MEMPHIS , Tennessee ( CNN ) -- When James Earl Ray bought a white Mustang in the summer of 1967 , he stood on a streetcorner in downtown Birmingham , Alabama , and pulled the cash out of his shirt pocket , $ 2,000 in all . James Earl Ray paid $ 2,000 cash for a white Mustang , similar to this one , the seller told the FBI . `` Mostly twenties , with some $ 100 bills , '' the seller would later tell the FBI about the sale to Ray , later convicted of assassinating the Rev . Martin Luther King Jr. `` He must have had a roll of twenties , if he paid that guy $ 2,000 in twenties , that 'd be a lot of money , '' said Jerry Ray , James Earl Ray 's brother . Police Capt . John Light , who was chief of detectives that year in Ray 's hometown of Alton , Illinois , suspects the wad of money came from a still-unsolved bank robbery . While Ray was on the run as a prison escapee from Missouri that summer , two men walked into the Bank of Alton with a pistol and a sawed-off shotgun . Both wore stocking masks . The leaner man went behind the counter , scooped up the cash and fled with close to $ 30,000 . Ray , King crossed paths before shooting » Within a day or two of that robbery , Ray would leave the area and head to Canada -- just as he did almost a year later when he fled the scene in Memphis , Tennessee , after King 's murder . Light told CNN the stolen bank money consisted mainly of $ 20 bills . The partially burned shotgun and the stocking masks were found abandoned in a wooded area near a cemetery where Ray 's mother is buried . Ray returned from Canada and bought the Mustang after seeing a classified ad in Birmingham the month after the robbery . In the months to come , Ray would keep spending $ 20 bills . When Ray underwent plastic surgery in Los Angeles 30 days before King 's death , he paid in cash -- denomination unknown . When he drove back to Birmingham six days before the murder to buy a .30-06 high-powered hunting rifle for just under $ 250 , the gun store salesman later told investigators , `` I remember he paid for the gun with $ 20 bills , paid cash . '' On April 4 , 1968 , only hours before King would die , the landlady at the boarding house where Ray rented a room told police , `` He gave me a $ 20 bill '' when he paid for a week 's rent just across the street from the Lorraine Motel . In the sporting goods store where Ray went to buy binoculars , the salesman told police , `` He gave me two twenties ; I think he had two twenties left ... The bills came out of his right pocket , neatly folded , and nothing but bills . '' For Light , the bank holdup is the most likely answer to the question of where Ray got the money to travel as a fugitive to Canada and Mexico , then to flee again to Canada and finally London , England , after King 's murder . `` Thirty-thousand dollars back in 1967 was a lot of money , '' Light said . In London , Ray ran short of money . Four days before he was caught , he robbed a bank . His thumbprint was found on the holdup note . He got little more than $ 200 -- enough to buy an airline ticket to Brussels , Belgium , where he hoped to join mercenaries fighting to keep white rule in southern Africa . He was stopped at a London airport when a police sergeant spotted his phony Canadian passport . Ray lived very cheaply on the run . He got change back for his $ 20 bill at the Memphis boarding house -- a week 's rent there was $ 8.50 . The original prosecutors in the Memphis case decided it would not have cost that much for all of Ray 's travels . `` He was living on a dollar to two dollars a day , '' said current prosecutor John Campbell . `` He was even darning his own socks to be able to save money . ''
Police : James believes Ray 's money came from a bank robbery in his hometown . Also , masks used in robbery found near burial sites of Ray 's parents . Ray bought a Mustang and underwent plastic surgery before King 's death . Police believe he lived very cheaply on the street .