Biography
Leonard Thomas, 20, was one of the Carbondale 3 — Southern Illinois University students and Black Panthers arrested after the November 12, 1970 pre-dawn police siege of the Panther house at 401 North Washington Street in Carbondale, Illinois, in which police fired 778 bullets into the building. Charged with attempted murder and aggravated battery of a police officer alongside James K. Holley and Michael Johnson, he was acquitted on all 41 counts by a Jackson County jury in the summer of 1971, with the People's Law Office defending. The siege is the subject of the documentary 778 Bullets. How long the three were held before trial has not been located.
