Report to the commission.., p.16
Report to the Commissioner, page 16
I don’t shake my head. I don’t do anything. I know it’s a con, but sometimes a con can be true, right?
“You know it’s the only way you’re gonna get outa here. We stay, they gonna kill us both.”
I nod my head, and stand up. He drops the shirt and reaches up and gives the louvers a push. They loosen. He looks at me, and he whispers, “We gotta trust now, man.”
[ BLACKSTONE 12 ]
I get this idea to be close, close to the elevator, that maybe if I’m right up there I’ll be able to do something. I tell Perna that I want to go up alongside the edge of the elevator and if they come out the top, or if the Stick lets them open the doors, I can get a shot at him. Perna says, what about the Thompsons. I say, at the range they’re at, that close, I’m not worried, and anyway if anything happens where they’ve got a shot at the Stick, there’s more chance of my picking him off with a revolver from a couple of feet than of them doing it from twenty feet. Because if they open up they’re gonna get the Stick all right, but they’re also gonna stand a good chance of getting Lockley.
Perna says, okay, go ahead.
I talk to the men with the Thompsons, we have a nice friendly little chat, and I remind them again that it’s the nigger they’re after. They’re maybe a little itchy and I don’t want them opening up on Lockley. And then I crawl up to the elevator and get down, crouching down, on the edge, on the left, right next to it, and if the doors open I’ll be able to get my arm in and maybe with the surprise and the lights I can get a shot off and smother the Stick before he does anything. And I’ll have a good chance against him with my vest. If he comes out the top, I should be able to get him up there.
They turn on the gas. In about ten seconds I hear a cough inside. Three minutes more, and I hear the top coming up, the trap door, and I see these hands pushing it aside, a lot of light is coming up from inside, and I’m just waiting for a black head to come up in that light so I can blow it off.
[ LOCKLEY 15 ]
Then for the first time since we’d been in there, the Stick takes his eyes off me and looks up. Then he puts both hands up, still with the gun in one hand, and he pushes on the louvers and the trap door lifts. He twists it around, and pushes it over to the side. He puts his hands together like he would give me a lift up.
I put my foot in his hands and reach up with one hand and grab the edge of the opening and try to keep the gun aimed at him. I don’t know what he’s planning, and I’m still trying to keep him covered. He boosts me up and I crawl through and I’m on top of the elevator.
Then he reaches up and grabs the edges and pulls himself up, and we’re both standing there on top of the elevator in the shaft.
[ BLACKSTONE 13 ]
I see shoulders coming up, and the back of a neck, and it’s white, it’s Lockley, and he’s got his back to me. He’s right there, I can almost touch him, and I can’t do anything. He’s looking back down into the elevator, and I’ve just about made up my mind to go for it, to grab him off of there, when up comes the Stick between us.
The Stick’s got a gun in his hand, and I’ve got a gun aimed at the back of his head, four feet from the back of his head, and his gun must have been right in Lockley’s belly, and I don’t know what to do.
Then the Stick kicks the trap over the hole to cut out the light, and he turns halfway around and he’s squinting, trying to see into the dark. I don’t think he realized till then that the outer doors were open, and he’s starting to realize real fast that if the doors are open, what kind of trouble he’s in.
He crouches down and Lockley moves around him, toward my side, and is crouching down too, and they’re side by side, and I decide to make my move. I’m going to grab for Lockley.
[ LOCKLEY 16 ]
The Stick moves the trap door back over the hole, just leaving a little opening where some light can get through, not much, just barely enough so we can see each other. We’re standing on top of the elevator with our guns, and the top is about three feet above the floor, so we crouch down and try to see into the store. And we’re staring out into the blackness, squinting, trying to see something, and then—lights, all the lights in the world, like someone had shoved the sun in my face.
I throw myself up against the shaft wall. I don’t know what’s happening. Then guns fire. Machine guns. The Stick yells. I’m thinking, “They’re shooting at me, at me, why are they shooting at me?” I must have gone out of my mind.
I’m blinded by all that light. The world sounds like it’s coming apart, and I start shooting. I don’t know why. I must have been crazy. And then I hear my name and someone grabs my legs and pulls me down on the floor of the store and the guns are still firing, automatic fire, and then I hear something else, like an explosion, cracking, and I’m on the floor covered with sparks and there’s this enormous cracking and then crashing, and then the firing stops and I’m lying there on the floor just hearing voices and people yelling and moving, but no more firing.
Someone picks me up, and it’s Crunch, and he and another man carry me through the aisle—I remember stacks of sweaters in cellophane bags—into a little room like an office and they help me down into a chair.
[ BLACKSTONE 14 ]
Then the lights go on, and everything opens up. The Stick is hit, and I yell at Lockley, but I don’t think he heard me. He was pasted up against the shaft wall like he wanted to go through it. And then he reaches one arm out and starts shooting back. You can’t imagine what it was like. All that light, after all night in the dark, and the Thompsons all going at once—Lockley must have gone crazy then. I mean, it was enough to make me crazy, and after what he’d been through in the elevator . . .
I reach up and grab him and yank him down to the floor. Then the Thompsons cut through the cables, and the elevator goes. It cuts loose and drops, the Stick with it, and we’re buried in sparks. Another detective comes up then, and we carry Lockley into the buyer’s office. We can hardly lift him. He’s covered with piss and sweat. I never saw anything like that. Never anything.
[ LOCKLEY 17 ]
Crunch looks at me and he says, “You’re a mess, Beauregard,” and he’s got that Crunch grin. Chief Perna comes in, and he says to Crunch and the other guy, “What’s he say about Butler?”
Crunch says, “We just brought him in.”
And the chief says, “Butler’s dead.”
“Who’s Butler?” I say.
“Detective Butler,” the chief says.
“I don’t know any Detective Butler,” I say.
Then Crunch says, “The girl. Chiclet.”
And that’s the last thing I remember.
TAPE ENDS
BLACKSTONE [ 15 ]
Q: What kind of shape was he in?
A: We put him in a chair and he was limp. I had to hold him up in the chair. He was numb. He looked at me like he didn’t know who I was. And then Perna told him about Butler, and he just looked at Perna, just empty, like a zombie, and said he didn’t know who Butler was. And then I told him. I told him. I was the one who told him. And he just passed out.
[ HANSON 8 ]
Q: And Chief Perna sent for an ADA?
A: Yes. The ADA, Paul Jackson, arrived about forty minutes later. Perna told D’Angelo to brief him, and D’Angelo and I took him in the buyer’s office and briefed him on what was going on, who the Stick was, and Butler and Lockley. D’Angelo was happy as hell with Jackson. On the way into the buyer’s office, he whispered to me, “Great. Jackson’s a head-hunter. He’ll tie him up good.”
D’Angelo told him about Lockley’s familiarity with the SDS and Weathermen at N.Y.U. and Columbia and said he suspected a connection, and that he also suspected a romantic connection between Lockley and Butler and the Stick, and that it was his own private opinion that Lockley killed Butler out of jealousy. He put the whole thing in his head. Jackson had known Butler, and I must say he wasn’t feeling too kindly toward the guy who’d killed her. He was very receptive to D’Angelo.
After the shooting was over and Lockley was in the buyer’s office and had come to and settled down a bit, Jackson took his statement. Lockley looked like he was in a daze. Physically, he was a wreck. His clothes were soaked, and if you got within ten feet of him you couldn’t stand the stink. He looked to me like he was just coasting along on adrenalin. A department surgeon asked Jackson if he wanted him to give Lockley a shot of something, he meant to juice him up a little, keep him from passing out again. Jackson said, “Are you kidding? You go near him with a needle and I’ll lock you up.” Then he took the statement.
TAPE ENDS
ADA STATEMENT
Following is a statement taken from Det. Bo Lockley by ADA Jackson, June 10, 1971, commencing 12:30 p.m., ending 1:10 p.m., at Saks department store, New York, N.Y.
PRESENT: ADA Paul Jackson
Asst. Ch. Insp. H. Perna
Capt. J. D’Angelo
Lt. P. Hanson
Det. B. Lockley
Q: My name is Paul Jackson. I am an assistant district attorney. What is your name?
A: Bo Lockley.
Q: What is your address?
A: 298 Billings Place, Massapequa, Long Island.
Q: What is your occupation?
A: Police officer.
Q: What is your position in the Police Department?
A: Detective third grade. Sixteenth squad.
Q: Before we go any further, you know, do you not, that you do not have to answer any of my questions, and that you are entitled to have a lawyer, and confer with your lawyer, and that if you do not have money for a lawyer, a lawyer will be secured for you. And that if you answer my questions, anything you say may be used against you. Do you understand that?
A: Yes.
Q: Do you wish to answer my questions?
A: Yes.
Q: Did there come a time on June 9, which was yesterday, when you had occasion to fire your revolver?
A: Yes.
Q: Tell me about that.
A: I went into an apartment and there was someone there with a gun and I fired.
Q: Where was the apartment?
A: Forty-seventh Street between Sixth and Seventh.
Q: Who was in the apartment when you went in?
A: A man called the Stick and a girl called Chiclet.
Q: Who, if you know, is the Stick and who is Chiclet?
A: The Stick, I don’t know, was just some guy, a junk dealer or someone, and Chiclet was a girl, a runaway, that I was looking for. Only now someone said her name was something else.
Q: You were looking for her and you found her, is that right?
A: That’s right.
Q: When did you find her?
A: Last night. Two nights ago.
Q: How did you find her?
A: Someone told me she was with the Stick and where the Stick lived and I went there and I saw her and then I saw her again in a bar and I followed her.
Q: When was the first time you saw her?
A: On the street, a few weeks ago.
Q: When was the next time you saw her?
A: Two nights ago.
Q: You never saw her between those two times?
A: No.
Q: What was your reaction the first time you saw her?
A: I thought she was nice-looking. I felt sorry for her. I thought she was a junkie, a runaway and a junkie, and I felt sorry for her.
Q: Just sorry.
A: Right.
Q: What was your reaction when you saw her two nights ago?
A: The same. She was nice-looking.
Q: Just nice-looking?
A: She was very attractive. I think anyone would have thought that. She was very pretty and she had a very nice, a very attractive way about her.
Q: You said she was a runaway, you thought, and you were looking for her.
A: Yes.
Q: What did you do when you found her?
A: I followed her. I called Lieutenant Seidensticker. I made a date to meet her the next day.
Q: You made a date with her.
A: She said she’d meet me at this bar. She said if I kept following her, the Stick would get mad, get jealous or something.
Q: Did she keep the date?
A: No.
Q: How did that make you feel?
A: Worried. And mad. No one likes to be stood up.
Q: Did it make you jealous?
A: Of whom?
Q: Anyone. The Stick.
A: Maybe.
Q: What did you do?
A: I went to her apartment. His apartment.
Q: Did you expect to find them there together?
A: I guess so. Maybe so. I don’t know.
Q: How were you feeling then, when you were going to the apartment? Were you mad, or jealous?
A: No one likes to be stood up. Also I was worried that maybe she was in trouble.
Q: What did you think of the Stick?
A: That he was a dangerous guy.
Q: How did you feel about his being with her?
A: I guess I didn’t like it.
Q: Why?
A: She seemed too straight, too honest. He looked smooth, and slick.
Q: Did you think she’d be better off with you?
A: Yes, I thought that. I still think that.
Q: Were you mad at him for having her, jealous of him?
A: I think I was more mad at her. For giving herself to him, to someone like him.
Q: How mad were you?
A: Disgusted. I was confused. I didn’t understand it.
Q: What happened when you got to the apartment?
A: I heard them in the apartment, and I went in.
Q: Were you mad then? At her or the Stick?
A: I don’t know. Maybe.
Q: Did you go in because you were mad, or jealous?
A: Maybe. I said I don’t know.
Q: Was it because you were mad or jealous or maybe just envious that you fired at them, or at either of them?
A: I don’t think so.
Q: You’re not sure?
A: I’m not sure of very much.
Q: Are you sure the Stick fired first?
A: I don’t know what I’m sure of.
Q: Well, what happened?
A: I went in and they were there and I fired and he fired.
Q: Did you fire first?
A: I don’t know. I don’t remember.
Q: Is it possible you fired first?
A: I don’t remember. It’s possible. Anything is possible.
Q: Is it possible that you were angry and jealous when you went into the apartment, and that you saw them together nude and that when you saw them like that you became enraged and fired at them and killed her?
A: Anything is possible.
Q: Why did you enter the apartment?
A: I told you. She was there. So I went in.
Q: Did you know he was there with her?
A: I told you I heard him there. I heard them both. I was outside in the hall.
Q: What did you hear?
A: Talking.
Q: What happened when you fired?
A: He ran and I chased him.
Q: Then what happened?
A: We ran into the elevator.
Q: And you stayed in the elevator until—
A: The tear gas, the next morning, this morning.
Q: What happened then?
A: They put in gas, so we came out.
Q: Why didn’t you come out before that?
A: He had a gun on me. I had a gun on him. We couldn’t move.
Q: But when they put the gas in, you moved.
A: We had to move. It was us and them.
Q: What do you mean, us and them?
A: They were going to gas us, or blast us, if we didn’t come out.
Q: What made you think that?
A: We figured it out.
Q: Who figured it out?
A: We did.
Q: Who’s we?
A: The Stick and me.
Q: Who figured it out first?
A: The Stick.
Q: What did he say?
A: That they put in the gas, and they would blast us out, and our only hope was to cooperate and go out the trap door.
Q: So you cooperated?
A: If you want to call it that.
Q: How did you cooperate?
A: We cooperated by not killing each other.
Q: You came out first, up through the trap door. Is that correct?
A: Yes.
Q: How did you know he wouldn’t shoot you when you got up in the trap door?
A: I just didn’t think he would. It was part of how I felt.
Q: Part of the cooperation?
A: If you want to say that.
Q: Would you say that?
A: Yes, I’d say that.
Q: When did this cooperation start?
A: When the gas came in.
Q: Not before that?
A: No.
Q: Had you ever seen the Stick before this incident?
A: The first time I saw him was the night before.
Q: Never prior to that?
A: Not that I know of.
Q: Did you ever see him at Columbia, or N.Y.U.?
A: Not that I remember.
Q: At any SDS or Weathermen meetings, or any other meetings?
A: Not that I remember.
Q: There are a number of things that you don’t remember.
A: I guess there are.
Q: Is it possible you did see him before, at Columbia or some of those meetings?
A: It’s possible. I don’t remember seeing him.
Q: Now, when you came up on top of the elevator, up through that trap door, you were standing on top of the elevator?
A: That’s right.
Q: And Henderson, the Stick, came up after you?
A: That’s right.
Q: And then the police officers, the other officers, started shooting?
A: That’s right.
Q: And what did you do then, when they started shooting?
A: I started shooting, too.
Q: Why?
A: Someone was shooting at me. There were a lot of lights. I didn’t know what was happening. I still don’t know what’s happening.
