MLK's Assassin Flees from Tennessee Prison | Great Escapes with Morgan Freeman (Season 1)

brushy mountain state penitentiary for most prisoners coming here is a one-way ticket this place is filled with tennessee's most violent criminals to be an inmate here is to live in fear the odds of breaking out of this place once you are sent here no matter how ingenious a criminal you are are very low the man who decides he'll take those odds is one of the most infamous assassins in american history april 4 1968 memphis tennessee martin luther king jr is killed by a shot from a 30 caliber rifle petty criminal james earl ray is arrested and pleads guilty to king's murder sentenced to 99 years in prison ray arrives at brushy mountain in march 1970. rey enters the prison system there with a well-earned reputation for escaping ray spends months poking around his cell looking for weak spots he decides it's too risky to attempt sawing his way through the bars so his attention turns to the air vent at the back of the cell he chips away at the hole night after night replacing the vent every morning and covering his tracks once it got big enough then he went through that hole and would get in what we would call the pipe chase which is just access to the plumbing ray explores the pipe chase and spots a potential escape route a large exhaust fan that vents air to an enclosed courtyard area outside if he can get through there ray estimates that he can crawl to a manhole 20 feet away he realizes he's going to need help from someone on the outside to get him a saw blade the murder returns to his brother jerry jerry cuts off the bottom of his shoe and inserts very small hacksaw blades and then attaches the bottom of the shoe he goes into the prison for a visit they wait for the guard to go to the back of the visiting room and they casually shuffle their shoes off and switch shoes ray is able to smuggle the blade back to his cell undetected he spends the next several months sawing through the bars and the pipe chase but once again rey's plan hits a snag the thick fan blades behind the bars are nearly impossible to bend he needs an accomplice to help bend the blades he turns to one of his few friends in prison jake morlock morlock agrees to escape with ray and steals the pipe wrench they can use to bend the fan blades working as quickly and quietly as possible really and more like finished removing the bars and bend the fan blades back with the pipe wrench james ray slithered right out through there his poor cell mate jake was a little bit overweight and so he couldn't get through and he had to turn around and go back to the cell back of the prison ray has made it out of the pipe chase and into the prison courtyard then the manhole was over here that led outside to the powerhouse down on the road where you come in they took the lid off of it and the steam was still on ray gets a face full of steam the pain is almost unbearable he climbs down anyway those pipes were so hot that they burned him so badly that he had no choice but to turn around and go back james early is treated and the infirmary for second and third degree burns james earl ray and jake morlock each get two months in the hole for their escape attempt ray binds his time until the spring of 1977 when one day out in the yard he notices something peculiar where the prison wall meets the mountainside in one spot there's about an 18-inch gap between the wire and the wall just enough for a man to slide under so he got with a fella named shelton and they talked about it doug shelton is another career escapee he has a reputation for breaking out of jails and prisons he loves the idea he loves that it's simple easy quick he and ray basically are made for each other on this he was the plumber and he would have had access to different tools different plumbing material and over a course of time he was able to put away a piece here and a piece there ray brings one more member onto his escape team his cellmate earl hill the team slowly steals more pipes and hides them at the back of the yard on the evening of june 9th 1977 james earl ray doug shelton and earl hill huddled up for one last meeting in the prison yard they decide they have enough pieces of pipe to reach the top of the wall tomorrow june 10th they're going over the top they had a guy to start a fake fight down on the lower part of the yard james and doug and all of them were walking around the yard they noticed officer in tire wasn't paying attention ray and his co-conspirators make one last lap around the yard to give the signal for the fight to begin when the fight breaks out and these three guys head to the spot at the wall and immediately whip out their sections of pipe and start whirling them together [Applause] once they needed it they put it together just in a few seconds they made a hook on the top similar to a shepherd's hook so that it would stay attached to the wall when they put it up it would hook on the backside everything is going as planned with the ladder assembled ray sheldon and hill head for the wall james oh ray makes his way over the wall first followed by doug shelton and burl hill other inmates see the ladder and they seize the opportunity larry hacker donald kaler jerry ward david lee powell is working in the kitchen and sees the action from the window and decides he wants in he starts running across the yard to make it to the ladder he's wearing a white kitchen uniform that catches a guard's eye and he turns and takes aim at the ladder david makes it over jerry ward is bringing up the rear he's shot off the ladder and lands in the middle of the courtyard all the inmates are getting in on the act everybody starts cheering over the wall over the wall which was apparently the popular cry whenever anybody was trying to get out as the sun begins to set a total of six escapees are fighting their way through the rugged mountains of eastern tennessee the guards at berger mountain scramble to lock the prison down organize a manhunt and alert the townspeople as night falls they go their separate ways ray is alone in the harsh snake infested mountains trying to find his way to nearby route 116. meanwhile hundreds of law enforcement agents from across the country descend on the area this little community was turned upside down i mean there's only 500 people that live here and when you've got abc nbc cbs every news agency in the country biggest thing to hit this place in a long time about 10 30 that night the dogs get a scent and they take off takes them over the railroad up the mountains through the woods drags on for about three hours around 2 a.m the dogs stop and alert on a pile of leaves and under the pile of leaves is james l ray james earl ray tried to escape from brushy mountain again two years later but was caught before he could even get over the wall he spent the rest of his life behind bars yet always maintained his innocence in 1998 gravely ill with hepatitis ray told a reporter if they're waiting for a deathbed confession they can go to hell

Channel: HISTORY

Views: 237,780

Keywords: history, history channel, history shows, history channel shows, the history channel, documentary history channel, history documentary, documentary, history channel full episodes, documentaries, history channel documentaries, great escapes, great escapes with morgan freeman, morgan freeman, watch great escapes with morgan freeman, great escapes with morgan freeman full episodes, great escapes with morgan freeman clips, martin luther king jr assassin, james earl ray

Id: 2KyJpFezKas

Length: 10min 4sec (604 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 31 2021