[...]
The Nation of Islam paid for the legal representation of every one of the killers except Cooks, who immediately admitted to his murders.
[...]
It has been almost 30 years since the Zebra Killings and, with the exception of Clark Howard’s book, little has been written about the murders. That is why they have disappeared from the public consciousness. At least one filmmaker who tried to get funding for a documentary on the killings has said that producers will not touch it, as it involves the taboo of black-on-white racism. Needless to say, there is no such taboo on discussing white-on-black racism. But a society that memorializes Emmett Till, Medgar Evers and James Byrd should also make room for the victims of the Zebra Killings. Justice demands it.
A more complete story can be found here.
While serial killers are usually loners, they do sometimes murder as a group. This was one of those relatively rare instances.
And while many of the most infamous serial killers tend to be driven by lust, or greed, this case is different. These monsters simply wanted white blood on their hands.
And they got what they wanted.
Now, these horrific killings clearly fit the definition of "hate crimes." But of course, such a classification of crime did not exist in the 1970s.
But one wonders if such vile acts, were they to occur today, would be prosecuted as "hate crimes." After all, it was black-on-white, not the reverse. And prosecutors have been extremely reluctant to pursue convictions for "hate crimes" if the defendants are black.
Is this a particularly obvious example of a "hate crime"? Yes. But is it also obvious that this would be prosecuted as such, if it were to happen today? No.
And that is the problem with "hate crime" legislation: Unequal protection under the law...
Article comments
1 - Kim Pearson
Good morning,
I share the reviewer's concern that this sad episode has largely faded from memory (except for books such as this one and magazines such as FrontPage.com), but one of the difficulties is that so much of what has been written seems to err in fact and context. For example:
1. This article puts the death toll at 71; however, the official count was 14 dead and seven wounded. Still heinous, but a major difference. See:
http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/mass/zebra_murders/16.html?sect=8
2. The quotes representing black community sentiment appear to be taken out of context. The primary concern of the black community members and leaders that I saw quoted was first, that the police were saying that there was a widespread conspiracy to kill white people, when in fact, this was the behavior of a small group of miscreants.
The second concern had to do with what we would now call racial profiling, and that was the basis of the judicial order to stop Operation Zebra. See:http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/mass/zebra_murders/12.html?sect=8. Racial profiling has been consistently been found to be an ineffective policing method, in addition to its troubling ethical ramifications.
Finally, the reviewer is mistaken: racially motivated against whites are prosecuted as hate crimes. See the FBI's annual hate crimes report, available here: http://www.fbi.gov/publications.htm. For 2003, the last year for which data is available, 830 incidents of anti-white bias crimes were reported, as compared to 2,548 incidents of anti-black bias crimes. One anti-white homicide is recorded; there were four anti-black homicides.
The Zebra killings deserve to be remembered as a horrible crime and as yet another tragic episode in which misinformation and misperceptions about race stirred up resentments and interfered with solving an important serial murder case.
2 - Dave Nalle
So now we've discovered both how to attract the anti-semites and the klansmen to BC. Oh joy.
Dave
3 - Dave Nalle
To treat RJ's closing question seriously for a second, I can't imagine how this could not be treated as a hate crime today. It fits the definition so well that if you accept the idea of hate crimes, you have to accept that this is one.
On the other hand, how much more can you punish these violent racists than to execute them, as their crimes deserve. Oh wait - one really shocking thing RJ failed to mention - even though California has the death penalty, the members of this group got only life in prison and are up for parole again this year, although like Manson their parole will likely never be granted.
Dave
4 - Victor Plenty
Life in prison might be best for hate crimes, anyway. Let them rot in jail, waiting in vain for the "race war" they idiotically hope will occur any day now, but which stubbornly continues refusing to arrive.
I've spent good portions of my life working side by side with black Americans, black Africans, American Indians, Indians from India, and other people darker brown than the so-called "white" people of northern Europe. In doing so I've met many I would trust with my life.
If any race war ever did break out, I'd definitely rather be on the side of racial diversity. I could trust many of my dark-skinned friends to watch my back in such a conflict, far more than I could ever trust any of the creepy "white supremacists" I've seen posting here and elsewhere.
Racists conveniently forget the savagery of Europe's wars. The worst atrocities committed by black people in Zimbabwe, Rwanda, or South Africa have been evenly matched by the horrors carried out in the name of racial purity or religious purity by the supposedly civilized peoples of Europe.
History conclusively proves skin color has nothing to do with our capacity for violence and savagery. It is just as universal as our capacity for peaceful cooperation with each other.
It is up to each one of us to choose which capacity we will express.
My study of history tells me the forces of cooperation will prove stronger than the forces of racism and division, and I choose to be on the winning side of history.
5 - Tan The Man
Unemployment and oppression are two main causes for resentment, although I'm not sure they justify killing people. If you look at Africa and the Middle East, a lot of people are unemployed and oppressed. What breeds to fanaticism is the lack of a light at the end of the tunnel. Fanatics like those involved in the Zebra Killings or in the daily suicide bombings in Iraq see no light and have nothing to hope for in this life. They see only death.
6 - STEELWOLVES
Tan, that is one of the dumbest remarks I've seen in awhile. Congradulations! Precisely what "lack of hope" did the Zebra killers endure that would motivate them to do their heinous acts? I believe every one of them was employed by various NOI enterprises in San Francisco. Oh, since several had been in prison I suppose that makes them "oppressed?" You are correct in one respect when you said "They see only death"----only in this case the death they saw was the deaths of their innocent victims. Please use some commonsense next time and not compare the "persecution" of the Zebra killers with truely poor and oppressed persons in the third world.
7 - Louis Calabro
There will be a Tenth Annual Zebra Victims Memorial Service on the Plaza Side of San Francisco City Hall on October 20th, 2006 at 12:00 Noon. Mayor Newsom and other dignataries will be invited to honor the 15 victims in San Francisco who were murdered because they were European American whites.
Louis Calabro, President, European/American Issues Forum
8 - Lisa
Thanks for bringing these crimes to light again ! I remember quite well as a child watching the news and reading over my fathers shoulders in the newspapers the Zebra killings... The victims of these ignorant bastards should be remembered and remind us all of how precious human life truly is. As far as the whole " racial thing" and why the Zebra Killings haven't been seen nor heard about on a national level is beyond stupid ! being a survivor of my brothers senseless murder... evil has no color ! evil will always be just that EVIL !
9 - larry mayfield
i have worked at the post office that delivers mr shields mail since before the murders and have to comment on the way the family handled this ordeal with dignaty. the 'zodiac" movie brought this to mind for me
10 - Folkwolf101
First, just a couple of corrections to a very engaging commentary: Quita Hague was not quite decapitated, but close to it. The serial killing circle was actually better organized outside San Francisco and throughout all of California, where the murders were quite numerous and possibly in the hundreds.
Yes, it is a touchy subject. Society is not yet ready to ever whisper the taboo of Black on White hate crimes, yet it certainly does happen. Perhaps if and when Barack Obama becomes president, such crimes will be seen for what they are: pure cowardly hatred toward others. Thousands of films and books on Nazis and white serial killers, but only two books on the Zebra killings. But, the media is just to scared to raise a whisper and instead lambasts Hillary Clinton for every possible innuendo toward Barack Obama. Hey media, if you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem. These crimes were inspired with a hatred toward white skin.
11 - RJ Elliott
When I wrote this:
But one wonders if such vile acts, were they to occur today, would be prosecuted as "hate crimes." After all, it was black-on-white, not the reverse. And prosecutors have been extremely reluctant to pursue convictions for "hate crimes" if the defendants are black.
Is this a particularly obvious example of a "hate crime"? Yes. But is it also obvious that this would be prosecuted as such, if it were to happen today? No.
And that is the problem with "hate crime" legislation: Unequal protection under the law...
...some of the commenters thought I was being silly. But read this:
In the aforementioned interview with Sheriff Mark Hackel, Frank Beckmann asked:
"Sheriff, all the kids in the video I saw are African-American. All of your victims are white. Is there evidence that this was somehow [attacks based on race]?"
Hackel responded with “It’s a question that we are asking. ... If it’s a hate crime and it happens to be a white person and the other people involved are African-Americans, we look at those things.”
When Beckmann inquired as to whether or not there is a “law to charge them with some kind of hate crime,” Hackel answered, “Well, that’s questionable. I don’t know if it applies to an unprotected class, and I don’t know if whites are part of that. I’m not sure.”
Beckmann was shocked to hear Hackel suggest that whites are not entitled to equal protection under the law. A taken aback Beckmann asked:
"You mentioned ‘unprotected class.’ You mean white people are not protected by hate crime legislation?"
Hackel answered that question by saying, “It doesn’t appear as such at this point and time that there is something that would qualify.”
Unequal protection under the law, anyone?
12 - Abagail
"blacks blamed "unemployment" and "oppression" for the attacks". Now, I am currently spending 60+ hours a week looking for employment, being an analyst with an oil company before, and now that I have been to jail for "failure to stop and give info.", I cannot find a job no matter where I look.
How many black people have not used this excuse named above? The ones who rise above the blame game, take the bull by the horns and don't give up. There are so many influential and successful blacks (can I say that word, or is it taboo yet??) that using excuses is not even justifiable.
When I was in jail, the blacks were treated like royalty, the whites were treated as lepers. That's just the honest truth. We could be called crackers, casper...anything at all, but we could NEVER defend ourselves, it just is not acceptable.
Some of the whites were being referred to as KKK members for no reason by the blacks just to try to start an argument. NOW...the members of the KKK are the most ridiculous and outrageously idiotic group of individuals I can imagine. I think most intelligent people realize this, and how much of an insult this really is.
In jail, the whites were publicly ridiculed and I tried to get into a corner and just bide my time by covering my ears and not talking, because I had been threatened on more than 5 occasions of assault with a knife (I reported the incident to the guard and she said, "too bad, that's what happens here and I won't be around to even see it when it does".
I never saw in terms of black and white before...but the hatred the blacks displayed toward me for no reason really disappointed and sickened me.
13 - Afro American
Boo hoo! White America has killed blacks for centuries.
14 - Marcia Neil
These, sad to say. are linked with product-development schemes that used person-to-person contact to try to 'order' cooperation -- the new lobby laws exist to address those often furiously-frictional contact debacles. At issue remains the 'want' to have home and vehicle trash-compactors and the accompanying 'want' to mono-polize a global sales market. Some paramilitary populations claim that it is a citizen's duty to participate in such schemes, which simply adds to the misery and potential for violent encounters.
15 - Doug Hunter
Very interesting. I had never heard of this until today.
16 - Kevin Ali
I agree with Afro American. I say we kill half of all the whites in America and make the other half our slaves. In the name of ALLAH the Merciful.
17 - sosad2see
If blacks are so great, then why is Africa such a cesspool? TRLLIONS of dollars have been given to them in cash, medicines, food, clothing, equipment, etc, etc, etc. What have they done with it? Dictators, greed, killings, slavery of their own. Blacks are unable to do anything positive it seems. I don't think the white man has done hardly anything to them, they have done it to themselves! We are their scapegoats for their own severe failures. It was blacks who sold their "brothers" for slaves. It was whites who fought to end slavery.