Biography
Melvin “Rema” Kearney was identified with the Black Liberation Army in contemporary movement publications. He was held at the Brooklyn House of Detention for Men while facing attempted-murder charges involving police. Osawatomie described the alleged 1973 action as politically motivated retaliation; that characterization is the publication’s account. Records document his imprisonment in 1974 and 1975. He died on May 25, 1975 after falling during an attempted escape. A July 1975 memorial identifies him by name and includes his portrait.
The newsletter’s May 30, 1975 statement describes the Brooklyn House of Detention escape attempt on the night of May 25. It reports Melvin Rema Kearney’s fatal fall and Pedro Chango Monges’s escape and recapture. Monges’s recapture is not assigned the date of Kearney’s death without individual evidence. Black Community News Letter, volume13, July1975, Awakening of a Dragon, original PDF page 23. Source: https://www.freedomarchives.org/Documents/Finder/DOC32_scans/32.BlackComNewsletter.AwakeningofaDragon.pdf#page=23
Separate pending conspiracy and bank-robbery proceeding in April 1974
The bulletin names Melvin Kearney with Phyllis (Simba) Pollard as defendants on conspiracy and bank-robbery charges, with an evidence-suppression hearing scheduled for May 1 in Judge Motley’s federal courtroom and trial expected May 20. These are pending legal-proceeding notices in the April 10 publication, not proof those later hearings actually occurred.
The current biography and case describe another attempted-murder prosecution and documented imprisonment. The bulletin does not supply a new personal booking, discharge, conviction or completed custody total for Kearney, so its separate charge context is preserved here without creating an overlapping imprisonment or assigning Pollard’s bail status to him.
Friends of Assata Shakur and Sundiata Acoli Bulletin, no. 4, April 10, 1974, original PDF pages 4. Contemporary descriptions are attributed to the bulletin.
The appendix individually identifies Melvin Kearney in actual Brooklyn House of Detention custody and describes attempted escapes. It dates the handcuff-key attempt August 15, 1974. The May 25, 1975 account reports Kearney’s fatal fall and Monges’s recapture, without independently dating the moment of recapture. Failed escape, death and recapture are not interchangeable with an authorized release; no missing final endpoint is manufactured.
Report of the New York State Policy Study Group on Terrorism, November 1985, PDF page 85.
