Some have suggested that the formation of the George Jackson Brigade was life imitating art vis-à-vis Woody Allen’s 1968 mockumentary, Take the Money and Run. The comedy which was written, directed by and starring Woody Allen tells the story of the world’s most incompetent criminal. The George Jackson Brigade took themselves quite seriously even though law enforcement referred to them as, “a disorganized band of inept criminals spouting left-wing drivel to cover their criminal behavior.” In the drivel department, the gang’s very motto, “The power of the people is the force of life,” was a meaningless, sappy if not, nebulous slogan which underscored the groups impotence as a self-proclaimed revolutionary force.
The group used the name of one George Jackson, a vile black racist who never met a white person he didn’t hate. He hated them all, including the white gas station attendant, he murdered in cold blood for $71.00. Naturally, his dumb ass was quickly captured. George later received a life sentence for his $71.00 murder.
Tired of the newspapers characterizing him as essentially a low-life, reprehensible scumbag George, who had a grade school education, decided to take on the new and more series persona of a Black Power activist. How convenient. George’s bold rebranding strategy worked and soon white liberals were calling George a “political prisoner.” Suddenly, Little George wasn’t merely a murderous, small-time douchebag career criminal but, a new “hero” in “the protracted struggle against the white devil.” George knew he had finally arrived when liberal white women started writing love letters addressed to him in prison. Yippie Yi yay! Little George actually reveled in his newfound celebrity among the white, liberal America hating subculture.
Unlike the group of white Leftists who would name their revolutionary group after him, George actually possessed a minimum level of competence as a criminal. In 1970, George with two fellow Black Power inmates murdered Soledad Prison guard John V. Mills who had a wife and small children at home. Upon murdering Mills, Jackson crowed, “this is the fate awaiting all blue-eyed devils!”
Jackson was transferred to San Quintin Prison where we he was killed during a daring escape attempt. After being shot by a guard, the Black Power revolutionary’s last pathetic words, spoken over an outstretched arm were, “I’m sorry…help me.” Jackson collapsed into the hereafter and undoubtedly received his First-Class ticket to board the Hell Express. The world briefly became a better place at that moment.
George’s bona fides as a serious, hardened criminal were unquestionable. The George Jackson Brigade membership however, bore a resemblance to the bumbling outlaws in the 1975 film, Disney’s The Apple Dumpling Gang. Perhaps the FBI best described the George Jackson Brigade when they stated, “The GJB’s operations were often undermined by their own lack of precision and a disconnect between their stated revolutionary goals and the outcome of their actions.” Translation: The George Jackson Brigade members were blundering, incompetent criminals who botched almost ever capper they ever attempted, sometimes with tragic results. Think Inspector Clouseau leaving the Sûreté and undertaking a life of crime. The George Jackson Brigade was an amateurish collection of Leftist oddballs who were bumbling accident-prone, would-be criminals lurching blindly from one mistake ridden crises to the next. Examples:
The Safeway bombing: One of the most infamous examples was the group’s first failed operation in 1975 against a Safeway grocery store in Seattle. The brigade intended to plant an explosive device in the store by hiding a pipe bomb in a dog food bag. How ingenious. A Brigade member called in a nervous, confused voice to warn Safeway of the bomb but, the idiot dialed the wrong number and called the Washington Athletic Club instead.
A WAC employee answered the the phone with chirpy, “Good morning, thank you for calling the Washington Athletic Club.”
The Brigade member then bewilderedly asked, “Hello…is this Safeway?”
The WAC employee stated, “No, this is the Washington Athletic Club.”
The Brigade member then idiotically inquired with a follow up, “Do you possibly know the phone number to the Safeway?”
Without a phonebook and afraid to dial information for the Safeway phone number for fear his call could later be traced, the clueless revolutionary made no further attempts to warn Safeway. This proved to be a tragic mistake.
So, the George Jackson Brigade didn’t want the bomb to actually explode. They merely wanted to intimidate the community and show that they knew how to make an explosive device. Unfortunately, GJB members thought that they had placed a safety mechanism on the bomb to keep it from detonating. Unfortunately, their bomb safety mechanism didn’t work, and the bomb actually did explode. This resulting explosion injured some shoppers and generated a public backlash, severely damaging the group’s public image and exposing the recklessness of their methods. The GJB also became a bit of a running joke among the people of Seattle. The GJB was attempting to establish itself as a revolutionary forced to reckoned with- if not feared. Yet they made a very poor first impression and would forever be branded as “armatures.” Soon a series of, “How many George Jackson Brigade members does to take to plant a bomb…” jokes made the rounds.
One of the jokes to make the rounds was as follows:
One George Jackson Brigade member says to another while planting a bomb, “what will happen if this one explodes while we are installing it?”
The other George Jackson brigade responds:
“Don’t worry I’m carrying a spare!”
The Pacific National Bank Heist, Tukwila, WA. On January 23, 1976, four emboldened members of the GJB, John Sherman, Ed Mead, Bruce Seidel and John Cook walked into the Pacific National Bank. Seidel slipped the bank teller a misspelled robbery note with illegible penmanship.
“I’m sorry, what is this?” The teller asked. The confused bank teller couldn’t make heads or tails of the note.
“Would you just read it…please,” Seidel skittishly begged with sweat beads forming on his brow.
“I’m sorry sir, I can’t read your handwriting, may I have your account number and some identification please?” The Teller requested.
“This…is a stick up… bitch!” A now very panicked Seidel screamed for all to hear then, brandished a gun.
The bank teller hit the alarm button and Seidel’s GJB accomplices drew their weapons as John Sherman admonished Seidel out loud to, “stick to the plan man!”
Mead and Cook ordered everyone to the ground. The luckless foursome had expected to be out of the bank within 60 seconds, yet it took much longer to collect the money than they had anticipated. Meanwhile, a couple of GJB members started rattling off leftist slogans for the edification of the bank’s customers, turning the capper into a briefly improvised 60’s style, teach-in. Despite the delay in gathering the money from the bank, the criminal’s ringleader, John Sherman, wasn’t too worried. The group had placed a number of bombs in local hotels that were expected to detonate during the planned robbery in order to divert local police resources away from the bank. Yet- surprise, surprise! – these diversionary bombs never detonated, and a group of local police officers arrived as the bungling criminals were exiting the bank.
John Sherman opened fire on the police. And the incompetent criminal foursome immediately received return fire. Founding GJB member Bruce Seidel was cut down when he attempted to squeeze off a round at the police. His gun didn’t fire, and things might have gone better for Seidel had he bothered to notice that his weapon was still in safety mode and further, that there was no round in the chamber. Sherman, who stood a few yards away from Seidel’s dead body, took a police officer’s bullet to his face. He dropped with his hands in the air and begged, “Please, no more! Don’t shoot!” Comrade Che would have been proud.
The Downfall. The GJB continued their streak of incompetent robberies and other criminal capers until they were all captured and an sent away to prison. One FBI agent perhaps summed up the unclimactic end of the GJB best, “They never got any better at it (crime). They never improved or learned from their mistakes. It was always one bungled job after the next.”
With the GJB members all in prison, some area residents lamented about the loss of the comedic fodder they enjoyed so much from the GJB’s prolific blunders. The George Jackson Brigade jokes soon became just an old memory for those who lived through that time. Virtually all of the GJB members are dead now. Most were released from prison before they died. In the end, one should ask, What if anything did the George Jackson Brigade accomplish?
The answer is simply this: Apart from the comedic entertainment inspired by their doomed foray into criminality which so many enjoyed, they accomplished nothing.
The Historical Truth Project 