One speaker, for example, discussed the Watts riots of 1965 and showed a film of blacks being beaten by police and National Guardsmen. But we got nothing. That same night, a briefcase, tape recorder, cassettes, and binders concerning the Zebra trial were stolen from the parked car of one of the defense attorneys, John Cruikshank. Before leaving, the man cleaned out the safe and the cash register, netting $1,300. unprovoked attacks involving random shooting of whites in the street or mutilation by heavy-bladed weapons committed by neatly dressed young black men. A patrol car cruising down Haight St. spotted a match. It was one oclock in the morning of January 29, several hours after the last shooting in San Francisco, and 26-year-old Thomas Bates was hitch-hiking beside an on-ramp leading to the Bay Bridge. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google privacy policy and terms of serviceapply. Which meant they didnt just want to kill them. Zebra Murders Collection - Bay Area Television Archive More than four months and 10 more shootings would pass before they could be brought to justice. //]]> The pattern of killing is by random street shooting or hacking to death with machete, cleaver or knife. Struggling to park her car in a tight spot, she noticed another black man approach the driver of the double-parked car. Use a blade and really hack them up. Part of the reason was the fear of a white backlash. Remembering The Zebra Killings 40 Years Later - YouTube 26 and their workplace. Zebra murders meant to start race war. Hell, I only made about sixteen a year before overtime, and I had to pay taxes. J. C. Simon died in 2015, aged 69. An examination of the specific facts in the attached partial list of victims amply supports the inference, on courtroom evidence, that the similarity of pattern is better explained by concert of action than by coincidence. Local newsfilm reports featuring press conferences, interviews, protests and crime scenes relating to a series of killings in San Francisco that happened between 1973-4, which came to be known as the Zebra murders. One of the investigating officers recalls: Id been in the department ten years.