Joseph Michael Remiro (born 1947) is an American convicted murderer and one of the founding members of the Symbionese Liberation Army in the early fall of 1973. It was an American leftist terrorist group based in the Bay Area of California. He used the pseudonym or nom de guerre "Bo" while he was a member of the group.
Remiro remains incarcerated, serving a life sentence for the November 1973 murder of Marcus Foster, Superintendent of the Oakland Public Schools.[1] The only member of the Symbionese Liberation Army still incarcerated, he has been denied parole at least eleven times.
Early life
Remiro was born in 1947 and raised in San Francisco in a lower-middle-class family of Italian and Mexican ancestry.[2] He attended Roman Catholic schools and was raised in the faith.[3]
Remiro was assigned to Long-range reconnaissance patrol (LRRP). He served two tours in Vietnam as a member of the 101st Airborne Division.[4] He had training as an auto mechanic and in weaponry.[5] He participated in search and destroy missions in Vietnam, where he became addicted to drugs.[6]
Return and VVAW
When Remiro returned from service, he joined Vietnam Veterans Against the War. He also joined the more radical organization Venceremos, which had many Chicano or Mexican-American members and was militating for civil rights for its people.
In the spring of 1973 Donald DeFreeze escaped from Soledad Prison and made his way to Oakland. He sought shelter at Peking House with white contacts from the Black Cultural Association. Concerned about surveillance at their high-profile, Maoist radical commune, they moved DeFreeze to a less well-known house in Concord, which was rented by Nancy Ling Perry. Patricia Soltysik was also living there. DeFreeze, who may have been an informant setting up sting operations, offered guns, explosives, and related supplies for sale to radicals he came into contact with.[7][8]
Veteran Remiro used his knowledge of weaponry to train the small group of affiliated radicals into an armed force. He trained the other members in target practice, as well as the use, maintenance and dismantling of weaponry.[2]
During that period the group was joined by Thero Wheeler, a former Black Panther who knew DeFreeze from the BCA in Vacaville. He had escaped from prison in August 1973. The group seemed increasingly committed to armed violence and preparing for action, which Wheeler opposed.[9]
With the internal opposition cleared out of the way after Wheeler left, the SLA prepared for its first action, the assassination of Marcus Foster, Superintendent of Oakland Public Schools. Purportedly DeFreeze urged the action to gain attention and reduce competition in the city. (SLA members later testified that DeFreeze, Perry and Soltysik were responsible for the shooting of Foster and his deputy.)
Remiro and Russell Little were arrested in January 1974 after an unrelated confrontation with police. They were convicted of charges of murder in the shootings: Foster was killed and his deputy wounded.
Assassination of Marcus Foster
The SLA selected Superintendent of Oakland Schools Marcus Foster and his deputy Robert Blackburn as their first assassination targets, denouncing them as "fascist" for supporting issuance of ID cards for Oakland students to keep non-student drug dealers off of campuses. Foster's proposal was a compromise offered in response to more intrusive proposals supported by more conservative players in Oakland city and school politics. The assassination was carried out on November 6, 1973, as Foster and Blackburn left an Oakland School Board meeting. Foster was killed by five cyanide-packed bullets and Blackburn was badly wounded by a shotgun blast. Although there were no eyewitnesses who could identify the assailants, circumstantial evidence discovered in January 1974 implicated Joe Remiro and Russ Little in the murder.
The killing of Oakland's first black school superintendent outraged many blacks and other leftists.
“Black folks have never been given enough power in this country to be No. 1 on anybody's hit list. Why Foster? Why not the head of Standard Oil of California, or Union Oil or Bank of America? By what standards do you kill one of the few black superintendents of schools in the country? You go down on East 14th Street in Oakland and explain it to the people, because the SLA hasn't bothered!” said Carolyn Craven, a black reporter with strong leftist sympathies.[10]
Speculation circulated through leftist publications that the previously unknown group who assassinated a popular liberal figure was a right-wing false flag operation.
Arrest
On January 10, 1974, Remiro and Russell Little were apprehended by police, as they were driving suspiciously in a quiet neighborhood in Concord, California at 1.30am in a battered van. Little showed the officer a fake license and claimed he was looking for the "Devoto" home. However, Little had been staying there for several weeks with Nancy Ling Perry, who had rented the house under the assumed name. When the officer asked the passenger to identify himself, Remiro grabbed a holstered pistol. The officer took cover behind his car. When the officer peered out from cover, Remiro fired two rounds at the policeman, who fired two shots back at him. Remiro took cover and then emerged again, firing three more rounds at the officer, who again fired twice at Remiro. Although neither Remiro or the officer were hit, Little was wounded during the shootout.[citation needed] Remiro fled the scene as police arrested Little.
Four hours later, Remiro surrendered a block from the SLA hideout. Officers found the Walther automatic pistol that had been used in the murder of Marcus Foster. Since Little had mentioned the name Devoto, it was presumed by the SLA that it was only a matter of time before police would discover their hideout. That evening the house was doused with gasoline and sprinkled with gunpowder. Nancy Ling Perry was seen driving rapidly away.[5]
Detention
As soon as Remiro and Little were booked into Concord City Jail, an extra shift of guards was called in to surround the building. No one got in or out without being thoroughly checked. The two were transferred almost immediately to Contra Costa County Jail, where armed guards on the roof were joined by extra street patrols. New and more serious charges were filed against the pair, bringing their bail to almost $750,000 each. Not wanting to allow any chance for escape or for an assisted breakout, it was decided that Remiro and Little would be transferred to California's most secure penitentiary, San Quentin prison. This move was unprecedented, as suspects are presumed innocent until proven guilty, and only the guilty are housed in penitentiaries.[11]
On February 17, 1974, Little and Remiro attempted to release a statement to the public with some of their grievances. This was seized by prison authorities but found its way to the media in March. They said that they were being held in isolation, "the hole" on Death Row, were not adequately fed, and other claims of harassment, intimidation and violence. They claimed that this was by direction of the FBI.[12][13]
In late February 1974, Little's father, O. Jack Little, made a statement to the media and to other SLA members. He offered to take Patty Hearst's place as a kidnap victim. Part of his statement read:
If Russ Little and Joe Remiro are innocent in the Foster murder and are in fact victims of a police state, then how in heaven's name can the kidnapping and threatened execution of Patricia Hearst have any significance to Russ and Joe but to sustain their indictment? ... Seeing as Russ is the only son I have, at least you could have the satisfaction of knowing that you had been instrumental in the destruction of not only Russell but of his whole family. I beg you to think about it, and please agree to release that child unharmed.[14]
Sentencing
In February 1975, the jury in the murder and attempted murder trial of Remiro and Little sent a note to the judge that it had been unable to reach a verdict in the case.[15] A new jury was selected.[16] It convicted both men.
On June 27, 1975, Little and Remiro were sentenced to life imprisonment for murder and the attempted murder of Foster's assistant, Robert Blackburn. There was no positive eyewitness identifications of either man at the murder scene, and considerable circumstantial evidence, including possession of the murder weapon, was relied upon. The pair was also sentenced for the shooting incident that occurred on their apprehension, as well as an assault that occurred on a prison officer in January 1974.[17]
Personal life
Remiro has one son, Joshua Poole. Poole has married three times and has a daughter by each wife.[1]
1975 trial for Foster and Blackburn
Rudy Henderson, a former boss of Nancy Ling Perry, testified at the 1975 trial that Ling Perry had confessed to him prior to her death in 1974 that she, DeFreeze, Wolfe, and two other members who were killed in the Los Angeles shootout had shot Foster.[18]
On February 18, 1976 Patty Hearst at her armed robbery trial testified that she had been told that Little and Remiro were waiting in the car while Foster was killed by other members. But Bill Harris said that neither had been at the ambush.[19] Little and Remiro released a statement through their attorney saying that Hearst was "lying" about their involvement.[15]
On February 28, 1979, Little's conviction was overturned by the California Court of Appeal. The three-judge panel on the Appeal Court said one of their reasons for overturning his conviction was that Superior Court judge Elvin Sheehy had issued a "dynamite charge" to a deadlocked jury. This charge asks holdout jurors to reevaluate their decision and urges them to reach a conclusion. In 1977, the California Supreme Court ruled that this dynamite charge prejudiced the right to a fair jury trial. One of the Justices at Little's appeal argued that Remiro's conviction should also be overturned.[20] In June 1981, Little was acquitted in a retrial of the Foster/Blackburn case in Monterey County.[21]
After winning his freedom, Little said, "Who actually pulled the trigger that killed Foster was Mizmoon [Note: Patricia Soltysik]. Nancy [Ling Perry] was supposed to shoot Blackburn, she kind of botched that and DeFreeze ended up shooting him with a shotgun."[22]
In 1988, Bill Harris said that he continued to believe in the innocence of both Little and Remiro for the Foster/Blackburn attack.[23]
Remiro remains in Pelican Bay State Prison where he is serving a life sentence.[1] He is the only member of the SLA still in prison, having been denied parole more than eleven times.[24]
Related Research Articles
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Sara Jane Olson is an American far-left activist who was a member of the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) in 1975. The group disbanded and she was a fugitive for decades before being arrested. In 2001, she pleaded guilty to attempted murder related to a failed bombing plot. In 2003 she pleaded guilty to second-degree murder related the death of a customer during a botched bank robbery the SLA committed in California. Known then as Soliah, she was also accused of helping a group hide Patty Hearst, a kidnapped newspaper heiress, in 1974. After being federally indicted in 1976, Soliah was a wanted fugitive for several decades. She lived for periods in Zimbabwe and the U.S. states of Washington and Minnesota.
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The United Federated Forces of the Symbionese Liberation Army was a small, American militant far-left organization active between 1973 and 1975; it claimed to be a vanguard movement. The FBI and wider American law enforcement considered the SLA to be the first terrorist organization to rise from the American left. Six members died in a May 1974 shootout with police in Los Angeles. The three surviving fugitives recruited new members, but nearly all of them were apprehended in 1975 and prosecuted.
Patricia Campbell Hearst is the granddaughter of American publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst. She first became known for the events following her 1974 kidnapping by the Symbionese Liberation Army. She was found and arrested 19 months after being abducted, by which time she was a fugitive wanted for serious crimes committed with members of the group. She was held in custody, and there was speculation before trial that her family's resources would enable her to avoid time in prison.
William Lawton Wolfe was one of the founding members in 1972 of the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA), an American radical group based near Oakland, California. While in the group, he adopted the name "Kahjoh", though the media misspelled this as "Cujo".
The Black Cultural Association (BCA) was an African-American inmate group founded in 1968 at the California Medical Facility at Vacaville, a California state prison, and formally recognized by prison officials in 1969. The primary purpose of the BCA was to provide educational tutoring to inmates, which it did in conjunction with graduate college students from the nearby San Francisco Bay Area. Outsiders were allowed to attend meetings of the BCA, and tutors provided remedial and advanced courses in mathematics, reading, writing, art, history, political science, and sociology. In time, radical political organizations such as Venceremos infiltrated the BCA, giving rise to BCA factions such as Unisight, which eventually gave birth to the Symbionese Liberation Army.
Donald David DeFreeze, also known as Cinque Mtume and using the nom de guerre "General Field Marshal Cinque", was known as the "spokesman" of the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA), a small, American far-left group that formed in Oakland, California in 1973. Some analysts suggested he was a figurehead; others said he was the leader. Born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, he dropped out of high school and was involved from the age of 14 in frequent brushes with the criminal justice system. He received generous probation in the late 1960s, leading some sources to suggest he was serving as a police informant to the Los Angeles Police Department.
Nancy Ling Perry was also known as Nancy Devoto, Lynn Ledworth, and Fahizah while a founding member of the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA), a small leftist terrorist group based in northern California. Considered one of its chief theorists and activists, she died in a shootout with the Los Angeles Police Department at an SLA safehouse in that city.
Wendy Masako Yoshimura is an American still life watercolor painter. She was a member of the leftist terrorist group the Symbionese Liberation Army during the mid-1970s. She was born in Manzanar, one of numerous World War II-era internment camps for Japanese Americans who were forced out of their homes and businesses along the West Coast. She was raised both in Japan and California's Central Valley.
Venceremos was an American far-left and primarily Chicano political group active in the Palo Alto, California area from 1969 to 1973.
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James William Kilgore is a convicted American felon and former fugitive for his activities in the 1970s with the Symbionese Liberation Army, a left-wing terrorist organization in California. After years of research and writing, he later became a research scholar and ultimately worked at the University of Illinois' Center for African Studies in Champaign–Urbana.
Thero Lavon Wheeler (1945–2009), aka Bruce Bradley while a fugitive (1973–1975), was a founding member of the Symbionese Liberation Army, an American left-wing organization in the San Francisco Bay area. He left the group in October 1973 as he objected to its plans to undertake violent acts. Law enforcement later classified the SLA as a terrorist group.
Mary Alice Siem was a student at the University of California, Berkeley when she became involved in 1973 with a prisoner outreach program at Vacaville Prison. She became the girlfriend of Thero Wheeler, an inmate who escaped in August 1973. He was a founding member of the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA), an extremist group based in Oakland that was classified as terrorist by law enforcement. It was known for murders, armed robberies and the kidnapping of heiress Patty Hearst after Wheeler and Siem left the group in October 1973.
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