Murder At San Quentin

This non-fiction book is about a series of racially motivated murders that led to the suicidal escape attempt of George Jackson from San Quentin prison on August 21, 1971. It brought international attention to Marin County and the San Quentin Six. I deal with the aftermath of Jackson’s death and the impact of the slain officers on the community and the prison employees. Book recounts other gang related murders with a few concluding chapters on Manson.

On February 15, 1963, Booker T. Johnson, a black inmate, was shot to death in a San Quentin prison exercise yard. I related his death as the first in a series of murders that enrage black inmates throughout the California prison system. In January 13, 1970 at Soledad State Prison, three black inmates are shot to death in a maximum security exercise yard. The blacks retaliate by murdering an officer. A group of blacks are charged and become known as the Soledad Brothers. George Jackson is identified as their leader. A shootout at the Marin County Court House in January 1971 takes place. A judge is killed, a District Attorney is seriously wounded and Jackson’s seventeen year old brother, Jonathan, is slain. On August 21, 1971, George Jackson is shot and killed trying to escape from San Quentin Prison. Three officers are murdered. The community is outraged and the prison’s employees are devastated. A trial follows. In the aftermath of the murders, prison officials require procedural changes to reduce violence. New staff members are brought in to alter the prison culture. The struggle between the old guard and the new turns hostile as racial and gang violence continues. Other accounts of murders inside the prison are investigated as the trial of the San Quentin Six proceeds. The last three chapters deal with an episode involving Charles Manson, the Warden and the author At the end of the book, a bonus poem, Helter Skelter in verse, is offered in an elegy on Manson’s life.

I am the author of “Taming the Beast,” Charles Manson’s Life behind Prison Bars. I graduated from the University of San Francisco where I received a BA in Liberal Arts. I spent five years studying for the priesthood before joining the Navy’s flight program. Upon discharge, I spent a two years as a social worker, and two years as a cop in the city of Alameda. For thirty years, I worked for the California Dept. of Corrections. Hired as a correctional counselor, I promoted to a program administrator. After thirty-years, I retired, and taught at a local Community College for ten years. I have written several articles for local newspapers and a few for small trade publications. My first book, “Taming the Beast,” Charles Manson’s life behind Prison Bars, was published by St. Martin’s Press in 1998. Last year, I published a novel, “The Bishop’s Folly,” Scandal in the Church,” now available as an e-book. The novel is about an ambitious Archbishop who has covered up for priests accused of child molesting. A retired Navy Chaplain and a former nun, former lovers, discovered the bishop’s scandalous behavior and attempt to expose him. Retaliation is brutal. The novel deals with gays in the priesthood and current moral issues. It also offers a shocking view of clerical politics.