Dallas Escorts: ‘Hellhound’ offers harrowing look at ’stalking’ of King, search for his killer
Photo by Dave Darnell // Buy this photo Hampton Sides, a native Memphian and author of “Hellhound on His Trail: The Stalking of Martin Luther King, Jr.” Sides, will come home on Tuesday to talk about his book and an upcoming PBS program that covers the same material.
James Earl Ray belonged to a clan with “a hundred-year history of crime and squalor and hard luck,” writes author Hampton Sides in his new work of historical suspense, “Hellhound on His Trail: The Stalking of Martin Luther King, Jr., and the International Hunt for His Assassin,” which arrives in book stores Tuesday.
Ray’s 6-year-old sister “burned herself alive while playing with matches.” Another sister was “a street prostitute who spent much of her time in mental hospitals.” His great-grandfather was “an all-around thug” who was hanged after “gunning down six men,” while “beloved Uncle Earl was a traveling carnival boxer and convicted rapist who served a six-year prison sentence for throwing carbolic acid in his wife’s face.”