Read an Excerpt
Klandestine
How a Klan Lawyer and a Checkbook Journalist Helped James Earl Ray Cover Up His Crime
By Pate McMichael Chicago Review Press Incorporated
Copyright © 2015 Pate McMichael
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-61373-073-7
CHAPTER 1
A Pretty Fair Country Lawyer
London, June 1968
James Earl Ray, the man accused of assassinating Martin Luther King Jr., was scheduled to be arraigned at Bow Street Magistrate's Court in London on June 10. The resultant media coverage intrigued a young British solicitor named Michael Eugene, who joined the crowd gathering outside for a view of the suspect's plea on the proxy charges of passport fraud and carrying an unlicensed firearm. None of the journalists on hand could ever recall being searched before entering the building, but everyone received a thorough pat-down to protect Ray from an attempt on his life. As the hearing began, Eugene watched as a battery of guards formed a shield around Ray and led him into the same courtroom where famous men like Charles Dickens, Oscar Wilde, and Casanova once stood before the bar of justice.
The arraignment proved anticlimactic, just another short scene in the court's historic tenure. In the course of one palpable minute, Ray pled not guilty, claiming against reason that he was a citizen of Canada with no permanent address. With little hesitation, British judge Frank Milton remanded him to custody until an extradition hearing could be held. The US government had already applied for additional warrants on the grounds that Ray was an escaped fugitive and a suspected murderer. When the arraignment was over, Eugene scurried off to work.
Later that morning, the phone rang. By 3:00 PM, Eugene was crossing the Thames bound for Brixton Prison, assigned by the court as the equivalent of an American public defender. A guard led him into an interrogation room, where a passive man in glasses sat in silence. Eugene called his client Ramon George Sneyd — the name on Ray's false passport and the only name he would provide to British police. Since his escape from prison in April 1967, Ray had used nearly a dozen aliases in a dozen cities and five countries. Eugene exchanged a greeting and explained his assignment. He was there to prepare a defense for the extradition hearing. The whole process could take as long as two months, should they choose to drag it out.
After all, Ray was arrested with a Canadian passport, not an American one. Proving Ray's US citizenship would not be enough to merit extradition. The American government must hire British barristers and transport its evidence abroad; legitimate reasons for wanting Ray returned to the States must be presented to the court. Eugene also explained Article VI of the Extradition Treaty of 1931, which forbids the British from extraditing a fugitive criminal to another country for prosecution of a political crime. Eugene believed that he could establish the political nature of the King assassination by pointing out America's troubled legacy of racism and the government's long-standing harassment of civil rights leaders.
Eugene outlined the process, then asked Ray for concerns. The American spoke with purpose. "Get in touch right away with my brother Jerry," he asserted calmly, "and also with Arthur Hanes. He's a lawyer in Birmingham, Alabama." In dropping Jerry's name, Ray was admitting his true identity to Eugene for the first time. As a May 1968 Life article on Ray's upbringing explained, Ray called the St. Louis area home, where his father, sister, and two jailbird brothers, Jack and Jerry, lived in two-state proximity. But this lawyer from Alabama was a complete mystery to Eugene. More disturbingly, Ray seemed adamant. "I know he'll represent me and look after my interests back in the States," the suspect claimed. "I saw Hanes a couple of times on television a few years ago when he was mayor of Birmingham."
Eugene left the prison and contacted the American embassy in Grosvenor Square. The diplomat fielding his call was disapproving. This Arthur Hanes, a politician turned trial attorney, has a bad reputation for taking racial cases. Ray should be advised to reconsider his choice of counsel. Taking the hint, Eugene approached his client about picking someone else. After all, Ray claimed to have only seen Hanes on television. Why would he want to make this more racial than it already was? With some apparent irony, or pretense, Ray agreed to consider two alternates: F. Lee Bailey and Melvin Belli, the Camaro and Mustang of American defense attorneys. Eugene agreed to reach out to all three.
But after Eugene left, Ray quickly penned a letter to "Mr. Hanes" dressed in six stamps depicting the queen. In all caps, he acknowledged the British charges of passport fraud, as well as "the Martin King case." Ray told Hanes that without a real lawyer in waiting he would be convicted "of whatever charge they file on me before I arrive" in Memphis. At the time of his writing, a bogus media report speculated that Ray had been "interviewed" by Fred Vinson Jr., head of the US Department of Justice's criminal division. Vinson was sitting on a bench during the arraignment, and when reporters approached him after the hearing, he confirmed having "seen" Ray. Vinson was being literal, but the remark fed a rumor that Ray might have confessed inside his cell. "The reason I wrote to you," Ray explained to Hanes, "is I read once where you handled a case similar to what I think may be filed on me."
On June 14, just before Ray's letter arrived at the Birmingham Bar Association, Eugene phoned the firm of Hanes & Hanes in downtown Birmingham. The law office was a suite in the Frank Nelson Building, a haven for the city's lawyers and die-hard segregationists, the very building where the United Klans of America — the largest umbrella of Klansmen in the nation — had been represented for many years. Hanes, a smooth-talking Southerner with an animated drawl, picked up. Eugene explained the circumstances of the call, as well as the letter that would soon arrive in the mail. Suspecting a prank but playing along, Hanes confirmed being the former mayor of Birmingham but claimed no knowledge of anyone named Sneyd or Ray. He listened carefully and promised to await the letter but also wanted to know if the man had the money to pay his fee. Eugene fumbled for an answer. "He gave me that indication, sir."
* * *
At 5:05 PM on the Sunday evening of June 16, the deputy director of the US Passport Office phoned a Washington FBI agent to check the background of a lawyer who was planning to visit London on short notice. The applicant, Arthur Jackson Hanes, needed papers ASAP but was told that no passports could be issued on a Sunday night. Should he appear in New York or Washington on Monday morning, he could acquire one immediately. The FBI agent jotted down some background information on Hanes, then typed up a memo: "Born 10-19-16, Alabama; profession: attorney, Birmingham, Alabama; it is noted that Hanes is a former Special Agent of the FBI who resigned 8-4-51."
The next morning, on June 17, Hanes called a press conference and announced his plans to leave for London on June 19 at 7 PM from Washington, DC. Outside the Frank Nelson Building, the world learned that Birmingham's former mayor would be representing the American charged in the King assassination. His remarks were carried on the radio and later appeared on the nightly news. To skeptics the story didn't make much sense. Why would Ray seek out an Alabama lawyer who was not even a member of the Tennessee bar? Hanes took similar questions as he made the trek from Birmingham to Atlanta to Washington to London. In what soon became a pattern, Hanes pleaded ignorance of his client's identity, as well as his intentions. "I've never heard of Ray, and I've never heard of any of the aliases used," Hanes said in Atlanta on June 18, before boarding a plane to Washington. "Also, I have never, as far as I know, seen any of the people depicted in any of the photographs or artists' drawings of anyone connected to this case. This man, whomever he may be, is unknown to me. I don't know who's in jail in London, and I'm not so sure that anybody in this country knows as of now."
As Hanes made his way to Washington, the legal attaché of the US embassy in London phoned the FBI for guidance. The treatment Hanes received abroad by the US government would reflect directly on President Lyndon Johnson's administration, which had enough on its plate with the Tet Offensive in Vietnam. The attaché wanted to know if Hanes should be met at the airport and extended certain courtesies, like a ride to his hotel. More immediately, the attaché wanted the FBI to provide some background on Hanes. The British, determined to protect Ray's rights and safety, were eager to know more about this Alabama attorney, so the FBI passed along the following information: "Hanes is a former Special Agent of the Bureau who entered on duty October 25, 1948, and resigned August 4, 1951, less than three years service. Subsequent to his Bureau service he was mayor of Birmingham and represented Klansmen defendants in the case involving the murder of Viola Liuzzo, the Michigan woman who was shot and killed on March 25, 1965, near Selma, Alabama."
More telling was the Birmingham FBI's assurances that it possessed "no information indicating that Hanes is or was a member of the Ku Klux Klan or is an official legal representative of the Klan." FBI director J. Edgar Hoover was not convinced. Hoover wanted the legal attaché in London to know one more thing about his former employee: Hanes is "absolutely no good. Have no contact with him."
* * *
Dapper, confident, and well dressed, Hanes and his son, Art Jr., a twenty-six-year-old Princeton graduate, landed in London on June 20. The American embassy confirmed their afternoon arrival and subsequent registration at the four-star Royal Lancaster Hotel in Hyde Park. Hanes gave his first press conference in the lobby at 3:00 PM, in plenty of time for the morning papers. He described himself as a "pretty fair country lawyer." When asked if he would even be allowed to see his client while in London, Hanes shrugged. "I rather doubt it." Only a licensed barrister can practice law in the United Kingdom; his visit was for moral support.
The reporters were not satisfied. They demanded to know how Ray would pay Hanes's fee, his transatlantic flight, and his ritzy hotel bill. It just didn't seem to add up, but Hanes was unmoved, responding that he would not work pro bono. When a reporter called him a segregationist, Hanes suddenly got testy. "You don't label liberal lawyers 'integrationist.' This question doesn't enter into the case. My views on civil rights are too far afield here," he added. But the grilling only continued with more intensity. Reporters asked about Hanes's relationship with Dr. King, the victim. In a roundabout way, King was partly responsible for Hanes's 1963 ouster as mayor of Birmingham, but the attorney dismissed these inquiries with boilerplate: "I've seen him and I've met him. As far as I'm concerned his business was his business and mine was mine. I don't knock anyone's kick." What about the KKK? reporters asked. Haven't you represented Klansmen in the past? Hanes said he recalled "no knowledge of the Klan" because he personally does not "join right-wing groups or left-wing groups. Just the Lions Club and the PTA."
* * *
Hoover read these news reports and entered into a conversation with US attorney general Ramsey Clark, who on April 27, less than a month after the assassination, had assured the American people that there was no evidence of a conspiracy. Hoover shared the sentiment but told Clark on July 20 that he wasn't entirely convinced.
I commented that, of course, the lawyer who has gone over to represent Ray is a former FBI Agent; that he is no good and was the attorney in the Mrs. Viola Liuzzo case, but, of course, we got convictions in that, but this lawyer has always been strongly pro-Klan. I said he was Mayor of Birmingham, Alabama, at one time and at that time he was a strong supporter of 'Bull' Connor and I thought it significant that Ray should get a fellow who has certainly a strong smell of Klan about him.
I said he denies he is a Klansman or that he ever attended any of their meetings and he claims he does not know how Ray came to ask for him as his lawyer. I said Ray claims he read about him in the newspaper when he was in the penitentiary in Missouri. The Attorney General said he does not see how Ray would remember that. I agreed and told the Attorney General that the lawyer and his son, who is a partner, went over to England and we alerted our London Office to alert the British as to his background so they would know with whom they are dealing.
* * *
The day after his London arrival, Hanes presented himself to Scotland Yard demanding an audience with Ray. A British official denied his request, informing Hanes that his "client" possessed less than 200 pounds. The money he'd just wasted scurrying abroad to conduct this publicity stunt would never be repaid, at least not by Ray. Hanes did not take umbrage. Writing on a business card, he scribbled a short message and asked that it be given to the prisoner. "Dear Mr. Sneyd," Hanes wrote, "We made an effort to see you but will see you immediately upon arrival in the USA."
As the note implied, extradition was inevitable, though not immediate. After four days in London and a little sightseeing, Hanes headed back to Birmingham to monitor the situation. The trip was legally futile, yet fruitful in the court of public opinion. Pictures of Ray's handsome American lawyer walking purposely through Trafalgar Square appeared in hundreds of American newspapers and ended, for good, the manhunt media narrative that had so demonized Ray as a habitual criminal. Perhaps just as important, the story of Hanes's involvement in the King assassination was given prominence in a news cycle that included the Tet Offensive in Vietnam, the assassination of Robert Kennedy, and the riveting third-party candidacy of former Alabama governor George C. Wallace.
CHAPTER 2
Extradition
London, June 27–July 17, 1968
On the morning of June 27, the first day of Ray's extradition hearing, an attorney representing the state of Missouri appeared in Bow Street Court to claim its ward. Don't forget, Missouri reminded the court, Ray is an escaped convict who held up a Kroger grocery store in East St. Louis in 1959. He received twenty years as a habitual offender and served that sentence up until the moment he escaped from prison in Jefferson City in April 1967. Missouri wanted him back.
Next the state of Tennessee and the FBI presented evidence linking Ray to King's assassination. Hoover was not waiting until the trial; he sent over the smoking gun. FBI forensics expert George Bonebrake, who pulled a latent print off the murder weapon, presented three photographic charts tying Ray to the crime. Bonebrake's team had compared the print against those of fifty-three thousand known fugitives. It was a tiresome task, a hunch really, that required precious hours of trial and error. Working in a secret bureau outpost for twenty-four hours straight, the FBI matched the print to James Earl Ray on the 702nd card, the court learned.
The physical evidence was later supported by Scotland Yard detective chief superintendent Robert Butler, the British agent who interrogated Ray on June 8. Despite international warrants for his arrest, Ray was captured with two Canadian passports and a revolver. So that day in court, Butler recalled the moment when Ray heard his given name spoken for the first time in many months. The suspect dropped his head and blurted out "Oh God" and "I feel so trapped," Butler testified.
The hearings continued until July 2. Eugene planned to make a final plea for asylum, and he warned Ray not to speak regardless of the outcome. English courts only recognize barristers, he explained. A defendant's words would be ignored and viewed as a sign of disrespect. As the court came to order, Eugene demurred to the evidence presented by the US government and claimed that King's murder was a "political crime," a conspiracy to which Mr. Sneyd was an obvious patsy. Under bilateral treaty obligations, no citizen of either country can be extradited for a political crime, Eugene pleaded.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Klandestine by Pate McMichael. Copyright © 2015 Pate McMichael. Excerpted by permission of Chicago Review Press Incorporated.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
