Word: panther
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Loretta Luckes is a young woman who had been a Panther for only a short time when Alex Rackley was murdered. Her unfamiliarity with the Panthers and the New Haven community probably influenced her action. Nevertheless, her testimony contained nothing particularly damaging to Lonnie McLucas, and no information about involvement on Bobby Seale's part. Warren Kimbro and George Sams had the most to lose by standing trial, since Sams had ordered the murder and Kimbro had fired the fatal shot...
Sams' credibility therefore becomes an extremely important issue. In and out of state mental institutions for four years, he was tested as having an IO of 65. (In prison, this year, his IO was testified at 85.) Sams served as Stokely Carmichael's bodyguard before he joined the Panther Party. In 1968 he was expelled from the Party for stabbing a fellow-member in the leg, but was reinstated due to Stokely Carmichael's intervention. (Carmichael and the Panthers have since severed any working relationship in disagreement over the question of black nationalism...
Sams himself testified that while in the Panther Party he always considered himself "Stokely's man." On the stand, Sams tended to speak very quickly, to mispronounce names (such as Fred "Hamilton" for Fred Hampton), to offer political explanations that were unintelligible. When mentioning Stokely Carmichael, however, he spoke more slowly and in a tone that seemed to indicate great respect...
...believe that Sams was acting under orders from Bobby Seale or other Panther officers whom he has implicated (Landon Williams and Rory Hithe) his own history suggests motivation for his actions: a possible desire to ingratiate himself with Carmichael and harm the Party which once expelled him, and a tendency toward sadism. His testimony at Lonnie McLucas' trial would then be explained by his desire to exonerate him self and to tell the story most satisfactory to the Prosecution. (Whether Sams was also working as an agent provocateur, which would explain the tape recording, will probably remain unresolved...
Lonnie McLucas was not in New Haven at the time the other New Haven Panthers were arrested. He returned, learned of the arrests, stayed for a short while to try and help gather bail money, and then began driving to Panther national headquarters in Berkeley, California. He said he was planning to make a report and then turn himself in. It seems probable he was also trying to reach national head-quarters in a desperate search for clarification as to George Sams' status in the Party and his reasons for ordering Rackley's murder...