The Missouri State Penitentiary: 170 Years inside "The Walls"

James Earl Ray

84 James Earl Ray It’s disappointing being caught. . . . I’d rather be . . . out there. But it’s not the end of the world. There’s tomorrow. —James Earl Ray, quoted in Hampton Sides, Hellhound on His Trail James Earl Ray was another infamous Missouri State Penitentiary inmate who is more famous for what he did after he left the penitentiary than for what he did while he was an inmate. Ray’s ingenious escape from the Missouri State Penitentiary put him on the scene when Martin Luther King Jr. was killed. Even today, debate still rages about whether Ray was the actual killer or just a cog in a huge conspiracy. But no debate rages about how he escaped from the Missouri State Penitentiary. James Earl Ray was born on March 10, 1928, to a poverty-stricken family in Illinois.When he was two years old, the family sought a better life in Missouri, but it was not to be. Even after purchasing a farm in 1935, crime and alcohol continued to play a major role in the family ’s affairs. Ray was running errands for a local brothel by the time he was fourteen years old. Ray spent a brief period in the army but was discharged in 1948 for drunkenness and general ineptitude. He tried several jobs but was James Earl Ray 85 unable to make a living, and by 1960 he had accumulated a string of convictions. That year, he participated in an armed robbery in St. Louis. His conviction for that crime earned him a twenty-year sentence in the Missouri State Penitentiary. According to historian Hampton Sides, who wrote Hellhound on His Trail describing the manhunt for Ray, lack of diligence was not the reason Ray had been unable to hold a steady job. In his book, Sides explains that in the penitentiary, Ray focused obsessively on escape . During Ray’s tenure at the penitentiary, he made at least two escape attempts. First, he tried to climb over the wall with a homemade ladder. In another attempt, he was spotted on the roof of a building. Inmate photograph of James Earl Ray from his time at the Missouri State Penitentiary . Courtesy of Missouri State Archives. 86 The Missouri State Penitentiary In his cell, Ray could often be found doing push-ups and other exercises to keep up his strength for his escape attempts. When he wasn’t trying to escape, he behaved and tried to make himself as inconspicuous as possible. One prison administrator recalled, “He was just a nothing here.” In early 1967, his preparations took a drastic turn. He checked out travel books about Mexico and experimented with walnut dye to make his skin look darker. Ray also took up a strange new form of exercise :“He would curl himself in a tiny ball and hold the position for hours, straining to crunch his body into the tightest possible space.” On April 22, 1967, Ray went down to the prison bakery at about eight in the morning carrying what looked like a small bag of toiletries . The bag actually contained twenty candy bars and a transistor radio. Ray went to the locker room where he had hidden a set of clothes that could pass for civilian wear. He slipped on the white shirt and black pants. Then he put his prison uniform back on over the disguise so he could remain inconspicuous during the last few steps of his escape. Once he was ready, Ray went down to the loading dock and climbed into one of the large metal boxes that were used to deliver bread from the bakery at the penitentiary to other institutions in the Department of Corrections. Ray smashed down the first layer of bread and climbed in. On top of him, someone placed a false bottom before filling the rest of the space with bread. The bread box was then loaded onto a freight truck. Before the truck could leave the premises, it had to be inspected for possible stowaways. But the guard never thought to look beyond the first layer of bread. Once Ray was sure the truck was beyond the walls of the penitentiary, he climbed out and removed his prison clothes. When the truck slowed to make a turn, he jumped out and was gone. Ray listened to his radio as he marched west and ate his candy bars. There was no media...