00:00:03
[ominous music] - When someone kills
the mother of their child, then, in my opinion,
they can harm anybody.
00:00:38
JULIA SHAW: He's
very much controlling the narrative to set
the story of how
00:00:42
he wishes it had happened. THEODORE STEPHENS: The way
the journal is written speaks to his ability to change
the facts in his own mind.
00:00:51
- He is the hero
in his own fantasy. MICHELLE MILLER: He
wanted to control her until her last breath,
and that's what he did.
00:00:59
[theme music] [grim music] [birdsong] [dog barking] - On October 22, 2018,
the Montclair Police Department
00:01:59
received a 911 call. The caller was
a Robert Ray, who reported receiving a concerning
note from his brother,
00:02:07
James Ray, which
indicated there could possibly have been violence
caused upon someone
00:02:12
at the house there. He decided to call
the police department so that we could investigate.
00:02:16
[siren wails] - Within approximately
six minutes of the initial
call going out, I
00:02:28
was notified
as an investigative supervisor, and I did respond, along
with several other officers
00:02:33
that night. - When the Montclair
Police Department arrived at that location, it was dark.
00:02:48
There were no lights on. It didn't appear that
there was any activity going on in the house.
00:03:01
- Eventually, after
not being able to make contact with Mr. James
Ray, the decision
00:03:06
was made to make entry. [thud] And once we got
to the rear and we knew that we had medics
and ambulance on standby
00:03:13
from the outside of the house
through a sliding glass door, one of the officers was able
to observe what he described
00:03:19
as a silhouette of a body. MICHELLE MILLER: They were able
to see an individual's legs
00:03:27
protruding out from
an area of the kitchen and what appeared
to be a blood trail.
00:03:34
At that point, they made entry
into the rear of the home, and they observed
a female on the floor.
00:03:42
And she was mortally
wounded from what appeared to be multiple gunshot wounds. - Obviously, we have a homicide
victim at that point,
00:03:57
so their priority was
to find James Ray. - He was trying to give
them as much detail
00:04:31
as he could about his
brother and about any details that he could give
that would potentially
00:04:37
lead law enforcement
to at least have a starting point on where
to look for James Ray.
00:04:58
CHARLIE CUNNINGHAM:
Our biggest concern is, how do we locate James Ray? We're afraid that he
could harm somebody else.
00:05:04
At this current time,
he was in the wind, and we didn't
know where he was. [airplane engines humming]
00:05:11
CARLA BARANAUCKAS: While
James was on the run, he kept an 18-page journal. It read a little bit like
a thriller type of novel.
00:05:21
MAN (VOICEOVER): "This
writing is an account of what may be either my last
days upon the Earth or
00:05:25
my journey, travels, and
experiences before the outcome of a trial for self-defense.
00:05:31
Any actions I may have
taken during my final days was out of pure necessity."
00:05:37
- The journal is
incredibly fascinating. I don't think anyone
in this office
00:05:42
has any recollection
of a similar journal being prepared by a killer. The way the journal is written
speaks to his ability to change
00:05:53
the facts in his own mind. MAN (VOICEOVER):
"Names in this book are both fictitious and real.
00:06:00
Jack is a pseudonym." - He wrote it
in the third person. He identified himself as Jack.
00:06:08
- This journal is, in a way,
his psychological defense is kicking in. It's very, very grandiose.
00:06:15
It's very self-serving,
delusional in a way. I think that he's got carried
away with the romanticism
00:06:23
of being a fugitive. - What's clear here is
he's very much controlling the narrative to set
the story of how
00:06:31
he wishes it had happened. Maybe he also thinks
that his writing is so good that people
are going to believe
00:06:36
his version of events. MAN (VOICEOVER): "After
the tragic course of events,
00:06:40
a road trip was underway
to arrive at my planned destination of obscurity."
00:06:46
- For investigators,
the urgent questions were, who is James Ray? And where is he?
00:06:53
[siren wails] [intriguing music] James Ray was born
in Brooklyn in 1963. He was very driven,
even from an early age.
00:07:11
In high school, he played
football and wrestling. When James Ray graduated from
high school, the very next day,
00:07:18
he went into the Marines. MICHELLE MILLER:
I think his time in the Marine Corps
really molded who he was
00:07:25
and how he tried
to live his life. James Ray was a black
belt in martial arts. He was successful.
00:07:32
He was smart. He was a go-getter. And he wanted to succeed
in life, and he did. CARLA BARANAUCKAS: After
he came out of the Marines,
00:07:41
he spent two years as a New
York City police officer. Then he went on to get his
MBA, and in addition, he
00:07:49
went on to law school, opened
up his own law practice, and even had
an insurance brokerage.
00:07:56
MAN (VOICEOVER):
"Jack's mind drifted into thoughts about
how one single morning
00:08:01
changed Jack's life forever. The value of the MBA, the law
training diminished in value.
00:08:08
All that he'd worked
for for the last 20 years-- it's gone." [intriguing music]
00:08:14
- James Ray is
atypical of the people that I would normally see
as a forensic psychologist.
00:08:21
He comes from a very
stable background. There's no obvious trauma,
and he's a success story.
00:08:28
He's highly driven,
very, very ambitious, and he's really
got the attributes
00:08:33
that you would need
in order to make something of yourself and your life. But sometimes those attributes
can be problematic as well.
00:08:44
- James Ray was very concerned
about his social status. He wanted to play golf
with people that mattered.
00:08:52
He wanted to go to social
events where people mattered. He wanted to be
at black tie events.
00:08:57
He cared about what
people thought of him. MAN (VOICEOVER): "Wondering
during his waking
00:09:03
moments about how close
the police were on his trail. Jack has never been
so nervous about people,
00:09:10
with suspicions that everyone
was trying to get him." [resonant music] CARLA BARANAUCKAS: James
Ray and Angela Bledsoe
00:09:22
met around 2009 in Brooklyn
when she was working as a financial consultant. They started a romantic
relationship,
00:09:30
and they continued it long
distance between Brooklyn and Montclair. MICHELLE MILLER: Angela Bledsoe
was extremely ambitious.
00:09:37
She was super intelligent,
well educated, very successful. CARLA BARANAUCKAS: Angela
grew up in Maryland,
00:09:47
and she went to Florida
A&M University. She graduated
with 11 job offers
00:09:55
and decided to take
one in New York. She became a financial
consultant and was so successful she was able
to buy a brownstone in Brooklyn
00:10:04
when she was in her 20s. James was a very
charismatic person. He was somebody
who could achieve
00:10:10
what he wanted to achieve. For Angela, it seems she
had found the perfect man. [grim music]
00:10:18
MAN (VOICEOVER):
"Anxious to keep moving, not knowing if the police
were closing in on him,
00:10:23
Jack never remained
in the same place for more than four or five hours." MICHELLE MILLER:
In Angela's mind,
00:10:33
things were going really well. James Ray was
making Angela happy. They did a lot
of things socially
00:10:40
that they both enjoyed,
and Angela became pregnant. CARLA BARANAUCKAS:
What Angela didn't
00:10:46
know when she met James
was that he was married and had two children. [grim music]
00:10:52
MICHELLE MILLER: James Ray
was married over 20 years. He had two adult children,
and they lived in the home
00:10:59
in Montclair. He was living a double
life, and both women didn't know about each other.
00:11:05
And then obviously that changed
when Angela became pregnant. She had expectations
that he would contribute
00:11:11
and help raise the child. [intriguing music] JULIA SHAW: For long running
affairs where you are married
00:11:18
and sleeping with
somebody else, to not tell them
that you're married is evidence, both of a really
severe form of lying
00:11:27
and also of being
really good at keeping that complete
other life secret. For someone who is so--
00:11:34
well, on the surface at least,
rural-oriented and law-abiding, to then be
so duplicitous when it
00:11:41
comes to his own relationships,
that's quite shocking. [grim music] CARLA BARANAUCKAS:
In 2012, James and
00:11:49
Angela had a baby girl. Once the baby came along, the
dynamics of the relationship
00:11:54
got very difficult. Angela
was in Brooklyn with the baby, and James was in Montclair
with his wife.
00:12:01
James was not a very
supportive father, and he was not very
much help to Angela.
00:12:07
When she had business
meetings she had to attend, she could not count
on him to provide any sort
00:12:12
of support or childcare. JAMES RAY (ON RECORDING):
I am doing work, which requires me to focus.
00:12:21
I have timelines. I have deadlines. I did everything that
I can possibly do. I went to Costco and got two of
those huge cartons of Pampers,
00:12:35
two of them, you name it. I was often so tired from
staying out late at night, visiting her and the baby,
where I was getting maybe
00:12:47
one or two hours of sleep. I can't support you financially
if I'm not making money.
00:12:54
I cannot be there
with you every day. [grim music] KERRY DAYNES: In 2013, there
was a lawsuit against him
00:13:12
for sexual harassment
in the workplace, and this involved a 27-year-old
that he'd employed.
00:13:19
And he'd taken her out
to dinner on one occasion, and he'd insisted that, in
front of the whole restaurant,
00:13:26
she would feed him
with chopsticks. So clearly, he is involved
in some sort of fantasy
00:13:33
here about having
a woman to serve him. - In the sexual harassment
suit against James,
00:13:41
there's a statement
which says that he was talking about polygamy. There's a huge
community of people
00:13:47
who agree with their partners
to open their relationships and to see other
people together or
00:13:52
separately, that if you are
in a serious relationship and you haven't
talked to your partner
00:13:55
about this, what you're
actually saying is, I want to cheat on my partner. The problem is that
he is systematically
00:14:00
lying to the people he
loves, who trust him, who are the mothers
of his children,
00:14:03
and he's sort of seeing
this as this game. [intriguing music] MICHELLE MILLER:
James Ray decided
00:14:13
that he was going to divorce
his wife and maintain the home, so that's what he did.
00:14:18
And he kicked his
wife out of the house. And when James Ray
and Angela Bledsoe's child
00:14:24
was three years old,
Angela and the child moved into James Ray's home. MAN (VOICEOVER): "Jack
began to mentally drift
00:14:33
with thoughts of his ex-wife,
whom he loved dearly, but their lack of communication
and insufficient quality
00:14:39
time spent together
romantically caused the commitment
of the marriage to wane. Jack felt so bad
about his transition
00:14:47
from ex-wife to Angela. He was embarrassed." [grim music] MICHELLE MILLER: After
Angela moved into the house,
00:14:55
she started to see
who James was, and she did not like who he
was revealing himself to be.
00:15:04
He became very controlling. He was manipulative. CARLA BARANAUCKAS: He
started checking her phone.
00:15:13
He called her lazy. JAMES RAY (ON RECORDING): She
says that I called her lazy, and I told her she's very lazy.
00:15:22
I said, you don't take
care of this house. You don't do any dishes. Everything is sloppy.
00:15:27
Them bathrooms
don't get cleaned if I don't get them cleaned or
call in the cleaning the lady.
00:15:33
Nothing happened. - It also culminated in how
he would speak to her. He would speak down to her.
00:15:41
He would disrespect her. He would do it in front
of other people. JAMES RAY (ON RECORDING): She
wanted to tell me that I don't
00:15:47
talk to her nicely because-- listen to this-- because I
question her on everything.
00:15:55
And I say, that's conversation. If I don't
understand something, why can't I ask you
to who, to what,
00:16:02
to why, to get understanding. Oh, that's aggravating. That's annoying. I said, but that's-- that's--
00:16:10
that's intellectual. That's conversation. And I don't know how you
can intellectually say
00:16:15
you're dumb and outright dumb. CARLA BARANAUCKAS: James
went to some extremes.
00:16:22
He put surveillance
cameras in the home, and he even went so far
as to send Bible verses that
00:16:28
would underscore the idea
that women should be submissive to their partners. MAN (VOICEOVER): "Let
a woman learn quietly
00:16:38
with all submissiveness. I do not permit a woman
to teach or exercise authority over a man,
for the husband
00:16:46
is the head of the wife." - This is not the kind
of relationship that Angela had envisioned.
00:16:53
- Angela Bledsoe
kept a journal. WOMAN (VOICEOVER): "The
life that I desire--
00:16:58
to live in a house that I feel
comfortable in, a man that shows grace and mercy, that
speaks to me in a loving voice,
00:17:06
is not a dictator." - Angela is really living with
coercive control at this time.
00:17:14
She describes in her
diary as a dictator. Now, that's a very strong word. That's clearly how
she sees this man
00:17:21
that she shares her life with. Coercive control is the biggest
red flag to potentially fatal
00:17:29
violence in a relationship. [sweeping music] CARLA BARANAUCKAS: When
Angela went back to Florida
00:17:40
for homecoming event,
she met a college classmate, Bakari
Burns, and she started
00:17:47
a relationship with him. MICHELLE MILLER: They had
an intimate relationship. They mostly talked to each
other via text message.
00:17:55
[notification ding] James Ray took screenshots
of her cell phone based on the nature
of the text messages
00:18:04
that he could see
in her cell phone. It took a turn
for him at that point. [grim music]
00:18:13
Angela woke up one day, like,
4 or 5 o'clock in the morning, and he was sitting
on the edge of the bed,
00:18:17
like, shaking his leg
and just staring at her. She texted her sister. [notification ding]
00:18:26
He's basically accusing her
of demonstrating behavior of somebody who cheats.
00:18:30
[notification ding] Her sister was very
concerned about her, and she said, you know, you got
to get out of there, you know.
00:18:40
It's time to go. JULIA SHAW: When James Ray
finds that Angela has cheated on him, he sees this
as a massive transgression,
00:18:49
and it's a really big deal. There's the double
standard, which is that he wants
to be able to have
00:18:55
multiple women in his life,
and his woman, however, should not have any other men.
00:19:00
MAN (VOICEOVER):
"Stay committed. Never cheat on your partner. Keep your head
in the marriage at home."
00:19:07
[grim music] MICHELLE MILLER:
In October of 2018, James Ray, in a moment
of desperation,
00:19:17
typed up a prenuptial
agreement. There was a paragraph
in there that read, if either party cheats,
then that offending party
00:19:26
has to pay $300,000 per act. Now, what's interesting
about that is James Ray,
00:19:34
he already knows that
Angela had stepped out of the relationship. [notification ding]
00:19:40
And we also know that he
presented it to Angela because Angela texted
her cousin, you know,
00:19:45
look at this
nonsense, you know. We're not even
engaged to be married and he wants me to sign
some prenuptial agreement.
00:19:53
- In James Ray's mind,
Angela was humiliating him, belittling him, even. The threat that that
caused to his core self
00:20:06
was overwhelming for him. [resonant music] MICHELLE MILLER: On October
20th, James Ray asks
00:20:14
Angela to call Bakari Burns. The initial
conversation with Bakari is like, hey, how about you
and I can confront Angela?
00:20:23
And Bakari says, well,
I don't have anything to confront her about. CARLA BARANAUCKAS: James ended
the call with a veiled threat.
00:20:30
I may be coming down there
to visit you in Florida. [notification chime] MICHELLE MILLER: Angela's
mindset is like, oh, grow up.
00:20:36
Like, she didn't
take it seriously. After that conversation
with James Ray, Bakari Burns took
it as a threat,
00:20:43
and he filed a police report. Angela just had enough,
and at that point, she had sent him a text
message, basically saying
00:20:51
that she was done
and made it known to him that she was going to start
making plans to actually
00:20:57
move out on her own. [grim music] JAMES RAY (ON RECORDING):
She said, as soon as I get my house, I'm out.
00:21:04
I'm buying a house. I'm out as soon as I get it. And she's gone. We're done.
00:21:10
MICHELLE MILLER: It got
to the point for Angela where living with James Ray
just wasn't an option for her
00:21:16
anymore, and the last
text message that basically she
sent her sister was that she was getting out.
00:21:23
KERRY DAYNES: Angela
is planning to leave. She feels that she
can extradite herself
00:21:29
from him safely, but this is
going to be like a red rag to a bull. When somebody who is
highly controlling
00:21:37
feels that that is
slipping from their hands, that's when they
start to consider
00:21:41
taking very drastic measures. [grim music] CARLA BARANAUCKAS:
On October 22, 2018,
00:21:50
James and Angela take their
six-year-old daughter to school and drop her off. [notification ding]
00:21:55
Angela has an appointment
with a real estate agent that morning. - Angela never
made the meeting.
00:22:02
[ominous music] - When the 911 call
came in, it came from Robert Ray, who was
the brother of James Ray,
00:22:29
and he indicated
that he had met with his brother
James earlier today, and his behavior
was very concerning.
00:22:48
- They met up earlier that day
at the request of James Ray and at a LongHorn Steakhouse
in Piscataway, New Jersey.
00:23:06
- James Ray had his
minor daughter with him. She was six years
old at the time. And he had asked
his brother Robert
00:23:13
if he could keep an eye on the
child for a period of time. - James Ray had provided Robert
with a couple of suitcases that
00:23:26
belonged
to the daughter, and he indicated that
Robert would know everything in about 24 hours.
00:23:31
James Ray asked Robert
to take a picture of him and the daughter,
which Robert did,
00:23:36
and then James Ray
indicated he was going to use the men's room. And Robert watched
him as he walked out
00:23:43
the door of the restaurant. James Ray had gotten into his
BMW, and he just drove away.
00:23:50
THEODORE STEPHENS:
The letter that James Ray left for his brother Robert
gave his version of the story.
00:24:46
- They made entry
into the rear of the home. They went directly
to the kitchen. There was a significant amount
of blood on the kitchen floor.
00:24:54
There was a partial blood
trail leading from the living room into the kitchen. CHARLIE CUNNINGHAM: As we make
entry, I can see the body.
00:25:02
I couldn't tell exactly
what her injuries were, but we did notice weapons
lying around the house.
00:25:08
MICHELLE MILLER: There was
a shell casing in the kitchen, a spent .45-caliber
shell casing.
00:25:12
There was a handgun
in a puddle of blood, as well as a bloody cell
phone on top of a stool.
00:25:18
There was an additional
handgun in the living room, a couple of gun cases,
as well as three spent
00:25:24
.45-caliber shell
casings, along with cleaning kit for a rifle. - Once we were able
to make the scene safe,
00:25:31
we were able to confirm that
the victim that was there was 44-year-old Angela Bledsoe.
00:25:37
[grim music] - With James Ray,
we felt comfortable that he was the person
who committed
00:25:50
the murder of Angela Bledsoe. When someone kills
the mother of their child, then, in my opinion,
they can harm anybody,
00:25:58
so we need to latch on to him
as soon as possible. [stirring music] MAN (VOICEOVER): "I
had no cell phone,
00:26:43
no credit cards, no laptop. It appeared as if the hours
were ticking away extremely
00:26:47
fast, so I bedded down
for the night in the lounge chairs of the hotel." CHARLIE CUNNINGHAM: And we
put out a BOLO on his vehicle.
00:26:58
Port Authority was contacted. Interpol was contacted. A lot of national--
international agencies
00:27:03
were contacted. We needed to find him
as soon as possible. CARLA BARANAUCKAS:
This was a huge story,
00:27:09
not only in Montclair,
but throughout New Jersey. First, because murders are
very unusual in this place, and
00:27:17
second, because of this
disappearance of the suspect in the murder. MAN (VOICEOVER):
"Jack's thoughts
00:27:25
of what his encounter would
be like with the police was on a pendulum. I knew that my return
would lead to handcuffs."
00:27:34
GREGORY EHRIE:
If you commit a crime in the state of New
Jersey, we will not forget,
00:27:39
we will not forgive,
and we will find you. [intriguing music] MICHELLE MILLER: James
Ray had not been captured.
00:27:44
He was on the run. The federal authorities were
coming up empty at that point. They had no idea
where he might be.
00:27:52
And then two days later,
the red notice hits, and we find out that
he's on his way to Cuba.
00:28:01
REPORTER: James R. Ray III is
in custody after FBI agents had to go to Cuba to retrieve him.
00:28:07
[solemn music] THEODORE STEPHENS:
The United States had to move very quickly,
very expeditiously
00:28:17
because of the very
tense relationships between the two countries. MICHELLE MILLER: James
Ray was arrested in Cuba.
00:28:26
They detained him
pursuant to a red notice that was issued by Interpol. With him was a duffel
bag containing
00:28:33
his personal belongings. And one of the items
in the duffel bag was a handwritten
journal that he
00:28:39
spent considerable time
writing while he was on the run for this homicide. [grim music]
00:28:50
He started by saying,
October 22, 2018 started like any other
day in the Ray household.
00:28:57
MAN (VOICEOVER): "I
arose with my morning routine of stretching. On our way back from dropping
our daughter off at school,
00:29:04
we spoke about us working
to improve our relationship. Upon arrival at home, she said
that there were a few errands
00:29:11
that she was going to run. Since I was home alone, I
decided to clean my weapons.
00:29:17
Came out of the bathroom. Angela had one
of the weapons in her hand. Angela's conversation went
from going to run errands
00:29:25
to reflecting about
her frustrations of our relationship
on what she called the worst years of her life.
00:29:33
As she continued to rant about
all the dysfunctional things in our relationship with
a weapon pointed at me,
00:29:39
I remember feeling nervous
and scared and out of options." - He says Angela
started to confront
00:29:47
him about their relationship
and how unhappy she was. [grim music] [birdsong] MAN (VOICEOVER): "I quickly
picked up one of the weapons
00:29:54
on the table. I then fired
in Angela's direction. She lifted her arm
and pointed at me again.
00:30:03
Out of reaction, I
fired in her direction, and it seemed like I
couldn't stop firing.
00:30:09
I honestly believe there
was no other choice that she would have shot first."
00:30:16
MICHELLE MILLER: If you really
were acting in self-defense, why didn't you
just call the cops?
00:30:21
If you really were
acting in self-defense, why did you leave
the house at all? No, he instead goes to Cuba.
00:30:28
[grim music] KERRY DAYNES: Here is a man
who can't take his rejection. This was not
somebody who snapped.
00:30:37
This is not somebody
losing control. It's somebody taking control. - He types out a letter to his
brother filled with lies.
00:30:47
He types out his last will and
testament, goes to the bank, gets some cashier's checks
made out to the daughter and
00:30:54
his brother. [intriguing music] After James Ray
killed Angela Bledsoe, he had to go pick up his
daughter from school,
00:31:08
and on his way, he calls
a woman, and he records it. JAMES RAY (ON RECORDING):
My only concern
00:31:16
is about my daughter
and her well-being. You know, sometimes you
have to protect people
00:31:25
in a way that's unconventional
and may sometimes even be a little crazy. And-- and it only takes--
it takes a certain person
00:31:39
to understand. They may not agree, but it
takes a certain person to understand. - What he's talking about
when he says that is he
00:31:50
killed his daughter's mother
to protect his daughter. How disturbing. KERRY DAYNES: All
this is, is him
00:31:59
trying to set up
a victim-blaming narrative for in the future
if he needs it. So this telephone call is
a little bit of insurance,
00:32:09
and it's a little
bit of scene-setting. If you truly care about
the welfare of your daughter
00:32:15
and that is
paramount to you, you don't take away their mother. [intriguing music]
00:32:24
- James Ray outlines
in his journal how he started his
road trip to Cuba, and he starts to tell the story
of what, for him, seemed
00:32:37
like, you know, an adventure. MAN (VOICEOVER): First
stop was at Newark Airport to park the vehicle
police were looking for.
00:32:45
MICHELLE MILLER: He
details in his journal how he went to Newark
Airport and he left his car
00:32:49
in a short-term parking. We were able to find his car. We know exactly what time he
checked in because he left
00:32:55
the ticket on his dashboard. He took a taxi to Pennsylvania. We found the taxi driver that
took him to Pennsylvania.
00:33:05
He'd paid in cash. MAN (VOICEOVER):
"The taxi dropped Jack off in Philadelphia,
Chinatown, at 2:00 AM.
00:33:12
The streets were empty. Jack sought cover of police by
blending in with the homeless
00:33:18
to get some sleep." - He tried to hide himself
in a homeless encampment, but realized he can't
do that long term.
00:33:26
It's not for him. MAN (VOICEOVER): "Jack's
first night in Philadelphia
00:33:30
didn't fare well. He began to quickly
realize that escaping to the streets to forever
become homeless
00:33:36
was not a part of his DNA." [grim music] MICHELLE MILLER: He
finds, like, a truck stop,
00:33:42
and he meets
a trucker who takes him from Pennsylvania to Ohio. MAN (VOICEOVER): "Jack awakens
to a bright, sunny, but
00:33:52
rather chilly morning in Ohio. Shaking from pure
nervousness, Jack asked a man
for a ride, and they
00:34:01
began a road trip to Memphis." MICHELLE MILLER: From
Memphis into Texas, he boards a Greyhound bus
from one section of Texas
00:34:09
to another. MAN (VOICEOVER): "It was the
bathroom stall that provided an opportunity to strip
the H&K .45 and dispose
00:34:18
of the different parts
into numerous trash cans during his travels." MICHELLE MILLER:
In his journal,
00:34:23
he said that he had
disassembled the .45-caliber handgun that he
used to kill Angela
00:34:28
and discarded it in various
garbage cans along the way. We never did find
the .45-caliber.
00:34:35
MAN (VOICEOVER): "Jack's
anxiety multiplied tenfold in Longview, Texas.
00:34:41
Each hour Jack sat
in the bus station seemed like an unplanned
disaster waiting to occur."
00:34:48
- He gets another bus
from Laredo, Texas, into Monterrey, Mexico. MAN (VOICEOVER): "Riding
the bus into Monterrey caused
00:34:58
Jack's mind to drift
into how one single morning changed Jack's life forever."
00:35:05
- And when he's
in Monterrey, Mexico, he ends up purchasing
a plane ticket. MAN (VOICEOVER): "Jack
purchased an airline
00:35:12
ticket from Monterrey to Cuba. This was the easiest
part of the trip." - The fact that he made
his way down to Cuba,
00:35:22
I think he would believe
that's a place where he could evade detection
and capture for perhaps
00:35:27
the rest of his life. [grim music] KERRY DAYNES: His
journal is him trying to create a narrative
that he will later
00:35:37
use in his defense, but I think
that he's got a little bit carried away with it.
00:35:43
He is romanticizing it. He's turning this into a big
adventure where he is surviving against the odds.
00:35:51
He's on his way
to Cuba, but it's really not quite as dramatic
as he makes out in his journal.
00:35:58
This is just a very macho man
who has taken away a mother from her child and turned
this into something
00:36:10
that is heroic and manly. MICHELLE MILLER: When you look
at what he wrote in his journal
00:36:17
and you compare it
to the crime scene, it contradicted it completely. Unfortunately for James
Ray, he didn't
00:36:24
account for the bullet
trajectories that were in Angela's body
that were discovered
00:36:30
by the medical examiner. The autopsy report revealed
that Angela Bledsoe was shot once in the chest.
00:36:37
She was struck in the heart. She was struck in the lungs. That bullet went
through her, and
00:36:41
the projectile ended up in the
seat cushion of the love seat. Angela Bledsoe stood up.
00:36:47
She placed her palm
on the white sofa. He shot her at that
point, once in the back.
00:36:55
Angela Bledsoe made
her way to the kitchen, and there was a trail of blood
that led from the living room
00:37:01
into the kitchen. And she ends up
falling on her back. [gunshot] MAN (VOICEOVER): "She
was initially sitting up
00:37:09
with a gun towards her side. She lifted her arm
and pointed it at me again."
00:37:15
- James Ray then took another
shot at her, but he missed. It caused a ricochet
in the granite tile floor.
00:37:21
[gunshot] The casing from that
projectile burst apart and cut through
her clothing and
00:37:27
caused abrasions on her back. And James Ray then walked
over to Angela Bledsoe, stood over her and delivered
one final gunshot
00:37:35
wound to her face. [intriguing music] The medical examiner
and the autopsy revealed that the trajectory of
that gunshot wound to her face
00:37:45
was steeply downward,
indicating that James Ray was standing right over
her when he delivered
00:37:50
that final gunshot wound. MAN (VOICEOVER): "I
honestly believed there was no other choice, that
she would have shot first."
00:37:59
- He claims that Angela
picked up the gun and was going to shoot him. There was a gun that
was found on the kitchen
00:38:05
floor in a puddle of blood. There wasn't any
blood on that gun. It was clean.
00:38:12
It was clean as a whistle. Yet he claims that Angela
held it in her hand, and she was going
to shoot him with it,
00:38:18
and he had no choice
but to shoot her first. When the medical examiner
examined Angela's body,
00:38:23
she clearly had
blood on her hands, but there was no blood on
the gun, no blood on any part
00:38:29
of the surface of the weapon. It was clearly placed
in a pool of blood. - As our investigators
delved into the scene
00:38:39
and got experts
to really look at it, it could not have happened
the way that James Ray
00:38:44
indicated that it did. [grim music] CARLA BARANAUCKAS: It took
almost five years for the case
00:38:55
to come to trial. That was partly because
of the COVID-19 pandemic, but also just because sometimes
the wheels of Justice
00:39:04
move slowly. - I was the lead prosecutor
in charge of prosecuting state versus James Ray.
00:39:13
This defendant took
his loaded .45-caliber, semi-automatic handgun
and shot at Angela four times.
00:39:25
He shot her in the face. THEODORE STEPHENS: We knew
that we had great evidence. We wanted to make sure that
it was presented for the jury
00:39:35
to really come
to what we thought was the inevitable conclusion,
undeniable conclusion
00:39:41
that James Ray was
guilty of murder. - James Ray carried himself
almost as if he were a lawyer
00:39:49
representing someone else. He dressed well. He showed no
expression on his face.
00:39:55
He came in, sat
down, took notes, conferred with the lawyers,
but there was never
00:40:01
any show of emotion at all. DEFENSE ATTORNEY:
Angela Bledsoe, on October 22, 2018,
picked up a 9-millimeter
00:40:10
and pointed it at James Ray. Period. He had no choice but to shoot. THEODORE STEPHENS: Defense's
strategy was simply
00:40:19
self-defense, saying
that he killed her, but he had to do that
to save his own life.
00:40:25
[grim music] - Ray's brother took the stand. ROBERT RAY:
Immediately, I cried
00:40:30
because that letter
had indicated that Angela had been killed. MICHELLE MILLER:
James Ray brutally,
00:40:39
in cold blood, murdered
Angela Bledsoe simply because she made a decision
that she didn't need him
00:40:47
in her life anymore and that
she was going to move on and start a new chapter,
and that new chapter
00:40:53
did not include him. And he was going
to be left behind, and he did not want
that to happen.
00:41:00
He wanted to control her
until her last breath, and that's what he did. [grim music]
00:41:09
CARLA BARANAUCKAS:
After a six-week trial, the jury seemed
to have no doubt. They came back in three
hours with a guilty verdict.
00:41:18
As the verdict
was read in court, James Ray showed
no emotion at all. He simply stood up,
allowed the officers
00:41:27
to put the handcuffs on him,
said something to his lawyer, and then he was taken away.
00:41:34
MICHELLE MILLER: It was
a verdict of guilty on all counts, which was
just incredible.
00:41:39
Angela's family was there. Her parents were there. They were able
to hear the verdict.
00:41:42
Everybody was really
happy and, you know, ecstatic that Angela
could hopefully begin her rest in peace.
00:41:51
We then scheduled a sentencing
date for James Ray to be sentenced on the murder
charge and the weapon charge,
00:41:58
and it was scheduled for June. [stirring music] - We have an update on the case
of a New Jersey lawyer
00:42:05
convicted of killing
his girlfriend. James Ray III died
in jail after he was awaiting sentencing.
00:42:13
CARLA BARANAUCKAS:
On June 18, 2023, James Ray was
in the Essex County prison waiting to be sentenced
for his murder conviction.
00:42:23
An officer found him
unresponsive in his cell and tried to administer
Narcan to him.
00:42:29
He was taken to a hospital,
but he was not revived and was declared dead. Ironically, James Ray
died on Father's Day.
00:42:38
[solemn music] MICHELLE MILLER:
The family was never able to deliver their victim
impact statements.
00:42:44
And now this little
girl lost her mother in a really brutal, tragic way
at the hands of her own father,
00:42:52
and then her father
dies on Father's Day. And, you know,
whatever questions she may have had for him that
she may have wanted to ask him
00:43:02
as an adult, she
was never going to be able to confront
him or ask him about and never get the answers
that maybe, maybe she
00:43:09
could have coaxed out of him. It was devastating. [somber music] KERRY DAYNES: For somebody
like James Ray, who
00:43:21
had enjoyed all of the
trappings of this really quite fantastic life that
he had for himself,
00:43:30
that he just can't
face the humiliation, really, and the loss of status
that is going to come
00:43:37
from being incarcerated. So it's a final act, which
is a desperate and sad act,
00:43:44
in many respects,
that's not lost on me, but is also a final
act of control.
00:43:52
MICHELLE MILLER: Unfortunately,
under New Jersey law, because he was never sentenced,
the case cannot remain open,
00:43:57
so it was dismissed. I mean, obviously, everybody
knows he was convicted. He didn't go to his
grave an innocent man.
00:44:05
Prosecutors who prosecuted
the case know the truth, and the family knows
the truth, that James Ray
00:44:10
was guilty of killing
Angela Bledsoe. JULIA SHAW: James
Ray had both ambition but also overconfidence.
00:44:19
He seemed to be intelligent
but also controlling. He had these
multiplicities within him,
00:44:25
these double standards,
almost cherry picking the rules
that he should live by and applying other
rules to other people.
00:44:34
KERRY DAYNES:
James Ray is a man who does what he
sets his mind to and he does it
very strategically.
00:44:41
This is a man who has very
set ideas about masculinity, and this is a man with
certain personality traits
00:44:53
that could have and should
have catapulted him to success, but stopped there. Ultimately, I
think that his need
00:45:03
to control women and his sense
of entitlement and narcissism and his sense of outrage that
a woman could assert herself
00:45:15
is what led to his downfall
and becoming a killer. [resonant music] THEODORE STEPHENS: James
Ray was an egomaniac
00:45:22
who was totally
unprepared to accept that the mother of his child
was going to leave him.
00:45:33
MICHELLE MILLER: Angela
Bledsoe was very successful. She lived in an affluent
neighborhood.
00:45:40
She had money. She was beautiful. She was talented. And domestic
violence came to her.
00:45:47
If you're in a relationship
with a man who-- or a woman who is
domineering and controlling
00:45:52
and wants to know
your every move, you should think about Angela
Bledsoe and how she ended up.
00:45:57
You should listen to your gut
and get out when you can. [theme music]