Revolution's End by Brad Schreiber

Author:Brad Schreiber
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
Published: 2015-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

8 PEOPLE IN NEED

THE MOST FAMOUS KIDNAPPING IN the history of the United States occurred during an extraordinarily chaotic time. Before 1973 ended, President Richard Nixon offered as evidence of his Watergate innocence a group of subpoenaed audio tapes, one of which had a gap of eighteen and a half minutes. Chief of Staff Alexander Haig claimed one possible explanation for the erasure was “some sinister force.”

That might well have been sufficient to explain a series of murders in San Francisco, the Zebra Killings, which began in October 1973. Named for the “Z” radio band police used to communicate about the murders, the Zebra killings involved black suspects randomly killing whites. There was no pattern, and the murders occurred in various San Francisco neighborhoods. Most were shot with handguns, but an early female victim was hacked to pieces with a machete.

In this atmosphere of terror, Donald DeFreeze’s SLA was alienated from any support on the left. Willie Wolfe, confused by the Foster-Blackburn action, was still at his father’s home in Pennsylvania, again talking about marriage to Eva Olsson. Little and Remiro, before their arrests, both tried to reach Willie on the phone, and Little finally did, urging him to return to the Bay Area.

Wolfe did not immediately do so. Whether he was sincere about getting married or not, Wolfe was going through a psychological crisis about his participation in the SLA.

But on January 10, Wolfe received a long distance phone call at his father’s house from Bill Harris, informing him of the arrest of Little and Remiro for the alleged killing of Foster. Willie evasively told Dr. Wolfe that he had a sick friend on the West Coast and had to leave immediately. Willie canceled a visit with his father on January 11 and got his sister Roxie to drive him to a bus station. He gave her his most prized possession, a duffel bag that had previously belonged to his father. Neither his father, his sister, nor anyone else in his family ever saw him again. The last contact Willie had with his family was the Valentine he sent to his mother.

If Little and Remiro had not been arrested, Wolfe might have left the SLA and lived a full life. While none of the white members of the SLA defied the dictates of their black convict leader, Wolfe, unlike his fellow white revolutionaries in the group, knew Foster was not the enemy he was portrayed to be. The trip to see his father served as time to get some distance from and perspective on his SLA involvement.

Wolfe had lived with Joe Remiro in a small cottage on Bond Street in Oakland. He knew Remiro and Little were innocent of the Foster killing, and he had to grapple with the strong possibility that they were going to be in prison for life.

But while Wolfe returned to California out of loyalty to his compatriots, what he didn’t realize was the SLA was about to execute its second mission, one that would bring it notoriety around the world.

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