{{Short description|American murderer (1934–2009)}} {{Use American English|date=March 2026}} {{use mdy dates|date=July 2020}} thumb|right|Warren Kimbro '''Warren Aloysious Kimbro''' (April 29, 1934 &ndash; February 3, 2009) was a Black Panther Party member in New Haven, Connecticut who was found guilty of the May 21, 1969, murder of New York City Panther Alex Rackley, in the first of the New Haven Black Panther trials in 1970.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://bulk.resource.org/courts.gov/c/F2/427/427.F2d.239.772.34604.html |title = 427 F.2d 239 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130415221339/http://bulk.resource.org/courts.gov/c/F2/427/427.F2d.239.772.34604.html |archive-date=15 April 2013 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

==Murder and trial== Kimbro had been a resident of the New Haven Panther headquarters at 365 Orchard Street, where Rackley was held and tortured for two days under suspicion of being an informant for the FBI's COINTELPRO program. It was established at the trial that afterwards, Kimbro, Bridgeport, Connecticut Panther Lonnie McLucas, and national Panther field marshal George W. Sams, Jr. had driven Rackley to the marshes of Middlefield, Connecticut, where Kimbro and McLucas had each shot Rackley, on Sams' orders.<ref name="auto">Murder in the Model City: The Black Panthers, Yale, and the Redemption of a Killer by Paul Bass, Douglas W. Rae</ref>

Sams testified that national Panther leader Bobby Seale, who had been speaking at Yale University the day before the murder, had personally ordered the killing. Seales was at the Black Panther Headquarter the night Rackley was executed.<ref name="auto"/> The jury in Seale's subsequent trial was unable to reach a verdict, and the prosecution chose not to re-try the case.

According to Michael Koskoff, one of the lawyers for McLucas, :"Many of the people in the New Haven chapter of the Panthers were middle class. They were defined more by their propaganda than by their own personalities. And they were young and impressionable."<ref> {{cite web | url = http://www.gadflyonline.com/8-6-01/FTR-bobbyseale2.HTML | title = Bobby Seale's Shadow + | publisher = gadflyonline.com | access-date = 2006-02-14}}</ref>

===Early release=== At the trial, Sams and Kimbro both turned state's evidence in exchange for the reduced charge of second degree murder, for which each received the mandatory life sentence and served four years. In 1972, Kimbro met with a parole board and was permitted to attend Harvard University's School of Education.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Telegraph - Google News Archive Search|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=u5krAAAAIBAJ&pg=7026,1243663&dq=warren+kimbro+harvard&hl=en|access-date=2020-07-05|website=news.google.com}}</ref>

In 1975, after only four years of his prison term Kimbro became the Assistant Dean of Eastern Connecticut State University.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Afro American - Google News Archive Search|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=3iImAAAAIBAJ&pg=2476,1151586&dq=warren+kimbro+eastern+connecticut&hl=en|access-date=2020-07-05|website=news.google.com}}</ref>

==After prison== For more than 20 years, Kimbro was president and CEO of Project MORE, a non-profit agency in New Haven that offers both day programs and residence to ex-convicts, helping them to re-enter society.

Kimbro also volunteered for many years at the Pilot Pen International tennis tournament in New Haven.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.newhavenindependent.org/index.php/obituaries/entry/a_testament_to_second_chances_passes_on/|title=A Testament To Second Chances Passes On &#124; New Haven Independent|date=February 4, 2009|website=www.newhavenindependent.org}}</ref>

The Rackley case and Kimbro's journey from murderer to one who rehabilitates convicts is the subject of a 2006 book, ''Murder in the Model City: The Black Panthers, Yale and the Redemption of a Killer'' by Paul Bass, editor of ''The New Haven Independent'', and Douglas Rae, professor of management and political science at the Yale School of Management.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://som.yale.edu/|title=Yale School of Management &#124; Educating Leaders for Business and Society|date=January 22, 2026|website=som.yale.edu}}</ref>

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== {{commons category}} * {{cite web|url=https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,902777,00.html|title=Justice in New Haven|magazine=Time|language=en-us|url-status=live|date=September 14, 1970|archive-date=September 30, 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930035656/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,902777-1,00.html}}

{{Black Panther Party}} {{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kimbro, Warren}} Category:Members of the Black Panther Party Category:Harvard Graduate School of Education alumni Category:American people convicted of murder Category:1934 births Category:2009 deaths Category:People convicted of murder by Connecticut Category:American prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment Category:Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by Connecticut Category:People paroled from life sentence Category:African-American activists Category:American nonprofit chief executives