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

CHAPTER 30

A SUMMONS TO MEMPHIS

⁴⁷⁹ Lockheed Jetstar taxied: My account of the initial trip to Memphis made by Clark and DeLoach on April 5 derives from multiple sources. I especially relied on DeLoach, Hoover's FBI, pp. 228-30, as well as my own interview with Clark, Oct. 9, 2008, New York City. I also gained valuable insights from Wilkins, A Man's Life, pp. 211-12, and Risen, Nation on Fire, pp. 95-97. See also DeLoach's testimony in House Select Committee on Assassinations (hereafter HSCA), Appendix Reports, vol. 7, pp. 18-117, as well as Clark's testimony, HSCA, Appendix Reports, vol. 7, pp. 120-63.

⁴⁸⁰ fugitive named John Willard: DeLoach, Hoover's FBI, p. 228.

⁴⁸¹ Now he opened his briefcase: Wilkins, A Man's Life, p. 212. See also Risen, Nation on Fire, p. 95.

⁴⁸² "At daybreak I stopped for gas": Ray, Tennessee Waltz, p. 80.

⁴⁸³ location he had scoped out: FBI agents later discovered that the map Ray left behind in his Atlanta rooming house bore a circle on it, presumably made by Ray, at the location of the Capitol Homes project--which seemed to indicate that he had investigated the location prior to abandoning his car there.

⁴⁸⁴ Mary Bridges: My depiction of Galt's abandoning his Mustang at the Capitol Homes project on the morning of April 5 is adapted from varied sources. I especially relied on a thirty-four-page FBI report titled "Eric Starvo Galt, Bureau File #44-38861" prepared by Special Agent Alan G. Sentinella of the Atlanta field office, filed on April 18, 1968, Hughes Collection. This report contains a detailed description of the Mustang's location and condition (with accompanying photographs) as well as interviews with the various Capitol Homes tenants (including Mary Bridges) who saw the Mustang and its driver. I also made use of "Capitol Homes Stirred Up by That Mustang," Atlanta Constitution, April 22, 1968.

⁴⁸⁵ United Cab Company driver: FBI interview with Stephens conducted on April 12, 1968, by Special Agent Thomas J. Barrett, Hughes Collection.

⁴⁸⁶ "This is one of the darkest days": Abernathy's comments at the morning press conference at the Lorraine Motel were reprinted in the Atlanta Constitution, April 6, 1968.

⁴⁸⁷ had hired a public relations agent: Kenneth R. Timmerman, Shakedown: Exposing the Real Jesse Jackson (Washington, D.C.: Regnery, 2002), pp. 9-10.

⁴⁸⁸ "To prostitute and lie": Bevel, quoted in Frady, Jesse, p. 230.

⁴⁸⁹ "was somehow in shock": Abernathy, And the Walls Came Tumbling Down, p. 449.

⁴⁹⁰ Shanahan walked through the door: FBI interview with Wood, conducted on April 5, 1968, by Shanahan out of the Birmingham field office. Shanahan's FD-302 report of the interview, along with a copy of the receipt showing the rifle's purchase, is in the Hughes Collection.

⁴⁹¹ "He wasn't drunk": FBI interview with DeShazo, conducted on April 7, 1968, by Special Agents Robert Barrett and William Saucier out of the Birmingham field office, Hughes Collection.