The Dollop with Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds - 214 - Black Panther Fred Hampton
Episode Date: October 24, 2016Comedians Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds examine Black Panther spokesman Fred Hampton. SOURCESTOUR DATES REDBUBBLE MERCH...
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You're listening to the dollop. This is a bi-weekly American History podcast. Each
week I, Dave Anthony, read a story from American history to my friend. Gareth
Reynolds who has no idea what the topic is gonna be about. Not good? No. It's
hard to match your energy sometimes. It's a little erratic. I fucking bring it
no I'm pretty consistent. It's just like erratic. Is that your phone? My phone bro.
It's blowing up. Oh boom boom boom three texts come on. How are you? How many
texts did you just get? Three? Oh no you didn't get any. Oh man I don't worry
things will pick up text wise. You'll be fine. Get away from me Jose.
God do you want to look who to do? I'll do one bottle. People say this is funny. Not
Gary Gareth. Dave okay. Someone or something is tickling people. Is it for fun?
And this is not gonna become a tickly podcast. Okay. You are queen fakie of
made-up town. All hail Queen Shit of Liesville. A bunch of religious virgins
go to mingle and do a fray. Hi Gary. No. I see you've done my fray. No. I want to talk
about something really quick. I used to do I used to say I don't know if it was on
this podcast but occasionally I would say don't ever go to University Nissan.
Do you remember that? I don't because I've been going there a lot. And some people I
would say don't buy a car there and some people be like yeah you had a bad time
with the car company there and but yeah it was a little bit more than that. They
they did something really horrific and sure enough about two weeks ago there
are the feds cracked down on them. Oh wow. So they're totally they've been totally
just fucking people over an old-time scam that they've been doing like it was
done that's been done for decades. Right. This classic just fucking bait and
switch horse shit. So they're going down. Is my car definitely a bike? Yeah yeah.
Yeah yeah you guys are bike. That's your Nissan. Enjoy it. It's a century. You're
gonna love it. So what I'm saying is is when I when I give people a warning I
generally do so for a reason because I think that there's something as opposed
to just something like I had a disagreement with something. Uh-huh. Now
there's generally something shady going on. Okay. So I want to talk about this
soft hotel hotel in Los Angeles really quick. Okay. Because that's where we
held the podcast festival and we had some disagreements with them about how
they were handling things. Not so great. But then they did something that is so
unconscionable and put someone's personal safety in danger that I feel I
need to talk about. Sure. So that people do not bring their business there.
Basically we had somewhere a tight group of people that run this thing. Our
wives come our girlfriends come and someone's wife the hotel neglected to
put on the room. Okay. And then they denied that they were told to put her on
the room so they their their stories don't quite work the hotel stories. Right.
Their every every excuse they made was like that doesn't make any sense. It's
soft hotel logic. Soft hotel. Yeah. Soft hotel logic. Yeah. So what ended up
happening is they were told to put this person this person's wife on the room
twice. Person had to leave that night. Not the wife the other person. No the
person who was the the guy works for the festival. Right. The wife had a key. She
was down at the bar having a drink. She went to go back to the hotel room. The
key didn't work in the elevator. Okay. They ended up kicking her out of the
hotel the two o'clock in the morning. Okay. So they put a woman out on the
street at 2 a.m. who had a key to a hotel room. Right. They wouldn't go up and check
to see if her belongings were in the room. Really. It is so fucked up and
unconscionable that you cannot believe that a hotel did this. That's crazy. And
so we will not be doing the podcast festival there again and we would highly
recommend that people do not use that hotel because this person could have
seriously been hurt. Yeah. Well that's just crazy. I mean they had a key. Yeah.
They just they just they did not put her name on the room. Right. They screwed up.
Right. So yeah. So no more. So no more. And I highly recommend that nobody go there.
Nobody go there. That's just it was just super dangerous. Yeah. And we're lucky
that nothing happened to this person. Right. So what did that person do. Ended
up sleeping in her car. Okay. On the streets of Los Angeles. Sure. Okay. Well
as long as we have like a happy ending. So I don't do that kind of stuff very
often. But when something happens that I feel is a big deal. Then I think people
should be warned about. That's the case here. I think. Well and if soft until. And
if we're knocking down places. Let's go. Don't go to soup plantation. Thank you.
And I'm not even going to get into it. But they can go eat it. Yeah. They can
fucking eat dick. Also. Jeff's. Jeff's mini Mart. Look if we're really going on a
list shakey the shakey's pizza on Santa Monica. You. No. No. No. No. No. No. I
don't even want to get into the specifics. Oh. Roberto's locksmith. Oh. Third. Uh-huh.
And and Western. Uh-huh. Fuck that guy. The Korean food truck in Santa Monica on
Olympic. Uh-huh. No thank you. No thank you. That's actually the name of it. Bed bath
and beyond. I wouldn't go to Walmart. Time Warner Cable. AT&T. I wouldn't use them.
Dole Tyson chicken. Nestle. I wouldn't get a Chevy. I probably wouldn't get a Chevy.
All right. Now we're ready. August 30th 1948. Okay. Fred Hampton was born in a
suburb on the southwestern side of Chicago. He was the third child of
Francis and Iberia who had grown up in northern Louisiana. Iberia. So what just
happens with names? Names just go through this cycle where people just
are like you know what Iberia is crazy. Iberia. Iberia. Iberia. Iberia. Iberia. I
imagine it's an an an African name I would imagine. Okay. I think it's she
might have been an immigrant maybe but Iberia. It didn't stick. No it didn't
stick around in America. And now we're gonna eat a bunch of letters. Do the
people send letters? Letters from people. No no no people send letters. Yeah.
Their families farmed the same land. They're angrily yours. Iberia Johnson.
Their families farmed the same land. Their great grandparents worked as slaves.
Oh so there you go. So you got it from but anyway Fred's father moved to Chicago
in the 1930s looking for work and got a job at the corn products company. Oh boy.
They made corn products. Hey y'all we got corn chips. We got corn cots. Sure.
What if I don't like corn? We got corn. Okay. Iberia also worked there
becoming a union steward. During a two-month strike she cooked meals for
700 people's every day. Wow. That's fucking crazy. Pressure. When Fred was 10
years old they moved to Maywood which is a working class suburb west of Chicago.
At that time about 25% black people. Fred was clearly a very special kid. Kids
loved him. The teachers loved him. He was never alone in elementary school. He
was recognized as a sharp talker. He loved to read especially history. When he
was in high school Fred noticed that the black kids who weren't doing well were
counseled out of school or flunked out. That is the idea of counseling them out.
Hey. Hey so you're not really doing good in math. I've learned a lot. Yeah. Well your
grades are down in math and science and stuff. I'm still like catching up a little bit.
Yeah. But what if you caught up while working at a factory? I kind of want to
get an education. Right. But you know where you can get an education? Where? There's
different kinds of educations but Kentucky Fried Chicken if you work there
you get an education in making fast food and then with that education you can
work for McDonald's. Right. But I was actually talking to my white buddy Toby
and he was saying that you recommended that he stick around and go to school
and I get better grades than that guy. Yeah but Toby's a special kid. You're not
as much. You're not as specialized. So anyway I'm here to help you get a job.
I'm gonna get out of here. At this manure factory. Okay. Well this is
definitely getting better. The options are getting better. No programs were
offered to help these kids. Fred demanded more black teachers and more
black administrators at the school. And of course that happens. So that happened
then what's the next part? It worked. So what? David. Charles Anderson. Something
good happened? Charles Anderson quote. Fred was the reason I was hired at
Proviso East High School as Dean in charge of attendance. Until that time I
had been applying for six years and never had been given an interview. Well. So
Fred as a high school student is making shit happen. Right. Fred's push for
change was just beginning. Only white girls were nominated for Homecoming
Queen. So he organized a student walkout and boycott to protest. The result was
his high school electing their first black homecoming queen. See I bet you
there was like a low white girl attendance at that. They were like. No.
I mean I totally want them to be able to use the same bathroom. What about next year?
But I think maybe this year let's not be so ambitious. This year they could go to
the dance and do whatever. Right. They could be on court. Right. But they can't
win this. This year. This year. This year. You don't spend four years cultivating
relationships to become the queen of homecomings. To have some progressive
black person. I sound dislikable. Don't I. Am I coming off to. I am. I am. Yeah.
Okay. They can win if they tie with someone. Okay. Okay. Ties. So he but he
wouldn't charge in in like a fiery in your face way. He was like an amazing
communicator. He was like born an amazing communicator. Okay. The principal
quote. Fred's powerful and resonating voice called for calm and discussion. He
worked jobs as a teen as a stock boy in a grocery store dishwasher and he found
factory jobs in the summer. He also found jobs for other unemployed black teens
in his neighborhood. Okay. So he wasn't just getting himself jobs. Yeah. He was
talking other people into hiring kids. How just through the power of
persuasion. He is just that likable. He's that gifted of a speaker. Okay. He pushed
the village of Maywood to fund a summer job program. He's boy. He's just doesn't
sound possible. There are people that come along. They're born leaders. Yeah. Sure.
Okay. Fred was helping others above himself. Quote. If you walk through life
and don't help anybody, you haven't had much of a life. In 1965, when he was just
17 years old, he started the West Suburban Youth Chapter of the NAACP. Fred
walked with Dr. Martin Luther King and was strongly behind the movement. But
one day in Jefferson Park during a march, a heckler walked up and spit in the
face of a female marcher. After that, Fred told Reverend King he couldn't keep
marching for nonviolence in the face of violent mobs. Probably. In the fall of
1967, Fred and Jim Ivory urged a rally of black youth to go to a Maywood Village
board meeting and demand a public swimming pool and recreation center. So back
then, pools were segregated. Right. And also other weird stuff. And other weird
stuff. So now, so you can see a change in his... Yeah. He now... See a little shift.
Right. He's pissed. They showed up, like I saw these kids showed up, but the board
would not let them inside. The Maywood police then came and tear-gassed all the
kids. Oh, that's fun. The crowd then ran down Main Street, breaking windows. Jesus!
What a horrible... Well, how horribly can you handle situations? Oh, that's... Yep,
that's the worst, worst way to do it all around. Fred and Jim Ivory were then...
Well, you can imagine those white people, though, huh? Oh, no. Well, it just proves them, right?
I told you that. That's why we can't let them in pools. Oh, and then you heard they
went on a window-smashing tour. Good Lord. Let's forget about it. Our hot dogs are
here. Fred and Jim Ivory were arrested and charged with mob action because...
charged with rationalism. Because of their speeches. Okay. After his arrest, he was
put on the FBI's key agitator index. It's a fun list. It's not as catchy as most
ones. It's not as great, but you get a great bumper sticker, you get a nice vest.
Yeah. Oh, you do get the vest. Yeah. Okay. Toad bag with a vest. So this was a
list of activists that FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover ordered FBI agents to
monitor closely. Well, he's such a dick. He's like fucking 20 or some shit now.
Or not even that. Maybe 18. From then on, Fred was targeted by the Maywood
police and arrested over and over and over for bullshit traffic violations. It
happened so much that he completely stopped driving. Oh my god. You're under arrest for
not having a car? No. Wait. No, I'm not. Hands behind your back. At the same time,
the Black Panther Party formed in California. Using open carry laws, they
carried guns and policed the police. They were reacting to incidents of police
brutality against African Americans. The Black Panthers grew and grew and by
1968, they expanded from Oakland to many cities in the US. Fred Hampton joined in
November 1968 and very quickly rose to the ranks, soon becoming chairman of the
Illinois chapter at 20 years old. It's pretty good. 20 years old. Yeah. The Black
Panthers started a breakfast program for children providing free hot breakfast
for kids before school. That's adorable. Fred went from site to site working at,
I mean, have you ever, well, do you want about the Black Panthers at some point?
Because it's just a crazy story. But they, like their whole idea was like uplift
the whole community while sort of getting a face. Right. Like both. Right. Yeah. So
Fred went from site to site working. They were, I mean, they were like, they were
the frustrated arm of the anti-racist movement. Yeah. They basically, basically
were. Agitators. Yeah. Agitators. But they were the, let's get in your fucking face
and see how you can handle it. Yeah. Yeah. With your, with your goals. Using your rules.
Exactly. Right. That's, that's the part, because the truth is, like, even as a kid,
I remember when you'd hear about it, like, it totally had a negative connotation.
They were like, they were disruptors. They were problematic. They were the issue.
Yeah. And then the more you hear about it, the more you're like, the more, honestly,
the more it makes you think how amazing Martin Luther King was because he hung in the pocket.
So, I mean, he was so like. Oh. He was. Yeah. So Fred would go from site to site working
at breakfast programs, talking to the kids and their parents about the Black Panther
Party. Kids were taught revolutionary songs and soon the Black Panther Party was also
running free neighborhood health clinics. Now Fred didn't believe in bullshit. Once
some Panthers from the West Coast were in Chicago and they called the local office asking
for some quote sisters to be sent down to the hotel. Oh, boy. Fred responded, quote,
you can tell them Panther women in Chicago are working on Panther programs, not as whores
for Panther leaders. Okay. So for a 20 year old standing up to the West Coast guy, he's
always like a big fucking move. Right. That's some balls. Yeah. He didn't tolerate bullshit.
As I said, in the Black Panthers, you have balls. That's something. A good example of
this was when Black Panther, William O'Neill, once Fred's bodyguard told Fred he was building
a rocket launcher. How do you what's the segue? You want some hot sauce? Yeah, I'm actually
building a rocket. It's a squeeze me. I'm building a rocket. What's you say a little
more coffee? What I'm building a rocket to launch where this place is the best waffles.
So Fred didn't keep this a secret. He called O'Neill in front of the entire Chicago chapter
and told O'Neill he was crazy in front of everybody. And then his actions made him suspicious.
And then he accused him of being a police agent. Geez. That's you got like when you
hear that, you're like, dude, I was like confiding in you, my rocket launcher. I was saying I'm
a rocket launcher guy. It was going to be cool, dude. I was going to let you fire it.
But O'Neill, this wasn't the first crazy idea O'Neill had. He had once built an electric
chair to be used quote to punish and deter informants. Wow. So wait, so O'Neill's coming
up with some dude interesting ideas. Okay, Fred's hard to invent that because you got
to test it a little. Yeah, that hurts real bad. That's a big one. Fred said the electric
chair and missile were madness and ordered O'Neill to dismantle them. Panther members
in Chicago went door to door in many black communities to hear complaints, get signatures
on petitions for community control of police. Okay. But gangs controlled the neighborhoods.
So in 1969, Fred worked out a treaty with the black disciples gang. Together he created
an alliance with the young lords and young patriots to form the first rainbow coalition
to protest police brutality. Those other gangs are, I believe, Latino gangs. Okay. So the
white man's dream is coming to fruition. Well, this was noted by the FBI and other law authorities.
Oh, God. This was a great concern. The amount of flower vans that are showing up places.
A lot of flower vans lately, huh? Am I crazy? I don't see a lot of flower stores. In January
of 1969, the Chicago police arrested Fred when he was appearing on a local TV station.
They arrested him when he was on TV. On TV. Oh, Jesus. The cameras were live as Fred was
led away on an old traffic warrant. Oh, God. What a bunch of pricks. They did not handcuff
him, which he thought was strange. And then they put him in the police car and Fred saw
a handgun lying on the seat. Fred immediately realized he was being set up. He put his hands
outside the car and just started screaming. There's a gun in the car. There's a gun in
the car. Somebody left a gun. G you and guys because they had done it live on there. There
are people watching. So police couldn't do anything. I'm sure you're going to further
explain this. They were going to kill him. They were going to they. Oh, so they're going
to. Oh, shit. Okay. They were going to say he had a gun. Oh, shit. Oh, shit. Okay. Five
months later, I'm up to date now. Five months later, Fred was on trial for another charge.
The summer before an ice cream man had been knocked down inside his truck and 71 bars
of ice cream were handed out to local kids. Yeah, go ahead. It's hard to it's hard to
know if I'm rooting for that crime or not. I mean, it's Robin Hoodian. It's a summer
crime. Yeah. The good humor man takes the brother though. It is. You know, I think that
I think back then, although it's Maywood kids, so that's only 25%. My buddy, my buddy, Oren
drove an ice cream truck for a summer. Terrifying. I would go around with him. Oh, God. And we
would go and sell ice cream. It was such it was just the weirdest experience being inside
the thing. It played three songs too. Oh, and he said that when he closed his eyes, he'd
like hear the entertainer on repeat. So the police arrested Fred after the victim identified
him from a picture. Fred had nothing to do with the great ice cream caper, but the cops
flew the ice cream vendor back from Vietnam to testify against him. Oh my God. So they
wanted Fred. Yeah. And that guy's like after that guy's like, I'll kind of hit the lottery.
I'm gonna make a week of it. It was one thing to be named on the agitator list. But when
he started making peace with gangs, he became a serious threat. Right. Fred was convicted
and at his sentencing, the prosecutor asked, quote, Do you feel that a legitimate means
of obtaining what you're after is armed violence or armed revolution? Fred answered, quote,
I believe if we tried anything else, we would end up like Dr. Martin Luther King, who was
now dead. You know what he should have said? What? Ice cream, you scream, we all scream
for justice. But but his answer is fucking. Yeah, great.
Spot on. Yeah. Well, yeah, we try it. One of our guys tried that. Yeah, right. Killed
them. Yeah. Fred was sentenced to two to five years for a crime that was done with no weapon
in which little was taken and having no prior record. So he's never been convicted of anything.
If you give ice cream out, I feel like you should not be convicted. It's the craziest.
Sure you knocked a driver out. It's craziest sentence. What are you in for? I gave out
a bunch of drumsticks. 72 ass creams. Fucking badass. 72 rocket pops. Rocket pops, bitch.
Sunk me. So it was a very harsh and uncommon sentence. A week after Fred was sentenced to
prison, FBI agents raided the Black Panther headquarters. They just told the Panthers
that the office was surrounded, that they had a search warrant, and that no one would
be hurt if the Panthers did not resist. Well, okay, so they then broke straight forward.
Oh, sorry. Did you say break down? I did say break. Break down broke down the front door,
went upstairs and pointed their guns at the eight people inside who were not at all resisting.
But the member of the call. Yep. Well, it's just words, you know, things changed between
that and the breaking out. It's just words, folks. Trump. The FBI seized $3,000 in cash
and took property and records, which included lists of contributors. Okay. Oh, I thought
you meant like vinyl. Nope. Food for the price. You guys like cream, huh? Yeah, no. Oh, what
are you talking about? Cream that goes on like a like a pie? Like the band. What? The records.
Oh, man. Okay. Get them out of here. I don't like their attitude. Food for the breakfast
program was dumped on the floor. Smart. And legally purchased weapons were taken. Right.
Nothing was ever returned. Right. Because justice. Right. The eight Panthers on the premises
were arrested in charge with harboring a fugitive, which was true. There had been a fugitive
there hours before, but he was gone. That's actually the FBI got the warrant because they
knew the fugitive was there. They knew this because the fugitive was an informant. So
they sent. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. They got a guy who was a fugitive.
And they sent him to the Black Panther office and then arrested them for letting in the guy
that they sent. How? What? It's called fucking stopping crime. Oh, okay. That's certainly
not legal. I know. I'm sure. Yeah, it's entrapment. It's fudgery. It is. It is damned fudgery,
sir. Judicial fudgery. Yes, I am a lawyer. Your honor, I object on the grounds of complete
fudgery. This is ridiculous. Plus, there's a lot of Wim Dango's going on here, sir.
All right. And a lot of flubberty-doo. All right. So I object on. Instamation to the
jury. Flubberty-doo. Flubberty-doo. Wim Dango's and fudgery. Okay. They rest my case. Thank
you. Oh, sorry, I'm sitting on the wrong side. Weeks later, all charges. This is my first
trial. Oh, I didn't know. I sat at the prosecutor's table. Hey, hey. Truth be told, I'm not a
lawyer. I'm so drunk. I'm a fudge salesman. I'm open to that company called Fudgerys.
Yeah. Wim Dango's. All right. Wim Dango's is chocolate with marshmallow in the middle.
Anyway, if you know, I hope you get off on this, but if not, I'm going to try to send
them all some of those. I don't know what flubberty-doo's are, but I think it's a good
name. Yeah. Hey, you have any ideas? Oh, wait, they got the verdict. Wigs later, all charges
were dropped, but the news stories had done the damage to the Panthers as was expected.
Right. So now there's fodder for the media to be like, what a bunch of digs. What they're
doing. On October 4th, 1969, someone shot a black Panthers office and the Panthers returned
fire. The police were called. The police broke down the front door, confiscated more files
and beat the Panthers before leaving. The next morning, the Panthers were charged with
attempted murder of the police. Okay. The charges were then dropped because of many contradictions
between police officers and in their arrest reports. Yeah. There's, I mean, even that's
hard to, when did they beat you guys up when we beat them or after they beat them? We beat
each other. Badly. Yeah. My name's often officer making stuff up. Mm hmm. Making MAKIN. I'm
Sergeant Fuloshit. In late October, Fred was released on an appeal bond. He and his girlfriend
Deborah Johnson, now seven months pregnant, rented a five room apartment. It became like
a second Chicago Panther headquarters. Okay. People were always staying there. These apartments
were called Panther pads, and they were happening all over the country. Panthers thought they
would be killed at any moment. So they were moving out of their homes away from their
families and staying with other Panthers and apartments. That's fun. Someone was always
on guard at the front door or outside. Okay. Now they're basically at war with the police
at this point. Right. So a bunch of cops have been killed. A bunch of Panthers have been
killed. Right. It's just fucking mayhem. Right. And nobody's budging. No way. Right. No, it's
back and down. The Panthers had high hopes for Fred. Quote, we wanted Fred to become
a national spokesperson. Uh oh. He could say what everyone else did, but say it better.
He had the ability to move people better than anyone I have ever heard. Things were heading
in a very bad direction between Chicago cops and black activists and many others. This
was after the Chicago Democratic Convention in 68, which was like a war on the streets
between police and protesters. And then there was the FBI. The FBI had created Cointel Pro,
which stands for Counterintelligence Program. Originally kicked off in 1956 to destroy the
Communist Party USA. There the Cointel Pro actions were often illegal and usually covert.
Okay. And in the late 60s, Cointel Pro was used to target black activists. In the mid
60s, Martin Luther King publicly publicly attacked the FBI for not investigating white
supremist terrorism. Okay. J. Edgar Hoover called King a quote, King quote, the most notorious
liar in the United States. This dude, he's such a, I mean, yeah. Okay. Martin Luther
King. No, the most notorious liar. Oh yeah. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Obviously. Yeah. Obviously.
Yeah. Yeah. He didn't even have that dream. Liar. It was a nose on a prize. Cointel Pro
sent King a suicide package. Now, do you want one of those? No, I would not. No. Care package
has a nice drink to it. Like suicide package. Sounds like the biscuits might be poisoned.
They didn't even know they sent those. Right. Larry's suicide package. I mean, care package.
Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. Inside were audio recordings of sexual affairs. He had and a
note telling him to kill himself. That is so crazy. I know about the, that they, they,
they bugged his place and they had like those recordings, but that's, I didn't know that
they like explained how there was no way out of it and how it would destroy his, what he
built. Yeah. Off himself. I know. They also tried to encourage fact. Also the idea of
being like this man's unethical. It's like you, you are saying that. What? They also
tried to encourage factions to war with each other within the black activist communities.
Oh yeah. Then in August 1967, the FBI started Cointel Pro black hate. You know, I think
one of the missteps of government, like when it comes to the top secret stuff still, like
they've gotten better with bills. Yeah. You know, now like the, the, you know, whatever,
if it's going to like cut down a bunch of trees, they'll call it the green movement
or whatever. But if this is pretty spot on, this is pretty Cointel Pro black hate. But
anytime it's like an internal government thing, they're always like crazy names. They're
like the, you know, kill Muslim program. Gentlemen, this is the kill all blacks conference.
All right. Real quick. First thing we wanted to bring up name change. I think we should
go with the rose gang. Who is this guy? I'm new. I'm actually I'm from Twitter. I'm
with the job. We're trying to get done here is to kill all blacks. So we're going to go
ahead and call it the kill all blacks. Okay. Fucking idiot. Thanks. Hey, idiot. Sit down.
Can I keep the pen? Thank you. Shit, really. 23 FBI offices were told to quote, disrupt
misdirect discredit or otherwise neutralize the activities of black nationalist hate type
organizations. I love how they're the hate organizations. One of the hate organizations
was of course, Martin Luther King. Yeah, that dude. Rage, rage. Hoover also greatly feared
the leftist white community and white youth uniting with black activists together in support.
Right. So that was the big fear, right? Racist coming together was the nightmare scenario.
So the Panthers working with gangs that's so cargo highlighted. Okay. Oh, wow. Right.
So he's he's already Fred's already made peace. Right. And working with Latino gangs. Right.
And black gangs, that's a fucking nightmare. Right. Yeah. But most importantly, what the
FBI really wanted to do was to prevent the rise of a black leader, one who would bring
together African Americans. Hoover called this person the black Messiah. And Fred was
a terrifying prospect to the old guard. Oh, boy. After Nixon was elected in 1968, Hoover
publicly said the Black Panther Party was the number one threat facing the United States.
It's so crazy. The FBI started manipulating the number one threat. Yeah, the black Panthers
to the United States of America. Yeah, it's the US. We're all created equal. Astrick.
Well, I mean, all of us, you know, some of us, not so much. I thought that was insinuated.
The FBI started manipulating police who would then raid Panther pads leading to shootouts
and arrests. Black activists were being killed, like Martin Luther King, Bobby Hutton, etc.
And police were being killed as well. And Chicago police were done with all the bullshit.
The residents of an all black housing project were fighting for a traffic light to be installed
at a dangerous intersection. Two brothers, 17 year old John Soto and Michael Soto, who
was a 20 year old army sergeant on leave from Vietnam became leaders of this campaign.
On October 5th, John Soto was stopped by police and, quote, shot accidentally after
a struggle. He was shot in the back of the head. So it was a weird struggle. It is a
strange struggle. It is a struggle. Execution style is a strange, struggling moment. Often,
if you're fighting with someone, you blow their brains out. Yeah, yeah. That happens.
You've got a gun to the back of your head. No, you got him in a half, half Nelson. Right.
Whoopsies. Yeah. And the thing about shooting the back of the head is hopefully, well, you're
either behind him. No, because it's a struggle. So you're in front of him. So the bullet might
hit you, whatever. Yeah. Five days later. Suicide, I tell you. Yep. Five days later is
brother Michael. That would that would be the best way to like, like if you wanted just
your death shrouded in a little mystery, just back of the head. Oh, shoot. Back of the head
of yourself. Yeah. Oh, fuck yeah. Yeah. And leave a note that just says find him. That
would be a great way to go out. Just puzzle the just make everyone think that this is huge
conspiracy. Five days later, you're looking for the tailgater. That's it. That's the note.
The whole thing. Yeah. I don't think I like to party. He likes football. And I don't know
who's writing the note. They're like, how did he? How would he write it out? My God,
something's just a mess. Five days later, John's brother Michael was also shot and killed.
He said he pulled the gun. Well, it was a genetic thing. The community believed that
both men had been murdered by police for their activity. What? Soon after Fred gave a speech
at Northern Illinois University, quote, you got John and Michael Soto who were murdered.
They shoot somebody with no intention of arresting them. It takes two to tango, motherfucker. Wow.
As soon as you kick that door down, I have to kick it back on you. We don't lock our
doors. We just get some good guns and leave them motherfuckers open. He's changed. Okay,
so a little caterpillar is a butterfly. So Fred doesn't carry guns. Fred is a spokesman.
So the spokesman don't carry guns, but what the spokesman do is deliver the message. Right.
But it's not like the angle on that being that they're like off limits to an extent,
right, to an extent, but they're not. They're not supposed to be harmed in this because
if they never have a gun, right, they shouldn't be harmed, right? They shouldn't be allowed
to be shot or killed or whatever. They're kind of out of, right. Yeah. I almost made
an NFL comparison, but nope. No, you're talking about the Niners when they won the championship
in 84. Nope. Same thing. Okay. So this was obviously a serious message he was putting
out. Right. The next month, two policemen were killed in a shootout with two Black Panthers
in Chicago. I read there were different things, but it sounds like these two Black Panthers
ambushed them. Okay. But also what was going on. You couldn't tell if the police were telling
the truth or not. Well, Panthers are great at stalking. Okay. They keep you out of the
ground. Okay. So we should, we should talk about how these aren't, these aren't cats.
These are. No, they're not cats. They're, you know, they're, I mean, they're jungle
cats. No, they're not. They're not a jungle cat. They're, these are human beings. No,
no, no. We're saying the same thing. Okay. These animals from, you know, certain areas
are good at ambushing because they're quiet and they're able to keep low to the ground.
I've watched a lot on this. Sorry. Did you say they're humans? Yeah, we're going to
go and wrap this podcast up. Great. I'm busy. So in late November, the court upheld Fred's
ice cream truck robbery. I mean, listen to what you just said. What is happening? The
court upheld the ice cream gate. Yeah. So ice cream gate is, it's still won't leave
him alone. 14 ice cream sandwiches were missing, sir. Where were you? He would begin serving
his sentence in 10 days. On December 3rd, it was a slow day and cold. Wait. So this
is the two to five year. Right. Okay. So he appealed, he lost his appeal. Right. So December
3rd, slow day, it's cold out, they ate in and Fred fell asleep while talking to his
parents on the phone. William O'Neill was there, a bunch of other Panthers were there.
William left at four in the morning, Black Panther, Louis Trulok was asleep in the living
room when he heard footsteps in the hallway and a knock on the front door. Trulok asked
who it was and someone said Tommy and then started shooting. Another Panther said he
heard two thuds followed by shots. The policeman came through the door. Harold Bell was in
the living room and ran in the back bedroom to wake up Fred, but cops are also coming
in through the back door. Bell shook Fred, but he couldn't wake him up. Bell then crawled
to the corner to avoid being shot as bullets flew everywhere. A Black Panther named Doc
tried to wake people up in the first bedroom, yelling for them to get down as shots whizz
passed. He was then shot and started yelling in pain. He heard the others in the room doing
the same. He then heard a voice from the doorway say quote, we got him, we got him. After that,
the voice said, if Black Panthers kill police, police will kill Black Panthers. Doc was ordered
to stand up and walk out when he stumbled because he was shot. The police told him to
get up nigger. He dragged himself up and hobbled out of the room. Deborah Johnson, Fred's
girlfriend, now eight months pregnant, also shook Fred to wake him up, but he didn't open
his eyes. She climbed on top of him to protect him from the bullets. The bed was being shot
so much it was shaking. How is he sleeping through all that? Honestly, good question.
Louis Truelac was pushed onto the floor in the living room and kicked in the nuts. Quote,
it was like a firefight. They moved to strategic positions. It seemed to last forever. The
police definitely knew what they were doing. I heard more shots from the back bedroom.
I could tell those were shots from a handgun. Then he heard the police yelling, that's
Fred Hampton, that's Fred Hampton. The shooting stopped when someone else in the bedroom
yelled, we got a pregnant sister in here. Then the two cops came into the bedroom and
pulled Deborah out of the room. Fred was still lying on the bed with no blood on him. A police
officer took Belle out, pushed him to the floor on his stomach and cuffed him. The police
pushed everyone into the kitchen. One police officer told Doc, you won't be able to have
kids now because he's been shot four times between the stomach and the knees.
Oh, wait. Oh, shit.
The guy, Doc. And the other cops laughed when he said that because he's making a joke. It's
like when you have you ever seen the movie Commando with our old Schwarzenegger? Yeah.
So he'll shoot up a bunch of people and then I'll make like a wisecrack. Oh, yeah. No,
it's those cool. It's the preview lines. Right. So it's like that. But it's terrible
in real life and happened. Right. Right. But it's exactly like that. Right.
If we actually did cut together a preview for America. Oh, we should do America preview.
Yeah. Doc had been shot four times, right? Two cops then went back into the bedroom.
One said, quote, he's barely alive. He'll barely make it. Then there were two shots
followed by one of the cops saying, quote, he's good and dead now. Harold heard them
say, bring him out, followed by a thud of something hitting the floor. Fred's body was
put in the dining room, blood dripping from his head. All the Panthers were put in the
kitchen and handcuffed. They all said the police kept saying, Chairman Fred Hampton
is dead. Another Panther, Mark Clark was dead in the living room. He had been shot in the
heart in the front bedroom. Doc Verlina Brewer Blair Anderson were shot. Brenda Harris had
been shot in the living room. Doc was in the worst shape. His shirt was covered in blood.
The police kept telling him to stand up straight even though he couldn't because he had been
shot four times and groin area. Harold Bell was a Vietnam vet. And to him, the raid seemed
like a military operation with the police moving to vantage points under covering fire
quickly gaining control of the apartment. The Panthers were taken to the hospital and
handcuffed to beds. The police refused to let the Black Panther lawyer see them in violation
of Illinois State law. They were ran the next day. Meanwhile, the police didn't seal off
Fred's apartment. So lawyers working for the Black Panthers put together an evidence team
and gathered bullets and shell casings while a filmmaker recorded it.
Look, you don't want to give the notes on the side that is raiding a place and just
shooting wildly. But Jesus God put a police tape or lock the door or have a guy station
there or shut it down. Yeah. Cover your tracks a little. A little bit. Try. Illinois State
attorney, Hanaran held a press conference. He said the Black Panthers shot as soon as
the cops announced themselves from several rooms. The police had stopped returning fire.
Is Fred dead? Yeah, he is dead. Okay. The police had stopped returning fire three times
and told the Panthers to come out. But the Panthers would just yell back, quote, shoot
it out. According to Hanaran, this was an example of the, quote, extreme viciousness
of the Black Panther Party.
Hanaran had the seized Panther weapons displayed in front of him on a table, which was a horrible
violation of police procedures that stated weapons confiscated be inventoried and taken
directly to the crime lab to preserve evidence. The police don't seem to be trying too hard.
I think they're a little sloppy. I think the word you're looking for is brazen. Yeah,
right. Yeah. Yeah.
Hanaran said Fred had a.45 caliber handgun and pointed it. Sleeping Fred. Yeah. Sergeant
Daniel Groth, a police leader of the raids said there were six or seven Panthers firing
for 10 to 12 minutes. Quote, if 200 shots were exchanged, that was nothing. Another officer
said Fred fired him three times from the rear bedroom. Later police would say Fred also
shot at them with a shotgun. I'll be charged with attempted murder of the police. And it
just doesn't, I mean, obviously it just doesn't matter. It's just they're like this guy's
now William Wallace so that they can paint that they were justified in doing what they
were doing. Yeah. But there's like even that is just like wouldn't wouldn't wouldn't wouldn't
wouldn't you just have a quick powwow to just be like, Hey, guys, let's say at a handgun.
Yeah, let's go get some chili dogs. You guys want to get a story straight? Yeah. No, we'll
be fine.
But not all cops were buying the story. Told at the press conference, the black police union
held a press conference the night of the raid and said, quote, Fred Hampton has been murdered.
Which is big. So the no, nobody gives a shit about the black police. But it's a bit no,
but that's a big I mean, that is a big that's a big thing for them to come out and say. Yeah,
yeah, yeah. Or for sure. Yeah. The Panthers held the press conference and said Fred was
shot while sleeping. They took reporters on a tour of the apartment to show the evidence
of the one way shootout. Fred's autopsy was done by a doctor. So now they're fucking
bringing the press through. Yeah, the Panthers are though. Yeah. Yeah. To be like, look,
this is such bullshit. Fred's autopsy was done by a doctor with a temporary Illinois
medical license. Why an autopsy to okay, probably to corroborate the bullshit and be like, you
could tell from the shooting that he was muscle was flexed. Well, why why do you have to import
a doctor? Yeah. Yeah. You know what? We got to get an autopsy done. Do we have a guy that's
not from around here? Can we? This is a super special case. Let's fraud fly in Lenny. Did
you say fraud in Lenny? Frog. Do you say fraud? Fly fly. Okay. For a minute, fraud sounded
like. No, it's fly. I didn't say fraud. Okay. No, no, no, no, no, we're fraud in Lenny.
You said fraud. No, no, no, no. For sure. Flying. Okay, from South Dakota, Lenny, we're
gonna fraud him in it. Fuck. All right, he's bullshit. So they bring in this doctor. They
give a temporary medical license. There's no normal stuff that you do with an autopsy.
There's two bullet wounds in Fred's head. That's what killed him. He did not check Fred's blood
or stomach contents. The Panthers had their own autopsy done by a former Cook County coroner
with two physicians and a lawyer present. So they actually get a guy from Chicago. So
there is. Okay. He found that both head wounds came from bullets fired from the top right
side of the head in a downward direction. Well, that look, yeah, that's damning. Well,
not if the. Okay, so have you ever seen the move to fly? Yes. So in that Jeff Goldblum
turns into a fly. Right. Man, like a man fly. Sorry, you're proposing just one point.
He he crawls up the wall onto the roof. I'm just saying there are possibilities here.
You need to keep open. You need to keep your mind open to things. You just seem very closed
off to ideas. Your defense is the Jeff Goldblum climbed on a wall when he was a fly man or
the cops are sticky. Okay, absolutely not going to hear anymore. That's enough. For sure.
I have two theories. Not crazy. I'm not a big no at all. Fred had a high dosage of the
barbiturate second all enough to make him unconscious or very drowsy in his blood. Fred
did not take drugs. Right. The Panthers he also fell asleep while talking to his parents.
Yeah, and he just had a meal. Yeah, right. Yeah, Neil was there earlier too. What's that?
The guy on Neil was there earlier. Oh, right. Right. That's weird. Rocket launcher. Oh, right.
The Panthers then had a prominent firearms expert examine the crime scene. He concluded
that besides two bullet holes in the front door, 80 or more shots came from the police.
The second dead panther had been the only one to shoot a police as he fell after being
shot. It was concluded that Sergeant Groth shot first. Right. A Daily News columnist
went to the apartment and wrote quote the state attorney 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. Well, both are both seem possible. Right.
There could be a lot. I think they were shooting at themselves. So far. So far, your honor,
what I'm saying is that the bullets disintegrated and the policemen are very sticky and can
walk on the waltz. I rest my case. Um, get out. Anything. I know I said that, but I'm
just what did you just say? No, you don't get to say I do. I just said it. Good God.
The Panthers opened up the apartment to anyone. They led tours through for the press, neighborhood
residents and civic leaders. There were almost 100 bullet holes in the walls of the apartment
where the police had fired at the Panthers and none on the other walls, which would
have happened if the Panthers shot back, right? People lined up outside like they were going
to a movie. An elderly woman tore the apartment and said, quote, this was nothing but a northern
lynching. The tours led to the public demanding an independent investigation. Chicago Tribune
countered with several pages of, quote, exclusive interviews with the policemen from the raid.
Oh, okay. They all told detailed stories of what happened. The article came with a picture
of a door with two black dots circled. Those were the bullet holes where the Panthers had
shot at police, the article said. Good. The next day, competing newspapers printed stories
clearly showing that the dots were just nail holes. Oh, God. Well, they were trying to
nail us. They had pictures up. They had nails. They had two posters in the door. They were
hanging a portrait at a bad time, your honor. Plus they were shooting at themselves, which
I think really caused a lot of this. Plus a lot of their bullets dissolved. Plus they
were hanging paintings. I'm on a wall. Hannah ran, then hired carpenters to construct a
wooden mockup of the apartment. If you're, if you're these cops who did this, you're
just like, you know, I can I point out again, I was the one who say, let's do 10 minutes
here and just make it a little more. I said, let's go to a fucking tennis and sit down and
talk about this. You guys wanted to just get out of there. Jesus Christ. Everyone wanted
to watch the game. What the fuck? 10 minutes. We'd be like, Joe, where were you? Where were
I? What was I doing? What was who shooting? Do you think it's too late? No, it's too fucking
late. Okay. They're doing tours. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Fucking nail holes. Yeah, they was,
wasn't they? No, God, you're a fucking Jesus. I am a Jesus. Isn't I a cunt? Oh, wait, you
just took me on a real up and down. Uh, so, uh, so Hannah and starts, so we hired guys
to build a wooden mockup of the apartment and then films officers doing a reenactment
of what happened. Wait, that's when you know that you're telling the truth. Let's just
say this, that there's a lot of good police, but man, sometimes when you hear the lengths
of bullshit they'll go to, it's astounding. This was aired on a local TV station. Sergeant
Groth constantly glances off camera like he's looking for direction. Oh, boy. So they didn't
even have a dress rehearsal. These guys aren't fucking actors. Once they're in there getting
filmed, it's weird. You have to know the wrong way on getting rehearsed downstate rehearse.
So great. It didn't work. Why? I don't know. One of them had a puppet. Is that real? No,
oh god. I was about to, my head was about to pop. I'm Officer Marionette. So much conflicting
evidence led to the justice department convening a federal grand jury to possibly indict the
police and their supervisors, including Hannah Ran. Of course, uh, there were two black people
on the 23 member grand jury. Well, that's a fair representation. It's called the jury
of your peers. Yeah, it's sort of how our Senate operates. Right. An FBI firearms expert testified
that the two shotgun shells, which the Chicago police crime lab said came from a Panther shotgun,
were actually fired from a cop's shotgun. He said the Panthers only shot once and the police
fired at least 90 times. And that's crazy. The grand jury issued a 32 page report. No indictments.
Wow. The report shit all over the Panthers saying they were just looking for police
persecution and donations. Quote, perhaps the short answer is that revolutionary groups simply
do not want the legal system to work. You know, that's true. That's true. If you don't dig any
deeper past that sentence, that's true. The grand jury report ends with quote, finally,
the grand jury wishes to acknowledge the invaluable investigated no, no, no investigation. Don't
thank them without the cooperation, professionalism and proficiency of this agency. The grand jury
could not have completed his assignment. The worst. The worst in May, 1970, the black Panthers
filed a civil complaint. 1970. His office and the 14 police, the crime lab technicians and those
who had falsified the investigation. Wait, what did they want? They want them all gone. No, they
want indicted. They will file a civil complaint, but they want money. Oh, now it's a civil suit.
Well, if you go into a civil court, you're asking for payment. You can get, there's less legal
obstructions to getting information in depositions and such forth. But they've already tried to get
indictments. They lost. Right. So now, but in a better order, it could have been go civil,
then you get to bleed out information that then you could use. Right. Now they can get,
now they can get information and so on. So it's why I believe they sued O.J. Simpson.
It is why. It is exactly why. Yeah, because they will, yeah, that's part of it. You're like,
okay, fine, you got away with it, but now we're going to try to make your life miserable.
Here we go. Yeah. And it didn't work with O.J. because he peaked. He's still peaking. He's at
his apex. He's doing fine. The juice is good. Following public pressure in June 1970, a special
prosecutor was appointed by Cook County Chief Criminal Court Judge Joseph Power.
Judge Power was not down with the Black Panther cops. Sorry, Judge Power is just
I mean, honestly, you could you not see that as an afternoon syndicated show after Brocourt?
Judge Power.
So he's a huge right wing judge. Now he was doing shit like just throwing shit out and clearly
being biased, not allowing evidence in and blah, blah, blah. The special prosecutor criticized
the judge for his actions in the case. So the judge find him for contempt. The judge then
cut off funding to the special prosecutor and appointed just the head of the Illinois State
Police to investigate. Dude, you mess with Judge Power. You know what I mean? He's going to bring
it. Did you not read my name? My name is Judge Power. First name, White. Finally, the grand jury
announced they had returned in indictment. Judge Power responded by ordering it sealed and suppressed.
The Chicago Council of Lawyers and the Chicago Bar Association. Is that allowed? Condemn the judge.
But you can't just. This guy's out of his fucking tree. All right, we're never going to open it.
I'm pretty sure if I read correctly, he was appointed for life as well. I think that I don't
think he was an elected judge. Smart. It's always smart to give out those appointments. Now some
of this might be fucked up because I was reading through and and it gets a little confused with
is it grand jury from the grand jury? Is it from the civil case? So okay, but it was not over. In
August 1971, the Illinois Supreme Court grand jury indictment charged Hannah Rand, the 14 cops on
the raid and the police personnel who conducted the investigation with knowingly and willfully
fraudulently and deceitfully conspiring, combining, confederating and agreeing to obstruct justice
to prevent the criminal prosecution of Sergeant Daniel Groth and others and obstructing the
criminal defense of the survivors. But and of course, on February 3rd, 1972, federal judge
Sam Perry dismissed the charges against Hannah Rand and his assistant, saying they had full
immunity. And then Perry dismissed the defendants from the crime lab and throughout the entire
complaint, saying the allegations were, quote, scandalous and the language was improper.
Then electric chair and missile maker William O'Neill's name popped up.
You know, I'm not going to lie. We need a hero.
In 1973, he's just put the racket together. We need a hero.
Oh, Jesus. In 1973, the Chicago Tribune wrote that curious what he's been up to.
O'Neill was a an FBI informant in another case and had been since 1968. Oh boy.
This was a big deal because if O'Neill had been the informant, the search warrant would be invalid
and the raid illegal. We need a hero. Because I believe Groth said he used another informant
that he'd never produced. It was yeah, it was just fucking crazy.
Right. So well, the whole case is is predicated on the idea that if there's an informant there,
that that's illegal. So they so if that so they're good, they've obviously lied about that.
Right. I think it's illegal. It's that they they wouldn't produce this guy because he was tied
up in other shit that they didn't want to be known. Right. But the real reason is because
I don't know. I don't know that was entrapment. No, I don't think it was the same as the
entrapment before because he was now hanging out with them a lot so he could be in an apartment
and it wouldn't be the same thing. But he's still undercover. He's still undercover. Well,
he's a snitch. So he's too he's got too deep. Well, that's the defense. But he but he was also
buddies with them. The reason the warrant would be invalid is because they didn't say they got the
information from O'Neill. They said they got it from another way. So they lied on the warrant. Oh,
that's what it'll undo. Right. Is that they lied on the warrant. Right. Okay. In August of 1973,
an appeals court reversed Judge Perry's dismissal. After tons of FBI delays, O'Neill testified that
he joined the Panthers in 1968 after being asked by FBI agent Roy Mitchell. He was paid $100 per
week. And he quickly became Fred Hampton's bodyguard and then chief of security. O'Neill's job was to
find informers in the Panthers, like himself, for instance, his, his job was to find snitches,
snitches for who for the FBI. His the Panthers hired O'Neill. They gave him the position of finding
snitches. And he was a snitch. Got you. Wow. What a, he must have been like, uh, yeah, okay. Sure.
I'd love to do that. On the stand. You know who I don't think is. Me. Me. Just want to start with
number one on the list. Guy sitting in this electric chair that's not plugged in. You guys can trust
me. That's why they also must have been so pissed when he got fired for building an electric chair
in a rocket. They were like, dude, you are our line. Tone it down. I know. In retrospect,
I shouldn't have told them about my rocket. You shouldn't have built a rocket. What do you mean?
Tell them about it. Well, I stand by the building. I, uh, you know what? I love them. The rocket's
going to come in handy. On the witness stand, O'Neill denied drugging Fred, but admitted Fred
never took drugs on his own. He just happened to get drug that night. Sure. Linguinean pills. Now,
while the while this was going on, the FBI only, uh, gave 34 blacked out pages of documents on a
case saying quote, that's all we have. 34 blacked out pages. Yeah. So that's all they had on this
case. They didn't have any other information on this case. So 34 pages that they can't read of
just the blacked out material, but one document where they love black when it works for them.
One document was a hand drawn sketch of Fred Hampton's apartment and it was very detailed.
Agent Mitchell testified that O'Neill was the snitch and he provided evidence for the raid.
Also members memos from agent Johnson revealed the police had been given the information and quote
quote, currently are planning a positive course of action. Johnson also recommended that they send
a note from a concerned citizen to Chicago's biggest north side gang saying the Panthers were
helping the black community, but we're not helping the black human community, but we're instead
moving on on territory. So they got in, they got all this fucking information about how the FBI
was just fucking all the building the K. Right. All this shit. Yeah. Now, but now this this FBI
agent has revealed that they that the warrant is fucking right, right. Right. Johnson was no
longer working for the FBI at this point. At this point, he was now the CEO of canteen corporation,
which was a vending machine company. I'm reminded of in the TV show, The Shield,
when the bad cops get into vending machines. But anyway, at that point, well, it's I mean,
it literally it also is what like that is sort of the early version of what our political system
is now, which is which is when, you know, you leave the Senate, then you're like, I work for
Lockheed Martin now. Hey, look, yeah, I got vending machines in all the government offices. Yeah,
yeah, right. Yeah. Oh, also, the mayor appointed Johnson, Chairman of the Chicago Police Board,
which decided civilian complaints against police brutality. Good. Good. Well, that's a good position
for him. He'll be fair. Now, at this point, police Sergeant Groff is trying to make his story make
sense because there's a lot of holes. There's more holes than there on the apartment. After
searching, he came up with a dead black panther named Clifton Morgan. Morgan had died on some
train tracks when he accidentally blew himself up. He was barely a panther and had never been to
Fred's apartment. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Because in my head, I thought what you were
going to say would be something that I'd be like, Oh, that makes sense. But then you talked about
a guy exploding himself on train tracks. So do me a favor. One more time. So growth, Sergeant
Groff, who lied bad white cop who said he had an inform and he could never reveal all this time,
right, for his own safety. And and now it now O'Neill saying he is the he is the snitch. So he
has to find another snitch to say that was his snitch. So he looks for a dead panther
that that time wise will add up with his crazy equation. So he finds a he finds a panther who's
not really a panther. He sounds just more like a crazy guy who was kind of around the panthers
and then it ended up ended up blowing himself up on a train track. Okay, so okay, so kind of a crazy
groupie fan. He probably told someone about that plan and they're like, Dude, you might want to
like float that up the ladder real quick. I got it. I'm going to go to the train track and blow
myself up. What time we meet tomorrow? Now, Judge Perry had known about all these documents the whole
time, but said they weren't relevant. So everything that's coming out, the judge says, No, I already
knew about that. No, no, no, I pre dismissed that. Nope. Agent Mitchell said he had been ordered to
produce a document that he said he couldn't find. And any and day after day in the trial, the panther
lawyers would ask for it. And day after day, Agent Mitchell would say he couldn't find it.
Then one day he said he had quote, gone through 30 volumes of files trying to locate it, but I
cannot find it. The black panther then asked him how he could be looking through 30 files when the
FBI had told the court they only had 34 pages. Well, we call this a boob. Well, officially in court.
Okay, well, a courtroom officially is a boo boo. Well, they shot at us the files. And he just
threw us now a smoke bomb. Yeah, smoke bomb. Judge powers there. Hello. I'm back, bitches.
So judge power later that day with quote, apologies to the court.
200 volumes of FBI files were wheeled into the courtroom, each volume. Dude, I thought he was
500 pages. I thought he was I mean, he's full of it. Right. He wasn't been going through shit.
They just exposed that there's tons of stuff. Yeah. And now they're like, oh, well, well, well,
instead of 34 redacted pages, now they have too much. It's fucking insane. Right. So now they have,
they literally have these giant fucking volumes of files wheeled in
somewhere. O'Neill is firing up a rocket cannon. Like, let me know when to shoot the evidence.
At that point, Judge Perry told the jury not to read the newspapers because there were headlines
in them like government caught hiding thousands of files.
I don't know how damning that one is. I don't know if it's that persuasive. The judge then told
the Panther lawyers that he wouldn't give them time to read the files before questioning witnesses.
Oh, my God. No, no, you can't. Why would I why would I give you time to read those? Then you'll
know what's in them. I think the reason why they wear robes is because they don't want you to see
how big their balls actually are. This is one of the craziest fucking trials. I mean, for him to
be able to be like, no, if anyone ever says there aren't government conspiracies, yeah, just hand
them this. Yeah, right, right. FBI snitch O'Neill was asked if he was concerned that the map he made
led to Fred's death. He said, quote, I was curious, but not concerned. I think at some point I was
curious. And that was about the extent of it. Yeah, I felt sorry. I don't like to see anyone
killed. I didn't particularly appreciate that he was killed, but it thought did not make me feel
bad till now. Boy, you're really guilt tripping me up here. I'm crazy. The FBI lawyers asked for a
dismissal saying there wasn't an evidence wasn't enough evidence to determine their liability.
Stop. Stop. So now the FBI has been after this stuff. The FBI has now been added to the lawsuit.
Right. So after all the files, there's not enough evidence. They are added to it. And then their
response. There's so much evidence against the FBI that they are added to a lawsuit and their
response is to dismiss because there's not enough evidence. It's hard. They're really gleaming the
cube. Judge Perry dismissed all charges on April 17, 1977. Dude, this is now eight years later.
This is crazy. He then said the Panthers had to pay the defendant's costs for producing the documents
which came to $100,000. I mean, he has told them to pay the FBI $100,000 documents dollars. Sorry,
$100,000 for the documents they were hiding for years. Right. Well, to be fair, I mean, printing
is not cheap. The Panthers appealed the decision. In 1979, an appeals judge ruled Hanoran and the
FBI did not have immunity. The warrant was not legal. One judge did not agree. One judge on
the appeals court did not agree. He wrote a dissent. He had also been an FBI agent and was
still active in the society of former special agents of the FBI. Yeah, but judges are able to
be impartial. So he right. So he being very impartial just disagreed. Yeah, with everyone else.
The FBI asked the Supreme Court to take the case. They refused. So second trial began in 1980,
and it went on and on and on. In 1982, it was revealed the FBI lawyer had tried to coerce the
mother of the guy who blew himself up. The FBI had tried to go corroborating the bullshit. They
were trying to get the mother to stitch on her dead side. Hey, so did you get the chocolates?
Did you get all the chocolates? And the flowers? We sent a bunch of chocolate flowers. Boy, we
would just we. I like you. I like your hair. Big fan. I like your hair. Let me start with this.
I boy, we were so just so about upset when your son blew himself up on the train tracks.
Always been my personal fear that I'll go like that. You know what? I go down there every every
oh, we're we're a little prayer down. We're we're praying over there all the time. He's good.
Who's a bit you did get the chocolates? You didn't get all the chocolates. So anyway,
if you could just say he was a snitch. All right, we'll see you. All right. All right. He's a
snitch. Enjoy the biscuits. He's a snitch. That's what you got to say.
The FBI lawyer pretended when talking to the mother that he wasn't a lawyer and tried to get
her to sign a statement. What does he how? I'm not a lawyer. Will you sign this? The FBI lawyer
was then either fired or quit. He was no longer a part of the FBI. Very soon after that, the FBI,
the city of Chicago and Cook County agreed to split the cost of a $1.885 million settlement.
It would be split among the survivors of the raids and the families of Mark Clark and Fred Hampton.
The U.S. Attorney said the settlement did not imply guilt.
What does it imply? It was just to avoid another trial.
Okay, that's it. It was nearly 6 p.m. on Friday
in 1980 when a gag of lawyers filed into the chambers of U.S. District Judge Joseph Sam Perry
to argue an emergency motion to block a threatened rail strike against the Chicago and Northwestern
commuter line. In the midst of the legal arguments, the 83-year-old judge, Sam Perry, interrupted.
Is this the train that goes to Glenn Ellen? The lawyers froze and formed that, indeed,
the C and NW did provide the commuter service to his suburb. Perry chuckled,
I would hate to have to call my wife to pick me up. Minutes later, he signed an order blocking the
strike. He wouldn't, to just be clear, he didn't want it because it would mean that Black, that what?
This has nothing to do with the case. This is just how fucked up the-
Right, but his worry is that Black people will be, like, he'll be around, oh.
No, his worry is that he won't be able to get home that night.
I was worried that it won't be able to get home that night.
He stopped a strike.
Oh, my God.
Because he was taking the train.
Oh, my God. Even worse than what I was thinking and I was thinking something messed up.
That's crazy.
To publicly say that, it's 10 minutes out of our way.
In April 1989, William O'Neill was interviewed, quote,
Fred Hampton drugged. I've never known Fred. I knew him for about 16 months. I've been with him
in a lot of different situations. I've never known Fred to take drugs and to take it a step
further, Fred would not tolerate anyone even smoking marijuana around him. And I don't think any of
us in the hierarchy of the Black Panther Party would dare get drunk or drink, so alcohol and
drugs were a no-no. As far as the rumors that he was drugged that night, unless he was on some type
of medication, I think it was just rhetoric. I think it was fabricated. I mean, it was proven in
his blood. The autopsy, I mean, he's... This is the worst explanation possible. Here's a guy.
This is almost 20 years old. Come up with something. You've told it a couple times.
20 years later, he's babbling. You haven't workshopped it at all.
As far as the insinuation that myself or someone else in the house would have drugged,
Fred Hampton, I don't buy it. There's just no way. Fred was the type of person that you didn't
have to drug. Anyway, Fred was always tired. He could get in a car and we couldn't ride two blocks
without him dozing off. Oh, no. Oh, fleepy friend. Oh, car-colectic friend. That's why he was the
chairman. He'd always be like, I'm taking a nap. I mean, he just... He was a high-energy person
that ran on very little fuel. Wherever he'd sit down, he was well rested. What? I have never,
I have never believed that. I mean, I mean... It's just... That is... It is really terrible.
This is Lyarmic Lyerman telling you about going to lie town. Yeah. It's the craziest worst.
Really not well put together. Like he is just a rambling jackass. He wouldn't take drugs,
but I know that they found drugs in Frank. Fred, listen... Oh, no. He wasn't... I know that
he wouldn't take... He didn't take drugs. I think it's a lie. Plus,
we called him Mr. Sleeping Man. We did call him Sleeping Man.
We called him Mr. Sleeping Man. He was... I know every time... I called him Dr. Yanni Pants.
Every time he saw him, he was Mr. Uppity Guy. All high-energy, but then...
But then as soon as he was in the car, he was in Mr. Knocktown. Yeah, I called him Heavy Island Harry.
It was hard. You couldn't even... We used to say as a joke, boy, this guy wouldn't wake up if he was
in a shootout. We actually did say a couple times this guy would sleep through his death.
We said it a lot.
O'Neill got $300 to drop the map.
What? $300. What is his deal?
Nine months after giving the interview on January 17, 1990, William O'Neill ran onto the Eisenhower
Expressway on Chicago's west side and was struck by a car and killed. It was ruled a suicide. He
basically was in his uncle's house and went bug-fuck-crazy. He betrayed the Black Panther
Party and a man... I will put up a little bit of his audio of one of his speeches.
This guy would have changed shit. Really? Fred Hampton would have changed the game.
I thought you meant O'Neill for a second. No. Fred Hampton was the real deal.
And he didn't make it past 22, 20. They killed him so young because look at the
shit he did when he was fucking teenager. If you hear him talk, he's it.
Black Panther lawyer and author Jeffrey Haas asked Fred Hampton's mother in 2009,
after all these years, what do you think our lawsuit proved? She replied, quote,
they got away with murder. And they did.
Anyway, all lives matter. Is that what you're...
Stuff, man. Really? Is that the answer? All lives matter or whatever?
Yeah, yeah. All lives matter. That's a good response.
Cop lives matter. What matters? Look, there are, I would say most cops are good.
Yeah. I would say there's, like any other population, there's a fucking
boatload of terrible people. And there are a lot of white supremacists have joined the police force.
And we have a serious fucking problem that started ages ago and nothing has changed.
It really is our inability to ever hold the powerful accountable. Like we have a complete,
we have like, you know, I mean, and it's just what you're born into. I mean, you're just born
into this like apathetic, like, I mean, I remember as a kid, like you would, you know,
like, I remember like reading like political cartoons on the paper, whatever. And I'd be like,
it's weird that they're all crooks. And like, we're just like fine with this cartoon with a guy on
like the steps of Congress with a briefcase full of money. And we're like, Oh, our, our,
our off to the cubicle. But if Nixon, what he did today, what he did then, he would walk away in
the second. No, dude, I know, give a flying fuck. Like the idea that anyone will be punished is so
gone. And it's so a huge part of the problem. Yeah. And is what's lighting the fuse that's
slowly fucking burning. But it's also the fuse is is moves faster, the more that they realize
that we have no breaking point, we do and we'll hit it. But until then, it's just going to be
bullet to the back of the head. He committed suicide. And, and the problem with this story
isn't that Fred Hampton was murdered. That's sort of how shit like this goes. Right. He was
a revolutionary. Right. He was doing something that would quite possibly lead to his death. All
the black panthers thought they could die at any time. Right. The real problem is that 20 years
later, someone paid a paltry sum. And none of these guys who committed straight up murder, a
murder that was ordered by those above, right? Totally no one paid. Like that's a real problem.
Is that like if people actually paid, then you get a sense of justice, you get okay,
something happened. But money doesn't mean fucking shit. That is totally the truth. The truth is
that. And that's why you still see cover ups now, because no police department, no person, no agency
wants to be the straw that breaks the camel's back and wants to be the one who now suddenly
turns the whole culture in, you know, like police culture, police culture, or even political
culture. It's what it is. You can't deal with something if you don't process it. Right. So
you can't sit around. I mean, we do, we do sit around. But this is what we do. We sit around
and we go, why? Why is this happening? This is crazy. And the answer is because now there's
like more evidence. That's the only reason right now there's video, there's video. And the idea
that this is like, it's not new. And it's not that I'm saying like, dude, I knew this was going on
for 20 years. But it is, that's the difference. The difference is now we can see it. And that's
just a harder thing for us to wrap our heads around. Still, with that being the case, we still
have no new legislation on guns. And there's been zero accountability as far as like, what is at the
root of this problem? And what do you do if a cop does actually murder a dude? Right. I mean,
sometimes cops get prosecuted. It does happen. Well, they're never, they're never found guilty.
No, they are. Sometimes it's so rarely, it's rare, but it happened. It does. I mean, that is true.
It does happen. But look, the number of guys who've gotten off doing crazy shit is astounding.
Yeah. And it happens way more often than not that five cops involved in a thing will get off.
Because again, they hold the evidence. So if you hold the evidence, yeah, you manipulate the story,
you know? Yeah. It's always fun to end with a We Signed Cars after a...
We could do a don't, don't go to Sofitel. Don't say the Sofitel in Los Angeles. That would be a
recommendation. How's that for an ending? They killed Fred Hampton. Tough.
Truly, that shit, it's so, I mean, and that is... No, I'm saying the Sofitel killed Fred Hampton.
Oh, they did. Right. I didn't make that connection yet. That seems just like a reach.
Are you willing to go on record with that official?
All right. That might be a stretch. Okay.
You have to understand that people have to pay price to peace.
If you gotta struggle, you gotta win. If you gotta not struggle, then goddamn it,
you don't deserve to win. Let me say peace to you if you willing to fight for it.
Let me say it in the spirit of liberation.
I've been gone for a little while. At least my body's been gone. You ain't gotta feel
that to me. At least my body's been gone for a little while. But I'm back now, and I believe
that I'm back to life. I believe that I'm born to do my job and I believe that I was born not to
die in a car wreck, I don't believe I'm gonna die in a car wreck. I don't believe I'm gonna die
from splitting on a piece of ice. I don't believe I'm gonna die because I got a bad heart. I don't
believe I'm gonna die because of the loss of chance, I believe that I'm born
to be able to die while in, uh, the things I was born for. I believe that I'm gonna be able to die
high of the people. I believe that I will be able to die at the revolutionary in the
international revolutionary hotel struggle. And I hope that each one of you will be able
to die in the international revolutionary struggle. And I think that struggle is going
to come. Why don't you live for the people? Why don't you struggle for the people? Why
don't you die for the people?