Whatever you think of Seale (one of the so-called Chicago Eight, tried for conspiracy and incitement to riot, in 1969), the sight of him being bound and gagged in the courtroom, as he tried to defend himself, should remain a permanent scar on the public conscience.
As the Black Panther Party faded from public view, Seale took on a quieter role, working to improve social services in black neighbourhoods and to improve the environment.
Dr Clive Seale of Barts and the London School of Medicine analysed 3,733 responses from doctors practising in a wide variety of fields, with a particular focus on those who worked in palliative care and with the elderly.
As Seales worked on more manuscripts, he realized that what he had thought of as a two-dimensional problem was really three-dimensional.
From that point on, Seale writes, the PLO regarded Abu Nidal as under the control of Iraq.
In the wake of the turbulence, decimation, and disillusion of the 60s and 70s, Seale, in his second act, went on to work as a talk-radio host and to author a book titled Barbeque'n with Bobby, filled with his down-home recipes as a way of raising funds for progressive, socially engaged groups that were struggling under Reaganism.
The barasingha, for example, an Indian swamp deer that is nearly extinct in the wild, Mr. Seale said, was plentiful on Texas game ranches before the Fish and Wildlife Service extended its classification as an endangered species several decades ago to include those in captivity.
In August, the Black Panther Party's lawyer, Andrew M. Gold, wrote to Mr. Shabazz demanding that his group drop all references to the Black Panthers, including use of the name, images of the black panther in its logo and photographs of Mr. Seale and Mr. Newton on its Web site.
University of Oklahoma professor Joshua M. Landis, a leading commentator on Syria, calls Seale's book "the best and most readable overall book on modern Syrian history".
"We're very keen on history, and we're interested in the links" to Winston Churchill and Great Britain, said Mrs. Seale, while her husband likened the countryside to "parts of Wales and Scotland".
Federal prosecutors indicted Mr. Seale in January, almost 43 years after the slayings.
