard in court. He said that his lawyer Percy Foreman had essentially forced him into the confession, claiming that he had threatened to withdraw his
services if he wished to fight the case. Initially it was suggested Foreman’s actions were those of a caring lawyer who did not wish to see his client put to death. But later Ray would allege
it was a mixture of the lawyer’s involvement in a conspiracy to see Ray portrayed as a lone gun man, and also that Foreman was hoping to conclude a lucrative movie deal.

The problem Ray seemed to face was the authorities’ refusal to consider reopening the case, always claiming that to do so someone would need to present strong evidence that the man behind
bars either didn’t commit the crime or did not act alone.

Once again the media machine started to work the other side of the argument. Having lambasted Ray as King’s assassin, they were now intent on proving that others, some shadowy group, were
also involved in King’s death. King’s family, in the form of his wife and children, were themselves concerned that King might have been removed for political reasons, by political
people, and if this was the case then Ray did not act alone. In a conversation recalled by King’s wife, on the occasion of JFK’s assassination, King, on hearing the news, remarked
prophetically, “That’s exactly what’s going to happen to me.” He too had seen the likes of JFK and RFK assassinated, either during power or on the verge of winning power, in
circumstances which presented more questions than answers. Now his family were struggling with the same questions, questions which the press were happy to present on many occasions – was Ray
an independent, murderous bigot or was he a patsy for a consortium of people who were playing for bigger stakes than the death of one black activist and the freedom of one small-time career
criminal?

Over the years that followed Ray’s incarceration there emerged three primary conspiracy theories, all of which assert that Ray did not act alone, but was involved with others in the
assassination of King. These theories have been tested and presented in books, newspapers, on prime-time television and even via restricted investigations carried out by the District
Attorney’s office, but never in a court of law, attended by the man at the centre of the controversy.

The first conspiracy theory which emerged came from Ray himself, who claimed to have been set up by a mystery man named Raul. Ray claimed he had been involved in a smuggling operation with Raul,
but that he neither knew the man’s last name nor indeed the nature of the smuggling operation. He claimed he was instructed to purchase a gun and book in to the room above Jim’s Grill.
He had then been told to park his car and await further instructions, which he did. When the fatal shot rang out Raul ran to the car and the two made their getaway. The claims were given plenty of
press coverage and some mild degree of credibility when retired FBI employee, Donald Wilson, said he had taken pieces of paper from Ray’s car which had the name Raul written on them. He had
then stored the papers in his freezer for 30 years before presenting them to the public. His claims however were disputed by the FBI who have said they are “total fabrication”,
suggesting he was never part of the initial investigation. As to why he would have removed evidence and stored it in a freezer for three decades one can only speculate.

The second theory, and the one to which the King family now subscribe, is that King’s assassination was organized by high-ranking members of the government, including President Johnson,
but also the CIA, the FBI, the Memphis Police Department, the Mafia and the Green Berets. Whether it would involve all or some of these will probably never be known. But the assertion is that
people who held the highest ranking roles in the world’s largest democracy had sought to remove King for reasons of their own. It will be noted that similar claims have been made over the
assassinations of JFK, RFK, and even the events surrounding the death of Marilyn Monroe and the fatal road accident involving Edward Kennedy at Chappaquiddick, in which Mary Jo Kopechne died in
suspicious circumstances, which effectively ended the presidential aspirations of the youngest Kennedy brother. To give credibility to these claims, it was Ray’s last lawyer, William Pepper,
who claimed that the US government had hired a Mafia hit man to murder King and that the assassin was backed up by soldiers from the Green Berets, who were hiding in the area, ready to finish the
job off in the event that he missed. Pepper, who wrote a book detailing his claims, alleges that the CIA, the Memphis Police and army intelligence were also involved in the plot. Adding a twist of
incredulity to the claims, Pepper says that the commander in charge of the Green Berets, Billy Eidson, had been killed off to prevent him disclosing details of the plot – although he was
found to be alive and well and not best pleased at the accusation. To add another twist to the tale, a military cablegram produced by Pepper as evidence of his claims, was shown to be a forgery. He
did however manage not only to have his book hit the book stores during the same month that Ray died, but also managed to persuade Dextor King that his father’s murder was the result of a
senior government plot that involved the then President of the United States, Lyndon B. Johnson.

The third of the conspiracy theories and the one which has some detail to support it suggests that Lloyd Jowers, the owner-operator of Jim’s Grill, was offered $100,000 to hire someone to
carry out the shooting. At the time of the initial investigation Jowers claimed he was serving drinks in the bar when King was shot and used a number of his customers to provide his alibi. On the
day of the shooting, however, many of his customers had been drinking heavily as usual and could not be relied on to give a reliable testimony. Initially for Jowers this was of minimal importance;
once Ray’s identity and the facts relating to his recent gun purchase had been established, and that his room overlooked the murder scene, the outcome was pretty much set. The bank robbery in
London just prior to his arrest served to confirm further Ray’s criminal tendencies and when he was eventually confronted with the crime, he agreed to plead guilty, seemingly to spare his own
life.

As we have seen in other cases the media, which initially served to crucify Ray, now started to examine the evidence again. Just days after his imprisonment for 99 years Ray attempted to
withdraw his admission, but from this point until his death the authorities would not allow him a retrial, even after other official bodies found that he did not act alone. Over the years since his
confinement the press have re-examined the story and presented the various theories which over the course of time have become engrained in a type of folk law.

Conspiracy theory number three, that Jowers, owner of Jim’s Grill, played a part in the assassination of King, did however gain further credibility when, after 30 years of claiming no
involvement, Jowers suddenly changed his position. In December 1993 Jowers appeared on the ABC’s
Prime Time Live
programme and changed his decades-long position, now stating that he
was involved with others to assassinate King. Jowers claimed a local produce dealer who was involved with the Mafia gave him $100,000 to hire someone to bump King off. The deal to kill King was
agreed with a hit man called Raoul (Raul) – Ray neither shot King nor indeed had anything to do with the planning of the murder.

The gun found on the sidewalk just after the murder was never forensically tested as it was decided that without doubt the man they wanted was Ray. The pressure put on Ray to admit to the crime
meant that there was never any need to build a case against him, as it would not be tested in a court of law. And so no further analysis was ever carried out on the weapon to prove that it was
indeed the gun from which the fatal shot was fired. Analysis of the rifle decades after the event proved inconclusive. Unfortunately the version of events as presented by Jowers was not examined in
a court of law and attempts made later to obtain an official examination of his claims were met with changes to the story. It would appear Jowers was happy to present his version of events, but not
in an official way, one that could have seen his own liberty threatened. What is not in doubt is that Jowers attempted to make money from his claims, seeking compensation from the producers of a
programme who were aiming to film a “mock trial” of James Earl Ray. This action in itself has served to undermine the credibility of the statements he made, even though his claim of
being involved with a man named Raul matches the details provided by Ray himself.

As recently as 1998, the otherwise discredited Donald Wilson, former agent with the FBI, revealed that for the previous 30 years he had been concealing papers that he had taken from Ray’s
Mustang, which were relevant to the murder of King. Only two documents were ultimately retrieved, one, a portion of a 1963 Dallas telephone directory, had handwritten entries associated with the
assassination of President Kennedy, including the telephone numbers of Jack Ruby and Lee Harvey Oswald. Both pieces of paper made reference to the name Raul, but the meaning of the name or the
identity of the person behind the name has never been established. Unfortunately, Wilson’s evidence has been frequently contradictory, to the point where its reliability must remain in
question.

Raul featured prominently in the claims made by Ray and was also echoed by others in their evaluations of King’s murder, but the individual has never been found. In recent years a Raul
found living in New York State was identified, but he was quickly ruled out of any involvement in King’s demise. Thirty years after the crime was committed there is still no additional
information that could lead investigators to the shadowy figure called Raul.

Throughout Ray’s time in prison, his counsel sought to free him using many and varied legal approaches. As the years have marched by, the conspiracy theories reported in the media and in
the many books which have been published serve to maintain interest and confusion in the “who shot King” mystery.