Zebra murders

On October 19, 1973, Richard Hague (30) and his wife, Quita (28), were walking near their Telegraph Hill home in San Francisco when they were kidnapped by a group of black men and forced into a van. Quita was fondled by two of the men, and then nearly decapitated by a third man who cut her neck with a machete. One of the first pair attacked Richard and left him for dead, but he survived.[4] Ten days later, on October 29, Frances Rose (28) was repeatedly shot by a man, who blocked her car's path and demanded a ride, as she was driving up to the entrance gate of the University of California Extension.[5][6]

On November 9, Robert Stoeckmann (26), clerk with the Pacific Gas and Electric Company, was assaulted by an armed man, but gained control of the gun and fired back. The attacker, Leroy Doctor, was later arrested and convicted of assault with a deadly weapon.[7] Saleem "Sammy" Erakat (53), a Jordanian Arab Muslim, was bound and shot dead in the restroom of his grocery store on November 25.[8][9] On December 11, Paul Dancik (26), an artist, was shot three times in the chest by a man as he was preparing to make a telephone call at a payphone.[10][11]

Two days later, on the evening of December 13, future San Francisco mayor Art Agnos (35), then a member of the California Commission on Aging, was attending a meeting in the largely black neighborhood Potrero Hill to discuss building a government-funded health clinic in the area. After the meeting ended, Agnos was talking to two women at the curbside when a man approached and shot him twice in the chest.[12] Agnos was seriously injured, but survived.[13][14] During the same evening, Marietta DiGirolamo (31), was walking along Divisadero Street when she was shoved into a doorway by a man and shot twice in the chest. The shots spun her around and struck her once in the back, killing her.[15][16]

On December 20, "Angela Roselli" (not her real name), a 20-year-old college student, was shot three times near her apartment by one of two men. She survived, although one bullet nicked her spine.[17] An 81-year-old janitor, Ilario Bertuccio, was shot that same evening while walking home from work in the Bayview district. He died almost instantly after four shots to the shoulder and chest.[18] On December 22, two more victims died within six minutes of each other. Neal Moynihan (19) was killed as he was walking near the Civic Center while shopping. A man had walked in front of him and shot him in the face, neck, and heart.[19] The killer (or perhaps a different killer, per authors Cohen and Sanders) then chased down 50-year-old Mildred Hosler as she was heading to her bus stop, and shot her four times.[20] On December 24, an unidentified John Doe victim was killed.[21][22] The man's remains were recovered on February 10, 1974.[23]

The killings resumed on January 29, 1974 with five more shootings; four were fatal.[27] Tana Smith (32) was shot while walking to a fabric store. Vincent Wollin (69) was shot while walking home. John Bambic (84) was shot while collecting discarded bottles and cans. Jane Holly, a 45-year-old housewife, was gunned down while doing her laundry at a laundromat, and Roxanne McMillian (23) was shot while carrying items from her car to her new apartment. Of these, only McMillian survived, but she had to use a wheelchair for the rest of her life.[28] A sixth victim was Thomas Bates, a hitchhiker who survived being shot three times that night near Emeryville but was not originally associated with the Zebra murders.[29][30]

On April 1, 1974, two Salvation Army cadets were walking toward the Mayfair Market, two blocks from the Salvation Army School for Officers' Training Center, when a black man who was following the pair overtook them, wheeled around, fired four shots at them, and fled. Thomas Rainwater (19) died; Linda Story (21) survived. Two policemen were on the scene within fifteen seconds, and although a manhunt was initiated, it proved to be futile. The police suspected that the Zebra killers had struck again, as the shell casings on the sidewalk were found to be from a .32 caliber gun.[31] On Easter Sunday, thirteen days after the Rainwater-Story shootings, Ward Anderson, a merchant seaman, and Terry White, a 15-year-old student, were both shot and wounded as they stood at a bus stop at the corner of Fillmore and Hayes streets. Their attacker was a black man who approached the corner on foot and fled after firing.[32]

On the evening of April 16, 23-year-old Nelson T. Shields, IV, son of a wealthy Du Pont executive, accompanied a friend to pick up a rug at a house on Vernon Street in the Ingleside district.[33] Shields had opened the back of his station wagon and was making room in the cargo area for the rug when he was shot repeatedly and killed. A witness later testified that she saw a black man rushing up Vernon Street at the time of the shooting. The police suspected it was another Zebra murder, as the shell casings found at the scene matched a .32 caliber, the size of the weapon in other killings.[34][35]

Following the city's offer of a $30,000 reward, a break came in the Zebra case in April.[43] Anthony Harris, an employee at Black Self-Help Moving and Storage, called police a week after the sketches had been posted and subsequently agreed to meet with Zebra case detectives in Oakland.[36] Harris claimed to be one of the persons featured in the police sketches. He provided specific details regarding several of the attacks which the police had never released to the public. Harris denied that he had committed any killings, but admitted that he had been present at many of them.[44]

Harris told the police about the Black Muslim group, and told them of a homicide that did not make the papers; the group had abducted a homeless white man ("John Doe #169") from Ghirardelli Square. They took the man to Black Self-Help Moving and Storage's warehouse, where they gagged and tied him. According to Harris, while this man was conscious, others of the group took turns hacking away his limbs. Harris told the detectives that they had dumped the body into the bay. He told his story in such detail that the police were convinced of its veracity. In addition, it affirmed their recovery of a body on the previous December 24, 1973: it was a bound and badly butchered male torso and limbs missing his hands, feet, and head; it had washed up in the city's Ocean Beach district at the foot of Pacheco Street.[45] Harris provided the police with names, dates, addresses, and details — enough information for the prosecutor to issue arrest warrants against the suspects. Harris subsequently sought, and received, immunity from prosecution for his help in breaking the Zebra case, as well as new identities for himself, his girlfriend, and her child.[44]

On May 1, 1974, simultaneous police raids during the pre-dawn hours were made, resulting in the arrests of Larry Craig Green and J. C. X. Simon in an apartment building at 844 Grove Street. More suspects were arrested at Black Self-Help Moving and Storage's facility. None offered resistance when arrested.[46] Of the seven men arrested that day, four men were released for lack of evidence.

Mayor Alioto announced the news of the raids and said that the killings were perpetrated by a group who called themselves the "Death Angels" and targeted whites and dissident blacks. He said that their members had to show proof of attacks and murders to advance in the cult, and may have killed as many as 73 persons since 1970.[1][47]

Scholars continued to study this group. Criminology professor Anthony Walsh wrote in a 2005 article that the "San Francisco–based Death Angels may have killed more people in the early- to mid-1970s than all the other serial killers operating during that period combined."[3]

Black Muslim leader John Muhammad, the minister of Mosque #26 in San Francisco, denied the allegations that there was a Black Muslim conspiracy to kill whites. The Nation of Islam paid for attorneys for Green, Moore, and Simon. Jessie Lee Cooks pleaded guilty before the trial, and the Nation did not provide him with defense counsel.[48]

• Mark Essex
• Beltway sniper
• Nation of Islam
• Robert Rozier
• Yahweh ben Yahweh
• Your Black Muslim Bakery

General:

• List of serial killers in the United States

• Howard, Clark (1979). Zebra: The True Account of the 179 Days of Terror in San Francisco. New York: Richard Marek Publishers. ISBN 978-0-399-90050-1.
• Peele, Thomas (2012-02-07). Killing the Messenger: A Story of Radical Faith, Racism's Backlash, and the Assassination of a Journalist. Crown/Archetype. ISBN 9780307717573.
• Sanders, Prentice Earl; Cohen, Bennett (2006). Zebra Murders: A Season of Killing, Racial Madness, and Civil Rights. New York: Arcade. ISBN 978-1-55970-806-7.
• Talbot, David (2012-05-08). Season of the Witch: Enchantment, Terror and Deliverance in the City of Love. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 9781439127872.

• "S.F.'s own time of terror", sfgate.com; accessed March 15, 2015.
• Zebra, online ebook
• Unidentified victim at NamUs