How everything happened the day of Martin Luther King’s assassination?

          Martin Luther King, Baptist minister, social activist, was a great leader of the Civil Rights movement. He worked a lot to achieve civil rights and made a big contribution in ending the legal segregation of African Americans in the South and other parts of the United States. For everything that he did Martin Luther King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. By 1968 he was exhausted with fighting against the government, marches, jail, and living under the constant threat of death. On April 3, he gave his final speech “ I have been to the mountaintop”, the next day, while standing on a balcony outside his room at the Lorraine Motel, Martin Luther King Jr. was killed by a sniper's bullet.

          In fact, the gunman who assassinated Martin Luther King was found the same day, however not everybody found him guilty. The name of the murderer was James Earl Ray. His fingerprints were found on the gun and some other objects. Ray, a white supporter of segregationist George Wallace, was a career criminal. At the time he shot King, Ray was on the lam, as he had escaped from prison. He pleaded guilty on March 10, and was sentenced to 99 years of prison. Despite the fact that his guilt was proven, many years after Martin Luther King's death conspiracy theories continued to flourish. First, James Earl Ray himself claimed his innocence, arguing that he had been set up by a man he knew only as “Raoul.” But this man was never found. HBO channel even conducted a televised mock trial, in which Ray gave his first public testimony and was found not guilty. Loyd Jowers, who was the owner of the restaurant below Ray’s rented room in Memphis, declared that he had been part of a conspiracy to kill King. He also said that Memphis police officers, a Mafia member and the infamous Raoul were also involved. But that verdict was not a criminal conviction. There was found a recording of Jowers in which he suggested he was interested in fabricating his story for financial gain, the civil trial concluded that Jowerks claims weren’t credible. Ray stayed in prison where he died in 1998 from complications caused by hepatitis C. 

         Due to this case King’s Family was absolutely sure that James Earl Ray didn’t kill Martin Luther King, they believed in a conspiracy theory. His wife Coretta King said “There is abundant evidence of a major, high-level conspiracy in the assassination of my husband. Mr. Ray was just set up to take the blame.” She formed this opinion because many years before the death of her husband the FBI was obsessed with King. The FBI surveilled and harassed King, they monitored his movement and led a malicious disinformation campaign. But the theory of conspiracy was never proved. 

          All in all, many years the family, the government and other structures investigated the case trying to find the undeniable truth, however there are still remaining questions and the main is: How everything happened the day of Martin Luther King’s assassination?

https://www.nytimes.com/1993/01/22/news/bar-hbo-s-trial-james-earl-ray-may-stir-sensation-but-will-it-produce-revelation.html 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2018/03/30/who-killed-martin-luther-king-jr-his-family-believes-james-earl-ray-was-framed/

https://www.history.com/news/who-killed-martin-luther-king-james-earl-ray-mlk-assassination 

https://www.npr.org/2018/04/04/598826351/despite-swirl-of-conspiracy-theories-investigators-say-the-mlk-case-is-closed 

https://www.biography.com/activist/martin-luther-king-jr