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By WILLIAM BRADFORD HUM JAMES EARL RAY REALLY BELIEVED THAT KILLING MARTIN LUTHER KING WOULD MAKE HIM a NATIONAL HERO. the DAMN

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By WILLIAM BRADFORD HUM JAMES EARL RAY REALLY BELIEVED THAT KILLING MARTIN LUTHER KING WOULD MAKE HIM a NATIONAL HERO. the DAMN By WILLIAM BRADFORD HUM JAMES EARL RAY REALLY BELIEVED THAT KILLING MARTIN LUTHER KING WOULD MAKE HIM A NATIONAL HERO. THE DAMN FOOL DID IT, AND HE DID IT ALONE. o those of us assistance, worked on his who know that story until March 10,1969, lames Earl Ray, when he pleaded guilty and alone, killed Dr. was sentenced to 99 years in Martin Luther the Tennessee state peniten- TKing, Jr., in Memphis, Ten- tiary. Clark, Foreman and I nessee, on April 4, 1968, the are Southerners who sup- current congressional "in- ported King and the move- vestigation" of this nine- ment for racial change in the year-old murder case is a South. Our credentials for shameful waste of public finding truth in racial money and a contemptible murder cases are far superi- concession to the conspiracy or to those of any of the con- racket. gressmen or any of the 170 When I say "those of us bureaucrats who are to who know:* t speak of be profitably"investigating" Ramsey Clark, who was at- this case for two years. If torney general of the United Clark. Foreman and I canIt States when Ray killed King: be believed in the Ray case, and of Percy Foreman, who then no one can. was one of Ray's attorneys; An "investigating" con- and of myself. I bought Ray's gressman tells us on televi- story and the right to portray sion, "We must remember him in films. and, with Ray's that Ray quickly rescinded William Bradford Huie is the author of a number of books, including The Klansman, The Execution of Private Slovik, The Americanization of Emily. and He Slew the Dreamer: My Search for the Truth about James Earl Ray and the Murder of Martin Luther King. ILLUSTRATiON BY JOHN YOU5SI his guilty plea!" abroad, published two installments of worthless:' I told him. "Eight months You think that's significant, do you, my "pre-trial" Ray story. What I ago, on Meet the Press, Attorney Gen- Congressman? You think Ray's re- wrote pleased Ray for I presented his eral Ramsey Clark said there was no scinding his plea justifies an expen- account of how he escaped from the evidence that anyone other than 00; sive new investigation? Nonsense. Missouri state prison on April 23, James Earl Ray was involved in the When he was preparing to kill Mar- 1967, and of how he lived, got money, murder of Dr. King. Mr. Hanes. Mr. tin Luther King, Ray believed that the altered his appearance with plastic Foreman and I, with your help, have murder would make him a hero to surgery, and traveled as a fugitive un- tried to find evidence that someone most Americans; that farnousiawyers til March 31, 1968. else was involved, All we have done would volunteer to defend him at I had agreed that only after Flay had is corroborate Mr. Clark's statement." their own expense; that a jury proba- been tried and sentenced would I The most ironic experience of my bly would not convict him; that if a publish my account of how and why writing career was my effort to make jury did pronounce him guilty he'd King had been murdered. Before the Ray and his brothers understand that soon be freed by President George trial I would publish only what Ray my book about him could not be sold, Wallace; and that his "story" in a wanted published. After his trial and and that therefore no film about Ray book and a film would be worth sentencing I would publish only the was ever likely to be made, because "millions:' truth as I saw it. Ray, in return for my Ray alone had murdered King! After the murder Ray was jolted by advancing money for his defense, had My publishers, in the United States a series of disappointments. contracted to furnish me, directly and and in Europe, wanted me to deliver a When he was arrested in London on through his lawyers, the entire truth. book titled They Slew the Dreamer June 8, 1968, he expected the famous (from the Biblical story of Joseph: lawyers to begin volunteering to de- "And they said one to another, Be- fend him. But only one lawyer volun- When he was preparing hold, this dreamer cometh. Come teered, and he wasn't famous. He was to kill Martin Luther King, now therefore, and let us slay him ... J.B. Stoner, of Savannah, Georgia, Ray believed that the and we shall see what will become of long associated with the Ku Klux his dreams"). Now I had informed my Klan. And not even Stoner wanted to murder would make him publishers that my title could only be defend Ray for the honor and the pub- a hero to most He Slew the Dreamer. We knew, fur- licity in it. Stoner wanted to defend Americans... thermore, that though I could write him while raising a "national defense the book effectively, and they could fund:' publish it handsomely, it wouldn't Ray then asked his court-appointed Ray was pleased with his contract sell. Nor would anyone want the film British lawyer to call F. Lee Bailey in with me. What continued to distress rights. Ray was so naive as to think Boston and convey to him the good him as his trial approached was that that the story of how he slew the news that Ray wanted Bailey to de- he didn't have a famous lawyer. He dreamer was bound to be a big hook fend him. When Bailey told Ray, in was angrier still when, after Sirhan and film. He couldn't understand that effect, to go to hell, Ray was flab- Sirhan killed Robert Kennedy, fa- what book readers and film viewers bergasted. In desperation he was re- mous lawyers volunteered to defend want is conspiracy... how a cabal of duced to calling a capable lawyer but Sirhan. Wasn't Ray more important rich, cruel racists conspired to not a famous one, Arthur Hanes, of than Sirhan? Ray wrote to me that he murder a famous man they hated ... Birmingham, who had defended the deserved to be defended by "a battery or even better, how the FBI or the CIA Klansmen who murdered Viola of famous lawyers." At Ray's insis- conspired to end the dreams of Mar- Liuzza on the last day of the Selma tence his brothers kept trying to em- tin Luther King. march. Hanes went to London, agreed ploy Foreman, and in November "A trial can be helpful only if you to defend Ray, but not until Ray had 1968, Ray eagerly dismissed Hanes tell the truth," I said to Ray. "The sold his story and film rights to me and employed Foreman by transfer- state's case against you has already for an advance to Hanes of $30,000. ring from one man to the other further been published. None of it can be re- (The cash went to Hanes because Ray prospective monies from his book futed. A plea of guilty by you will as- couldn't keep money or have money and film deal with me. Ray assured sure the commercial failure of our owed to him. Any money coming to Percy Foreman that his portion of the book. But it can sell only a few thou- him had to be "protected" by a law- earnings from the book and film sand copies anyway. I hope you'll yer's lien. Otherwise it could be would be "a minimum of $400,000:' stand up in court and tell the truth. seized in a civil action by King's At Ray's insistence I advanced to You won't be widely believed. But widow. Ray didn't need to be told Foreman $10,000 against Ray's antici- you will have told the truth:' In tell- this. Like Caryl Chessman he had pated earnings. ing the court how he alone murdered spent years studying law in prison li- Dr. King, Ray did tell the truth. Only Dui braries.) Only by dealing with me did Red Cents and Wooden Nickels once did he lie. At the end of his Ray escape the ignominy of his hav- By the middle of February 1969, statement he blurted out, "... but ing to be defended in Memphis by the Ray's trial had been scheduled to there was a conspiracy!" public defender. begin on March 10. Foreman couldn't I felt sorry for him when he said During the fall of 1968, Hanes, after get it postponed again. I had com- that. He had learned from me that the pleading Ray not guilty at the ar- pleted my investigation. so it was only way he could keep anybody in- raignment, was preparing for trial. time for me to jolt Ray with another terested in him from that point on Look magazine, and other magazines disappointment. "Your story is was to use that "selling" word, con- 26 sice?tk spiracy, To keep himself from being made a political investment in King, waited in darkness outside his house forgotten he would now have to deny ordered the FBI to "bug" him and see with a shotgun, and I could have that he had ever been a hero whose that his sexual and ideological con- killed him and had an excellent story was worth millions and who de- duct didn't embarrass them: and chance of never being identified. For served to be defended by F. Lee therefore the FBI may have murdered a thousand dollars I could have hired Bailey, Percy Foreman and a battery King or have been less than zealous in an experienced killer to do it.
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