The Fickle Finger of Guilt



As the nation mourned the death of a fallen Senator

A man was arrested in England as he entered there

Known under a variety of names and assumed aliases

James Earl Ray had finally been tracked down to assess ...



The man's guilt of the charge of murdering Dr. Martin Luther King

The man who led the civil rights movement and caused stirrings

And became a martyr to the cause when James Earl Ray's shots were fired

A detestable act, and one of which Ray has now been a prime denier  



In spite of the fact he spent two months on the lam

Spending quite a bit of money without giving a damn

And when caught, he never explained the source

(A simple statement could have changed the course)



And, to top it off, he had been arrested with multiple passports

And neither one were in his true and accurate name when caught

Plus his trail from Memphis to Toronto to Lisbon to Brussels

Was littered with other false names used to register himself



Which, all summed up, seems fairly indicative of a certain prime guilt

Regardless of whether it had anything to do with a murder of this ilk

But, whatever this proves against any man at all ...

It surely does make Ray seem to've been a bit of a fool ...



- Tristram



© Christopher W. Thomas

10:30pm Tuesday, June 8th. 1999