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

CHAPTER 31

LOOPS AND WHORLS, LANDS AND GROOVES

⁴⁹² At the FBI Crime Lab: My passages here concerning the FBI lab's initial examination of the bundle from Memphis are primarily drawn from "Report of the FBI Laboratory, FBI, April 17, 1968, Evidence Recovered in Front of 424 So. Main St. April 4th, 1968," Hughes Collection. I also relied on "Scientific Report on the Subject of Analysis of Fingerprint Evidence Related to the Assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. by the Fingerprint Panel," House Select Committee on Assassinations (hereafter HSCA), Appendix Reports, vol. 8, pp. 109-21.

⁴⁹³ esoteric profession: For a good overview of the history, lore, science, and shortcomings of fingerprint analysis, see Michael Specter, "Do Fingerprints Lie?" New Yorker, May 27, 2002.

⁴⁹⁴ Frazier spent the morning: "Testimony of the Firearms Panel," HSCA, Appendix Reports, vol. 4, pp. 78-111.

⁴⁹⁵ Annie Estelle Peters: This passage on Galt's picking up his laundry in Atlanta on the morning of April 5 is primarily drawn from the FBI's initial interview with Peters, conducted on April 16, 1968, by Special Agents Charles Paul Rose and Robert Kane working out of the bureau's Atlanta field office. The FD-302 report of this interview is in the Hughes Collection. I also relied on Peters's testimony in HSCA, Appendix Reports, vol. 3, pp. 302-514.

⁴⁹⁶ "satisfied there was no unusual activity": Ray, Tennessee Waltz, p. 80.

⁴⁹⁷ wad of bills: Ray, in his book Who Killed Martin Luther King? says, on p. 100, that upon his arrival in Toronto the following day, he was "down to $1,200 or so."

⁴⁹⁸ dashed off a short note: My description of Galt's actions at the rooming house on April 5 are primarily drawn from the FBI's interviews with Garner, conducted on April 14 and 15, 1968, by Special Agent Roger Kaas of the bureau's Atlanta field office. FD-302 reports of these interviews are in the Hughes Collection.

⁴⁹⁹ "There was so much to do": Garry Wills, "Martin Luther King Is Still on the Case," reprinted in The New Journalism, ed. Tom Wolfe, p. 393.

⁵⁰⁰ "The body appeared unblemished": Abernathy, And the Walls Came Tumbling Down, p. 448.

⁵⁰¹ "We all wanted to be there": Young, Easy Burden, p. 469.

⁵⁰² "It will spoil the makeup job": Wills, "Martin Luther King Is Still on the Case," reprinted in New Journalism, p. 394.

⁵⁰³ "I wish it was Henry Loeb": Ibid., p. 395.

⁵⁰⁴ "Why'd this happen to you": My description of the public viewing at the R. S. Lewis Funeral Home on the morning of April 5 is drawn from the Memphis Commercial Appeal, April 6, 1968, as well as from Beifuss, At the River I Stand, pp. 315-16.