By The Associated Press
Associated Press
2009-01-18 08:49 AM
Assata Shakur: Born Joanne Chesimard in New York City, has used multiple
birth dates that make her either 56 or 61. Aunt and godmother to slain
rapper Tupac Shakur, she was a member of the Black Liberation Army and
wanted on several felonies when police stopped her and two accomplices
on May 2, 1973, in Clinton, New Jersey. A state trooper was killed in
the ensuing gunfight, and another wounded. Serving life in prison,
Shakur was busted out by armed friends who took hostages. Surfaced in
Cuba four years later and was listed in the Havana phone book, then went
underground. U.S. authorities offer $1 million for information leading
to her capture.
___
Roberto Vesco: Born Dec. 4, 1935, in Detroit, fled the U.S. in 1972 when
wanted on charges of looting $224 million from a Swiss-based mutual
stock fund. Later accused of plotting to pay a kickback to Billy Carter,
brother of then President Jimmy Carter, in a Libyan arms deal. Surfaced
with family in Cuba in 1982, living on a boat off the island of Cayo
Largo. In 1996, Cuba sentenced him to 13 years in prison for illegally
marketing a drug he claimed could cure cancer and AIDS. His business
partner, Donald A. Nixon Jr., nephew of late President Richard Nixon,
was detained along with Vesco but released. Vesco is believed to have
served most of that sentence. Cuban records indicate he died of lung
cancer on Nov. 23, 2007, at age 71, and was buried in Havana's Colon
Cemetery.
___
Victor Manuel Gerena: Born June 24, 1958, in New York City, the former
bank security guard was accused of robbing an armored car company in
Connecticut in 1983, taking two security employees hostage at gunpoint,
incapacitating them with an unknown injection and making off with more
than $7 million _ one of the largest robbery hauls in U.S. history. He
reportedly gave much of that money to a radical Puerto Rican
independence group. Fled to Mexico, eventually taking a commercial
flight to Havana carrying a large sum of money. Has been on the FBI's
"Ten Most Wanted" fugitive list for years, with a $1 million bounty on
his head.
___
Charlie Hill: The 59-year-old Illinois native and Vietnam veteran
belonged to "New Afrika," a 1970s revolutionary group that sought to
establish a separate black nation in the American southeast. He and
accomplices Michael Finney and Ralph Goodwin were stopped on a New
Mexico highway in 1971 by a state trooper who died in a gunfight. The
three later hijacked a TWA flight from Albuquerque airport to Havana.
Goodwin drowned at a beach, and Finney died of cancer. The FBI says Hill
is still wanted in New Mexico for air piracy and unlawful flight to
avoid prosecution.
___
Nehanda Abiodun: Born Cheri Dalton in 1950 in New York City, Abiodun is
among those linked by U.S. authorities to Shakur's escape from prison.
She is also wanted for a string of robberies. The Columbia University
graduate has lived in Cuba since about 1990 and is a driving force
behind the scenes of the Cuban hip-hop movement. In writings attributed
to her on the Internet, Abiodun claims she still hopes to foment a
socialist revolution in the United States.
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