Willie Turks
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Willie Turks (February 4, 1948 - June 22, 1982) was a New York City Transit worker who was beaten and killed by a white mob in the Gravesend section of Brooklyn on the night of June 22, 1982. His death was the first in a string of prominent racial attacks that took place in New York City in the 1980s. The others were the killing of Michael Griffith in 1986, and Yusuf Hawkins in 1989.[1]
[edit] Prosecution of Assailants
Six men were eventually charged in connection with Turks' death. Of them, Gino Bova received the longest sentence, 5 to 15 years. At Bova's sentencing on March 31, 1983 the presiding judge Sybil Hart Kooper stated There was a lynch mob on Avenue X that night. The only thing missing was a rope and a tree.
[edit] Notes
1. Fried, Joseph P. "Maximum Sentence Is Given To Youth In Killing Of Black." New York Times 1 April 1983, B3.
