In September 1958, a woman named Isola Ware Curry stabbed Martin Luther King Jr. in the chest with a seven-inch letter opener during a book signing in Harlem. Curry, who believed King was a communist spy, nearly killed the civil rights leader; doctors noted he was a "sneeze away" from death as the blade rested against his aorta. This event is presented as a precursor to the later claims regarding King's political affiliations.