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

Politics & Social Sciences

Posner, Gerald

Social Sciences

Random House Audio |

In 1959, twenty-nine-year-old Berry Gordy, who had already given up on his dream to be a champion boxer, borrowed eight hundred dollars from his family and started a record company. A run-down bungalow sandwiched between a funeral home and a beauty shop in a poor Detroit neighborhood served as his headquarters. The building’s entrance was adorned with a large sign that improbably boasted “Hitsville U.S.A.” The kitchen served as the control room, the garage became the two-track studio, the living room was reserved for bookkeeping, and sales were handled in the dining room. Soon word spread that any youngster with a streak of talent should visit the only record label that Detroit had seen in years. The company’s name was Motown. Motown cuts through decades of unsubstantiated rumors and speculation to tell the true behind-the-scenes narrative of America’s most exciting musical dynasty. It follows the company and its amazing roster of stars from the tumultuous growth years in Detroit, to the drama and intrigue of Hollywood in the 1970s, to resurgence in 2002. Set against the civil rights movement, the decay of America’s northern industrial cities, and the social upheaval of the 1960s, Motown is a tale of the incredible entrepreneurship of Berry Gordy. But it also features the moving stories of kids from Detroit’s inner-city projects who achieved remarkable success and then, in many cases, found themselves fighting the demons that so often come with stardom—drugs, jealousy, sexual indulgence, greed, and uncontrollable ambition. Motown features an extraordinary cast of characters, including Diana Ross, Michael Jackson, Marvin Gaye, Smokey Robinson, and Stevie Wonder. They are presented as they lived and worked: a clan of friends, lovers, competitors, and sometimes vicious foes. Motown reveals how the hopes and dreams of each affected the lives of the others and illustrates why this singular story is a made-in-America Greek tragedy, the rise and fall of a supremely talented yet completely dysfunctional extended family. Based on numerous original interviews and extensive documentation, Motown benefits particularly from the thousands of pages of files crammed into the basement of downtown Detroit’s Wayne County Courthouse. Those court records provide the unofficial—and hitherto largely untold—history of Motown and its stars, since almost every relationship between departing singers, songwriters, producers, and the label ended up in litigation. From its peaks in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when Motown controlled the pop charts and its stars were sought after even by the Beatles, through the inexorable slide caused by their failure to handle their stardom, Motown is a riveting and troubling look inside a music label that provided the unofficial soundtrack to an entire generation.

Motown: Music, Money, Sex, and Power

Arts & Photography

Music

Random House]

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.

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

History

Americas

The story of the years leading up to 9/11 is the story of what might have been, and also serves as a call to the defense of America’s future. Since 9/11, one important question has persisted: What was really going on behind the scenes with intelligence services and government leaders during the time preceding the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks? After an eighteen-month investigation that uncovered explosive new evidence through interviews and in classified documents, Gerald Posner reveals much previously undisclosed information: • the identity of two countries that might have had foreknowledge that a terrorist attack was scheduled for September 11 on U.S. soil • a startling account of the interrogation of a leading al Qaeda captive • facts about a series of deaths that point to an ongoing conspiracy by some governments to hide the extent of their earlier relationships with al Qaeda • how the U.S. government missed several chances to kill or capture bin Laden • evidence that German intelligence may have protected an informant who was involved with many of the 9/11 plotters • how the CIA tracked—and then lost—two of the hijackers when they entered the United States more than twenty months before the attacks • the devastating consequences of the crippling rivalry between the CIA and FBI as the United States moved unwittingly toward 9/11 In a dramatic narrative, Why America Slept exposes the frequent mistakes made by law enforcement and government agencies, and demonstrates how the failures to prevent 9/11 were tragically not an exception but typical. Along the way, by delving into terror financing, the links between far-flung terror organizations, and how the United States responded over the years to other attacks, Posner also makes a damning case that 9/11 could have been prevented. Why America Slept lays to rest two years of conjecture about what led up to the worst terror attacks in America’s history. This breakthrough book presents an infuriating review of how incompetence and misplaced priorities made America an easy target for terrorists.

Why America Slept: The Failure to Prevent 9/11

A work of monumental research and overwhelming evidence, Case Closed restores the human drama to one of the watershed events in American history, and in the process answers the nagging riddle of how and why Lee Harvey Oswald killed JFK.

Case Closed: Lee Harvey Oswald and the Assassination of JFK

Anchor

In a series of interviews, the author reveals how the children of the leaders of the Third Reich now judge the sins of their fathers

Hitler's Children: Sons and Daughters of Leaders of the Third Reich Talk About Their Fathers and Themselves

Based on their examination of more than five thousand pages of Dr. Josef Mengele's personal writings and other documents, the authors reconstruct the events of the Angels of Death's thirty-year-exile in South America

Mengele

Europe

Dell

Citizen Perot

Biographies & Memoirs

Memoirs

Random House Value Publishing

The assassination of John F. Kennedy on November 22, 1963, continues to inspire interest ranging from well-meaning speculation to bizarre conspiracy theories and controversial filmmaking. But in this landmark book,reissued with a new afterword for the 40th anniversary of the assassination, Gerald Posner examines all of the available evidence and reaches the only possible conclusion: Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. There was no second gunman on the grassy knoll. The CIA was not involved. And although more than four million pages of documents have been released since Posner first made his case, they have served only to corroborate his findings. Case Closedremains the classic account against which all books about JFK’s death must be measured. From the Trade Paperback edition.

Ross Perot, for all that has been said and written about him, remains something of an enigma. The images presented of his life are often in conflict. Is he a heroic businessman who risked his life to rescue two of his kidnapped workers from revolutionary Iran, or a callous executive who ran roughshod over his employees and investigated the company's senior officers? A brilliant strategist who built a multibillion-dollar empire with an innovative idea in computers, or someone cunning enough to take advantage of government programs and milk an unfair profit? A superpatriot who underwrote his own missions to Southeast Asia to help the plight of the POWs and MIAs, or a secretive billionaire who was engrossed in far-flung conspiracy theories about the CIA and the international narcotics trade? The result of two years of meticulous research, and based on hundreds of new interviews and documents Citizen Perot strips away the mythology and unmasks the real Ross Perot for the first time. This groundbreaking book discloses the inside story of how Perot made his fortune; uncovers the tremendous influence he wielded with different presidents; presents the complete saga of his rescue mission from Iran; exposes the private wars he waged against government officials and business competitors he considered corrupt; explains the secret battles that created animosity with George Bush; and, finally, reveals what was behind Perot's unusual charges of Republican dirty tricks in the 1992 campaign. At the heart of this investigation is Perot himself. Based in part on Perot's own unprecedented cooperation with author Gerald Posner, this book narrates a life that is rich in detail and unique for what it has attempted and accomplished. Studying Perot from his childhood to his current effort to create a third political party, Posner delivers an exhaustive inspection that cuts through years of misinformation and distortions to lay bare Perot's accumulation and use of power. In the process, it answers the perplexing question of what motivates Perot. It also shows whether he has the temperament and personality to be an effective president. Citizen Perot is an absorbing examination of a man who has become an American icon.

Citizen Perot : His Life and Times

Leaders & Notable People

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Posner, Gerald. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Posner, Gerald

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Posner, Gerald. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

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

Motown: Music, Money, Sex, and Power

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

Why America Slept: The Failure to Prevent 9/11

Case Closed: Lee Harvey Oswald and the Assassination of JFK

Hitler's Children: Sons and Daughters of Leaders of the Third Reich Talk About Their Fathers and Themselves

Mengele

Citizen Perot

Case Closed: Lee Harvey Oswald and the Assassination of JFK

Citizen Perot : His Life and Times