Review of Radical Chic and Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers. Jason Epstein, The New York Review of Books, December 17, 1970.

On April 2, 1969, twenty-one Black Panthers were indicted in New York for having plotted to bomb the Botanical Gardens, a police station, and several retail stores, including Alexander’s and Abercrombie and Fitch. According to District Attorney Hogan, these bombings were to have occurred at the height of the Easter shopping season; in fact, he said, the bombs were to have gone off on the very day that the indictments were announced. Several Panthers went underground before the police could arrest them. One was held as a juvenile offender and thirteen others, of whom two were women, were imprisoned for want of bail that ranged from $25,000 in one case to $50,000 in two others, and $100,000 for each of the remaining ten.

The gravity of their conspiracy was such, according to the district attorney, that the city would not be safe if these thirteen remained at large pending their trial. Since Hogan is thought to be a cautious man, unlikely to make such claims on insufficient evidence, the courts ignored the arguments of defense counsel that such high bail was excessive in the case of defendants who had no record of serious crime, and the Panthers went to jail.

Shortly thereafter Murray Kempton undertook to write a book about the case, came to know the Panthers’ wives, friends, and attorneys, and soon became absorbed by his subjects. He also came to sympathize with them, as one might sympathize with anyone caught in the toils of criminal justice in New York…

Online:
The New York Review of Books