The narrative non-fiction book, Hellhound on His Trail: The Stalking of Martin Luther King, Jr. by Hampton Sides, tracks the parallel movements of MLK, Jr. and his stalker, James Earl Ray until their fatal intersection ending with MLK, Jr’s assassination. Sides’ book describes MLK’s life as he struggles to remake the country through his nonviolent Civil Rights movement. Within the same time frame, Sides follows the life of a reclusive loner, known throughout the book by his alias, Eric Galt, as he stalks MLK and plots his assassination. Galt’s misdirected life stands out as a sharp contrast to the purposeful life of MLK. Galt, as described by the author, is “profoundly screwed up” with many contradictory sides to his personality. He had a nose job, took dancing lessons, graduated from Bartending School, got into hypnosis and weird self-help books, enrolled in a locksmithing course, and even aspired to be a porn director. Then, perhaps motivated by listening to the hateful racial rhetoric and segregationist views of presidential hopeful, George Wallace, Galt decides his purpose in life is to take down MLK. The story takes us from Galt’s escape from prison a year before the assassination and ends with his last attempt to escape prison years after the assassination. It‘s a very interesting walk through the days of Galt’s strange, seedy life as he plans his big moment.
In the end, after conducting the largest manhunt in American history, it was the FBI under the lead of Director J Edgar Hoover, who had always mistrusted and even spied on King, who brought Galt to justice.
I enjoyed learning what was going on in the inner circles of King’s organization both during King’s leadership and post death. I appreciated the honest portrayal of King as a monumental leader yet a man who was not without flaws in his personal life. A lover of history should enjoy this fascinating story.