In something of an obituary, the creator of The Wire tells the story of William Zantzinger. Zantzinger caused the death of a Baltimore waitress in 1963 inspiring Bob Dylan to write 'The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll.'

Zantzinger lived long enough to see Martin Luther King, Jr., honored with a national holiday and to know that this week Barack Obama would be inaugurated as President. We can imagine him galled at this outcome, a small-minded racist rightly defined by his ugliest moment. Perhaps that’s him, or perhaps he was more than that. At any rate, he knew his part and he played it to the end.