James Earl Ray

Ray was not married and details of his relationships with any women are not known.

James Earl Ray was born in a poor family on March 10, 1928 in Alton, Illinois, USA. His father’s name was George Ellis Ray and his mother’s name was Lucille. He was of Irish, Scots, and Welsh ancestry. Ray had seven siblings.

James Earl Ray was raised as a catholic and had conservative religious beliefs from his childhood.

Earl Ray’s family had problems with the law enforcement ever since he was a child. Ray’s father forged a check and hence had to shift his family to Ewing, Missouri to escape enforcement authorities. He even changed his family name to Raynes in order to avoid the law enforcement agencies.

Ray left school when he was just fifteen due to his family’s financial condition. He later joined the American army at the end of the Second World War and served in Germany.

Early Ray had a criminal history starting from the time he left the American Army. He was first convicted for a burglary in California in the year 1949. Law enforcement agencies believe that he started indulging in criminal activities as he could not support himself financially.

In the year 1952, he served a two year prison sentence for the armed robbery of a cab driver. Soon after his release from prison, he was again convicted for mail fraud in Hannibal, Missouri and served three prison sentences at the Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary.

In the year 1959, he was caught stealing $120 from a Kroger Store in St. Louis. He was sentenced to twenty years in prison. He escaped from the prison hiding in a truck that was transporting bread from the prison bakery.

After his escape, Early Ray was continuously on the move and travelled across USA, Canada, and Mexico. In 1967, he returned to the United States (Los Angeles) from Mexico and took dancing classes in a bartending school.

While taking dancing classes, he was attracted to the presidential campaign of George Wallace. Ray believed in white supremacy and had strong prejudice against the black people. He volunteered for Wallace’s campaign and was very disappointed when Wallace could not win the campaign.

In the year 1968, Earl Ray brought a Remington Model 760 Gamemaster .30-06-caliber rifle and a box with 20 cartridges. Along with the rifle, he also bought a 2X-7X scope to aim the target well.

He told the clerks at the Aeromarine Supply Company in Brimingham, Alabama (from where he brought the rifle) that he was going on a hunting trip with his brother.

After buying the rifle, he came back to Atlanta where he came to know that King was planning a return trip to Memphis, Tennessee. After reading about the news in newspapers, he immediately drove to Memphis.

King was visiting Memphis to settle a strike by garbage workers. A staunch segregationist, Earl Ray could not stomach the integration policies of King. He decided to assassinate him to stop blacks from getting equal status to the whites.

King was shot by Earl Ray when the former was standing in the balcony of his motel room. Early Ray fired a single shot by standing in the bathtub of his shared room and balancing the rifle on a window ledge.