Alex Rackley
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Alex Rackley was a twenty-four year old member of the New York chapter of the Black Panther party who was kidnapped and taken to Panther headquarters in New Haven, Connecticut where he was held for two days and tortured. Early on May 21, 1969, he was shot to death in the wetlands of Middlefield, Connecticut and his body was dumped into the Coginchaug River because he was suspected of being a police informant. [1] This led to the arrest and trial of the "New Haven Nine" as well as Bobby Seale and Ericka Huggins on charges of murder, and gained nationwide notoriety as the New Haven Black Panthers trial, which coincided with the beginning of the student strike of 1970.
At the time, suspicion that the FBI had agents infiltrating the Panthers was widespread, and well founded. In September, 1968, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover described the Black Panthers as "The greatest threat to the internal security of the country." By 1969, the Black Panthers were the primary target of the FBI's COINTELPRO, and the target of 233 out of a total of 295 authorized "Black Nationalist" COINTELPRO actions.
Rackley's body was discovered by 23 year old factory worker John Mroczka, who had stopped his motorcycle near a bridge on Route 147 and was looking for a trout fishing spot on the river bank. State police recovered the body, later identified from fingerprints as Rackley, of a black male whose wrists were tied with gauze, with a noose made from a wire coat hanger around his neck. The autopsy stated that the man had been severely tortured, with extensive burns on wide areas of his chest, wrists, buttocks, thighs, and right shoulder, had been beaten around his face, groin, and lumbar region with a hard object, and was killed by shots to the head and chest within the preceding twelve to twenty four hours. After an informant reported having seen the deceased being tortured by scalding, late on May 22 New Haven police raided the home of Warren Kimbro at 365 Orchard St., which served as the New Haven headquarters of the Black Panther party. [2]
Eventually, Kimbro, Bridgeport, Connecticut Panther Lonnie McLucas, and national Panther field marshal George W. Sams, Jr. were convicted of the killing, Sams having ordered the execution, Kimbro first shooting Rackley in the head and McLucas then shooting him again when Sams ordered him to "make sure he's dead". Sams and Kimbro turned state's evidence in exchange for reducing the charges to second degree murder and received mandatory life sentences but each only spent four years in prison. McLucas was found guilty of conspiracy to commit murder and sentenced to twelve to fifteen years in prison. [3], [4], [5] Despite Sams' testimony that he was acting on orders from Seale, who had been in New Haven to speak the day previous to the murder, no corroborating evidence was found, and the trial of Seale and Huggins resulted in a deadlocked jury, 11 to 1 for Seale's acquittal and 10 to 2 for Huggin's acquittal; the prosecution declined to retry the case.[6], [7]
According to author, Hugh Pearson, "The Rackley case became one of the most controversial Panther cases of all, a prime example of the question of which illegal activities could be blamed on genuine party leaders, and which on agents-provocateurs or just plain deviants in the party. Seale was accused of ordering Rackley’s murder for being an alleged government agent, with the words, ‘Do away with him.’ Williams and others were accused of being present when Seale gave the command, George Sams accepting it, then he, Lonnie McLucas, and Warren Kimbro, the alleged triggermen, driving Rackley to a swamp to kill him. The case hinged largely on the questions of whether Seale actually did appear to give the command, and if so, how Seale’s command could be interpreted. The Panthers would insist that party member George Sams ordered the murder of Rackley on his own." (The Shadow of the Panther: Huey Newton and the Price of Black Power in America)
Ironically, many commentators felt that Rackley had been framed by the actual informant and agent provocateur, the prosecution's "star witness" Sams himself, who bore the nickname "Crazy George". [8]
