A Shot Against Freedom: The Assassination of Martin Luther King

A Shot Against Freedom: The Assassination of Martin Luther King

James Earl Ray was the perfect man to fit the description of King's murderer. He was a white, racist, petty criminal, an army throw-away, a nobody trying to make a name for himself. He left the perfect evidence behind as well, a rifle with his prints, and a personal radio with his prison ID engraved on it. James was also quite an unstable individual. At his own request, in 1966 Ray began psychological counseling to quiet the voices in his head (Gribben 2005). It turned out to be something of a mistake, because the authorities that had watched him do his time quietly with only that one rule violation learned they had a neurotic, obsessive-compulsive paranoid on their hands.

James Earl Ray managed to stay out of trouble as a child -- a little truant, perhaps, but generally not a bad kid. He had it rough; his family was poor, they moved around frequently, thanks to a couple of shiftless relatives that made life difficult in the small towns in the Midwest the family lived in. He was accused of theft in the sixth grade, and by the time he was 15, he had had enough of school. He got his first taste of prison life after joining the Army and getting sent to Germany in the years following World War II. Seems James liked to drink and got himself arrested by the MPs on a drunk and disorderly charge. He was sentenced to 90 days hard labor in the stockade (Gribben 2005). When he got out of the service, he began drifting around and spending a few nights in jail for vagrancy. His first big arrest came in 1949 and he served eight months in a California jail for burglary (Fisher 2006). In 1952, he did two years for an armed robbery of a taxi driver in Illinois (Fisher 2006). With all of these facts it would seem that James was the most probable suspect, but one would be wrong to make those generalizations without the whole picture.

Doubts about Earl being the assassin of King have been widespread since almost directly after the time that King was murdered. Many have speculated that the FBI, especially J. Edgar Hoover, was involved in the murder of Martin Luther King. J. Edgar Hoover had a strong contempt for Martin Luther King. Hoover wasn't necessarily a racist; he just hated anybody who challenged his almost omnipotent power over the American justice system (Lane 58). Hoover didn't like civil rights leaders, he didn't like antiwar protesters, he didn't like social activists and he especially didn't like communists. Hoover shaped the FBI into his image, and made their priorities his priorities. A statement of Hoover's manipulation was mad by Arthur Murtagh, an agent of the FBI at the time: "Hoover was a very clever man -he was a clever dictator. He knew that if he could divide and conquer he'd be successful in controlling the people." (Melanson 69) Other investigations were done into the FBI after Hoover's death and many illegal activities were discovered. The FBI was big on counterintelligence for the degradation of black activists.

We Had files -counterintelligence files where you had to periodically submit schemes for counterintelligence. I had a guy, working under me, to whom this intelligence file was assigned... Any kind of scheme would do -it didn't make a difference. They were directed against the Klan as well as against blacks in civil rights, but mostly against the blacks... The bureau had a penchant for foraged letters, and for attacking people on a sex angle. (Lane 67)

Sexual black-mail was attempted on King with direct evidence of Hoover's involvement. A microphone was concealed at a party where King was present and allegedly "sexual noises" were recorded. The tape was planned on being sent to Loretta King, Martin Luther King's wife, in an attempt to ruin his reputation (Lane 70). His wife received the tape, but it was a poor black-mail attempt. Loretta gave Martin the tape, and he knew after that moment that he could not trust the FBI.

Another interesting FBI mission was the "Destroy King" plan (Melanson 75). It apparently originated mostly out of the Atlanta office but also came out of New York and Washington field offices. Many other offices were also speculated to have been involved. According to agent Murtagh of the FBI "...There was a crew of people who did almost nothing for a period of seven or eight years, except investigate King and try to destroy him." (Lane 91) The FBI had apparently tapped many locations that King frequented in order to obtain information for black-mail or other resources. King was even reportedly bugged in Sweden when he collected his Noble Prize. Concerted efforts were made to humiliate King in any way. Luckily those efforts fell very short.

King spent the evening of April 3 into the early hours of April 4 in a strategy session with aides, and at about 4:30 a.m. he returned to the Lorraine where his brother, the Rev. A.D. Williams King, Georgia Davis and Lucie Ward met him (Gribben 2005). The two brothers spent about a half-hour with the women before Martin Luther King Jr. returned to the room he was sharing with the Rev. Ralph Abernathy. Thirty minutes after returning to his room, King once again met with Davis in a separate room. He remained there for about an hour before returning to his own room.

It was not until the early afternoon that King emerged from the hotel room, as Andrew Young went to court instead of King to fight the restraining order. King spent much of the afternoon with Davis, his brother, Ward and Abernathy. Sometime between 5:30 p.m. and 5:45 p.m. - Abernathy and Davis disagree on the time - King and Abernathy returned to their own hotel room to change for dinner. The entire group was headed for a meal at the home of a local minister, the Rev. Billy Kyles (Lane 100).

At 6 p.m., King and Abernathy emerged from their second-story room onto the balcony of the Lorraine (Lane 101). King initiated a conversation with his driver, Solomon Jones, about the weather and Jones advised King to grab a coat, as the weather was turning chilly. King acknowledged Jones' comment and started to turn toward his room. At that instant, Jones later told authorities that he heard a sound he assumed to be