JAMES EARL RAY

JAMES EARL RAY
(1928 - 1998) Assassin of Martin Luther King whom he killed in Memphis in 1968. Great content T.L.S. 'James', 1p. 4to., [n.p.], Aug. 27, 1980, to his wife Anna Sandhu Ray, whom he married in jail in 1978 and divorced in 1993. In part: 'Yesterday I received a letter from the Justice Department in St. Louis, they are going to defend Baetz in the law suit I filed against the JD & Baetz, this is unusual since some of Baetz acts were not directly connected with the issues in the law suit. I am writing Mark [Mark Lane, his attorney] about this as if the case ever went to trial I suspect he would want to represent me. I am also sending him a clipping from the Atlanta Journal, they are on him about the Kennedy case. I suspect the real reason for the Journal article is Lane's representing the Iranians.' Ray alleged that Conrad Baetz, formerly an investigator for the House Select Committee on Assassinations, directed one Oliver B. Patterson to steal certain letters from Jerry W. Ray, James' brother. Mark Lane, who represented Ray before the House Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA), alleged that King's murder was a conspiracy and government coverup; he is best known as a leading conspiracy theorist on the assassination of John F. Kennedy, in which he attempted to represent Lee Harvey Oswald before the Warren Commission, claiming the state is wrongly convicting an innocent man. Slight staining, mentioned only for accuracy, else fine.