Alex Rackley

Alex Rackley was a member of the New York chapter of the Black Panther Party in the late 1960s. In May 1969, Rackley, 19, was suspected by other Panthers of being a police informant. He was brought to Panther headquarters in New Haven, Connecticut, held captive and tortured there for several days, "tried" in kangaroo court, condemned to death, taken to the wetlands of Middlefield, Connecticut, and murdered there.

His killing was the crime at the center of the 1970 New Haven Black Panther trials.

By the late 1960s, the Black Panther Party knew that they were a primary target of local and federal law enforcement officials, who sought to infiltrate the movement with informants. In September 1968, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover described the Black Panthers as the "greatest threat to the internal security of the country"." By 1969, the Black Panthers were the primary target of the FBI's COINTELPRO, and the target of 233 of 295 authorized "Black Nationalist" COINTELPRO actions.

In 1968 Alex Rackley left his home state of Florida and moved to New York City. There, he became involved with the Black Panther Party, but his role seems to have been limited to giving classes in martial arts.

In the spring of 1969, Rackley came under suspicion. His loyalty was questioned, and rumors circulated that he was passing information about the Panthers to the FBI. The situation was exacerbated by the presence of two national Panther figures from the California headquarters: Field Marshal George Sams, Jr., and Landon Williams. The two men had arrived on the east coast in May with the intention of instilling "discipline" into the party.

On May 18, Rackley was forcibly brought to the headquarters of the New Haven chapter of the Black Panthers at 365 Orchard Street, which was also the residence of Warren Kimbro, a New Haven Panther. In the bedroom normally occupied by Kimbro's seven-year-old daughter, Rackley was tied to the bed and questioned under torture. The principal method of torture was the pouring of boiling water over his torso, shoulders, and thighs.

Finally, after two days of this treatment, according to witnesses, Rackley confessed to the accusations. The veracity of his confession has never been confirmed. Late on the night of the 20th, Rackley was removed, still alive, from the apartment by Sams, Kimbro, and a third Panther, Lonnie McLucas, of Bridgeport, Connecticut. The men borrowed a car from one of their supporters and drove Rackley to the marshy wetlands of nearby Middlefield. On Sams's orders, Kimbro shot Rackley in the head, and McLucas shot him again, in the chest. They dumped the body in the Coginchaug River and left.

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Wikipedia