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James Earl Ray

1928–1998 · 70 years

The convicted assassin who spent 29 years demanding a trial

Portrait of James Earl Ray — Federal Bureau of Prisons — 1955-07-08 — Public domain via Wikimedia Commons

Ray was nearly seven when the family stopped being the Rays. His father passed a bad check in Alton, Illinois, in February 1935, moved the household to Ewing, Missouri, and started calling them all Raynes to stay ahead of the law. James was the oldest of nine children. A sister, Marjorie, had died in a fire two years before. He left school at 12. Near the end of the Second World War he enlisted, served in Germany, and in 1948 the Army discharged him for ineptitude and lack of adaptability. The convictions began the next year: burglary in California, armed robbery of a taxi driver in Illinois, mail fraud in Missouri. In 1959 he held up a St. Louis grocery for 120 dollars and drew 20 years.

He got out of the Missouri State Penitentiary in a bread truck on April 23, 1967, and spent the next year under invented names: Eric Starvo Galt, Harvey Lowmeyer, John Willard, the name he gave at a Memphis rooming house on April 4, 1968. At 6:01 that evening a shot fired from that building struck Martin Luther King Jr. on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel across the street. King was 39 and died within the hour. Ray crossed into Canada, took a passport in another name, and flew to London. Police arrested him at Heathrow on June 8, 1968.

On March 10, 1969, his 41st birthday, Ray pleaded guilty in a Memphis courtroom and took 99 years rather than risk the electric chair. Three days later he recanted, fired his lawyer Percy Foreman, and began 29 years of asking for the jury trial he had waived. He never got one. What he offered instead changed over the years, and rested on a man he called Raoul, met in Montreal in 1967, whom no investigation ever identified. The House Select Committee on Assassinations reported in 1979 that Ray fired the shot but that there was a likelihood of a conspiracy, most plausibly involving his own brothers. In 1997 Dexter King visited the prison, asked Ray directly whether he had killed his father, and accepted the answer. The King family publicly asked that he be given a trial.

He was out of custody once more, for 54 hours in June 1977, after he and six other men broke out of Brushy Mountain. A manhunt brought him back three days later. He died on April 23, 1998, of kidney failure and liver damage from hepatitis C, 31 years to the day after the bread truck. His body was cremated and his ashes taken to Ireland, his mother's ancestral country, because his brother said he did not want to remain here. Two years later the Justice Department reviewed the conspiracy allegations the King family had endorsed and found no reliable evidence for them. The King family did not change its mind. The case is closed and the argument is not.

Lifespan

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James Earl Ray's life against the full span of the corpus.

Notable works

Lawsuit against the State of Tennessee case
A 500,000-dollar suit seeking release, arguing Percy Foreman had pressured him into the plea 1973
Testimony before the House Select Committee on Assassinations speech
Questioned in public session in August 1978 1978
Tennessee Waltz: The Making of a Political Prisoner book
Written with Tupper Saussy 1987
Who Killed Martin Luther King? The True Story by the Alleged Assassin book
His second book, published five years before his death 1993

Life in brief

with age at each point

March 10, 1928 aged 0 Born in Alton, Illinois The oldest of nine children of George and Lucille Ray.
1948 aged ~20 Discharged from the Army for ineptitude and lack of adaptability He had enlisted near the end of the war and served in Germany.
1959 aged ~31 Sentenced to 20 years for an armed robbery in St. Louis The take was 120 dollars. It was his fourth conviction in 10 years.
April 23, 1967 aged 39 Escapes the Missouri State Penitentiary in a bread truck He spent the next year under a series of assumed names in the United States, Canada and Mexico.
April 4, 1968 aged 40 Martin Luther King Jr. is killed in Memphis The shot came from a rooming house across from the Lorraine Motel, rented that day under the name John Willard.
June 8, 1968 aged 40 Arrested at London Heathrow Airport He was traveling on a Canadian passport in another man's name and was extradited to Tennessee.
March 10, 1969 aged 41 Pleads guilty on his 41st birthday and is sentenced to 99 years He withdrew the confession three days later and sought a trial for the rest of his life.
June 10, 1977 aged 49 Escapes Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary with six other men Recaptured on June 13 after roughly 54 hours at large.
April 23, 1998 aged 70 Dies in a Nashville hospital at 70 Kidney failure and liver damage caused by hepatitis C, after 29 years in prison.