Biography
Hanif Shabazz Bey (formerly Beaumont Gereau) is a Virgin Island independence activist known for being a part of the "Fountain Valley 5." The "Five" are a group of activists from the U.S. Virgin Islands. There was a turbulent period of rebellion on the Islands. The island was put under virtual martial law, and eventually five men: Ismail Ali, Warren (Aziz) Ballantine, Meral (Malik) Smith, Raphael (Kwesi) Joseph, and Hanif Shabazz Bey were apprehended and then charged with the murder after a planned robbery at Fountain Valley golf course, patroned by tourists mainly, resulted in eight murders. All the men were known supporters of the Virgin Island independence movement.
The five were charged after being subjected to vicious torture in order to extract confessions. They were beaten, hung from their feet and necks from trees, subject to electric shocks with cattle prods, had plastic bags tied over their heads and had water forced up their noses by the "defenders of the law." The judge (Warren Young) overlooking the case worked as Rockefeller's private attorney and even handled legal matters for the Fountain Valley Golf Course prior to being placed on the federal bench. Eventually, the five went to trial in what became known as the "Fountain Valley" murder trial. This was an obvious Kangaroo Court and a mockery of any sense of a fair trial. On August 13, 1973, each of the five men were convicted and sentenced to eight (8) consecutive life terms.
Today, Warren (Aziz) Ballantine, Meral (Malik) Smith, and Hanif Shabazz Bey are all confined in prison. Ismail Ali was liberated to Cuba via an airplane hijacking in 1984. The documentary timeline places Raphael (Kwesi) Joseph’s clemency in December 1994. Six years later Kwesi was mysteriously found dead of poison-laced drug overdose, after it was said that he was about to reveal evidence that would have exonerated at least one or more defendants.
Hanif was 22 at the time of this arrest. While at Golden Grove prison from 2009-2016, he was involved with the Awaken Mentoring Group that assisted troubled youth to help stop violence. He states, “with no animosity or bitterness, I just would like to be given the chance to give back something to society.” After a half of a century in prison, he has severe health issues including untreated Hepatitis C, commonly contracted in places like prisons, that he was diagnosed with in 2000. The FibroScan test to determine the extent of liver damage was ordered by a physician in 2017, but has yet to be done. Please help reunite Hanif with his family including 3 children and 8 grandchildren, as his wish is, “to give and share with [his grandchildren] things that I was unable to give their parents.”
Member of the Virgin Islands Five, convicted along with four co-defendants of murdering eight people in the September 6, 1972 Fountain Valley massacre at a golf course on St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands. The killings occurred during a period of Black liberation and anti-colonial agitation in the U.S.-occupied Virgin Islands; defendants alleged they were tortured into confessing. His custody included transfers through Puerto Rico and mainland prisons; the documentary timeline records the four remaining defendants’ return to St. Croix in 1985.
The documentary press notes for The Skyjacker’s Tale describe the five defendants’ August 13, 1973 convictions and sentences of eight consecutive life terms plus ninety years, followed by transfer through Puerto Rico to mainland prisons. The notes record their allegations of coercion and the trial judge’s June 13, 1973 rejection of a defense challenge; the documentary’s challenge to the prosecution is not a judicial exoneration. Source: https://www.strandreleasing.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/skyjackerstale_pk.pdf#page=8
In his first-person account in Can’t Jail the Spirit, Hanif Shabazz Bey says he was transferred from the Virgin Islands prison system to the federal system in September 1973 and entered Marion’s Control Unit in October 1974 after an incident at Terre Haute. He reports transfer out of Marion in May 1979 and return in March 1981. He describes the continuing isolation as politically motivated. These are attributed institutional-transfer observations within existing imprisonment, not new prosecutions or physical release endpoints. His claim of eighteen months away does not match the interval between the supplied May 1979 and March 1981 dates; no duration is calculated from that conflicting chronology.
The 2017 NYC ABC guide places him at Saguaro Correctional Center in Arizona; this is a historical custody location.
The Virgin Islands Three medical update identifies Shabazz as having macular degeneration and awaiting surgery for eye pressure. It does not report that surgery had occurred, a release, or a transfer of the other two prisoners.
The Dragons Fire, March 15–April 15, 2024, vol. 72, PDF page 11.
