On June 8, 1968, Martin Luther King's assassin James Earl Ray was arrested at Heathrow Airport. He was trying to leave the United Kingdom with a fake Canadian passport.
Martin Luther King - a famous preacher, leader of the black rights movement in the United States and Nobel Peace Prize laureate, was assassinated on April 4, 1968 on the terrace of the Memphis motel “Lorraine”.
A year later, the police arrested James Earl Ray, who at that time was registered as a fugitive prisoner. It is believed that under pressure from judges who promised Ray a deal with the investigation in case of a sincere confession, he signed his own sentence.
The court sentenced Ray to 99 years in prison. Immediately after the verdict was pronounced, he stated that he did not kill the human rights defender.
James Ray died on April 23, 1998 at Memorial Hospital in Nashville. Even King's family, who believed he was innocent, expressed their condolences on the death of the convicted man.