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Step one, step two. Thank you, President. In spite of all, I am human and have done things that require forgiveness from others. I have transgressed against my fellows in moments of weakness and madness. I hope I can make it George Jackson. In the fall of 1970

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George Jackson skyrocketed to international fame with the publication of his book Soledad Brother, The Prison Letters of George Jackson. By the next year he was dead. George Jackson served a life sentence which turned out to be a death sentence for a $70 robbery. No. The story

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of George Jackson is a story of the dark side of America in August of 1971. When Jackson was a 29 year old inmate at California's San Quentin prison. He became the central figure in the prison's bloodiest day Jackson obtained a gun and in less than 30

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minutes, a murderous rampage turned the adjustment center into a slaughterhouse. Six men including Jackson were killed. It was unprecedented. It had never ever happened before. It's never happened again. During his prison life, George Jackson was a polarizing figure, hated as much as he was loved. He

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was a threat in the prison system. He was one that just didn't seem to be very afraid. He was defiant. He was proud. He was a revolutionary. George Jackson was a thug. My guess is that he stole lunch money from his grade school um associates. He

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educated himself and emerged as the most powerful intellectual within the prison system. He was a punk convict until he was catapulted into the spotlight. Once in the limelight, I say he, he rose above punk convict, but I think he never rose above opportunist in the end

00:03:05.410 - 00:03:28.949

when George Jackson's cause had been lost and the cult of hero worship contaminated his heart and soul. Jackson sought comfort in a few loyal friends, Marx Lenin and Ho Chi Min, the Vietnamese revolutionary who predicted when the prison gates fly open, the dragons will emerge on

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a hot August day with gun in hand. Jackson would tell the world just that I am hopeful and I will try with the best I can with everything I've got to end this battle and to return our sons to their desires, right? Oh We realize that

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we're shedding blood. Now we're being killed. The ascendancy of George Jackson came at a time when America's soul and its people were coming apart. This is revolution. We will not be fooled. The turbulent decades of the 1960 s and 70 s merged as one. The country's

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democratic institutions were severely challenged, some advocated revolution. I'm gonna start right now to inform white people of what they don't know. The black people in this country have been the victims of violence at the hands of the white men for 400 years. Again, I think it's

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un American that we cannot survive. If we go fight some yellow man in Vietnam who ain't never called us ***. You're nothing but a child as mother who doesn't give a fuck when somebody is done. People had marched, people had gone to jail. People were very

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frustrated and very angry. The unpopular war in Vietnam had become the longest and most divisive in American history. The Bitter Struggle for civil rights confirmed the failed promise of equality for all. We had been consigned to the ghetto for years and years and years. We had

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not been allowed to break out of the ghetto. Riots turned American cities into burning embers, the political assassinations of Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Junior and Robert Kennedy deepened the country's paranoia. We were being uh uh put in a position of having to feel that our

00:06:04.609 - 00:06:23.869

lives were under, under the gun, under the gun. P Newton and the Black Panther Party wanted justice beyond the streets of Oakland. There were, I suppose those who felt that all one needed to do was to take up the gun and that that would be the,

00:06:24.000 - 00:06:48.970

the path toward freedom love. The prisons of California had become a target for revolutionary change as well. The new left viewed the growing convict population as symptomatic of the country's deeper social ills. We've got the militant blacks, the militant nazis, the militant Chicanos, they're all under

00:06:48.980 - 00:07:08.809

one roof and we are sitting on this lid like a tea kettle waiting for the steam to either come up with a lid to blow off. Inmates were championed as political prisoners vanguards of the coming revolution, victims of their fascist capitalist oppressors. Long as there is

00:07:08.820 - 00:07:24.950

any political prisoner in this country, as long as anyone is being discriminated against, none of us are free. When George Jackson emerged as the new God and leader of the left. Those on the right saw him as the most powerful threat in the prison system. I

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think racism is a control device. Control, create an atmosphere whereby they can control the inmates and to a black, this is a continuation of the same thing we've been going through on the street. George Jackson was born in Chicago in 1941 1 of five Children in

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a poor working class family. His mother, Georgia was afraid of what the streets could do to him. She wouldn't let him go out and play. She kept him on the roof. You know, she wouldn't let him go out because she didn't want him to get in

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trouble. I used to tell them that they were black and in order to achieve they'd have to be twice as good as white. I said, if you're twice as good as the white in school. Then maybe you'll make something. Yes, that's what I used to tell

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him. It was the truth. So why hide it from him? As a young boy at Catholic school, Jackson experienced racism. The playground was for white kids only growing up in the projects he became involved in petty crime fighting, stealing. At age 15, his parents moved to

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L A and they settled in the Watts District where he began to be involved in a little bit more serious crimes, stealing a motorbike breaking and entering in 1958 he was convicted of a store burglary uh and sent to C Y A California Youth Authority camp

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for several months. He escaped, fled back to Chicago was involved in a knifing, came back to California in chains after spending time locked up in the California Youth Authority. Jackson graduated to state prison when he pled guilty to the robbery of a Bakersfield gas station. It

00:09:13.880 - 00:09:39.039

was 1961. Jackson was 19 years old and he received the indeterminate sentence of one year to life while I was incarcerated under a Wonder Life, a term they called for one life where I could have done one year and been released. I've done 10. That's more

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time than anybody in this state has ever done on a one line according to fellow inmate James Carr, when the two became leaders of a gang known as the wolf pack, much of their time was spent in the usual convict hustles, gambling booze, sex blackmail. He

00:09:59.080 - 00:10:17.349

knew how to play the game. He was a tough guy. He studied martial arts. He was, you know, he was strong, very muscular, very smart, very cunning guy, good behavior dictated Jackson's chance for parole. It became non existent prison records indicate that he received over 40

00:10:17.359 - 00:10:35.700

disciplinary actions. Jackson spent seven years in solitary. He was a big guy. He was a tough guy. He was, he was a predator when he was in the general population. He, he was a predator of other inmates. He he he just abused people. He became a

00:10:35.710 - 00:10:56.609

professional uh prisoner. Uh uh a real died in the wall con convict. And then he started reading um revolutionary theory. Then he, he started reading Marx and Lenin and Mao and he wrote, I read Marx and Lenin and Mao and they redeemed me all of a

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sudden he had a context for his anger. He realized, you know why he was there, why people of his, of his race, of his working class background, why they were in prison in disproportionate numbers? And that was the appeal of George Jackson. He represented in the

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most in the highest way. Uh the injustice of the system and the cruelty and the institutionalized racism of the system coming up on day of the gun inmate killings at Soledad prison begins a chain of revenge and murder. We now return to Kron four presents a

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of the gun. This program contains graphic pictures and descriptions of violent events. Viewer discretion is advised we die too easily. We forgive and forget, too easily, gentle and refined people, aren't we? We'll make good communists if someone deals with the fascists for us. In January of

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1970 George Jackson was one of more than 2000 inmates that sold it at prison. Jackson had been here before located 100 miles south of San Francisco. The prison was in the heart of the fertile Salinas Valley, the salad bowl of America. The place where a famed

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author, John Steinbeck wrote eloquently of the dispossessed when Soledad opened in 1951. It was the model for the California prison system. A showplace for reform by the next decade. That hope had vanished. Well, I was glad he at her school, of course, you had your gangs,

00:13:08.679 - 00:13:29.450

you had your A B aryan brotherhood, had your black, your B G F, your black gorilla family at the Mexican mafia. Soledad was a racist pit. It was horrible, horrible place. I mean, the guards set the prisoners against each other. You know, there were conspiracies everywhere,

00:13:29.460 - 00:13:46.580

there were stabbings, there were, there were murders, the guards were the enemy, the number one enemy because they were killing both of us. And George was trying to explain this to a lot of guys. They couldn't get it to their heads. A mano has spent much

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of his life behind bars. Beginning as a teenager in the California Youth Authority like George Jackson Mancino was from Los Angeles. Though the barrier of race allowed him to know Jackson only by reputation. The circumstance of their prison lives would crisscross in moments, brutal and vicious

00:14:07.080 - 00:14:27.090

from Soledad to the tragedy at San Quentin. The administration had him down as a troublemaker as a instigator and agitator. He wasn't, he wasn't into the racial stuff. I'll say that about it. I would do all the processes. I tried to get out. Um I went

00:14:27.099 - 00:14:54.840

to school program but now on the side, I was studying bye. Thing that I think that would help the community. George Jackson was a prison. Uh tough, sometimes brutal, prison, gangster. And this prison toughness made him the best uh proselytizer for revolution on the yard at

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Soledad. The Charismatic Jackson conducted secret political study groups with other inmates trying to unify the prisoner class. He was an internationalist. He identified with international communist solidarity. And one of the projects he took on was that of transforming um those who were behind bars to move

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away from what he called a criminal mentality to a revolutionary mentality. And then he had the the capabilities of mob mobilizing everybody. You know, if he said, hey, we're gonna do this here, we do this here. And then when they saw this kind of power that

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could come from one person naturally, they feared that on the morning of January 13 1970 a new exercise yard was opened at Soledad's notorious. The prison grapevine had long predicted that a fight between black and white inmates would occur. Revenge was the motive because of the

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previous racial killings of blacks. I would say the majority of people in Soledad knew that when the new exercise yard was open, that there would be uh a fight out there. At around nine A ma racially mixed group of inmates began entering the yard. W L

00:16:25.520 - 00:16:46.239

Nolan A prison boxing champion and Jackson's closest political ally was among them. We said, well, get on the court, the basketball court, everyone pick your man when everyone's set and won't do it. The guard in the tower was O G Miller white. 51 years old known

00:16:46.250 - 00:17:03.710

to be an expert with a rifle Miller's background was similar to that of other guards ex military from a southern state known to inmates as a racist. He was, he was gonna shoot somebody black. If it was a fight out there in the yard or somewhere,

00:17:03.719 - 00:17:23.300

he wasn't gonna shoot his kind. He was gonna shoot the other guy. The fight started when Nolan threw the first punch at a white inmate. Others quickly joined the battle as soon as they started scuffling shots rang out without warning. Officer Miller fired his weapon at

00:17:23.310 - 00:17:41.770

the inmates. No one was the first one shot. Uh He was shot through the chest. Uh On the first bullet off of a 30 caliber very high powered rifle. He was shot right in the heart. It was straight up murder a second, then a third shot

00:17:41.780 - 00:18:00.680

was fired, hitting two other black inmates, both would bleed to death. A white inmate had also been wounded. And even Billy Harris, the one who really hated blacks said that we thought we were just going to fight. Nobody really get killed. We get, you know, maybe

00:18:00.689 - 00:18:25.339

some bruises and head bashing. But that'd be it. Three days later on January 16, the Monterey County grand jury ruled the killings justifiable homicide. There was just a, a thickness of anger and a sense of injustice that had occurred. You just didn't kill us like that.

00:18:25.349 - 00:18:47.160

And then dudes were saying like, damn we dying, why, why we dying by ourselves. And that was the attitude that everybody, you know, not long after the ruling had been announced, outrage turned into retribution at around 6 30 PM. 26 year old guard, John Mills was

00:18:47.170 - 00:19:02.130

beaten and thrown from the top tier of wa Wing. Absolutely in the wrong place at the wrong time. And a lot of people were glad a lot of people were glad White and Black Mills was killed. Not because he was Mills. He was because he was

00:19:02.140 - 00:19:20.420

a guard to pay back for the open Miller shooting. There was a note left on him one down two to go. That was, that was stated really clearly according to prison authorities, there were inmates black and white who witnessed the killing of Officer Mills. And the

00:19:20.430 - 00:19:38.420

thing that chilled me was them saying that they could hear nills keys jangling in the air as he fell or was thrown from the third tier down to the bottom. George Jackson Fleta Drum go and John Cloer became the primary suspect in the killing of Officer

00:19:38.430 - 00:20:04.699

Mills. Cliche denied any involvement. So you were not involved in the assault or killing of John Mills. Uh Did you see anyone assault or kill John Mills? Do you know if George Jackson in fact killed John Mills, Jackson, however, was a marked man. According to Alan

00:20:04.709 - 00:20:20.489

Mancino, prison guards took him to a secret meeting. They believed Mancino was an assassin for the Aryan brotherhood. They wanted me to take out George Jackson. It was gonna open a cell up and open his cell up at the same time and they wanted me to

00:20:20.500 - 00:20:35.239

take him out. So I got word down to Jackson. That's the first time I've never really talked to him. Uh never associated with him. Uh I shot him a kite. I told him what was going on in the cell that I wasn't gonna do it. A

00:20:35.250 - 00:20:50.329

kite is prison slang for a letter because I didn't want to kill him. I didn't want to do it. I didn't want to be involved in that. I had, I had a grudging respect for the man. The way he conducted himself and a lot of people

00:20:50.339 - 00:21:13.079

hate him without reason. In February, George Jackson, John C Couch and Fleta Drum were indicted for murder known as the soledad brothers. The case of the three inmates would become a cause. Celeb John Mills was the first guard murdered at the prison. He left behind a

00:21:13.089 - 00:21:35.500

wife and son was the incident for which you're charged. Now, is it a revolutionary act on your part? You asking me to confess to something? And so the sun she did, did you kill it? Right. Look, uh, uh one of the most important element of warfare

00:21:35.510 - 00:22:00.709

is maintain secret. I give nobody until uh you know, it's been proven and they'll never be able to prove anything like that. Next on day of the gun death at the Marin County courthouse, an attempt to free George Jackson ends in tragedy. We now return to

00:22:00.719 - 00:22:29.650

Kron four presents a of the gun. This program contains graphic pictures and descriptions of violent events. Viewer discretion is advised dearest Angela. I hope that by some means you have discovered that I love you deeply and would touch you tenderly warmly fiercely if I could. If

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my enemies were not at present, stronger black militant Angela Davis was among the most impassioned who rallied to the cause of George Jackson. George himself had become that symbol whom we absolutely had to save. The first time I met him was on the occasion of one

00:23:00.369 - 00:23:22.599

of the court appearances in Salinas, California Davis was one of four Children raised in a loving home by her school teacher, parents in the racial hatred of Birmingham Alabama acknowledged as a brilliant scholar, Davis studied Marxism and joined the Black Panthers after a controversial fight. She

00:23:22.609 - 00:23:40.189

was fired from her position as an assistant professor at U C L A for being a member of the Communist Party. It was during this time that Davis became involved with the Soledad Brothers Defense Committee and George Jackson. At that time, I thought of him as

00:23:40.199 - 00:24:02.729

emblematic of the oppression sustained by black people. The three of them were in chains. It uh certainly evoked slavery, viewed by some as the glamour couple of the revolution. Davis and Jackson formed a close personal relationship, sharing the same vision for political change. And it was

00:24:02.739 - 00:24:23.140

upon seeing him very refreshing to, to realize that uh that he was a human being that he was that he had joy in his heart. Davis also became friends with the Jackson family and teenage brother Jonathan who idolized George. And I think came to imagine his

00:24:23.150 - 00:24:51.469

own life as worth nothing if it could not be used to free his brother. I have a young courageous brother whom I love more than I love myself, but I have given him up to the revolution. I accept the possibility of his eventual death as I

00:24:51.479 - 00:25:16.390

accept the responsibility of my own. In the summer of 1970. Jonathan Jackson celebrated his 17th birthday. Friends at Jackson's Pasadena High School described him as warm, full of humor, never in trouble with the law. He also had an I Q of 117. He just wanted to

00:25:16.400 - 00:25:38.770

make sure that George was not kept in jail. He wanted to make sure that that George was freed. He felt like the judge had been done an injustice. Jonathan would write. I have one question to ask all of you, what would you do if it was

00:25:38.780 - 00:25:54.089

your brother, Jonathan being a young guy and uh decided that, you know, he was going to get his brother out of prison by any means he could. And if it meant going there and taking hostages and exchanging hostages for his brother's freedom, he was willing to

00:25:54.099 - 00:26:20.089

do that. And that was the plan on the morning of August 7th, 1970. At approximately 10 45 AM. Jonathan Jackson walked into the Marin County courtroom of Judge Harold Haley. Within moments, Jonathan pulled out a pistol, carby and a 12 gauge shotgun. He announced that he

00:26:20.099 - 00:26:43.119

was taking over adding this is it everybody freeze weapons were given to inmates, James mcclean, William Christmas and Rochelle mcgee as Judge Haley, assistant district attorney, Gary Thomas and three housewives who were serving as jurors were taken hostage. The gunman also stated we are the revolutionaries.

00:26:43.130 - 00:27:02.739

The soledad brothers must be freed taped under the neck of the 65 year old judge was a shotgun as they got out here. Then this other uh busy hair, white haired one came out, he had the automatic weapon and he came out and about this time,

00:27:02.750 - 00:27:18.849

the one that had the gun on Judge Haley turned around and saw me and he says, kill that mother. He says kill him, kill him, kill him. Jonathan and his fellow gunmen led the hostages to a van in the parking lot of the civic center. By

00:27:18.859 - 00:27:39.040

that time, the van was surrounded by various law enforcement people, including guards from San Quentin who just happened to be nearby, practicing shooting the guards prison. Training included the no hostage rule. It meant negotiating for hostages would not happen with Jonathan Jackson behind the wheel of

00:27:39.050 - 00:27:55.569

the van. Its human cargo was driving straight into the path of a San Quentin Sergeant. He did not have radio contact with the sheriff or anybody else. He did not know that the sheriff of Marin County had said let the van go. So he told his

00:27:55.579 - 00:28:17.229

officers to fire. So they're the ones who really fired the first shot and hit Jonathan first. And a lot of the shooting inside the van was done by the assistant district attorney at the time. Gary Thomas, when one of the convicts went down, the gun fell

00:28:17.239 - 00:28:38.219

on the floor, he picked it up and started firing, killing her. You know, the other inmates inside. When the gunfire ended, Jonathan Jackson, William Christmas and James mcclean were dead. Rochelle mcgee was wounded as was one of the female jurors assistant D A Gary Thomas suffered

00:28:38.229 - 00:28:57.560

a gunshot to his spinal cord and would be paralyzed from the waist down for life. In the frenzy of violence, the shotgun under the neck of Judge Harold Haley was triggered killing him when a shotgun goes off in someone's face, you can imagine how the, the,

00:28:57.569 - 00:29:19.150

the kind of destruction and uh the gruesome effect of that. And so it was, it was quite a shocking scene. I'm saying that there was no conspiracy that Jonathan a 17 year old man child was working according to the dictates of his own mind. George Jackson

00:29:19.160 - 00:29:39.579

would later declare that he was proud of his brother Jonathan's military action. Adding he was the true revolutionary, the black communist guerrillas in the highest state of development. I'll be the last one to say this happened. Uh I had suicide in my, I'm certain that Jonathan

00:29:39.589 - 00:30:03.130

felt that they are, the police would have some concern would give some concern to the lives of those five civilians. I'm thinking that Jonathan was trying to demonstrate, trying to demonstrate to the public to the people just how uh uh he felt that these problems should

00:30:03.140 - 00:30:26.569

be. Um I think that he was led to believe that it was possible even by George himself. I think George encouraged this. I think George put him up to it. It's very tragic that uh he died at such, such a young age. I don't think many

00:30:26.579 - 00:30:48.510

of us realize how exclusively focused he was on, on George. Nobody knows what he was thinking except Jonathan. But I think he did it for love of his brother and his country. He was trying to wake the people in this country up to the fact that

00:30:48.520 - 00:31:11.150

black people had nothing because some of the weapons used by Jonathan Jackson were bought and registered by Angela Davis. Law enforcement officials believed Davis was a co conspirator. Davis fled and became a fugitive from justice. The object of a nationwide manhunt by the FBI. Her wanted

00:31:11.160 - 00:31:32.339

poster listed charges of murder, kidnapping and conspiracy. Well, I left because I, I did not think there was any possibility of justice. I didn't have any choice. It wasn't something I wanted to do. It was something I had to do. We were driven by fear. Absolutely.

00:31:32.750 - 00:31:54.500

Absolutely. Two months later, the 26 year old Davis was arrested in a New York City motel after her return to California, she was taken to the Marin County jail and locked up one floor above the courtroom where Jonathan Jackson had taken the hostages. The Jonathan Jackson

00:31:54.510 - 00:32:16.829

thing uh put us on the alert specifically, it reinforced our belief that there are people out there radicals out there are willing to do almost anything in order to make their point or to free George Jackson. The real fatal irony of the Marin County courthouse shootout

00:32:16.839 - 00:32:46.170

is that after Jonathan's death, George Jackson's death becomes inevitable. George Jackson had to transform himself finally into the dragon. The shaman, the priest, the convict of revenge. Coming up on day of the gun, George Jackson wants a weapon and tells the world he hopes to escape.

00:32:49.569 - 00:33:18.329

We now return to Kron four presents day of the gun. Viewer discretion is advised dear mama, I'm going to night school again and have encountered no trouble of late. They say today is Mother's Day. I can't make much sense of it though. I love mine every

00:33:18.339 - 00:33:40.630

day. You know, there are many black people in this country who have faith in the court. They believe they can get justice. I used to believe it myself but not anymore. What happens to George now, what, what do you expect? I don't know what will happen

00:33:40.640 - 00:34:02.369

to George in the summer of 1970. After the location for the trial of the Soledad brothers had been moved to San Francisco, George Jackson, John Cloche and Fleta Drum were transferred to San Quentin's Adjustment Center. The ac home to the prison's most dangerous inmates where the

00:34:02.380 - 00:34:26.719

animosity between guard and convict was mutual in October radical sheikh came to the gates of the prison when a champagne party of 150 people was held to celebrate the release of Jackson's book Soledad Brother. Though some in the prison system would dispute Jackson's credibility as author.

00:34:26.840 - 00:34:47.939

The book was the apex of his prison transformation. It was a very personal book, a very novelistic book and a book that portrayed George Jackson very unrealistically as a victim, a martyr of the prison system, which he was not. If there's anything that George Jackson was

00:34:47.949 - 00:35:13.870

not. It's a martyr soledad, brother became a sensation, an international best seller, praised by the New York Times. Jackson was called the Successor to Malcolm X Black Panther Huey P. Newton said George was the greatest writer of us all. George Jackson had the understanding of what

00:35:13.879 - 00:35:39.989

comes from the ground. What is the lowest moment in humanity, religious to my family, my mother, my father, my sisters, my brother, they were intended to familiarize ma'am with the situation I was faced with here. Of course, here in prison, we see the repression, the exploitation,

00:35:40.679 - 00:36:07.399

the the victimization of uh lower class people. The book offered many sides to Jackson's personality. There were epistles on slavery, the evils of capitalism, adoration for Cuban revolutionary Che Guevara Jackson wrote often to his mother, Georgia revealing their disagreements and love. He also corresponded with his

00:36:07.409 - 00:36:30.040

father, Lester, a man whom Jackson believed had been defeated by a racist society. How do you think I felt when I looked in your face, saw the clouds forming and see your best efforts go for nothing. I count the times on my hands that you manage

00:36:30.050 - 00:36:53.290

to work up a smile. The book was also a public relations triumph for Jackson's attorney, Bayer Stender was tireless in making her client and prison letters famous throughout the world. And she really was involved in making George Jackson a celebrity Jackson affectionately called the well known

00:36:53.300 - 00:37:16.330

39 year old Berkeley lawyer. His small but mighty mouthpiece afraid for their lives if they testify or even friendly to the defense and the soledad brothers and face Dender also convinced a fellow radical attorney, John Thorn to join Jackson's case. A case which Dender believed needed

00:37:16.340 - 00:37:40.429

to be tried in the court of public opinion. She was diminutive, smallish, brilliant mind, knew exactly what she wanted when Stiner organized the Soledad Brothers defense committee, engaging famous names like actress Jane Fonda to raise money and notoriety. Stender wanted to create an atmosphere of acquittal.

00:37:41.250 - 00:38:00.320

It is incumbent upon all of us to speak out about it to make it known to the public. What is happening in this country that there are political prisoners, political trials. But in the days and months after his brother, Jonathan's death, some began to see a

00:38:00.330 - 00:38:16.840

change in George Jackson's personality. He act like he didn't care about anything anymore. After that, he was more introverted. Uh he seemed like he got irritated at things more quickly and stuff, you know, like one day I don't know, some guard did something to him in

00:38:16.850 - 00:38:34.639

the visiting room. He got in a hell of a fight with him in the visiting room. Yeah, he changed a lot others believed Jackson's years of incarceration had limited his real life view of the outside world. And his idea was that there was an actual shooting

00:38:34.649 - 00:38:58.389

revolution going on outside in the streets of the Bay area. So what we're looking at here is a very, very isolated, restricted world view, maybe even delusional. One might say Jackson's relationship with face Tennder also came to an end. They clashed over the distribution of proceeds

00:38:58.399 - 00:39:14.419

from his book. George Jackson said, no, I want to build a revolutionary movement. I'm getting out of here and I want my money to go towards my friend James Carr, who was a prisoner who had been released, who was organizing and building a little army on

00:39:14.429 - 00:39:35.000

the outside. And that's where they, that's how they parted with Gregory Armstrong, a Harvard graduate and self described leftist intellectual was the New York editor of Soledad. Brother Armstrong was among those who deified Jackson. Greg was definitely a true believer in George. And I remember him

00:39:35.010 - 00:39:55.020

seriously asking me one time if I was really part of the group, whether I could help him get a helicopter to free Jackson from prison. And we escaped to Mexico during some of his visits with Jackson at San Quentin Armstrong taped their conversations. The most shocking

00:39:55.030 - 00:40:21.290

revelation was that Jackson confessed to the murder of Soledad Guard John Mills. Though Armstrong fully embraced the perceived injustice of Jackson's incarceration. Armstrong would deny his friend's appeal for guns and at some point, George go appeals to Greg Armstrong to start bringing him weapons. And George

00:40:21.300 - 00:40:40.840

asked a lot of people to bring him guns and various other things. Eventually Greg Armstrong was able to say no, he had to say no, he knew that if he did this, there was no going back in one of Jackson's last interviews, he told a reporter

00:40:40.850 - 00:40:59.590

from the New York Times that he would never be released from prison, never be paroled. Jackson added the whole truth is I would hope to escape. George Jackson was committed to breaking out of prison. Yes, I mean, that's what a lot of people don't realize he

00:40:59.600 - 00:41:13.830

did not believe the system could be reformed by some sort of a showpiece trial of which he would be the the star kind of the in the, in a circus. And there was no way that he was going to betray himself as a victim or an

00:41:13.840 - 00:41:46.629

apologist for anything that he believed in or anything that he did. Next on day of the gun. George Jackson takes over the adjustment center and the madness begins. We now return to Kron four presents a of the gun. This program contains graphic pictures and descriptions of

00:41:46.639 - 00:42:18.850

violent events. Viewer discretion is advised it's going to be kill me if you can fool, not kill me if you please. Yeah, I think George Jackson was ready to die. As a matter of fact, what occurs to me is in some ways, the way he spoke,

00:42:18.860 - 00:42:43.479

he was already dead. He was past death. August 21st, 1971. It was a Saturday, warm and sunny, a beautiful day in the Bay area. According to John Cloche, the soledad brothers were looking forward to their trial just 48 hours away. But in the heat of San

00:42:43.489 - 00:43:02.810

Quentin's afternoon, the normal routine in the prison's adjustment center would dissolve into madness. What did he say? Uh I'm, I'm a, I'm a blade in the throat of fascism, you know, violent imagery. And that's really what happened on August 21st, 1971 there were blades in the

00:43:02.820 - 00:43:25.040

throat of fascism. That day, James Park was the acting warden at San Quentin Park and his wife were shopping that morning in San Rafael attorney Steven Bingham was driving from Berkeley to visit his client George Jackson, Alan Mancino. Now an inmate in the adjustment center was

00:43:25.050 - 00:43:42.989

in his cell reading a western novel. One of the Officers on Duty was Paul Krass. Krass was a 52 year old family man who lived in Nevada with his wife and three daughters. He was a very caring father. He would be there when uh when I

00:43:43.000 - 00:43:59.169

first learned how to walk, uh you know, he was there holding me, making sure I was OK. My first steps, Cheryl was the adopted daughter of Paul Krasner and remembers her father as a man who went to church every Sunday, loved music. And played the piano.

00:44:00.659 - 00:44:19.479

He liked to barbecue, he liked to garden. He, he was a country person at heart. After 20 years in the prison system, Krass was close to ending his career and looked forward to retirement in Mexico with his wife Francis daughter, Elizabeth would not go on camera.

00:44:20.699 - 00:44:39.739

The days before the uprising, there was a lot of tension, prisoners were getting out of hand. There were talks of riots and even said to my mother once. Well, I don't even know if I'll be, if I'll be coming back or if I come home. And

00:44:39.750 - 00:45:04.260

this is in the week before August 21st a day, maybe two days before it happened. I, you, you, you seem to grow an antenna. You, you, you know, you can sense something's happening when you're in prison and you can sense the pigeon, you can sense incitement

00:45:04.270 - 00:45:21.629

because it's quiet but you can sense something was going on. Yeah, I, I, I figured something was happening. I didn't know if uh what it was, but I knew something was about to go down. No single name would become more important in the tragic events of

00:45:21.639 - 00:45:40.149

that summer day than attorney Stephen Bingham. The 29 year old Bingham was a graduate of Yale University, the law school in U C Berkeley and once worked in the civil rights movement on the morning of August 21st, Bingham had not planned on going to San Quentin

00:45:41.449 - 00:46:03.459

a last minute phone call, however, changed his schedule. A Black Panther wanted Bingham to assist a legal investigator, Benita Anderson in her visit with Jackson. Bingham was reluctant but agreed she didn't know me from. I mean, I neither of us have met each other before after

00:46:03.469 - 00:46:25.899

arriving at San Quentin at around 10 AM. Bingham and Anderson had their personal belongings inspected by prison guards but their visit with Jackson was denied by a lieutenant in charge. Bingham protested at around one pm. Warden Park returned from San Rafael Park approved the visit, established

00:46:25.909 - 00:46:51.379

policy could not prevent it. Anderson however, was not allowed in to see Jackson and then Officer Scarborough, uh ask me, aren't you gonna take the tape recorder in? And I said something like, well, I don't have one and that was when Vanita Anderson said that, well,

00:46:51.389 - 00:47:14.030

you can take mine and that was apparently what was inside the briefcase. According to Bingham. Once inside the visiting room, Jackson examined the draft of his second book at Jackson's request. Bingham left the room to have Anderson review some papers. Sometime after two o'clock, the meeting

00:47:14.040 - 00:47:37.169

came to an end. Bingham and Anderson signed out of the prison at 2 30 PM and departed for Berkeley. Do you ever use the tape recorder? Do you ever pull it out of the attache case? Do you ever transfer a gun to George Jackson? George Jackson

00:47:37.179 - 00:47:57.370

was taken from the visiting area by officer Frank De Leon de Leon was 44 years old stocky and the married father of five Children when he arrived at the door of the adjustment center with Jackson Sergeant Kenneth mccray allowed both men inside mcray was 39 years

00:47:57.379 - 00:48:23.280

old, married and had three Children. Guard Urbano Rubio was nearby. Rubio was 25 years old and had previously worked at Soledad's. According to Rubio, as he came face to face with Jackson, he noticed a shiny object in the inmate's hair and he says, you know, what's

00:48:23.290 - 00:48:44.000

that in your hair? Jackson and Jackson says nothing and the guard reaches up and he touches it and there's resistance, it feels like metal or something. Mccray looked up, saw something similar and ordered Jackson to produce it. A bullet clip falls through the floor, clatters to

00:48:44.010 - 00:49:00.219

the floor and they, they look at it and they're, what is that? I mean, how could this possibly be? And in the next instant, George Jackson reaches into his hair, pulls out the gun, he has another bullet clip in his hand. He slams the clip into

00:49:00.229 - 00:49:22.679

the butt of the nine millimeter. He points it at the guards and he says the dragon has come and that begins what would become a blood bath coming up on day of the gun. San Quentin's worst day.