57 years ago today, July 8, 1968 (June 13, 1968 in the lunar calendar), the murderer of Martin Luther King Jr. was captured. Ray wanted to avoid the camera lens July 8, 1968. James Earl Ray was arrested at London airport as he landed on a passenger plane flying from Portugal to Belgium. He is charged with the assassination of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in Memphis, Tennessee, in April. He traveled on a Canadian passport named Ramon George Snead.