Jackson Pointed Gun at Guard, Jury Told

SAN RAFAEL, Calif. — Prison revolutionary George Jackson was shot and killed during a 1971 escape attempt after he pointed his gun at an armed guard patrolling the grounds of San Quentin Prison, guards testified Thursday.

Retired correctional officer Frank Bortfeld, 69, who testified in the trial of former fugitive Stephen Bingham, said he shot at Jackson after the prisoner pointed a pistol at him while Jackson fled across a prison exercise yard.

“He aimed the gun at me and I thought he got a shot off,” Bortfeld said. However, under cross-examination by defense attorney M. Gerald Schwartzbach, Bortfeld said he was not sure whether Jackson actually pulled the trigger.

Bullet Ricocheted

Bortfeld’s shot did not kill the prisoner. Apparently the bullet ricocheted off the ground and struck Jackson in the ankle. The former guard said that caused Jackson to stumble in a hunched-over position.

Earlier in the day another former guard, John G. Frank, said he, too, intended only to wound Jackson when he fired a second round at the prisoner who scampered across an area known as Chapel Plaza. But because Jackson was then hunched over, the bullet tore into his upper back, through his neck and struck his head. Jackson died on the spot.

A second prisoner who fled with Jackson, John L. Spain, was not wounded and was recaptured unharmed.

Although the guards did not know it at the time they shot Jackson, three of their colleagues and two other prisoners had been killed by Jackson and others inside the prison’s Adjustment Center, which is adjacent to Chapel Plaza.

Bingham, 44, a former prison-reform attorney who met privately with Jackson on the day of the incident, is accused of giving Jackson the 9-millimeter pistol used in the escape attempt. He is charged with conspiracy and with the murders of two prison guards who were shot to death with the gun.