Jon Lester, the British-born teenager that was convicted of attacking several Black men in a racially motivated attack in 1986, committed sucide in his hometown of Manchester, England, according to reports.
Lester was convicted of a hate crime for the death of Michael Griffith, a 23 year old Black male who was killed when he was struck by a car on the Belt Parkway after running from Lester and the group of attackers.
“Kill the n—–s,” Lester allegedly yelled as he and the teens he rounded up ambushed the victims.
The white teens brutally assaulted Griffith’s stepfather, 36-year-old Cedric Sandiford, pounding him with a baseball bat, a tire iron and tree branches.
The crime ignited the city’s already simmering racial tensions. The Rev. Al Sharpton led marches through Howard Beach and was cursed by local whites.
Mayor Ed Koch likened the killing to a lynching.
“This incident can only be described as rivaling the kind of lynching party that existed in the Deep South,” Koch said.
Lester was convicted of manslaughter and assault for his role in Griffith’s death. He was sentenced in 1988 to 10 to 30 years in prison.
Lester showed “no remorse, no sense of guilt, no shame, no fear,” Justice Thomas Demakos said at his sentencing.
15 years later in 2001, Lester never escaped his demons. He was sent back to his Manchester hometown, but never fully recovered from his time behind bars.
Lester leaves behind a wife and three children.
