September 20, 1958: Martin Luther King Jr. in the hospital after being stabbed in a Harlem department store with a letter opener lodged near his heart. — MLK Jr. Assassination Attempt — On 20th September 1958, Izola Ware Curry, a 42-year-old mentally disturbed woman, stabbed Martin Luther King, Jr., while he signed copies of his book, Stride Toward Freedom, at Blumstein’s Department Store in Harlem, New York. Curry approached King with a seven-inch steel letter opener and drove the blade into the upper left side of his chest. King was rushed to Harlem Hospital, where he underwent more than two hours of surgery to repair the wound. Izola Ware Curry was born June 14, 1916 in Adrian, Georgia. She was married to James Curry. The couple lived in Savannah until the late thirties when they separated then Izola Curry moved to New York City. She lived on the top floor of a tenement house at 121 W. 122nd Street in Harlem. She worked as a domestic she was unemployed. Her mind, clouded with thoughts of fear, fear of a false enemy, began fail her. For years, Curry feared the N.A.A.C.P. She believed that the members of the organization were all Communists. Her life was a series of troubles. Her marriage was troubled. Her life was troubled. Her mind was troubled. Her mind in turmoil, her reasoning gone, she took a letter opener and plunged it into to the breast of Dr. Martin Luther King on September 21,1958 in New York City. She was arrested at the scene and later found to be carrying a loaded gun. During her questioning by police at New York's 28th Precinct, Curry indicated that she believed the NAACP and King had been "boycotting" and "torturing" her. When asked why she stabbed King she replied, "if it wasn't him it would have been me, he was going to kill me." She was committed to Bellevue Hospital for observation and soon found not competent to stand trial. On October 20, 1958, Curry was committed to Matteawan State Hospital for the criminally insane, where she was diagnosed a paranoid schizophrenic. To this day few people, if any, know of the whereabouts of Izola Curry, of even if she is alive. Surprisingly, journalists who would have ordinarily covered the case in great detail have not covered the entire event more. Few, if any, photographs of Izola Ware Curry exist. Izola Ware Curry died on March 7, 2015 in Queens New York. She was 98. Ms. Curry died in a nursing home, the last stop in the series of institutions that had been her home for more than half a century. Her death, confirmed by the office of the chief medical examiner of New York City, was first reported by The Smoking Gun, the investigative website. The stabbing nearly cost Dr. King his life, requiring hours of delicate surgery to remove Ms. Curry’s blade, a seven-inch ivory-handled steel letter opener, which had lodged near his heart. If he had so much as sneezed, his doctors later told him, he would not have survived.