James Earl Ray was born in Alton, Illinois, on March 10, 1928. known for being racist and a criminal, Ray began plotting the assassination of the civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. in early 1968. He shot and killed Martin Luther King in Memphis on April 4, 1968, confessing to the crime the following March.in April 1968, Ray rented a room at a rooming house under the name Eric Starvo Galt, near the Lorraine Motel, where King was staying.Just after 6 p.m. on April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King Jr. is fatally shot while standing on the balcony outside his second-story room at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, while Ray rented a room at a rooming house under the name Eric Starvo Galt, near the Lorraine Motel, where King was staying.