There's some pretty compelling evidence that Ray's inception of the idea may have come from hearing about a bounty on MLK's head. See https://slate.com/news-and

There's some pretty compelling evidence that Ray's inception of the idea may have come from hearing about a bounty on MLK's head. See https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2025/12/martin-luther-king-mlk-fbi-files-murder-assassination.html https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2025/12/martin-luther-ki... If true I wouldn't consider Ray to have been acting on behalf of a conspiracy (even if the bounty itself was a conspiracy), but it's not quite acting alone, either. It's sort of like if someone got the idea for doing something from gossip on 4Chan. They may have already been primed to do something horrendous, but there's an element of but-for causation regarding the particulars and follow-through.