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

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.

CHAPTER 26

A PAUSE THAT WOULD NEVER END

³⁸² 'Coretta, Doc just got shot': Coretta Scott King's recollection of Jackson's phone call from Memphis is in her memoir, My Life with Martin Luther King Jr., p. 318.

³⁸³ 'Mama? You hear that?': Dexter Scott King, Growing Up King, p. 48.

³⁸⁴ 'I understand': Ibid.

³⁸⁵ team of nurses and ER orderlies: My passages concerning the efforts to save King's life inside the St. Joseph's ER are drawn from multiple sources. I especially relied on Memphis Police Department summaries (Hughes Collection) gathered immediately after King's death by homicide detectives who interviewed a number of ER doctors and nurses. Other important sources include the oral history of Dr. Frederick Gioia and other attending physicians in Beifuss, At the River I Stand, pp. 297-99; Abernathy's memoirs, And the Walls Came Tumbling Down, pp. 443-44; Frank's vivid account in American Death, pp. 90, 93, 95-96, 119; and my own interview with Dr. Ted Galyon, December 30, 2009.

³⁸⁶ 'I'm staying': Abernathy, And the Walls Came Tumbling Down, p. 443.

³⁸⁷ Gioia stepped into the fray: For my passage on Dr. Gioia and his efforts to treat King, I'm grateful for the insights of his daughter, Dominique Gioia Skaggs, with whom I spoke and corresponded.

³⁸⁸ 'It would be a blessing': Abernathy, And the Walls Came Tumbling Down, p. 443. See also Raines, My Soul Is Rested, p. 471.

³⁸⁹ Rufus Bradshaw: My account of the CB radio 'chase' heard by Bradshaw is primarily drawn from the radio dispatcher recording, Hughes Collection. I also relied on Memphis Police Department and the FBI's Memphis field office investigations of the CB radio transmission, Hughes Collection.

³⁹⁰ In the waiting room, Andy Young sat: Young, Easy Burden, p. 466.

³⁹¹ 'The neck': Ibid.

³⁹² Hanging up the beige receiver: Dexter King, Growing Up King, p. 48.

³⁹³ 'Your father--there's been an accident': Ibid.

³⁹⁴ 'I need to see Dr. King!': Frady, Jesse, p. 229.

³⁹⁵ 'And I caught his head': Ibid.

³⁹⁶ 'You dirty, stinking, lying ...!': Williams, quoted in Kenneth R. Timmerman, Shakedown: Exposing the Real Jesse Jackson (Washington, D.C.: Regnery, 2002), p. 8.

³⁹⁷ 'It's a helluva thing': Ibid., p. 7.

³⁹⁸ 'This whole thing's': Frady, Jesse, p. 229.

³⁹⁹ David Burrington: Timmerman, Shakedown, p. 8.

⁴⁰⁰ 'He won't make it': Abernathy, And the Walls Came Tumbling Down, p. 443.

⁴⁰¹ 'nothing more than prolonged shudders': Ibid., p. 443.

⁴⁰² Father Bergard closed King's eyes: Beifuss, At the River I Stand, p. 300.

⁴⁰³ King's parents listened to the radio: Martin Luther King Sr., Daddy King, p. 189.

⁴⁰⁴ 'No matter how much protection': Ibid., p. 187.

⁴⁰⁵ 'My first son': Ibid., p. 189.

⁴⁰⁶ Two agents: This passage is drawn from Arthur L. Murtagh's testimony in House Select Committee on Assassinations, Appendix Reports, vol. 6, p. 107; and from James J. Rose's testimony, ibid., vol. 6, pp. 125-27.

CHAPTER 27

A FEW MINUTES AND A FEW MILES

⁴⁰⁷ 'entirely a hoax': My passages concerning the Memphis Police Department's postmortem analysis of the CB car chase hoax are primarily drawn from the sixteen-page report 'Dr.