This is probably the most famous case involving a body in Leakin Park. This is a story of a young man who was probably very idealistic and eager to please. For his troubles, he was most likely wrongly accused then terrorized, tortured, brutally killed and left alone in the park. Sadly, to tell you the end of the story before it begins, many were charged though almost nobody served any time.
It starts on October 27, 1969, when a man walking in the woods behind the 4100 block of Stokes drive discovers a skeleton, which is taken to the morgue for identification.
The best explanation of what happened to Eugene Leroy Anderson, a Black Panther, is from this City Paper article from February 1, 2006, Part I. Rather than rewrite what it says, I'll copy and paste the relevant details:
On Oct. 27, 1969, just three months after the national Black Panther Party cleaned house locally, police found a body in West Baltimore’s Leakin Park. The flesh had decayed away, leaving behind the clothes and skeleton of a man identified as 20-year-old Eugene Leroy Anderson. That July, when Cox and Mitchell came to Baltimore to whip the local branch into shape, according to news accounts, it wasn’t the only whipping going on. The so-called “bag of bones” case generated a variety of newspaper accounts, and The Sun, the News-American, the Afro-American, and other papers would report the details of testimony that came out in court during the trial of suspect Charles Wyche in April 1971, re-creating the events that allegedly led to Anderson’s death on a hot night in July 1969.
Anderson, who lived in the 1500 block of North Bond Street, was a Panther sympathizer who handed out party literature in the community and throughout the city and even helped paint the outside of Panther headquarters. But according to a 1971 Sun article, prosecutors alleged that the Panthers had found out that Anderson was a police informer. So on July 11, 1969, he was kidnapped and taken to a third-floor bedroom in the Panther house on Eden Street, where he was beaten and tortured for two days before meeting his untimely death.
According to news accounts, witnesses alleged that 11 Panthers and one lawyer for the Panthers were in that room the night of July 11. One of those present ordered the death of Anderson because he told the police about his “Panther brothers.” Another hit Anderson in the head with the butt of a pistol. A female member took her burning cigarette and extinguished it against Anderson’s forehead, as did two other Panther women.
After that, Anderson was punched and beaten with bed slats, alcohol was rubbed on his bloody wounds, and one of the torturers used a term that was often aimed at police officers: “All pigs to the slaughterhouse—today’s pig is tomorrow’s barbecue.” Then, the state’s case maintained, Anderson was “allowed” to read Quotations by Chairman Mao Tse Tung while writhing in pain.
The torture went on, according to court testimony: Anderson’s eyes were gouged, he was scratched, he was beaten some more, and someone heated a knife in sugar water and used it to flay parts of his body before he was taken to Leakin Park and killed with one shotgun blast on July 12. Three months later, police found his remains, described in the media as “a bag of bones,” because his body had disintegrated so quickly.
The police sought 21 members of the Baltimore Black Panther in conjunction with the crime. (Conway had already been arrested for and later convicted of allegedly killing one police officer and injuring another in April.) Many wondered if this would mean the end of the line for an organization that perceived itself as just getting things in order. But the story, and questions, continue to this day.
The City Paper piece continues with a Part II published on February 8, 2006.
This part of the story outlines the rather lame attempt the state of Maryland tried to hang this murder on, well, anyone and everyone. It turns out the 3 strongest state's witnesses were informants and on the FBI's payroll. Even getting a paycheck from the government didn't seem to help, the witnesses gave conflicting testimony. The result was: Separate trials from many of those accused and charged, a hung jury, an acquittal and a gubernatorial pardon for the only defendant who was dealt a guilty verdict. The upshot was that one guy did about 4 years in prison and then was let go by Governor Marvin Mandel, who was later to found to be a crook himself.
This blogger's editorial commentary
Although no one was convicted of killing Eugene Leroy Anderson, one has to remember this had much large political, racial and sociological connotations. Mr. Anderson was tortured and murdered in 1969, the Baltimore riots took place in 1972 and this particular era was charged with racial and urban tension as our country willingly or unwillingly came to grips with its racism, sexism and segregation. While researching this case in the Sun archives from 1971 the Sun was filled with articles also about the forced school desegregation plans. Things weren't very pretty at that time to say the least.
The US and Maryland governments' objective with this case wasn't so much to punish those who tortured and murdered Mr. Anderson but to break apart both the local branch and the national organization of the Black Panthers, who were viewed as dangerous people threatening to upset the status quo. Perhaps they were, or perhaps the Panthers just wanted to serve some free meals to the downtrodden, who knows.
Regardless, there was still an eager young man who died, and a group of people who smugly ascertained their lack of involvement in this murder. Somebody did it and nobody had the gonads to step forth and take responsibility which I think is really pathetic.
Update 11/14/11 Not that this has to do with anything, but the government around that time had a habit of taking crimes that were associated with the Black Panther organization and charging other Black Panthers that had nothing to do with the crimes but the government wanted to nail on something anyway just to make it appear that certain Black Panthers were evildoers.
Marshall "Eddie" Conway, a former black panther, was charged back in the early 70s in Baltimore for killing a police officer. However, Mr. Conway was at work at the Post Office at the time. Eye witnesses were never concrete on the matter. However, Mr. Conway represented himself during trial and was found guilty regardless. Mr. Conway now is on death row. The Maryland Judicial System is between a rock and a hard place on the matter. The guy probably is not guilty but the judicial system will have egg all over its face if it retries the case, and Mr. Conway will ultimately be a very rich man.