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

CHAPTER 28

THEY'VE TORN IT NOW

⁴²¹ Johnson sat at his mahogany desk: My account of Johnson's reaction to the King assassination is drawn from a number of sources, including Kotz, Judgment Days, p. 415; Dallek, Flawed Giant, p. 533; Risen, Nation on Fire, pp. 40-42, 53-54; and Califano, Triumph and Tragedy of Lyndon Johnson, pp. 273-75. Especially helpful to me was "The President's Appointment File, 4/3/68 to 4/11/68," box 95, Lyndon Baines Johnson Papers, Johnson Presidential Library.

⁴²² "Justice has just advised": This memo is at the Johnson Presidential Library.

⁴²³ "A jumble of anxious thoughts": Johnson, quoted in Risen, Nation on Fire, p. 42.

⁴²⁴ "Everything we've gained": Dallek, Flawed Giant, p. 533.

⁴²⁵ "America is shocked": "Statement by the President on the Assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.," Johnson Presidential Library.

⁴²⁶ "Don't send your skinny little rookies": Busby, Thirty-first of March, p. 236.

⁴²⁷ "They're holed up like generals": Ibid.

⁴²⁸ "The D. C. Civil Defense": Situation Room memorandums from the night of April 4, 1968, Johnson Library.

⁴²⁹ "King was the last prince of nonviolence": Floyd McKissick, quoted in the Washington Post, April 5, 1968, p. 1.

⁴³⁰ "The next Negro to advocate nonviolence": Risen, A Nation on Fire, p. 56.

⁴³¹ "When white America killed Dr. King": Stokely Carmichael, quoted in Gilbert et al., Ten Blocks from the White House, pp. 60-61.

⁴³² "The nation is steeped in violence": Church, quoted in a UPI report on the White House ticker tape on the night of April 4, 1968, Johnson Presidential Library.

⁴³³ "It was one of those frozen moments": Mrs. Johnson, quoted in Dallek, Flawed Giant, p. 533, and Risen, Nation on Fire, p. 54.

⁴³⁴ "I and all the citizens of Memphis": Memphis Commercial Appeal, April 5, 1968, p. 1.

⁴³⁵ "We feel that the assassin crouched": Memphis Press-Scimitar, April 5, 1968, p. 1.

⁴³⁶ "damned to hell": Blanchard, quoted in Honey, Going Down Jericho Road, p. 440.

⁴³⁷ "I'm so sorry": Beifuss, At the River I Stand, p. 300.

⁴³⁸ "Our neighborhood was like a tomb": Honey, Going Down Jericho Road, p. 444.

⁴³⁹ "This is the darkest day I've ever seen": Beifuss, At the River I Stand, p. 283.

⁴⁴⁰ "that nigger King": Honey, Going Down Jericho Road, p. 441.

⁴⁴¹ "The Lord has deserted us": Beifuss, At the River I Stand, p. 303.

⁴⁴² "Just respect the man": Ibid.

⁴⁴³ "rioting and looting is now rampant": Fire and Police Director Frank Holloman, quoted in the Memphis Commercial Appeal, April 5, 1968, p. 1.

⁴⁴⁴ "That's what I thought": Honey, Going Down Jericho Road, p. 447.

⁴⁴⁵ "Stay calm": Beifuss, At the River I Stand, p. 301.

⁴⁴⁶ "I went numb": Honey, Going Down Jericho Road, p. 437.

⁴⁴⁷ "I thought I was going to get away": Ray, quoted in Ayton, Racial Crime, p. 143. See also Frank, American Death, p. 390.

⁴⁴⁸ "I had to drive slow": James Earl Ray, "20,000 Words," quoted in Huie, Making of an Assassin, p. 145.

⁴⁴⁹ "I knew that the car could be hot": Ray, Who Killed Martin Luther King? p. 97.

⁴⁵⁰ "I just wanted to get rid": Ray, Tennessee Waltz, p. 80.