The Assassination of Fred Hampton

The Assassination of Fred Hampton

GOALS

2. To prevent the rise of a “messiah” who could unify, and electrify, the militant black nationalist movement. 

• COINTELPRO objectives, as outlined by the FBI’s J. Edgar Hoover

The story I will be discussing in today's post is one that has been getting a bit of attention recently, and that is: The true story of the assassination of Black Panther, Fred Hampton by the FBI and Chicago PD. 

I’ve been familiar with Fred Hampton’s story for some time and was working on a lot of research around it a few years ago. Earlier this year, a new movie came out called Judas and The Black Messiah, directed by Shaka King. The movie is a dramatized account of Fred Hampton and the events surrounding assassination, including the FBI’s use of an insider informant (played in the film by LaKieth Stanfield). 

So what is the true story behind this film? First, let’s start with a little bit of background: 

    The mid-1960s in the United States was a hotbed for political action and civil rights initiatives, especially within black communities across the country. The development of the Black Panther Party for Self Defense in 1966 by African American freedom fighters in Oakland marked the rise of one of the most significant liberation movements in American history. The power and influence of the Black Panther’s message of black liberation and empowerment spread far and wide, generating a fear in white political and social power-holders on a national scale. The deep permeation of this fear is illustrated in records from the Federal Bureau of Investigations, headed at the time by J. Edgar Hoover, which conducted an illegal covert operation known as COINTELPRO to dismantle a number of American political entities. By 1969, Hoover had identified the Black Panthers as being the country’s greatest internal threat to national security, and subsequent COINTELPRO initiatives were launched for the purposes of surveillance, disruption, and persecution of this group, as the ability of black folks to organize and unify was seen to be an imminent threat to upholding the established racial caste. 

Who was Fred Hampton?

    While the nation’s eyes were largely cast on the Black Panthers of the West Coast, a new voice was gaining traction on the other side of the country in the city of Chicago: that of a young Fred Hampton. Known for his enrapturing speech, charismatic nature, and electrifying aura, Hampton became a well-known political activist figure across Chicago throughout his teenage years. He facilitated numerous community initiatives, such as organizing marches and rallies against police brutality, and setting up a black cultural center. His social justice work spanned from issues such as opposing the war in Vietnam, to struggles for socialism in the third world, to increasing black voter turnout, to education reform within his community (p. 27-30). Hampton worked as the head of Chicago’s NAACP youth chapter, as well as being actively involved in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) all before his rise to chairman of Chicago’s chapter of the Black Panther Party at the mere age of twenty (p. 38-39). Even before his Party involvement Hampton was frequently pursued and harassed by police, and ultimately brought under FBI surveillance for his political activity (p. 32).

In 1968, the Chicago chapter of the Black Panther Party was launched with Fred Hampton as its chairman. The program operated with an emphasis on…

• Providing Free breakfast programs for children
• Mutual aid efforts within the community
• Independent news reporting
• Advocacy for community control of policing
• Education

Through his activism, Fred brought people together from all walks of life, all before the age of 21, when he was murdered.

Crime Details

In the early hours of December 4th, 1969, at only twenty-one years of age, Fred Hampton was assassinated by officers of the Chicago Police Department (p. 75, 82). A young black man was murdered in cold blood by an execution-style shot to the head while he laid in bed with his pregnant fiance.

Various Panther members slept in the apartment, which on this night was 7 individuals, including a party member by the name of Mark Clark, who was also shot and killed. 

This was not the first major police raid on Panther headquarters that year, the first one occurring in June while Fred was being imprisoned after being framed for a bogus ice cream robbery, and another October.

This particular raid was conducted on the grounds that the police had a warrant to search the apartment for the possession of illegal firearms. Commander of the raid, State prosecutor Edward Hanrahan, asserted that his assigned officers were fired at by the Panthers in the apartment, and that their choice to open fire was instigated by a shoot out between themselves and the group of Black Panthers inside. 

However, upon investigation it was found that there was only one outgoing shot, which was traced back to the gun of Mark Clark, as opposed to the 82-99 incoming shots by the police. All shots, including Clark’s, were thoroughly analyzed by a firearms expert. This single outgoing shot, which was found in the ceiling, was determined to be consistent with the trajectory of a gun going off while falling to the ground. Mark Clark was killed that night by a single gunshot wound to the heart, his body found laying on the living room floor. 

The majority of shots fired in the apartment were directed towards the back bedroom in which Hampton lay. 

Witness accounts also point to how quickly the shots began firing after the police’s initial knock, giving the Panther members inside the apartment no time to process the raid or figure out how to respond. In addition to the two panthers that were murdered in the raid, the remaining survivors were further brutalized by police, then dragged out and handcuffed. Those who had not been injured were taken directly to jail. Those being hospitalized were handcuffed to their hospital beds.

Witnesses also talked about how quickly everything happened. “Bell and Truelock explained that they never even picked up or fired a gun. Instead, they were trying to wake up Fred to figure out what to do...They kept repeating how quickly the gunfire had followed the knock.” (p. 81, 84)

Aftermath

Following the crime, the crime scene was not blocked off by police for investigation. The Panthers’ lawyers constructed their own independent investigation, spending two days gathering, identifying, and filming each piece of physical evidence they could find. Panthers also lead guided tours through the apartment for the public. The people who went into the apartment came out very distraught, angry, or changed. Although the tours were hard and graphic, this exposure to the scene was pivotal in achieving a widespread condemnation of the raids beyond the black community. 

(Switch slide) This is a quote from a Newsweek columnist after visiting the panther apt. It states: “State’s attorney Edward Hanrahan says it was only through the ‘grace of God’ that his men escaped with scratches in their predawn raid on a Black Panther flat. Indeed, it does appear that miracles occurred. The Panthers’ bullets must have dissolved in the air before they hit anybody or anything. Either that or the Panthers were shooting in the wrong direction-namely, at themselves.” -Newsweek columnist, Mike Royko (Haas, pp. 102)

Who killed Fred Hampton? 

There are multiple players in the orchestration of Fred’s assassination. The first I will highlight here is Edward Hanrahan, Prosecutor for Cook County, Illinois…who publically took responsibility for the raid and praised the officers involved. 

Prosecutorial Misconduct

In response to the public outcry of the raid, Hanrahan attempted to show his officers’ side of the story by broadcasting a reenactment of the raid on television. However, the officers couldn’t get the reenactment to match up with their own stories. Their stories also did not match up with the actual evidence and layout of the apartment.

The outtakes of this pre-recorded broadcast were kept and became valuable sources for the later cross-examination of the raiders. The final twenty-eight-minute version was taken from more than five hours of filming. (Haas, pp. 105)

"Chicago Sun-Times reporters who physically went to the apartment the next morning...to compare the police photos reported on the actual scene. They revealed that the photo of two black spots on the kitchen door, which was used as supposed proof of Panther firing, were actually the dark nail heads of nails near the doorknob. There were actually no bullet holes near the kitchen door where the raiders had entered.” (Haas, pp. 106)

 

According to witness testimony (46:03-47:09), the police officers who carried out the raid were laughing with each other, and bragging about their killing Hampton. The police, however, claimed that they were just conducting a routine raid and that they had no prior knowledge that Hampton or the Black Panthers resided in the apartment. This was later disproved, as the police scanner reports preceding the raid mentioned Hampton by name. 

This is sickeningly reminiscent of images we see of southern lynchings, with families of young and old gather around the mutilated bodies of black victims hanging above them. Their eyes wide and sick with hatred. 

Use of Informants

Head of the FBI at the time, J. Edgar Hoover, implemented a counter intelligence program a.k.a COINTELPRO, to dismantle domestic political organizations like the Black Panthers, claiming the group to be the “biggest internal threat to the security of our nation.” 

This program, however, was not just limited to black liberation, but also extended to feminist movements, anti-Vietnam war initiatives, the American Indian movement, civil rights activists, those with communist and socialist party involvement, the nation of Islam, environmentalist and animal rights activists, and Independence movements like the Young Lords. 

In an outline of COINTELPRO objectives, Hoover explicitly aims to prevent the “rise of a messiah,” which was what many believed Fred had the power to become. In order to infiltrate and ultimately exterminate Hampton and his potential as a powerful leader, the FBI relied on the use of a paid informant by the name of William O’Neal, who acted as Fred’s body guard to gain vital information, such as the floor plans and layout to Hampton’s apartment. 

Despite police claims that Hampton had shot at them from his rear bedroom, a later autopsy found a high dosage of Seconal, a sleep-inducing barbiturate with which Fred was drugged by O’Neal when he slipped it into his drink. Hampton never awoke during the raid. 

Here is an image of the documentation of the FBI’s payout to O’Neal:

Police 

The police did not block off the apartment for investigation, which is uncharacteristic conduct for dealing with a crime scene. Police rules and regulations require them to seal off a crime scene in order to secure and protect evidence.

This crime is in many ways representative of historical police misconduct. But it also illustrates something more sinister and dangerous: the strategic militarization of police forces used against civilians for the agenda of the state. 

Prevention

The use of militarized police forces for the state’s agenda is a tactic used by people in positions of systemic power, such as Edward Hanrahan. Hanrahan used his unchecked power as a prosecutor (in coalition with the FBI) to orchestrate this raid and as a result, was never held accountable for his actions. 

Courts

Although the murder of Fred Hampton was a violent crime, as I mentioned before Hanrahan’s power as a prosecutor kept him and the involved officers from being held in criminal court.

However, a civil rights lawsuit was filed in 1970 on behalf of the relatives of Fred Hampton and Mark Clark, stating that the civil rights of the Black Panther members were violated. The suit named twenty-eight defendants, which included Hanrahan, the City of Chicago, Cook County, and the federal government. 

Finally, after a couple of appeals processes, the suit ultimately ended in 1982 with a settlement in which the City of Chicago, Cook County, and the federal government all contributed to a $1.85 million settlement that went to a group of nine plaintiffs. This is believed to be the largest settlement ever to be won in a civil rights case.

View my supplementary PowerPoint Presentation here. 

Bibliography 

Haas, Jefferey. The Assassination of Fred Hampton. , 2009.

Silva, Christianna. “WHO WAS FRED HAMPTON, THE BLACK PANTHER SHOT AND KILLED IN HIS BED BY CHICAGO POLICE 48 YEARS AGO?” Newsweek, 4 Dec. 2017. http://www.newsweek.com/fred-hampton-black-panther-shot-killed-chicago-730503 

“The Assassination of Fred Hampton: How the FBI and Chicago Police Murdered a Black Panther.” Democracy Now!, 4 Dec. 2014. https://www.democracynow.org/2014/12/4/watch_the_assassination_of_fred_hampton 

Green, Bruce; Yaroshefsky, Ellen. "Prosecutorial Accountability 2.0." Notre Dame Law Review, vol. 92, no. 1, Nov. 2016, pp. 51-116.