REPOST
The 1970s were a dark time in San Francisco’s history. Patty Hearst[1] was kidnapped and could not be found. Mayor George Moscone and Board Supervisor Harvey Milk[2] were assassinated. The Zodiak Killer[3] was still on the loose and taunting the public with encrypted letters sent to the press. The Doodler[4] was randomly murdering gay men. And the name “Zebra” was given to fifteen murders and eight attempted murders because it was the radio frequency used by the police squad assigned to the investigation.
In 1971 Bill Graham sold the Fillmore Auditorium[5] and it became a mosque known as Muhammad’s Temple No. 26. The Black Self-Help Moving Company, located next door, was sponsored by and hired members of the mosque. Those employees radicalized and began following a Chicago extremist group called the “Death Angels”. The Death Angels preached that all Muslims were required to kill four “white devils”. On October 20, 1973 Larry Green, Jessie Lee Cooks and Anthony Harris, after unsuccessfully attempting to kidnap two teenage girls and a boy at gunpoint in the Excelsior District, went on to Coit Tower[6] and kidnapped a married couple. They raped and decapitated the wife with a machete, then butchered the husband and left him for dead (he survived). Cooks later went out again on his own and killed a 28 year old college student. He was caught and quickly confessed. But two new employees were hired at Black Self-Help Moving: JC Simon and Manuel Moore. Future mayor Art Agnos was shot twice at point blank range in Potrero Hill. A man was butchered and killed in the loft of the moving company after being kidnapped near Ghiradelli Square[8]. In January 1974 Simon and Moore went out in the company’s black Cadillac and randomly shot five people.
Fear gripped the city: gun applications soared, businesses shut down early, hotel reservations were cancelled, parents were afraid to send their children to school, and City nightlife came to a standstill. A composite sketch was made using a generic suspect description from witness statements. In an unprecedented move, Mayor Joseph Alioto[9] ordered that all black men between the ages of 20-30, 5’9” and medium build, be stopped and questioned. They received a “Zebra” card to prove that they had been cleared. In the first weekend, 500 black men were stopped by police. But less than a week after the operation was put into motion, a federal judge ruled that the widespread profiling was unconstitutional and it came to an end.
Anthony Harris, identifying himself in the composite sketch, turned himself in. He gave his confession directly to Mayor Alioto, who flew home from the gubernatorial campaign trail to hear it. Harris gave enough information for Moore, Green, and Simon to be arrested and tried. Cooks was a defendant, but already in prison. The killings stopped.
The Zebra Murders trial lasted over a year and was the longest criminal trial in San Francisco history with 108 witnesses. The jury deliberated for 18 hours before all four men were convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. Anthony Harris went into witness protection.
In 2015, Simon was found dead in his cell. Moore died of natural causes in 2017. As of today, Cooks and Green remain in prison.
[1] Patty Hearst: see story coming February 4th
[2] George Moscone and Harvey Milk assassinations: https://thesanfranciscophoenix.com/?p=4126
[3] The Zodiak Killer: https://thesanfranciscophoenix.com/?p=4076
[4] The Doodler: https://thesanfranciscophoenix.com/?p=4994
[5] The Fillmore Auditorium: see story coming February 28th
[6] Coit Tower: see story coming October 8th
[8] Ghiradelli Square: see story coming February 21st
[9] Joseph Alioto: https://thesaanfranciscophoenix.com/?p=4431
