Zebra killers Left to Right: Jesse Lee Cooks, J.C. Simon, Larry Green, Manuel Moore (c) Google 1974

Tuesday, June 3, 1975

I was in court today at the Zebra trial. Morehen, who’s in the SFFD now, was testifying because he wrote the report on the Tana Smith murder.

What a freak show that trial is!

The four defendants, dressed in business suits just sat there looking like zombies, trying to intimidate Morehen. Scattered around the gallery were other members of the Nation of Islam. Morehen was great. He glared right back at the four of them with the same “fuck you—you’re going down” look they were giving him.

He described what happened when we got to the scene, particularly the victim’s extreme pain. Then he set up the next witness, a guy named Bienvineste, who gave us the description of the shooter at the scene.

Bienvineste has balls. He was getting those same intimidating stares from the four defendants as he testified, but then he stood up and pointed straight at one of the guys named J.C. Simon.

Simon just stared straight ahead – a total motherfucker.