The woman who stabbed Dr Martin Luther King Jr during a 1958 book signing has died , aged 98 . Izola Ware Curry , who stabbed the civil rights leader in the chest with a seven-inch letter opener , died at a Queens , New York , nursing home where she moved several years ago . She died on Saturday March 7 , according to The Smoking Gun . Izola Ware Curry , ( right in 1958 ) 98 , died on March 7 , more than 56 years after she attempted to kill Dr Martin Luther King Jr with a letter opener at a Harlem book signing . Curry attacked the civil rights leader because she had delusions that he and the NAACP were watching her and preventing her from holding a job . Curry was originally sent to Matteawan State Hospital for the Criminally Insane and spent many years living anonymously despite the 1958 attack at Blumstein 's Department Store in Harlem . She was also carrying a loaded pistol in her bra at the time . Dr King survived the incident at Blumstein 's Department Store , where he was signing his first book Stride Toward Freedom , by fractions of an inch . The knife came close to puncturing his aorta and he could have died at the store if bystanders had taken the weapon out of his chest before his three-hour surgery . He referred to the incident in his I 've Been To The Mountaintop speech , the last remarks he gave before his assassination on April 4 , 1968 by James Earl Ray . The Nobel Peace Prize winner said that if he had sneezed then he would have died after being stabbed by the 'demented black woman ' . Curry , who believed that the NAACP and Dr King had been watching her and preventing her from getting employment , was originally sent to Matteawan State Hospital for the Criminally Insane . Dr King had been signing his first book , Stride Toward Freedom , when Curry approached and stabbed him . The attacker was also carrying a loaded pistol in her bra . She was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and had an estimated IQ of 70 . Dr King , who would accomplish some of his life 's greatest work in the next ten years , said he bore her no ill will after the attack . He said that the incident 'demonstrates that a climate of hatred and bitterness so permeates our nation that inevitably deeds of extreme violence must erupt ' . Born in Georgia in 1916 , she moved between Georgia , Florida , St. Louis , and New York and worked as a housekeeper , factory worker and cook . However , her mentally illness made it difficult for her to keep a job . She remained in state custody at mental health institutions and the 'family care ' program in peoples homes . He delusions and imagined voices were reportedly gone by 1980 . Long presumed to be deceased during her years of anonymity , a record for voter registration in 2012 led a Smoking Gun reporter to find her last year . Curry is not believed to have surviving family members . Curry ( left ) spent the rest of her life in New York mental health institutions and nursing homes before she died on Saturday at Hillside Manor in Queens ( right )
Izola Ware Curry tried to kill civil rights leader at 1958 book signing event . Hillside Manor barely survived attack , which he referenced in his last ever speech . Curry thought that Hillside Manor and NAACP were stopping her getting a job . She lived at mental health institutions and nursing homes after stabbing .