Who Killed Martin Luther King Jr.?
Martin Luther King, Jr. was the most popular and respected civil rights leader of our time. Unfortunately, there were many people against Dr. King’s movement for peace and equality for all people. An escaped convict by the name of James Earl Ray was the sniper that was convicted of taking the life of one of the most respected and celebrated civil rights leaders in history. However, there are many people that believe that the death of Dr. King is a very well conducted conspiracy with James Earl Ray being the scapegoat who took the fall.
The man that was convicted of killing Martin Luther King, Jr. was James Earl Ray. Ray served in Germany in the Army during World War II. However, after serving in the military, Ray began a life of crime, serving time in prison for armed robbery and mail fraud.
After another incident of armed robbery, Ray was sentenced to twenty years in a federal prison. However, in 1967, Ray escaped from prison by hiding in a truck that was carrying bread from the bakery prison.
James Earl Ray would later be accused of killing Martin Luther King, Jr. while he was out of prison. Most believe that Ray shot King in the neck while standing on the balcony at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. It is said that Ray dropped the Remington 760 Gamesmater rifle and a small personal radio which had his prison ID engraved upon it, making it possible for authorities to identify Ray as the assassin.
Conspiracy Theory
While James Earl Ray was convicted of murdering Martin Luther King, Jr. and was sentenced to ninety-nine years in prison for the crime, there are many people that believe the death of Dr. King was an extensive plot and a very well orchestrated conspiracy.
Although James Earl Ray confessed to killing Dr. King, he later recanted the confession and tried to obtain a trial with no success. There are many people that believe that Ray was used by the government to end the life of Martin Luther King, Jr. as there were many people at the time that did not approve of King’s beliefs and the uprising that he was causing in relation to struggling for civil rights for all people.
Those that believe in the conspiracy theory claim that James Earl Ray, an escaped convict, did not have the resources to stalk and kill a very well protected prominent civil rights leader without assistance from a more established outside source. Dexter King, one of Dr. King’s sons, believed that there was government involvement in the death of Dr. King and he visited James Earl Ray while he was in prison to support the fact that he didn’t believe that Ray killed his father.
Although James Earl Ray was convicted of the assassination and died in prison serving a ninety-nine year sentence for the assassination, there've been a number of developments that make the assassination remain a mystery.
The discovery that a local diner owner by the name of Lloyd Jowers was a co-conspirator in the assassination plot made the death of King even more nebulous. Jowers insisted that Lt. Earl Clark of the Memphis Police Department fired the shots that would kill Dr. King. Jowers also stated that there was a very intricate plan involving local, state and federal officials and the Mafia to kill Martin Luther King, Jr. and that James Earl Ray was simply used as a scapegoat to orchestrate the whole assassination.
Government officials investigated Lloyd Jowers claims but were not able to determine that there was any truth to his claims. Thus, the mystery around Martin Luther King’s killer continues.