How the Zebra Murders Terrorized 1970s San Francisco

Richard Hague and his wife, Quita, were enjoying an evening stroll through the Telegraph Hill neighborhood in San Francisco in October 1973 when a van pulled up to the curb.

Later that night, the young couple was found a few miles away in an area near the city’s waterfront. Richard, with his hands still bound, had been forced into the van at gunpoint and was beaten so badly he lost consciousness. Quita’s lifeless body was found nearby; she had been attacked with a machete and was nearly decapitated.

The brutal attack left San Franciscans shocked, but unbeknownst to them, the horror of that night was only the beginning of what became known as the Zebra murders.

The entire San Francisco Bay Area was already reeling from a crime wave that included some of history’s most appalling serial killers. The still-unidentified Zodiac Killer had been active in the region since the 1960s. Someone else—also never identified—had slaughtered at least seven young female hitchhikers in the North Bay area since 1972, and the “East Bay Strangler” Philip Hughes had murdered at least one teenage victim and would remain active for several more years before his 1979 arrest.

Richard, who barely survived his attack, was able to identify his attackers as three young Black males driving a white van. Ten days later, a young woman was shot and killed in her car. The following month, a man shot an employee of the Pacific Gas and Electric Company, who survived. In all these cases, the victims were white and the perpetrators were Black males.

The senseless murders continued with frightening regularity, and almost all had the same racial dimension: Black males targeting white victims. Even future mayor of San Francisco Art Agnos was shot twice during a December attack; he survived, but minutes later, a Black man in a long leather coat shot and murdered a woman standing in her doorway.

By Christmas 1973, more than a dozen people had been assaulted, butchered or shot. On January 28, 1974, five more people across the city were shot within minutes of each other; four of those victims died.

The rash of killings terrorized San Francisco and people were afraid to leave their homes. This caused a severe local economic impact as residents and tourists alike avoided shopping, dining out or nightlife.

After the brutal day of killings in January, the San Francisco Police Department response was swift and militant: More than 150 officers took up positions in six “combat zones” across the city, stopping, questioning and searching anyone who fit the description of young, male and Black. The dragnet was dubbed Operation Zebra after the “Z” frequency of the police radio channel used for communication.

Reverend Cecil Williams of the city’s Glide Memorial United Methodist Church criticized the racial dimension of the dragnet, saying that the Black community was “under a police state that could erupt into a racial war.” Bobby Seale, leader of the Black Panthers, stated that “every Black man in the Bay Area is in danger of losing his life.”

Lawsuits against the SFPD “stop-and-search” activity—during which more than 500 Black men were stopped and questioned—led to an April 1974 court order by U.S. District Judge Alfonso Zirpoli that the searches must stop, as they were unconstitutional violations of civil rights. That same month, rewards totaling $30,000 were offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the Zebra murderers.

As the killings continued in 1974, one man in particular watched the police activity and news reports with keen interest. Anthony Harris, a native of Southern California with a lengthy criminal record, was involved with the Black Self-Help Moving and Storage Company, a local business that had links to the San Francisco chapter of the Nation of Islam, a controversial Black nationalist movement.

According to Harris, the San Francisco chapter of the Nation of Islam also had a secretive offshoot known as the Death Angels. Believing that all white people were “blue-eyed devils,” the Death Angels recruited members who were expected to murder whites, then photograph their victims to prove they were worthy of membership in the group.

Harris was just such a recruit; he said he had frequently accompanied the killers in the white van on their quests for murder victims (though he later claimed he never took part in any of the murders). He also said his resemblance to the police sketch of one of the killers, combined with the $30,000 reward, prompted him to go to the police with information.

Harris’s information proved to be the break in the case, and a search of the Black Self-Help Moving and Storage Company found incriminating evidence and murder weapons including a machete, an axe, rope, a spear and several knives.

In May 1974, San Francisco Mayor Joseph Alioto announced, “The police have arrested several suspects in connection with the Zebra killings … The San Francisco police, under the leadership of Chief Donald Scott, have pierced the veil of a vicious ring of murders called ‘Death Angels.’ The local group is a division of a larger organization dedicated to the murder and mutilation of whites and dissident Blacks. The pattern of killing is by random street shooting or hacking to death with a machete, cleaver or knife. Decapitation or other forms of mayhem bring special credit from the organization for the killers.”

Seven men were arrested, and four eventually stood trial: J. C. Simon, Larry Green, Manuel Moore and Jessie Lee Cooks. After a trial that lasted more than a year and included hundreds of witnesses—making it the longest trial in California history at the time—all four defendants were sentenced to life imprisonment despite pleading not guilty.

From October 1973 to April 1974, at least 15 people had been killed by the Zebra killers and eight were wounded, but some investigators believe more than 70 people may have been killed by the so-called Death Angels. Three of the four convicted killers are now deceased, Harris and his family entered a witness protection program and the shocking series of brutal murders and assaults have largely faded from headlines.