Killing the Dream : James Earl Ray and the Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. - Hardcover

Posner, Gerald

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0375500820 ISBN 13: 9780375500824

Publisher: Random House, 1998

Synopsis

After thirty years, Killing the Dream reexamines the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., based on explosive new interviews, confidential files, and previously undisclosed evidence.  Killing the Dream not only uncovers the errors of previous investigations--both private and governmental--but resolves the speculation about whether the FBI, CIA, or mafia was involved in the death of Dr. King.

Killing the Dream untangles the case's leading puzzles:

*     Was there a mysterious person called Raoul who directed James Earl Ray in the year leading up to the murder?

*     Was the fatal shot fired from the bathroom window of a Memphis flophouse, or from a sniper's perch hidden in a densely overgrown garden across from King's hotel?

*     Did the military have a covert team of snipers in Memphis on the day King was killed?

*     Has the recent confession by a restaurant owner exposed a wide conspiracy leading to a New Orleans crime family?

*     Was James Earl Ray a patsy, as the King family recently declared?

At the heart of this study is an in-depth profile of James Earl Ray himself, a fascinating portrait of a career criminal from one of the most forsaken parts of poor white America.  By studying Ray's often bizarre life--from his hard childhood to his recent attempts to win a new trial and freedom from prison--Gerald Posner clears away years of misinformation.  Killing the Dream follows Ray from his pro-Nazi leanings in the U.S. Army, through his many crimes, to King's murder and beyond, detailing  his dealing in and abuse of drugs, his desire to dabble in the porn business, and his obsession with making a quick profit, by any means.  Posner re-creates the memorable dramas of the case: Dr. King's rousing "mountaintop" speech the night before he was killed; the chilling moments of the assassination; the FBI's far-ranging manhunt for the missing assassin; Ray's frantic flight across four countries as he tried to escape justice; the shock in the courtroom when Ray suddenly pled guilty and the truth in the case seemed forever lost.

Killing the Dream lays to rest three decades of conjecture and distortion--much of it spawned by Ray's frequently changing stories--to make the case for what happened in Memphis in 1968, and what most certainly did not.  This groundbreaking book finally unveils the simple truth of the last great political murder mystery left from the 1960s.  In this compelling account of the death of Martin Luther King, Jr., Gerald Posner thwarts James Earl Ray's determined efforts to take his secrets to the grave.

About this title

Review

It's been 30 years since Martin Luther King Jr. was shot to death in Memphis, an event that reverberated throughout a startled country still coming to terms with the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Like Kennedy's, King's assassination sparked conspiracy theories about who or what faction was ultimately responsible for his death. Did James Earl Ray act alone? Or was he a patsy?

In Killing the Dream, Gerald Posner, author of Case Closed, brings to light interesting new evidence, from confidential files to previously undisclosed facts, in an attempt to discriminate rumor from truth. Posner looks for answers to questions about where the fatal shot was fired from, the role of elite military personnel who were present in the area, and what social connections drove Ray in the year leading up to the murder.

Besides focusing on the day of the assassination and the courtroom battles that followed, Posner's book also offers a detailed examination of Ray's life, from his years in the army to his career as a petty hood. This well-researched study of the characters and the events preceding and following the murder makes for an honest, non-sensationalist journalistic account of events that have been distorted and convoluted over time.

From the Back Cover

Praise for Gerald Posner

"Posner is a superb investigative reporter."

--Garry Willis

"Gerald Posner is one of the most resourceful investigators I have encountered in over thirty years of journalism."

--John Martin, ABC News

"Posner's research is prodigious and often extremely courageous."

--The New York Times

"His work is painstakingly honest journalism."

--The Washington Post

"In Case Closed, Gerald Posner contributed a major public service, dispassionately examining the JFK assassination while debunking the conspiracy theories and rampant paranoia that engulf the subject."

--The Miami Herald

Edition details

• Publisher: Random House
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0375500820
• ISBN 13: 9780375500824
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 446