Description
"Hellhound on His Trail" tells the story of two very different men whose lives catastrophically interwove over the course of nine months in the late 1960s: one was a thief and con man named James Earl Ray; the other was one of the greatest American figures of the twentieth century, Martin Luther King Jr. Hampton Sides follows Ray as he escapes from prison, creates a new identity, and becomes convinced of his mission to kill King. "Hellhound on His Trail" is equally the story of King in his last months, fighting to keep his ideals alive in the face of intensive FBI surveillance and his own exhaustion and frustration. With relentless storytelling drive, Sides follows Ray and King as they crisscross the country, one stalking the other, until the fateful moment on April 4, 1968, at a Memphis hotel, when the drifter finally caught up with his prey. Nationwide riots were sparked by the assassination, followed by the largest manhunt in American history.