Although this book describes events from my perspective, I want to make it clear that the People’s Law Office and I never acted alone. We always had help. The list of individuals who actively worked to help expose and condemn the murders of Fred Hampton and Mark Clark includes other lawyers, students, community activists, reporters, filmmakers, elected officials, and many ordinary citizens.
Within a few hours of the raid, PLO lawyers, law students, and several volunteers began gathering, tabulating, and securing evidence. Renault Robinson, leader of the Afro-American Patrolman’s League, went to the scene, examined the bullet holes resulting from shots coming into the apartment, and quickly condemned the raid as a “police murder.” After seeing the bullet holes in the apartment walls and hearing the survivors’ descriptions of the raid as a military-style surprise attack, Bobby Rush, Fred Hampton’s coleader of the Panthers, declared to the public and press that the FBI and its director, J. Edgar Hoover, were responsible.
It took the next thirteen years and the sustained efforts of hundreds of dedicated people to fight against the deliberate cover-up by the Chicago police, Hanrahan’s office, and the FBI and finally prove the conspiracy accusations correct. The Chicago Panthers and the seven survivors of the raid, Doc Satchel, Harold Bell, Brenda Harris, Verlina Brewer, Bill Hampton, Akua Njeri, Louis Truelock, and Blair Anderson, kept the issue in the public spotlight. I also want to clearly recognize that the unnamed thousands from the black community—as well as many white people of conscience—who stood in line to view the murder scene, who walked solemnly past Fred Hampton’s casket, who attended his memorial service, or who voted to defeat and oust Hanrahan in the next election, played critical roles.
Attorneys Eugene Pincham, Sam Adams, Kermit Coleman, and Warren and Jo-Anne Wolfson were our early mentors and helped us represent the Panthers after the raid. Jim Montgomery taught us about trial technique and devoted huge chunks of his time and practice to vindicating the rights of the victims of the December 4 raid. Herbert Reid of the NAACP and Howard Law School came to Chicago and assisted us through the long trial. Arthur Kinoy, Bill Bender, and Morty Stavis of the Center for Constitutional Rights and Rutgers Law School helped us to shape our complaint, answer numerous motions to dismiss, and ultimately keep our litigation alive. Many other lawyers and legal groups gave us substantial help and support along the way, including James Meyerson and Nathaniel Jones of the NAACP; Tom Geraghty and Jonathon Hyman of the Northwestern Legal Clinic; Jay Shulman from the National Jury Project and Diane Rappaport, Sarah Vanderwicken, and Liza Lawrence, who assisted Shulman with our jury selection in Chicago; Larry Kennon and the Cook County Bar Association; Susan Rutberg; Sybille Fritsche and Nancy Preston of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights; the Chicago Council of Lawyers; the National Lawyers Guild; and attorneys Stephen Seliger, David Thomas, Barry Spevak, and Kenneth Tilsen, who helped on the appellate briefs.
Fred Hampton’s life and the raid that ended it were captured for all time in the film footage by Mike Gray and the Film Group. It is dramatically incorporated in their subsequent documentary film, The Murder of Fred Hampton, directed and edited by Howard Alk. Norris McNamara took photos of the raided apartment for the defense.
A group of local and national reporters refused to accept the police’s version of the event. They delved deeper and played a critical role in informing the public about what actually happened. The Chicago reporters were Chris Chandler, Brian Boyer, Lu Palmer, Rob Warden, Tom Dolan, Betty Washington, Hank Di Sutter, Lillian Calhoun, Bob McClory, Dennis Fisher, and Ron Dorfman. They were joined by John Kifner and Nathaniel Sheppard of the New York Times, Francis Ward of the Los Angeles Times, and Salim Muwakkil of In These Times.
The December 4th Committee—which was often headed by Akua Njeri (previously named Deborah Johnson), Fred Hampton’s fiancée—was made up of raid survivors Doc Satchel, Harold Bell, Brenda Harris, and Verlina Brewer, and community activists Prexy Nesbitt and David Saxner. They kept the public and media informed about the trial, brought people to court, and held fundraisers for legal costs.
Public figures who spoke out loudly to condemn the raid included then state representative Harold Washington and then alderman Danny Davis, former congressman Abner Mikva, former alderman Leon Despres, former Supreme Court justice Arthur Goldberg, former attorney general Ramsey Clark, former NAACP executive director Roy Wilkins, and Reverend Jesse Jackson. The list is longer than I can include here but also includes Reverend Tom Strieter and the Maywood Town Council, Howard Saffold, attorney Tom Todd, and Mary Powers. Dick Gregory and former Black Panther Party leader Elaine Brown also protested Hampton’s assassination to a national audience.
Two people who did their jobs with integrity rather than joining the government cover-up were assistant U.S. attorney Sheldon Waxman, who turned over the FBI’s floor plan in spite of his implicit instructions to keep the organization’s role in the raid hidden; and Robert Zimmers, the FBI firearms expert, who proved the falsity of the police’s version of the raid by accurately connecting the bullet holes, bullet fragments, and shell casings to police weapons. He also exposed that the Chicago Crime Lab deliberately falsified their findings to fit the police’s story. Herbert MacDonnell and Eleanor Berman were also experts who acted with honor.
I want to acknowledge the courage and legal acumen of Judge Luther Swygert, who took the time to carefully and thoroughly read the massive record, analyze the compelling evidence of government conspiracy and cover-up, and write a careful, incisive opinion on the facts and the law. The decision was implemented by Judge John F. Grady, who likewise recognized the strength of our evidence and was willing to impose sanctions against the defendants for their efforts to obstruct its production. Their tenacity in upholding the basic principles of civil rights and constitutional law must be contrasted with that of Appellate Judge Wilbur Pell. He dismissed our claims and our proof as “unbridled, denigrating attacks on public officials,” while he acknowledged he never read the record. He also never divulged that he had been an FBI agent, which would have allowed us to get him dismissed from ruling on the appeal.
Of course I must recognize my partners, comrades, and fellow workers at the People’s Law Office, who had the vision and perseverance to pursue the case legally and in the public forum for so many years and against tremendous odds. To Skip Andrew, who had the presence of mind to go to the scene within minutes of the police’s departure and film the gathering of physical evidence the police left behind. To Dennis Cunningham, who provided the vision and political will to pursue the case to its end. To the many PLOers who worked on the case over the years—they are too numerous to name, but especially to then law students Seva Dubuar, Jack Welch, and Ray McClain, who helped gather evidence, and to my law partner Donald Stang and attorney Marc Kadish, who assisted the criminal defense of the survivors. To Nancy Dempsey, Mary Frank, Victory Kadish, and Reverend Jim Reed, who also went to the scene early and helped collect evidence. An especially big thanks to Peter Schmiedel and Holly Hill, who devoted two years to our trial preparation; to Charles Hoffman, Jon Moore, and Michael Deutsch, who, with help from Mara Siegel and Ralph Hurvitz, worked assiduously to prepare the many trial briefs and appellate pleadings; and to Linda Turner, who typed them all.
And of my brilliant and irrepressible partner Flint Taylor I am proud to express the highest praise and respect. His steadfast pursuit of the truth was the engine that kept the litigation going until we prevailed.
Finally to Pat Handlin and Maggie Roche, Flint’s and my respective partners, who not only put up with us during this long episode but also supported and encouraged us.
There is something else I must say. In many ways the whole is greater than the parts. PLO has stood up to confront and expose government illegality and atrocities for forty years. The inspiration for us, like for many others, came from the Vietnamese liberation and other anticolonial struggles, from the black struggles for equality and power of the sixties, and from women’s challenge to patriarchy. Much has been written about the supposed excesses of that period, and most of it has been exaggerated and even manufactured in an attempt to return to the “good old days” of unbridled colonialism, explicit segregation, and accepted patriarchy. There were some mistakes, and I have included my criticisms of our actions and myopia. But for many of my comrades—at PLO and elsewhere around the nation—and me, it is the light, energy, and fervor of those times, so well articulated and symbolized by the short but inspiring life of Fred Hampton, that has driven our lives and commanded us to pursue justice.
While writing is a lonely pursuit, I have benefited from the input, ideas, criticism, encouragement, and support of many writers and friends, all of whom made this book possible.
Kira Jones, Summer Woods, Allegra Huston, and Henry Bauer read my first efforts at telling this story and encouraged me to continue writing. Bill Ayers and Bernardine Dohrn convinced me that this book had to be written and that I should take the time to do it. My Bennington College MFA-program mentors were critical in helping me interweave my own story with the historical events I witnessed. My writing circle in Taos kept me going with directed criticism and strong support. This group included Connie Josefs, Veronica Golos, Helen Rynaski, and Monique Parker. I owe a special thanks to my friend, writer David Perez. He has been my main editor, collaborator, and critic. When the manuscript was done, Bill Ayers, Sandy Snyder, and my Bennington classmate Wendy Call gave generously of their time and thoughts, putting in many hours editing and commenting on this book.
I also want to express my appreciation to one of my fellow cofounders of the People’s Law Office, Dennis Cunningham, who remains a visionary and a comrade. He did a final reading and shared with me his knowledge, analysis, and memories of the events of so long ago.
Bradley Greene, aka Abdul Shanna, has been a constant source of information on life inside the Chicago Panthers. And I thank former Panthers Bobby Rush, Yvonne King, Lynne French, Billy Brooks, and Brenda Harris for sharing their experiences as Panthers and their recollections of Fred with me. I also want to thank Mumia Abu-Jamal for writing up and sharing with me his impressions upon visiting 2337 West Monroe Street shortly after the raid.
Flint Taylor was particularly helpful in finding transcripts and documents from the PLO historical files, and his daughter Kate scanned the entire thirty-seven-thousand-page trial transcript onto CDs, which made them accessible to me from fifteen hundred miles away.
I also want to thank my wonderful agent, Frances Goldin, who responded to my initial query with “How could I say no?” as if there were any doubt the book needed to be published. Frances has become a friend and someone I greatly respect. I want to thank Susan Betz of Lawrence Hill Books for publishing my account and guiding me through the steps necessary to complete it.
In addition to thanking those who helped me during the writing and production processes, I must thank Fred Hampton’s parents, Iberia and Francis, who, together with Fred’s brother Bill and sister Dee Dee, took me in as a son and welcomed me in their Maywood home. So did their family and friends in Maywood and Haynesville, Louisiana. They were all so willing to share with me their experiences with Fred and what he meant to them.
I was continually encouraged to write the best book I could by my mother, Betty Haas, who, well into her nineties, remains a dedicated and scrupulous reader of my work and provides valuable criticism and support.
Finally, to my wonderful wife, Mariel Nanasi, I thank you for the endless hours during which you tolerated my preoccupation with the book, including my 4:00 A.M. risings to meet deadlines, your continued willingness to read and comment on drafts, and your love and support during the four years it took to complete. And of course to my loving kids, Justin and Rosa, who were willing to share their dad so I could complete this project, and to my older sons, Roger and Andrew, who constantly asked about the progress of the book and supported my writing.