"He chose... poorly."
Posted on 11/16/2006 10:35:39 PM PST by Zakeet
William Lee Brent, former bodyguard to Black Panther Party leader Eldridge Cleaver, died last week in Havana, Cuba. He would have been 76 last Friday.
The cause was bronchial pneumonia, said Steve Wasserman, a close friend and editor of Mr. Brent's 1996 autobiography, "Long Time Gone."
Mr. Brent was still a fugitive when he died, sought by U.S.
law enforcement officials for his June 1969 hijacking of TWA flight No. 154 to Cuba. The plane, with 76 passengers aboard, was bound for New York from San Francisco. No one was hurt.
He arrived in Havana expecting to be hailed as a hero, but was surprised to be promptly taken into custody by Cuban authorities, Wasserman said.
Mr. Brent spent the next 22 months in prison, an experience he found far worse than the eight years of incarceration he had endured in San Quentin and Tehachapi for a variety of crimes, including armed robbery, Wasserman said. When asked by a New York Times reporter in 1996 to compare the two prison systems, Mr. Brent said that in Cuba, "They don't allow you to do anything but hard time."
Eventually, Mr. Brent was released and held a variety of jobs: working construction, raising pigs, cutting sugar cane, laboring in a soap factory.
(Excerpt) Read more at insidebayarea.com ...
The blue dog Dim'crats who were just slapped silly by Pelosi and Hoyer after showing up in triumph in the Pelosi People's Republic of Wash DC know just how he felt.
-----------------------------
No, we do know; for decades Malcolm's widow Betty refused to be seen in public with Farrakan and publicly blamed him for her husband's murder.
btw...X's murder had nothing to do with the Panthers. He had made the visit to mecca where he met numerous 'white' muslims. He started to see islam outside of the bogus FOI racial context and was moving away from the NOI. He was also starting to publicly voice his concerns about the honesty and sexual habits of Elijah Muhammed, the 'leader' of the NOI. That is what caused Farrakahn to issue the death warrant.
Wouldn't surprise me and it would be very fitting for Hillary Rodham Clinton (aka Mrs. Bill Clinton) to make a trip to Havana Cuba. Where she will lament a long eulogy for her Black Panther friend and associate.
They were together in New Haven Connecticut. It was the dark days of the Tet offensive, circa 1968. Ramparts was the bible and Malcom X their profit. Hillary was an editor and contributor to the Yale student newspaper. Where editorial cartoons depicted cops as dead pigs. She knew the Black Panthers well in those days. When they murdered without remorse or consequence.
Buenvenidos a Cuba Hillary! Evita Peron has nothing over you.
OH yeah that's right,..... but what I was getting at is that Fairicon had someone just like this guy do the actual dirty work
"He chose... poorly."
headstone should read: Here lies a fool who sold himself into slavery and imprisonment
I don't even want to think about what Cuban soap is made of.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.