The Valley of the Shadow of Death

by Kermit Alexander

  43

  A FULL HOUSE

  IT IS A warm autumn evening, and family members gather at our home in Riverside. I sit at one head of the long dining room table, Tami at the other. In between are my sisters Joan and Mary, and my brother Gordon. We drink sweet tea from tall glasses.

  Outside, dusk sets in. Tami turns on the overhead light above the table. The family is reflected in the sliding glass door.

  As we reminisce, everyone is pleased at how well the kids are doing. There are certainly struggles, drama. Raising five kids in your seventies is a challenge. It’s exhausting. It’s energizing. They wear me out. They keep me young.

  When four are calm, one flares up. When three comply, two rebel. Rarely are all five in line at the same time. But this is no surprise. And overall they thrive. They have been in California for several years now. They are the next generation of the dream, come out west to find their futures.

  In the yard outside the dining room, the boys, Jameson, Clifton, and Zachary, play basketball in the fading light. Their yells and cheers create a reassuring backdrop to our conversation. Before me, in the living room, Manoucheka braids Semfia’s hair, a ritual that will go on for hours. Before them, a Nancy Drew mystery plays on the TV. The pug, Mr. Goodman, and a mutt named Checkers sleep sprawled at the girls’ feet.

  At the table, my sister Joan looks through a series of family photographs. She wears a white T-shirt with a green design. The shirt says ALEXANDER FAMILY REUNION: 2010. It has a large tree with the boughs named after southern kin going back to the nineteenth century. Her expression changes as she comes to the pictures of the departed, the yearbook photos of Damon and Damani, the portrait of Dietra. She lifts her index and middle fingers to her lips and kisses them, then places the kissed fingers on each of the photographs and whispers, “Angels.”

  Behind Joan, the sliding door opens and the three boys come inside, panting, their deep Haitian voices filling the room. “Tacos,” Clifton says hopefully. “No,” Jameson counters. “Rice and beans.” “No,” says Zachary. “Pizza.”

  The door closes. The din of a dozen voices fills the dining area. Themes of dinner plans, rides to football games, and delivery of gift baskets compete. The front doorbell rings. Tami’s daughter and granddaughter join the fray.

  “How many people can we fit in this house?” I ask.

  “One more.” Tami laughs.

  I recline, and smile. Years ago, Tami and I flew to Haiti to save the children. But it worked out the other way around.

  Outside, the breeze rustles the high palms. A loosened frond drifts into the swimming pool. Beyond the pool, my Arabian horse swishes its tail to shoo flies.

  Inside, on the dining room wall, a painting of Madee, wearing a Bruin-blue dress and matching earrings, watches over the scene. As she gazes down, she is pleased. The Alexander home is once again full, vibrant, wonderfully chaotic.

  Madee always said, “There’s nothing worse than an empty house.”

  My Family

  (l to r: Jameson, Zachary, Manoucheka, Tami, me, Courtney Alexander-Shrieve, Clifton, Semfia)

  Photograph courtesy of Dayna Perry

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Kermit would like to thank:

  His parents, Ebora and Kermit Sr., who suffered unthinkable hardships to give their children the hopes of a better life, a greater education, and a relationship with God; his aunts, Eldora and Bertha, for their love and support during their own time of grief; his wife, Tami, for helping him find his way out of a deep darkness and regain a sense of purpose; his children, Kelton, Courtney, Candice, Manoucheka, Jameson, Clifton, Zachary, Semfia, and Cyauna, for reminding him how precious life is and how deep love can be; his brothers and sisters, Barbara, Mary Ann, Neal, Geraldine, Crystal, Joan, Gordon, Daphine, Kirk, Stacey, Troy, and Robin, who gave him strength to continue the battle for law and order; a preacher man named Tom, who prayed him back to the fold; and his friends Alex and Jeff for taking what was in his heart and putting it onto paper.

  * * *

  Alex and Jeff would like to thank:

  Their family members for their ongoing patience and support during the writing of this book. Alex would especially like to thank his wife, Teresa, for her inspiration and invaluable editorial input.

  * * *

  All the authors would like to thank the following people for their contributions, without which this book would not have been possible: Alex Alonso, Donald Bakeer, George Bargainier III, Pete Bollinger, Roger Boren, Wayne Caffee, Kelly Carroll, Mario Cavanola, Morgan Chappell, Edward Cook, Vernell Crittenden, Michelle Hannesee, Tricia McCarthy, Hal Miller, Tony Moreno, Eric Patao, Sam Robinson, Jeff Russell, David Sofaer, Willie Stokes, Dalida Vartanian, and Josh Williams.

  The authors would also like to thank their agent, Scott Mendel, and editor, Todd Hunter, for their continued suggestions and support.

  KERMIT ALEXANDER is a retired NFL All-Pro cornerback who played for the San Francisco 49ers, Los Angeles Rams, and the Philadelphia Eagles. He is also the past president of the NFL Players Association. He lives in California with his family.

  ALEX GEROULD and JEFF SNIPES are professors of criminal justice at San Francisco State University. They both have more than twenty years of experience in the field, and have worked extensively with law enforcement agencies locally and internationally.

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  NOTE ON SOURCES

  In addition to Kerm,it Alexander’s personal recollections, this section lists the major sources used by the authors in each chapter. For books referenced, full citations are provided in the bibliography below.

  1. An Empty House

  The details of the interior of Ebora Alexander’s house in the late summer and fall of 1984 utilize the crime scene photographs of the Los Angeles Police Department, as well as the trial testimony of the homicide detectives and criminalists.

  2. There Were No Strangers

  Ebora Alexander’s regular routine, as well as her thoughts and concerns on the morning of August 31, 1984, are based on extensive personal conversations with members of the Alexander family. The section on the Los Angeles Olympics uses information from Tom Bradley: The Impossible Dream, by J. Gregory Payne and Scott C. Ratzan, as well as the ABC Sports Presents video 1984 Summer Olympic Highlights. The scene set inside the 1975 Chevy van is based upon trial testimony of involved participants, personal discussions, and drives through the neighborhood with LAPD gang detectives and gang scholar Alex Alonso, as well as maps and photographs of South Central L.A. and National Weather Service data.

  3. From Jim Crow to Mudtown

  The history and culture of New Iberia come from the City of New Iberia home page online, as well as the authors’ personal visit. The Marines of Montford Point: America’s First Black Marines is used regarding Kermit Sr.’s military service. The section on the Great Migration and the statistics of blacks entering Los Angeles utilizes Josh Sides’s book L.A. City Limits. R. J. Smith’s The Great Black Way contains information on post–World War II Los Angeles.

  4. Charcoal Alley

  Information on African Americans and UCLA is from “Reclaiming UCLA: the Education Crisis in Black Los Angeles,” by Ana-Christina Ramon and Darnell Hunt, in Black Los Angeles. The scene involving Sondra Holt is based upon signed declarations from members of her family, found in the Excerpt of Recor
d in the habeas corpus petition of Tiequon Cox filed in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

  5. Mama, Go Get ’Em

  The scene depicting Kermit’s brother Neal and nephew Ivan is drawn from personal communications as well as their trial testimony. Details of the scene around 126 West Fifty-Ninth Street are taken from the Los Angeles Herald Examiner of September 1, 1984, and the Los Angeles Times of September 1, 1984.

  6. Our Family Isn’t Like That

  The information on the criteria of the Robbery Homicide Division is from the LAPD website. The information on the murder of prostitutes in South Central is from the Los Angeles Times, October 3, 1985. The words of Kermit’s sisters in the interrogation with detectives at the Newton Police Station come from personal discussions as well as from Tom Friend’s article “Kermit’s Song,” for ESPN’s Outside the Lines. Details of the crime scene are taken from the trial testimony of LAPD crime technicians. The information regarding the bodies of the deceased is from the trial testimony of the medical examiner from the Los Angeles County Coroner’s Office.

  7. The Hundred-Year Drive

  The quotes regarding the crime are from the Los Angeles Herald Examiner of September 1, 1984, as well as from the Los Angeles Times of September 1, 1984. The quote from Jesse Jackson is from the Chicago Sun-Times of November 29, 1993. The words of Councilman Farrell are from the Los Angeles Sentinel on September 6, 1984. For other information on Farrell and his fight against crime, see the Los Angeles Times, February 14, 1981.

  8. I Need to Go to the Hospital

  The descriptions of the suspects and the findings of the LAPD fingerprint technician are taken from the trial testimony. The reconstruction of the crime by the homicide detectives is based upon their trial testimony and upon an article by Paul Ciotti in the Los Angeles Times Magazine on August 2, 1987.

  9. The Lost Litter

  The scene of the Alexander family in Kermit’s sister Daphine’s house is based upon personal communications with family members who were present as well as Paul Ciotti’s Los Angeles Times Magazine article of August 2, 1987. Tom Friend’s ESPN article, mentioned above, is also referenced in this chapter.

  10. Black Tommy, Sweet Daddy

  The police outreach to the community for leads in the case is from the Los Angeles Sentinel of September 6, 1984. The information regarding all of the false leads that were investigated is from the trial testimony of various detectives of the LAPD. The quote from John Hadl is from the Los Angeles Herald Examiner of September 1, 1984.

  11. Eternal Rest Grant unto Them

  The memorial brochure provided by the church is here referenced. Information on the funeral service is from newspaper accounts from the Los Angeles Times of September 8, 1984, and Los Angeles Sentinel of September 13, 1984. On the history of Holy Cross Cemetery see “Here Lies the History of Holy Cross Cemetery,” in the Culver City Patch online, by Catherine Cloutier.

  12. Alone

  Josh Sides’s L.A. City Limits is a source for the industrial history of South Central Los Angeles. For the lack of progress by the police in solving the case, the Los Angeles Sentinel from September 13, 1984, is referenced. The television movie Brian’s Song is mentioned regarding Kermit’s hit on Gale Sayers and his season-ending injury of 1968.

  13. The Mayor Wants to See You

  The words of Los Angeles’s district attorney, Ira Reiner, are taken from the Reporter’s Transcript on Appeal, from the case of People v. Horace Burns. References to the Manson case refer to Helter Skelter, written by Vincent Bugliosi with Curt Gentry. Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood is referenced for the Holcomb, Kansas, murders of 1959. The series of newspaper references are from the Los Angeles Times of September 20, 1984.

  14. I’m Afraid He’ll Turn Into One

  Tom Bradley: The Impossible Dream, by J. Gregory Payne and Scott C. Ratzan, is the source of certain details regarding Mayor Bradley and his office. Information on Chief Daryl Gates comes from Chief: My Life in the LAPD, by Daryl Gates and Diane K. Shah. Information on Chief William Parker is found in John Buntin’s L.A. Noir. For information on Pop Warner coaching at the Carlisle School, see Lars Anderson’s Carlisle v. Army. For analysis of Chief Gates and the LAPD, see Mike Davis’s City of Quartz. For critics of Chief Gates’s tactics in the 1984 Olympics, see George Barganier III’s Ph.D. dissertation, “Fanon’s Children.” Newspapers consulted for this section include the Los Angeles Sentinel of November 8, 1984.

  15. An Epidemic of Violence

  General information on the violence of football and the history of the NFL comes from Kevin Cook’s The Last Headbangers, John Miller’s The Big Scrum, Lew Freeman’s Clouds Over the Goalpost, and Daniel Flynn’s The War on Football. The 1951 University of San Francisco football program is covered in the ESPN documentary ’51 Dons. Information on Los Angeles homicide rates in the days of the Wild West are found in Kevin Starr’s California. More recent data comes from Homicide in California 1981–2008, by George Tita and Allan Abrahamse, for the Governor’s Office of Gang and Youth Violence Policy, April 2010. Words of David Cunningham are found in “Donna Murch Tells the Unknown Story of the Crack Epidemic’s Effect on Black and Brown People,” from Nommomagazine, online.

  16. Hyde Park

  Information on the police raid is from the Reporter’s Transcript from the case of People v. Tiequon Cox. The section on the railroad monopoly is from the Elusive Eden by Richard Rice et al. Demographics on Hyde Park are from the Los Angeles Times, “Mapping L.A.” The details of Hyde Park come from photographs and the authors’ personal trips through the neighborhood. Information on crack cocaine derives from declarations in the Excerpt of Record in the habeas corpus petition of Tiequon Cox, as well as from testimony found in the Reporter’s Transcript in the case of the People v. Darren Charles Williams. Information on crack also comes from Science Online: How Stuff Works, by Stephanie Watson. The tactics employed by LAPD in assaulting the rock houses is from Chief, by Daryl Gates and Diane K. Shah, as well as Mike Davis, City of Quartz. Information on James Kennedy and the firearm is from the Reporter’s Transcript of the trial of People v. Tiequon Cox. The name “Tony Anderson” is used in place of the real name of the juvenile detention officer who contacted Kermit.

  17. Gladiators, Panthers, and Tales from the Crypt

  Information on the history of black gangs in Los Angeles comes from Alex Alonso’s article, “Out of the Void: Street Gangs in Black Los Angeles,” in Black Los Angeles, as well as from his master’s thesis, “Territoriality Among African-American Street Gangs in Los Angeles.” On the Watts Riots, Gerald Horne’s The Fire Next Time was useful. For varying opinions on the nature of the Black Panthers and the transition into the Crips, see George Barganier III’s Ph.D. thesis, “Fanon’s Children,” Tookie Williams’s Blue Rage, Black Redemption, and Daryl Gates and Diane Shah’s Chief. For details of gang life and the gang identity, see Sanyika Shakur’s Monster, Colton Simpson and Ann Pearlman’s Inside the Crips, and Deshaun Morris’s War of the Bloods in My Veins. Information also comes from personal communications with LAPD gang detectives, Alex Alonso, and George Barganier III.

  18. Little Cat Man

  Information on the Rolling Sixties is from personal interviews with LAPD gang detectives. Information on the M-1 carbine comes from the trial testimony of the firearms expert Jimmy Trahin. The interrogation of James Kennedy is drawn from the Reporter’s Transcript in the case of the People v. Tiequon Cox. Descriptions of PCP users are taken from Spencer and Boren, Residual Effects of Abused Drugs on Behavior.

  19. He Took a Wrong Turn

  The fingerprint examiner’s analysis is from the Reporter’s Transcript in the case of the People v. Tiequon Cox. The updates on the arrest in the case are from the Los Angeles Times of October 24, 1984, and the Los Angeles Sentinel of October 25, 1984. Descriptions of Tiequon Cox are from personal communications with LAPD, San Quentin correctional officers, a Los Angeles County district attorney, and the Eight Tray Gangster Crip Monster Cody, in his memo
ir Monster. Accounts of Cox while incarcerated are from the Excerpt of Record in the habeas corpus petition. Cox’s own words are likewise from the habeas corpus petition. Accounts of Detective Crews’s search of Cox’s great-grandmother’s house are taken from the Los Angeles Times of October 24 and October 25, 1984.

  20. It Went to My Heart

  The account of Linda Lewis is taken from the Reporter’s Transcript in the trial of People v. Tiequon Cox. The arrest of Horace Burns is based upon a personal interview with Tony Moreno. The words of Daryl Gates are from Los Angeles Sentinel on November 8, 1984. Information on Sterling Norris is from Paul Ciotti’s article in the Los Angeles Times Magazine for August 2, 1987. Information on Horace Burns is from the Reporter’s Transcript of the trial of People v. Horace Burns.

  21. The Third Man Faces Death

  Information on the history of the death penalty can be found in Robert J. Lifton and Greg Mitchell’s Who Owns Death? Other specifics on the death penalty in California are from personal communications with San Quentin correctional officers. Information on the arrest of Williams is from the Reporter’s Transcript of the trial of the People v. Darren Charles Williams. Information on the search for the money in Burns’s backyard is from the Reporter’s Transcript in the trial of People v. Horace Burns.

  22. Horace vs. Horse

  Details of the procedures of a capital case are taken from the Reporter’s Transcript for the trials of People v. Tiequon Cox and People v. Horace Burns. Insights into the defense of Horace Burns were provided in a personal communication with defense counsel Hal Miller. The specifics of the jailhouse kite written by Burns are taken from a photocopy of Burns’s letter included in the trial transcript.