James Earl Ray - Capture and trial, Retrial, Death, Further reading

Assassin, born in Alton, Illinois, USA. He served in the US Army (1946–8) and was imprisoned for armed robbery (1960–7). He escaped (1967) and shot and killed Martin Luther King Jr in 1968, and the next year was sentenced to 99 years in prison. Although few doubted he had fired the fatal shot, many questioned whether he acted alone.

James Earl Ray (March 10, 1928 – April 23, 1998) was convicted of the assassination of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Capture and trial

A little more than two months after King's death, on June 8, 1968, Ray, an escaped convict who had broken out of the Missouri State Penitentiary a year before the assassination, was captured at London's Heathrow Airport while trying to leave the United Kingdom on a false Canadian passport in the name of Ramon George Sneyd. Ray was quickly extradited to Tennessee and charged with King's murder, confessing to the assassination on March 10, 1969, (though he recanted this confession three days later) and was sentenced to 99 years in prison.

Ray later fired Foreman as his attorney (from then on derisively calling him "Percy Fourflusher") claiming that a man he met in Montreal, Canada, using the alias "Raoul" had been deeply involved, as was his brother Johnny, but not himself, further asserting that although he didn't "personally shoot Dr. King," he may have been "partially responsible without knowing it," hinting at a conspiracy. He and six other convicts had just escaped from Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary in Petros, Tennessee on June 10, 1977 shortly after Ray testified that he did not shoot King to the House Select Committee on Assassinations.

Retrial

In 1997 Martin Luther King's son Dexter King met with Ray, and publicly supported Ray's efforts to obtain a retrial.

Dr. William Pepper remained James Earl Ray's attorney until Ray's death and then carried on, on behalf of the King family. The King family does not believe Ray had anything to do with the murder of Martin Luther King .

Death

Ray died in prison on April 23, 1998 at age 70 from complications related to kidney disease, caused by hepatitis C probably contracted as a result of a blood transfusion given after a stabbing while at Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary.

Further reading

Jim Green, Blood and Dishonor on a Badge of Honor William Pepper, An Act of State: The Execution of Martin Luther King Gerald Posner, Killing the Dream: James Earl Ray and the Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. James Earl Ray with Tupper Saussy, Tennessee Waltz: The Making of a Political Prisoner George McMillan, The Making of an Assassin John Heathrow, "Why Did He Do It?"