| "Jack Olsen descended into
the hidden corridors of America's Gulag to tell the story of an innocent
prisoner's fight for justice. His writing brims with the energy of
Geronimo, his family, comrades, supporters, and enemies-as well as his
amazing lawyers. Last Man Standing is a moving, fast-paced and compelling
book." -Kathleen Cleaver |
Last Man Standing: The Tragedy and Triumph of Geronimo Pratt
(click to Order Online Now)
by Jack Olsen
Format: Hardcover, 500pp.
ISBN: 0385493673
Publisher: Doubleday & Company, Incorporated
Pub. Date: September 2000
Edition: 1 ED
About the Book
With the epic scope of A Civil Action, Last Man Standing is an unforgettable
chronicle of the twenty-seven-year struggle to break a conspiratorial abuse of
power and free one of America's most famous political prisoners.
In 1968, twenty-year-old Elmer Gerard "Geronimo" Pratt returned from
Vietnam with a chest full of medals and a Purple Heart into the most heated
racial climate in American history. Taking advantage of the G.I. Bill, Pratt
enrolled at UCLA, where the Black Panther Party was busy recruiting. Propelled
by a diverse group of African Americans, the Panther agenda was a volatile mix
of black rage, black pride, altruism, idealism, and violence. Under the
charismatic leadership of Eldridge Cleaver, Huey P. Newton, Bobby Seale, and
Bunchy Carter, Pratt rose to the rank of Deputy Minister of Defense and became
leader of the Los Angeles Chapter. The Panthers did not go unnoticed by J. Edgar
Hoover. In the era of enemies' lists, his FBI drew up its own list of Panthers
to be "neutralized" and began a systematic counterintelligence program
to undermine black solidarity. Geronimo Pratt headed Hoover's list. When an FBI
informer within the Panther party agreed to testify that Pratt murdered a young
woman at a Santa Monica tennis court, his days as a free citizen came to an end.
If not for the unlikely alliance of a brash African American defense attorney (Johnnie
L. Cochran, Jr.), a radical Irish Jewish law student (Stuart Hanlon), a
Protestant minister (Rev. James McCloskey), and the indefatigable Pratt-his
spirit unbroken by eight years in solitary confinement-a horrifying miscarriage
of justice would never have been rectified. As riveting biography, courtroom
drama, and just plain narrative nonfiction, Last Man Standing is certain to take
its place among the finest works of American judicial history.
About the Author
Jack Olsen is the author of thirty-one books and the winner of many awards,
including the Edgar and the National Headliners Awards. A former bureau chief
for Time, he has written for Vanity Fair, Life, People,
Paris Match, the New York Times, and Reader's Digest. He
lives on an island in Washington's Puget Sound with his wife and children.
