June 12, 1974, Page 18Buy Reprints
SAN FRANCISCO, June 11 (UPI)—Members of a black militant group took pictures of each other murdering whites in order to win promotions, according to grand jury testimony by an informer in the San Francisco Zebra killings case.
The informer, Anthony C. Harris, a 28‐year‐old former convict, provided information that led to the group, called that Death Angels, which he said had more than 2,000 members nationwide.
The group's mission was to kill white people, with special credit for mutilations, which was “supposed to symbolize you're very vicious and an irresponsible person,” Mr. Harris said.
His testimony, which was released yesterday led to the indictment of four men, all black Muslims, on murder charges in the Zebra case, in which more than a dozen white were killed, apparently at random, by assailants described by witnesses as blacks.
The defendants are Larry C. Green, 22; J. C. Simon, 29; Manuel Moore, 29, and Jessie Cooks, 28.
The police used the radio band code zebra for transmitting information about the case.
In his testimony, Mr. Harris said he was taken along on 10 murder missions by Death Angels, but did not take part in any killings.
Mission Described
He said that on one occasion Mrs. Quits Hague was nearly beheaded with a machete and her husband was severely Slashed as other group members took photographs of the murder scene.
The photographs, or severed parts of bodies, were needed as proof to win promotion in the Death Angels, Mr. Harris testified.
The grand jury transcript also disclosed that the police had questioned the defendants at least seven times during the investigation. The city‐wide search for the killers evoked criticism over the “stop and search” tactics used on the streets with suspected blacks.
Included was an incident during the Hague murder when a policeman, Bruce F. Marovich, pulled up beside the van in which the couple was being held and asked the driver what he was doing.
The policeman said the driver, whom be identified as Mr. Cooks, said they had just had a flat tire and everything was all right, so Officer Marovich drove away.
Mr. Harris also said he had accompanied alleged members of the Death Angels on trips to beaches and dumps to dispose of dismembered portions of human bodies.
Asked about whether he had done that more than once, Mr. Harris replied. “Yes, sir, about forty‐some times.