The Guy Who Killed MLK First Tried To Direct Porn
And the guy who killed Robert Kennedy (Sirhan Sirhan) was a 5'5" failed jockey.
This week of Twisted History, Vibbs and I do a deep dive into the year 1968 and uncover a couple of gems that I was not aware of.
I always knew that James Earl Ray was the guy who shot Martin Luther King, but I never knew he was an escaped convict at the time… While solving a 20-year sentence for a laundry list of repeat offenses, Ray escaped from Missouri State Penitentiary in 1967 by hiding in a truck transporting bread from the prison bakery.
After escaping, he eventually made his way to Mexico where, under the alias Eric Starvo Galt, he tried to direct pornographic films with local prostitutes… One of his more famous series starred a Mexican dwarf actress named Consuelo (pronounced "cunts-way-low")
But his flicks failed to sell due to the overwhelming anti-Mexican porn movement the US was experiencing in the late 60s, so he came back to the US.
In March of 1968, Ray got a nose job to change his look, drove from LA to Memphis, and shot King in his right cheek with a single shot from his Remington Model 760 rifle.
He then escaped the country and wasn't brought to justice for 2 months before he was captured at London's Heathrow Airport.
He confessed to the crime on March 10, 1969, his 41st birthday, and after pleading guilty he was sentenced to 99 years in prison.
And here's another gem I wasn't aware of… On June 10, 1977, Ray and six other convicts escaped from Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary in Petros, Tennessee. They were recaptured on June 13, and a single year was added to Ray's previous sentence, increasing it to 100 years.
That's it.
That's all I wanted to mention in this blog.
Other than the Consuelo joke I made up, I had no clue…
- Sirhan Sirhan tried to be a jockey.
- Ray escaped prison TWICE.
- Fled the country after killing MLK.
- Got a nose job.
- Directed Mexican porn.
And there is a SHITLOAD of other facts from the year Smithsonian Magazine dubbed “The Year That Shattered America” on The Twisted History of 1968.
Give it a listen, and take a report.
-Large
The guy in the thumbnail is a naked James Earl Jones… I used to get him and James Earl Ray confused all the time.
For those with similar confusion, here's a Rule of Thumb: James Earl Ray killed Martin Luther King, and James Earl Jones had terrible bangs in Conan The Barbarian.
TAR
-L