On this day, Aug. 7, 1970, California Judge Harold Haley was abducted and killed with three others during a prisoner escape attempt.
Haley, 65, was a Marin County judge presiding over the trial of James McClain, accused of stabbing a San Quentin prison guard while serving a sentence for burglary.
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Jonathan Jackson, 17, snuck guns into Haley’s courtroom and freed McClain and two other San Quentin inmates, witnesses Ruchell Magee, who was inside the courtroom, and William Christmas, who was guarded in the corridor outside. McLain told the judge to call the sheriff’s office and demanded: “Call off your pigs or we’ll kill everyone in the room!Ó
The inmates fastened a sawed-off shotgun to Haley’s neck with adhesive tape. They tied together with piano wire four other hostages, the prosecutor and three female jurors.
A gunbattle erupted outside. When it was over, Haley was dead, his jaw blown off by the shotgun. McLain, Christmas and Jackson were killed. Magee was convicted of kidnapping and murder and sentenced to life imprisonment.
— Scott McCabe
