TUESDAY
Investigator
Sgt. Detective Cook has been calling him relentlessly trying to set up a meeting with James Earl Ray.
I drove to the prison
and signed in to visit from
* I purchased two bottles of Canadian Spring water, a can of 100% orange juice, and a package of microwave popcorn.
James entered the room slowly pushing his wheelchair from behind. He wore a prison-issue denim jacket, which has a stripe on the sleeve with bold white lettering that says Dept. of Corrections. All the better to spot an escaping inmate.
* James has dropped enough weight that he has
to wear suspenders now in order to hold
up his prison-issue blue denim pants. He
blames the Commissioner for the policy-rule based mistreatment of the
inmates.
If I die
then that
freak Commissioner wins. If I live
then I win.
James Earl Ray # 65477
I repeated my conversation with John Billings about Sgt. Detective Tim Cook and I included his daily requests to meet with him. I got the impression that James was going to write to Cook.
James Earl Ray found out that he was turned down for a medical furlough on the grounds of national security.
How can a 30-year-old homicide case affect our national
security today?
James Earl Ray # 65477
He said the classified documents from the assassination should be examined by an independent bipartisan committee who would then issue a report based on their findings.
The government should also destroy the illegal wiretap recordings and files belonging to J. Edgar Hoover. Only the classified documents that are relevant to the investigation should be preserved.
He changed the subject to his health and boasted that he could beat the virus and survive if he had decent medical treatment. Along with three healthy meals per day milk thistle extract pills and a gymnasium.
I was unable to call Jerry Ray. His area code changed overnight from (615) to (931) and as a result I kept getting a wrong number.
* Jerry admitted for the first time he is afraid that his brother is going to die. What can you say to someone grieving over a dead family member when medical treatment was available and they should have lived?
END OF JOURNAL # 25
JOURNAL
# 26
WEDNESDAY
Jerry thinks it might help
to call the
Oliver
Stone visited James Earl Ray in
* I took along two of the rare prints signed by James Earl Ray one for Ms. Yang and one for Mr. Stone.
I stayed up front with Officer Cain when we first arrived to give Jerry some private time with his brother. The officer taught me how to determine the approximate length of an inmates prison sentence by using their inmate number.
* Inmates who were locked up 30 years ago like James Earl Ray were issued a 5-digit number. His number is # 65477. Due to the huge increase in the amount of new convicts inmates are now receiving 6-digit numbers.
After a few minutes I was escorted through the cellblock. I heard Jerry call out as he spotted me
Hey there,
Jimmy, it looks like old
Jerry Ray
* I bought a can of 100% orange juice and a
bottle of spring water from the vending machines. I gave them to James after Officer Cain left.
James wore his prison-issue blue denim jacket with T.D.O.C. stenciled across the back and he had on two shirts, a white undershirt, and a heavy sweatshirt. This was accented with a pair of fresh, white cotton athletic socks. Then I realized that he was wearing pajama bottoms.
I told James about my idea to trade the movie rights to my daily journal to Oliver Stone in exchange for the cost of his operation. He looked at me as if I had completely lost my mind.
You cant expect Oliver Stone to give you that much money.
James Earl Ray # 65477
I pressed the issue and argued back something I have never done before with James. I always defer to his opinions and he has the final say in all matters.
* This is different
James had no idea that the film rights to a popular book can sell for
hundreds of thousands of dollars
sometimes a million dollars
much more than
the cost of his operation.
Oliver Stone is certain to earn a million-dollar paycheck for directing a film on the life of Martin Luther King that will require the use of material from the life of inmate # 65477 James Earl Ray.
* I am not asking for a handout. I am offering to sell his production company
the motion picture film rights. And I do
not want any compensation other than paying James Earl Rays medical bills.
The reason
Oliver Stone is a rich celebrity
is that he doesnt spend $100,000 on every
person who needs a new liver.
James Earl Ray # 65477
You are not
every person, I argued
you are James
Earl Ray and I have heard your
brother, your attorney,
and even you, sir
with all due
respect, argue at one time or another that the case
dies with you.
If there is even a slim chance the case could die
with you
then in my opinion, James
Earl Ray has to live. The
people in this country have a right to know the truth about what took place in
James continued to protest, which just floored me. I thought if anyone were going to agree with me, it would be him. No matter what he just did not see it my way.
He isnt going to be
a rich celebrity for long, if he gives $100,000 to everyone who has liver
trouble.
James Earl Ray # 65477
I argued back fighting to convince him my position had merit. Even if Oliver Stone has no interest in saving your life for humanitarian reasons this is the perfect opportunity to save the MLK case.
Attorney Pepper remarked that if James Earl Ray dies and this case dies with him it would have tragic consequences. The case belongs to the family of Dr. King and the Civil Rights Movement.
* I was so caught up in trying to convince
James that I forgot Jerry was watching
he was just sitting back in his chair
chuckling to himself at this bizarre spectacle.
I can only
imagine how odd it must have seemed. I
am locked inside of James Earl Rays prison cell with his brother Jerry, and I
am arguing with him about why Oliver Stone or society should care if he lives
or dies.
James edged forward in his seat and explained that when Oliver Stone visited him Pepper was there and they made a deal to do a movie.
The next
thing I knew the deal was over
canceled.
James Earl Ray # 65477
James said Pepper wants to direct the movie and you cannot tell those - in his words Hollywood types like Oliver Stone how to make a movie anymore than he can tell Pepper how to act in court.
* My explanation that William Pepper was not
trying to direct the movie did not convince him. His lawyer wanted the film based on his book
to protect his client. His book portrays
James as an innocent man and I believe he misinterpreted this as trying to tell
Mr. Stone how to do his movie.
James brought up an unpleasant subject. Jerry might be called upon to pull the plug on him. His doctor will suggest that if his brother is in a coma or in a vegetative state and has no hope of recovery that it would be the proper time to shut down the machines.
James Earl
Ray does not want to live on life
support machines. One impediment
to issuing a blanket statement like that - is that his doctors have given him
up for dead before and he survived and recovered. They might pull
the plug too soon.
The first time James
lapsed into a coma was
Christmas Eve 1996. Jerry was asked then if he wanted to pull the plug. Thankfully, he did not trust the doctors
instincts and he ordered them not to do
it.
The doctor asked if Jerry wanted them to initiate procedures to resuscitate his brother if he begins to die even if it means keeping him alive by the use of life support machines.
* James was alert and clear-headed when he
gave his instructions to Jerry the executor of his estate. He wants his doctors to pull the plug if he is brain-dead with no chance of
recovering.
Using the
machines as a temporary measure to save his life is one thing
it is different
from the long-term usage on a dying patient
who has no chance to survive.
THURSDAY
and signed in for a
* I bought a can of 100% orange juice, a bottle of spring water, and three packages of sugar-free snacks for James to barter with.
JAMES EARL
RAY typed this Letter to INVESTIGATOR BIG JOHN BILLING and MICHAEL
GABRIEL took it out of the PRISON and mailed it
James writes in this letter his concern that his previous letter to John Billings was not delivered and when he says that he will mail it from the outside he means that I will take it out of the prison and put it in a mailbox.
This letter mentions that James
spoke to Jerry and me about Sgt. Detective Cooks request to meet James. That single sentence gives credence to
everyone who corroborated his story that Detective Cook contacted Investigator
If it looked like James was innocent then he would say so. It was all a trap and it might have worked were it not for William Pepper making me a Special Purpose Local Agent. James talks about his prison doctors statement that an operation might kill him.
He could
not keep a straight face as he told me
his lawyer Andrew Hall might run for office and try to get elected Governor of Tennessee. He would run on the Free James Earl Ray platform.
* If Andrew Hall were elected
Governor, he could pardon his client and set James Earl Ray free and it would
be perfectly legal.
James wrote
on one of the two calendar pages he gave me from his address-phone book -
Handwritten note by JAMES EARL RAY on one of two calendar pages given to MICHAEL GABRIEL to smuggle out of the prison. (Author collection)
Seen P.A. Fred about swelling in leg and stomach. Concern about leg ulcer. He says leg ulcer nothing to do with it. Fluid removed ... would get back normal.
James Earl Ray # 65477
FRIDAY
I called Jerry Ray at home
after I spoke to the warden. His brothers typewriter is broken and needs a replacement part. Inmates are allocated to receive one or two packages per month depending on the facility they are incarcerated in.
* If your family sends you a care package and
then your typewriter breaks, for
example you have to choose one and do without the other. Convicts that are seriously ill should not be
forced to make that choice.
Warden Organ was rude and hostile and he griped about calling me back. That was right before he hung up on me. At least he is consistent.
* I bought a can of 100% orange juice and a
bottle of spring water.
James Earl Ray entered the room pushing his wheelchair from behind to help him keep his balance. He said the Dept. of Corrections canceled his in-cell visits as punishment because he invited a reporter into the facility and they might corroborate how badly swollen his hernia is.
He has trouble walking
and his condition is
worsening
his stomach is grossly distended and getting larger.
James should go to the hospital without delay and have the fluid drained from his liver.
END OF JOURNAL # 26
JOURNAL
# 27
FRIDAY
James Earl Ray swore me to secrecy
he was going to file a motion
in court to be summarily released
to a veterans hospital in
He criticized his attorney complaining that William Pepper considers it more important to free him than to find a donor organ. Jerry told me that is not how Pepper feels and if his brother brings this subject up that I should say nothing because it only gets him too upset.
* For the record Jerry stated that William F. Pepper knows what he is doing and he agrees with him. If he has not filed papers for James in court then it must be for a valid reason.
Pepper must think that I am going to live forever.
James Earl Ray # 65477
What about the original ballistic test done at the time of his arrest, I asked. James
answered that agents working
in the FBI crime lab mutilated the bullet recovered from the body of Martin Luther King.
The FBI exhumed a bullet in near perfect condition but when the defense lawyers asked to test it the slug given to them was in three mangled pieces. It was so badly mutilated it was unable to be tested.
Ballistic tests by the FBI were said to be inconclusive. Mr. Harold Weisberg insists that the test results showed the opposite and proved that James Earl Rays rifle was not the murder weapon.
Rifle purchased by
JAMES EARL RAY. (
* Mr. Weisberg said
a legitimate ballistic test of the recovered bullet could never be permitted
to take place. If the test proved that
it was not the murder weapon the entire case against James Earl Ray would
collapse.
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