Hellhound on His Trail

The Stalking of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the International Hunt for His Assassin

By: Hampton Sides

Narrated by: Hampton Sides

Length: 15 hrs and 9 mins

Publisher's summary

From the acclaimed best-selling author of Ghost Soldiers and Blood and Thunder, a taut, intense narrative about the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., and the largest manhunt in American history.

On April 23, 1967, Prisoner #416J, an inmate at the notorious Missouri State Penitentiary, escaped in a breadbox. Fashioning himself Eric Galt, this nondescript thief and con man - whose real name was James Earl Ray - drifted through the South, into Mexico, and then Los Angeles, where he was galvanized by George Wallace's racist presidential campaign.

On February 1, 1968, two Memphis garbage men were crushed to death in their hydraulic truck, provoking the exclusively African American workforce to go on strike. Hoping to resuscitate his faltering crusade, King joined the sanitation workers cause, but their march down Beale Street, the historic avenue of the blues, turned violent. Humiliated, King fatefully vowed to return to Memphis in April.

With relentless storytelling drive, Sides follows Galt and King as they crisscross the country, one stalking the other, until the crushing moment at the Lorraine Motel when the drifter catches up with his prey.

Against the backdrop of the resulting nationwide riots and the pathos of Kings funeral, Sides gives us a riveting cross-cut narrative of the assassins flight and the 65-day search that led investigators to Canada, Portugal, and England - a massive manhunt ironically led by J. Edgar Hoover's FBI.

Magnificent in scope, drawing on a wealth of previously unpublished material, this nonfiction thriller illuminates one of the darkest hours in American life - an example of how history is so often a matter of the petty bringing down the great.

©2010 Hampton Sides (P)2010 Random House

Critic reviews

"Sides's storytelling packs a visceral punch, and in Hellhound on His Trail, he crafts an authoritative and riveting account of two intersecting lives that altered the course of American history." (Amazon.com review)

Great listen!

This is in the top ten books I have listened to. Skillfully written, Hampton Sides uses some turns of phrase that just make you smile. Even though you know what is going to happen, the murder of Dr. King broke my heart all over again. A must for anyone who remembers that year of assassinations.

FBI gets their man

If you want to read about tedious investigative work before there was all the high technology available, this book will tell you how Martin Luther King's assassin was caught.

Couldn't stop till I finished

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Hampton Sides did a masterful job of leading you through James Earl Ray's twisted journey from small time crook, to the FBI's most wanted list. This is a book that I'll look forward to listening to again.

What did you like best about this story?

The way the author referred to Ray through his aliases from the beginning of the book till the killing in Memphis.

A tiny bit of selected history

This was a wonderful book. Well written and very intriguing. My only comment is that I knew Jerred Blanchard, and it was stated that he was a Republican. Interesting that no mention was made of the democrat governor and that Mayor Loeb was a Democrat. Perhaps an oversight?

Awesome read!

True crime just doesn't get any better than this. Don't quite know what to say, other than "read the book, it speaks for itself".
The astonishing insights into the techniques and seat-of-the-pants strategy of this career criminal were so compelling I practically had to keep my iPod surgically joined to my hip!

The marginal figures grabbed my interest as well - I guess that's a sign of a really excellent read, if you are mesmerized by even the people who populate the edges of the story.

Stranger than fiction

I had forgotten so much about the hunt for an MLK's killer that reading this was truly eye opening. Highly recommended with many twists and turns and interesting historical details--Like the fact that several wealthy Klan Organizations had bounties placed on MLK's head, and how J. Edgar Hoover, who hated King and had tried to get him to commit suicide, was then was placed in charge of finding his killer.

Great story. Great flow.

I love how the separate stories flow together. So many surprising facts that I'd not heard before.

Riviting story

The research Sides put into this story is mind boggling. It is so beautifully written, and since I was only 8 when all this happened, it was so informative. Anyone who likes a good detective story or cares about the civil rights movement and MLK himself will be sitting in their car long after arriving at their destination because this story is so captivating. Thank you Hampton Sides for telling this very important piece of history.

Crime thriller

Proves that just because you know how it all ends up, a story can't be suspenseful. If you are interested in American history and generally enjoy police procedural stories, you will enjoy this book. Read by the author, which in this case is a good thing.

Couldn't stop listening

The best audio book experience I ever had. The story is spellbinding and the narration spirited.
Never a dull moment. Mr. Sides knows how to tell his story and it is a thrill ride.