The Road to Hell: The True Story of George Jackson, Stephen Bingham and the San Quentin Massacre [Hardcover]

Paul Liberatore (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1996

Award-winning author Paul Liberatore traces the chilling story of a young black man convicted of a $70 robbery who became a bestselling writer and a "revolutionary hero" of the counterculture and the young, white, Yale-educated civil rights activist who became his lawyer. On August 21, 1971, inmate George Jackson led the infamous San Quentin massacre, which resulted in his death and the deaths of five others. Two months later, Stephen Bingham was indicted for murder and conspiracy for allegedly smuggling the gun to Jackson.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

George Jackson, black revolutionary and author of Soledad Brother (1971), was killed on August 21, 1971 in an escape attempt at San Quentin Prison. Bingham, one of Jackson's lawyers, was suspected of having passed Jackson a gun that same day. Three guards and two white inmates were murdered and others injured during the melee. Bingham went into hiding for 13 years, turning himself over to authorities in 1984. A jury subsequently acquitted him of conspiracy and murder charges. Liberatore's credentials for writing this account are solid: he covered Bingham's trial for the San Francisco Chronicle and had access to previously secret FBI reports, investigations, surveillance, and wiretaps of the Black Panthers and other radical groups. Even so, he readily admits that certain questions remain unanswered. Jo Durden Smith's Who Killed George Jackson? (LJ 10/1/76) speculates on a government conspiracy, while Gregory Armstrong's The Dragon Has Come (LJ 6/15/74) sheds light on Jackson's persona from someone close to him. While not definitive, this straightforward account is recommended for most libraries.?Gary D. Barber, SUNY at Fredonia Lib.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Journalist Liberatore has written an in-depth account of the infamous San Quentin massacre that is as much a compelling account of the 1971 prison riot as it is a snapshot of the U.S. during the political upheavals of the late 1960s. Road to Hell focuses on the massacre's two protagonists: George Jackson, Black Panther field marshal and author of the prison memoir Soledad Brother, and his radical lawyer, Stephen Bingham. Armed with a 9mm pistol, Jackson launched the riot that ultimately resulted in his own death as well as that of five others. Suspected of passing the pistol to Jackson, Bingham fled to Europe. The differences between the two, Jackson, a working-class black man convicted of a $70 robbery, and Bingham, a white Yale-educated lawyer from a prominent New England family, provide the most compelling material for the book. Liberatore seems to dwell mainly on Bingham. He was the more accessible subject, but Bingham also personified the New Left radical most clearly. Bingham's political awakening at Yale, his activism at Berkeley in the late '60s, his exile in Europe and return to the U.S. to face trial in 1983 is a stunning story. Ted Leventhal

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 270 pages
• Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Pr; 1st edition (July 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0871136473
• ISBN-13: 978-0871136473
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,666,648 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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5.0 out of 5 stars Well Done, October 9, 2011

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This review is from: The Road to Hell: The True Story of George Jackson, Stephen Bingham and the San Quentin Massacre (Hardcover)

The detailed cross cultural and racial revolutionary relationship between Jackson and Bingham could only happen in America. Interested in American history and resistance to inequality, I highly recommend this book.