Doubts about James Earl Ray, Dr. Martin Luther King's lone
assassin, arose almost immediately after the civil rights leader
was fatally shot on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis on
4 April 1968. From the start, his aides voiced suspicions that a
conspiracy was responsible for their leader's death. Over time many
Americans became convinced the government investigations covered up
the truth about the alleged assassin. Exactly what led Ray to kill
King continues to be a source of debate, as does his role in the
murder. However, Mel Ayton believe the answers to the many
intriguing questions about Ray and how conspiracy ideas flourished
can now be fully understood. Missing from the wild speculations
over the past fifty-two years has been a thorough investigation of
the character of King's assassin. Additionally, the author examines
exactly how the conspiracy notions came about and the falsehoods
that led to their promulgation. The Man Who Killed Martin Luther
King is the first full account of the life of James Earl Ray based
on scores of interviews provided to government and non-government
investigators and from the FBI's and Scotland Yard's files plus the
recently released Tennessee Department of Corrections prison record
on Ray. Most importantly, the testimony of Anna Sandhu has often
been ignored by writers but her story is crucial in gaining an
understanding of Ray's deceptive ways. A courtroom artist, who,
after listening to Ray's story, later married him. Also missing
from accounts of the alleged conspiracy' is the story told to this
author by Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary Deputy Warden Rolland
H. Cisson, which decisively renders Ray's claims of innocence to be
bogus. In the short-lived freedom he acquired after escaping from
the Missouri State Penitentiary in 1967, following being sentenced
to twenty years in prison for repeated offences, he travelled to
Los Angeles and decided to seek notoriety as the one who would
stalk and kill Dr. King, who he had come to hate vehemently. From
the time of King's murder, the reader will follow Ray to solitary
confinement in a Nashville prison. Then, six years later, on 10
June 1977, James Earl Ray again escaped from prison, this time with
five others. Ray was the last to be recaptured, having survived
only on wheatgerm. Finally, the book relays Ray's stabbing by
several black inmates, then his resulting diagnosis with Hepatitis
C, which caused his death twelve years later, in 1998.
General
Imprint: |
Frontline Books
|
Country of origin: |
United Kingdom |
Release date: |
March 2023 |
Authors: |
Mel Ayton
|
Dimensions: |
234 x 156mm (L x W) |
Format: |
Hardcover
|
Pages: |
224 |
ISBN-13: |
978-1-399-08138-2 |
Categories: |
Books >
Social sciences >
Politics & government >
General
|
LSN: |
1-399-08138-1 |
Barcode: |
9781399081382 |
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