He Slew the Dreamer

by William Bradford Huie

s/t: My Search with James Earl Ray for the Truth about the Murder of Martin Luther King
As the 30th anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr approaches, his convicted killer has raised new claims of innocence & seeks a new trial. King's family & friends within the civil rights community have also expressed doubts that James Earl Ray was the killer, or, if he was, that he acted alone. One of King's children even went to Ray's prison cell to meet with the reportedly terminally ill convict & emerged to say that he believed Ray's denial. Conspiracy theories old & new swirl around the case, & news media from around the world have descended once again on Memphis, TN, where King was killed on 4/4/68. Amidst the speculation, He Slew the Dreamer is a remarkably detailed & clearheaded examination of the available evidence at the time the murder occurred. The author, the late Wm Bradford Huie, was one of the most celebrated figures of 20th century journalism & investigative reporting. He wrote a dozen books, most of them made into popular movies, & hundreds of articles in newspapers & magazines. A pioneer of "checkbook journalism", he sought the truth in controversial stories where the truth was hard to come by. In the case of James Earl Ray, Huie paid Ray & his original attorneys $40,000 for cooperation in explaining his movements in the months before King's assassination & up to Ray's arrest weeks later in London. Huie was a personal friend of Martin Luther King & he writes that he went into his investigation of Ray believing that a conspiracy was behind King's murder. But after retracing Ray's movements thru California, Louisiana, Mexico, Canada, Atlanta, Birmingham, Memphis & London, he came to the opposite conclusion: that James Earl Ray was a pathetic petty criminal who hated African Americans & sought to make a name for himself by murdering King. He Slew the Dreamer was originally published soon after Ray went to prison & was republished in 1977, but has been out of print until this new edition, published with the cooperation of Huie's widow. Author Wayne Greenhaw has written a new foreword, epilogue & afterword to the book. An index has been added. This is an invaluable resource to the current debate over the King assassination, as well as an intriguing look both at the criminal mind & at the techniques of investigative journalism.

Genres: Nonfiction, History

222 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 1970

About the author

William Bradford Huie was an American writer, investigative reporter, editor, national lecturer, and television host. His credits include 21 books that sold over 30 million copies worldwide. In addition to writing 14 bestsellers, he wrote hundreds of articles that appeared in all of the major magazines and newspapers of the day. Huie wrote several books about controversial topics related to World War II and the Civil Rights Movement. Six of Huie's books were adapted as feature films during the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s.

Reviews

[Mei · Rating 1 out of 5]

literal fbi propaganda. Read if you'd like, however this book does not disclose who actually murdered Martin Luther King. His Family, disagrees with this stance displayed in the novel and even sued the government for the wrongful death of Martin Luther King. Search it up.

[Paula Hartsock · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great Read!!

If you want to know what happened in the MLK Assassination this is the Book for you!! At last a Book that tells the truth.

[Bobby Daugherty · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book on the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. by James Earl Ray. He was a petty criminal who never managed to get away with anything and somehow he managed to assassinate a high profile target and escape to overseas. He came back voluntarily and died in prison. He always referred to a contact named Raul who I had always assumed was Raul Castro. The popular theory is that Raul was with the CIA or FBI, but rioting in America would of been more beneficial to communist Cuba than to the U.S. government.

[C.A.A. Savastano · Rating 2 out of 5]

A reasonable but incomplete look at the events surrounding the death of Dr. Martin Luther King. It does offer some ideas and evidence of note but lacks the in depth perspective necessary to reveal larger issues and official problems.