<quote on>
CBC Investigation into James Earl Ray's Toronto odyssey
James Earl Ray, the convicted killer of civil rights leader Martin
Luther King, shown here in a 1968 photo released by the FBI.James Earl
Ray, the convicted killer of civil rights leader Martin Luther King,
shown here in a 1968 photo released by the FBI. (U.S. National
Archives)
In the worldwide manhunt for Martin Luther King's assassin 40 years
ago, the RCMP and Toronto police appear to have overlooked some
im****tant clues and never fully nailed down the killer's Canadian
connections, a CBC News investigation has found.
Based on unprecedented access to investigative documents in Canada and
the U.S., the new material further points to the belief that James
Earl Ray, a 40-year-old petty thief and drifter, had help in Canada
during his month-long odyssey in Toronto immediately following the
assassination as he secured at least three Canadian aliases and a
pass****t and airline ticket to London in the name of a Torontonian.
Through its investigation, the CBC has learned that:
* Ray was spotted acting furtively behind Toronto's new city hall
building shortly after his photo appeared in Canadian newspapers as
the prime suspect in the King murder. An eyewitness told police that
Ray tried to hide his face with a newspaper before departing on foot
with a red-haired woman whose identity has never been ascertained.
* The address Ray gave when stopped for jaywalking in Toronto was
never fully explored by police. It turned out to be a brothel run by
an ex-con and was the likely source of not only the fake identities
but also where he stayed on the two nights his whereabouts in the city
could not be verified.
* That address, 6 Condor Avenue in the east end, near the Canadian
National Railway tracks, was circled on a map Ray left behind but it
was mislabeled by police with the name of the street on the other side
of the tracks.
* Ray's official explanation of how he picked up at least three of
the four aliases he used, of men from a small neighbourhood in
Scarborough, has proven to be inaccurate, continuing his pattern of
lying to ****eld those who helped him.
<quote off>
Full article here:
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2008/04/28/f-james-earl-ray.html
Peter Fokes
|
