June 1981 - June 4, 1981 (Thursday)

June 4, 1981 (Thursday)

• James Earl Ray, the convicted assassin of Martin Luther King, was stabbed 22 times by four of his fellow inmates at the Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary near Petros, Tennessee. Ray survived the murder attempt, and died on April 23, 1998, thirty years after the King assassination. Although Ray refused to identify the attackers, three African-American prisoners were later convicted of the attempt and had at least 20 years added to their prison sentences.