On this day in 1968 James Earl Ray, the assassin of Martin Luther King Jr was finally caught at London’s Heathrow Airport while trying to leave the United Kingdom on a false Canadian passport. Ray had been on the run for over 2 months {King’s assassination took place on March 4, 1968}

A great recent book that followed the movements of King and Ray leading up to the assassination, and in Ray’s case after the assassination came out a couple years ago. “Hellhound On His Trail:The Stalking Of Martin Luther King Jr. and the Hunt for His Assassin” by Hampton Sides. I’d highly recommend it.

At the same time Hampton Sides book came out PBS had one of their American Experience programs devoted to this “Roads To Memphis” which was outstanding, I watched it twice.

The site of the assassination the Lorraine Hotel in Memphis was later turned into the National Civil Rights Museum.

James Earl Ray died in prison in April of 1998 at the age of 70.

A side story to the death of James Earl Ray. I was listening to the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball game that day. When the news came across that Ray had died, Pirate announcer Lanny Frattare got confused and thought it was the actor James Earl Jones. Frattare [who was one of those broadcasters who bored the hell out of you. He was a graduate of the Ted Baxter School of Broadcasting} went on and on about Jones in “Field of Dreams”…then someone told him,” It was James Earl Ray, Lanny, not James Earl Jones.”