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Sidney Crockett Barnes. An extremist
who left Florida for Alabama in the 1960s, Barnes was
one of Wesley Swift's most devoted followers. He helped
spread the Christian Identity message and the vision
of an end-times race war to a number of individuals
in the southeast, including to a young Tommy Tarrants,
who become a terrorist for Sam Bowers. Source: Jackson
Field Office File on Barnes. Files report that Barnes
was involved in a plot to kill Martin Luther King Jr,
in 1963 and 1964.
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Samuel Holloway Bowers, Jr. The Imperial
Wizard of the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan of Mississippi.
Bowers was heavily influenced by the racist message of
Wesley Swift. Under his leadership, the White Knights
were the most violent Klan group in America in the 1960s
according to the FBI. Source: The Mississippi Department
of Archives and History. |
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The Reverend Wesley Albert Swift, from
California. Once an active leader in a KKK group, Swift
formed the Church of Jesus Christ Christian in 1946.
Under his interpretation of the Christian scripture,
Armageddon would come from a race war that would “cleanse”
the world of Jews and other minorities. Tapes of Swift's
sermons were sent across North America through a mailing
list and his message was amplified through a network
of traveling ministers. Source: Swift's driver's license
found in his an FBI Field Office File from Los Angeles. |
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J.B. Stoner, a leader and co-founder
for the racist National States Rights Party. Stoner would
run on the NSRP ticket as their Vice Presidential candidate
in 1964. Alongside Connie Lynch, a minister for Wesley
Swift, Stoner inflamed audiences across the country with
his message of white supremacy. He was one of James Earl
Ray's attorneys. Source: Wikipedia. |
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Thomas Albert Tarrants, III, aka Tommy Tarrants,
in a mug shot taken after his arrest, in 1967, for possession
of an illegal firearm. Tarrants was arrested with Sam
Bowers after their vehicle was pulled over for reckless
driving in Mississippi. Responsible for several acts
of violence in Mississippi, Tarrants was not connected
to these crimes until May of 1968. Yet he was inexplicably
investigated in connection with the King murder within
days of the act. Tarrants rejected the Swift message
in favor of traditional Christianity in the 1970s and
is now an evangelical minister. Source: Jackson Field
Office (FBI) files on Tarrants |
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Donald Sparks’ 1967 "FBI Most Wanted" Photo.
Sparks was a home burglar and a contract killer in a
criminal network that would later be popularized as “The
Dixie Mafia.” FBI records indicate that Sparks was approached
with a bounty contract on Martin Luther King, Jr’s life
in 1964 by the White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan of Mississippi.
A member of Sparks’s criminal gang would later be connected
with a bounty offer, from the same Klan, in 1967. Source:
fbi.gov website |
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James Earl Ray, On June 8, 1968, a little
more than two months after King's death, Ray was captured
at London's Heathrow Airport while trying to leave the
United Kingdom on a false Canadian passport. At check-in
the ticket agent noticed the name on his passport was
on a Royal Canadian Mounted Police watchlist. He was
using the name of Ramon George Sneyd. At the airport,
officials noticed that Ray carried another passport under
a second name. The UK quickly extradited Ray to Tennessee,
where he was charged with King's murder. |
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James Earl Ray’s wanted photo, issued
by the FBI in their massive manhunt for the alleged King
assassin. It was only by the third week of April, 1968,
that the FBI finally connected Ray to the numerous aliases
he used in Memphis and elsewhere. |
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