I am not asking this question to be inflammatory or looking to overshadow his
accomplishments. I am just wondering if it is true or not.

I read in a discussion forum that Ron Everett / Maulana Karenga, who
started Kwanzaa, has a criminal past. Apparently he was involved in
the torture of women that resulted in at least one death, for which he
served prison time.

I was able to find some articles about this topic using Google on the
web and Usenet, but the various websites I visited all seemed to be a
little biased or not very well known. The only one that I could
find that seemed to come from a trustworthy source was a brief mention
in Slate.

Dear paullieannakeats-ga;

Thank you for allowing me an opportunity to answer your interesting question.

I have no person knowledge of the events one way or the other but my
research indicated there is an abundance of relatively well-known
sources that openly say that Karenga was once convicted and sentenced
to prison. You can read these and come to you own conclusion:

?In 1971, he was convicted of the brutal torture of two of his female
followers. He was sentenced to one to ten years in prison, eventually
being released in 1975.?
WIKIPEDIA
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maulana_Karenga


?On May 9, 1970 he initiated the torture session that led to his
imprisonment. The torture session was described in the L.A. Times on
May 14, 1971. "The victims said they were living at Karenga?s home
when Karenga accused them of trying to kill him by placing crystals in
his food and water and in various areas of his house. When they denied
it, allegedly they were beaten with an electrical cord and a hot
soldering iron was put in Miss Davis? mouth and against her face.
Police were told that one of Miss Jones? toes was placed in a small
vise, which then was tightened by the men and one woman. The following
day Karenga told the women that ?Vietnamese torture is nothing
compared to what I know." Miss Tamao put detergent in their mouths;
Smith turned a water hose full force on their faces, and Karenga,
holding a gun, threatened to shoot both of them. The victims Deborah
Jones and Gail Davis were whipped with an electrical cord and beaten
with a karate baton after being ordered to remove their clothing."

Karenga was convicted of two counts of felonious assault and one count
of false imprisonment. He was sentenced on Sept. 17, 1971 to serve one
to ten years in prison. After being released from prison in 1975, he
remade himself as Maulana Ron Karenga??
KARENGA II
http://www.nathanielturner.com/karenga2.htm

?Mr. Everett/Karenga is blamed by many for stopping the Black Power
movement in the 1960s through his group counter to the Black Panthers,
the Us (United Slaves) Organization. Among the deeds of US [United
Slaves] were the killing of two Black Panther members in 1969 and the
brutal torture of two women whom Mr. Everett/Karenga believed were
trying to poison him ? despite the fact he had earlier given them the
title of "African queen" within his group.?
FOX NEWS
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,142002,00.html

?Engaged in a power struggle with the Black Panthers, Everett
kidnapped and tortured two women to garner information from them. He
was subsequently arrested, and found guilty on two counts of felonious
assault and one count of false imprisonment for the beating and
torture of Deborah Jones and Gail Davis. Everett was sentenced to
serve one to 10 years in prison, beginning in 1971.?
THE UNION LEADER AND NEW HAPSHIRE NEWS
http://www.theunionleader.com/articles_showfast.html?article=48486

There are others:

WORLD NET DAILY
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=42019

GOOGLE
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Karenga+%22Deborah+Jones%22+%22Gail+Davis%22&btnG=Google+Search



Below you will find that I have carefully defined my search strategy
for you in the event that you need to search for more information. By
following the same type of searches that I did you may be able to
enhance the research I have provided even further. I hope you find
that my research exceeds your expectations. If you have any questions
about my research please post a clarification request prior to rating
the answer. Otherwise, I welcome your rating and your final comments
and I look forward to working with you again in the near future. Thank
you for bringing your question to us.

Best regards;
Tutuzdad ? Google Answers Researcher


INFORMATION SOURCES

Defined above


SEARCH STRATEGY


SEARCH ENGINES USED:

Google ://www.google.com




SEARCH TERMS USED:

Karenga

Prison

Convicted

Karenga "Deborah Jones" "Gail Davis"

1971

---

Request for Answer Clarification by paullieannakeats-ga on 24 Dec 2004 06:29 PST

Thanks for your well-researched answer! It's very helpful and my
curiosity is satisfied. I had seen the World Net Daily site in my
search, but I couldn't tell if it was a legitimate source or not. Is
it usually considered so by researchers? Just curious about that.

---

Clarification of Answer by tutuzdad-ga on 24 Dec 2004 07:07 PST

As a rule, a good researcher takes noting as fact until it can be
corroborated by a number of other supporting sources. Like many
sources, there are some things on WorldNet that are factual and some
that turn out to be less that accurate. This is probably true of any
information you find on the internet. I can't speak for everyone else,
but I do not automatically discount everything I read on WorldNet
simply because WorldNet published it, but neither do I automatically
take CBS, for example, as absolute truth unless (or until) I find it
published elsewhere (or discount it because it is disputed by a
reputable source).

Suffice it to say that a good researcher is skeptical about
everything, otherwise he wouldn't be a researcher, he'd just be a
consumer. Every source is potentially a good source, just as every
source is subject to error.

Regards;
tutuzdad-ga

tutuzdad gave me a fabulous and helpful answer. Thanks again!