HE DIDN'T LOOK LIKE JAMES EARL RAY

James Earl Ray has been in the news again in the past few days.  Photos have been re-released from 1968 when he was brought into Memphis from his capture in England a little over 2 months after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.  The pictures show Ray in shackles and a bulletproof vest, being posed with then Sheriff Bill Morris.  The capture and arrival in Memphis were big news back then. But you almost never hear about the time the next morning when Ray was taken from Memphis to prison.

This is that story…one told the next day and forgotten until now.

Ray confessed in a Memphis courtroom March 10, 1969. I was a reporter for WMC-TV in Memphis at the time.  I “just knew” Sheriff Morris would move Ray out of his Shelby County Jail to state prison that very night.  I asked my news director if I could take photographer Bernie Mintz and stakeout the jail in an effort to get film of Ray’s departure.  The boss told me no, saying there wouldn’t be a story there.  I still tried to make my case but he said he couldn’t afford the overtime.  I told him: “If I don’t get a story you don’t have to pay me.”   He agreed.

Bernie and I staked out the rear of the jail all night.  Sheriff Morris, who would become Shelby County Mayor and later would run for governor of Tennessee, knew we were there.  Frequently that night the sheriff and his men would flip the lights off across the rear parking lot, run to the sheriff’s big car, and speed out of the lot.  Bernie and I would jump out of our car each time and film the departure.  And each time, within minutes, the car would return with Morris and his men laughing at us.  This went on hour after hour.

Some time after midnight a sheriff’s patrol car pulled up at the gas pump at the rear of the jail.  Three men in deputy uniforms, along with helmets and thick fur-lined coats got out.  One went inside.  One waited on the steps smoking a cigarette. The third deputy was busy filling the car’s tank.

After a few minutes a deputy emerged from the jail and joined the other two in the patrol car.  It pulled forward a few dozen yards and stopped.  Suddenly the lights turned off again and out ran Morris and his men.  They jumped in their car and sped off with Bernie filming the “escape.”  We got back in our news car.  Then, slowly, the patrol car approached us.  The rear window rolled down and the deputy in the back seat yelled: “Hey, newsmen.  Don’t get cold out there.”  They laughed at us as they drove away.  We didn’t film that.  All was quiet for the remainder of the night.

Eventually the news director called us on the two-way radio saying Ray was in the state prison and we should give up our still watch.  And, he noted, he wasn’t going to pay us because we didn’t get a story.

The next afternoon Sheriff Morris called a news conference.  NBC, CBS and ABC were there.  The New York Times and the Washington Post were there.  It seemed just about every national and local news group was represented. I was there, too…not quite ready for what happened next.

The first question was asked to Morris:  how did you get Ray out of the jail?

The Sheriff said simply:  “Ask Dick Byrd.  Ray spoke to him.”