The Zebra Murders

A Season of Killing, Racial Madness, and Civil Rights

By: Prentice Early Sanders, Bennett Cohen

Narrated by: Dave Courvoisier

On October 20, 1973, in San Francisco, a White couple strolling down Telegraph Hill was set upon and butchered by four young Black men. Thus began a reign of terror that lasted six months and left 15 Whites dead and the entire city in a state of panic. The perpetrators wanted nothing less than a race war.

With pressure on the San Francisco Police Department mounting daily, young homicide detectives Prentice Earl Sanders and his colleague Rotea Gilford - both African-American - were assigned to the cases. The problem was: Sanders and Gilford were in the midst of a trail-blazing suit against the SFPD for racial discrimination, which in those days was rampant. The backlash was immediate. The force needed Sanders’s and Gilford’s knowledge of the Black community to help stem the brutal murders, but the SFPD made it known that in a tight situation, no White back-up would be forthcoming. In those impossible conditions - the oppressive white power structure on one hand, the violent Black radicals on the other - Sanders and Gilford knew they were sitting ducks. Against all odds, they set out to find those guilty of the Zebra Murders and bring them to justice. This is their incredible story.

©2006, 2011 Prentice Earl Sanders and Bennett Cohen (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

“Offers crucial lessons in how to deal with - and not deal with - acts of terrorism.” - (San Francisco Chronicle)

Stunning

Wow! I had no idea that this happened.
With all the craziness that was going on during the 70's in California I was shocked that I had never heard of this case. Thank God that Officers Gilford and Sanders had the strength and fortitude to continue doing there job as professionals to the highest standards even in the face of racism and hate from there fellow officers. The fact that they were integral in changing the way police departments across this country operate and hire speaks volumes.

Lessons to be learned here

For some reason these horrible acts of violence, murder, and terrorism, which became known as the Zebra Murders, occurring in my home city of San Francisco had slipped from my mind. Could this lapse have been because it happened so long ago? Reading this fascinating book I learned why. At the same time this killing spree was terrorizing San Francisco so many other local and national events were overshadowing this crime. Particularly, the Patty Hearst kidnapping and the Watergate Hearings in Washington, D.C., both which grabbed all the headlines for weeks and weeks while this was occurring . Looking back now at this horrible crime spree, there are still lessons for us to learn. The author points out this was not just a mere series of murders but actual acts of urban terrorism, something that would soon become more prominent world-wide. These were intentional and violent acts of retribution which the city never saw forthcoming and some of which could have been avoided but due to poor policing. The author presents a strong case of what could and has happened when a minority population is not properly represented in their community police department. As the author says, it is not a matter of fairness but having a policy of good policing. And good policing requires fair representation of minority citizens on police forces. The author explains why. Minority representation on a police force provides a conduit for vital information to be gathered from communities who would otherwise be reluctant to share the same with police. As the author says, “Having information is the key to good policing”. This might seem understood now but it wasn’t so back then and even today we might be forgetting these important considerations. So instead of getting rid of the police, the police should become more racially and ethnically integrated with the communities they police.

Struggled to finish

no excitement to a good story line. No mystery and I struggled to finish

Must hear

This is an incredible true story written about problematic policing in the 70’s from so many important angles. It reveals the terrorism inflicted on San Franciscan whites through the lens of black detectives with a rich background of context from the time.

True crime crossed with history

I was a small child in the San Francisco Bay area at the time a lot of these crimes occurred. I remember the warnings to stay inside and the general atmosphere of fear and uncertainty. There was real terror in the air.

Zebra Murders puts these truly horrific crimes into a social, political, and personal context. Some reviewers complain because it's not just a basic police procedural, but to that's the real strength.

So know what you're getting into–if you want a simple whodunit, you might look elsewhere. if you want something that looks at the bigger picture, this is a good read. I'd like to see more like this.