Adam's Works on Paper ONILNE Auction Ending August 10th 2020

101 Works on Paper 280 RAY, JAMES EARL. [MARTIN LUTHER KING ASSASSIN] Incarcerated Ray fears that the FBI is involved in a conspiracy and trying to kill him Single page ALS, dated “June 14, 1977”, and signed “James E. Ray” . Written in the hand of James Earl Ray to his to his attorney Jack Keshaw, just one day after his recapture following his escape from Brushy mountain State Penitentiary in Tennessee. In the letter he seeks protection from a transfer to Federal Prison. “Mr. Jack Keshaw June 14, 1977 Atty at law Nashville, Tenn Dear Jack, There have been reports here that I will be transferred to a federal prison shortly. Inasmuch as this would be clearly illegal & will if necessary result such a transfer by physical force. It would be a simple matter for the F.B.I. to kill or have anyone killed in the federal system. I would suggest that no transfer be made until state officials discuss it with you. James E Ray 65477 P.O. Box - 73 Petros, Tn 37840 ... “ 9 years after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Ray is once again seeks a new trial and permeant deferment from being moved to a federal prison. We know that just days later James Earl Ray’s newly appointed attorney, Jack Kershaw, had chimed in with legal support for Ray’s pleas to remain and not be transferred and included citing reasons of “Sadly, there is sound reasons for suspecting that the F.B.I. Or other government elements may be involved in the murder of Dr. King, the ready access that F.B.I. agents have to Federal prisons may then be a dangerous situation for this particular inmate, Mr. Ray, since it is thought by serious students of the Ray case that he was used by a conspiracy ...”, and that “In connection with the above, Mr. Ray himself informs me that one of the escapees (Hill) in the recent prison-break at Petros was brutally beaten by F.B.I agents ... “ Jack Kershaw promoted Ray’s claim that he was not responsible for the shooting, which was said to have been the result of a conspiracy of the other- wise unidentified man named “Raul”. Kershaw and his client met with representatives of the United States House Select Committee on Assassinations and convinced the committee to conduct ballistics tests-which ultimately proved inconclusive-that they felt would show that Ray had not fired the fatal shot. Kershaw further claimed the escape was additional proof that Ray had been involved in a conspiracy that had provided him with the outside assistance he would have needed to break out of jail. Kershaw convinced Ray to take a polygraph test as part of an interview with Playboy. The mag- azine said that the test results showed “that Ray did, in fact, kill Martin Luther King Jr. and that he did so alone.” Ray fired Kershaw after discovering the attorney had been paid $11,000 by the magazine in exchange for the interview and hired conspiracy theorist Mark Lane, an American attorney who investigated and championed the CIA and FBI conspiracy theories revolving around the death of JFK, to provide him with legal representation. The odd and perplexing ending to this saga occurred in 1997, a year before James Earl Ray’s death, when King’s son Dexter had a meeting with Ray and asked him, “I just want to ask you, for the record, did you kill my father?” Ray replied, “No. No I didn’t,” and King told Ray that he, along with the King family, believed him; the King family also urged that Ray be granted a new trial. Dr. William Pepper, a friend of King in the last year of his life, represented Ray in a televised mock trial in an attempt to grant him the trial he never re- ceived. In November 1999 Pepper represented the King family in a wrongful death civil trial against Loyd Jowers, a restaurant owner in Memphis who was brought to civil court in December 1999 and sued for being part of a conspiracy to murder Martin Luther King Jr. He was found legally liable, and the King family accepted $100 in restitution, an amount chosen to show that they were not pursuing the case for financial gain. The jury, concluding on December 8, 1999, found that Loyd Jowers as well as others, including governmental agencies had been part of a conspiracy. The King family has since concluded that Ray did not have anything to do with the murder of Martin Luther King Jr. James Earl Ray died in 1998, along with his secrets. € 800 - 1,200