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

Flying Squad that had recently solved one of England's most notorious heists--the so-called Great Train Robbery of 1963. Blunt, stolid, and balding, the fifty-five-year-old Tommy Butler was a bachelor who lived with his mother in Barnes, near the Thames. He didn't smoke, rarely drank, and was given to wearing natty houndstooth blazers.

Detective Butler had a reputation for methodical relentlessness. Writing of Butler, a London Times reporter said that 'many criminals seeking refuge⁷⁰⁸ abroad later confessed that they knew no peace, even at the other side of the world, when they heard Mr. Butler was actively engaged in their recapture.'

Butler's men quickly learned that Ramon 'Sneya' had stayed only a few hours at Heathrow and then taken a plane straightaway to Lisbon. Portuguese police, working with the FBI and Interpol, traced Sneyd's movements in Lisbon. They found his hotel, his drinking haunts, his whores. They found that he'd obtained a corrected passport at the Canadian embassy in Lisbon. They found he'd returned to London on May 17.

So the brunt of the investigation, having been briefly tossed to Portugal, was back in Butler's court. The detective chief superintendent wasted no time. Detectives fanned out and began questioning the managers of every cheap hotel and bed-and-breakfast in London. Every airline, train line, bus line, and rental car agency was checked, as were luggage lockers, safe-deposit boxes, and nightclubs. A photo with a description of Sneyd was printed in the Police Gazette, a sheet circulated among every police and immigration officer in the British Isles. 'Wanted in connection with a serious immigration matter,' the caption under Sneyd's photo announced. 'Do not interrogate but detain for questioning.'

Finally, on June 6, the name Ramon George Sneyd was placed on the 'All Ports Warning,' which meant that immigration officials at every harbor and air terminal in the British Isles were alerted to halt anyone traveling under that name.

Butler reported back to the FBI in Washington--his men were on the case, he said, and he felt confident that something would turn up soon. Cartha DeLoach was cautiously optimistic: 'We knew that the fugitive⁷⁰⁹ was hiding somewhere in England, Scotland, or Wales--an area smaller than the United States, but still a haystack in which a needle could disappear for weeks or months or years.'

46 I CAN'T THINK RIGHT

ON THE MORNING of June 8, Anna Thomas knocked on Ramon Sneyd's room and found that her tenant had packed up and taken off. The room was clean, except for the newspapers sprawled everywhere. He'd left behind a Cold War spy thriller, Tangier Assignment, whose lurid yellow cover promised a story 'seething with international intrigue, Mafia villainy, and freebooting contrabandists.' In the sink, crammed down the drain, Thomas found a plastic syringe.

She was quite glad to see her tenant go. 'He was so neurotic,⁷¹⁰ such a strange fellow,' Thomas recalled. 'I felt sorry for him, but he was so obviously a troubled man that he gave me the creeps.'

AS THOMAS CLEANED the room, Sneyd was sitting in a taxicab, making his way to Heathrow Airport, where he planned to take British European Airways Flight 466 to Brussels, Belgium. The plane was scheduled to leave at 11:50 a.m.

On the strength of Ian Colvin's suggestion, Sneyd had bought a one-way economy ticket the day before. Now, at Heathrow's Terminal 2, he presented the voucher to a clerk at the departures desk and then checked in his one bag. He turned and walked toward customs and immigration. He wore a sport jacket, gray pants, and a long beige raincoat. Under his raincoat, in his right trouser pocket, he could feel the cool metal mass of his loaded pistol.

'Passport please,'⁷¹¹ a young immigration officer named Kenneth Human said when Sneyd approached the window.

Sneyd fished his wallet out of a coat pocket. From an inside fold, he retrieved a dark blue Canadian passport, which the officer opened and studied. Officer Human glanced at Sneyd, and then back at the passport photo. Nothing seemed untoward: the same man, the same glasses, everything matched.

Then Human saw another passport, peeking from Sneyd's billfold. 'May I see that other one?' he asked.

Sneyd handed the officer the second passport, which was clearly stamped 'Canceled.'

'Why are the names different?' Human asked, noting that one said 'Sneyd' and the other said 'Sneya.'

Sneyd explained that his original passport, issued in Ottawa, had contained the misspelling--simply a clerical error--but that he'd had it corrected as soon as possible while in Portugal.

Officer Human appeared to be buying Sneyd's explanation. But at this point, a Scotland Yard detective materialized--a slender, fastidious man with blue eyes and a trim mustache named Philip Birch.⁷¹² While Sneyd and the customs officer continued talking about the passport, Birch studied the Canadian's face and movements. He had an 'absentminded professorial air' about him, Birch thought, but something about the traveler looked familiar. He seemed to recall seeing the man's photograph in the pages of the Police Gazette.

Birch ran his finger down a list of names typed on an official Scotland Yard document that was labeled 'Watch For and Detain.' Under the heading 'All Ports Warning,' the Canadian's name jumped off the page: Ramon George Sneyd.

Detective Birch tapped Sneyd on the shoulder. 'I say, old fellow,' he later recalled telling the subject. 'Would you mind stepping over here for a moment? I'd like to have a word with you.'

Seemingly more annoyed than alarmed, Sneyd glanced at his watch. 'But my plane's leaving soon.'

'Oh, this will only take a moment,' Birch assured him in a chipper tone. 'May I see those passports, please?'

Two policemen joined Birch, and the three men escorted Sneyd across the busy terminal toward a police administrative office. Sneyd believed this was all just a routine passport mix-up, and so he remained grudgingly cooperative. Should things turn dicey, there was always the loaded revolver in his pocket. As far as he could see, this friendly trio of officers did not carry weapons.

When they arrived at the office, Birch turned and faced Sneyd. 'Would you mind if I searched you?' he asked. Sneyd raised his arms and offered no protest.

Carefully patting him down, Birch quickly discovered the revolver: a Japanese-made .38-caliber Liberty Chief-- its checkered walnut stock wrapped with black electrical tape. Birch spun the revolver and found five rounds of ammunition.

'Why are you carrying this gun?' Birch asked in an even tone.

'Well,' Sneyd replied. 'I'm going to Africa. I thought I might need it. You know how things are there.' For the first time, a note of alarm had edged into his voice.

Birch handed the revolver to one of the other policemen and continued frisking the suspect. In Sneyd's pockets, Birch found a little booklet on rifle silencers and a blank key, of the sort that a locksmith might carry. Sneyd had a small amount of money--less than sixty pounds--on his person.

'I have reason to believe you have committed an arrestable offense,' Birch said, and told Sneyd he was being detained. Now he would be missing his flight. Sneyd slumped in his chair.

The officer got on the phone and tried to have Sneyd's bag pulled from the plane--but it was too late, the jet was already easing back from the gate. Then Birch called Scotland Yard headquarters and informed his superiors that just two days after being placed on the 'All Ports Warning,' Ramon George Sneyd was now in police custody.

AN HOUR LATER, Detective Chief Superintendent Thomas Butler arrived⁷¹³ at Heathrow, accompanied by Chief Inspector Kenneth Thompson of the Interpol office. After briefly conferring with Philip Birch in an anteroom, Butler stepped into the office with the suspect and assumed command of the questioning. The poker- faced Butler was known throughout Scotland Yard as a master interrogator, adept at modulating his voice so that a suspect had no idea what he was thinking. Inspector Thompson sat in, but Butler did all the talking.

'We are police officers,' Butler began, in a formal, courteous tone. 'I understand you had in your possession