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Where I was living then was about 20 miles east of there in a county that had one grocery store. I always went to Huntsville to go to the beauty shop and grocery shop. That day I went to the beauty shop, and after leaving there stopped at a Walgreens a short distance from there. There was a policeman standing at the entrance of Walgreens. That was strange, I thought.
The policeman asked me where I was going after Walgreens. Told him going to a grocery store a short distance from that Walgreens (but the grocery store was on the main street that went into downtown and then by the prison just a few blocks from the center of town), and that's where the execution would be.
He told me the New Black Panthers were in town due to a black being executed later that day and they were going into stores causing trouble. He said he was stationed at the Walgreens in case some came there. The entire center of town, around the square at the courthouse, was closed - all store owners had locked up and left and that included any bank in the whole town, not just around the courthouse.
He asked how I was leaving town. I said down the main street through town and going by the prison. He said to take another route, go around the town, then meet up with the road I needed to get home.
He said get in the grocery store and out as fast as you can and get out of town. I went to the grocery and there was a cop in front of that store. That cop said the store would close soon so get what I needed and leave. By that time, I was looking right and left for any sign of a Black Panther.
I got out of the store, watched all ways going to my Jag and locked my doors as soon as I was in the car. That black Jag was an eye catcher and I wanted out of that town fast.
I knew streets that would go around the town and bypass the prison and took those to get back to the road I needed.
The person now to be executed is a black person. I don't know if the Black Panther leader who lives in Houston will gather up his men, they will put on their black ski masks and be in Huntsville for the execution.
I do know when I was there, the Black Panthers shut down that town completely and no business was done from the afternoon until the next day. No one made any money that day.
There was discussion after the town was shut down, to move executions to another place that was not inside a town. I guess that never happened as it appears this one is still in the same place as I know others were after that day I was there.