Hampton Sides - Hellhound on His Trail - The Stalking of Martin Luther King, Jr. And the International Hunt for His Assassin

CHAPTER 7

SURREPTITIOUSNESS IS CONTAGIOUS

116 "a moral crusader":Clark, Crime in America , p. 151.

117 "Here we all were biting our nails":Author interview with Clark, Oct. 9, 2008, New York City.

118 "We must create a reverence":Clark, Crime in America , p. 95.

119 "a humane and generous concern":Ibid., p. 8.

120 "the Jellyfish":Hersh, Bobby and J. Edgar , p. 486.

121 "What kind of person is that?": See Gentry, J. Edgar Hoover , p. 599.

122 "I describe our relationship":Ibid., p. 601.

123 "by the excessive domination":Clark, Crime in America , p. 65.

124 "Surreptitiousness is contagious":Ibid., p. 271.

125 "more than a mere dirty business":Ibid., p. 276.

126 "Hoover had three":Gentry, J. Edgar Hoover , p. 500.

127 "a man of monstrous ego":DeLoach, Hoover's FBI , p. 11.

128 "crotchety, dictatorial":Ibid., p. 111.

129 "you were not so much":Ibid., p. 24.

130 "Such behavior":Ibid., pp. 202-3.

131 "like the biblical mustard seed":Ibid., p. 200.

132 "We need this installation":Garrow, FBI and Martin Luther King Jr. , p. 184.

133 "A.G. will not approve":Ibid.

134 "There has not been an adequate":Ibid.

CHAPTER 8

A BUGLE VOICE OF VENOM

135 Galt told a representative:Posner, Killing the Dream , p. 194.

136 "Several recruits":Carter, Politics of Rage , p. 310.

137 "The Rockefeller interests":Ibid., p. 311.

138 stock car track:My description of the Burbank rally for Wallace is primarily drawn from Carter, Politics of Rage , pp. 314-15.

139 "He has a bugle voice of venom": New Republic , Nov. 9, 1968.

140 "the heat, the rebel yells":Lesher, George Wallace , p. 410.

141 he wrote to the American-Southern Africa Council:Ray's correspondence is reprinted in House Select Committee on Assassinations (hereafter HSCA), Appendix Reports , vol. 13, p. 252.

142 the Friends of Rhodesia:Ray's letter is reproduced in ibid., vol. 4, p. 116.

143 reader of the Thunderbolt: Ray is thought to have read the Thunderbolt while in prison; after his arrest for King's assassination, he eventually hired J. B. Stoner as his attorney, and his brother Jerry Ray served as Stoner's personal bodyguard.

144 "Invariably the bastard":See Carter, Politics of Rage , p. 165.

145 archly effeminate organizer:Ibid., p. 166.

146 "the last chance":Lesher, George Wallace , p. 301.

147 pasted the racist sobriquet:McMillan, Making of an Assassin , p. 285.

148 "a murky, jukebox-riven hole in the wall":Huie, He Slew the Dreamer , p. 99.

149 "a moody fellow from Alabama":Ibid., p. 110.

150 Pat Goodsell:My account of the incident inside the Rabbit's Foot is mainly drawn from interviews with eyewitnesses in bureau reports, especially the FBI interview with Bo Del Monte, April 22, 1968, MLK Exhibit F-168, in HSCA, Appendix Reports , vol. 4, p. 122. Also see Posner, Killing the Dream , pp. 215-17, and Huie, He Slew the Dreamer , pp. 109-12. Ray himself discusses the incident, giving slightly varying versions, in his two books, Tennessee Waltz and Who Killed Martin Luther King?

CHAPTER 9

RED CARNATIONS

151 "Did you get the flowers?":My account of King's gift of artificial carnations comes from Coretta Scott King's memoir, My Life with Martin Luther King Jr. , p. 308.

152 "a guilt-ridden man":Garrow, Bearing the Cross , p. 588.

153 "Tonight I have taken a vow":Branch, At Canaan's Edge , p. 653.

154 confessed to her:Ibid., p. 678.

155 "Each of us is two selves":Dyson, I May Not Get There with You , p. 162.

156 "That poor man":William Rutherford, quoted in Garrow, Bearing the Cross , p. 617.

157 "Martin had ... an ambivalent attitude":Dyson, I May Not Get There with You , pp. 212-13.

158 "There was nothing fashionable":Ibid., p. 210.

159 "I won't have any money":Ibid., p. 276.

160 "We had a sense of fate":Coretta Scott King, My Life with Martin Luther King Jr. , p. 303.

161 "This is what will happen to me":Dyson, I May Not Get There with You , p. 214.

CHAPTER 10

AN ORANGE CHRISTMAS

162 Marie Tomaso:FBI FD-302 interview with Marie Martin (Tomaso), conducted on April 13, 1968, by Special Agents William Slicks and Richard Ross.

163 "like he didn't get out too often":Ibid.

164 a deeply eccentric man:My depiction of Charles Stein and his relationship with Galt is primarily drawn from the initial FBI interview with Stein on April 13, 1968, conducted by Special Agents Slicks and Ross out of the Los Angeles field office, as well as a follow-up interview on April 15, 1968. The FBI also interviewed Rita Stein on April 13, 1968 (MURKIN Files, 1051-1175, sec. 9, p. 270), and Stein's mother on April 27, 1968 (MURKIN Files, 3762, sec. 45, p. 43).

165 "I got a gun":FBI FD-302 follow-up interview with Marie Martin, April 14, 1968.

166 Galt had one stipulation:Galt's requirement that Charles Stein, his sister, and his cousin stop by the Wallace headquarters and sign their names is found in FBI interviews with Rita Stein, Charles Stein, and Marie Martin.

167 "I figured he was getting paid":McMillan, Making of an Assassin , p. 280.

168 "What's God got to do with it?":Frank, American Death , p. 165.

169 They rode all night:My account of Ray's cross-country journey to New Orleans is largely adapted from "Analysis of James Earl Ray's Trip to New Orleans, December 15-December 21, 1967," House Select Committee on Assassinations, Appendix Reports , vol. 13, pp. 268-69.

170 "Charlie would nudge me":Ray, Tennessee Waltz , p. 65.

171 "It's Galt":Frank, American Death , p. 166.

172 "a train whistle":Posner, Killing the Dream , p. 206.

173 "You ought to know that Christmas":Ray, "20,000 Words," quoted in Huie, He Slew the Dreamer , p. 105.

174 "I didn't do any gambling":Ibid.

175 "a nearly impossible feat":Lesher, George Wallace , p. 400.

176 "All persons":William Bradford Huie interview with Koss, in Huie's He Slew the Dreamer , pp. 114-16.

177 "You must complete your course":Ibid.

178 "I lost him":Ibid.

CHAPTER 11

WALKING BUZZARDS

179 At the wheel of the big truck:My account of the deaths of Robert Walker and Echol Cole is largely drawn from the news story in the Memphis Commercial Appeal , Feb. 2, 1968. See also Honey, Going Down Jericho Road , pp. 1-2; Beifuss, At the River I Stand , p. 30; and Branch, At Canaan's Edge , pp. 684-85.