SOURCE: "Former Black Panther Eldridge Cleaver Dies at 62," in Los Angeles Times, May 2, 1998, p. A1.

[In the following obituary, Warren recounts the "often perplexing, often tragic series of zigzags" in Cleaver's life.]

Former Black Panther leader Eldridge Cleaver, who achieved prominence as a 1960s revolutionary, author and presidential candidate but spent his later years as a conservative idealist concerned with the environment, died Friday at Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center. He was 62.

A hospital spokeswoman declined to reveal the cause of death, citing a family request. But a neighbor, Peter Apanel, who was with Cleaver on Thursday night said the onetime seminal figure of black militancy had complained of what he believed was a reaction to various medications.

Apanel said Cleaver was battling prostate cancer and was taking insulin. Cleaver told Apanel he had a doctor's appointment Friday morning but it wasn't immediately clear how he became hospitalized...