Though I think some people might have given him money I have little doubt that James Earl Ray shot Martin Luther King Jr. Some people allege that the shot would have too difficult for him. I know little about shooting myself so I would be interested in hearing from people who know more about this than I do.
<span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="text-decoration: underline">THE SHOOTER & THE GUN</span></span>
Ray served in the US Army March 1946 – December 1948. A few sources indicated he only rated ‘marksman’ which despite its name is the Army’s lowest marksmanship rating. Though he committed various armed robberies with handguns, I have seen no mention of him handling let alone shooting a rifle again till he bought a .243 Winchester with a 2x – 7x Redfield scope and a box of 20 cartridges on March 29, 1968. He had spent 13 of the last 20 years in various prisons and a customer in the store told the FBI ‘it was apparent…in watching this man [Ray] that he did know anything about rifles’ another customer told them same This was only six days before King was assassinated. The next day he exchanged the Winchester for a Remington Gamemaster 760 30.06 and a box of 30.06 Remington Peters ammo. The store mounted the same sight. The FBI determined the Winchester had not been fired.
I do not know of any direct evidence Ray shot the Remington before King was slain, but he left the store with a box of 20 cartridges and police only found 11 among his belongings. However 4 -5 of them did not match the ones he bought with the rifle. There were, “a .30 caliber metal-jacketed "soft-point" sporting type Remington-Peters bullet, an expended .30-06 Springfield caliber Remington-Peters cartridge 'casing, and a Peters cartridge box…containing five unfired .30-06 Springfield caliber Remington-Peters cartridges and four unfired .30-06 Springfield caliber U. S. military cartridges containing full metal-jacketed bullets” so there is a deficit of 14 rounds perhaps more since it is my understand stores don’t normally sell single bullets so he might have purchased a box or two elsewhere. Since quite a bit of ammo was missing and not much is known about his whereabouts after he bought the rifle I would assume he did a fair amount of shooting.
<span style="text-decoration: underline"><span style="font-weight: bold">THE SHOT</span></span>
Ray is believed to have shot King through the window of the bathroom pictured above by standing in the bathtub. It is believed that that he put one foot on the rim of the tub and rested the barrel of the 760 on the windowsill. According to the police report:
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">
The level distance from the point from which the shot was fired to the point where Dr. King was standing is 206.36 feet. The distance, along the flight of the bullet from the point from which it was fired to the point where Dr. King was standing is 207.02 feet.
The window sill of the building from which the shot was fired, is 16.63 feet higher than a point 59 inches above the floor of the balcony on which Dr. King was standing when shot.</div></div>
“The inside of the window was 2 foot 8 inches [wide]…[and] had been raised 3 and 7/8th inches from the bottom sill.” The tub was about 2 feet from the wall with the window, “2 foot 6 inches wide” and its bottom was about 6 inches above the floor. The windowsill was “4 foot 11 inches” above the floor and thus about 4’ 5” above the bottom of the tub. Ray was 5’ 10” so he must have bent over or crouched down a few inches. I mentioned the size the tub and window because some have suggested this would not have given him enough room to maneuver.
Based on the police data the downward angle of the shot was 4.6*. Measuring a line from the bathroom window to point King was shot with a protractor (black line) I calculated the lateral angle to have been 98 - 99* or 8 – 9* off from being perpendicular to the sill.
So would the shot have been difficult for someone like Ray who had been a so-so shot in Army 20 years earlier and at best only started shooting a rifle again a few days earlier?
<span style="text-decoration: underline"><span style="font-weight: bold">PS Moderators,</span></span> I don't consider this thread political because the only aspect of the assassination it touches upon is the supposed difficulty of the shot. - Len
<span style="font-weight: bold"><span style="text-decoration: underline">THE SHOOTER & THE GUN</span></span>
Ray served in the US Army March 1946 – December 1948. A few sources indicated he only rated ‘marksman’ which despite its name is the Army’s lowest marksmanship rating. Though he committed various armed robberies with handguns, I have seen no mention of him handling let alone shooting a rifle again till he bought a .243 Winchester with a 2x – 7x Redfield scope and a box of 20 cartridges on March 29, 1968. He had spent 13 of the last 20 years in various prisons and a customer in the store told the FBI ‘it was apparent…in watching this man [Ray] that he did know anything about rifles’ another customer told them same This was only six days before King was assassinated. The next day he exchanged the Winchester for a Remington Gamemaster 760 30.06 and a box of 30.06 Remington Peters ammo. The store mounted the same sight. The FBI determined the Winchester had not been fired.
I do not know of any direct evidence Ray shot the Remington before King was slain, but he left the store with a box of 20 cartridges and police only found 11 among his belongings. However 4 -5 of them did not match the ones he bought with the rifle. There were, “a .30 caliber metal-jacketed "soft-point" sporting type Remington-Peters bullet, an expended .30-06 Springfield caliber Remington-Peters cartridge 'casing, and a Peters cartridge box…containing five unfired .30-06 Springfield caliber Remington-Peters cartridges and four unfired .30-06 Springfield caliber U. S. military cartridges containing full metal-jacketed bullets” so there is a deficit of 14 rounds perhaps more since it is my understand stores don’t normally sell single bullets so he might have purchased a box or two elsewhere. Since quite a bit of ammo was missing and not much is known about his whereabouts after he bought the rifle I would assume he did a fair amount of shooting.
<span style="text-decoration: underline"><span style="font-weight: bold">THE SHOT</span></span>
Ray is believed to have shot King through the window of the bathroom pictured above by standing in the bathtub. It is believed that that he put one foot on the rim of the tub and rested the barrel of the 760 on the windowsill. According to the police report:
<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">
The level distance from the point from which the shot was fired to the point where Dr. King was standing is 206.36 feet. The distance, along the flight of the bullet from the point from which it was fired to the point where Dr. King was standing is 207.02 feet.
The window sill of the building from which the shot was fired, is 16.63 feet higher than a point 59 inches above the floor of the balcony on which Dr. King was standing when shot.</div></div>
“The inside of the window was 2 foot 8 inches [wide]…[and] had been raised 3 and 7/8th inches from the bottom sill.” The tub was about 2 feet from the wall with the window, “2 foot 6 inches wide” and its bottom was about 6 inches above the floor. The windowsill was “4 foot 11 inches” above the floor and thus about 4’ 5” above the bottom of the tub. Ray was 5’ 10” so he must have bent over or crouched down a few inches. I mentioned the size the tub and window because some have suggested this would not have given him enough room to maneuver.
Based on the police data the downward angle of the shot was 4.6*. Measuring a line from the bathroom window to point King was shot with a protractor (black line) I calculated the lateral angle to have been 98 - 99* or 8 – 9* off from being perpendicular to the sill.
So would the shot have been difficult for someone like Ray who had been a so-so shot in Army 20 years earlier and at best only started shooting a rifle again a few days earlier?
<span style="text-decoration: underline"><span style="font-weight: bold">PS Moderators,</span></span> I don't consider this thread political because the only aspect of the assassination it touches upon is the supposed difficulty of the shot. - Len
