Klandestine

How a Klan Lawyer and a Checkbook Journalist Helped James Earl Ray Cover Up His Crime

Nonfiction, History, Americas, United States, 20th Century
Cover of the book Klandestine by Pate McMichael, Chicago Review Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Pate McMichael ISBN: 9781613730737
Publisher: Chicago Review Press Publication: April 1, 2015
Imprint: Chicago Review Press Language: English
Author: Pate McMichael
ISBN: 9781613730737
Publisher: Chicago Review Press
Publication: April 1, 2015
Imprint: Chicago Review Press
Language: English

James Earl Ray, an escaped convict from Missouri, was punished for the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. despite the fact that he did not fit the caricature of a hangdog racist thirsty for blood. The media has often portrayed him as hapless and apolitical, someone who must have been paid by clandestine forces, and it’s a narrative that Ray himself put in motion upon his June 1968 arrest in London, then continued from jail until his death in 1998. Klandestine documents the evolution of Ray’s alibi from 1968 to 1999—the year Dr. King’s own family declared him an innocent man—yet argues that he was indeed motivated by racial hatred and did in fact pull the trigger. It closes the book on the conspiracy that Ray and his defense team created, which asserted that Raoul, a mysterious seaman with deep connections to the criminal grapevine, framed Ray as part of a complicated New Orleans–based conspiracy. Ray brought Raoul to life by forging a lucrative publishing partnership with two very strange bedfellows: a slick Klan lawyer named Arthur J. Hanes, the de facto “Klonsel” for the United Klans of America, and checkbook journalist William Bradford Huie, the darling of Look magazine and a longtime menace of the KKK. Despite polar opposite views on race, Hanes and Huie found common cause in the lucrative world of conspiracy; together, they thought they could make Memphis the new Dallas. Told chronologically through Hanes and Huie’s key perspectives, this unique vantage shows how a legacy of unpunished racial killings—combined with fevered interest in political assassinations—provided the perfect exigency to sell a reckless and lucrative conspiracy to a suspicious and outraged nation.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

James Earl Ray, an escaped convict from Missouri, was punished for the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. despite the fact that he did not fit the caricature of a hangdog racist thirsty for blood. The media has often portrayed him as hapless and apolitical, someone who must have been paid by clandestine forces, and it’s a narrative that Ray himself put in motion upon his June 1968 arrest in London, then continued from jail until his death in 1998. Klandestine documents the evolution of Ray’s alibi from 1968 to 1999—the year Dr. King’s own family declared him an innocent man—yet argues that he was indeed motivated by racial hatred and did in fact pull the trigger. It closes the book on the conspiracy that Ray and his defense team created, which asserted that Raoul, a mysterious seaman with deep connections to the criminal grapevine, framed Ray as part of a complicated New Orleans–based conspiracy. Ray brought Raoul to life by forging a lucrative publishing partnership with two very strange bedfellows: a slick Klan lawyer named Arthur J. Hanes, the de facto “Klonsel” for the United Klans of America, and checkbook journalist William Bradford Huie, the darling of Look magazine and a longtime menace of the KKK. Despite polar opposite views on race, Hanes and Huie found common cause in the lucrative world of conspiracy; together, they thought they could make Memphis the new Dallas. Told chronologically through Hanes and Huie’s key perspectives, this unique vantage shows how a legacy of unpunished racial killings—combined with fevered interest in political assassinations—provided the perfect exigency to sell a reckless and lucrative conspiracy to a suspicious and outraged nation.

More books from Chicago Review Press

Cover of the book The Man Who Once Played Catch With Nellie Fox by Pate McMichael
Cover of the book Benjamin Franklin, American Genius by Pate McMichael
Cover of the book Ivory From Paradise by Pate McMichael
Cover of the book Skim by Pate McMichael
Cover of the book Love Becomes a Funeral Pyre by Pate McMichael
Cover of the book Grandma Gatewood's Walk by Pate McMichael
Cover of the book America's Black Founders by Pate McMichael
Cover of the book The Boys of Fairy Town by Pate McMichael
Cover of the book Meating Room by Pate McMichael
Cover of the book Fighting the Devil in Dixie by Pate McMichael
Cover of the book Henry Ford for Kids by Pate McMichael
Cover of the book Red Adam's Lady by Pate McMichael
Cover of the book Hiwassee by Pate McMichael
Cover of the book Courageous Women of the Civil War by Pate McMichael
Cover of the book Judy Garland on Judy Garland by Pate McMichael
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy