FRED HAMPTON
The FBI's action against Hampton was precipitated by his work to bring the
Blackstone Rangers, a Chicago street gang, that scared the FBI into drastic
action. O'Neal, playing the FBI-sponsored role of a militant revolutionary,
intentionally pushed the Panthers into violent clashes with the Rangers in 1969.
O'Neal, ironically, used torture tactics against Panther members he accused as
being informants, attempting to make them "confess."
COINTEL-PRO's
objectives were to destroy the Panther's community programs, including its free
breakfast for children program and the distribution of its national newspaper. The police and the FBI engaged in a coverup. No one served a single day
in jail for the attack.
COINTEL-PRO started its file on Fred Hampton, chairman of the BPP's Illinois
state chapter, in 1967. It would grow to total more than 4,000 pages. At the
same time as the file's creation, the FBI planted an informant near Hampton, and
by 1968 had his mother's home wiretapped. By 1969, he would be killed by
Chicago police. He was 20. For the infiltration, the FBI brought in
William O'Neal, a convicted felon who agreed to spy on the Panthers in order to
have his charges dropped. O'Neal quickly became Hampton's personal bodyguard and
Director of Chapter Security.
O'Neal drew up the floor plan of the BPP's Illinois state headquarters for the
FBI. The Cook County State Attorney's office used that information when it
raided the office in the early morning of Dec. 4, 1969, killing Hampton and Mark
Clark and wounding several other Party members. Police claimed there was a gun
battle, but out of 70 bullet holes in the headquarters, only one round came from
the Panthers. (The sole Panther round came from Clark, who shot into the floor
while being assassinated.)
Copyright © 2001-, Terry Muse
Revised: November 6, 2001
URL: http://black_and_hispanic.tripod.com/blackhistory/
Contact: Terry Muse