DailyLit: Crime Books

Truth at Last

by John Larry Ray and Lyndon Barsten

Description

For forty years, the plea bargain of James Earl Ray for the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. has been the subject of intense inquiry and debate among historians and researchers. Was Ray—a small-town petty thief—really the criminal mastermind the Shelby County, Tennessee, prosecutors said he was? Or was he a pawn in a broader conspiracy that involved an entity much more powerful: the U.S. government?

In reality, evidence reveals James Earl Ray was inducted into the CIA as a young man in the U.S. Army and subjected to mind control experimentation—in the same era when psychological drugs are known to have been administered by the armed services to unknowing recruits in an attempt to control human behavior. Later, in the two years prior to the King assassination, Ray was under the influence of several government-connected hypnotists seemingly working to make him an obedient patsy.

Ray's case never went to trial, and many, including the King family, concluded that there had been a conspiracy, yet a government investigation in 2000 revealed that there was no evidence to suggest it.

In Truth At Last, Ray's eldest brother John Larry Ray and Martin Luther King Jr. historian Lyndon Barsten, offer incontrovertible evidence that James Earl Ray could not have assassinated Dr. King. John Larry Ray reveals the true secret history of his infamous brother, who for a lifetime claimed, "The Army put me on the road to ruin." Barsten documents John Larry Ray's assertions by drawing on scores of personal interviews and more than 4,000 Freedom of Information Act requests—including Ray's Army unit records. Together, they offer a startling new look at Ray's life, his encounters with the Feds and the Mob, and the crime that shook the world.

Extended Copyright Information

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, except as may be expressly permitted in writing from the publisher. Requests for permission should be addressed to The Globe Pequot Press, Attn: Rights and Permissions Department, P.O. Box 480, Guilford CT 06437.

Published in April 2008 by Globe Pequot Press and DailyLit.

Sample Installment

Tulia

by Nate Blakeslee

Description

Winner of the J. Anthony Lukas Book Prize and a New York Times Book Review Notable Book of the Year

In the summer of 1999, in the tiny west Texas town of Tulia, thirty-nine people, almost all of them black, were arrested and charged with dealing powdered cocaine. The operation, a federally-funded investigation performed in cooperation with the local authorities, was based on the work of one notoriously unreliable undercover officer, Tom Coleman. Despite the flimsiness of the evidence against them, virtually all of the defendants were convicted and given sentences as high as ninety-nine years. Tulia is the story of this town, the bust, the trials, and the heroic legal battle that ultimately led to the reversal of the convictions in the summer of 2003. But the story is much bigger than that; Tulia makes clear, these events are the latest chapter in a story with themes as old as the country itself. This DailyLit edition includes a link to discussion material for reading groups.

Praise for Tulia:

"Tulia, in Blakeslee's rich and deeply satisfying telling, resembles nothing so much as a modern-day To Kill a Mockingbird—or would, that is, if the novel were a true story and Atticus had won."
—The New York Times Book Review

"[A] vivid portrait of law enforcement gone wrong. . . . Excellent and eminently readable."
—David Garrow, Washington Post Book World

". . . A masterpiece of true crime writing."
—Publishers Weekly

About the Author

Nate Blakeslee, a former editor of the Texas Observer, broke the Tulia story for the Observer in 2000. The cover story was a finalist for a National Magazine Award. In 2004, he won the Hugh M. Hefner First Amendment Award for his drug war reporting. He is currently a senior editor at Texas Monthly and a contributing writer for the Texas Observer. Tulia, for which Blakeslee was awarded a Soros Justice Media Fellowship, won the Texas Institute of Letters Best Book of Nonfiction Award, the J. Anthony Lukas Book prize, and was a finalist for the PEN/Martha Albrand Award for First Nonfiction. Nate lives in Austin, Texas.

Extended Copyright Information

Previously published by PublicAffairs, a member of the Perseus Books Group.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Sample Installment

Secret Agent, The

by Joseph Conrad

Sample Installment