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

CHAPTER 26

A PAUSE THAT WOULD NEVER END

³⁸² "Coretta, Doc just got shot": Coretta Scott King's recollection of Jackson's phone call from Memphis is in her memoir, My Life with Martin Luther King Jr., p. 318.

³⁸³ "Mama? You hear that?": Dexter Scott King, Growing Up King, p. 48.

³⁸⁴ "I understand": Ibid.

³⁸⁵ team of nurses and ER orderlies: My passages concerning the efforts to save King's life inside the St. Joseph's ER are drawn from multiple sources. I especially relied on Memphis Police Department summaries (Hughes Collection) gathered immediately after King's death by homicide detectives who interviewed a number of ER doctors and nurses. Other important sources include the oral history of Dr. Frederick Gioia and other attending physicians in Beifuss, At the River I Stand, pp. 297-99; Abernathy's memoirs, And the Walls Came Tumbling Down, pp. 443-44; Frank's vivid account in American Death, pp. 90, 93, 95-96, 119; and my own interview with Dr. Ted Galyon, December 30, 2009.

³⁸⁶ "I'm staying": Abernathy, And the Walls Came Tumbling Down, p. 443.

³⁸⁷ Gioia stepped into the fray: For my passage on Dr. Gioia and his efforts to treat King, I'm grateful for the insights of his daughter, Dominique Gioia Skaggs, with whom I spoke and corresponded.

³⁸⁸ "It would be a blessing": Abernathy, And the Walls Came Tumbling Down, p. 443. See also Raines, My Soul Is Rested, p. 471.

³⁸⁹ Rufus Bradshaw: My account of the CB radio "chase" heard by Bradshaw is primarily drawn from the radio dispatcher recording, Hughes Collection. I also relied on Memphis Police Department and the FBI's Memphis field office investigations of the CB radio transmission, Hughes Collection.

³⁹⁰ In the waiting room, Andy Young sat: Young, Easy Burden, p. 466.

³⁹¹ "The neck": Ibid.

³⁹² Hanging up the beige receiver: Dexter King, Growing Up King, p. 48.

³⁹³ "Your father--there's been an accident": Ibid.

³⁹⁴ "I need to see Dr. King!": Frady, Jesse, p. 229.

³⁹⁵ "And I caught his head": Ibid.

³⁹⁶ "You dirty, stinking, lying ...!": Williams, quoted in Kenneth R. Timmerman, Shakedown: Exposing the Real Jesse Jackson (Washington, D.C.: Regnery, 2002), p. 8.

³⁹⁷ "It's a helluva thing": Ibid., p. 7.

³⁹⁸ "This whole thing's": Frady, Jesse, p. 229.

³⁹⁹ David Burrington: Timmerman, Shakedown, p. 8.

⁴⁰⁰ "He won't make it": Abernathy, And the Walls Came Tumbling Down, p. 443.

⁴⁰¹ "nothing more than prolonged shudders": Ibid., p. 443.

⁴⁰² Father Bergard closed King's eyes: Beifuss, At the River I Stand, p. 300.

⁴⁰³ King's parents listened to the radio: Martin Luther King Sr., Daddy King, p. 189.

⁴⁰⁴ "No matter how much protection": Ibid., p. 187.

⁴⁰⁵ "My first son": Ibid., p. 189.

⁴⁰⁶ Two agents: This passage is drawn from Arthur L. Murtagh's testimony in House Select Committee on Assassinations, Appendix Reports, vol. 6, p. 107; and from James J. Rose's testimony, ibid., vol. 6, pp. 125-27.