James McClain holds a sawed-off shotgun at the throat of Judge Harold J. Haley and aims a pistol at law enforcement officers. In the background are other hostages taken by the convicts in their attempt to escape. Road flares, which were used to simulate sticks of Dynamite, was held at the Judge’s throat before being replaced by a sawed-off shotgun which was taped around his neck.
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In 1970, fired UCLA professor Angela Davis considered a prison inmate named George Jackson to be her “lifetime” husband, though they were never legally married. George Jackson was a Black Panther and in a subset of the Black Panthers called the Soledad Brothers. A plan was hatched to get Jackson out of prison by kidnapping persons during the trial of another Black Panther named James McClain. Those to be held hostage – including the judge, deputy district attorney, and jurors – would be traded for Jackson’s freedom. McClain was being tried in the Marin County Hall of Justice. Judge Haley was presiding over the trial of McClain who was accused of stabbing a prison guard while serving a sentence for burglary.
The person chosen to effectuate the kidnapping was George Jackson’s 17 year old younger brother Jonathan P. Jackson. In the week preceding the kidnapping, Angela Davis and Jonathan Jackson spent much time together, visiting George, buying things, and cashing checks. In the days before the kidnapping, Davis and Jonathan Jackson drove to Mexico, Santa Cruz, Oakland, San Jose, San Francisco, and San Rafael. Two days before the kidnapping, Davis and Jonathan Jackson bought a shotgun from a pawn shop in San Francisco. After Davis paid for the shotgun, the barrel of the shotgun was sawed off so as to be concealable.
On the day before the kidnapping, Davis and Jonathan Jackson were in a rented yellow utility van at the Marin Courthouse. Jonathan went into the courtroom where James McClain was on trial. Jonathan was wearing a long buttoned-up raincoat, even though it was a hot August day with no rain. The van had troubles running, so Jonathan and Davis drove to a gas station down the street from the courthouse to get the van repaired.
On August 7, 1970, a heavily armed Jonathan Jackson returned to the courthouse in the yellow van. He entered the courtroom again wearing the long raincoat. Jonathan Jackson brought three guns registered to Angela Davisinto the Hall of Justice.
Jackson sat among the spectators for a few minutes before opening his satchel, drawing a pistol and throwing it to Black Panther defendant McClain. Jackson then produced a carbine from his raincoat as McClain held the pistol against Judge Haley’s head. Jackson was reported as saying “Freeze. Just freeze.” He then told court officials, attorneys and jurors to lie on the floor while another San Quentin inmate, Ruchell Magee, who was to have witnessed at McClain’s trial, went to free three other testifying prisoners from their holding cell. A couple with a baby was also ordered into Judge Haley’s chambers.
After being freed by Magee, a fourth man, Black Panther William A. Christmas, joined the other three kidnappers. Haley was forced at gunpoint to call the sheriff Louis P. Montarnos, in the hopes of convincing the police to refrain from intervening. Road flares, which were used to simulate sticks of dynamite, were held against Judge Haley’s neck before being replaced with a sawed-off shotgun which was fastened under his chin with adhesive tape. The kidnappers, after some debate, then secured four other hostages whom they bound with piano wire: Deputy District Attorney Gary Thomas and jurors Maria Elena Graham, Doris Whitmer, and Joyce Rodoni.
The four kidnappers and five hostages then moved into the corridor of the courthouse, which at this point had become crowded with responding police who had been summoned by a bailiff. No action was taken against them at this point.
Around this time, Jim Kean, a photographer for the San Rafael Independent Journal, arrived at the building after he had heard news of the incident from police radio in his car. He stepped off an elevator directly adjacent to the hostages and kidnappers, and was reportedly told by one of them “You take all the pictures you want. We are the revolutionaries.” Kean and his colleague Roger Bockrath took a series of photographs of the group, apparently after some brief discussion as to whether the two journalists should be added to the ranks of the hostages.
The group then entered the elevator, informing the police that “[they wanted] the Soledad brothers freed by 12:30 today.” When the hostages were forced out onto the sidewalk in front of the Hall of Justice, Judge Haley asked where they were being taken. He was told they were being taken to the airport where they would get a plane.
The kidnappers then forced the hostages into a rented Ford panel truck which they began to drive towards an exit leading to the U.S. 101 freeway. The police had set up a road block outside of the civic center in anticipation of the group leaving. As Jonathan Jackson drove the hostages and three convicts away from the courthouse, front passenger McClain shot at the police stationed in the parking lot. The police shot back. Inside the van, Black Panther Ruchell Magee shot Haley in the head. Hostage Deputy District Attorney Gary Thomas grabbed a gun from Jonathan Jackson and began shooting all the kidnappers. A shooting melee ensued. Three Black Panthers were killed in the melee. The only abductor to survive was Ruchell Magee. Prosecutor Thomas was paralyzed for life. Juror Graham suffered a bullet wound to her arm.
Angela Davis was charged as an accomplice to conspiracy, kidnapping, and homicide. In 1972, she was tried and found not guilty on all counts.
Ruchell Magee pled guilty to the charge of aggravated kidnapping for his part in the assault. In return for his plea, the Attorney General asked the Court to dismiss the charge of murder (Magee being the shooter of Judge Haley). Magee later attempted unsuccessfully to withdraw his plea, and was sentenced in 1975 to life in prison.
In 1971, three days before he was to go on trial for the Mills murder, George Jackson was fatally shot in the prison yard of San Quentin during a riotous escape attempt. Officials claim that Jackson had smuggled a 9mm pistol into the prison and he and nearly two dozen other prisoners were attempting to escape. During the conflict, three corrections officers and two other inmates were killed. Six of the inmates (known as the San Quentin Six) were later tried for their participation.
Susie Edwards, Perry and Sadie Miller and O. C. and Addie Nolen, the parents of Cleveland Edwards, Alvin Miller and W. L. Nolen, respectively, eventually filed a $1.2 million dollar damage suit against Opie G. Miller for the deaths of their children.