Biography
Arthur Turco Jr. was a New York movement lawyer indicted on May 1, 1970 for taking part in the torture and murder of Eugene Leroy Anderson, in the Baltimore Black Panther case. Eugene Leroy Anderson, a 20-year-old Panther sympathizer, was tortured and shot to death in July 1969 and his body left in Baltimore's Leakin Park, where it was found on October 27, 1969. Maryland authorities charged some 21 members of the Baltimore Black Panther Party — a prosecution widely seen as an attempt to destroy the chapter — but no one was ultimately convicted of the killing except one defendant, who was released after four years by Governor Marvin Mandel. Turco spent about a year in the Baltimore City Jail awaiting trial; his trial ran June 16 to July 3, 1971 before Judge James W. Murphy and ended in a mistrial (the jury reportedly stood 10-2 for conviction). He then accepted an offer to plead guilty to a misdemeanor and was freed on time served; William Kunstler took part in his defense.
