Some parental conversations aren’t like others. How would you feel if your former detective/professor father pulls you aside one day and shows you a thick cache of personal letters from a Tennessee inmate named James Earl Ray? Then he tells you about visiting Ray’s maximum-security facility multiple times for interviews. A long conversation ensued, as you can imagine. This little powwow occurred a few years ago and I’ve been sitting on it.
“What on earth inspired you to pick up the phone to request a prison face-to-face?” I recently asked.
I still can’t quite wrap my head around it. Here we are, discussing his actual involvement with a historical villain—Martin Luther King, Jr’s assassin!
A hot potato doesn’t describe it. Not even close. Once you’re told, it’s more of a malignant Ring of Power. A cancer … evil, vicious, choking thing you’re carrying around and frankly nobody wants to hear about it. Not really. Slam thy palms to thine eyes and read no further. Well, unless you’re like me—hopelessly and morbidly curious.
None of the following classifies as a bona fide secret, as far as I’m told. It’s just that less than a handful know of Prof. Alex Taylor’s involvement with Martin Luther King Jr.’s and James Earl Ray’s intelligence gathering and conspiracy defense. As far as Dad’s prison interviews, my mind flashed the scene in Silence of the Lambs where Clarice meets Hannibal Lecter for the first time. Of course, it was not like that at all, Dad described. No creepy walk past caged, ejaculate-tossing psychopaths, and no thick glass wall. It was a brightly-lit room with a table, chairs, and armed monitors keeping tabs on a frail old man. Let’s park it there for a moment and hit rewind.
Some 55 years ago, during my father’s early detective years, he was assigned to observe, document, and report what might have been considered by the FBI as subversive activity by communist-minded (or accused) black activists.
One of Ray’s letters concerns a possible recording taken of one of King’s confidants—a psychiatrist and lawyer named J. Dennis Jackson who years later became entangled with narcotics charges in Atlanta. The purported recording is of a speech Jackson delivered at Bethune-Cookman College (now University) in Jacksonville, 1968—two months prior to the shooting. As the story goes, my father was privy to certain rhetoric within that speech (what he and his superiors labeled as “good intelligence”) tied to ongoing investigations and insight into Dr. King’s demeanor. It also provided potential insight into King’s inner circle. Florida Governor Claude R. Kirk was made aware and became interested in the intelligence. He immediately contacted Tampa’s mayor, Dick Greco, who phoned Tampa Police Department’s Chief James “Babe” Littleton. They whisked my father to a Coast Guard base in St. Petersburg where he was flown to Tallahassee for a personal briefing. Pretty big deal for a young detective. As far as Dad knew, nothing came of it, yet its memory could not be erased.
25 years later, as James Earl Ray’s health was failing and mounting evidence supported conspiracies involving the U.S. government and the mafia’s role in Dr. King’s murder, Dad decided to file the necessary paperwork to visit Ray in prison. There, they would discuss Jackson’s speech and its potential relevancy. More so, my father wanted to get a feel for the man, look him in the eyes, and use his own judgement. After all, James Earl Ray’s conspiracy had numerous detractors. He was, in fact, an escaped convict and former international fugitive.
After direct inquiries, Ray continued claiming innocence, stating his defender, Percy Foreman, sold him out and set him up. According to Ray, Foreman told him that Tennessee’s destined new governor, John Jay Hooker, Jr. and his father, Hooker Sr., were now on the case, and that Junior would pardon him in 2-3 years. That was his best shot, Foreman said. On that promise, Ray confessed. That’s what he said to my father.
Ray states in his book, Who Killed Martin Luther King Jr?, that Foreman never investigated the mysterious Raoul—the operator Ray claimed to have possession of his .30-06 rifle at the time of the shooting. The rifle was later found, and forensics matched Ray’s fingerprints. FBI and ballistics experts yielded inconclusive results, however. Conspiracy theories ensued and clogged popular media. Between this and the Kennedy assassinations, the accusations, questions, and conjecture became foreground noise, drowning out any interest in the actual truth. The general public accepted the Department of Justice’s narrative: Ray killed King, they had the rifle with his prints, they had a witness placing him at the scene, and they had Ray’s confession. Done.
In 1993, Ray’s final attorney, William “Bill” F. Pepper, arranged a televised mock trial on HBO. Ray was acquitted by the television jury. This meant nothing legally, but it did bring national attention back to Ray’s case. The King’s never believed Ray acted alone.
Ray, his attorneys, and my father continued exchanging letters over the next few years. Dad interviewed Ray four times in the early to mid-1990s, also corresponding and coordinating information with Ray’s legal team. Ray sent several letters to my father discussing case particulars. He hoped to gain a new trial and be released before dying. As interest and evidence mounted, President Bill Clinton ordered Attorney General Janet Reno in August 1998 to investigate new claims regarding the assassination. After 18 months, the Justice Department’s prosecutors found no credible evidence to support the claims, recommending no further inquiries. To comment, I’m sure nobody expected otherwise—the government tasking itself to investigate … itself.
For James Earl Ray, it no longer mattered. He died of acute kidney disease and liver failure from Hepatitis C in April 1998—before Clinton made that inquiry—unable to receive a transplant. According to Dad, Bill Pepper claimed to have arranged a transplant procedure at no cost to the state of TN, yet the prison stated they had no authority to allow the surgery. Ray died soon after.
Dad lost interest in continuing after Ray’s death. As well, he could be of no further help to the Kings. The lawyers had his information, although no recording of Dr. Jackson’s 1968 speech ever materialized. Pepper was heading towards a civil suit versus Lloyd Jowers—a man who claimed responsibility in working with the mafia and U.S. government to assassinate King. He fingered Memphis PD’s Lt. Earl Clark as the shooter. The King family, believing Ray never acted alone, continued with Pepper. The trial ended in 1999 with the Jowers, Memphis PD, the federal government, and unnamed co-conspirators civilly liable for King’s death. The award was $100 and it went to charity. The Kings weren’t after money, just the truth. It was a token win with no criminal consequences and little coverage. The country yawned. MLK remains a champion for racial equality, and the conspiracies remain a pesky static. If you’re wondering, my father sides with the Kings.
Oh, and the answer to the “What on earth inspired…” question? In early 1992, my father concluded a four-year run as a crime history columnist for the Gainesville Times. It had been 25 years since Dr. Jackson’s speech. Rumors of new evidence and an MLK family-backed prosecution of it were swirling. The Los Angeles race riots exploded with Rodney King’s beating. Racial justice was in the air prior to the election of Bill Clinton. Dad’s efforts to educate the public on a controversial Confederate reconstructionist was underway, as well as honoring a pioneer black educator, Beulah Rucker. Dad was sitting on a possible lead and became swept by the foul odor of government conspiracy not unlike those orbiting JFK’s assassination. That’s pretty much it. Leave no stone unturned …
Me? I will fully admit to ricocheting off the noise of so many who’ve opined general government mistrust. Insert the 10ft pole adage. The feds would never admit to such a conspiracy no matter the evidence or personal testimony. Not after a civil verdict, and not even with a white-hot smoking gun if it existed. They are the ultimate authority with limitless resources, and that’s the end of the story.
Okay, maybe not.
I plowed through Gerald Posner’s Killing the Dream, Hellhound on his Trail by Hampton Sides, William Pepper’s tome, The Plot to Kill King, and finally Who Killed Martin Luther King Jr.? authored by James Earl Ray. Of course, the entire issue of Ray’s potential innocence revolves around the existence of that clandestine operator named Raoul, a man who Ray says engineered the entire assassination plot, manipulating custody of the rifle, and planting a witness who testified seeing Ray exit the adjacent boarding house just after the shooting (a testimony later recanted).
MLK’s FBI files are set for declassification in 2027, although I’m not expecting any nuclear bombshells—not after JFK’s 2021 release.
Maybe Dad will get a mention.
