Hellhound on his Trail

<p><em>Hellhound on His Trail</em> is the story of two very different men whose lives catastrophically interweaved over the course of some nine months in the late 1960s: one was a thief and con man called James Earl Ray, the other one of the greatest American figures of the twentieth century, Martin Luther King Jr.<br /><br />Hampton Sides follows in Ray's footsteps as he escapes from prison, creates a new identity for himself and becomes convinced of his mission to kill King. <em>Hellhound on His Trail</em> is equally the story of King himself in his last months, fighting to keep his ideals alive in the face of intensive FBI surveillance and his exhausted frustration. <br /><br />With relentless storytelling drive, Sides follows Ray and King as they crisscross the country, one stalking the other, until the fateful moment, on 4 April 1968 at a Memphis hotel, when the drifter finally caught up with his prey. Nationwide riots were sparked by the assassination, followed by the largest manhunt in American history.</p>