“a white Irish Catholic judge”: FBI COINTELPRO files (copy of report on the trial written by the Committee to Defend the Panther Twenty-one).
Street protests outside the courtroom: Interview with William “B.J.” Johnson (January 23, 2010); interview with Cleo Silvers (March 26, 2009); Zimroth, Perversion of Justice, p. 97; Kempton, The Briar Patch, pp. 68–69, 112.
Abbie Hoffman puts up money for Bin Wahad’s bail: Interview with Gerald Lefcourt (January 25, 2010); interview with Dhoruba Bin Wahad (September 16, 2008); FBI COINTELPRO files, confidential memo.
Bin Wahad jailhouse meeting with David Hilliard: Interview with Dhoruba Bin Wahad (September 16, 2008); Hilliard, This Side of Glory, pp. 228–230.
“I was and still am a black nationalist”: Interview with Dhoruba Bin Wahad (September 16, 2008).
Alex Rackley murder: The murder of Alex Rackley was the beginning of a descent into violence that would eventually contribute to the destruction of the BPP. The trial also revealed just how riddled with informants the Panthers had become. Sheehy, Gail, “Black Against Black: The Agony of Panthermania,” New York, November 16, 1970. Sheehy’s two-part article on the New Haven trial was later published in book form as Panthermania (1971). “A Panther Admits He Killed Another,” New York Times, January 17, 1970; Austin, Up Against the Wall, pp. 276, 289–293; Pearson, Shadow of the Panther, pp. 235–236.
Additional support for BPP: The Committee to Defend the Panther Twenty-one issued regular bulletins to generate publicity and solicit funds. Among their most notorious fund-raisers was a gathering of wealthy, mostly white Manhattanites at the Upper East Side duplex apartment of composer Leonard Bernstein, director of the New York Philharmonic. The party was famously lampooned by writer Tom Wolfe in an article in New York magazine that was later published in book form as Radical Chic and Mau-mauing the Flak Catchers (1970). Wrote Wolfe: “In the season of Radical chic…the very idea of [Black Panthers], these real revolutionaries, who actually put their lives on the line, runs through Lenny’s duplex like a rogue hormone.” Curtis, Charlotte, “The Bernsteins’ Party for Black Panther Legal Defense Stirs Talk and More Parties,” New York Times, January 24, 1970; “Upper East Side Story,” Time, January 26, 1970.
Bin Wahad released on bail: Interview with Dhoruba Bin Wahad (September 16, 2008); interview with Gerald Lefcourt (January 25, 2010); Asbury, Edith Evans, “Moore, Panther Leader, Freed on $100,000 Bail,” New York Times, March 27, 1970.
Bin Wahad travels nationwide: Interview with Dhoruba Bin Wahad (September 16, 2008).
Growing disillusionment with BPP Central Committee: Interview with Dhoruba Bin Wahad (September 16, 2008); interview with Cleo Silvers (March 26, 2009); Austin, Up Against the Wall, pp. 286, 298–312.
Thomas Jolly and Robert Bey as “knuckleheads”: Ibid.
Huey Newton released from jail: Fraser, C. Gerald, “Newton Expected to Set Up Headquarters in Harlem,” New York Times, July 12, 1970; Newton, Revolutionary Suicide, pp. 295–316; Pearson, Shadow of the Panther, pp. 218–225; Austin, Up Against the Wall, p. 287.
“When Huey and them founded the party”: Interview with Dhoruba Bin Wahad (September 16, 2008).
Philosophical differences with Huey Newton: Ibid.; interview with Cleo Silvers (March 26, 2009); interview with William “B.J.” Johnson (January 23, 2009); Austin, Up Against the Wall, pp. 297–334.
“These motherfuckers had no sense of history”: Ibid.
New York sides with Cleaver faction: Ibid.; “The Divided Panthers,” Time, February 22, 1971.
COINTELPRO fuels the split: FBI COINTELPRO files, various memos; Churchill and Vander Wall, The COINTELPRO Papers, pp. 148–150; O’Reilly, Racial Matters, pp. 300–324, 329, 330.
“To create friction”: FBI COINTELPRO memo.
“Purpose of counterintelligence action”: FBI COINTELPRO (confidential Hoover memo).
“Should reword this memo to convey”: FBI COINTELPRO (confidential Hoover memo).
Fred Bennett murder: Pearson, Shadow of the Panther, pp. 232– 233; Austin, Up Against the Wall, p. 324; interview with Dhoruba Bin Wahad (September 16, 2008). Bin Wahad, who met Bennett on one of his trips to Panther headquarters in Oakland, cited the Bennett murder as having “raised the stakes” in the growing tension between the East Coast and Newton.
“Increasing evidence points to rising dissention within BPP”: FBI COINTELPRO (confidential Hoover Airtel memo).
BPP Central Staff Meeting in Queens: Interview with Dhoruba Bin Wahad (September 16, 2008); FBI COINTELPRO files; Austin, Up Against the Wall, p. 317.
Disagreements between Bin Wahad and Panther Twenty-one defendants: Interview with Dhoruba Bin Wahad (September 16, 2008); interview with Gerald Lefcourt (January 25, 2010). Lefcourt, who was attorney of record for both Dhoruba and Lumumba Shakur, noted that “Lumumba and the others were very upset with Dhoruba. In fact, they wanted to kick his ass. And it had nothing to do with any split between the East Coast and West Coast. The whole reason Dhoruba had been chosen as the one to be released on bail was because he was supposed to work every day on getting the others out of jail, to organize around the Panther Twenty-one and raise money. Lumumba felt Dhoruba was spending too much time womanizing and ego-tripping.”
Panther Twenty-one letter to the Weather Underground: Interview with Dhoruba Bin Wahad (September 16, 2008); interview with Gerald Lefcourt (January 25, 2010); Austin, Up Against the Wall, p. 321; FBI COINTELPRO files.
Bomb set off outside home of Judge Murtagh: The bombing occurred early on the morning of February 21, 1970. Murtagh’s son, John Jr., was eight years old at the time. Many years later, he described the event in a magazine article: “I still recall, as though it were a dream, thinking that someone was lifting and dropping my bed as the explosions jolted me awake, and I remember my mother pulling me from the tangle of sheets and running to the kitchen where my father stood. Through the large windows overlooking the yard, all we could see was the bright glow of flames below. We didn’t leave our house for fear of who might be waiting outside. The same night, bombs were thrown at a police car in Manhattan and two military recruiting stations in Brooklyn. Sunlight, the next morning, revealed three sentences of blood-red graffiti on our sidewalk: FREE THE PANTHER 21; THE VIET CONG HAVE WON; KILL THE PIGS.” Murtagh, John M., “Fire in the Night: The Weathermen Tried to Kill My Family,” City Journal, April 30, 2008; interview with John M. Murtagh (February 5, 2010).
Six weeks after the firebombing at the Murtagh home, a mysterious blaze was ignited at the office building of the Panther Twenty-one defense team at Union Square West in Manhattan. Twenty-eight firemen were injured in the four-alarm blaze. A battalion chief characterized the fire as “highly suspicious.” Attorney Lefcourt noted in the New York Daily News that his office had received numerous threats by mail and phone leading up to the fire; he suggested that papers crucial to the defense may have been damaged or destroyed in the fire, which resulted in yet more delays in a legal proceeding that would become the longest in city history. McCarthy, Philip, and McNamara, Joseph, “Panther Legal Offices Burn: 28 Are Injured,” Daily News, April 13, 1970.
“I told them not to publish it”: Interview with Dhoruba Bin Wahad (September 16, 2010).
Newton expels the Panther Twenty-one: Newton, Huey P., “On the Defection of Eldridge Cleaver from the Black Panther Party and the Defection of the Black Panther Party from the Black Community,” Black Panther, April 17, 1971; Pearson, Shadow of the Panther, p. 220; Austin, Up Against the Wall, p. 310; Newton, Revolutionary Suicide, p. 327; FBI COINTELPRO files, various memos.
Bin Wahad informed he is on Newton hit list: Interview with Dhoruba Bin Wahad (September 16, 2008).
Bin Wahad and others meet to discuss strategy: Ibid. At this meeting, Afeni Shakur was five months pregnant with a child conceived by fellow Black Panther Billy Garland. The child would be born in East Harlem on June 16, 1971, and named Tupac Shakur, who would grow up to become a famous rapper and movie star, and eventually be s
hot dead as part of a war between East Coast and West Coast factions of the hip-hop industry.
“This was some heavy shit”: Ibid.
Bin Wahad and Cetewayo meet with Newton in New Haven: Interview with Dhoruba Bin Wahad (September 16, 2009); Austin, Up Against the Wall, pp. 306–308; Hilliard, This Side of Glory, pp. 327–331. David Hilliard, who had been loyal to Newton since childhood, describes this meeting in This Side of Glory as the moment he knew Huey Newton was possibly losing his soul.
Bin Wahad, Cetewayo, and Connie Matthews escape: Interview with Dhoruba Bin Wahad (September 16, 2008); Austin, Up Against the Wall, pp. 311–313.
Bin Wahad jumps bail: Interview with Dhoruba bin Wahad (September 16, 2008); interview with Gerald Lefcourt (January 25, 2010); Asbury, Edith Evans, “2 Panther Defendants Are Missing,” New York Times, February 23, 1971; Austin, Up Against the Wall, p. 320; Newton, Revolutionary Suicide, p. 327; FBI COINTELPRO files.
Newton expels Bin Wahad et al.: Interview with Dhoruba Bin Wahad (September 16, 2008); Newton, Huey P., “On the Defection of Eldridge Cleaver from the Black Panther Party and the Defections of the Black Panther Party from the Black Community,” Black Panther, April 17, 1971; Asbury, Edith Evans, “Newton Denounces 2 Missing Panthers,” New York Times, February 10, 1971; “Newton Assailed Action by Moore,” New York Times, June 6, 1971; Austin, Up Against the Wall, pp. 320–321; Newton, Revolutionary Suicide, p. 327; Hilliard, This Side of Glory, p. 335; Pearson, Shadow of the Panther, p. 230.
Robert Webb murder: Austin, Up Against the Wall, pp. 313–314; FBI COINTELPRO files.
“That crew who killed Webb”: Interview with Dhoruba Bin Wahad (September 16, 2008).
16. PANTHER JUSTICE
NYPD concerns about BPP persist: Asbury, Edith Evans, “Policeman Says Panther Shot at Him,” New York Times, May 12, 1970; Faso, Frank, and Paul Meskill, “National Conspiracy to Kill Police Seen,” Daily News, September 2, 1970.
“It has been reported”: NYPD BOSS files.
“This amendment would give control”: Black Panther file, Harlem branch (SCRBC); NYPD BOSS file.
Marcy Housing Project “tribunal”: NYPD BOSS file.
Phillips meets Xaviera Hollander: Shecter with Phillips, On the Pad, pp. 22–30; Hollander, Xaviera, The Happy Hooker, pp. 286–292; Knapp Commission testimony, October 20, 1971.
“Almost from the moment”: Hollander, The Happy Hooker, p. 1.
Phillips and Hollander at P.J. Clarke’s: Ibid., p. 288; Shecter with Phillips, On the Pad, p. 22.
Phillips and Officer O’Keefe: Shecter with Phillips, On the Pad, pp. 29–31.
Teddy Ratnoff: Interview with Mike Armstrong (August 12, 2009); Markham, James M., “Uncovered Undercoverman Changes Jobs,” New York Times, October 21, 1971; Shecter with Phillips, On the Pad, pp. 22–30; Hollander, The Happy Hooker, pp. 281–292. In her book, Hollander does not use Ratnoff’s real name; she refers to him as “Abe the Bugger.”
Mike Armstrong: Interview with Mike Armstrong (August 12, 2009).
Armstrong meeting with Harlem editor: Ibid.
Armstrong meeting with ADA Phillips: Ibid.
Ratnoff goes to work for Knapp Commission: Interview with Mike Armstrong (August 12, 2009); Shecter with Phillips, On the Pad, pp. 25–26; Markham, “Uncovered Undercoverman Changes Jobs,” New York Times, October 21, 1971.
Irwin Germaise: Schultz, Ray, New York Times, October 17, 1972; Shecter with Phillips, On the Pad, pp. 36–41.
“So we scrounged the money together ourselves”: Interview with Mike Armstrong (August 12, 2009).
Germaise confronts Ratnoff: Shecter with Phillips, On the Pad, pp. 40–41.
Phillips and Germaise catch Ratnoff with wire: Interview with Mike Armstrong (August 12, 2009); Shecter with Phillips, On the Pad, pp. 41–43. The dialogue among Phillips, Germaise, and Ratnoff is taken directly from the transcript of the wire recording in The Knapp Commission Report on Police Corruption.
“I thought, shit, he’s wired”: Shecter with Phillips, On the Pad, p. 43.
Armstrong meeting with Phillips: Interview with Mike Armstrong (August 12, 2009).
Zyad Shakur press conference: “Destroying the Panther Myth,” Time, March 22, 1971; Knight, Michael, “Death Here Tied to Panther Feud,” New York Times, March 10, 1971; Austin, Up Against the Wall, pp. 307–308.
“The urban guerrilla must know”: Marighella, Carlos, Mini-Manual of the Urban Guerrilla, p. 6.
Killing of Sam Napier: Interview with Dhoruba Bin Wahad (September 16, 2008); interview with William “B.J.” Johnson (January 23, 2010); interview with Gerald Lefcourt (January 25, 2010); Austin, Up Against the Wall, pp. 308–313.
“After the Webb murder”: Interview with William “B.J.” Johnson (January 23, 2010); Austin, Up Against the Wall, p. 314.
Johnson and the Napier killing: Ibid.
“On the way out, I asked the sister”: Ibid.
“The hit on the Queens distribution office”: Interview with Dhoruba Bin Wahad (September 16, 2008).
“First, let it be understood”: Moore, Richard, “A Black Panther Speaks,” New York Times, May 12, 1971.
“These internal contradictions”: Ibid.
Panther Twenty-one verdict: “Panthers Acquitted,” Time, May 24, 1971; Kennebeck, Juror Number Four, pp. 222–238; Zimroth, Perversion of Justice, pp. 363–404; Kempton, The Briar Patch, pp. 189–195; FBI COINTELPRO files, Airtel memo.
COINTELPRO assessment of Panthers: FBI COINTELPRO confidential memo.
Shooting of Curry and Binetti outside home of D.A. Hogan: O’Malley, Daniel, Patrick Doyle, and John Murphy, “2 Cops in Hogan’s Guard Machine Gunned,” Daily News, May 20, 1971; interview with Robert Daley (January 21, 2010); Tanenbaum and Rosenberg, Badge of the Assassin, pp. 15–17; Daley, Target Blue, pp. 75–86; Seedman and Hellman, Chief, pp. 257–270.
Communiqué from BLA: Ibid.
Killing of Jones and Piagentini outside Harlem housing project: Duddy, James, and Henry Stathos, “2 Cops Die in Harlem Ambush,” Daily News, May 22, 1971; McCarthy, Phillip, and Henry Lee, “A Grim Hunt Seeks Out Cop Killers,” Daily News, May 23, 1971; OPERATION NEWKILL files.
BLA communiqué following Jones and Piagentini killing: Ibid. The letter read, in part: “All power to the people. Revolutionary justice has been meted out once again by righteous brothers of the Black Liberation Army with the death of two Gestapo pigs gunned down as so many of our brothers have been gun [sic] down in the past. But this time no racist class jury will acquit them. Revolutionary justice is ours. All Power to the people.” OPERATION NEWKILL files.
“We’re in a war” (Kiernan statement): Passin’ It On, PBS documentary; Tanenbaum and Rosenberg, Badge of the Assassin, p. 15.
Lindsay and Murphy encounter with officers outside station house: Tanenbaum and Rosenberg, Badge of the Assassin, pp. 18–21.
“There are those who call themselves your brothers”: “Why Kill Black Cops?” Amsterdam News, May 25, 1971.
Whitmore meets Abby Mann: Interview with George Whitmore (April 3, 2009); interview with Myron Beldock (January 27, 2009); interview with Selwyn Raab (April 22, 2009).
Whitmore’s growing disenchantment with his situation: Interview with George Whitmore (April 3, 2009).
17. NEWKILL
Attempted robbery at Triple-O social club: Interview with Dhoruba Bin Wahad (September 16, 2008); interview with Robert Daley (January 21, 2010); Daley, Target Blue, pp. 81–86; Seedman and Hellman, Chief, pp. 442–444.
Bin Wahad’s time underground: Interview with Dhoruba Bin Wahad (September 16, 2008).
“The black underground”: Passin’ It On, PBS documentary.
“We were lucky to be taken alive”: Interview with Dhoruba Bin Wahad (September 16, 2008).
Bin Wahad et al. arrested and held at Forty-eighth Precinct station house: In the documentary Passin’ It On, both Bin Wahad and Jamal Joseph allege that they were “tortured” while in custody, but there was never any evidence to back that up. In a photog
raph, Bin Wahad is seen being led from the station house with no visible signs of physical abuse.
Police funerals: The funeral in the Bronx for Waverly Jones was estimated to be one of the largest in NYPD history. The funeral for Joseph Piagentini was held in suburban Long Island, where the officer had lived with his wife, Diane, and two children. “Another Cop Mourned,” Daily News, May 28, 1971; Tanenbaum and Rosenberg, Badge of the Assassin, p. 37.
Largest NYPD manhunt in history: Tanenbaum and Rosenberg, Badge of the Assassin, pp. 38–43; NYPD Task Force file memo.
Along with the official investigation, there began in the wake of the Jones and Piagentini shooting an unofficial enterprise. Detective Randy Jurgensen, who had been one of the first responders at the Jones and Piagentini murder scene, became part of a unit known as “Grosso’s Groupettes,” after lead detective Sonny Grosso. With the release of The French Connection (1970), in which actor Roy Scheider played Grosso, who served as technical adviser, the veteran cop was now a star in the department. He was given a squad of half a dozen cops and citywide jurisdiction to investigate cases involving the Black Liberation Army. Many on the force knew about the unit, but its existence was kept secret from the Lindsay administration, which was not yet willing to admit publicly that the BLA even existed. Interview with Randy Jurgensen (February 12, 2010); interview with Sonny Grosso (April 13, 2009).
“Approximately 1000 DD-5’s were submitted”: NYPD Task Force memo.
Nixon meets with Hoover to discuss police shootings in NYC: O’Reilly, Racial Matters, p. 321; Perlstein, Nixonland, p. 411. The Daily News ran a photo on page three of Nixon, Hoover, and Attorney General John Mitchell, under the headline “Discuss N.Y. Killings at White House,” with the caption: “President Nixon is flanked by Attorney General John Mitchell and FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover at White House yesterday. Trio met to review federal efforts to help New York police track down slayers of Patrolman Waverly Jones and Joseph Piagentini.” Daily News, May 27, 1971.
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