Mental Floss is partnering with FilmNation and iHeartPodcasts to work you the transcripts forGreatest Escapes , a podcast hosted by Arturo Castro about some of the furious escape tale across account . In this episode , Diallo Riddle ( Sherman ’s Showcase , The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon ) travel with Arturo to the 1970s , where they unveil an escape of historical proportions by the American revolutionary Assata Shakur . translate all the transcriptshere .
Arturo : Hey guy , receive toGreatest Escapes , a show bring you the wildest dependable escape stories . Now , in this episode , we ’re head back to the seventies for the dare daylight jailbreak of a lawful American subversive .
I ’m Arturo Castro , and for this journey I ’m joined by the incredible talent — role player , writer , producer and DJ — Diallo Riddle !
Diallo Riddle ! [ airhorn noises ] Am I saying your name completely right or completely wrong ?
Diallo : You — you say it altogether right . Diallo Riddle . You sleep together , people sometimes mistakeDialloforDiablo .
Arturo : Diablo ? [ laughs ]
Diallo : My mother - in - law said that my to - be wife could not date me , uh –
Arturo : Because your name is — my ma did warn me about — she ’s like “ you were having the Diablo on ? Like , I have questions . ”
Diallo:“Diablo was surprisingly uncommitted . You know , you ’d imagine he ’d be kind of booked up . ”
Arturo : You have it off , you ’d think he ’d be like — but right now the world ’s sort of f***ed . So like , he ’s –
Diallo : He seems really engaged . He seems really busybodied .
Arturo : Um , may I ask the origin of your name ?
Diallo : So my name is Diallo , uh , nob , uh , twols , in reality . Uh , it ’s from West Africa , Diallo Amir Riddle . Um , it stands for “ Bold Prince Riddle ” in a West African language recognize as Fulani .
Arturo : Fulani . awing .
Diallo : Yeah , Fulani . So I ’m from Atlanta , Georgia . You know , my parents just want to give me a name from Africa because , you know , Black pride and , uh –
Arturo : Sure , sure , sure .
Diallo : But that — that is how you end up with a Bold Prince Riddle , a.k.a . Diallo Amir Riddle .
Arturo : Oh , fantastic . You know , at the offset of my vocation , I did a few , um , Nigerian flick and they call them “ Nollywood . ”
Diallo : Of course !
Arturo : So anything from West Africa films , they call it “ Nollywood . ” And it was awful ’cause you know , obviously , like , we ’d go off to shoot in Lowell , Massachusetts , and they ’d be like , “ come make we go white son . ” And I ’m like , “ dude , I’m — I’m not blank . ” He ’s like , “ my brother , you look like me . No , you are a white son . ”
Diallo : You know what ’s risible is , uh , on one of our shows , Sherman ’s Showcase , we — you experience , we just shoot a proof of concept , which , you know , is a fancy industriousness full term for essentially we shot like , the best five or 10 minutes of a script and showed it to the internet , and we got picked up to series . But in that proof –
Arturo : Congratulations .
Diallo : Oh , thank you . In that test copy of concept , we had a , um , fundamentally what was a Nollywood moving-picture show lagger . And in that trailer , because we have … we have — we have a couple of Nigerian writer on our faculty . And we thought it was so fishy that they were like , “ if you watch enough of these Nigerien Nollywood movies , a lot of times the twist is that somebody is a witch . ” And so –
Arturo : A hundred pct .
Diallo : Every — every trailer finish with , “ She is a hag ! ”
Arturo : Like , yeah , the — it ’s usually the preacher who ’s also kind of a love pastime . Like who — who expose this story .
Diallo’s Escape
Arturo : Tell me about your greatest escape . It does n’t even have to be life threatening . It just has to be one of those , like , “ whoa , I got away with that . ”
Diallo : Very few mass know this story , but really when I was about 17 , I ’m filling out college lotion , and so I went to the store cause you could n’t email ’em in back then . You had to like print ’em out on paper and get off ’em in .
Arturo : Right .
Diallo : So I go to the local drug depot to cull up some paper . I ’m literally purchase paper to go to college and — and build a best living . When a guy rope came in and held up the public toilet entrepot .
Arturo : No !
Diallo : And I remember he said “ everybody on the floor ! ” And I remember how , like , I had never date a side arm wielded , you know , in person before . And I just remember thinking “ that is a mammoth accelerator . ” And so we all got down on our stomachs and , I ’m wish , you know , praying , and like , you recognize , just thinking like , “ oh , if I can just get outta here and post off my college lotion , I will never hail back to this Ecker Drugs , and – ”
So this is a capital leakage of someone else that actually save my life , potentially . make you know , everybody in the store — there were n’t many of us at the time . I thought like , you know , he might be like , “ no witnesses ! ” you know , and uh –
Arturo : Whoa , what a thought .
Diallo : And — and then somebody run out the back , like — it was in all likelihood an employee — and just something about that emergency door jamming open … like , the cat just grabbed a bunch of money out of the register and then go back out the front . And then I got up and I pick up my paper and I ’m pretty certain I just walked out with my paper . I cogitate I was like , “ they ’re gon na have a peck of paperwork to fill out and I do n’t bang that I want to hang out here . ”
Arturo:“I’m not here for it . ”
Diallo : I’m not trying to be like , you love … “ I ca n’t key the bozo . All I see was a calamitous glove on a gunman . I ’m outta here . ”
Arturo : Have you ever want to get to Cuba ? Have you ever been to Cuba , or –
Diallo : I — I did , I really wanted to get to Cuba . I mean , like … oh man , you know , Cuba is such a — evidently it ’s such a complicated sociopolitical , you have intercourse , topic . But I ’ve always wanted , in my centre of hearts , there to be like , a very simple way to just flee outta LAX , you know , into Cuba . And just , you know , go and visit and — and go around and … and see the country . So it ’s one of those places I ’ve really require to go . I finger like every clip I get a chance to go –
Arturo : Something make out up .
Diallo : Something comes up . Yeah .
Arturo : Now , Cuba is crucial in today ’s story for two reasons . First , the rotation in 1959 that inspired a ton of people in the next couple of decennary .
And secondly : Cuba does n’t extradite hoi polloi to the United States . Bam .
Which takes us back to the end of the seventies … and one of the most important prison turn tail in American chronicle .
CHAPTER 1: Breaking Free
Arturo : It was November 2 , 1979 . Three human beings walk into the correctional installation for women in Clinton , New Jersey , sometime between 1 and 4 p.m. Each of the visitors designate their ID , and they give their names and address , and were entered into the prison visitor log . But none of the information they give was true .
So , this was n’t just any old visit . These men were consummate subversive . And they arrived to draw in one of the most daring jailbreaks of the hundred — in staring daylight .
Afterwards , the only true thing the guards get laid about them is that they looked ’ 70s as hell : I ’m talk afros , full beards , sideburns . A guy with a bass behind them going “ doot doot doot doot doot . ” OK that last part is n’t on-key , but would n’t that be awesome ?
So if you were gon na help with a jailbreak , how would you disguise yourself ? Like , what would you be wearing for this ?
Diallo : Oh , man . Um … probably all black , good ? You got ta go like , full , you know , Black Panthers slash … uh , you know , Tom Cruise when he is like make out in from the ceiling .
Arturo : That’s — that ’s what it is . I would wear … I would like , wear like , really thick brow because that ’s the one thing that people would describe me as . They ’re like … and then I just pull ‘ em off . And you have these ones –
Diallo:“It could n’t have been him . calculate at how slender those supercilium are ! ”
Arturo : The first human get alone . He was check into through the enrollment building in the minimum security area of the prison . Then he climbed into a van that drove him across the prison house grounds to the South Hall . Now , this was the prison ’s maximum security department country . But — and this is key , OK?—he was not searched . He was n’t ! No ! rather , he was led through the spare fencing around the South Hall . Then the guard let him down to the glass booth where he sit around down to visit with an yard bird .
Diallo : Now you get — I get ta put ’ 70 , seventies security teams , like , I just feel like they –
Arturo : Yeah , I mean , they were just like , “ yeah , I do n’t care , you’re able to go through . Who are you here to see ? Yeah , sure enough , go forward , mankind . ”
Diallo : It ’s like — it reminds me of thatSimpsonepisode where like , Mr. Burns has to go through , like , eight levels of security measures to get down to the nuclear nuclear reactor , but then a computed axial tomography wanders in through a broken — a broken concealment room access .
Arturo : Yeah , a hundred percent .
So the next two military personnel arrived soon after and they did the same thing . They passed the enrollment without being searched . OK ! And were shuttle into the prison van in the South Hall . Literally nobody render a f * * * .
Diallo : Yeah . I entail , it ’s the ’ LXX . Everybody was packing and nobody was checking .
Arturo : When they come to the fence around the South Hall and it was opened for them , they spring into their safety valve plan . They pulled out guns on the van driver while the gate hung open . Now , inside the visiting booth , the first man twist to the prison guard who was determine the sojourn , and he trounce out two pistols out from under his jacket .
Diallo : Not one in like , you know , shoved into his crotch or whatever . Like , literally two guns . John Woo fashion .
Arturo : Something must have given away when he had , like , a bullet bash around him . So holding the guard there at gunpoint , he forced her to start the booth . Out from behind the glass walked activist , Black Panther , and soldier of the Black Liberation Army Assata –
Diallo : Shakur .
Arturo : That ’s correct . Yep .
Diallo : Assata Shakur .
Arturo : Suddenly spare from her cell , Assata and her visitant took the safety gadget hostage , and they demonstrate outdoors . They climbed into the vanguard with the other two men . Now , together , the four revolutionaries and their two surety were able to drive the prison avant-garde right out of the main prison house logic gate . They reach a nearby parking lot where their getaway elevator car were parked , waiting .
Diallo : Hmm .
Arturo : So Assata and her rescuers leapt from the van and into the motorcar and just f***ing peeled forth . The prison house guards were left handcuff in the prison house van , but unscathed . Now , everybody bug out flipping the f * * * out . barrier were rushed out onto the highway to cease the escaping vehicle . But self-contradictory reports wing in , right-hand ?
Some said “ they were in a blue Pontiac and a dismal Cadillac . ” And “ no , no , no . They were in a Ford Maverick and a two - tone Lincoln . ” “ No , no , no . They had monumental eyebrows . Everybody had massive eyebrows . ” “ No . ” bedevil all the manner .
So the at odds reports may have been the save saving grace of the escapee . Before official could decide which roads could be shut down and where to run , Assata and her friend were out of there . Assata Shakur was free .
Diallo : It ’s insane .
Arturo : Diallo , uh , what do you jazz about Assata Shakur ’s life and why she was in prison ?
Diallo : I have in mind , admittedly , you know , my father was a painter , uh , in South Central now call South LA during the sentence of the Watts orgy . And so , you know , he used to , you know , do house painting and sculptures about , you know , the ghetto and the — and the cowling back then . You love , and I always matt-up like even though he was n’t like a Black Panther , grow up in our household , we definitely understood the point of view that like , our community needed , you know , uplift , and it need , you sleep with , sealed affair to reach its full voltage .
Diallo : Um , so the idea of like , Assata Shakur and Mumia Abu Jamal , like — these were not random names to us . Like , these were people who we knew in our family . And — and frankly , when Tupac Shakur first screw up up , I was like , “ is that Assata ’s son ? ” And of course , you do it , Assata Shakur was the godmother of Tupac .
Arturo : That ’s correct . That ’s correct .
Diallo : And yeah . And then I think his momma , Afeni Shakur was a — was a good ally of Assata ’s .
Arturo : That ’s right . And … and — you know , this is a little off topic , but let me take you something , because you bring up something interesting about , uh — I did n’t know that about your father . Do you suppose that you set out from him the desire to express yourself , and surroundings , and sort of your point of view through fine art ? Albeit through a writer , acting perspective , but –
Diallo : No , listen , you — you asked something that not many mass have ever asked , but uh , it ’s got a very , very , uh , open and firm result , which is that absolutely , 100 percentage . You eff , my Padre started off at LA City College , doing still life sentence , like he would paint pear , you know , in bowls and , you have a go at it , light coming through a window on a via .
But , you know , at the end of the day , once the Watts riots relegate out , he was like , “ I ca n’t do Pyrus communis and bowls and still life anymore . I have to do artwork that means something . ” And he sort of instilled , you know , in us , even before I know that I wanted to be an creative person in my own room , even though before I knew I wanted to be creative with my profession , he always say that he felt like artwork without any social comment had no interest to him . You lie with , he felt like everything that he did had to have some … not content . He was n’t trying to be , um , polemicist , but it was just that he had –
Arturo : A point of prospect .
Diallo : Yeah , it had to have a point of aspect . It had to have a very strong point of view . And I intend that in my work to this day , everything fromSherman ’s ShowcasetoSouth Sideto some of the shows that we ’re work on now , I always think , “ what will this contribute to the worldly concern ? ”
It does n’t have to be anything like , “ oh , it ’s go to get people to wake up about clime change . ” It ’s not like that . It ’s just more like : how will this make life — you know , people ’s lives better . Even if it ’s just to say , “ it ’s gon na be so funny that it ’s gon na give people who have had a laborious week , it ’s gon na bring them a little bit of joy . ” That is enough . But there has to be something in there like that for me to be concerned .
Arturo : What a fascinating affair to be able to find that if you see your dad ’s paintings from before the riots and after the riots and , you know , how you key out them –
Diallo : It ’s night and Clarence Shepard Day Jr. . It ’s so nighttime and day .
Arturo:–and the still life . And then abruptly , like , so , we ’re just watching — I love the moment where you watch an artist discovery — find their articulation , you know –
Diallo : Find their voice .
Arturo:–and visually being able to witness it must be really fascinating and impactful as a immature military man .
Diallo : Yeah . John Thomas Riddle , he ’s , uh , you acknowledge , his graphics is up at the California African American Art Museum and –
Arturo : awe-inspiring man .
Diallo:–and the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles . So it’s — you make love , he had a great career . unhappily , as many people who work in that field know , the second that he die , uh , his prowess skyrocketed in value . ’Cause there’s — there ’s not gon na be any longer . That ’s … that ’s the weird affair about that .
Arturo : We’ll put up a tie at the bottom of this episode so mass can insure out your dad ’s artistic creation , Man . I think that ’d be really cool .
CHAPTER 2: From Joey to Assata
Arturo : OK , so we ’ve heard about Assata ’s legendary prison dodging , but now we ’re gon na jump back and hear the story of the tangible person behind the legend . So , Diallo , you know a lot of this already , but for the listener , we ’re gon na go right smart , way back , OK ? So Assata was born in Queens probably in the year 1947 , though the precise date is kind of lost .
Diallo : Oh , wow .
Arturo : Yeah . She was behave with the name Joanne and her family called her Joey . It was only afterwards that she would leave it behind and become Assata . She grew up with her mother and her auntie , and when she was 3 , her grandparents bribe a beach property in Wilmington , North Carolina . So they moved to the south and they take Assata with them .
Now — and this is a really beautiful sort of remembering , I think — Assata state that while in Wilmington , the women in her nan ’s coevals became her role models . They would drown river , and shoot the head off a Snake River , and plant a garden , sew a figure , vote out a hogg , and also quiet a small , fuss baby all at the same time .
Do you have old women in your living that you consider bad asses like that ?
Diallo : Oh yeah . I mean , what ’s interesting is I have an Aunt Joanne , uh –
Arturo : Hell yeah you do .
Diallo : No telling to Assata , uh — oh shoot . Now it get along out — Diallo ’s related to Assata Shakur !
Arturo : Yeah . Yeah . It ’s like , “ that ’s what we obtain . ” The FBI , they come surprise my booth . I ’m like , “ I don’t — what do you want with me ? ”
Diallo : They’re so — I intend , like every — I find like all the women in my family are badass in their own way . But , but you know what ’s really interesting about what you say about them be active from New York , uh , I think you said Queens to North Carolina . I grew up in Atlanta , and the thing about Atlanta is I think we have more trees , you know , per square inch than any major city in the body politic .
Like we have — so , we have these woods and we have these really wild areas that are veracious in the heart of Atlanta . And as a result , you get it on , me and my friends , flop there in the city limits , we learn how to fish and identify which snakes are harmless and which one will kill you . And there ’s like , this — this melodic phrase of natural state . And I think that that ’s really coolheaded because unfortunately every clock time I see , you know , fateful people depict on TV in any kind of like , rural or like , river - strewn area , it ’s almost always like something about slavery . Like , it ’s just like , they ’re always like , running away from dogs trying to like take ’em back into thraldom .
And I ’m like , “ guy cable , there are a pot of rural smuggled people who wish , bang how to like , Pisces the Fishes and — and do the wildlife , you make love , outdoors thing . ” You know ? I love to hear stories like that .
Arturo : Depicting Black joyfulness in the outdoors is something we do n’t see much of .
Diallo : Yeah , man .
Arturo : I whole pick up you . Dude –
Diallo : I’m like , all alone in the archery club . Like , come get together me , please .
Arturo : Dude . Every clip I see a Latino soul in the desert , I ’m like , “ oh , f * * * . OK I love where this is going . ” Like , could n’t I have been just been out for a f***ing hike ?
Diallo : Yes !
Arturo : Like , I love hike ! Like , every time anybody like get me outside , like — like in , I do n’t know , Palm Springs or something , they ’re like , “ oh , I know where ya get from . ” No you fing do n’t . I came from the Ace Hotel motherfer . And I just went for a nice little stroll . F * * * you !
Diallo:“I was just on a dune buggy . OK . bury y’ all . ”
Arturo:“That ’s right . OK . That ’s why I ’m all fing cheating and thirsty . OK motherfer . Cause I ’m hungover . ”
So to paint a depiction of like , what Wilmington was like at the meter , uh , public beach around Wilmington were whites only . So Assata ’s grandparents go onto their ocean front dimension and unfold it for business , correct ? So they welcomed ignominious visitor , sell refreshments , and rented umbrella .
Diallo : Smart .
Arturo : Yeah . So her time on the beach growing up became Assata ’s image of what exemption really have in mind , right ? Watching hoi polloi enjoy themselves , sharing treat with them , dancing in the George Sand . Kind of what we were talking about , uh — about minority delight , that you just ever see .
After simple school , Assata moved back to New York . And after moving around so much as a kid , she was convert there was n’t a position in the United States where she could really scarper favouritism . It was everywhere . Both in the due north and in the south . In her teens , Assata finish up live with her Aunt Evelyn , a lawyer who would eventually become a legal philosophy prof at NYU .
Diallo : Oh , OK .
Arturo : Now under — yeah — so under Evelyn ’s care , Assata made it through high schoolhouse and into college at the City College of New York . Do you ever go to City College or visited that area at all ?
Diallo : In New York ?
Arturo : Yeah .
Diallo : I do n’t think so . My — my clip in New York was a little bit special . The only sentence I lived there was when I was a writer for Jimmy Fallon , and that was about four years . And honestly , I went straight from my , you fuck , place in Upper West Side , straight to , uh , 30 Rock . So I –
Diallo:–I never really got to recognize some parts of the city , like City College .
Arturo : That ’s where I ’ve gotten my first play . And like , I had a wise man who — who taught film socio-economic class there , so I ’d come out , scrutinize his class . So it still had those feeling of whenever you walk into a place that — that has been really of import to a metropolis , you still feel sort of the ghost of the past there .
Diallo : Mm - hmm .
Arturo : And — and that ’s what City College sense like to me . This place of learning that most people do n’t ever talk about .
Diallo : That — that ’s one of the best things about New York is that you feel like the past is all around you . I will say that I think the ghost of the past tense were very much alive in the cellar of my New York building . Like , I never wanted to go to that washing room .
Arturo : Oh , it ’s fully haunted . All of New York City .
Diallo : Very , very haunted .
Arturo : In 1967 , Assata joined other student at City College to resist the lack of mordant professors and Black history being taught . Their intact group was arrested . And the violence of these arrests made one thing clear : Assata knew it would take a gyration for America to change .
She made more friend in other radical groups , and took a trip to California , which is the original home of the Black Panthers . The Panthers there challenged her to get off the sidelines and get call for . So she went home to New York and she stepped it up .
Was the Black Panther company something you were cognizant of growing up ?
Diallo : Yeah , I entail , again , my father was , you have it off , very much of that variety of generation and I mean , like , we — to acquire up in my household was to make out Fred Hampton , Huey P. Newton … you know , my forefather , just to this Clarence Shepard Day Jr. , I have a painting of his , it ’s call , Fairbanks or Garvey , and it’s — it ’s get a salient picture of Marcus Garvey , you know , in the picture .
Like he … he definitely infuse upon us that we should take great superbia in our people , our skill . You sleep with , one affair that he suppose to me back when I was unseasoned that did n’t really file until I had my own kids was just this mind — and this employ to you and everybody who ’s take heed — is that there have been so many wars and conflicts and genocides and plagues . Everybody alive today is a bloodline that survived all that from the root of freaking time . I mean that ’s so amazing , that all of us have an ascendent who was able to jump over a rhinoceros , you know , survive a flood . You know what I mean ?
Arturo : Very specifically a rhinoceros , yes .
Diallo : Yeah , man . I mean , like , you hump … just the estimation that all of us have managed to survive all of human history and get to the point where we ’re now talking into , you lie with , machines and distribute over –
Arturo : Yeah , yeah , yeah .
Diallo:–invisible wave is kind of awful . But I cogitate that , yeah , my Padre ’s lesson would ’ve been just that , you know , take pride in what human stock you fare from and prove to instill that same pride in your child .
Arturo : That ’s beautiful , man .
CHAPTER 3: From the Black Panthers to the Black Liberation Army
Arturo : In 1966 , Huey Newton and Bobby Seale founded the Black Panther Party in Oakland . By 1969 , the Panthers had branches all across the state . They build internet of common aid , they ran medical clinics , they held education programme , and served breakfast for tyke in poverty .
Diallo : Yeah . I mean that was sort of the independent collection , I think , you know — anytime you hear citizenry let the cat out of the bag about the Panthers nowadays , you always find out about that , you cognise — cry out to my friends , the Lucas Brothers . I thought they did an awesome job on the playscript forJudas and the Black Messiah .
Arturo : I did n’t see it . I have n’t seen it !
Diallo : If you watch that movie , I guarantee — first off , I cerebrate that , you love — I know that Daniel [ Kaluuya ] got nominated for a draw of material in that flick , but to me , Lakeith Stanfield is — he ’s such a Robert De Niro at a young age . Like , I just finger like Lakeith — he disappears into this fibre . He plays every tier . If — even if you just like a good movie , I would actually recommendJudas and the Black Messiah . But I ’d also point out that that movie points out that the Panthers weren’t — it was n’t an system that was started , like , “ yeah , we ’re gon na get a bunch of guns and stamp out people . ” That ’s not what it was really about . And I think that , you know –
Arturo : OK , great .
Diallo:–it represent that side of the tale that you do n’t get tell unless you , you experience , do research .
Arturo : It was 1970 when Assata joined the Panthers in New York . By that compass point , there were Panther offices in 68 cities . Wow . Assata ’s first role with the Panthers was start the Children ’s Breakfast programme in Harlem . She became the brain of the Harlem office responsible for for the innocent clinics and the residential district outreach .
OK , soShakuris an Arabic name for “ grateful . ” Many Panthers in New York take aim the name to map their unity , and Assata was among them . When Panther leader Fred Hampton was murder by the Chicago police , many company member were convince mutual aid was n’t enough — you know , they had to fight back , literally . So some of the New York Panthers started to go underground , living under assumed gens and keeping low profile . Assata was one of ’em .
She evaporate from her family and friends . She knew that her auntie , her mammy , and her grandparents were all being look out by the police .
So Assata ’s name started to hit the headlines in the other 1970s . So the police wanted her for bank robbery , bombings , and the slaying of police military officer . She seems to have been in so many places at the same time , you know ? How could she have hit banks in the Bronx , in Brooklyn , and in New Orleans , so tight together ? Apparently , the police did n’t really care so much about the timeline because they did n’t add up .
Diallo : I had forgotten about the bank robberies . It ’s so interesting to me because as a fabricator and somebody who love movies and — and books and stuff , especially about true crime , you cognize , you sort of see a lionization of people like Billy the Kid and Ma Barker and Bonnie and Clyde . Like , you sort of see them as sort of hold up as like , these were outlaws you’re able to steady down for , but you never really hear that about Assata –
Arturo : Right . shameful and brown people .
Diallo:–Shakur , and she ’s robbing banks too , apparently . So , you screw , it just bet on sometimes like how hoi polloi feel about a somebody .
Arturo : One hundred and fifty per centum .
CHAPTER 4: Highway Shootout
Arturo : So in May 1973 , after she had endure for two years underground , Assata was captured .
She was riding in the front seat of a bloodless Pontiac with two other activists , Zayd Malik Shakur and Sundiata Acoli . They were traveling the New Jersey Turnpike when they saw law light behind them — the police report card sound out that it had a broken taillight .
So there are two variation of what happened next : The first one says that when the state police force policeman enjoin the number one wood to get outta the car , Assata start shooting from the rider stern . A firefight ensued , and in the storm of bullets , two police officers were shoot and one was stamp out alongside Zayd Shakur . After shooting two police officers , Assata was hit in the chest and shoulder joint . And that was what the police said happen .
But Assata remembers it very differently . She says that when the police force stopped them , her hands were up . And as the shot start up around them , she was gain by a bullet before she could even leave the tail end in the car . She says she never even had a artillery , let alone give the sack one .
Acoli was able to skip over back in the car and speed another five miles down the toll road chased by three police cars . Now , when the route was closed and Acoli was eventually forced to pull over , he jumped outta the car and speed into the woods .
Assata ill-use out and easy go about the police , covered in blood . She was hold and rushed to the hospital , and her class of imprisonment start .
So , she was held under armed guard for 24 60 minutes a day . And in her recent writings , Assata would describe the direction that she was tortured by the New Jersey State Police while cuffed to a hospital bed . All the while she was fighting to reclaim from her own bullet wounding , and she never f***ing cracked .
Diallo : Hmm . Yeah .
Arturo : Dude . I would f**ing … like , interrogation and me , would break , bro . Like , I don’t — I would n’t survive . My aunt expect at me suspect and I ’m like — I’ll confess to sht I have n’t even done .
Diallo : rent me tell you — first off , well that ’s … that’s — that ’s actually the case to be made against torture . Right ? They always say — experts on torture say torment does n’t really form because at some point multitude just want the torture to terminate . So you could say like , “ you are Mickey Mouse , ” and multitude be like , “ aha , it ’s me . ” You have it away , like …
Arturo:“Hello male child and girl , ” you get laid ?
Diallo:“Caught me crimson - handed or ashen gloved . Either way . ”
Arturo:“Woo hoo ! ” Yeah . they ’re like , “ Isle of Man , he ’s mislay his mind . But I love it . ”
Diallo : I signify , I always tell people — I’m like , “ do n’t tell me anything cause I — I will belike stag . ” Like , you have intercourse , like , I ’ll just … I wish to keep my nose clean-living , so to speak , because like , you know — I do n’t wanna know . I do n’t wanna know . And I feel like I give off that energy .
Arturo : So when she was finally secure enough to be strike , Assata left the infirmary to the Middlesex County workhouse , where she was the only female captive at the jail .
It was the first of many men ’s prison where she would be held while the charge against her went forward . They were exceedingly f***ing frightened of her . It ’s just so wild that they had to keep her in a men ’s prison . Now , her Aunt Evelyn left her problem at NYU and took on Assata ’s legal case full clock time . Now that July 4 , Evelyn brought a tape registrar with her and immortalise Assata ’s most famous assertion , which came to be known as “ To My People . ” She introduced herself to the world as Assata Shakur : Black Revolutionary .
She said “ There is and always will be , until every fateful adult male , charwoman , and child is costless , a calamitous liberation U. S. Army . ” And it was close with a line from theCommunist Manifesto : “ We have nothing to lose but our chains . ”Diallo : Mmm .
Arturo : Evelyn spread the recording and it played on Black radio stations all around New York . Magazines reprint it . And lily-white medium figures , of course , whined and squeak about it . Reporters were in reality banned from meeting with Assata . Her voice was so powerful — think that — that the judges and the cops and the prison guard were just scrambling to keep up with her even though she was lock up .
Diallo : Wow .
CHAPTER 5: Battle in the Courtroom
Arturo : In 1974 , Assata eventually go to trial run . But guess what ? She sustain beat the charges . First , she was acquitted of some robbery charge . A month later , she was tried for killing a police officeholder , but there was n’t evidence against her and that case was dismissed .
In January 1976 , Assata faced a kidnapping accusation , and she beat that too ! When she was finally taste for the Queens bank , the first guinea pig that had actually put her in the paper , Assata was easily acquitted . Like , what ?
Diallo : Damn .
Arturo : The photograph publish by the constabulary did n’t count like her at all . The money box handler who had been there for the robbery show –
Diallo : Wait , wait . I ’m no-count . They — they did , they did a , a drawing and it did n’t see like her ?
Arturo : Well , the photograph that they put out of who had actually robbed the banking company — you know , so it ’s sort of the exposure grounds of who pluck the bank — didn’t look like her at all once they get to tribulation .
Diallo : Didn’t look like her at all . That ’s hilarious .
Arturo : Yeah . It was really flimsy charges . And the depository financial institution managing director who had been there for the robbery bear witness that Assata was not the woman who had held them at gunpoint .
Diallo : There ya go .
Arturo : He ’s like , “ no , it was a redhead woman , and she was like , ‘ I ’m Wendy , ’ uh , like I don’t — I pointed out to her . ”
Diallo : It ’s like how these care , uh , these facial recognition characteristic on some of the — on some of the robot nowadays , like they … they have a hard clock time recognizing Black hoi polloi because the the great unwashed who program them just did n’t use a lot of Black subjects . So like , they ’re just like –
Arturo : No .
Diallo:–like , they wait at me and they ’re like , “ Uh huh , that ’s Martin Luther King . ” It ’s like , “ no , no , man – ”
Arturo : No . That ’s so f***ed up .
Diallo:“–I do n’t really look like King . ” Um , anyway , go before .
Arturo : So in 1977 , the victories for Assata finally came to an goal , right ? She was obtain guilty of first level murder , along with many other charge for the gunplay on the New Jersey Turnpike . Now , midway through the trial , Assata ’s new attorney , Stanley Cohen , was determine dead in his f***ing flat .
Diallo : Is that — I did n’t even know . Now see , now I ’m ascertain . I did not know that .
Arturo : So he had been collecting evidence against the police witnesses , enter forensic chemist to show that there was no grounds of gunshot on Assata ’s hands and reveal what he believed were misrepresent papers in the prosecution ’s case . So f***ed up . And the paper describe that Stanley died of natural causes .
So … we ’re not saying that the police killed her attorney , are we ? Like , do that ’d be gaga .
Diallo : You know there were a circle of suspicious dying back in those days , and I do guess that … you know , we have , forensics have come a long fashion . justly –
Diallo:–since 1970 , whatever this was . I think , like — but it is suspicious that he die of nameless causes . I do n’t even watchUnsolved whodunit , you know ?
Diallo : I like my mysteries figure out . Yeah , exactly . Like , the worst affair aboutUnsolved Mysteriesis that like — when they come to the conclusion , they ’re like , “ did they die ? Or did they just disappear ? ” And then they start out roll the credit , you ’re like , “ that ’s not satisfying . ”
Arturo : OK , but that’sUnsolved Mysteries , which at least like get with a built - in , like , “ oh , I played myself . ” I fing detest these documentaries that are five fing 90 minute episodes long . And then at the conclusion it ’s like , “ we do n’t know if it faked his own end or he did n’t . ”
Diallo : Tell me that at the beginning , Isle of Man !
CHAPTER 6: Legend
Arturo : Now , once she was convicted , Assata was moved to Yardville prison in New Jersey . Her young daughter rifle to live with her [ Assata ’s ] mother in New York and Assata and the other phallus of the metro knew that they could n’t bank on jurist from the tourist court . Instead , they plan her prison break .
So allow ’s do a cool little recap of the prison house break . As I understand it , three hoi polloi went in , they never got searched . One went specially to chew the fat Assata , deplumate out two monolithic handgun . He had a Mexican bandido , uh — hit man belt as well . That part I added myself . There was ’ 70 music play . Everybody had sideburns . They had afros . They jumped into the van . They like sped off , and they got away with it . So far so good . neat . I really go for Ben Chugg add really cool ’ 70s music to , to the background of all that .
After Assata was bust out , the feds put her back on their Most Wanted list . And just like the years before , they start associate her to a serial of crimes , proper ? enjoin they spotted her at the panorama of shooting and burglaries and other poppycock like that .
After a few years fade , the FBI started get reports that Assata had made it to Cuba : the home of the revolution that inspired the Black Panthers in the kickoff .
When Assata published a biography in 1987 , she depict her life of imprisonment and exile . But she really sounded happy to be in Cuba . She call it “ a country of Leslie Townes Hope . ” And she cease her book with a serial publication of poetical speculation on life there , about the receptivity and knockout of Havana and Cuban culture . And there , beyond the reach of the U.S. government , Assata was finally able to pick up a telephone , call home , and talk with her house for the first time in five years .
CHAPTER 7: Legacy
Arturo : In 2022 , Assata observe her 75th natal day in Cuba .
The U.S. government is still working today to extradite her from Cuba and imprison her again . So Assata continue to say that she also has a duty : as long as she survive , she is going to carry on the sinister sacking battle .
And despite everything , to uphold to be human , to be giving and to be have sex .
Outro
Arturo : What do you take away from story of Panthers like Assata ?
Diallo : I think law organization have to realize that there were some contumely that led to a want of trust in these communities , and that there ’s a lot of healing that has to take position . It ’s not as simple as like , “ oh , this individual , did this thing . ” Which by the elbow room , as you ’ve pointed out in this podcast , it ’s not cut and dry , you know ?
Arturo : No . In order for the healing to lead off , like it — the past needs to be acknowledged .
Diallo : No , it ’s true . There’s — there ’s too much of that . Like , “ hunky-dory guy rope , this is the ancient past . Can we just please move on ? ” There’s — there ’s too much of that . And I think if you do n’t acknowledge the past tense and you — it ’s hard to move into the future .
Arturo : A hundred and fifty percent .
Diallo : You love what I mean ? I think that ’s why it ’s so distressing that there ’s so many places that are examine to whitewash history right now , and they do it under the rubric of this , you cognise , basically law shoal - centric concept of critical raceway theory . And then they pretend that , “ oh , if we teach people that America was n’t perfect , then that ’s critical race theory . ” Like , no , you do n’t even know what — you do n’t even know what critical airstream theory is , if that ’s what you guess .
Arturo : you could love something and require to improve something and still acknowledge its flaws .
Diallo : you’re able to love your father , but also be like , “ Hey dad , block imbibe . Stop drinking . ”
Arturo:“Hey dad , stop drinking . ”
Hey man , I am so esteemed to have had you here . Before we go , do you have anything that you wanna — that you want our listeners to look out for of yours arrive up ?
Diallo : Man , there ’s so much occur up — from the medicine and the comedy ofSherman Showcaseto what I think is one of just the funniest , you make out , get to have it away the characters type show : South Sideon HBO Max . I think the easiest room for people to — to check out some of the employment that I and Bashir have done , follow me on Instagram at Diallo — not Diablo — at Diallo . That ’s a different — that ’s a dissimilar accounting .
Arturo : The Diablo account gets all these follower now . They ’re like , “ I do n’t know , man . This , I do n’t , this guy does n’t face like a disc jockey . He ’s – ”
Diallo:“I got ta say . He is pretty entertaining . ” Um , at Diallo , d - i - a - l - fifty - o. And you ’ll always know about like , sort of what we ’re digging and what we ’re produce and , uh — and yeah piece . Thanks . Thanks for having me on here .
Arturo : What in purity to have you , and give thanks you for being so open about your dad and his art . It mean a lot to us when , when invitee make out on here and , and , and partake in here and now to shape them . So thank you so much . You ’re a friend of the show . you may fall back anytime , buddy .
Diallo : give thanks you so much , bro .
Arturo : Bye !
credit
Arturo : Greatest Escapesis a production of iHeartRadio and FilmNation Entertainment , in connexion with Gilded Audio . Our executive producers are me , Arturo Castro , Alyssa Martino and Milan Popelka from FilmNation Entertainment , Andrew Chugg and Whitney Donaldson from Gilded Audio , and Dylan Fagan from iHeartRadio .
The show is produced and edited by Carl Nellis and Ben Chugg , who are also , respectively , our research overlord and medicine overlord . Our associate producer is Tory Smith , who is our other overlord .
Nick Dooley is our technical theater director . Additional editing by Whitney Donaldson . Special thanks to Alison Cohen , Dan Welsh , Ben Ryzack , Sara Joyner , Nicki Stein , Olivia Canny , and Kelsey Albright .
Hey , give thanks you so much for listening , and if you ’re enjoying the show , please leave a evaluation or review . My mom will call you each in person and thank you , and we ’ll see you all next calendar week .
