Today marks the 45th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. who was shot April 4th 1968 while standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel.
As part of our remembrance of his life and death, we wanted to offer a variety of different videos chronicling James Earl Ray’s life subsequent to his arrest and entry of a plea of guilty which led to his 99 year sentence and eventual death in prison in 1998, thiry years after King’s assassination. Anyone interested in more information should check out the comprehensive files and findings at the National Archives Findings of the MLK Assassination.
You can watch the videos below, beginning with the newly restored videotape of James Earl Ray’s return to Memphis to face trial for the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. have been released on the 45th anniversary of King’s death.
The Shelby County Register of Deeds has the following information on their website regarding their newly released films:
The following converted video tapes are a portion of the material obtained by the Shelby County Register/Archives’ Office in 2011 from the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office. Other material received at that time include logs for the period James Earl Ray was incarcerated in Shelby County and photographs of Ray as he was received by the Sheriff upon his extradition from London. Excluding this video footage, all material has previously been made available on the Shelby County Register’s website in the “Dr. Martin Luther King Assassination Investigation” exhibit.
In 1968, the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office purchased a Sony Videocorder and Video Camera for the purposes of documenting the extradition, incarceration, and proceedings as related to James Earl Ray for the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. It is believed that the personnel using the equipment were learning how to operate this technology as they recorded. As a result, the footage is not always as clear as we are accustomed to seeing today. Additional lighting is not used on most of the recordings. Audio portions are not always clear. There are inconsistencies in the video and audio tracks throughout the converted footage.
In this 1968 film, Bill Morris boards the plane on which the FBI returned James Earl Ray to Memphis, and reads him his rights. The tape further shows Ray’s arrival at the Shelby County Jail, where he was searched, examined by a doctor, and put into a cell.
View more videos at: http://nbcwashington.com.
Interview of James Earl Ray by John Auble, KST-TV St Louis (November 3, 1977). John Auble came to St. Louis in 1967 to work for the old St. Louis Globe. He scored a number of high-profile exclusives including the very first interview with James Earl Ray below.
Below is the Dan Rather interview with James Earl Ray inside the Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary (1977).
Part One:
Part Two:
You must be logged in to post a comment Login