ATLANTA (AP) – Martin Luther King Jr.’s widow moved from the home she bought with her late husband in 1965 after a series of burglaries, including one by a man who later confessed to killing several women in the neighborhood, her oldest son said Friday.
Coretta Scott King, 77, moved in June to a new condominium in Atlanta’s upscale Buckhead neighborhood, Martin Luther King III told The Associated Press.
The younger King the condominium was a gift from “a very dear friend,” but the Chicago Defender reported this week that Mrs. King’s new home was a gift from Oprah Winfrey. A warranty deed lists the buyer as Overground Railroad LLC, a company that is owned by Winfrey for real estate transactions, according to the Chicago Tribune.
The family home in southwest Atlanta’s Vine City neighborhood had a couple of minor break-ins during the early 1990s, but the family decided it was time to move its matriarch after a third break-in when the suspect later admitted to killing several women in the area, King said.
He did not remember the suspect’s name, but The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s archives indicate Georgia death-row inmate Lyndon Fitzgerald Pace had broken into the King home in 1990 and years later was convicted in the killings of four women, including three in Vine City.
“The neighborhood’s not a great neighborhood, but it’s where my dad wanted to live,” he said. “And as she was getting older and up in years, we felt very much concerned for her security and safety.”
According to King, the burglar broke into the King home in the middle of the night and found Mrs. King sitting in her bed. He stole a few items before escaping.
King, who moved out himself about four years ago, said security guards were present during the day, but his mother often was alone at night.
King and his siblings still maintain their childhood home and plan to keep it in the family.
“When you’ve been somewhere for 39 years, it’s hard to leave, so she’ll tell you it was difficult for her, but she is much happier now,” he said.
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