Like heads of state at a White House photo op, the two men sat in facing chairs with their hands folded over their laps and with tiny microphones clipped to their jackets. After about 25 minutes, the few reporters allowed to witness the scene were dismissed, and Mr. King and Mr. Ray spoke privately for 20 minutes.

During the public part of the meeting, Mr. King did most of the talking. The conversation was awkward and stilted, with Mr. King filling the silences left by Mr. Ray and with Mr. Ray rambling far from the topic of his role in Dr. King's killing. His face etched with creases, Mr. Ray has been severely weakened by cirrhosis, and he complained to Mr. King that his stomach was distended.

''My stomach is kind of falling out, and I need minor surgery, but other than that we're just, you know, taking things day for day, I guess you could say,'' he said. ''And, of course, you've got your problems, too. You've had them for a long time now.''

It took Mr. King nearly 15 minutes to pose the question he had come to ask. He first told Mr. Ray that he considered their meeting ''a spiritual experience.''

''I guess in some strange way our destinies, that of my father and yourself, somehow got tied up together, and we still don't feel as a family that we have all of the questions answered,'' he told Mr. Ray.

Later he added, ''In a strange sort of way, we're both victims.''

At one point, Mr. Ray volunteered, ''I ain't had nothing to do with shooting your father.''

Since Dr. King's assassination on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel, most official inquiries, including a Congressional examination, that of the House Select Committee on Assassinations, have concluded that Mr. Ray probably fired the fatal shot. Mr. Ray's original confession still stands in the opinion of every judge who has heard him out.