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

CHAPTER 10

AN ORANGE CHRISTMAS

¹⁶² Marie Tomaso: FBI FD-302 interview with Marie Martin (Tomaso), conducted on April 13, 1968, by Special Agents William Slicks and Richard Ross.

¹⁶³ "like he didn't get out too often": Ibid.

¹⁶⁴ a deeply eccentric man: My depiction of Charles Stein and his relationship with Galt is primarily drawn from the initial FBI interview with Stein on April 13, 1968, conducted by Special Agents Slicks and Ross out of the Los Angeles field office, as well as a follow-up interview on April 15, 1968. The FBI also interviewed Rita Stein on April 13, 1968 (MURKIN Files, 1051-1175, sec. 9, p. 270), and Stein's mother on April 27, 1968 (MURKIN Files, 3762, sec. 45, p. 43).

¹⁶⁵ "I got a gun": FBI FD-302 follow-up interview with Marie Martin, April 14, 1968.

¹⁶⁶ Galt had one stipulation: Galt's requirement that Charles Stein, his sister, and his cousin stop by the Wallace headquarters and sign their names is found in FBI interviews with Rita Stein, Charles Stein, and Marie Martin.

¹⁶⁷ "I figured he was getting paid": McMillan, Making of an Assassin, p. 280.

¹⁶⁸ "What's God got to do with it?": Frank, American Death, p. 165.

¹⁶⁹ They rode all night: My account of Ray's cross-country journey to New Orleans is largely adapted from "Analysis of James Earl Ray's Trip to New Orleans, December 15-December 21, 1967," House Select Committee on Assassinations, Appendix Reports, vol. 13, pp. 268-69.

¹⁷⁰ "Charlie would nudge me": Ray, Tennessee Waltz, p. 65.

¹⁷¹ "It's Galt": Frank, American Death, p. 166.

¹⁷² "a train whistle": Posner, Killing the Dream, p. 206.

¹⁷³ "You ought to know that Christmas": Ray, "20,000 Words," quoted in Huie, He Slew the Dreamer, p. 105.

¹⁷⁴ "I didn't do any gambling": Ibid.

¹⁷⁵ "a nearly impossible feat": Lesher, George Wallace, p. 400.

¹⁷⁶ "All persons": William Bradford Huie interview with Koss, in Huie's He Slew the Dreamer, pp. 114-16.

¹⁷⁷ "You must complete your course": Ibid.

¹⁷⁸ "I lost him": Ibid.