How Did George Jackson Die?

How Did George Jackson Die?

Former San Quentin inmate Ruchell Magee has released a press statement which gives a bizarre account of how Magee says prison activist George Jackson was killed in August of 1971.

Magee was one of the 27 inmates who were locked in the San Quentin Prison Adjustment Center on the day when Jackson, two tier tenders and two prison guards were killed.

According to Magee, he and other inmates saw a prison guard, who appeared to be an exact George Jackson lookalike, remove prisoner clothing and put on guard clothing shortly after the shooting and violence subsided.

Magee, in his statement to the press, charges that a number of guards, disguised as prisoners, were involved in a plot to kill Jackson, Magee and several other inmates in the Adjustment Center. Magee says, however, "They got George, but things got twisted."

It is Magee's contention that an alleged plot to kill inmate trouble-makers went awry, that Jackson was killed, but that the other intended victims survived. Magee's statement implies that a George Jackson look-alike was to be used to frame the real Jackson in a staged prison uprising.

The prison version of the incident is that Jackson and six other inmates plotted a violent escape attempt, and planned to use a weapon or weapons that had been smuggled in to Jackson. The six other inmates, known as the "San Quentin Six". have since been indicted on murder and conspiracy charges and are currently awaiting trial.

Magee has been transferred from San Quentin to San Jose, California, where he is awaiting his retrial on 1970 kidnapping charges, Other inmates in the Adjustment Center have been unable to comment on the August 21st incident because prison officials have closed the area to the press since the violence occurred there two-and-a-half years ago.

--Zodiac