When journalist Chauncey Wendell Bailey Jr. was murdered Aug. 2, questions arose as to who could have committed such an act, in broad daylight, and what could have motivated the killing. Shortly after the slaying, police arrested Your Black Muslim Bakery handyman Devaughndre Broussard, 19, and charged him with the crime. But deep questions remain, starting with who really called the shots in the killing - and what they were trying to cover up.

In an effort to pick up where Bailey left off, a rare coalition of media rivals and scholastic colleagues - more than two dozen reporters, photographers, and editors from print, broadcast, and electronic media - have formed the Chauncey Bailey Project, an investigative team that will continue and expand on the reporting Bailey was pursuing at the time of his death.

Continue reading Local media form the Chauncey Bailey Project

Chauncey Bailey Project Website

Produced by New American Media, includes brief statements from the Oakland Police Department on the investigation of Bailey's murder. Plus, interviews with Oakland Post publisher Paul Cobb and his lawyer, Walter Riley, regarding how they were questioned by police shortly after the shooting.

KTVU (Channel 2)
Priya David reports on real estate scams investigated by the Cauncey Bailey Project

KTVU (Channel 2)
Chauncey Bailey Project furthers late reporter's work - allegations of deceit

KTVU (Channel 2)
Priya David reports on new questions emerging in Bailey murder case

A holiday without

Bay Area radio journalist Bob Butler interviews Chauncey Bailey's family in Atlanta

New Questions Surrounding Chauncey Bailey's Murder Investigation

Oct. 11 audio of the Chauncey Bailey Project and early reporting from the group produced here by KQED public broadcasting and reporter Judy Campbell.

Oct. 11 audio from the KQED-produced newsmagazine California Report with reporter Scott Shafer. UC Berkeley journalism professor Neil Henry is participating in the project. Henry says Bailey's death raises a lot of questions journalists wanted to answer.

Was Oakland police department scared of Muslim Bakery?
On at least four occasions officers reluctant to confront religious group
From staff writers at BANG and New American Media

Oakland police taping policy is unusual, departments say
Other agencies almost always keep entire conversation on record
From staff writers of the Chauncey Bailey Project

Sidebar
Police tapes reveal suspects confession to Bailey slaying
Broussard says he shot Post editor three times to be sure

Bey matriarch accused of duping creditors
Three houses illegally transferred, bankruptcy trustee says
From staff writers at the Oakland Tribune/BANG, freelance contributions and the Guardian

A journalist's last day
Minute-by-minute account of the day before Bailey's murder

6:30 to 7 a.m.
Chauncey Bailey had a full day ahead of him when his alarm clock rang at 6:30 a.m.

The Oakland Post editor had a dozen things to do - a couple of news stories to write, a meeting with the Post's publisher, a beauty pageant to coordinate, a movie to cast - so he started off bright and early.

For a year and a half, Bailey had lived in a first-floor apartment near the south end of Lake Merritt. His girlfriend, Deborah Oduwa, lived with him the past three months. Leaving her half asleep in bed, he got up and got ready for work.

Bailey was known as a snappy dresser, yet a thrifty one, often proud of his second-hand-store finds of quality pieces. Growing up in East Oakland and Hayward in a working class family meant he appreciated a dollar. (Read more)

Is wheelman in Bailey slaying still on the loose?
Questions raised over whether 21-year-old with criminal history played role in Bailey killing
From staff writers at BANG and New American Media

Editor's family faces first Thanksgiving without him
Younger brother writes at fallen Oakland Post manager's old desk

Bey family member involved in bakery bankruptcy sale
From staff writers at the Oakland Tribune/BANG, the Center for Investigative Reporting and the Guardian

Sidebar
Bey property transactions
From project contributors

Chauncey Bailey Project: Bey IV claims rivals set him up
Suspect denies role in slaying, other crimes linked to Your Black Muslim Bakery
From staff writers at the Oakland Tribune/BANG

Bey IV's rap sheet spans wide range of criminal charges
Jailed bakery leader says cases 'only not minor because I'm involved'
From staff writers at the Oakland Tribune/BANG

Bailey killing suspect pleads not guilty
20-year-old Your Black Muslim Bakery handyman retracted earlier admission
From staff writers at the Oakland Tribune/BANG

Fifth man nabbed in women's abduction
San Francisco suspect connected to Muslim Bakery crimes, cops say
From staff writers at the Oakland Tribune/BANG

Chauncey Bailey Project: Did cops drag feet on bakery probe?
From staff writers at the Oakland Tribune/BANG

Big questions linger in Bailey slaying
Editor's bakery story content still unknown
From staff writers at the Oakland Tribune/BANG

A visual presentation with photos and a timeline of Bailey's death
From staffers at the Oakland Tribune/BANG

Second Victim In Bailey Murder -- Oakland Post Under Siege
From staff writers at New American Media

Murder, revisited
Santa Barbara police reopen 40-year-old homicide case with 'similarities' to Chauncey Bailey slaying

By Bob Butler, Thomas Peele, The Chauncey Bailey Project

Bakery women describe life of toil and abuse
Ex-workers tell of illegal conditions

By Mary Fricker

Officer's diligence paid off in bust
One man cracked the case against the late Bakery leader

By Mary Fricker

Sidebar
Profiles of Abuse: Five women accused Yusuf Bey of abuse.

Sidebar
A chronology of abuse

Reports to authorities
Women who claimed to be victims of Yusuf Bey's sexual abuse, or their families, said they made at least 10 complaints that were ignored by authorities.

By Mary Fricker

Money for Nothing
Bakery associate received public matching funds but didn't document spending

By Cecily Burt and G.W. Schulz

Sidebar
Timeline of the bakery's bid for Oakland City Council

How Oakland's fearful politicos enabled waste
A Bey family subsidiary promised jobs for Oakland but instead left taxpayers with a large, unpaid loan

Part I
How the bakery's $1 million vanished.
Along with loan from city, pledges to help community disappeared.

By Cecily Burt and G.W. Schulz

It was a noble cause: Train welfare recipients as home health aides and put them to work caring for homebound sick and elderly clients.

A decade ago, while Your Black Muslim Bakery founder Yusuf Bey enjoyed unwavering support and adulation from black businesses and politicians, his spiritually adopted son, Nedir Bey, pressured and shamed city leaders into giving him a $1.1 million loan to help finance the promise of black entrepreneurial independence.

But the venture, E.M. Health Services, swiftly collapsed. The failure of CEO Nedir Bey to repay a dime of the loan made headlines at the time and prompted most to assume the company's demise was caused by a combination of poor business decisions, bureaucratic hurdles and simple bad luck. (Read more)

Part II
E.M. Health attempts to burrow away debt

By Cecily Burt and G.W. Schulz

E.M. Health Services, a home health care company founded by a high-ranking member of Your Black Muslim Bakery, opened for business in July 1996, flush with a $1.1 million loan from the city of Oakland.

But shortly over a year later, signs of trouble already plagued the business - and a review of documents shows that the founders of the struggling company paid themselves lavish salaries, and lucrative consulting contracts went to bakery associates and family members. (Read more)

Part III
Political, racial pressure pays off for the bakery

By Cecily Burt and G.W. Schulz

In 1996, Your Black Muslim Bakery lieutenant Nedir Bey had a wealth of ammunition with which to lobby city leaders for a $1.1 million loan to fund his health care company, E.M. Health Services.

The previous year, the city of Oakland had agreed to spend hundreds of millions of dollars to bring the Oakland Raiders back from Los Angeles, a deal that quickly soured and has cost the city and Alameda County taxpayers more than $20 million a year ever since.

The developers of a new downtown ice rink had defaulted on $11 million in bonds just three months after the facility opened. (Read more)

Sidebar
Who's who of key players in E.M. Health
(Cecily Burt and G.W. Schulz)

Sidebar
At a glance timeline of E.M. Health's loan
(Cecily Burt and G.W. Schulz)

Your Black Muslim Bakery member Nedir Bey speaks before the Oakland City Council on June 4, 1996, to lobby for money for E. M. Health Services, a home health organization. The city council approved the funds. (KTOP Frame Grab)

The exterior of Your Black Muslim Bakery (Oakland Tribune)

Behind the Bey empire
Did real estate fraud help build Your Black Muslim Bakery into an enterprise worth killing for?

By Bob Butler, Thomas Peele, Josh Richman, G.W. Schulz and A.C. Thompson
The Chauncey Bailey Project

Since 2003, Esperanza Johnson, a former key figure within Oakland's Bey organization, and her husband, Antron Thurman, have acquired nearly $2 million worth of East Bay real estate through a string of controversial deals tainted with allegations of deceit.

In five cases those deals led to litigation. Johnson, of Antioch, who also goes by the name Noor Jehan Bey, has twice been accused of fraud. Court records indicate that one of those transactions involved falsified documents. (Read more)

Click above for a graphic of the East Bay homes featured in 'A trail of dubious dealings.' Produced by Contra Costa Times staffers

Audio Slideshow
Donald Taylor discusses the home he lost

Audio Slideshow
Gail Mateo and Markus Machado say they were mislead

Allegations of Deceit
An interactive map produced by staffers at the Contra Costa Times

Related Stories from the Bay Area News Group
» Bakery associate held on warrant in St. Louis; awaits extradition to California

» Muslim bakery members linked to multiple crimes
Numerous investigations were under way at time editor was killed

» Bailey suspect hearing delayed
Arraignment in editor's slaying postponed until January for Broussard to weigh legal options

» Police: Bakery may have had hand in 1982 slaying
Berkeley re-opens 25-year-old unsolved case

» Cops: Antar Bey killing not political
OPD thinks ex-Muslim Bakery leader slain in street crime, not assassinated in 2005