CODENAME GREENKIL. the 1979 Greensboro Killings

Hardback. On November 3, 1979, in a Greensboro, North Carolina, housing project known as Morningside Homes, gunfire erupted when a group of Klansmen and Nazis confronted a Communist-sponsored anti-Klan demonstration. Eighty-eight terror-filled seconds later, 4 demonstrators were dead, one was dying, and 9 others were wounded. All of the dead were members of the Communist Workers Party (CWP). Photographers, covering the march for local television stations, captured on two video cameras much of the bloody melee. Law enforcement officers, though aware of the approach of a caravan of armed racists, did not arrive until after the shooting had stopped. The gunmen were arrested as they attempted to drive out of the area. The FBI stepped in to assist the local police and to begin a federal investigation of its own - its filename was GREENKIL. Slightly more than one year later, however, all the Klan and Nazi defendants were found not guilty of all charges, acquitted by an all-white jury. The widows and survivors, convinced that civil officials had joined with Klansmen and Nazis to arrange both the killings and acquittals, cried conspiracy. The author moves behind the scene of the shootings to reveal the 16yr. history of people and events that set the stage for the tragedy and its aftermath. Illus. + Nots and Index. 328pp. lge. 8vo. h/back. From the library of true-crime writer, Wilfred Gregg, with his personal b/plate. Nr. F. in v. sl. sunned nr. f. dw.