For 179 days in late 1973 and early 1974, a group of black men left a total of officially 15 white men, women and children dead. Unfortunately the death toll is closer to 70. The motivation behind these crimes was mearly to join a gang for lack of a better word called the "Death Angels" who were backed by the black muslims of california, and generally you had to kill either 9 white men, 5 white women, or 4 white children.
The perpetrators being: Jesse Cooke, Larry Greene, Anthony Harris, Manuel Moore and J.C. Simon also injured a further eight victims several of which would be paralized for life.
In the end probably due to the pressure the California police were putting on the black community, one of their own Anthony Harris turned himself in and made a detailed confession. The trial started in March 1975, and lasted for one year and six days, the longest in California's history.
Four of the men were sentenced to life, Harris got a lower sentence because he turned states evidence. Manson, Dahmer, Gein, Jack the Ripper, The Boston Strangler, and as of late Snipers and School Children are made to last in the publics minds as people whom we should be weary of and what kind of people commit such crimes. However for some reason the Zebra Killings had very little public knowledge, the case mearly disappeared and the only people who are likely to find it are researchers such as you and I.