Hellhound on His Trail: The Stalking of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the International Hunt for His Assassin Book

[King was losing some prestige and power. He was opposed to the Viet Nam war and Johnson was no longer taking his calls. The non violent movement was losing steam as people were getting impatient as the strides in civil rights were slowly being realized and basically, King was getting tired. The civil rights movement was expanding to include poverty and frankly the country's support was waning as the 1968 was a very turbulent civil liberties year. King also basically had the full weight of the Federal government on his back as J Edgar Hoover loathed King. But once King was shot, Hoover moved heaven and earth to find the killer as he didn't want the country to believe the FBI was responsible.

I think that history details the names but not the story. The book begins with his escape from prison. My goodness James Earl Ray (who goes by Eric Galt in most of the book) could have been plucked right out of a MAGA rally. Disaffected white male with an innate ability to disappear in a crowd. People literally didn't notice him which is how he became so difficult to find. Did you know there was a manhunt for James Earl Ray? He fled the country and people had a hard time describing him. He left the country to try to make it to Rhodesia (modern day Zimbabwe) which in his mind was a white supremist paradise. The one thing was generally said about him was that he was always dressed like a business man. He was clearly a racist. There is not enough known about him that would explain why he chose to assassinate King. During his years of incarceration after the fact, he revealed himself to be a liar and also managed one more escape from prison. Sides details his upbringing but there just isn't much known here. Ray was like a ghost, no real friends, socially awkward, laconic, not especially thoughtful and obsessed with the former Alabama governor George Wallace.

It's Side's intertwining of this manhunt into history that makes this book standout. I never would have known about Alabama's first female Governor Lurleen Wallace had I not read the book. To be blunt, history has been kind to the infamous George Wallace made despicable in my eyes by his opportunistic use of his terminally ill wife to stay in the Governor's mansion. We get a look at J Edgar Hoover's FBI. How Hoover hated King and wanted desperately to expose King as a fraud. Also it would appear that Hoover himself was a racist. Though not in the book, it is widely believed that Hoover was passing. King not only unapologetically black, but also tauting the value of Negro people. Hoover also had an extremely contentious relationship with Ramsey Clarke the US Attorney General and a liberal whom Hoover thought of as weak and a bleeding heart. This was carried out to the point that they couldn't speak to each other and Clark always dealt with Cartha DeLoach and Hoover's alleged companion Clyde Tolson.

But ultimately what was most illuminating for me was Side's writing with respect to MLK. Sides masterfully builds the story. We can feel the weariness and frustration of King both with the movement and SCLC and the internal conflicts inside the organization. Jesse Jackson's blemished record receives a huge blow in this book. Sides paints King as almost knowing his fate. King was a great thinker, but was also a womanizer and was sexist. (hide spoiler)]