![]() Ray said he wasn’t in the room when King was shot, but he was unable to consistently explain where he had been, or keep other important details in his story straight. Ray confessed to the crime on Maand received a 99-year prison sentence, which increased to a 100-year sentence after he briefly escaped in 1977.īut within a few days of confessing, Ray began to claim his innocence, arguing that that he had been set up by a man he knew only as “Raoul.” It was Raoul, Ray said, who had directed him to buy the gun and the binoculars, and rent the room across the street from the motel. An international manhunt led to his capture in June 1968 at Heathrow Airport in London, where he was caught carrying two fake Canadian passports. A year before, he’d escaped from Missouri State Penitentiary while serving a 20-year sentence, and was on the lam at the time King was shot. Ray, a white supporter of segregationist George Wallace, was a career criminal who’d been convicted at least four separate times for robbing a cafe, a taxi, a post office and a grocery store. All three bore the fingerprints of an escaped convict named James Earl Ray. 30-06 Remington Gamemaster that had fired one shot. It contained a pair of binoculars, a newspaper with a story about King staying at the Lorraine Motel, and a. But within Martin Luther King’s family, there remains a persistent belief that Ray is innocent, and was set up to take the fall.įBI investigators at the time traced the shot to a rooming house across the street, and witnesses directed them to a large bundle dropped on the sidewalk after the shooting. For some 50 years, the federal government has maintained that James Earl Ray was the gunman who assassinated King that day. was shot while standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. When he was captured and put back in prison, his sentence was extended to 100 years.On April 4, 1968, Dr. Ray escaped from prison for a short while. He mentioned that the government might have helped to plan the assassination. He would later try to suggest that he did not kill MLK, or at least, James E. Ray pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 99 years in prison. ![]() It wasn’t until July 19, 1968, that the FBI found Ray in London, England, and sent him back to the United States to be put on trial.Īfter being charged with the murder of MLK, James E. The FBI and other crime-stopping groups looked all around the United States, as well as in other countries all over the world, trying to find Ray. The FBI soon became involved with the case. That’s when Ray took his shot, killing MLK, on April 4, 1968.Īfter shooting, James E. Eventually, MLK went out on his balcony to relax. Ray watched out the window, with a gun in hand, waiting for MLK to appear. Near his hotel was the Lorraine Motel, where Ray knew MLK was staying. Ray rented a hotel room in Memphis, Tennessee. Regardless of Ray’s motivation, historians are clear on what happened on the day of MLK’s assassination. It is especially strange that he would jump from crimes like breaking and entering and robbery to murder. No one knows the exact details of his initial plan, or why he decided to kill MLK, as he never admitted his true reasoning against the crime. Ray began planning the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. It is suspected that it was in 1968 that James E. The Assassination Of Martin Luther King Jr. He instead moved around the United States, never settling in any place for long. After this, he tried to leave the United States to flee to Canada, but he failed. He served almost half of his time before he escaped the prison in 1967. Ray was sent to serve out his jail time at the Missouri State Penitentiary. He was arrested for this, and sentenced to 20 years in prison.Īfter his 1959 arrest, James E. One of his most serious crimes of this decade was his 1959 grocery store thefts. He was arrested for his crimes, but only served small jail sentences, which did little to reform him. Ray also committed several other small robberies. He was arrested again n 1952 for the crime of armed robbery. His crimes only grew more dastardly throughout the 1950’s. ![]() Ray’s time in prison did little to teach him a lesson. ![]() He was arrested for this crime and sentenced to serve three months in prison. ![]() Ray had tried to rob a cafe in Los Angeles, California. Ray’s criminal activities began after he returned to the United States (soon after his discharge from the military). ![]()
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