James Earl Ray makes it to Rhodesia

Suppose that, instead of being arrested at Heathrow, MLK assssin James Earl Ray manages to dodge Scotland Yard and get to Rhodesia, as he had apparently been planning.

I suppose the most likely-seeming sceanrio is that Rhodesian authorities would just hand him over to the US, since, whatever sympathy they may have had with Ray's politics, it remained the case that he was a wanted man, by no less than the freaking FBI, and the evidence against him was pretty substantial.

On the other hand, as any defense-lawyer can tell you, if you stare at a set of facts long enough, you're bound to find something that can be passed off as a discrepancy, at least to someone who is ready to be convinced of the falsity of it all. Even the King family, in later years, were buying into theories that Ray was framed, so it probably wouldn't have been too tall an order for Salisbury to officially reach a similar conclusion, if they wanted an excuse not to send him back to the states.

Bonus points if Ray goes into Rhodesian politics and becomes prime minister. Just joking(mostly).
 
Given that Ray was not exactly the most upstanding citizen, I can see him getting into trouble with the law there.
 
His only hope to not be deported outright is to enter under an assumed name and keep a profile low enough that Rhodesia can play the "oh, we totally didn't know he was here" card. Like a Nazi in South America.

Unfortunately (for him), he was an unstable criminal before shooting MLK and he will likely do something that gets him uncovered and deported. Probably sooner than later.
 
If you want a free James Earl Ray, why not just have white supremacists/whoever wants him free (I couldn't imagine why, even from a white supremacist standpoint) raise the money to bribe the notoriously corrupt Tennessee governor Ray Blanton to pardon him in the 70s? Easiest way for him to escape to wherever (Rhodesia, South Africa?), even if it would cost quite a bit for that pardon to be issued. Like other criminals pardoned by Blanton for money, he'd basically just vanish, possibly under an assumed name. Maybe he'd get to Rhodesia for real this time. Or he'd commit another crime and be sent back to jail/deported.

It isn't too implausible. Even if he was the most infamous inmate in the Tennessee prison system at the time, the FBI in their investigation found that even James Earl Ray could be sprung for a large enough fee. There's some pretty telling quotes, with the prison officials saying something like "that might be real hard, but with enough money, who knows?" The thing is, who will raise the money to free someone that notorious? Even if you're a hardcore white supremacist, Apartheid advocate, whatever, you have to admit the money could go to better "causes" then bribing the Tennessee state government to spring some random nut who did such a notorious crime. In that case, the biggest effects would be Ray Blanton becoming even more notorious nationwide and almost certainly impeached because let's face it, garden variety murderers (as were pardoned under Blanton thanks to $$$$$) are one thing, but James Earl Ray himself is something entirely different.

That's the best way to get James Earl Ray to Rhodesia. For the time being, he'd be a free man not wanted for any crime thanks to the purchased pardon, thus he'd have to commit a crime in Rhodesia for any further consequences.
 

I took the comment "He shoots the prime minister" as just a joke, since JER is famous for shooting somone, so of course that's what he'd do if he got to Rhodesia.

metalinvader:

Thanks for the information on Blanton, never heard of the guy before. Yeah, that might be a good way to get Ray out of the US, though as you say, there is the question of why even a white-supremacist would want to spend that kind of money getting him out.

Some of the articles I saw mentioned that Ray believed that, upon settling in Rhodesia, he would be sent bounties from numerous paymasters in gratitude for killing King. If that was true(and I think I've read in fairly credible sources that there was at least one price tag on King's head), then maybe the various philanthropists can channed the money to Blanton instead. Assuming there's any money left by the time Blanton comes to power.

One funny scenario would be Ray gets out of jail, moves to Rhodesia, and eventually renounces his American citizenship, just in time for Mugabe's ascension, at which point he has nowhere else to go.
 
I took the comment "He shoots the prime minister" as just a joke, since JER is famous for shooting somone, so of course that's what he'd do if he got to Rhodesia.

metalinvader:

Thanks for the information on Blanton, never heard of the guy before. Yeah, that might be a good way to get Ray out of the US, though as you say, there is the question of why even a white-supremacist would want to spend that kind of money getting him out.

Some of the articles I saw mentioned that Ray believed that, upon settling in Rhodesia, he would be sent bounties from numerous paymasters in gratitude for killing King. If that was true(and I think I've read in fairly credible sources that there was at least one price tag on King's head), then maybe the various philanthropists can channed the money to Blanton instead. Assuming there's any money left by the time Blanton comes to power.

One funny scenario would be Ray gets out of jail, moves to Rhodesia, and eventually renounces his American citizenship, just in time for Mugabe's ascension, at which point he has nowhere else to go.
I was joking
 
The Rhodesians would immediately arrest him and send him off to the United States. They aren't going to risk even more international isolation by enraging the US. They'll likely try to use their cooperation as a means to gain some form of recognition from the US, but it will lead to nowhere.
 
The problem is that Rhodesia had, for propaganda purposes, a policy that they would deport anyone percieved as "racialist" without any ties to Rhodesia. After all, they saw themselves as a country of "partnership between black and white," which was not exactly JER's vision of the world. So likely he gets himself in trouble, and gets deported under BSAP escort. If Asshole Smitty is feeling particularly ironic, under a black BSAP escort.
 
The problem is that Rhodesia had, for propaganda purposes, a policy that they would deport anyone percieved as "racialist" without any ties to Rhodesia. After all, they saw themselves as a country of "partnership between black and white," which was not exactly JER's vision of the world. So likely he gets himself in trouble, and gets deported under BSAP escort. If Asshole Smitty is feeling particularly ironic, under a black BSAP escort.

What he said. Rhodesia was a discriminatory and unjust place but the whites down there weren't two-dimensional raging racist ogres. They did respect the rule of law (it was just that their laws were bad), and they weren't going to hide some jerkoff who shot a major civil rights leader with an ironclad commitment to peaceful protest, especially when they had nothing to gain by doing so. In OTL when foreigners tried to join the military during the bush war they would get deported if the government found out they were hardcore racialists. Rhodesia needed to have some degree of cooperation with the black population to survive (they only had a quarter of the white population of the RSA as a percentage of the population), and racists who might commit war crimes or piss off a friendly tribal leader tended to work against that.

With that said, it's possible Ray might be able to hide out there if he keeps his identity secret. While the Rhodesians would deport him if they found out who he was, the Rhodesian Light Infantry was famous for being like the pre-1961 French Foreign Legion; they didn't ask questions, and they ended up with some real characters in there. Maybe he can join them under an assumed name and do better within the structure of a military environment. He got a general discharge from the peacetime U.S. Army for being a drunken neo-Nazi criminal though, so probably not. Maybe being in combat would occupy his time and mind and keep him a bit more on the straight and narrow.
 
What he said. Rhodesia was a discriminatory and unjust place but the whites down there weren't two-dimensional raging racist ogres. They did respect the rule of law (it was just that their laws were bad), and they weren't going to hide some jerkoff who shot a major civil rights leader with an ironclad commitment to peaceful protest, especially when they had nothing to gain by doing so. In OTL when foreigners tried to join the military during the bush war they would get deported if the government found out they were hardcore racialists. Rhodesia needed to have some degree of cooperation with the black population to survive (they only had a quarter of the white population of the RSA as a percentage of the population), and racists who might commit war crimes or piss off a friendly tribal leader tended to work against that.

With that said, it's possible Ray might be able to hide out there if he keeps his identity secret. While the Rhodesians would deport him if they found out who he was, the Rhodesian Light Infantry was famous for being like the pre-1961 French Foreign Legion; they didn't ask questions, and they ended up with some real characters in there. Maybe he can join them under an assumed name and do better within the structure of a military environment. He got a general discharge from the peacetime U.S. Army for being a drunken neo-Nazi criminal though, so probably not. Maybe being in combat would occupy his time and mind and keep him a bit more on the straight and narrow.
Oh, the Rhodies were racist ogres, but they notionally had standards, if only out of sheer ruthless pragmatism. It would not do to have a recruit beat up on his fellow comrades in arms over some radical ideology.
 
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