Author William Bradford Huie, 76, Dies in Alabama

Author William Bradford Huie, who wrote books about violence in the civil rights movement in the South, died Saturday, apparently of a heart attack. He was 76.

He wrote such civil rights books as “The Klansman,” “Three Lives for Mississippi” and “He Slew the Dreamer,” a biography of Martin Luther King Jr.’s convicted assassin, James Earl Ray.

Huie also wrote two books that were later made into successful films or television movies, “The Execution of Private Slovik,” about the last U.S. soldier executed for desertion, and “The Americanization of Emily.”

Huie maintained homes in Guntersville, Hartselle and Scottsboro. He was found dead in his Guntersville office Saturday by relatives.

In a 1979 interview with The Decatur Daily, Huie said he lived in several cities and traveled widely but always considered the Tennessee Valley his home.

“All my life, I’ve been a man from Hartselle, Alabama. I always voted here, when I voted,” he said. “Hartselle, Alabama, is what appears on the book jackets. I’m proud of the Tennessee Valley.”

A 1930 University of Alabama graduate, Huie worked for the Birmingham Post and wrote free-lance articles for Time, Look, The Saturday Evening Post, True and The New York Herald Tribune for many years before he began to write books.