April 24, 1979, Pages 31-42 Summary

April 24, 1979, Coastown, San Dominica, is the date and location of the trial against three accused of robbing and murdering an American Tourist, Francis Cichoski, a Waltham, Massachusetts, fireman. Accused are fifteen-year-old Leon Ratchet, thirty-year-old Franklin Smith and Chicki Holt, father of fourteen children by five women. The three are sentenced to be hanged within the week. As soon as the verdict is read, Potts Rum factory is destroyed in a fiery blast, two white mine foremen are beaten, a hundred car windows smashed in an executive parking lot and rental cars are blown up. As Leon steps out of the courthouse, someone threw a silver Frisbee in the air. As Leon looks up, a white man shoots him three times in the face while Carrie Rose watches from the crowd.

That night, Damian Rose shoots a crude bomb on...