Ken Kesey gets off on pot charge
Here is a look at the past. Items have been culled from The Chronicle’s archives of 25, 50, 75 and 100 years ago.
1991
Dec. 12: Crack cocaine dealer and reputed prison gang member Tyrone Robinson was sentenced yesterday to the maximum term possible — 32 years to life in prison — for the murder of former Black Panther leader Huey Newton. Robinson was convicted in October of first-degree murder for shooting Newton three times in the head on a West Oakland street two years ago. Newton, 47, who in 1966 founded the Black Panther Party, was found in a pool of blood before dawn, August 22, 1989. Robinson sat impassively in his chair as the verdict was read. During the trial prosecutors claimed that Robinson murdered Newton to bolster his position in the Black Guerilla Family prison gang. The prison sentence includes 25 years to life for the murder, two years for using a firearm and five more years because of Robinson’s prior criminal record. Robinson has spent nine of the past 10 years behind bars. He has a criminal record dating to 1977, when he was 13.
1966
Dec. 2: The jury deliberating the fate of novelist Ken Kesey was discharged last night after its foreman admitted a hopeless deadlock. The red-haired writer whose literary fame rests largely on a book titled “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,” waited patiently through the jury deliberations in the company of his wife Faye. Police witnesses said that last January 19 they found Kesey and an attractive brunette, Carolyn Adams, on the rooftop at 18 Margrave Place and that beside them was a packet of marijuana. Miss Adams said the marijuana was hers and that it came from the pocket of her black leather jacket. Prosecutor Jane Aitken maintained that the jacket was Kesey’s and called Adams “an extremely untruthful person.” Kesey said on the stand that he and his friends all wore leather jackets at the time but that “Now we’re all wearing white coveralls with one star on the breast and a circle of stars on the back.” During a recess, one of Kesey’s fans paraded in the corridor of the Hall of Justice in such a costume.
1941
Nov. 28: Japan warned yesterday “there is little room” for prolonging the Washington conversations and the American command at Shanghai rushed the marine garrison on board evacuation ships ahead of schedule. At Washington the Japanese envoys, Saburo Kurusu and Admiral Nomura looked grim as they left a conference with the President. At Honolulu, the U.S. Army placed all soldiers of the Hawaiian Department on a “routine training alert.” The United States citizens in Hong Kong who intend to leave were advised to leave at once by the American Consulate. Throughout the Orient flashed the report that the moment has come. At Shanghai officers hurried and bundled the marines into the President Madison. The Madison immediately weighed anchor and dropped down the Whangpoo bound for the open sea. A Chinese orphanage band played “Auld Lang Syne” in a pouring rain as the crowded tenders pulled away. The bulk of the rapidly thinning American colony and Russian and Chinese girl friends stood on the quayside to wave farewell. There was to have been a farewell parade but orders were changed.
1916
Dec. 1: One man was killed and two others were wounded late yesterday afternoon in a thrilling revolver battle staged at Columbus Avenue and Filbert Street, in which four men participated and a score of shots were fired. The dead man is Gaetano Tugrassio, 51 years old, a mantel builder, living at 1622 Powell Street. The wounded are Antonio Pedona, alleged participant in extortion cases, living at 6 ½ Scotland Place and his brother Joseph Pedona Jr., of 737 Greenwich Street. The fourth participant, Antonio Pedona Jr., a nephew of the Pedonas, escaped without injury. The shooting occurred in front of an ice cream parlor at 735 Columbus Avenue. The three Pedonas, according to police, opened fire simultaneously, the brothers with revolvers and the nephew with a rifle. Tugrassio, who was given permission since receiving threatening letters to carry a revolver, returned the fire and shot Antonio Pedona through the left leg and Joe Pedona in the chest. After firing nine shots from two revolvers with which he was armed Tugrassio fell to the sidewalk shot through the chest. Antonio Pedona Jr., then coolly approached Tugrassio and shot him through the head. Joe Pedona owes his life to an amulet. The force of the bullet fired by Tugrassio striking Pedona in the chest was retarded by the amulet, inflicting a flesh wound. While the body of Tugrassio lay on the sidewalk and the police and citizens rounded up the three fugitives a throng of several thousand persons gathered. According to Gaetano Tugrassio, son of the dead man, Tugrassio received three Black Hand letters within the last several days. The last letter demanded that $2,000 be deposited in a specified place yesterday morning and contained the threat that a bomb would be placed under the Tugrassio home if the money was not forthcoming.