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Convicted Assassin
James Earl Ray


IN THIS SERIES

Who Did Shoot MLK?
The King Family Today



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“I didn’t kill Dr. King. I wasn’t involved in any type of collusive acts to kill him. In other words, I wasn’t some type of an accomplice”
— James Earl Ray






“He couldn’t have planned it alone. He wasn’t smart enough for that”
— James Gerald Ray, Ray’s father
By Barr Seitz
ABCNEWS.com
James Earl Ray went from a small-town crook to an infamous assassin when he confessed March 10, 1969 to murdering Martin Luther King in a Memphis motel.
     Three days later, Ray recanted and insisted on his innocence, saying he confessed to avoid the electric chair
    
James Earl Ray (AP Photo)
Ray’s about-face has provided theorists with grist for the conspiracy mill. Many experts point to Ray’s unimpressive history as proof that he was not intelligent enough to put together a complicated assassination of King, then elude authorities in three countries for two months alone.
    
Born:
March 10, 1928
Alton, IL.

Education:
Dropped out of high school in Ewing, Mo., in 1944

Ray was born one of nine children to a poor family in Alton, Il. and dropped out of high school. When he joined the army later, the army wouldn’t keep him, discharging him for “ineptness and lack of adaptability to military service.”
     The hapless youth started a life of crime in 1949 when he stole a typewriter. But in a move typical of his later crimes, he dropped his identification papers at the scene of the crime and was quickly arrested. Ray spent the next 18 years in and out of jail after a stunning array of crimes where Ray practically led the police to him.
     Authorities captured Ray in London’s Heathrow airport in 1968 and was extradited to the United States, where he was sentenced to 99 years.
     Ray has long maintained his innocence but parole boards have repeatedly rejected his pleas. His protests have become more urgent recently since doctors do not expect Ray, suffering from advance cirrhosis, to live much longer.
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