Christian Soldier and Gladiator

By Eddie Griffin

April 26, 1983
The FBI memo read:

At approximately 9:30 a.m. on December 9, 1982, [witness 67C], U.S. Penitentiary, Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, while in the Institution’s east corridor adjacent to the entrance grille of C-Block, heard what sounded like loud moaning and screaming coming from the second floor of that unit. [Witness 67C] immediately proceeded to the second floor of C-Block and upon arrival at the stairway landing found inmate Neil Baumgarten, #20586-148, lying partially on the stairs and half-landing leading to C-2 recreation entrance door. Inmate Baumgarten was bleeding profusely from the upper portion of his body… With the assistance of two inmates, [Witness 67C] placed Baumgarten on a stretcher and he was thereafter transported to the Institution hospital.

At approximately 9:40 a.m., Baumgarten arrived at the Institution hospital and was provided emergency treatment by physicians assistants. At the time of treatment it was estimated the Baumgarten had sustained approximately 15 puncture wounds to the upper chest, back and abdomen area. Due to the severity of Baumgarten’s condition, he was immediately transferred to Evangelical Community Hospital, Lewisburg, PA, at approximately 9:55 a.m., and was pronounced dead at approximately 10:00 a.m. …
The crime scene was immediately secured and Special Agents (SAs) of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) responded to the Institution.

Institution authorities initiated a search of the A, B, C and D-Blocks of the Institution. In addition a search was conducted of the outside perimeter grounds in an attempt to locate physical evidence. The above searches failed to produce any weapon(s), articles of clothing or any suspected physical evidence. Inmates located with the living quarters at the time of the incident were secured and ultimately checked for any possible cuts, bruises, blood stains or torn clothing. All of the above met with negative results…

During the week of December 13-17, 1982, Institution staff and Special Agents of the FBI conducted numerous interviews of inmates towards the ultimate development of cooperative witnesses…

[Witness 67C] felt that the murder of Baumgarten occurred in retaliation for the murder of Cadillac Smith which occurred at the USP, Marion, Illinois, earlier in 1982…

During the period from December 1982 to the present, information has been received and compiled indicating the presence of a large group of inmates with the USP, Lewisburg, which has organized into a retaliatory and murder organization. This group is comprised of Black inmates from the Washington, D.C. area and is known as the “D.C. Blacks”. A large segment of this group also has membership and/or ties with the Moorish Science Temple. Information has been received indicating that this group of inmates have banded together and have plotted the murders and attempted murders of white inmates at the USP their cause being the retaliation of the killing of Raymond “Cadillac” Smith who was purportedly murdered at the USP, Marion, Illinois, by incarcerated members of the Aryan Brotherhood (AB)…

To support the above information, on December 11, 1982, a U.S. Bureau of Prisons transcript of a telephone conversation… indicated an imminent “war” between the AB and the D.C. Blacks at the USP, Leavenworth, and USP, Lewisburg. The “war” was in retaliation over the murder of Raymond “Cadillac” Smith.

This is a true story about the eruption of a race war in prison, and about the gladiators that fought them, how they lived and how they died. But of all the prison stories, there is none like the life and death of Raymond “Cadillac” Smith.

Sampson, that was my image of Cadillac, because he was equally as strong, battle hardened, and roared like a lion whenever he went into combat. And, on a good day, his signature battle cry would rattle the walls and shake all the prison cages.

No wonder, men in prison feared him, both inmate and guard. He was invincible in hand-to-hand combat.

There was this old story about how an assailant once stabbed him in the chest, aiming for his heart. The knife folded like tin foil against an ox hide buff, muscles built by iron on the weightlifting pile. The attacker struck from behind, and when the knife wilted, he fled and sought protective custody in the arms of the nearest prison guard.

Cadillac laughed. He always laughed in the face of his enemies. And, there were times when his psychotic laughter caused even me to quiver. To hear him laugh was not good, not good at all for somebody.

They call prison the “belly of the beast”, not merely metaphoric, but because it churned like a caldron sitting on top of the pit fires of hell.

I was there, at USP Leavenworth, sitting on a two-year parole date like a man holding hot gold in the palm of my hands, when the report of Cadillac's assassination came to me by the Moors, whom the FBI identified in the above memo as the “Moorish Science of America”. The federals also characterized the brothers as “DC Blacks”, with no respect for their ancient “science”. And yet, the FBI searched high and low for evidence in the stabbing death of Baumgarten, but found nothing- no weapon, no bloody clothes, and no scratches. And, whatever witnesses were left behind never saw anything actually go down.

It was said of the Moors in prison that they could kill a man, stash the weapons where no one on earth could find them, wash their clothes and dry them, before prison officials could ever discover the body. As far as I know, the FBI had never been able to pin a murder on a Moors.

I was made an honorary Moor, given a kufi as headgear to wear while attending secret meetings, and being briefed on everything, except the “science”.

Few people know that most Washington, D.C. Blacks originated from Morocco during the slave trade era. They had a different African culture and traditions than the rest of the U.S. black population. To this day, they know their history and where they came from, and they never broke completely with their ancient traditions. They knew the art and science of killing, Moroccan-style. And, Cadillac was heir to the "Sword of Justice", a gleaming curve steel blade about two-feet long.

When word came to me that the Aryan Brotherhood had assassinated Cadillac, the brothers insisted I not take part in the retaliation. After all, I was nursing a two-year parole release date, and the brothers wanted me to get back to the outside world.

Heretofore, no man had ever gone as deep as we had gone into the system, inside the belly of the beast. And, of those that did, nobody ever came back to the outside world to tell about it. This is why the brothers watched over me like angels. They wanted someone to come up out of super-maximum security and tell their stories and warn the kids especially to not get swallowed up into the belly of the beast, like we had.

(To Be Continued)