Transcription
This man's name is James Earl Ray. In the sixties, he was at the top of the FBI's most wanted list, and all security agencies in America were looking for him. Even after he was caught, he managed to escape from prison twice, despite being placed in a maximum-security prison with all eyes on him. So how did he do it? What clever tricks did he use to escape? And what did he do in the first place to become one of America's most wanted? Peace be upon you. I am Bader. Today's story is about this man named James Earl Ray. This person, from his childhood, his life was linked to the world of theft and crime. James was the eldest of his nine brothers, and his father was a con artist and thief; this was his profession in life. He would move them from city to city and state to state in America. Whenever he committed a fraud or theft in a place, he would flee so that the police wouldn't catch him. This was in the thirties and forties of the last century, about 90 years ago. So James grew up in this scattered family and found no path in life other than his father's. He followed the same approach and became a criminal and a thief, and like his father, he began to move from state to state, committing small thefts here and there. The first time he was arrested and convicted was in 1949 in California. This was the first time he entered prison, and since the theft was minor, the sentence was short, less than a year. But less than three years later, specifically in 1952, he was arrested again after attempting to rob a taxi driver in Illinois. This time, the theft was armed, so he was given a two-year prison sentence. During these two years that James spent in prison, he tried to escape more than once, but his attempts failed, and he remained in prison until his sentence was completed and he was released. Perhaps here you expect him to repent, having been to prison more than once. Enough, man, repent! But of course, he did not repent. Imagine that just a few months after his release from prison, he was arrested for the third time, this time in Missouri in 1955. He barely had time to breathe after leaving prison and was caught again. The charge this time was attempting to steal checks through the mail, and the mail in America is considered a federal agency, meaning if you try to steal from them, you will receive a significant sentence. So the sentence this time was four years in prison. And again, James tried to escape from this prison more than once, but his attempts failed, and he remained in prison until his sentence was completed and he was released. So, will he repent this time? Of course not. Again, a few months after his release from prison, he was arrested for the fourth time in 1959. This arrest was for an armed robbery, and imagine how much money he stole: only $120. But if we calculate it in today's money, it comes to about $1,000. So it was a relatively small amount. Nevertheless, this time he was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Why? Because he doesn't repent. His criminal record, may God bless him, is dark as pitch. Every time he gets out of prison, he immediately goes back and steals again. And the problem is that the theft is armed, meaning this person could be a great danger to society. If he did something wrong or something went wrong during the theft, he could kill someone. So the judge sentenced him to 20 years. James entered Missouri State Penitentiary in 1959. This was the largest and main prison in that state and is considered a maximum-security prison. All the time James spent in this prison, he was only thinking about how he could escape. He stayed in this prison for years and years, and after serving eight years in this prison, he finally came up with the perfect plan in 1967. At that time, James was working in the prison bakery. This bakery did not just produce bread for the prison; it produced much larger quantities, and these quantities were sold outside the prison. So, a truck would come to the prison daily and load this bread to be sold outside. During the time James spent in prison, he improved his relationships with the other inmates and became close friends with many of them, especially his colleagues who worked with him in the bakery. All of this was for the future; he had foresight, hoping they would help him when the time came to execute his plan and attempt to escape. James's plan was to escape via the bread truck, and after studying this plan from all angles, the time for execution came. He knew, of course, that he would need the help of his colleagues and friends who worked with him in the prison bakery. So he presented his plan to them and told them, "I intend to escape, and I need your help." And indeed, his colleagues, even though they gained nothing, because he had built good relationships with them, told him, "Okay, we will help you." On April 23, 1967, James hid himself in one of the boxes used for transporting bread, and his colleagues helped him by placing bread on top of him to hide him. To do this, they needed to distract the guards. One of his colleagues, who seemed to have a leg injury while working, was meant to attract the guards' attention. At that moment, James got into the box, and his colleagues placed the bread on top of him, hiding him from the guards' sight. James remained hidden inside this box for several hours, making small holes so he could breathe, because if he stayed without air inside the box, he would suffocate. But the box remained cramped, and breathing was not easy, but he remained patient and steadfast until the truck finally arrived and loaded the box he was hiding in. After the truck left and was on the road, he jumped from the truck and quickly looked for the nearest place he could hide. He found a junkyard where he could hide until darkness fell. Of course, the police and security forces formed search parties and were looking for him, but they couldn't find him anywhere. The search area was very large and difficult. They couldn't find him, especially since they didn't discover his escape until some time later. After James left the junkyard where he was hiding, he managed to escape through the forests. Being in the trees and in a secluded, remote area made finding him almost impossible, even though aerial searches were underway and helicopters were circling above him, but because he was in the middle of the forest and trees, they couldn't see him from above. Then James continued to move and travel from place to place and from city to city, fleeing the police pursuit. First, he went to Chicago, and a short time later, he managed to leave America entirely and go to Canada. He first went to Toronto and stayed there for a while, then went to Montreal. After several months in Canada, when he felt that the pursuit and search for him in America had subsided, he decided to return to America again. This time, he went south, specifically to Alabama, and a short time later, he went further south and left America for Mexico this time. In Mexico, he tried to do strange things; he tried to become a director of adult films, may God honor you. He lived there for a while. Then, in March 1968, he returned to America again and settled this time in Georgia. So, the gentleman, after escaping from prison, traveled all over North America in just one year. Of course, he was wanted at the time, but he wasn't a top wanted person; they weren't looking for him with all their effort and all their security forces and everything they had. And at that time, things were not that advanced; there were no surveillance cameras, no advanced electronic systems, so tracking him was not as easy as tracking them today. At that time, James bought a Remington rifle and a scope with it, with a magnification of about seven times. James told the gun shop owner he bought the rifle from that he intended to use it for hunting. After James bought this rifle, he went to Memphis, Tennessee, and there he stayed in a small hotel like a house opposite another small hotel called the Lorraine. This is a picture of the Lorraine Hotel. On the evening of April 4, 1968, James entered the bathroom of his room, opened the bathroom window, aimed his rifle at a man standing on the balcony of the opposite hotel, the Lorraine Hotel, and fired one shot, killing him. The murdered man's name was Martin Luther King, one of the most important figures in modern American history. Martin Luther King was the primary defender of Black rights in America and one of the most important social activists and fighters in the field of civil rights. You have likely heard of him before or seen his picture somewhere. I am talking about one of the most important historical figures. After the assassination, the police and the FBI began their investigations into the crime, and quickly the FBI announced that James Earl Ray was the main suspect in the crime. According to the FBI, after searching his room, they found a map. On this map, there was a circle drawn around the location of Martin Luther King's residence and another circle around the church he attended. They also found the rifle from which the shot was fired, a Remington rifle, and next to it, a scope, different from the scope that was on the rifle. All of them had James Earl Ray's fingerprints on them. It was not clear at all what drove James to commit this assassination, but in any case, the FBI announced him as one of America's most wanted, placing him at the top of their most wanted list and mobilizing a large number of security forces to search for and find him. James, of course, was accustomed to being pursued by the police and security forces; he had a lifetime of experience escaping them. But this time was different; it was bigger than any other time. There was no security agency in the country that wasn't looking for him. So he knew he had to leave America as soon as possible. He moved directly north and went to Canada. There, he managed to create a forged Canadian passport, and using this passport, he boarded a plane bound for London, and from there, he went to Portugal. Apparently, according to the calls he made, he was trying to find work as a mercenary in Africa, but his attempts were unsuccessful. In the end, he returned to London Heathrow Airport, intending to try to travel to an African country with his forged Canadian passport. But during his passage through passport control at the airport, they became suspicious of him. After investigating him, they were able to uncover his true identity and that he was one of America's most wanted. So James was arrested at Heathrow Airport on June 8, 1968, two months after assassinating Martin Luther King. Then James was handed over to the FBI, and his trial began. During the trial, James pleaded guilty; he admitted that he killed Martin Luther King. But a few days later, he retracted his confession and said he confessed out of fear of the death penalty. His lawyer told him that if he pleaded not guilty and did not confess guilt, he might be tried by a jury, and this could lead to the death penalty. So he was afraid because of his lawyer's words. But he said that he later learned that his lawyer did not understand and that in any case, he would not be executed, whether he confessed guilt or not, because the death penalty laws had been changed in Tennessee. So he said that when he learned about this, he retracted his confession and said he confessed only to avoid the death penalty. They asked him about the details of what happened and said, "Well, we found all this evidence against you; we found your room, we found your rifle, and all of it has your fingerprints. So how do you say you are not guilty?" James told them that there was an organization behind the assassination of Martin Luther King and that he cooperated with the organization without knowing it, and in the end, they used him as a scapegoat. Of course, Martin Luther King had many enemies, being a fighter for Black rights. Although slavery had ended in America at that time, racial segregation continued. For example, Black people were not allowed to enter the same restaurants as white people, their children were not allowed to enter the same schools, they were not allowed to use the same bathrooms, they were not allowed to ride the same public transportation, and many other forms of racial segregation. So Martin Luther King, fighting for Black rights, made many enemies. There are even conspiracy theories that the American government itself had a hand in his assassination. So James says he was involved with an organization, and this organization planned the assassination of Martin Luther King, and he didn't know about it; they were using him without his knowledge. He says that a person named Raul made him buy the rifle, and Raul was with him in the room, and he was the one who shot Martin Luther King. James's story had some contradictions and loopholes, and there are many theories surrounding this case. Perhaps James was indeed recruited by an organization or a specific entity because there was no clear reason to drive him to carry out this assassination. The only logical reason is that someone paid him, but it is clear that he was the perpetrator, no matter how much he tried to evade it and say he was not guilty. All the evidence clearly pointed to him, and on the other hand, there was no evidence to support his narrative. There was no evidence pointing to a person named Raul. So, in the end, the charge was proven against him, and he was sentenced to 99 years in prison, meaning life imprisonment. He was admitted to Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary, a maximum-security prison and considered the strongest prison in Tennessee. This prison was like a fortress, and all the inmates in it were those with violent charges, meaning the prison was full of the most violent criminals you can imagine: rapists, murderers, serial killers, and the worst people. So if you enter this place, you must be extremely cautious because if you do something wrong or give the wrong look to the wrong person, you might suddenly find yourself in trouble. This prison is literally located at the foot of a mountain. When you drive on the road leading to this prison, the prison will be the last stop on the road, meaning there is nothing beyond it; behind it is a mountain, like a closed area. This prison, although considered small, is one of the most dangerous prisons you can enter. At any moment, you could be robbed, stabbed, or something could happen to you by the violent inmates here. Of course, since the prison is maximum security, it is very difficult to escape from it. But when you are sentenced to life imprisonment in a place like this, you will spend all your time thinking only about how to escape, especially when we are talking about someone like James Earl Ray, who spent his life moving from prison to prison and was always trying to escape from these prisons. And indeed, as we saw, he succeeded last time and escaped from the prison he was in via the bread truck. So if he did it once, why wouldn't he do it again? Of course, anything is possible, but this time it will be much more difficult. Besides the strict procedures in this prison, the prison is surrounded by a five-meter-high wall and a thickness of one meter. It is fortified from above with barbed wire, and this wire carries a very strong electric current. So if an inmate touches it while trying to escape, he will be electrocuted and fall to the ground. The current will not kill him, but it will make him fall and perhaps even lose consciousness. And even if, by some magic, the inmate managed to overcome all these obstacles, there are nine guard towers surrounding the prison from all directions. The guards in these towers are armed with all types of weapons: shotguns, pistols, and rifles, and they are allowed to open fire on any inmate attempting to escape or breach the prison walls. When James saw all these obstacles in front of him, he knew that the best way to escape was from underground. James spent a long time looking for weaknesses inside his cell. The biggest weakness he found was the ventilation opening. This opening had a square metal cover, and the cover was secured to the cement with screws. It was not very difficult to remove the screws and take off the cover, but the opening remained small; it was not large enough for an adult human. A child or a cat could pass through it, but an adult human was impossible. So James got a spoon and began to dig into the cement around the opening, widening it. Of course, this process would take a long time. Imagine digging cement with a spoon; it would definitely be a slow process. So he spent months digging around this opening and widening it. Of course, he had to hide the digging process so that the guards wouldn't notice. So he used toothpaste and some dirt he brought from the prison yard, mixed them together to make a mixture that resembled cement, and every night after he finished digging, he would cover the edges he had dug with this mixture and put the metal cover back on the opening so that no one would discover it. The opening would look normal again. During these months of digging, he also lost weight because the thinner he became, the easier it would be for him to fit through the opening. Finally, after months of continuous work, he managed to widen the opening to a suitable size and entered it. This opening was connected to the area of pipes that passed under the prison. These pipes contained sewage, electricity, heating, steam, and all the connections required by the prison blocks. At the end of this pipe corridor, there was a large exhaust fan. The fan's job was to suck air and expel it from the cells, meaning to purify the air. James had calculated and knew where this path led. He knew that if he could get past this fan, he could reach outside the prison building, reaching the outer yard. The question is, why did he want to reach the outer yard? Of course, during the day, they were allowed to go out into this yard. So, during his time in the yard, James noticed a ground opening, like a manhole cover, in the ground. He had also noticed that the power station that supplied the prison with power was located directly outside the prison walls. So his estimation was that this ground opening led to conduits leading to the power station. If he could enter this opening, he would likely find pipes leading to the power station outside the prison. These pipes supply the prison with power, steam, etc. So if he could dig through these pipes, he could reach the power station and thus get out of prison. But of course, he couldn't enter this ground opening during the day because they were under the guards' surveillance. So the only way was to go through the ventilation fan under the cells, then reach the yard, and then reach the ground opening that would take him to the power station underground. This was the plan, but the problem was that the large ventilation fan had iron bars, and there was no way to pass through these bars unless he cut them, and he didn't have a saw or any tool that could help him cut them. So James spent some time thinking about where he could get a saw to help him cut the bars. Months passed, and he couldn't find a way except to try to get the saw from outside the prison. Of course, he would need help from someone outside, and this person would be his brother, Jerry. We mentioned earlier that James was the eldest of his nine brothers, so he had a large family, may God bless him. And the closest of his brothers to him, who always visited him in prison, was this one named Jerry. So James sent a special message to his brother asking for his help to smuggle a small saw blade into the prison. This message was, of course, encrypted. He didn't write in the message, "Bring me a saw." James had agreed on a secret code with his brother during his visits to the prison. So, when he sent him messages from prison, even if they were searched or read by the guards before they were sent out, they wouldn't be able to understand their true meaning because the message had a code that only his brother Jerry could understand. So, through these messages, James agreed with his brother to smuggle a small saw blade or a small blade. The method was clever. Jerry cut the bottom layer of his shoe and put the small saw blade inside it, then glued it back to the shoe. So now the saw blade was inside the shoe, impossible for anyone to discover. Then he went to the prison to visit his brother. Of course, family visits were allowed, but they were in a private room under the guards' supervision. Before entering, Jerry was thoroughly searched to ensure he wouldn't smuggle anything to the inmate. But of course, because Jerry had cleverly hidden the saw blade in his shoe, they couldn't see it. Jerry sat in the visiting room, and his brother James, who was wearing the exact same shoe as him, the same type, same color, and same size, entered. Of course, inmates were allowed to have their families bring them shoes and clothes from outside, not the uniform. But things like underwear, toiletries, and such, including shoes. James's shoe was actually brought to him by his brother before, so it was easy for him to bring an identical shoe. During the visit, while they were talking under the guard's supervision, they managed to exchange their shoes. They tried to act as naturally as possible so as not to attract the guard's attention, and indeed, the guard didn't notice at all. So James finally managed to smuggle the small saw blade into his cell. From the first night, he went down to the pipe corridor and began cutting the fan bars. Of course, he knew that this process would be very slow and would require continuous effort and work for a long time. So James spent months going down almost every night and working on cutting the bars until he finally managed to cut them after four months of continuous work. He reached the fan, but the second problem he didn't expect was that the fan was made of very strong metal materials. He expected to be able to bend the fan with his hand and pass through it easily, but the fan wouldn't bend at all. It was much stronger than he expected, and no matter how much he tried to shake it, hit it, or remove it from its place, the fan wouldn't move. At this point, James knew he would need another tool to help him bend the fan blades, he would need a tool like a pipe wrench. Of course, a tool of this size was impossible for James to smuggle from outside the prison. But fortunately, there was someone who could provide him with this tool from inside the prison. This person was one of his close friends in prison, an inmate named Jake Morlock. Jake worked as a plumber or pipefitter in the prison, his job being to repair pipes and such. Because inmates in prison were given different jobs, some working in maintenance, some in construction, some in carpentry, and so on. So Jake, by virtue of working as a plumber in the prison, had access to certain tools related to his job, like a pipe wrench. Of course, all these tools were under surveillance, but it wouldn't be difficult for Jake to smuggle a tool for one night, for example. So James presented his plan to his friend Jake and offered him to join him. Jake said, "I'm with you." So Jake's task would be to provide the pipe wrench tool to bend the fan blades and make their way. But there was another problem ahead of them: how would Jake enter James's cell at night? Because they were not cellmates; each of them was in a different cell. Some cells in the prison were shared, with two inmates. But James's cell was occupied by him alone. So how would Jake enter his cell on the night of the escape? The inmates were distributed among the cells according to a list with their names and their cell number next to them. This list was written in pencil because sometimes the guards needed to change the inmates' locations and put them in different cells. So for ease, they would simply erase the inmate's name and write it somewhere else. James noticed this and knew that his best chance to get Jake into his cell was to swap their names on the list and make him his cellmate. But of course, this move would be bold and dangerous, so he had to calculate it correctly. James noticed that this register or list was kept in an office room near the cells, and this room was not locked; anyone could enter it during the time inmates were allowed to be outside their cells. The guards didn't bother to lock this room or office because there was nothing important in it, and besides, the guards were spread out everywhere on the floor, so no one imagined that an inmate would try to enter this office. James, of course, was smart and was monitoring all the guards' movements and changes. So he chose the best day possible to tamper with the list of names. He chose a day when the regular guards had a day off, so there would be substitute guards in their place. These substitute guards, first, were fewer in number, and second, they had no experience with the inmates in this block. They didn't associate faces with names, so they had to rely on the list. So James kept waiting for the appointed day, the day of the anticipated escape, which was May 2, 1971. This day was a day off for the regular guards, so substitute guards came in their place. These substitute guards were fewer in number and had little experience in this block. So James sneaked into the office room where the list was and wrote his friend Jake's name next to his and put him in the same cell. When it was time for the inmates to return to their cells, the substitute guards began calling out the names and assigning inmates to their cells according to the list they had. So James's plan succeeded, and his friend Jake entered his cell under the guards' eyes and by their orders. The two friends waited in the cell until 2 AM because this was the last time the guards would check on the inmates before the morning count at 6 AM. As soon as the guards finished their last night rounds of the cells, James and his friend put out dummy heads they had prepared earlier and placed them on their pillows so that if a guard happened to pass by their cell, he would see that there were people sleeping on the beds. Quickly, James and Jake went through the ventilation opening. Despite Jake being quite large, he managed to pass through the ventilation opening, albeit with difficulty, but he managed. Then they went down together to the pipe corridor, and using the pipe wrench, they were able to bend the fan blades and make a way for themselves. But the opening they made was very narrow. James barely managed to pass through it, but it was impossible for Jake to pass through due to his large size. The two friends tried to think of a solution, but it was clear that it was impossible and there was no quick solution. So Jake had to return to the cell, and the escape plan was canceled for him. James, however, continued his way alone. James managed to get out of the pipe corridor and reach the outer prison yard, as he had expected. His goal, as we said, was to reach the ground opening, which resembled a manhole cover, and which he believed led to the power station located outside the prison walls. So he headed for this ground opening, trying to be careful not to be seen by the guards in the watchtowers. James reached the opening and immediately tried to lift the cover. Here, he was surprised by something shocking he didn't expect. As soon as he lifted the cover, he felt a blast of hellish heat engulf his face. Very hot steam came out of the opening, and he immediately retreated and closed the cover. The steam was unbearable. Now he realized that this opening and the pipes inside it carried the steam that supplied the prison with heat. If he entered this opening, it would be like throwing himself into hell. The problem was that he didn't have time to think. The place where he was standing was very exposed, and at any moment, one of the guards in the watchtowers could see him. So he had to make a quick decision: should he return to his cell and forget about the escape, or should he take the risk and expose himself to danger? When James thought and remembered everything he had gone through and the effort he had put in to reach this point, he knew he would hate himself if he didn't at least try. So his decision was to go down into the opening and try. And indeed, James went down through the opening. The place below was full of steam, and the heat was unbearable. The pipes inside, which supplied the prison with heat, energy, and steam, were very old. The thermal insulation around them was completely worn out, so there was nothing to contain the heat that filled the place. James immediately felt the magnitude of the mistake he had made when he went down. Here, he felt the steam burning his skin and scalding him alive. He quickly realized that he had to get out of here and immediately went back up the ladder to the opening and came out of this place. But unfortunately for him, the guards noticed the amount of steam coming out of the opening. So as soon as James poked his head out of the opening, they saw him. So the guards came down and arrested him and took him to a special room for interrogation. Of course, the entire plan was revealed, and the guards discovered his friend Jake after that and also discovered the ventilation opening he had dug in his cell. By the way, Jerry, James's brother, was waiting for his brother outside the prison. He was sitting in his car in a pre-arranged parking spot and was going to help his brother complete the escape. He had even brought him a gun and money. Jerry kept waiting for his brother until dawn. Then he realized that the operation had likely failed, so he decided to go home. Later, he heard on the radio about the news of inmate James Earl Ray, his brother, attempting to escape from prison but being arrested. The escape plan that James had worked on for almost two years was completely ruined and thwarted. It was a very painful and frustrating experience for him. After this attempt, he was put in solitary confinement for two months as a disciplinary measure. In solitary confinement, of course, he was not allowed to go out at all; he spent all his time in a small, isolated cell. And after he got out of solitary confinement, you might think he would repent, but of course, James immediately started thinking about escaping again and began trying to find a new way. In the end, he was sentenced to life imprisonment, so it didn't matter to him; escape was the only logical path for him. But of course, the situation would now be more difficult and harder. All eyes were on him. So he spent a long time thinking, trying, looking left and right, searching for anything that could give him a chance or a new way to escape from this place. Years passed, the second, and the third, and we reached 1976, meaning five years had passed since the first escape attempt. At that time, James was working in the prison laundry, and there were maintenance works being done by workers in the laundry. During these maintenance works, they replaced some metal pipes. James noticed that the maintenance workers left the old pipes on the ground and no one bothered to remove them from the place. So, out of greed, he took these pipes, each about a meter long, and hid them behind the washing machines in the laundry, meaning he hid them aside in a place where no one would notice them. Of course, he didn't have an idea yet how he might use these pipes, but when he saw them, he felt they might be useful in the future, so he decided to hide them and see what would happen. Time passed, and we reached 1977, meaning six years had passed since James's last escape attempt. He was still looking for an opportunity every day, looking for a loophole that could help him escape from this place. One day, while walking in the prison yard, he noticed something that caught his attention. We mentioned before that the prison walls were topped with electrified barbed wire, but James noticed that in a small spot on the wall, where the wall meets the side of the mountain below the prison, the electric wires were slightly higher than the wall. There was a small gap that could allow someone to pass through. James sat contemplating this spot. The opening was undoubtedly wide enough for him to pass through without touching the electric wire and getting electrocuted. And since this corner was where the prison wall met the mountain, the other side of the wall was higher ground. So if he climbed over the wall, he could jump to the other side easily without hurting himself because it was higher ground. But the question was, how would he get over the wall? Here, James began to visualize the whole picture. The metal pipes he had hidden in the laundry could be used to make a ladder, and he could use this ladder to climb the wall and reach the top. The idea in his mind was very logical and clear, but the first problem he would face was that the pipes he had were not enough to make a ladder as long as the wall, because the wall was five meters long, a very long wall. So he had to get more pipes somehow. And from here, James contacted one of his inmate friends. This friend's name was Doug Shelton. This man was a former escapee from prisons himself and had previous escape attempts in several prisons before this one. So when James presented the idea, he immediately welcomed it and even felt that the idea was excellent, a clear and simple idea that was feasible. Of course, James contacted Doug specifically because Doug worked in the prison's metal workshop. This workshop did sheet metal work and worked on metal pipes, like the pipes James had hidden in the laundry. So Doug, while working in the room, gradually smuggled out pipes. Of course, pipes are considered materials, not tools, so they were not strictly monitored. For example, tools like hammers, screwdrivers, pliers, and things like that were all monitored and counted daily by the guards to ensure they were all present. They tightened these procedures even more, especially after the first escape attempt and after Jake was caught taking a pipe wrench. So tools were under strict surveillance, but pipes were not considered tools; they were considered materials, and materials were not monitored or handled with the same precision as tools. So every day, Doug would smuggle a small pipe out of the room in some way. Sometimes he would hide a pipe in his clothes, and sometimes he would throw a pipe out the window. He continued this until they collected enough pipes to complete the ladder. James also added a new member to the team, his cellmate at the time, named Earl Hill. So now the team had three members: James, Doug, and Earl. Perhaps some of you are asking, where is James's old friend Jake Morlock, who was his partner in the first escape attempt? Why didn't he include him in the second attempt? The answer is that the guards separated them and put them in different blocks, so they no longer saw each other except rarely. So now James and his two friends began planning the second phase, which was the escape itself. Of course, they couldn't build the ladder and then suddenly run with it in the middle of the yard under the guards' eyes. So the only way was to assemble the ladder at the moment of escape itself. So the idea was to hide the metal pipes next to the wall, near the spot from which they would escape, the spot where the prison wall meets the mountain. The prison wall had a small ditch around it, intended for water drainage. So James and his friends hid the pipes in this ditch under the fallen leaves on the ground. The guards could hardly see the pipes in this place because it was lower than the ground. To see the pipes, you would have to stand directly above this spot and look down. So this was an ideal place to hide the pipes until the moment of escape. At the same time, they began studying the guards' routine. And by the way, the number of guards in this prison was considered small compared to the number of inmates, a ratio of 50 to one, meaning one guard for every 50 inmates. Although the guards were armed, there were watchtowers, and the security measures around the prison were strong, like the electric wire, this remained a weakness in the prison. The reason, of course, was the lack of sufficient budget to hire more guards. This made it easy for James and his friends to study the guards' routines and movements. Each watchtower had one guard, and the tower that concerned them most was Tower Number 4 because it was the closest tower to the spot from which they would escape. The guard on this tower was named Floyd Hox. Of course, the guards rotated shifts, and during the inmates' outdoor yard time, Guard Floyd Hox was the one on Tower Number 4. So James and his friends focused on him and began studying his movements and routine. They noticed that every day this guard brought a newspaper with him and sat reading it with complete concentration, reading it from the first page to the last. He rarely raised his head to look at the yard or the inmates; he was only focused on the newspaper. James kept watching this guard for months, and this was his routine. He never left his newspaper, so James knew this was a loophole they could exploit and that would help them. James also needed the help of his brother Jerry again, and his brother was, of course, always ready to help him. The first request James made to his brother was to give him a significant amount of money. Of course, inmates could use money inside the prison for various purposes. This was allowed. The prison had a shop selling items, and some inmates had televisions, some had books, and some things were allowed in prison if you paid for them. Even among inmates, they provided services to each other in exchange for money. For example, laundry was not free; inmates who did laundry were paid by the inmates who...
They wash their clothes there, and the prison later pays symbolic amounts or symbolic salaries to the prisoners for the work they do inside the prison. So, there was a miniature economy operating in the prison, and this is the case for most prisons. So why did James ask his brother for a large sum of money to use for bribery? He would have them help him escape, but of course, it wasn't allowed for his brother to suddenly give him a large sum of money; the prison doesn't allow that. So, he was giving him money in small installments, little by little, and James kept collecting this money over several months. The second thing James asked his brother for was to bring him an escape bag. He wrote him a coded message, one of those messages that no one understands but him, and asked him to take a bag and put useful items in it for him after he escaped from prison. So, Jerry's brother took a bag and put hair dye in it, and a raincoat to keep him warm. He put in canned food that wouldn't spoil, and he put in some medicines, medical supplies, and bandages. He also put in a pistol and bullets, all things he felt could help his brother after he escaped from prison. He took this bag and buried it in a cemetery near the prison. This was the place James and his friends agreed upon after they collected enough metal pipes and after they planned everything. They set the escape date for Friday, June 10, 1977. On this day, after the prisoners went out to the outer yard in the afternoon, James and his friends began to execute their plan. The metal pipes they collected were waiting for them in the ditch next to the spot from which they would escape over the wall. They had to assemble these pipes and make a ladder out of them. But of course, before this, they had to get rid of the guards' sight. And here comes the role of the money James took from his brother. James bribed a large number of prisoners to create a diversion that would distract the guards. These prisoners would fight each other and create a big distraction that would draw all the guards' attention to them. And as we said, the number of guards in the prison was not proportional to the number of prisoners, so any chaos of this kind would cause a great distraction for the guards. James, when he felt that everything was ready and they were prepared, took a final look at Guard Floyd Hox, who was standing on Tower Number Four, the closest observation tower to the spot from which they would escape. As usual, he was holding his newspaper and was even asleep at that moment. So, James knew that this was the best possible opportunity. He went and gave the signal to the prisoners to start the fight. Suddenly, the entire yard turned into chaos, everyone fighting each other, and all those fighting each other were bribed prisoners. The guards who were in the yard at that time were only three or four, and all their attention and efforts were directed at the chaos happening in front of them. They began to try to calm the situation and separate the prisoners. Guard Floyd Hox was still sound asleep and didn't notice anything. James and his friends immediately went to their spot and began assembling the pipes. They really knew and had studied how they would assemble them and had planned for it, so the assembly only took them a minute, or even less. They had made a hook so that when they placed the ladder over the wall, it would catch on the wall and remain stable. So, James grabbed the metal ladder and tried to place it on the wall, and he was trying to fix the hook at the top of the wall. He was moving the ladder up and down, and without noticing, he raised it more than necessary and touched the electric wire above. Immediately, of course, the electrical short circuit transferred from the wires to the ladder, electrocuting James and throwing him violently to the ground, throwing him three meters back. The shock was strong. James's friends were afraid at that moment that he had died, but James managed to hold on and took a few moments to absorb the shock. At that moment, his friend Hale took the ladder, and this time, with great caution, he managed to place it on the wall and fix the hook from above, and the ladder became well-fixed on the wall. James, after absorbing the shock, got up from the ground and was the first to climb the ladder to make sure they were okay and could cross easily. Then his friends followed him immediately. And as we said before, on the opposite side, the ground was elevated, so they didn't need to jump five meters down to reach the ground and expose themselves to injury. No, things were much easier, and they walked away immediately. After these three escaped, a number of prisoners who were in the yard noticed the ladder and quickly took advantage of the opportunity and climbed it. In just a few moments, three additional prisoners managed to escape using the ladder, so the number of escapees became six. The last one of these six was named David Powell, and he worked in the prison kitchen, so he was wearing the white cook's uniform. When he saw the ladder and saw James and his friends escaping, he immediately ran across the yard to reach the ladder, and indeed, he was the last prisoner who managed to escape. But his white clothes attracted the attention of one of the observation tower guards. We are not talking about Floyd Hox; he was still sound asleep and unaware of anything. But the guard on Tower Number Three, who was further away, noticed what was happening when he saw David the cook running in his white clothes. David the cook managed to cross from the ladder to the other side, and there was another prisoner who wanted to climb the ladder. So, the guard on Tower Number Three, who noticed them, immediately aimed his rifle and fired towards the ladder, hitting the prisoner who was trying to climb the ladder. At that moment, this prisoner was named Jerry Ward, and it wasn't a fatal shot. Jerry fell to the ground, and the ladder fell with him. The prisoners who intended to climb the ladder retreated, but the yard remained in great chaos, and the prisoners were shouting and chanting, "Over the wall, over the wall!" Guard Floyd Hox, who was asleep, finally noticed when his colleague fired and got up, surprised and clumsy, and fell to the ground while trying to grab his rifle. In any case, the six prisoners had already escaped, and his action was now useless. And by the way, later, most of the blame will be placed on this guard. The prison warden will blame him, and the other guards will blame him, and indeed, he deserves the blame, but there were many problems in the prison besides his negligence and laziness. But that's it, they found a scapegoat to hang their mistakes on, so he became the scapegoat. المهم, after the six prisoners escaped, the prison alarms went off, and reports quickly reached the governor's office and the security authorities. But the problem was that the place where the prison was located was a small town with only about 500 people. So, the security forces, state security, and police stations were a bit far from the prison, so the response speed was not at the required level, and the police took time to arrive. Of course, in situations like this, every minute is precious. Every minute allows the prisoners to get further away and makes the search for them more difficult and harder. But even though the security forces' response was a bit delayed, it was by no means small. Local police, along with central state police, border guards, and hundreds of officers from various security agencies, and on top of that, the FBI, because these escapees were not ordinary prisoners, especially James, who was one of the FBI's most wanted. So how could someone like this escape? Moreover, the media outlets that came to cover the story were dozens. Every news agency in the country rushed to this place, to this prison. The event was big, and everyone was talking about it. The search for these six prisoners was enormous, on the ground and in the air, and by every possible means. The mountainous area behind the prison is a forest area, and the search there was not easy at all. But this also makes it difficult for the prisoners to get away. It's hard to cover long distances in the middle of forests and trees, and this is what the security forces were betting on. James and his friends, as soon as they got out of prison, headed towards the mountain, and immediately after that, they separated, and each went in a different direction. James was trying to reach Route 116. This road would take him to the cemetery where his brother had buried the supply bag. But because darkness fell, visibility became more difficult, and when they escaped from prison, the situation was chaotic, so James even forgot which direction he ran. At that moment, adrenaline was driving him unconsciously, and now, when he became aware of himself, he didn't know exactly where he was. He tried to explore the roads and find his location, but it was more difficult than he imagined. The forest was dense, and trees were everywhere. It was almost impossible for him to know exactly where he was. So, after a period of hours of searching, he lost hope of finding the road or finding the cemetery and the bag his brother had left for him. Perhaps some of you are asking why he didn't wait for his brother outside the prison, as he did in the first escape attempt. The answer is simply that the first escape attempt was in the middle of the night, so no one would discover the operation until many hours later. As for this operation, it was in broad daylight in front of the guards, so the pursuit would start immediately. So, it was impossible for his brother to help him or be with him directly and get involved. James found himself alone in the middle of the forest without anything to guide him, and he had no choice but to make his way forward without stopping. 48 hours passed since the escape, meaning two days, during which four of the prisoners were captured, but James was not one of them. He was still making his way through the forest without a clear path. He didn't know the way, and naturally, he was very exhausted without food, without water, and without sleep for the past 48 hours. The police and security teams searching for them on the ground were using dogs. And on that night, at exactly 10:30 PM, 51 hours after the escape, the dogs accompanying one of the search teams began to bark intensely and move in a specific direction. It was clear they had caught someone's scent. So, this search team let the dogs lead them through the trees, and they kept walking behind them for hours until it was around 2 AM. At that moment, the dogs stopped over a pile of leaves and kept circling and barking at it. The police surrounded this pile of leaves and aimed their weapons at it. One of them kicked the pile of leaves. This pile of leaves was not ordinary; it was clear it was made by hand. And indeed, from under the pile, James suddenly emerged, revealing himself with his hands raised. When James heard the dogs barking, he made this pile of leaves and covered himself with it, trying to stay asleep and not move, not even breathe. But the dogs found him and kept circling and barking over his head. Until that moment, he was still trying not to move, but when he felt the police surrounding him and aiming their weapons at him, he knew it was time to surrender and didn't try to resist at all. James Earl Ray was arrested and returned to Brushy Mountain Penitentiary. A short time later, the sixth and final escapee was captured, and thus, this escape attempt was completely foiled. James would later discover that he took the opposite road from the one he should have taken at the moment of escape. If he had just reversed his direction, he would have reached the main road, and the cemetery where his brother had buried the supply bag would have been on his way, and he could have gotten into any car or stolen a car and quickly left the area before the search teams even arrived. But unfortunately for him, he took the wrong road and got stuck between the forests and the trees, and in the end, he didn't get more than about ten kilometers away from the prison. The capture of James Earl Ray after his escape attempt was a big story published by all the newspapers and media outlets around the world. James was punished by adding an extra year to his sentence, meaning he was sentenced to 99 years, and now he is sentenced to 100 years. It doesn't make a difference, of course, but the important thing is that they added a year. James, despite everything that happened, would try to escape more than once in the following years. The guy never stopped, but all his attempts would fail because the guards and the prison administration knew his habits and were watching him more than anyone else. James would insist on his innocence throughout the years he spent in prison and always appeared in interviews, confirming his innocence and that he was used as a scapegoat by the people who actually carried out the assassination of Martin Luther King. But unfortunately for him, all this talk was of no use, and he spent the rest of his life in prison until he died in 1998 due to illness. What is interesting is that the family and children of Martin Luther King themselves were convinced that James was innocent and that he was not the one who killed their father. They blamed the police and the government, saying that their father's assassination was orchestrated by the government and the CIA, which is the American intelligence agency. This topic itself is very big, with complex theories and things, and to this day, many people are skeptical about it and wonder if James was indeed the killer or an innocent person used as a scapegoat, as he kept saying until the last moment of his life. Perhaps the most plausible theory for me, at least, is that there were indeed entities, an organization, or people who wanted to assassinate Martin Luther King and used James to be the assassin or killer, and they paid him for it, of course. I don't think James is innocent, frankly, but at the same time, I believe he was indeed used as a scapegoat so that the rest of the people, or that organization, or the hidden entities that planned the assassination would not be exposed. But in the end, all of this remains just a theory. And here we have reached the end of our story. If you enjoyed it, don't forget to like, and if you are not subscribed to the channel, subscribe and activate the bell. And here are some other amazing stories you can watch. Thank you for watching. See you in the next video, and goodbye.