Martin Luther King, Jr. Biography

Martin Luther King, Jr. was born on January 15, 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia. He was ordained a minister at his father's church in 1947. King gained national recognition in 1956 for organizing a boycott against Montgomery, Georgia's racially segregated public bus system, which resulted in a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision ruling the Alabama segregation law unconstitutional. King married Corretta Scott on June 18, 1953 and fathered 4 children. Reverend King was fatally shot in Memphis, Tennessee on April 4, 1968 at 6:01 PM while standing on the balcony of his second-story room at the Motel Lorraine. James Earl Ray plead guilty to the assassination on the morning of March 10, 1969, but later recanted this confession. Coretta and King's children would later publicly state that they did not believe that Ray was guilty of the assassination. On March 27, 1997 King's son Dexter met with Ray at the Lois DeBerry Special Needs facility where Ray again expressed his innocence. The King family appeared on several talk shows and news programs asking for a new trial to be conducted into the assassination.

On the fateful day in April 1968, Reverend King had made a second trip to Memphis in order to stage a peaceful march for the rights of several black sanitation workers who were on strike. A previous demonstration on March 28th had resulted in rioting and looting within the Memphis business district. Local newspapers criticized King for staying at a white-owned Holiday Inn during his March stay. In an effort to avoid further negative press coverage, King stayed at the black-owned Motel Lorraine in downtown Memphis for his April trip. The day before he arrived, someone claiming to be part of the King party arrived at the Motel Lorraine and had King's room switched to a second-floor balcony room. It was later revealed that none of King's associates were aware of this room switch. The new room was located in the rear of the building allowing the balcony window to be wide open to sniper fire without any cover. King was killed on the balcony by a single shot from a high-powered rifle.

Across the street from the Motel Lorraine, witnesses to the assassination pointed to the bathroom window of a boarding house. Allegedly, the assassin balanced on the edge of a bathtub, rested a rifle on the window sill, and fired a single shot that struck King in the face penetrating into his neck and spine. No witnesses saw the shot, although one claimed to have seen a man leaving the bathroom at the time of the shooting. In the doorway of the Canipe Amusement Company, next to the boarding house, belongings of James Earl Ray were found along with a 30.06 Remington rifle thought to be the assassination weapon. Ray's fingerprints were found on this rifle. The main state witness, Charles Stephens, had reportedly rented a room to Ray at the boarding house and claimed to have seen Ray leaving the boarding house bathroom shortly after King was assassinated. According to other sources, Stephens was intoxicated at the time and originally gave a description of an African-American running from the scene of the crime. Stephens later recanted his own identification when shown a picture of Ray during a CBS interview. In addition, Stephen's common law wife Grace reported that she saw a man leaving the boarding house after the assassination who definitely was not Ray. Grace was forced into a mental institution, but never recanted her story.

Ray claims that he realized he was being set-up for the murder of King and took a flight from Memphis to London under an alias before being recognized by a security officer inside Heathrow airport. Ray was then extradited back to the United States. According to Ray, his attorney told him that he would face the death penalty if he did not confess to the murder of King. Ray then confessed to the assassination and was sentenced to 99 years of imprisonment without being afforded a trial by jury. Ray said he had purchased a Remington rifle for a man he knew only as "Raol" who he claims was behind the assassination of King. The bullet that killed King was never matched to this gun, despite retesting of the rifle in 1997. James Earl Ray died in 1998 after suffering from cirrhosis of the liver. According to researcher Philip Melanson, "Raol" may be a man named Jules Ricco Kimble, who is currently serving two life sentences for racketeering and murder.