General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsAfter 50 years, my dad still believes MLK assassination was a conspiracy.
My elderly dad is a white, Southern, moderate-to-conservative Democrat (and former Republican) who typically buys official statements from every law enforcement agency except for the MLK assassination. He is convince that James Earl Ray was not smart enough to kill King, flee the scene and make it all the way to London. I tend to think Ray acted alone, but what do you think. Does dad have a point?
HipChick
(25,485 posts)They are usually right...your Dad has a point...
VOX
(22,976 posts)Why Martin Luther Kings Family Believes James Earl Ray Was Not His Killer
History Stories // by Becky Little // APRIL 4, 2018
<snip>
Its not clear when Coretta Scott King, widow of Dr. King, began to believe in Rays innocence. But almost immediately after her husbands assassination, she suspected that the FBI, which had investigated the murder, was involved in it.
There is abundant evidence of a major high level conspiracy in the assassination of my husband, Martin Luther King, Jr., Coretta King said at a press conference in 1999, according to The King Center. It was a theory she maintained until her death in 2006 that has so far never been proven. Yet given the way the bureau had treated her and her family, her suspicion of the FBI and its conclusions about her husbands killer came from a very reasonable place, says John McMillian, a history professor at Georgia State University.
During the 1950 and 60s, the FBI surveilled and harassed Dr. King, his family, and his associates. The bureau wiretapped his phone and monitored his movements, taking advantage of times when he seemed particularly upset or depressed. In one instance, the FBI sent him an tape that allegedly contained audio of him having an affair. With it came a letter threatening Dr. King with public exposure if he didnt kill himself, and claiming that the sender had evidence of other affairs.
<snip>
Aristus
(66,487 posts)The whole idea of someone not 'being smart eough' to kill another human being and make an escape is a little unrealistic.
Anyway, James Earl Ray was apprehended, arrested, tried, convicted, and sentenced. If he was really intelligent, he would have gotten away with it.
It's a rather understandable desire to want people to be incapable of committing the unthinkable alone. It makes some people less anxious (God knows why...) to think that there is a shadowy cabal controlling everything, and that every world-changing event, like the assassinations of JFK, RFK, and MLK are all part of a well-planned and executed formula for changing (or preserving) whatever it is the Illuminati guys want.
RandySF
(59,542 posts)He believes that Oswald and Sirhan acted alone in killing the Kennedys.
dsc
(52,172 posts)which would likely have let him get away with it for a decade or so. Had he gotten to South Africa he might have made it to the 1990's. He only got caught by Canada doing a painstaking search of passports granted in the time he got his.
Farmer-Rick
(10,222 posts)Organized crime. The KKK had been paying the mob to murder MLK for years and KKK members were starting to grumble. So organized crime got on the ball and hired a gun man.
Of course the FBI looked the other way and let it happen because they had info on Hoover as a cross dresser.
hedda_foil
(16,376 posts)Unfortunately that was. back when being gay was a crime and devastated lives.
EffieBlack
(14,249 posts)Thats an urban legend started by a mob lawyers ex-wife who claimed she saw him dressed as a woman at a couple of parties where he had sex with Roy Cohn, her husband and several young boys while someone read to him from the Bible. Not only is the story ridiculous, no one else has ever claimed to have seen such a thing, but, for some reason, her story has become urban legend.
gopiscrap
(23,766 posts)EffieBlack
(14,249 posts)There were a number of people and groups who wanted Dr. Kng dead and word floated all around of various bounties on his head. I believe that James Earl Ray was well aware of these bounties - they were fairly common knowledge especially in prisons and among criminals - and decided to kill Dr. King and collect some money AND be a hero in a crowd he admired, no longer just a two bit petty thief. He did the deed but instead of being hailed a hero, he just became an even more pathetic loser than he already was. And he probably never collected a nickel.