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

CHAPTER 25

THE WEAPON IS NOT TO BE TOUCHED

³⁷⁴ sitting at his desk: My account of what transpired at Canipe's Amusement Company is primarily drawn from the initial FBI interview with the shop owner, Guy Canipe, and from FBI interviews with the customers Julius Graham and Bernell Finley, April 5, 1968. I also relied on Memphis Police Department statements taken from Canipe, Graham, and Finley. Additional details came from my own interviews with the retired Memphis police officers James Papia and Jewell Ray, who were among the first on the scene at Canipe's.

³⁷⁵ "You are not to touch the weapon!": Memphis Police Department radio dispatcher recordings from April 4, 1968, Hughes Collection.

³⁷⁶ "Suspect described as young white male": Ibid.

³⁷⁷ Stephens dashed back to his room: FBI interview with Stephens, conducted on April 4, 1968, by Special Agents John Bauer and Stephen Darlington, Hughes Collection.

³⁷⁸ "Georgia, I don't think": Author interview with Georgia Davis Powers, May 7, 2008, Louisville, Ky.

³⁷⁹ "Give me the loop lights!": Frank, An American Death, p. 85.

³⁸⁰ "Is he alive?": This passage from inside the ambulance is largely adapted from Abernathy, And the Walls Came Tumbling Down, p. 442.

³⁸¹ Captain Jewell Ray: My account of Jewell Ray's initial investigation of the crime scene at Canipe's and inside Bessie Brewer's rooming house is primarily drawn from my interview with Ray, on Feb. 13, 2009. I also interviewed the retired police officer James Papia, who investigated the scene with Ray. Additionally, I relied on Memphis Police Department statements taken from Ray, Papia, Canipe, Willie Anschutz, Charlie Stephens, and Bessie Brewer. See also Frank, An American Death, pp. 98-103.