On the evening of April 4, 1968, the civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., a 39-year-old African American male, was standing on the balcony of his room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. At 6:01 p.m., a single shot rang out, striking him in the face and neck. He was rushed to St. Joseph's Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 7:05 p.m.
The bullet caused a devastating wound that fractured his jaw and transected his spinal cord.
The investigation that followed became the largest in the history of the Federal Bureau of Investigation at the time. Evidence, including a Remington Gamemaster rifle and fingerprints, was found in a bathroom of a nearby rooming house. The fingerprints were traced to James Earl Ray, an escaped convict from the Missouri State Penitentiary. A massive manhunt ensued, and on June 8, 1968, Ray was arrested at London's Heathrow Airport as he was attempting to travel with a false Canadian passport.
Ray was extradited to the United States to face charges for the murder of Dr. King. On March 10, 1969, on his 41st birthday, Ray pleaded guilty to the assassination. This plea meant he avoided a jury trial and a potential death sentence. He was sentenced to 99 years in the Tennessee State Penitentiary. Just days after his plea, Ray attempted to withdraw it, claiming he had been coerced by his attorney and was the victim of a larger conspiracy. He spent the remainder of his life unsuccessfully trying to get a new trial, maintaining that he was a scapegoat. Ray died in prison in 1998.
Over the years, many, including members of the King family, have expressed their belief that the assassination was the result of a conspiracy. In 1999, the King family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Loyd Jowers, a Memphis restaurant owner who claimed to have been involved in a plot to kill Dr. King. A jury in that civil case found Jowers and 'others, including governmental agencies' were part of a conspiracy. However, a 2000 investigation by the United States Department of Justice found no credible evidence to support these conspiracy claims. Despite multiple investigations, the official conclusion remains that James Earl Ray, acting alone, was responsible for the death of Martin Luther King Jr.
