We had three more witnesses. Each presented an important piece of the mosaic. Robert Bruce, a former Panther and friend of O’Neal, was light skinned with freckles. He testified in a quiet voice, almost a whisper. Bruce testified that O’Neal constructed an electric chair, complete with wires and straps, to be used, in O’Neal’s words, “to punish and deter informants.”
Bruce went on to describe the Rockford trip when O’Neal claimed Fred threatened to shoot a highway patrolman. Bruce said the patrolman was particularly courteous, he had called a tow truck when he saw they were stranded, and neither Fred nor anyone else threatened to harm him in any way. Bruce described how O’Neal was always urging him and others to commit robberies and burglaries. “To go into the streets and get money to live,” is what O’Neal called it.
On the morning of December 4, Bruce saw O’Neal crying. “They killed Fred,” he sobbed. Later O’Neal and Bruce drove around playing tapes of Fred’s speeches.
O’Neal and Coghlan had visited Bruce after the trial started at Bruce’s father’s house and again at his job. They warned him not to testify, particularly about O’Neal’s criminal acts.
Elaine Brown was the leader of the national Black Panther Party in 1977 when she came to Chicago from Oakland to testify. “We wanted Fred to become a national spokesperson,” she told Flint and me. “He could say what everyone else did, but say it better. He had the ability to move people, whether college students or welfare women, better than anyone I ever heard.” Elaine told us she had visited Chicago before December 4, and Fred had given up his sleeping in his bed so she and Deborah, both of whom were pregnant, would have a place to sleep.
With her full Afro, practiced enunciation, and animated expressions, Elaine was an impressive witness. Her enthusiasm showed when she talked about the Panthers. She explained the Ten Point Program in detail and that “Power to the people” means the people have the right to power over their own lives. “It’s what Patrick Henry, Abe Lincoln, and Martin Luther King believed. Then and now,” she said.
Elaine testified that in November 1969, when Fred came out to the West Coast, she’d asked him to take her place and speak to an assembly of three hundred UCLA law students. He spoke about forming coalitions with other groups and putting aside racist attitudes. “Have you ever heard anybody just reach you, just reach into your heart, even though you might have heard the words before?” she asked. “I suppose this is what he did that day, and I was so overwhelmed.”
Elaine Brown was no slouch as a speaker herself, so her admiration for Fred was that much more impressive.
I had some fears that Bobby Rush, our last witness, might want to disown his Panther days. It was rumored he was aiming for a political career in the Democratic Party. He came into the PLO office in a suit and tie; he still had his goatee and mustache, although better trimmed, and wore the same dark framed glasses. After five minutes of interviewing him, my fears were allayed. “Fred was an amazing speaker and leader, and I held him in awe,” Rush said. “They murdered Fred because he reached people when he spoke; lumpen, college students, even law students, they all related to Fred.”
Rush began his testimony by mentioning that he was still in school, getting his degree at age thirty.
“I got out of high school at twenty-four- and-a-half and out of law school at thirty-one, so you have plenty of time,” Perry responded, more congenial than usual.
“Thank you, Your Honor, that’s encouraging,” Rush answered. “Fred was the motivating force inside the party. Fred’s influence was the greatest…. [He had] the dedication of a Malcolm X, the speaking ability of Martin Luther King, and as far as courage, there are few with that type of courage. No one displayed leadership qualities like Fred did at twenty-one.”
Rush explained that the Panthers organized poor people, primarily blacks, into a structure to correct problems such as housing and education. They had no military wing. He described the ordinary Panther day—rising at 5:30 A.M. to go to one of the six Breakfast for Children sites to prepare and serve breakfast to the kids and then clean up. Members would spend their days selling Panther papers, soliciting contributions, including food for the breakfast program, or working in the office. They would eat a communal dinner at Panther headquarters and often have political education classes afterward. For most members, it was a full-time job. The party provided money for food and rent from contributions and speaking honoraria. Friendly doctors provided free medical care.
Rush testified that Fred banned the cartoon coloring book that depicted Panthers attacking the police and it was never used in Chicago. When O’Neal told Fred he was building a mortar, Fred called him in front of the entire chapter and told O’Neal he was “crazy and accused him of being a police agent.” Fred later told the entire membership that “the electric chair and missile were madness” and ordered O’Neal to dismantle them.
Rush stated that he had visited Fred’s apartment on a “daily basis,” and would have stayed there the night of the raid except for a family problem at home. My questioning of Rush lasted about two hours. For three days, Kanter and Coghlan’s sidekick, Witkowski, tried to dirty-up Fred, the Panthers, and Rush himself.
Rush had said Fred often sounded like a preacher. Kanter asked him, “Ever hear a preacher say, ‘You kill a few pigs you get a little satisfaction, but when you kill them all, you get complete satisfaction’?” Rush replied that he had not heard Fred say that, but by “pigs,” the Panthers meant “police officers who have no regard for the constitutional rights of individuals,” and the Panthers only had the right to kill pigs when attacked first.
Even with Rush’s explanation, it was difficult to make Panther rhetoric palatable to our predominantly white, suburban jury. What Fred said in the heat of passion to Panther supporters at a rally was not easy to deal with in a sterile courtroom. Nevertheless, Kanter was mostly ineffective at challenging Rush’s explanations.
Witkowski was even more inept as he tried to discredit Rush by replaying the televised statement he’d made at noon on December 4. Responding to Hanrahan’s claim that the “vicious Panthers” had opened fire on his unwary police, Rush, angry and outraged, answered, “I don’t want to get into a verbal debate with Hanrahan about the words he used. Fred Hampton was lying in his bed and we will prove it. We will prove to the world that Fred Hampton was murdered in his bed.” Contrary to the impression Witkowski wanted to convey, that those charges were irresponsible, Rush had gotten his information from me after I interviewed the survivors, and his charges matched the evidence. Witkowski had unwittingly opened the door to my questioning Rush about the source of his information, but Perry refused to allow my follow up.