Customer Reviews

The Zebra Murders: A Season of Killing, Racial Madness, and Civil Rights

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

There is so much in the book that can be considered a distortion of the facts its hard to know where to begin. Most importantly, remember, ALL the killers were not prosecuted. They remain free on the streets of America.

And, Sanders may have contributed to them never being prosecuted. The FBI currently has an "uncaptured" Zebra suspect under surveillance.

Here's what Sander's has done to maybe prevent a prosecution from going foward. He claims that a box of Zebra reports (and evidence?) inadavertently arrived at his home when he retired as Chief of Police. He then writes in his book that he allowed the co-author of his book, Bennett Cohen, to look at the Zebra reports (and evidence?).

As a long time Homocide Inspector (Detective) he knows that he could have compromised the case. The box should have been immediately returned to the Police Department. A Police Department investigation is need to determine how he came into possession of the Zebra boxed reports--and have they been returned.

We fear that this story about how the box arrived at his home may be a coverup in that he may have allowed co-author Cohen to see all of the files that he ordered placed in his office while he was Chief of Police, in anticipation of writing this book.

All of his effort just to glorifiy his name ( as he does throughout the book) makes his career a sad commentary for any young African American person looking for a legitmate black hero to emulate. They need and deserve legitimate black heroes as role models. His failure to immediately return the box of Zebra case files shows him as man who lacks integrity, lacks a good sense of "professional ethics" and is less than a responsible law enforcement representative. Louis Calabro, Retired San Francisco Police Lieutenant.

Former San Francisco Chief of Police Sanders' book comes up short on meeting most standards of objectivity. I am personally acquainted with a number of retired San Francisco police officers who worked on the Zebra case. All recall that Sanders played, at best, a minor role in solving the case and bringing the killers to trial. Sanders' lack of objectivity and obvious attempt at self promotion render his book a less than factual read when compared to the Clark Howard book, "Zebra" written in the early '80s.

I bought this book with the hope of enhancing my limited knowledge on this critical time in the city of San Fransico that took place back in the 1970's. I did read Clark Howards book on the same subject about 25 years ago. After reading Mr Sanders version of the events I wonder if they were both writing about the same incident. Needless to say, Mr. Sanders book leaves one with the feeling that the real crime was the fact that the Mayor of S.F. and the police were using every means at there disposal to put a stop to these horrible crimes.

One fact that seems to be at odds with Mr. Sanders is the fact that after months of frustration, the police were able to create a crack in the case within a week of finally taking drastic actions in regards to a dragnet in the area where most of the killings took place. This is in direct contrast to the point that Mr. Sanders makes throughout the book which is to say that the then S.F. police department was completely corrupt and unable to solve crimes because they were so at odds with most of the citizens of S.F. A point most everyone else disputes.

I believe the fact that the crime was solved only after the police applied direct pressure speaks for itself in terms of whatit really took to put a stop to these killers.

I would not recommend this book to anyone who is searching for a truthful, insighful and accurate telling of this tragic chapter in the city by the bay.

I was a member of the SFPD's Tactical Unit during this time period and worked both in plain clothes and uniform while these murders were taking place. Mr. Sanders and Mr. Cohen, by means of very broad strokes of the pen and innuendo, give the appearance that white officers seldom had much to offer and black officers were constantly discriminated against. That was not my experience. For several weeks there was an undercover group of us that drove or walked around the areas where the homicides had most often occured, and some members of the unit were African-Americans. Others, like me, were not. In essence, we were decoys, walking targets. That information was apparently not in the box of evidence "mistakenly" sent to Mr. Sanders' home. We worked very hard and, unlike Mr. Sanders, had no interrogation room to sit around drinking alcohol while discussing the case. We drank coffee, kept quiet and looked for the murderers. There are several mistakes which could be addressed in a different format but I don't wish to belabor everything in this review. However, the book also misleads the reader into believing that minorities failed promotional exams because they were given exams that were different than other officers. That is not accurate. All participants were given the same test and many people who took the exams didn't score high enough to qualify for promotion. Why so many minorities didn't is a completely different discussion than to summarily dismiss that result by misleading readers that they were given different exams. The disservice done by over-stating racist cases, such as I read in this book, is that legitimate cases have a more difficult time succeeding. One last complaint is that there is not one reference note. A book of this nature demands references. What we have without them is pretty much opinion, which a good investigator knows, doesn't make for a convincing case. By the way, I didn't buy this book but retrieved it from the public library. That way I only wasted my time.

I recommend that you read the ORIGINAL "Zebra" by Clarke Howard. THAT is the TRUE story, taken from transcripts, police reports, etc. Sanders was not the lead inspector on this case, and seems to be taking credit where it is NOT due. He was being trained at the time by the real lead inspectors, and is attempting to pass himself off as the one that solved the case, which he is not. It is shameful that someone would try to take credit for a case which he did not actually solve. If you want the real story, written by an independent author, get your hands on the book by Clarke Howard. This is merely the author's attempt at unwarranted self promotion.

This tries to be a hard-hitting expose of the Zebra Murders. Instead its simply a confused jumble of disconnected facts and observations. I cannot recommend this.

earl "the pearl" prentice sanders, known primarily for being arrested, photographed and booked by his own district attorney while he was chief of the san francisco police department, and for withholding murder trial evidence, (a murder confession), from the superior court which convicted two men of homicide wrongly, and sent them to prison for over 10 years, has co-authored a book in which he takes credit for something he didn't do. what he *has done is bad enough, but to sell a book of lies to the unwitting is really, really low. you don't want to buy this piece of trash. he must be attempting to build a cushion for the pending civil case . . .

It's not worth reading since it doesn't portray the facts correctly.

Any one that knows the facts of this case will find it a frustrating book to read.

I didn't like it; don't waste your time on this one.

B.P.

When this book came out I was really happy to see that a long overdue update of

the Zebra case had been done. What a disappointment.

I would have thought that Prentice Sanders would have been embarrassed to put his name

on this work of fiction penned by Mr. Cohen, but after reading a bit about the career of Mr.

Sanders (fast tracked to promotion, not discriminated against by the eternally politically

correct SF politicos who run the SFPD) I was not surprised that he went along with the fantasy.

Clark Howard's book Zebra, long out of print, remains the authoritative study of the horrific

crimes by some Nation of Islam renegades (I'll give the NOI the benefit of the doubt).

Sanders and Cohen add nothing more than a footnote or two to what is already known about the Zebra crimes.

Hardly any investigation about those murders was done for this book - but that's simply because the book

was really about Prentice Sanders, not the Zebra case. A better title for the book would have been Sanders' Lament.

More needs to be known about the Zebra killings. How many more of the killers escaped justice? How many more victims

were there? Were there more NOI killing groups around the country, as some have alleged? Were the "Death's Angels" renegade

NOI, or were they sanctioned by the group's top leadership?

I guess that after so many years, it is too much to hope that some of the surviving detectives who investigated the Zebra crimes might write a book about the case and address some of these questions. It's a shame Prentice Sanders did not.

By the way, I'm happy to say that I picked this book up at a thrift shop for less than a dollar. The copy appeared to have

been unread.

I wanted to learn about the Zebra murders when I got this book from the library. Instead, the authors basically told two stories-parallels-about the discrimination against non white officers in the SFPD and the brutal slayings of white people because they were white. Not for a second condoning discrimination, shooting people in the spine or butchering someone's face with a knife are a world away from precluding minorities from joining the force. In short, the true victims of the Zebra murders were the people that died and their families. The perfunctory attention given to them, contrasted with half of the text devoted to the plight of black officers being denied advancement in the SFPD is a joke and a travesty to the memories of the people that died.

We all know if the races were reversed, the authors would have described the attacks as "lynchings" and "hate crimes." But alas, the victims were white, so we get lectured about the biased police entrance exams and racial profiling. If you enjoy wallowing in white guilt, this book is for you.