New James Earl Ray photos, letters to go online
James Earl Ray, shown during an arrest in 1959. Ray escaped from a Missouri prison in 1967 and went on to assassinate Martin Luther King Jr. Credit: AP file photo
Photos showing James Earl Ray, the man arrested for the assassination of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., in a Memphis jail will be posted online by the county.
The black-and-white photos, which document Ray’s incarceration, will be released along with newly discovered letters Ray wrote from jail and papers from his defense file.
Then-Shelby County Sheriff Bill Morris had the photos taken when Ray was booked into the jail for the April 4, 1968, shooting death of King in Memphis, according to The Commercial Appeal.
Shelby County Register Tom Leatherwood says the photos and letters were found recently among old county records in a warehouse.
Leatherwood says he will post the photos online Monday — the 43rd anniversary of King’s assassination.
Ray died in prison in 1998.
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