James Earl Ray photos, letters, recovered

[seamusTX]

James Earl Ray assassinated Martin Luther King Jr in 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee. (I realize this is now ancient history to some young adults.) Ray died of natural causes in prison in 1998.

Recently a misplaced file of photos of Ray at the time of his arrest and trial, letters that he wrote from prison, and other papers were discovered in the Shelby County archives. According to reports, they seem to reveal nothing striking about Ray or his motives.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/stor ... =134984503" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Ray's murky past (including numerous felony convictions), lack of a clear motive other than being a racist, and flight to Europe using a forged passport have given rise to conspiracy theories, none of which has been proven—as they never are.

- Jim

[WildBill]

James Earl Ray assassinated Martin Luther King Jr in 1968 in Memphis, Tennessee. (I realize this is now ancient history to some young adults.) Ray died of natural causes in prison in 1998.

Recently a misplaced file of photos of Ray at the time of his arrest and trial, letters that he wrote from prison, and other papers were discovered in the Shelby County archives. According to reports, they seem to reveal nothing striking about Ray or his motives.
- Jim

There's a couple of interesting photos here. Although, I have never seen a "mug shot" of a prisoners back.

[seamusTX]

Usually you see that kind of mug shot with prisoners who have notable tattoos or scars.

Maybe knowing that they had a notorious prisoner, they wanted to record the circumstances more thoroughly. Standards probably changed quite a bit after Oswald was assassinated.

- Jim

[ELB]

The article states the Sheriff wanted the photos taken to prove that Ray was not being mistreated during his in-processing. No "falls down the stairs" I guess.

[WildBill]

The article states the Sheriff wanted the photos taken to prove that Ray was not being mistreated during his in-processing. No "falls down the stairs" I guess.

He was fully clothed, so it would be hard to tell from the photo. I guess they were "covering all angles" so to speak.