Last surviving ‘death angel’ convicted of racist killings that tormented San Francisco in the 1970s loses latest bid for parole
Larry Green, the last surviving defendant imprisoned for the so-called ‘Zebra’ killings that tormented San Francisco in the early 1970s, was denied parole this morning for a period of three years.
“Based on the legal standard and the evidence considered we find that you pose an unreasonable risk to public safety and are therefore not suitable for parole at this time,” said Presiding Commissioner Lawrence Nwajei.
Green, 72, was convicted in March 1976 of first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder, kidnapping, robbery and assault with a deadly weapon. 14 people were killed and eight grievously wounded in the six month spree of violence that began in October 1973. The key prosecution witness told the jury that Green and three accomplices were part of a black muslim cult – the ‘Death Angels’ – bent on slaying whites.
Green practically decapitated journalist Quita Hague after kidnapping her and her husband Richard from the street near their North Beach apartment and driving them to a secluded industrial site in the Dogpatch. Richard survived the attack, with his face ‘hacked to the bone,’ and was able to flag down a Good Samaritan passing by in a car.
The parole panel noted that Green has been incarcerated for more than 50 years and that this was his 15th “subsequent” parole hearing. His three co-defendants, J C X Simon, Manuel Moore and Jessie Cooks, all died in prison.
He maintains his innocence.
“What do you take responsibility for?” Green was asked by Commissioner Nwajei at the start of the hearing.
“I don’t take responsibility for committing the acts for which I was convicted,” replied the inmate.
“So they have the wrong man in prison?” asked Nwajei.
“Yes,” said Green.
Asked to account for why witness Anthony Harris framed him, as he saw it, Green said: “Probably to protect himself because he had told me some things about what he had done…because he thought that I could be…a witness against him.”
Green told Nwajei that Harris had admitted to him that he killed Saleem Erakat.
“He said that he needed some money,” Green said. “He had a meeting we were all at that particular day and we had what was our first real argument or hostile exchange and he said he had committed this crime to get some money and that he had killed this man in a grocery store.”
“Everyone here remembers the siege, the state of despair,” said Nwajei with respect to the Zebra killings.
“Words fail me when you think about what was going on in San Francisco. There was widespread panic. The city suffered, families suffered.”
“Everyone here remembers the siege, the state of despair. Words fail me when you think about what was going on in San Francisco. There was widespread panic. The city suffered, families suffered.”
Commissioner Lawrence Nwajei
Nwajei explored Green’s background in the Nation of Islam.
“In the Nation of Islam we practiced or believed that the black man was good and the white man was the devil – and that wasn’t true and it is not based on the Koran,” said Green.
“It was very attractive,” Green added of the Nation of Islam. “It was very interesting. Usually when they had their meetings they would give you a long history lesson and at the end of it you would usually hear that the white man was the devil…it was fascinating for me as a young man.”
Green noted that he had adopted “orthodox” Islam as a religion in the years following the death of Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad in 1975.
“This is not youthful impulsiveness. This is deviant behavior borne of deep-rooted hate.”
Assistant District Attorney Victoria Murray Baldocchi
During the five and a half hour hearing, a representative of San Francisco District Attorney’s office, Victoria Murray-Baldocchi, was straightforward in her assessment of Green, his crimes, and his suitability for release.
“There is an air of, an attitude of, arrogance. And it’s pervasive and persistent from when this man was a young man to now when he sits before you as a senior citizen today,” she said of Green.
“He poses an unreasonable risk of future dangerousness.”
“This inmate was the most vicious of all four defendants. And he was convicted of conspiracy to commit murder of 15 people and the other eight individuals who didn’t die.”
“He murdered Ms Hague and then gleefully recounted the details of ‘the blood spurting from the devil’s neck’.”
“This is not youthful impulsiveness. This is deviant behavior borne of deep-rooted hate.”
“His continued denial of culpability is absolutely implausible,” she later added.
The family of the Zebra killers’ last victim, Nelson Shields, known as Nicky, spoke at the hearing.
“On April 7 1974 Nicky was shot in the back three times,” Shields’ brother, David, told the panel.
“He died instantly. He wasn’t doing anything to anyone – he was clearing space in the back of a car. His only offense? He was white. Larry Craig Green along with his co-defendants was convicted of murder and conspiracy to commit murder. Specifically he targeted white people. Larry Craig Green does not deserve to be paroled.”
The panel also heard from Shields’ sister Leslie, and had statements read to it by two other family members.
“Blonde hair and blue eyes but he was not a devil.”
Michael Dancik, showing a photograph of his brother Paul
Michael Dancik told Commissioners about his brother Paul.
“My brother Paul Dancik was shot to death on the night of December 11 1973 in the Haight Ashbury district of San Francisco. While Larry Green did not pull the trigger on my brother he killed others, at times horrifically, and I want him to know who my brother Paul was.”
Mr Dancik showed the panel several pictures of his brother at various stages of his life, including photographs of him with his wife and son.
“Blonde hair and blue eyes but he was not a devil,” said Mr Dancik told Green while holding up a photograph of his brother to the camera.
“Not having him has been a life sentence,” he added.
Roxanne McMillan, who was shot twice in the back and paralyzed in the Zebra attacks, died in 2022. Her son, Leon, arranged for the panel to be read the remarks his mother made at Green’s last parole hearing in 2019.
In that statement she described how she had just moved to San Francisco with her husband and young son when she was shot as she was moving in to their new apartment. She said how her life as a paraplegic was becoming increasingly difficult as she got older and that she was in constant pain. She asked commissioners to remember the four people who were killed by the Zebra killers on the same night that she was shot and not to parole Green.
SFPD Sgt Troy Carrasco told the hearing about the attempted kidnapping of his sister Michele by the Zebra killers on the first day of their attacks in San Francisco. As a child he saw two men walk his sister and friends down the block and attempt to put them in their van.
“The impact that it had on our family and Michelle on that time took away her innocence, our sense of safety in our home, in our neighborhood, and in the city,” he said.
After 50 minutes’ deliberation Nwajei announced that Green would be denied parole.
“Based on the legal standard and the evidence considered we find that you pose an unreasonable risk to public safety and are therefore not suitable for parole at this time,” he said.
Nwajei told Green that he thought his profession of innocence was not credible. “it is time for you to acquaint yourself with the principles taught in denial management classes,” he said.
He had earlier noted that the inmate’s Comprehensive Risk Assessment report indicated that he was a “moderate/medium” risk of committing violence in future.
Although several victim family members asked the panel to prevent Green from applying for parole for the 15 year maximum period, the panel told him he could do so in three years.
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