And of course, the James Earl Ray and St. Louis connection just brought the whole thing back home…see, you can’t escape the past when you live in an old, important, relevant place like St. Louis. Whether Ray pulled the trigger or someone else, we may never know for sure, but history is what it is. James Earl Ray is on the hook for assassinating Martin Luther King Jr. And, his story has strong connections to several South City neighborhoods.

Before visiting the museum, I had no idea of this small part of St. Louis history. Do you think this was taught in my Catholic grade school or public high school? No, just the canned stuff.

There is so much history in my own backyard I just can’t process it all sometimes.

Anyhow, I made a mental note to dig into that St. Louis connection back in 2016 and nothing makes you think about the past more than a quarantine. I’m finally getting around to it now, and decided to share the locations that were tied to James Earl Ray and his brother John’s time in St. Louis.

I am not going to present the whole story here, rather just the physical connections. When I drive and walk around St. Louis I can feel the ghosts that I’ve researched or read about over the years. Now the James Earl Ray piece of history will be cemented in the neighborhoods of Bevo, Benton Park, Lafayette Square, Marine Villa and Gravois Park.

Some of these buildings have gone the way of the wrecking ball, so we’ll not be able to take them in.

First, a little background on James Earl Ray’s upbringing to set up his path to St. Louis.

James Earl Ray was born on March 10, 1928, in Alton, IL. Two years later, his family moved about an hour and a half away to Bowling Green, MO and then by 1935, they moved again to Ewing, MO where Ray lived through grade school.

He moved back to Alton at age 16, where he lived with his grandmother and worked in the International Shoe Tannery factory in nearby East Hartford, IL. He was laid off in December, 1945 and, 6 weeks later, enlisted in the Army. He was stationed in occupied West Germany where he was charged with drunkenness and breaking arrest. Ray was discharged for ineptness and lack of adaptability for service in 1948. He was involved in a shooting of a fellow U.S. soldier in Germany, black guy, and this shook him deeply for years. He may have never gotten over it, and it may have contributed to his discharge.

After his discharge, Ray returned to stay with his grandma in Alton, and embarked on a life of odd jobs and jail sentences. He worked for the Dryden Rubber Co. in Chicago until he was laid off in September 1949, and then left for Los Angeles, CA. He had a black girlfriend in L.A. by the way. On October 11, he was arrested for robbing a cafe and was sentenced to 90 days in the clink.



After serving his time in L.A. he returned to Illinois in 1950 where he worked until May, 1952. He tried to get his High School diploma during this time, but ended up robbing a cab driver of less than $12.00. Again, found guilty of robbery and incarcerated at the State pen in Joliet, IL and another jail until released in 1954.

This was years before the Blues Brothers were in Joliet, so no connection there (just seeing if you’re paying attention).



Ray eventually moved to Quincy, IL. where he again got busted for jacking a post office of money orders and a validating stamp (if you’re there, why not?). This is getting interesting, the guy couldn’t stay outta trouble, white privilege does not serve all, especially those with no money…he fled to Miami and was finally arrested in Missouri where he returned. This time 45 months at the Federal pen in Leavenworth, KS.

Paroled from Leavenworth in 1959, he headed to St. Louis and robbed two grocery stores in South City and one in Alton, IL. (source)

One of the two buildings he robbed is still around right off of Cherokee Street at 3417 Ohio Avenue in the Gravois Park Neighborhood. If you are having a drink and listening to choice music at the Whiskey Ring, look out the window just to the west, and there is the former Kroger.