Hellhound on his Trail: The Stalking of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the International Hunt for His Assassin by Hampton Sides (PDF)

Description

Hellhound on His Trail is the story of two very different men whose lives catastrophically interweaved over the course of some nine months in the late 1960s: one was a thief and con man called James Earl Ray, the other one of the greatest American figures of the twentieth century, Martin Luther King Jr.Hampton Sides follows in Ray’s footsteps as he escapes from prison, creates a new identity for himself and becomes convinced of his mission to kill King. Hellhound on His Trail is equally the story of King himself in his last months, fighting to keep his ideals alive in the face of intensive FBI surveillance and his own exhausted frustration. With relentless storytelling drive, Sides follows Ray and King as they crisscross the country, one stalking the other, until the fateful moment, on 4 April 1968 at a Memphis hotel, when the drifter finally caught up with his prey. Nationwide riots were sparked by the assassination, followed by the largest manhunt in American history.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐”Long distance information get me Memphis Tennessee”. So goes the lyric of an old pop standard. Hampton Sides is a Memphis native who has returned to his hometown to report on the most famous murder in that city of Confederate Klan Wizard Nathan Bedford Forrest, Blues giant W. C. Handy and racial tension and conflict. In “Hellhound on His Trail” Sides gives readers a page turner thriller ending in the tragedy of April 4, 1968 when Dr. King was murdered by James Earl Ray. James Earl Ray was born in Alton, Illinois. His mother was a street prostitute. His brothers were all felons. The family was dirt poor having to cannibalize the wood on their shack to use for firewood in tough Missouri winters. Ray was a petty thief and robber who never stood out from the crowd. He was just “there”. Ray was poorly educated though he did have an above average IQ. Ray was a loner, impeccable dresser and Army veteran who knew about the use of firearms. During 1968 Ray, who had escaped in a breadbox from the Missouri State Prison, decided to stalk and murder Dr. Martin Luther King. Ray was a big fan of segregationist former governor of Alabama George Corley Wallace in his run for the White House. Ray thought by murdering King he would boost the candidacy of Wallace; become a hero to the far right and assert the supremacy of the white race over that of African-Americans. He also was a man who sought recognition and wanted to stand out from the herd. Sides does a wonderful job in tracking the trail of Ray in 1968. After he escaped from prison Ray spent time in Alabama, Atlanta where he focused on the Martin Luther King home and church, Los Angeles where he sought to get involved in the pornographic film industry; Mexico where he lived in brothels and spent time with Mexican prostititues and ultimately in Memphis. Ray shot King from a bathroom in a flophouse facing the balcony of the Lorraine Motel in a rundown black neighborhood. King was standing on the balcony when Ray shot him on April 4, 1968. The death of the martyr King led to widespread rioting in major American cities. Washington DC., was in flames. Ray was captured in London’s Heathrow airport by Scotland Yard. He had journeyed to London seeking escape to Rhodesia the racist state in Africa. He had fled there from Canada under an alias. Ray had an affinity for use of aliases; led the FBI and Scotland Yard on a worldwide manhunt and ended his days in Brushy Mountain State Prison in East Tennessee. Ray escaped from Brushy Mountain in 1977 but was captured by bloodhounds and reincarcerated until his death. Sides also takes us into the inner circles of Martin Luther Kings team. During 1968 King wanted his Southern Christian Leadership Conference to plan a Poor Peoples March to Washington DC. King was diverted by his desire to stand up for black garbage workers in Memphis angered by the horrific death of two garbagemen who had been crushed by an antiquated garbage truck. The men were living in dire poverty; their motto was ‘I Am a Man.” The first March King led turned violent and so Dr. King returned to Memphis to lead a peaceful demonstration. On the night before his death he gave a moving sermon on the Civil Rights Movement speaking of his probable death in the cause of justice and freedom. King was surrounded in Memphis by his chief Lt. Rev. Ralph Abernathy, the young and cocky Jesse Jackson who lied when he said he had cradled the head of the dying King; Andrew Young, Hosea Williams and others. King spent a night of love with one of his many mistressses Ky. State Senator Georgia Powers the night before he was murdered. King was known for his many affairs while his wife Coretta was largely responsible for raising the couple’s four children in Atlanta.Sides reports on the gruesome autopsy of King and the large funeral in Atlanta given for the Civil Rights hero. Later Coretta King and Abernathy would plan and follow through on a peaceful march in Memphis which resulted in a 10 cent per hour raise for the striking sanitation workers. In addition to Ray and King we also get insights into the thinking of John Edgar Hoover the aging Director of the FBI who hated King but was relentless in pursuit of his killer. It is fascinating to explore how the FBI tracked Ray through the use of fingerprints, prison record and interviews with those who hads rented rooms to Ray, sold him weapons and knew him. Ray’s wastrel father was interviewed as was one of his brothers. 1968 was a horrible year in American history as the war in Vietnam continued, King and Bobby Kennedy were assassinated; racial riots occurred all over the land and President Johnson was forced to withdraw from the presidential re-election campaign due to the unpopularity of Vietnam and domestic unrest in the homeland. Hampton Sides and Gerald Posner are the two best popular historians on the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. King was a Moses figure to his people yearning to be free. It is a tragedy that such a lowdown rascal as the wily Ray murdered Dr. King the Nobel Peace Prize recipient and a prophet of freedom for all. Dr. King’s belief in nonviolence is still a trumpet blast which needs to be sounded in our age of terrorism and war. This is an essential book on the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Highest praise for Hampton Sides!

⭐Hampton Sides could not have chosen a darker period in American history as the backdrop for his latest effort, “Hellhound on His Trail: The Electrifying Account of the Largest Manhunt in American History.” The civil rights era of the 1960s was characterized by both soaring hope and sinking despair and, in between, all the tumult and conflict of a convulsing American society. The late 60s, in particular, were a cataclysmic period marked by freedom marches and violent demonstrations; our society was seemingly coming apart at the seams, riven by diametrically differing views.To be sure, these years made us question what we as a nation really valued. Was it equal rights for all, or only for a few? Would we fulfill the vision of our forefathers, or would we shrink into a safer, less threatening pretense of social equality that we could comfortably rationalize? These fundamental questions divided the country and provided fertile ground for anarchists and extremists alike. Indeed, 1968 witnessed an ugly confluence of events culminating with a bitterly fought presidential election.There was one heinous event that year, though, that no American could turn a blind eye to and that, by contrast, actually galvanized the country. Yes, nothing weighed more heavily on our collective conscience than James Earl Ray’s cold-blooded murder of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Things had gone too far and Americans wanted justice. Ironically, it would be J. Edgar Hoover, the FBI Director and putative King detractor, who would inspire the herculean effort to track Ray down.Memphis, Tennessee was where Dr. King’s and Ray’s starkly divergent paths would find an unlikely intersection. “Hellhound on His Trail” tells the story of the events leading up to the assassination on April 4, 1968; the assassination itself; and finally the aftermath of the assassination and the relentless pursuit of a drifting, small-time criminal who became, in almost an instant – the speed at which a .30-06 bullet from a Remington Model 760 can find its intended target from close range – thrust into the role of giant slayer and the world’s most wanted fugitive.Sides provides ample context for King’s desire to be in Memphis in 1968. At the head of his movement, literally and figuratively, King loomed large in all his humanness to include his philandering and his fondness for fatty, fried food. Despite founding the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and receiving the Nobel Peace Prize, King was not perfect, but he felt called to lead the African-American civil rights movement based on his Christian beliefs. He also believed he should always be front and center, and despite the entreaties of his closest associates, disdained the safety and security afforded public figures. Although he had premonitions of his death, he viewed security as an unnecessary encumbrance hampering his ability to connect to his following.By today’s standards, King’s risk-taking in public places would be considered reckless, even suicidal. Yet, there he was standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel on that fateful day as James Earl Ray sighted his deer rifle and fired the shot that could be heard ’round the world. The bullet entered through King’s right cheek, smashing his jaw, then traveled down his spinal cord before lodging in his shoulder. He died on the operating table.Compared to King in virtually every way imaginable, Ray was small, and this brings us to the appeal of “Hellhound on His Trail.” In recounting Ray’s flight from justice, a two-month odyssey, Sides treats us to another side of the assassin that illuminates his cunning and resourcefulness. When faced with a life behind bars, and possibly a death sentence, Ray could be quite imaginative. In a riveting account of Ray’s inventive, if frantic, journey across the U.S., into Canada, and eventually to London Heathrow Airport where he was finally detained, Sides assiduously, through detailed research and abundant interviews, captures the most significant (and interesting) details in a way that puts the reader in the fugitive’s head as he contemplates his next move.Had he not been captured while trying to leave the United Kingdom for Angola, Rhodesia or South Africa, Ray might still be at large. The investigation into King’s murder and the resulting manhunt for Ray, headed by the FBI, was unprecedented in its scope and breadth. Hundreds of agents were committed to the case and, thanks to Sides’ exhaustive reporting, readers have a bird’s eye view of this extraordinary effort.The author spares little in recounting Ray’s efforts to elude law enforcement in the U.S. and then abroad. For instance, we learn that Ray erred in requesting a new passport as Ramon George Sneyd. We are then treated to the suspense accompanying his efforts to cover his tracks. Too clever by half, Ray eventually bungles his attempt to flee England and is apprehended at Heathrow, a defeated man.To learn of James Earl Ray’s actions to avoid capture after his first escape at the story’s outset and then to track his journey after the King assassination is revelatory. We conclude that Ray was intelligent and may have had help. But when he escapes yet a third time, from Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary in Tennessee, we realize that Ray was one of the more ingenious and audacious convicts in American history. Most appealing about “Hellhound on His Trail”, Hampton Sides reveals all the complexity of this enigmatic man that most readers simply do not know. And, to boot, we learn much about arguably the most dramatic event in an era of seemingly endless drama.Fascinating!

⭐Rarely have I been so gripped by a book. The pathos that Hampton Sides generates for the central characters in the drama is wonderful. Martin Luther King, despite his flaws, was a great man. The 1960’s was clearly a tumultuous decade in American history. J. Edgar Hoover and Lyndon Baines Johnson feature prominently in the book, as well as King and those around him. Sides paints a beautiful picture of King’s right-hand man, Ralph Abernathy, and, of course, Coretta Scott King. Jesse Jackson is portrayed more negatively than the others close to King. He is presented as being driven by ego and personal ambition.The other central character is, of course, King’s killer. James Earl Ray’s movements prior to the shooting, as well as the weeks after, are fully documented. It’s hard to know exactly what to think about Ray. King’s own family didn’t seem to view him with hatred. After all, he may have pulled the trigger, but it was America that killed the greatest civil rights leader of the twentieth century. It was King’s willingness to take time out of his enormously busy schedule to help the struggling garbage workers of Memphis that ultimately led to his death. The night before his death, King made his famous mountaintop speech at the Mason Temple. He said he wanted to do God’s will, that he’d seen the promised land, but that he might not get there with them. Did the exhausted thirty-nine-year-old have a premonition of what would happen? According to Coretta Scott King, he felt a sense of mystical union with the passion of Christ at the time. It was approaching Passion Week when he was shot. As a Christian, Martin Luther King inspires me to try to make a difference in this present life too, albeit in a much less significant way than the great man. Thanks to the author for this evocative and inspiring book.

⭐This book is a true account of the murder of Martin Luther King Jnr. It tells of events leading up to the assassination, and as it heads up to the killing, it has more tension than most fiction thrillers. After the shooting it tells of the killers escape, and later of his capture and extradition back to America to stand trial. It is a book you will probably want to read more than once. I had previously taken it out of my local library, and when I saw it on Amazon I jumped at the chance to get my own copy. Hampton Sides interviewed thousands of people for this book, including the killer, James Earl Ray. Mr. Sides has done an excellent job with this book!

⭐Stunning non-fiction as gripping as any crime thriller with a final arrest that were it not true would be unbelievable. The murder of Martin Luther King and the pursuit of the killer feels like you’re watching live on screen. I can recommend this book to anyone.And it does not indulge in conspiracy theory fantasies !

⭐Fascinating record of history.

⭐Top quality read. Exciting and informative.

Keywords

Free Download Hellhound on his Trail: The Stalking of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the International Hunt for His Assassin in PDF format
Hellhound on his Trail: The Stalking of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the International Hunt for His Assassin PDF Free Download
Download Hellhound on his Trail: The Stalking of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the International Hunt for His Assassin 2010 PDF Free
Hellhound on his Trail: The Stalking of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the International Hunt for His Assassin 2010 PDF Free Download
Download Hellhound on his Trail: The Stalking of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the International Hunt for His Assassin PDF
Free Download Ebook Hellhound on his Trail: The Stalking of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the International Hunt for His Assassin