James Earl Ray

[John Simkin]

Secret Files That Would Have Proven James Earl Ray Not Guilty

March 22nd, 2006

In the first House Select Committee on Assassinations 1977 interview with James Earl Ray, Chief Counsel Richard Sprague agreed with Ray and his legal team that all materials concerning the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. as well as President John F. Kennedy (including CIA, FBI and other intelligence agency files) should be made available to them as well as the committee. Mr. Sprague, Ray and Ray's legal team believed the files would produce evidence that Ray did not shoot Martin Luther King Jr.

One week later Richard Sprague was forced to resign his post because he found it impossible to do his job with the requirement that he sign a secrecy agreement before he could view the files he requested. He did not believe he could properly investigate a US Government Department or Agency if he agreed to keep secret the proof that Ray wasn't the assassin of King.

Chief Counsel Richard Sprague is heard saying that he too believes all CIA, FBI and other files having anything to do with the entire matter (MLK and JFK's assassination) should be made available to the committee and Ray's legal team. It is believed that the files will contain proof that Ray was 'handled' via methods used by the Intelligence services and set up to take the wrap for the MLK assassination.

It is now known that in the 1960's President Lyndon Johnson set up the 'Domestic Operations Division' (Another DOD) to carry out special operations within the United States which would be separate but support Defense Department, NSA and FBI operations of national security interest. CIA agents in the US and throughout the world could be directed from the White House via the use of a secret communication channel between the agent in the field and the President labeled CRITICOM (Critical Communication). In the execution of an assassination or what would be established as a legal execution of a clear and present danger to the national security of the United States of America a very simple VOCO (Verbal Order of the Commanding Officer) could be the triggering mechanism. This kind of operation would have no paperwork to prove that it ever happened and any coincidental evidence would be classified top secret and never released to the public until such time as it could be confused or would be useless for investigative purposes.

James Earl Ray, Attorneys Jack and Mary Kershaw and Gary Revel-Special Investigator and Richard Sprague believed that the CIA had files that would produce evidence of a US Government-Organized Crime connection with Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination. Ray's admission that he was given a phone number by Raoul to call for instructions and help when needed connected organized crime. That phone number turned out to be the number for a motel in New Orleans owned by Mafia Boss Carlos Marcello.

Former D. C. Congressional Delegate Walter Fountroy chaired the House Select Committee on Assassinations for a period of time and discovered his telephones and television were bugged. Fauntroy said in a 1999 trial that Richard Sprague's replacement, Robert Blakey, did not follow up on James Earl Ray's request for files from the CIA and others. What is clear is that Mr. Blakey would have signed a secrecy agreement with the CIA and others for whatever information he received thus even if he knew today that James Earl Ray was innocent he would be legally bound not to say so.

http://www.bestsyndication.com/Articles/20...es_earl_ray.htm

[John Geraghty]

I found this article, which gives some hope that the King assassination may be re-opened. The columnist takes the stance that Ray was involved, but the government was complicit. John Judge of the Office of Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney respnds online to the article.

http://www.alternet.org/columnists/story/32964/

John

[John Simkin]

William C. Sullivan, who investigated the murder of MKL, wrote this in his book, The Bureau: My Thirty Years in Hoover's FBI (1979):

I was convinced that James Earl Ray killed Martin Luther King, but I doubt if he acted alone. Ray was so stupid that I don't think he could have robbed a five- and ten-cent store. He was not only stupid, he was sloppy. He left the rifle he used to shoot King in an alley, and he left beer cans covered with his fingerprints in the tnmk of his abandoned car. Ray could have left the gun in his room, or if he was smart he could have opened a hole in the wall and hid it there. He could even have broken the gun down into two pieces and carried it out in a small box, but he was sloppy. And stupid.

Someone, I feel sure, taught Ray how to get a false Canadian passport, how to get out of the country, and how to travel to Europe because he could never have managed it alone. And how did Ray pay for the passport and the airline tickets? Ray's brother told the FBI, "My brother would never do anything unless he was richly paid."

Thanks to all the clues he'd left we knew we were after Ray, but we had a hell of a time finding his whereabouts. As the weeks passed, the pressure on the FBI to find him grew. Johnson was giving us hell because Ray was a political liability and would remain so until he was in custody. There were rumors about Ray and the FBI: first, people said that we didn't want to find Ray; then they started saying that the FBI itself had a hand in King's murder. We had a lead that Ray had gone to Mexico, but we couldn't find him there or anywhere else.

As a matter of course, I had asked the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to help us find Ray. One night in early June, two months after King was shot, I got a call at home at eleven at night from Bill Kelly, deputy commissioner of the RCMP and a close friend. "I think we've solved your case," he said. The RCMP had painstakingly gone

through 250,000 passport applications, checking pictures and hand writing, until they came up with Ray's alias. It worked; they traced him for us from Canada to Portugal (where he had been living with prostitutes) to England. He had tried to rob a bank in England to get some money, but naturally he bungled the job. We asked the British to move in and pick him up, which they did.

At our request, the British forgot about the bank robbery attempt so that we could bring him back to the United States on a murder charge.

Ray was in custody in London for two days before Hoover released the story to the press. He waited until the day of Bobby Kennedy's funeral to break the news so that the FBI could steal the headline from Kennedy one last time. I told Hoover that we should give the credit for Ray's capture to the RCMP. Hoover said no and the FBI falsely got the credit.

[David S. Brownlee]

I'm nowhere near the expert that you are on the MLK killing. But I'm not stupid. JFK was murdered - a coup. MLK was shot through the heart with a HP rifle as well. The saddest thing for me is the lack of interest in the most obvious slaying...one shot behind the ear for RFK. This assassination says more about our country than anything. Sirhan...lol...there is much that I will skip here for knowledgeable RFK students. RFK was murdered at the height of the "we can get away with it" conservatives. One behind the ear.

These same people are in charge. Nancy Pelosi?....I dunno...let's give her our prayers. Gettem Nancy.