My apologies to Stendhal, but I couldn’t resist.
Despite his (ahem!) vigorous defense of James Ray during the extradition, Michael Eugene lacked the credentials to represent him in the United States. For that, Ray would need an American attorney.
Actually, he would need a really, really good American attorney.
And he got one. He first contacted famed mouthpiece F. Lee Bailey while detained in Britain. Bailey replied that he couldn’t because of a potential conflict of interest.* Ray found better luck with the second attorney, Arthur Hanes Sr.** For reasons unknown to James Earl, Eugene discouraged Ray from hiring Hanes. He even went so far as to bar the Alabama attorney and his son from interviewing Ray at Brixton Prison. But Hanes finally received permission to consult with Ray provided that the American lawyer refrain from discussing the Martin Luther King case with him.
While the ban against discussing the murder case would seem to nullify Hanes’ reason for making three trips to Britain, it didn’t. Hanes had another matter to discuss: namely, book contracts. As Ray explained in his memoir:
Ray said that the US embassy told Eugene “. . . bringing Arthur Hanes into the Martin Luther King Jr. matter would be unwise.” Yet, it’s possible that Eugene had other reasons for distrusting both Hanes and Huie. Both men came with their own (let’s call it) “baggage.” Worse, evidence would eventually emerge suggesting that both men were fostering and protecting interests other than Ray’s.
As a young man Huie wrote for American Mercury, an ultra-conservative periodical founded by H,L, Mencken.*** When he joined the staff in the 1930s, Huie was sharply critical of President Roosevelt’s New Deal, as was Mencken. At the same time, American Mercury published articles by Langston Hughes and W.E.B. DuBois. After leaving the magazine, Huie covered a number of topics, among them the brutal murder of Emmett Till and the trial of Ruby McCollum.
Huie’s infamy came neither from his hard-right views, nor the topics he covered, but in the way he approached a story. A fairly wealthy man, Huie simply paid subjects for interviews. His form of “checkbook journalism,” led to scoops that his less-endowed colleagues could only envy. In the Till case, for example, Huie interviewed Roy Bryant and John Milam after an all-white jury acquitted both men. Free from re-arrest, because of double jeopardy laws, Bryant and Milam gleefully gave Look magazine a play-by-play of their murderous actions for the “reasonable” price of $4,000 dollars, a sum Huie happily payed.
Hanes’ notoriety, especially in a case like this, stemmed from his long-term commitment to defending segregation and racial dominion. He successfully represented Klansmen William Eaton, Eugene Thomas and Collie Wilkins in the murder of Viola Gregg Liuzzo. As Mayor of Birmingham, he and other civic authorities stood in opposition to Rev. King. Hanes was also a ten-year veteran of the FBI, another entity with an open antipathy towards King.
One could speculate that a deal like this would disadvantage Ray from the start. His defense comes from an expensive attorney who instead of offering him a discount offers him a barter. The more Ray can pay, the better defense he can get. The amount to which he could pay for his defense depended on how much money Huie made from the literary works.**** Consequently, Ray’s defense fund (and ultimately Hanes’ payday) relied on enticing enough readers to subscribe to the magazine or buy the paperback.
As you are no doubt well aware, nothing sells a piece of writing like sensationalism. True, sensationalism has this tendency to grossly distort the truth for the sake of narrative. Sensationalism glosses over those pesky dry details, and replaces them with hot juicy titillation and innuendo.
Huie had made a career out of sensationalism, and Hanes was on board. The lawyer had one doozy of a story to tell a jury and the international public. On 12 November 1968 Look published Huie’s first article about James Ray. The piece laid the groundwork for Hanes’---how can I put this---most original defense.
You see, Hanes intended to prove that Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King died as a result of a conspiracy. Moreover, this conspiracy was planned and executed by the Black Panthers, with financial and logistical support from the People’s Republic of China.
No, you did not misread the previous paragraph. You’re not hallucinating. Hanes really intended to prove this scenario conclusively in open court. Furthermore, he expressed his true belief in it. And, as he declared to a New York Times reporter in an item dated 15 November 1968, his reasoning was sound as an inflating dollar:
Unfortunately for him, Ray forgot to get rid of W. Bradford Huie.
___________________
*Bailey had a lengthy acquaintanceship to Dr. King, and would later represent his surviving family.
**Hanes' son, Arthur Jr., was also an attorney who would assist on this case. Unless otherwise noted, all references here are to the father.
.***I didn’t provide a link to the current version of American Mercury, because you’d be confronted by a gory image upon arrival. I also don’t link to many alt-right or paleo-conservative sites in general. After its 1952 sale to Russell McGuire, the magazine quickly devolved into the foaming-at-the-mouth anti-Semitic and racist rag that it is today.
****In this case several magazine articles and a book eventually titled He Slew the Dreamer.
*****Birmingham, Alabama was an important staging area for the Bay of Pigs and subsequent invasions into Cuba and Latin America. It therefore makes some sense for the Agency to hire city officials to help expedite their work, and to protect their secrecy.
Despite his (ahem!) vigorous defense of James Ray during the extradition, Michael Eugene lacked the credentials to represent him in the United States. For that, Ray would need an American attorney.
Actually, he would need a really, really good American attorney.
And he got one. He first contacted famed mouthpiece F. Lee Bailey while detained in Britain. Bailey replied that he couldn’t because of a potential conflict of interest.* Ray found better luck with the second attorney, Arthur Hanes Sr.** For reasons unknown to James Earl, Eugene discouraged Ray from hiring Hanes. He even went so far as to bar the Alabama attorney and his son from interviewing Ray at Brixton Prison. But Hanes finally received permission to consult with Ray provided that the American lawyer refrain from discussing the Martin Luther King case with him.
While the ban against discussing the murder case would seem to nullify Hanes’ reason for making three trips to Britain, it didn’t. Hanes had another matter to discuss: namely, book contracts. As Ray explained in his memoir:
The only legal matters we discussed involved contracts. I gave Hanes power of attorney to sign publishing contracts with author William Bradford Huie, who said he intended to write a series of articles about the case prior to the trial.In 1968, a decade before Son of Sam laws began forbade convicted felons from receiving money for lucrative book and movie deals, the above prospect seemed like a creative and practical way to raise funds. After all, high-powered attorneys such as Hanes didn’t come cheap. And Ray didn’t have any money. So it’s not surprising that Ray agreed to hire Hanes as his lawyer once extradited. Hanes encouraged James to hasten the agreement by waiving his right to appeal the extradition.
On Hanes’ third trip, he advised me to waive my right to appeal an extradition order. He also said he thought the income from Huie’s articles would finance my defense. I had doubts about trying to pay my legal fees by doing business with publishers, but I went along.
Ray said that the US embassy told Eugene “. . . bringing Arthur Hanes into the Martin Luther King Jr. matter would be unwise.” Yet, it’s possible that Eugene had other reasons for distrusting both Hanes and Huie. Both men came with their own (let’s call it) “baggage.” Worse, evidence would eventually emerge suggesting that both men were fostering and protecting interests other than Ray’s.
As a young man Huie wrote for American Mercury, an ultra-conservative periodical founded by H,L, Mencken.*** When he joined the staff in the 1930s, Huie was sharply critical of President Roosevelt’s New Deal, as was Mencken. At the same time, American Mercury published articles by Langston Hughes and W.E.B. DuBois. After leaving the magazine, Huie covered a number of topics, among them the brutal murder of Emmett Till and the trial of Ruby McCollum.
Huie’s infamy came neither from his hard-right views, nor the topics he covered, but in the way he approached a story. A fairly wealthy man, Huie simply paid subjects for interviews. His form of “checkbook journalism,” led to scoops that his less-endowed colleagues could only envy. In the Till case, for example, Huie interviewed Roy Bryant and John Milam after an all-white jury acquitted both men. Free from re-arrest, because of double jeopardy laws, Bryant and Milam gleefully gave Look magazine a play-by-play of their murderous actions for the “reasonable” price of $4,000 dollars, a sum Huie happily payed.
Hanes’ notoriety, especially in a case like this, stemmed from his long-term commitment to defending segregation and racial dominion. He successfully represented Klansmen William Eaton, Eugene Thomas and Collie Wilkins in the murder of Viola Gregg Liuzzo. As Mayor of Birmingham, he and other civic authorities stood in opposition to Rev. King. Hanes was also a ten-year veteran of the FBI, another entity with an open antipathy towards King.
One could speculate that a deal like this would disadvantage Ray from the start. His defense comes from an expensive attorney who instead of offering him a discount offers him a barter. The more Ray can pay, the better defense he can get. The amount to which he could pay for his defense depended on how much money Huie made from the literary works.**** Consequently, Ray’s defense fund (and ultimately Hanes’ payday) relied on enticing enough readers to subscribe to the magazine or buy the paperback.
As you are no doubt well aware, nothing sells a piece of writing like sensationalism. True, sensationalism has this tendency to grossly distort the truth for the sake of narrative. Sensationalism glosses over those pesky dry details, and replaces them with hot juicy titillation and innuendo.
Huie had made a career out of sensationalism, and Hanes was on board. The lawyer had one doozy of a story to tell a jury and the international public. On 12 November 1968 Look published Huie’s first article about James Ray. The piece laid the groundwork for Hanes’---how can I put this---most original defense.
You see, Hanes intended to prove that Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King died as a result of a conspiracy. Moreover, this conspiracy was planned and executed by the Black Panthers, with financial and logistical support from the People’s Republic of China.
No, you did not misread the previous paragraph. You’re not hallucinating. Hanes really intended to prove this scenario conclusively in open court. Furthermore, he expressed his true belief in it. And, as he declared to a New York Times reporter in an item dated 15 November 1968, his reasoning was sound as an inflating dollar:
[Hanes] concluded that for an assassin to murder Dr. King and to elude capture for more than two months while more than 3,000 Federal Bureau of Investigation agents were searching for him would require elaborate planning....As a former (?) contract agent for CIA, Hanes quickly dismissed the first explanation, and concentrated on the second.*****
Mr. Hanes said that they could think of only two groups that they considered capable of carrying out this type of plan—the C.I.A. and black militants, with Red Chinese or Cuban backing.
Mr. Hanes decided that he and his son should undertake Ray’s defense, notwithstanding their conclusion and that they should proceed on the assumption that the murder had been plotted and financed by what he called “black militants with foreign ties.Ray fired Hanes and Hanes on 10 November 1968, switching them with another high-priced lawyer. Given the defense his attorney planned to put on, Ray's decision to get rid of Hanes probably had some wisdom in it.
Unfortunately for him, Ray forgot to get rid of W. Bradford Huie.
___________________
*Bailey had a lengthy acquaintanceship to Dr. King, and would later represent his surviving family.
**Hanes' son, Arthur Jr., was also an attorney who would assist on this case. Unless otherwise noted, all references here are to the father.
.***I didn’t provide a link to the current version of American Mercury, because you’d be confronted by a gory image upon arrival. I also don’t link to many alt-right or paleo-conservative sites in general. After its 1952 sale to Russell McGuire, the magazine quickly devolved into the foaming-at-the-mouth anti-Semitic and racist rag that it is today.
****In this case several magazine articles and a book eventually titled He Slew the Dreamer.
*****Birmingham, Alabama was an important staging area for the Bay of Pigs and subsequent invasions into Cuba and Latin America. It therefore makes some sense for the Agency to hire city officials to help expedite their work, and to protect their secrecy.
