Slaying probe reopens 1968 case

Santa Barbara police are exploring a potential connection between a 1968 double slaying in the city and the killing of a black community newspaper editor in Oakland last summer, according to a published report on Tuesday.

The Oakland Tribune and the Contra Costa Times reported that the Santa Barbara investigation was reopened after inquiries from reporters from the Chauncey Bailey Project, a collaborative effort by various media outlets to continue the work of the Oakland Post editor gunned down on his way to work in August.

The Santa Barbara slaying victims were affiliated with a mosque there that was a forerunner of Your Black Muslim Bakery in Oakland, the enterprise Bailey was examining when he was killed. A bakery handyman, who confessed to killing Bailey over his coverage and then recanted has been charged and faces trial.

The newspapers reported that the now-deceased bakery founder and his brother, then known as Billy X Stephens, were officials of the mosque when a couple who were members were shot to death as they slept.

No arrests were made in the slayings of Wendell and Birdie Mae Scott. But Tuesday’s report said police documents obtained by the Bailey Project show that detectives in 1968 focused on internal mosque disputes as a motive.

The report said Stephens, now known as Abdul Raab Mohammad, recently denied having anything to do with the double slaying and said it had nothing to do with the mosque.

His brother, Joseph Stephens, who adopted the name Yusuf Ali Bey, broke away from the Nation of Islam and later started the bakery, which built an image of African American self-reliance until it became embroiled in financial problems, infighting and alleged violence.