Witness Contradicts Police in ’69 Race Riot

Contradicting police reports, a black man who allegedly threatened white gang members hours before a black woman was killed during race riots in York testified he was not driving a car similar to the one in which she was killed.

James Spells Jr. was testifying in the trial of former Mayor Charlie Robertson and two other white men charged in the death of Lillie Belle Allen, who died in a hail of gunfire July 21, 1969, at the hands of a white mob.

Defense attorneys have cited police affidavits in saying that white gang members attacked Allen’s white Cadillac in self-defense because the gang believed it was Spells and his brother making good on a perceived threat.

The night before Allen’s death, a house belonging to Spells’ mother was fired upon and firebombed by members of the gang.