“James Earl Ray Gets 99 Years,” and “Andy Gibb’s death,” This Day in History – Mar 10th

James Earl Ray pleads guilty to King assassination – Gets 99 yrs

Back in 1969, James Earl Ray, the sniper who killed civil rights leader, Martin Luther King, Jr. at the Motel Lorraine in Memphis, TN pleaded guilty to this crime. According to history.com, “On April 4, 1968, in Memphis, Tennessee, King was fatally wounded by a sniper's bullet while standing on the balcony outside his second-story room at the Motel Lorraine. That evening, a Remington .30-06 hunting rifle was found on the sidewalk beside a rooming house one block from the Lorraine Motel. Over the next several weeks, the rifle, eyewitness reports, and fingerprints on the weapon all implicated a single suspect: escaped convict James Earl Ray. A two-bit criminal, Ray escaped a Missouri prison in April 1967 while serving a sentence for a holdup. In May 1968, a massive manhunt for Ray began. The FBI eventually determined that he had obtained a Canadian passport under a false identity, which at the time was relatively easy.” 

Ray had fled out of the country, but was apprehended by London’s Scotland Yard.  Once he was extradited back to the U.S and stood before a Memphis Judge in March 1969, Ray pleaded guilty to avoid the electric chair. He was sentence to 99 years in Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary in Petros, TN. 

History.com stated that, “Over the years, the assassination has been reexamined by the House Select Committee on Assassinations, the Shelby County, Tennessee, district attorney's office, and three times by the U.S. Justice Department. All of these investigations have ended with the same conclusion: James Earl Ray killed Martin Luther King. The House committee acknowledged that a low-level conspiracy might have existed, involving one or more accomplices to Ray, but uncovered no evidence to definitively prove this theory. In addition to the mountain of evidence against him, such as his fingerprints on the murder weapon and admitted presence at the rooming house on April 4, Ray had a definite motive in assassinating King: hatred. According to his family and friends, he was an outspoken racist who told them of his intent to kill Martin Luther King. He died in 1998.”

Singer, Andy Gibb dead from Cocaine Abuse at the age of 30

Back in 1998, Andy Gibb, the youngest brother of the Disco group the Bee Gees, who obtained singing success in a solo career, died at the age of 30 from cocaine abuse.  The Manchester, England, native was a teen sensation since the age of 19 and had a huge following of fans due to his popular songs such as, "(Love Is) Thicker Than Water," "Shawdoe Dancing," and "I Just Want To Be Your Everythin."  Each of these songs reached #1 on the Billboard charts.

Mr. Gibb’s success declined due to his drug usage, which contributed to his untimely death at such a young age.  According to history.com, “But the rest of the Andy Gibb story is not so sunny: What his drug and alcohol abuse in the late 1970s didn't do to Andy's musical career, changing fashions in the early 1980s did. By 1981, he was finished as a viable recording artist, and in the years that followed, his drug use led to his firing from jobs on television's Solid Gold and Broadway's Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and to the end of a high-profile romance with actress Victoria Principal, of Dallas fame. Gibb declared bankruptcy in 1987, reporting an annual income of less than $8,000.”

Andy Gibb suffered from an inflammation of the heart, which was a result of a viral infection from cocaine and alcohol usage.  After complaining of severe chest and abdominal pains, he was transferred to a hospital in Oxford, England.  He died moments later at the medical facility.

All History facts provided from the link below:

http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/rebellion-in-tibet