ray, james earl

Documents the fatefully entwined stories of assassin, James Earl Ray and his target, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the turbulent forces that led to the violent and tragic event in Memphis on April 4, 1968.

James L. Swanson weaves together Martin Luther King Jr.'s tumultuous last year and the path taken by a mysterious, lifelong criminal---James Earl Ray---a prison escapee who ended the celebrated civil rights leader's life.

"James Earl Ray and Martin Luther King, Jr. had two very different life journeys -- but their paths fatally collide when Ray assassinates the world-renown civil rights leader. This book provides an inside look into both of their lives, the history of the time, and a blow-by-blow examination of the assassination and its aftermath."--Provided by publisher.

"This fast-paced history traces the escalating racial violence that led to the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and then documents how Klan lawyer Arthur J. Hanes and checkbook journalist William Bradford Huie aided the evolution of James Earl Ray's bogus alibi"--Provided by publisher.

April, 1967: a prison escape. James Earl Ray, nondescript thief and con man, drifts through the South, into Mexico, and then Los Angeles, where he is galvanized by George Wallace's racist presidential campaign. February, 1968: a Memphis garbage strike. Martin Luther King joins the sanitation workers' cause, but their march turns violent. King vows to return to Memphis in April. Historian Sides follows Ray and King as they crisscross the country, one stalking the other, until the drifter catches up with his prey. Against the backdrop of the resulting nationwide riots and the pathos of King's funeral, Sides gives us a cross-cut narrative of the assassin's flight and the 65-day search that led investigators to Canada, Portugal, and England--a massive manhunt ironically led by Hoover's FBI. Drawing on previously unpublished material, this nonfiction thriller illuminates how history is so often a matter of the petty bringing down the great--From publisher description.

Reexamines the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., looking at some of the puzzles that have sprung up during the thirty years in which convicted shooter James Earl Ray has been in prison, and discussing the life of Ray, a chronic troublemaker who grew up to be a career criminal.

Reexamines the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., looking at some of the puzzles that have sprung up during the thirty years in which convicted shooter James Earl Ray has been in prison, and discussing the life of Ray, a chronic troublemaker who grew up to be a career criminal.

John Larry Ray, eldest brother of James Earl Ray, argues that his brother could not have assassinated Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and was instead set up as the fall guy for a dangerous government conspiracy.