Chasing King's Killer: The Hunt for Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Assassin

Chasing King’s Killer (2018) by James L. Swanson tells the story of Martin Luther King Jr.’s tragic assassination. Known for his accounts of other American tragedies like Abraham Lincoln’s and John F. Kennedy’s assassinations, Swanson describes King’s rise to fame in the civil rights movement before turning to the escape of the murderer, James Earl Ray. Examining all the strange coincidences and twists of fate that brought Ray and King together, Swanson highlights how individuals can change history. He describes King’s assassination as part of the racist violence that plagued the civil rights movement and explores the lasting impact of King’s legacy on the United States. 

This guide uses the 2018 Scholastic Press Kindle edition of the text.

Content Warning: Chasing King’s Killer and this study guide make repeated references to racism and racially-motivated violence.

Summary

Chasing King’s Killer starts with a Prologue about the first assassination attempt on Martin Luther King Jr. In 1958, Izola Ware Curry stabbed King in the chest with a letter opener. Although he survived, the attack illustrated the dangers of being the public face of the civil rights movement. However, King reaffirmed his commitment to his work instead of backing down.

In the book’s first part, Swanson describes Martin Luther King’s life and role in the civil rights movement. Born in 1929, King’s father was a pastor and an important man in Atlanta’s Black community. King had a comfortable childhood, but he had to face the difficult reality of Southern racism and segregation from an early age. As a young man in college, King learned about nonviolent resistance to unjust systems and was ordained as a pastor in his father’s church. 

When the Montgomery bus boycott began in 1955, King was elected as leader of the Montgomery Improvement Association, which organized the boycott. Finally, the Supreme Court ruled that segregation on buses was unconstitutional. King’s involvement in the boycott made him famous, turning him into the symbol of the civil rights movement. His close call with Izola Ware Curry almost derailed King’s progress, but he came out of the experience more committed to the civil rights cause than ever. 

As the 1960s progressed, the United States was rocked by historical moments like the March on Washington, protests against the Vietnam War, and the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. King stuck to his principles of nonviolent resistance even as Black people became frustrated with the civil rights movement’s slow progress. Most controversially, King spoke out against the Vietnam War and called for world peace and social justice for people of all races and walks of life. However, many working in the civil rights movement felt this was distracting from their important work. King’s friend and political ally, President Lyndon B. Johnson, felt King’s opposition to the war was a “personal betrayal.”

The book’s second part tells the story of King’s assassin, James Earl Ray. Ray was born in Illinois and grew up poor, with little education or positive adult influence. He turned to a life of crime as a young man and spent years committing robberies and going in and out of prison. In 1959, he was sentenced to 20 years in the Missouri State Penitentiary; however, Ray successfully escaped in 1967. Ray was an “insignificant criminal,” and the government did not devote many resources to finding him. He spent some months on the move, traveling across the United States, Mexico, and Canada, before settling in Los Angeles. In LA, Ray hoped to start afresh: He accumulated a collection of self-help books and took a bartending course. However, on March 17, 1968, he got in his car and drove east, intent on killing King. 

Ray first went to Selma, Alabama, then to King’s hometown of Atlanta, Georgia. He purchased a high-power rifle and ammunition, but soon decided that assassinating King in Atlanta was too risky. Instead, he traveled to Memphis, Tennessee, where King organized a march for striking sanitation workers. He arrived in Memphis on April 3, as King was giving one of the most famous speeches of his career at Mason Temple.

The next day, Ray learned that King was staying in the Lorraine Hotel and succeeded in renting a room in a boarding house across the street. The room had an angled view of King’s balcony, but the shared bathroom down the hall offered a clear shot. A few hours later, he saw King standing alone on his balcony, talking to his friends. Ray hurried to the bathroom and shot King in the head. In the ensuing chaos, Ray escaped less than five minutes after pulling the trigger.

While King was rushed to the hospital, where he was declared dead, Ray made his way back to Atlanta, then north to Canada. As the FBI hunted for him, he obtained a Canadian passport under a fake identity and flew to London. From there, he intended to leave for Africa, where he would become a mercenary, but his plan was complicated by issues with attaining visas and his dwindling funds. Meanwhile, King’s assassination was one of the highest-profile crimes in United States history, and the FBI was devoting all its resources to finding Ray. They discovered his false Canadian passport and a ticket to London and alerted the British police, who caught Ray trying to leave the country. He was returned to the United States, where he refused to confess to the assassination. 

Eventually, Ray plead guilty to avoid the death penalty. He was sentenced to 99 years in prison and died behind bars. However, he never took full responsibility for the crime, even though there was no evidence that anyone but Ray was involved. 

Although King was only 39 years old when he died, he changed American history forever and left an important legacy behind. Along with the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Abraham Lincoln, King’s death is remembered as a great American tragedy.