O’Neal Gets a Bonus

During the week of recess, the FBI delivered a batch of documents from the newly produced files in court every day. Some showed O’Neal tracking Hampton’s every move. Others showed O’Neal involved in criminal activities.

On April 8, during a recess, Flint and I were scanning the newest ones. I stopped short and reread a one-page document. “Flint, this is unbelievable. It’s what we’ve been waiting for!” I said, unable to contain my excitement. I thought we had them at last. I handed the sheet to Flint. It was a one-page airtel, or air telegram, from Piper to Hoover dated December 11, a week following the raid. The document sought a “special payment” to O’Neal because

he provided a detailed inventory of the weapons and also a detailed floor plan of the apartment at 2337 W. Monroe … to local authorities. This information was not available from any other source and proved to be of tremendous value in that it subsequently saved injury and possible death to police officers participating in a raid at the address on the morning of 12/4/69. The raid was based on the information furnished by informant. It is felt that this information is of considerable value in consideration of a special payment to informant.

The document was an admission that O’Neal, not Groth’s supposed informant, was the source of information for the warrant and the raid. What was particularly haunting was Piper’s cold assessment that a bonus was due the informant because of his role in Fred and Mark’s deaths and that local FBI agents were claiming credit for the murderous raid. In the same pile with Piper’s bonus request we found a similar memo urging a reward for O’Neal from Roy Mitchell, as well as an FBI memo approving the bonus. In another newly produced document Mitchell described O’Neal as a “counterintelligence agent,” which Mitchell had repeatedly denied on the witness stand.

“We should have had these when Mitchell was testifying,” Flint said. We have to get sanctions.” But Perry refused to grant us even a hearing on the sanctions motion we filed. He accused us of “filing motions in the newspapers” and stalling. He said he would consider the sanctions motion at the end of the trial—when it would no longer be a viable remedy. The FBI was allowed to benefit from its secreting of documents. We were the ones he punished. Perry withdrew his agreement to allow us to recall Mitchell and ordered, “Call your next witness.”

“The plaintiffs will call Robert Piper,” I said angrily. Because we were still getting documents, I asked Perry to postpone my questioning of Piper.

The Court: “I’m telling you, you’ve got a witness on the stand and we will not hear anything until you proceed with this witness. Proceed.”

Haas: “We would like to have the evidence before we proceed with the witness.”

The Court: “Proceed, Mr. Haas. You’ve had thousands of documents.”

When Piper took the witness stand, he still wore that smirk he’d worn at his deposition, but he was no longer shielded by the judge’s orders prohibiting questions about COINTELPRO. When I confronted Piper with his paper trail, he admitted to most of the facts that outlined the conspiracy. It just took a long time. Seven weeks in fact, much of which was spent at nights as well as in court reviewing the remainder of the many volumes of files the FBI had finally produced.

During Piper’s testimony the FBI produced two new volumes of instructions to FBI agents that bore Piper and Johnson’s signatures. These directed FBI agents to “destroy what the BPP stands for,” “escalate actions against the BPP,” and “destroy the Breakfast for Children Program.”

Piper testified that Mitchell had immediately notified him when Fred and Deborah moved into 2337 and that he was passing on information about guns in the apartment to Hanrahan’s office and the Gang Intelligence Unit. Piper passed the information to Marlin Johnson because he knew Johnson was “vitally interested in the Panthers and Fred Hampton.” A far different image than the aloofness Johnson tried to project. Piper testified that Mitchell told him on December 1 or 2 that the weapons were being returned to Hampton’s apartment.

Nevertheless, Piper called GIU head Thomas Lyons and told him that the Panthers were expecting a raid. Lyons assured Piper the GIU would not go ahead.

Piper never informed either the ATF or FBI headquarters that there were illegal weapons in the apartment, which would have required them to take action themselves. Instead, he approved Mitchell’s meetings with Groth and Jalovec to set up the raid and provide them the floor plan. On December 3, Piper initialed the COINTELPRO status report to Hoover stating the Chicago FBI office expected a “positive course of action” to result.

Later, when the federal grand jury met, Piper provided the case agent, Treviranus, with negative information about the Panthers and Fred Hampton. He never divulged the existence of the floor plan or that the FBI initiated the raid or was the source for the search warrant.

With Plaintiff’s Exhibit 83—the document memorializing his request for O’Neal’s bonus—in my hand, I approached Piper. I asked him if he’d authored that document. “Yes,” he had. And “yes,” O’Neal had provided the information for the raid and “yes” O’Neal deserved a bonus for the results. Piper remained unabashedly proud of the FBI’s contribution and enjoyed his opportunity to take credit publicly. In what may or may not have been a slip of the tongue, Piper’s exuberance got away from him, and he described the raid as a “success.” I stopped questioning him for a moment to contemplate the best response.

“You consider it a success because Hampton and Clark were killed, don’t you?” A pause. Piper’s lawyers must have been afraid Piper’s arrogance might get him to agree, so they intervened and objected to prevent him from answering. I made another effort to confront him.

Haas: “Now, Mr. Piper, was it your belief in 1969 that because the Panthers were a threat, that you and the FBI had a right to violate their constitutional rights?”

The Court: “Objection sustained. [None had been made.] That is not the type of question to ask the witness, and you know it, counsel. It is time you begin to ask correct questions. The difficulty of those questions is that it infers an answer—if the question goes unanswered, it is something the jury may hold against the witness.”

Haas: “Your Honor, this is cross-examination of a defendant, I believe.”

The Court: “This is cross-examination. Will you shut up?”

Haas: “Well, I object to the court’s remarks, Your Honor.”

The Court: “Objection noted and overruled. Just one more quip from you, and I will hold you in contempt.”

All this took place in front of the jury. At the first recess I responded.

Haas: “Yes, Your Honor, I am forced, I think, because of Your Honor’s comments, to move for a mistrial based on what happened this morning. I believe we were …”

The Court: “Motion denied.”

By June, after six months of trial, only three defendants had testified, although we had uncovered thousands of secreted files. I feared our jury was hopelessly bored and confused by the endless delays and objections as well as prejudiced by Perry’s hostile and disdainful remarks. “Panther Trial Slowed by Discovery of Documents” one news story ran, describing the “twenty shelf feet of files” the U.S. attorneys had wheeled into court. Jim Montgomery was beginning to leave courtroom duties to Flint and me as he tended to his own criminal caseload. He saw the trial becoming endless.

The routine was wearing all of us down. My one regular escape from the pressure of the courtroom was yoga. I had learned the ten postures of hatha yoga, beginning with the sun salutations and ending with the headstand. In the morning and sometimes after court at the beach, when it was warm, I would look at the world upside down for five minutes, my head and forearms supporting my body. The world looked different, sometimes clearer. I always finished refreshed. I also was what people considered a polar bear in Chicago. I swam in Lake Michigan most of the year. By June, I swam off the rocks at Lincoln Park and had most of the still-freezing lake to myself.