Ray Howard Jenkins (March 18, 1897 – December 26, 1980) was an American lawyer, active primarily in Knoxville, Tennessee, and the surrounding region, throughout much of the 20th century.
"[3]: 488 Jenkins' courtroom style, which often involved ruthlessly assailing the character of his clients' accusers, earned him the nickname, "The Terror of Tellico Plains.
[1]: 9 At the age of 13, Ray Jenkins enrolled in the preparatory department at Maryville College, but moved back home upon the opening of Tellico Plains High School, from which he eventually graduated.
[1]: 45 He also worked as a debt collector for the Haynes-Henson Shoe Company, later writing that he hunted down debtors across the region and "pleaded, cajoled, bullied and threatened" them until they paid.
The case was argued before Judge Sue K. Hicks, who at one point gave Jenkins a "stern lecture" in front of the packed courtroom for showing up late.
[1]: 90 During jury selection, Jenkins continuously passed on prospective jurors as Ivins suspected they had personal grievances against him (he was rumored to have killed a number of area moonshiners).
[3]: 508 Then, as McCarthy biographer Lately Thomas explained, "the big, rangy Tennessean, with unruly hair and underslung jaw, changed his manner as he bore down on the well-meaning but ineffective Army head.
"[1]: 120 In 1954, shortly after the Army-McCarthy Hearings, Jenkins joined the team to defend Clarice Kidd Shoemaker, a Scott County woman accused of killing her husband in a jealous rage.
[1]: 96 Jenkins grilled the dead man's mistress on the stand, read aloud to the jury a passionate letter she had written him, and painted her as a ruthless homewrecker.
[1]: 97 In 1957, Jenkins again took part in a nationally-publicized trial when he joined the defense team of Colonel John C. Nickerson Jr., an Army officer court-martialed for leaking classified information.
The Army eventually dropped the most serious charges when the defense team requested access to classified documents, and Nickerson was convicted of only minor offenses.
[1]: 62 In 1962, Jenkins helped defend June Newberry, a Lenoir City woman accused of murdering Ann Gowder, the mistress of her husband, Raymond.
[1]: 184 In 1956, Clinton High School (just north of Knoxville) admitted 12 African American students in compliance with Brown, leading to rampant violence by segregationists in subsequent months.
Jenkins was asked to get involved on behalf of several pro-segregation activists, but he refused, stating in an interview that all Americans had a right to an education, "regardless of race, creed, or color.
"[1]: 185 In the late 1960s and 1970s, Jenkins advocated the Tennessee Valley Authority's Tellico Dam project, which affected a significant portion of his native Monroe County.
"[1]: 190 In 1960, Jenkins sold his Sequoyah Hills house, which had been built by his in-laws, the Nash family, to the University of Tennessee for use as a manse for the school's presidents.