Russell Melvin Shoatz II (August 23, 1943 – December 17, 2021), also known as Maroon, was an American Black nationalist activist, writer, and convicted murderer. Raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Shoatz was a founder of a local group called the Black Unity Council and a member of the Black Panther Party and the Black Liberation Army. In 1972, he was convicted of the 1970 murder of Philadelphia police officer Frank Von Colln, as well as the shooting of another policeman who survived. He escaped from prison twice, for 27 days in 1977 and again for three days in 1980. After his second escape he was held in solitary confinement for the better part of three decades, including an uninterrupted period between 1991 and 2014. PM Press published a collection of his prison writings, which express feminist and ecosocialist ideas, in 2013. He was released from solitary in February 2014, after filing a lawsuit against prison officials that attracted international attention. Suffering from advanced colorectal cancer, Shoatz was granted compassionate release in October 2021 and died less than two months later. His memoir, cowritten with Kanya D'Almeida, was published posthumously in 2024.
Early life and activism Shoatz grew up in Philadelphia, in a family of 13. His father worked as a long-haul trucker.Shoatz, Russell Maroon, and D'Almeida, Kanya. I Am Maroon: The True Story of an American Political Prisoner. United States, Bold Type Books, 2024. His parents had come to Philadelphia from the South and he spent summers at his grandparents' farm in Georgia. In his memoir he describes a childhood of "quiet neglect...in a household stretched to its limits." He loved to read but hated school, where he was demeaned by White teachers. He writes of witnessing racist police violence from an early age. He became involved in gang activity and was in and out of juvenile detention. After the 1970 shootings a junior high school classmate wrote in The Philadelphia Inquirer that Shoatz had been intelligent and was voted "most likely to succeed," but "was always considered a bully."Kirkland, Dennis. "Close Friends 4 Years Ago, 4 Boys Took Different Paths." The Philadelphia Inquirer. September 1, 1970. In his twenties he worked a variety of blue collar jobs (milkman, steelworker, cabdriver, machinist), as well as selling drugs and engaging in other criminal activities. Shoatz became more politically engaged after hearing Malcolm X speak in New York City in 1963. He began attending events and discussions at the Muntu Cultural Center, in an Afrocentric atmosphere shaped by the ideas of the Nation of Islam and the Revolutionary Action Movement.
In 1964 Shoatz married Thelma Christian, with whom he had four children before the couple separated in 1968. Shoatz physically abused Christian during this marriage. While still married to Christian, in the late 1960s he became involved with a fellow activist, Loretta Fairly (known as Bonnie). They had three children together.
In 1968 he founded the Black Unity Council (BUC) with other activists, originally with plans to create a community center. The BUC organized food drives and cultural events, intervened in gang conflicts, and campaigned against police brutality.I Am Maroon: The True Story of an American Political Prisoner. Publishers Weekly. They picketed a local telephone company over poor working conditions for switchboard operators (mostly Black women), in what Shoatz describes as their most successful campaign. One member estimated (decades later) that the BUC had about 30 members at one point."Trial opens in death of officer in 1970." The Philadelphia Inquirer. October 21, 1997. Shoatz participated in the riots that followed the April 1968 assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., setting fire to White-owned businesses that he viewed as exploitative. Shoatz describes the police killing of a local Black boy after a traffic stop as a radicalizing moment for many BUC members. Lucas writes that by the summer of 1969, the BUC had shrunk to around 16 people, renamed itself the Black Liberation Army, and begun stockpiling weapons. After the police killings of Fred Hampton and Mark Clark in December 1969, this group opted to move closer to the Philadelphia chapter of the Black Panther Party, expecting further attacks.
1970 shootings On August 29, 1970, Philadelphia Park Guard"4 Seized, 3 Sought in Police Killing." The Philadelphia Inquirer. September 1, 1970 policeman James Harrington was shot and seriously wounded by a man who flagged down his patrol car. Soon after, Park Guard Sergeant Frank Von Colln (aged 43, a Navy veteran and father of four),"All Park Police to View Body." Philadelphia Daily News. September 2, 1970.Terry, Don. Man's Quiet Life Shields Turbulent Past. The New York Times. April 7, 1996. who had just dispatched two officers to investigate Harrington's shooting, was shot and killed in the Cobbs Creek Park Guardhouse in West Philadelphia. Shoatz writes of the guardhouse attack: "I will not jeopardize any party’s freedom or safety by revealing what I know about that attack, but I must state for the record that it was carried out in accord with, and at the behest of, the leadership of the Black Panther Party.”D'Almeida, Kanya; Shoatz, Russell. “A Time Before Fear”: Notes From a Black Panther Who Spent 41 Years Behind Bars. Truthout. November 29, 2024. Two other officers were shot and wounded in the same neighborhood a day later.Janson, Donald. Policeman Slain, 3 Shot, in Philadelphia. The New York Times. August 31, 1970.
Philadelphia police commissioner Frank Rizzo told reporters that the killers "should be strung up...they deserve no mercy under the law, society has made it too easy for these people."Racher, Dave. "Rizzo Blasts are Read at Von Colln Trial." Philadelphia Daily News. October 14, 1972. Rizzo responded by raiding Panther party headquarters, arresting 15 people.Janson, Donald. PANTHERS RAIDED IN PHILADELPHIA. The New York Times. September 1, 1970 Gunfire was exchanged during these raids, in which three police were lightly wounded by shotgun pellets."Black militants bomb plot led to murder of guard in Phila. park, police say". The Evening News. September 2, 1970. Police publicly strip-searched the arrested Panthers, resulting in photographs that circulated in the national media.Lombardo, Timothy J. Blue-Collar Conservatism: Frank Rizzo's Philadelphia and Populist Politics. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2026. Page 143. These events took place less than a week before the Revolutionary People's Constitutional Convention organized by the Black Panthers at Temple University. In 1996 Von Colln's son Kurt Von Colln (19 at the time of the shooting) told reporters, "This completely changed my whole life. I never thought I could hate the way I did after this happened. I was the son of a man who loved everyone." A playground near the Philadelphia Museum of Art was named after Von Colln.Santos, Kiara. A.P.P. Aging People in Prison. All People Persevere. WURD. July 11, 2023.
Arrest and trial In the days after the shootings, three suspects (Hugh S. Williams and the brothers Alvin and Robert Joyner) were arrested by Philadelphia police, with a fourth (Fred Burton) surrendering a month later. Willams was arrested the night of the shootings when a policeman saw him putting a bag containing a handgun and a hand grenade under a parked car."Williams Is Guilty In Police Slaying." The Philadelphia Inquirer. July 27, 1974. Police began searching for Shoatz and a sixth suspect, Richard Thomas. In January 1972, after two years on the run, Shoatz was arrested in West Philadelphia along with six others after a passerby told police she had seen three men "acting funny" in an alley.Clancy, John; Murray, George. "Tip Leads to Suspect in Cop Slaying." The Philadelphia Inquirer. January 21, 1972. He was carrying a suitcase containing automatic weapons and ammunition at the time of his arrest. Shoatz was arraigned on an array of charges, including murder, assault with intent to kill, and sedition.Montgomery, Charles; O'Dowd, Joe. "Cop Killer Suspect, Seven Others Heavily Guarded After Arraignment. Philadelphia Daily News. January 21, 1972.Murray, George; McKelvey, Gerald. "Suspect in Slaying, 5 in Raid Arraigned." The Philadelphia Inquirer. January 22, 1972.O'Dowd, Joe; Montgomery, Charles; "Park Guard Murder Suspect is Captured." Philadelphia Daily News. January 20, 1972. In May 1982, a policeman was shot and injured during an abortive attempt to free Shoatz and Robert Joyner from custody.Caparella, Kitty. "Militant Gave Cult 'a Whole New Complexion'". Philadelphia Daily News. March 24, 1986. Larry Howard, who had been arrested with Shoatz in January but released on bail, was convicted of this shooting the following year.Racher, Dave. "Cop Recounts Getting Shot, Assailant is Convicted." Philadelphia Daily News. February 9, 1973."Man Given Years for Shooting Cop." Philadelphia Daily News. May 4, 1973.Terry, Robert. "Did Wounded Cop Inadvertently Foil Prison Escape?". The Philadelphia Inquirer. June 2, 1972.
At trial prosecutors described Shoatz as the "mastermind" of the guardhouse attack and said that he had "made it possible" by shooting Harrington first.Goldsmith, Philip R. "Shoats Is Found Guilty in Park Guard Killing, Jury Sets Life Term." The Philadelphia Inquirer. October 19, 1972. A homicide detective testified that under interrogation Shoatz had denied being present at the scene of the shooting, but said "Fundamentally, I did" when asked whether he had killed Von Colln.Racher, Dave. "Cops Targets, VonColln [sic] Trial Told." Philadelphia Daily News. October 13, 1972. Eyewitness testimony placing him at the scene was also presented.Racher, Dave. "D.A.: Shoats Paved Way to Kill VonColln [sic]." Philadelphia Daily News. October 17, 1972. In October 1972, he was convicted of first degree murder, assault and battery with intent to murder, aggravated robbery and conspiracy. He was sentenced to life imprisonment, which at the time had no possibility of parole in Pennsylvania. The four others arrested in 1970 were also charged, convicted and sentenced to life in prison in connection with Von Colln's murder. Thomas, the sixth suspect, was arrested in Chicago in 1996 after decades of living under assumed names; he was acquitted in 1998.Out of solitary after 22 years and $99,000 richer, cop-killer Russell Shoatz ponders the rest of life in prison. The Philadelphia Inquirer. July 22, 2016.
Incarceration Escape attempts In the early years of his imprisonment, Shoatz converted to Sunni Islam, adopting the name Harun Abdul Ra'uf. He writes that he "found tremendous solace in turning to a higher power—it was balm to the chafing reality of life in Graterford, where, to the guards, we barely qualified as human beings." Shoatz writes that he began trying to escape close to the start of his sentence. After several unsuccessful attempts, in September 1977, Shoatz and three other inmates took over a cell block at SCI—Huntingdon, held six guards hostage for an hour, and fled the prison."Four inmates escape; one is found dead, two recaptured." UPI. September 15, 1977. Two of the other inmates were quickly recaptured and a third was killed during the escape attempt."Cop killer wins new trial on escape charge". UPI. March 29, 1982. Two guards sustained minor injuries. Shoatz kidnapped a prison guard and his wife and son from their house near the prison, forcing them to drive south and west before fleeing into the woods near Cokeburg when their car broke down. He was captured on October 11 after a carjacking in Marianna. Charged with kidnapping and other crimes, he described himself as a "runaway slave" at his arraignment.