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Who Killed Martin Luther King?: The True Story by the Alleged Assassin
The man sentenced to a life sentence for murdering Martin Luther King, Jr. tells his story in book form, asserting his innocence and revealing that Hoover's FBI plotted to kill King. Reprint.
285 pages, Paperback
First published November 6, 1991
About the author
James Earl Ray
7 booksWorld War II veteran and convicted of the assassination of African-American preacher Martin Luther King.
At first James Earl Ray confessed the murder, but recanted his statement three days later.
He died at the age of 70 in prison.
At first James Earl Ray confessed the murder, but recanted his statement three days later.
He died at the age of 70 in prison.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
April 8, 2012
There is a stigma in this country around questioning. It is the same type of stigma that surrounds the word "socialism" - meaning that by effectively demonizing a word or phrase, the associated person and/or issue is demonized as well and effectively shut out of conversation. In the case of this book, of course, the phrase is "conspiracy theory". A conspiracy theory by definition is a theory involving more than one person in a particular act - usually of high prominence. By definition, there is nothing inherently "wrong" with a conspiracy theorist, it is used in multiple situations, including in most cases of high profile inquiry, determining who, what, when, why, where and how people were involved. To say there is a "conspiracy" is only to say that multiple people are involved in important cases, usually politically based. But the label "conspiracy theorist", when effectively applied to a person in America, is associated with "nut job". This shuts down any questioning of the government before it can begin, leaving all framing of a national/international case to the media/government (apparently they are to be unquestionably trustworthy). If we cannot question and critique our government, what kind of a free society are we? In the case of James Earl Ray, there are a few facts you should consider in your decision to read this:
Fact - James Earl Ray NEVER had a trial for MLK's murder.
Fact - The King family has come out in support of Ray after King's assassination.
Fact - The FBI and House Select Committee investigating the assassinations of JFK and MLK have King's FBI documents and wiretaps classified until 2027 - and it is on official record that the COINTELPRO operation involving the tracking of largely African-American political groups was heavily focused on MLK.
All of these facts are verifiable from multiple sources. This book is very important if nothing else than as a statement of the defense, which was never heard in court - it is a historical document in that respect.
Who knows what really happened with the MLK assassination, but to entirely place one's trust in the world's most powerful government is at best a bit naive.
Fact - James Earl Ray NEVER had a trial for MLK's murder.
Fact - The King family has come out in support of Ray after King's assassination.
Fact - The FBI and House Select Committee investigating the assassinations of JFK and MLK have King's FBI documents and wiretaps classified until 2027 - and it is on official record that the COINTELPRO operation involving the tracking of largely African-American political groups was heavily focused on MLK.
All of these facts are verifiable from multiple sources. This book is very important if nothing else than as a statement of the defense, which was never heard in court - it is a historical document in that respect.
Who knows what really happened with the MLK assassination, but to entirely place one's trust in the world's most powerful government is at best a bit naive.
December 17, 2008
interesting.
June 12, 2026
THE ‘TRUE STORY’ ACCORDING TO THE MAN WHO ADMITTEDLY PLED GUILTY
James Earl Ray (1928-1998) is the convicted killer of Martin Luther King Jr. He was convicted of the April 4, 1968 murder in 1969, after he entered a guilty plea (which saved him from the possibility of a death sentence), which he later tried to withdraw in favor of a jury trial. He died from kidney disease and liver failure at the age of 70.
Rev. Jesse Jackson (!!) wrote in the Foreword to this 1991 book, “No thoughtful person, after reviewing the evidence, can believe that this one man, James Earl Ray---who had bungled virtually everything he had ever tried, including criminal activity---acting alone, killed Martin Luther King, escaped during the evening traffic rush… traveled to Canada and England with international passports, avoided an international network in search of him, and was only caught sometime later. Such a scenario strains the imagination, not to mention the reasoning process... I have always believed that there was a conspiracy involved in Dr. King’s assassination. I have always believed that the government was part of a conspiracy, either directly or indirectly, to assassinate him. I have never ruled out the government’s DIRECT involvement because there were many in the government---J. Edgar Hoover among them---who had an intense, visceral and deep emotional hatred and fear of Dr. King…
“James Earl Ray may or may not have been part of the conspiracy. I have no proof or facts one way or the other, nor am I in a position to know. Read his story and draw your own conclusion about him. I only contend that there are some things you SENSE before you KNOW… What IS known now is that the government… DID have a COINTELPRO program… to discredit, disrupt and destroy the Black movement and to prevent the rise of a Black Messiah… Thus, while I do not know, I have a strong sense that there was a government conspiracy to kill Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.”
“If Dr. King had been wounded and lived through the assassination attempt … I believe that he would have been the first to call for a full and complete investigation. I believe that he would have been the first to demand a fair trial for James Earl Ray. I believe he would have been the first person seeking justice for this alleged assaulter. Surely the American people and the government can settle for nothing less.” (Pg. 5-8)
Mark Lane (noted for his Kennedy assassination books, such as ‘Rush to Judgment’) asserts, “Ray has been subjected to brutal treatment… and was badly mistreated and tortured by the authorities… Ray has been incarcerated for more than two decades for a crime that I am convinced he did not commit… If a skilled, experienced investigator and writer with … libraries and other archives at his command [had] … produced this book, it would be noteworthy. That Ray, devoid of a support system, has achieved such a result is monumental.” (Pg. 9-10)
Evidence? “Very likely the only eyewitness of value in the rooming house [across from the hotel where Dr. King was killed] was Mrs. [Grace] Stephens. When photographs of James Earl Ray were shown to her she unequivocally stated that he was not the man who emerged from the bathroom just after the shot was fired. She was threatened by FBI agents and local police and told to cooperate. She was offered a substantial ‘reward’ if she would identify Ray. She said she would be glad to cooperate … if they ever caught the right man… Mrs. Stephens was surreptitiously sent to a mental institution… She was illegally incarcerated there for ten years until I was able to organize a public campaign to seek her freedom… The federal authorities… then approached her husband. Told of a $100,000 reward, he signed an affidavit saying Ray was the killer. Immediately the attorney general of Memphis had Mr. Stephens arrested, claiming that he was a drunk… Clearly, Ray could not be tried. The state had not a shred of credible evidence linking him to the murder… Therefore, the federal and state authorities arranged for the case not to be tried. A detailed description of how this was accomplished forms the … most chilling portion of this book… I join in James Earl Ray’s call for the appointment of an independent federal special prosecutor to investigate the FBI’s involvement in the plot to kill Martin Luther King.” (Pg. 11-12)
What kind of case does Ray present? “The FBI said that during examinations of the discarded items, found on the sidewalk after the shooting agents… they found several fingerprints, including one on the rifle that matched mine. The FBI decided not to conduct a ballistics test on the rifle claiming that the fatal bullet was misshapen.” (Pg. 100)
What about Ray’s attorney, Percy Foreman? “As far as Foreman’s investigative technique went, the two main questions… were: ‘Was there a conspiracy to kill Dr. King?’ and ‘Did James Earl Ray’ fire the weapon?’ He never asked me either question. I would have answered that I did not shoot Dr. King but that I was unwittingly part of a conspiracy since I was hired to purchase a weapon of the type used in the killing and did bring it to Memphis.” (Pg. 120)
What about the guilty plea? “a very agitated Percy Foreman … presented a paper for me to sign, claiming that he needed ‘evidence’ that he had advised me to let him negotiate a guilty plea on my behalf… I signed the plea document but told Foreman I didn’t intend to plead guilty. He went to work trying to persuade me to do so.” (Pg. 127) “As February was ending, Foreman had no assurances that I’d plead guilty, so he resorted to terror tactics usually attributed to dictators… I was succumbing to the grind---the cage, the glare, the stale air, Foreman’s incessant demands that I plead guilty. In late February, I tentatively agreed to enter a plea of guilty… Once I compromised my position by signing a paper saying Foreman had advised me to plead guilty, he began … [giving me] stipulations for me to sign. In all, there were 55… My job was to ratify the state’s case down to the last comma… This went on for days, until the stipulations were down to a few, leaving only those Judge Battle would read at the hearing where I’d officially plead guilty… My signature of approval appeared on each page.” (Pg. 130-132)
He continues, “The following morning I appeared in court to play my part in the scene scripted three days earlier… I’d already pleaded guilty… Judge Battler jumped in, rereading several questions he’d put to me during my guilty plea… The day after I pleaded guilty, Foreman invited my brothers for drinks in his suite.” (Pg. 133-134)
He argues, “The FBI’s performance after the King shooting is … mysterious. There has been no explanation for the 30-minute delay in getting the bureau into the King case---which might have closed exits from Memphis to the killer or killers… And along the chain of odd events in the FBI’s pursuit of me there is the record of the bureau’s continued efforts to keep a wire on the King household and the SCLC leaders even after the murder.” (Pg. 249-250)
He closes with a two-page list of ‘Remaining Questions,’ such as: “What role did the Memphis … fire chief have in pulling the city’s only two black firemen away from a post near the Motel the day before Dr. King was shot?”… “Why, considering that my fingerprints were discovered minutes after the King shooting, did it take the FBI more than two weeks to get out a bulletin of my alleged involvement in the King shooting?… Why did the first wanted posters name me as ‘Eric S. Galt,’ the name known by Raoul [Ray’s alleged accomplice in the conspiracy] but not used at [the] rooming house?” (Pg. 266-267)
Ray hardly makes even a mildly convincing case for a Special Prosecutor and a jury trial. (But after reading his book, I was even more distressed that Rev. Jesse Jackson was supporting Ray’s arguments.) Try reading William Bradford Huie's book, 'Did the FBI Kill Martin Luther King?' for a contrasting view.
James Earl Ray (1928-1998) is the convicted killer of Martin Luther King Jr. He was convicted of the April 4, 1968 murder in 1969, after he entered a guilty plea (which saved him from the possibility of a death sentence), which he later tried to withdraw in favor of a jury trial. He died from kidney disease and liver failure at the age of 70.
Rev. Jesse Jackson (!!) wrote in the Foreword to this 1991 book, “No thoughtful person, after reviewing the evidence, can believe that this one man, James Earl Ray---who had bungled virtually everything he had ever tried, including criminal activity---acting alone, killed Martin Luther King, escaped during the evening traffic rush… traveled to Canada and England with international passports, avoided an international network in search of him, and was only caught sometime later. Such a scenario strains the imagination, not to mention the reasoning process... I have always believed that there was a conspiracy involved in Dr. King’s assassination. I have always believed that the government was part of a conspiracy, either directly or indirectly, to assassinate him. I have never ruled out the government’s DIRECT involvement because there were many in the government---J. Edgar Hoover among them---who had an intense, visceral and deep emotional hatred and fear of Dr. King…
“James Earl Ray may or may not have been part of the conspiracy. I have no proof or facts one way or the other, nor am I in a position to know. Read his story and draw your own conclusion about him. I only contend that there are some things you SENSE before you KNOW… What IS known now is that the government… DID have a COINTELPRO program… to discredit, disrupt and destroy the Black movement and to prevent the rise of a Black Messiah… Thus, while I do not know, I have a strong sense that there was a government conspiracy to kill Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.”
“If Dr. King had been wounded and lived through the assassination attempt … I believe that he would have been the first to call for a full and complete investigation. I believe that he would have been the first to demand a fair trial for James Earl Ray. I believe he would have been the first person seeking justice for this alleged assaulter. Surely the American people and the government can settle for nothing less.” (Pg. 5-8)
Mark Lane (noted for his Kennedy assassination books, such as ‘Rush to Judgment’) asserts, “Ray has been subjected to brutal treatment… and was badly mistreated and tortured by the authorities… Ray has been incarcerated for more than two decades for a crime that I am convinced he did not commit… If a skilled, experienced investigator and writer with … libraries and other archives at his command [had] … produced this book, it would be noteworthy. That Ray, devoid of a support system, has achieved such a result is monumental.” (Pg. 9-10)
Evidence? “Very likely the only eyewitness of value in the rooming house [across from the hotel where Dr. King was killed] was Mrs. [Grace] Stephens. When photographs of James Earl Ray were shown to her she unequivocally stated that he was not the man who emerged from the bathroom just after the shot was fired. She was threatened by FBI agents and local police and told to cooperate. She was offered a substantial ‘reward’ if she would identify Ray. She said she would be glad to cooperate … if they ever caught the right man… Mrs. Stephens was surreptitiously sent to a mental institution… She was illegally incarcerated there for ten years until I was able to organize a public campaign to seek her freedom… The federal authorities… then approached her husband. Told of a $100,000 reward, he signed an affidavit saying Ray was the killer. Immediately the attorney general of Memphis had Mr. Stephens arrested, claiming that he was a drunk… Clearly, Ray could not be tried. The state had not a shred of credible evidence linking him to the murder… Therefore, the federal and state authorities arranged for the case not to be tried. A detailed description of how this was accomplished forms the … most chilling portion of this book… I join in James Earl Ray’s call for the appointment of an independent federal special prosecutor to investigate the FBI’s involvement in the plot to kill Martin Luther King.” (Pg. 11-12)
What kind of case does Ray present? “The FBI said that during examinations of the discarded items, found on the sidewalk after the shooting agents… they found several fingerprints, including one on the rifle that matched mine. The FBI decided not to conduct a ballistics test on the rifle claiming that the fatal bullet was misshapen.” (Pg. 100)
What about Ray’s attorney, Percy Foreman? “As far as Foreman’s investigative technique went, the two main questions… were: ‘Was there a conspiracy to kill Dr. King?’ and ‘Did James Earl Ray’ fire the weapon?’ He never asked me either question. I would have answered that I did not shoot Dr. King but that I was unwittingly part of a conspiracy since I was hired to purchase a weapon of the type used in the killing and did bring it to Memphis.” (Pg. 120)
What about the guilty plea? “a very agitated Percy Foreman … presented a paper for me to sign, claiming that he needed ‘evidence’ that he had advised me to let him negotiate a guilty plea on my behalf… I signed the plea document but told Foreman I didn’t intend to plead guilty. He went to work trying to persuade me to do so.” (Pg. 127) “As February was ending, Foreman had no assurances that I’d plead guilty, so he resorted to terror tactics usually attributed to dictators… I was succumbing to the grind---the cage, the glare, the stale air, Foreman’s incessant demands that I plead guilty. In late February, I tentatively agreed to enter a plea of guilty… Once I compromised my position by signing a paper saying Foreman had advised me to plead guilty, he began … [giving me] stipulations for me to sign. In all, there were 55… My job was to ratify the state’s case down to the last comma… This went on for days, until the stipulations were down to a few, leaving only those Judge Battle would read at the hearing where I’d officially plead guilty… My signature of approval appeared on each page.” (Pg. 130-132)
He continues, “The following morning I appeared in court to play my part in the scene scripted three days earlier… I’d already pleaded guilty… Judge Battler jumped in, rereading several questions he’d put to me during my guilty plea… The day after I pleaded guilty, Foreman invited my brothers for drinks in his suite.” (Pg. 133-134)
He argues, “The FBI’s performance after the King shooting is … mysterious. There has been no explanation for the 30-minute delay in getting the bureau into the King case---which might have closed exits from Memphis to the killer or killers… And along the chain of odd events in the FBI’s pursuit of me there is the record of the bureau’s continued efforts to keep a wire on the King household and the SCLC leaders even after the murder.” (Pg. 249-250)
He closes with a two-page list of ‘Remaining Questions,’ such as: “What role did the Memphis … fire chief have in pulling the city’s only two black firemen away from a post near the Motel the day before Dr. King was shot?”… “Why, considering that my fingerprints were discovered minutes after the King shooting, did it take the FBI more than two weeks to get out a bulletin of my alleged involvement in the King shooting?… Why did the first wanted posters name me as ‘Eric S. Galt,’ the name known by Raoul [Ray’s alleged accomplice in the conspiracy] but not used at [the] rooming house?” (Pg. 266-267)
Ray hardly makes even a mildly convincing case for a Special Prosecutor and a jury trial. (But after reading his book, I was even more distressed that Rev. Jesse Jackson was supporting Ray’s arguments.) Try reading William Bradford Huie's book, 'Did the FBI Kill Martin Luther King?' for a contrasting view.
December 9, 2022
It'll be very interesting to see what the files that should be released in 2027 reveal. I doubt that they'll be released.
September 15, 2011
In the three decades since April 4, 1968, when Martin Luther King, Jr., was shot to death in Memphis, scores of books and articles have questioned whether James Earl Ray, King's killer, acted alone or was part of a larger conspiracy. Now, based on explosive new interviews, confidential files, and previously undisclosed evidence, bestselling author Gerald Posner finally resolves the simple truth of the last great political murder mystery of the 1960s, definitively proving that Ray acted alone. Beginning with a straightforward narrative of the events before, during, and after the shooting, Posner untangles the case's leading puzzles: Was there a mysterious person named Raoul who directed Ray in the year leading up to the murder? Were the FBI, the CIA, or an arm of the Mafia involved? Did the military have a covert team of snipers in Memphis on the day King died? Was James Earl Ray a patsy, as the King family has publicly declared? At the heart of this book is an in-depth profile of Ray himself, a fascinating profile of a career criminal from one of the most forsaken parts of poor white America. Posner re-creates the memorable dramas of the case: Dr. King's rousing "mountaintop" speech the night before his death; the chilling moments of the assassination; Ray's frantic flight across four countries as he tried to escape justice; and the shock of the King family's embrace of Ray just before his own death in jail. A riveting search for justice, Killing the Dream finally thwarts James Earl Ray's efforts to take his secrets to the grave, and proves the identity of King's killer beyond a shadow of a doubt.
September 28, 2020
Due to wanting to read something out of the comfort of the fiction genres I love so dearly, I decided to read this book after being given it.
It is a highly interesting read and I suggest anyone who is interested in the case to read it as well since it brings up many interesting points and views. I always marvel at the lives of people that escape jail and live such an adventure for a life that seems almost unrealistic now. It has shocked me and made me realize how untrustworthy and biased the criminal justice system was during this time period.
Overall, although it felt a bit boring after Parts II and III, I had enjoyed reading this book.
It is a highly interesting read and I suggest anyone who is interested in the case to read it as well since it brings up many interesting points and views. I always marvel at the lives of people that escape jail and live such an adventure for a life that seems almost unrealistic now. It has shocked me and made me realize how untrustworthy and biased the criminal justice system was during this time period.
Overall, although it felt a bit boring after Parts II and III, I had enjoyed reading this book.
February 12, 2021
I got a copy of this book for one dollar at the thrift store, and it has been signed by James Earl Ray. In this book, James Earl Ray describes his theories of how the government assassinated Martin Luther King, and framed him for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. There were parts of the book that were very interesting that related to the life and activities of Ray, but I just do not buy his whole conspiracy theory track. For those who are interested in conspiracies, this may be a book for you.
August 13, 2009
Got this out of the library and read large swaths of it, but not the whole thing. Intriguing enough to search out better sources like William Pepper's books.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews