Floor Plan for Murder

Following O’Neal’s deposition, we were even more determined to overcome the FBI’s stonewalling of our document requests. Flint put together an amended subpoena duces tecum for Mitchell’s deposition, which we served on the FBI in March. Duces tecum means that, in addition to appearing to answer questions, the person must bring along documents designated in the subpoena. Flint characterized the documents we were seeking broadly as “all FBI documents concerning O’Neal, the Black Panther Party, and the raid.” He described the documents and the files in every way imaginable so that the lawyer or FBI agent responding could not credibly avoid locating what we were seeking. Flint attached a twenty-six page legal memo in support of enforcing the subpoena. The law was clearly on our side, even if Judge Perry wasn’t.

One might wonder why the FBI didn’t just purge its files of all inculpatory material. The FBI filing system made this almost impossible. For example, an FBI memo from headquarters titled “Counterintelligence Program—Black Nationalist Hate Groups” or “COINTELPRO—Black Extremists” would be routed to files in more than forty local FBI offices. Similarly, if an FBI agent in Chicago wrote a document about Fred Hampton, one copy went into the Fred Hampton file, another into the Black Panther file, and yet another into the Racial Matters Squad (RMS) and local COINTELPRO files.

Not only were multiple copies produced and maintained, but also each copy displayed the routing of all the other copies. Purging the Black Panther file in Chicago would only dispose of one copy. The routing on the copy in the Washington, D.C., file would show that a copy should exist in the Chicago Black Panther file unless the file had been purged. Purging all the dispersed files required collusion on a massive scale by many people. The FBI preferred stonewalling to destruction.

After Flint argued the law in court on March 11, Sheldon Waxman responded that the government had found and intended to produce a “truckload” of documents. Maybe the FBI realized that Flint was a bloodhound on the scent of a conspiracy and wouldn’t quit until he got what he was after.

On April 9, Flint and I came to court with a shopping cart in place of a truck. “How are we going to have time to read this stuff before Mitchell’s dep?” I asked Flint, as we approached the outer doors of the courtroom.

“We’ll get some help from people in the office. We can do short abstracts of the important documents.” We parked the cart in the corridor and entered the courtroom.

When the case was called, Flint and I went up to the podium before the bench. I saw no truckload. I thought Waxman might have left the documents in his office. Then he approached the bench with a stack of papers about one-half-inch thick.

“What are those?” Flint asked.

“These thirty-four documents are all we have,” Waxman said apologetically.

Flint and I looked at each other in disbelief. This is total bullshit, I thought. Flint and I were about to explode. Perry recognized our fury. He called his next case.

“Maybe big things come in small packages,” I said to Flint.

Still curious about the contents of the new disclosures, Flint and I rolled the empty cart down the hall until we found an open witness room. We sat down at the circular table inside. Flint divided the stack in half, and we began to read through them. The FBI had blacked out such large portions that some contained nothing more than headings such as “Black Panther Party.”

One document in the middle of the stack caught my eye: a hand-drawn sketch that looked like Fred Hampton’s apartment. At the bottom of the diagram were the hand-printed words “1st floor, 2337 W. Monroe.” Every room in Fred’s apartment was carefully diagrammed. Even the location of the furniture in each room was noted. The entranceways at the front and back were also marked. Above the square marking the rear bedroom was hand printed, “Room of Hampton and Johnson when they stay here.” Inside the bedroom were broken lines in the shape of a rectangle, and inside the lines was the word “bed.” It was the exact location where Fred was lying when he was shot and killed.

I handed Flint the sketch.

“This could only have been made to use in the raid,” Flint said.

“We got ‘em,” I said. “The attachment says they furnished the information in this diagram to the state’s attorney two weeks before the raid.” My jubilation over the discovery overshadowed my outrage at how intricately they had set things up. “They can pretend the FBI didn’t initiate the whole thing, but this proves them liars.”

Flint agreed. “It’s the closest thing we’ll get to a smoking gun.”

There was no indication on the diagram of who made it or what file it had been pulled from. These would be questions we would put to O’Neal’s control, Roy Mitchell, and to O’Neal if we got another crack at deposing him. The information on the floor plan came from “CGT-1,” which we had learned meant Confidential Government Informant 1.

“I’m sure O’Neal was CGT-1,” Flint said.

Below the floor plan, on the same page, was a map of the neighborhood highlighting the relationship of 2337 West Monroe to the surrounding streets.

“The FBI didn’t leave anything to chance. They made sure the raiders could find 2337,” I said.

The other document of the thirty-four that had not been totally deleted and that contained real, substantive information was dated November 21, 1969. It was from Special Agent in Charge Marlin Johnson to J. Edgar Hoover. It was partly excised but indicated that CGT-1 had provided information on November 19 that a large number of weapons were being stored at 2337 West Monroe, “a Panther crib, that is available to any BPP member for use such as sleeping and eating.” Included among the weapons listed were several rifles, shotguns, and two handguns.

The FBI memorandum continued: “Source stated that all these weapons were allegedly purchased on local Illinois Gun Registration cards.” It named the persons “most frequently seen” at the address: Fred Hampton, Billy Brooks, Doc Satchel, and Louis Truelock and Debra Johnson, who is allegedly pregnant by Hampton.

It was clear the FBI was zeroing in on Fred at 2337 two weeks before the raid. O’Neal told us Mitchell wasn’t really interested in weapons, but either he was lying or Mitchell used old information about weapons to lure the police into a raid.

The memo concluded, “The Chicago Police Department and AFTD [the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives of the Treasury Department—commonly known as the ATF] has been furnished the contents of information set forth in this LHM [letterhead memorandum] as well as the Illinois State’s Attorney’s Office.”

I flashed on Carmody’s press interview a few minutes after the raid, at which he claimed complete surprise that there were Panthers there. “That was bullshit what Carmody said—that they didn’t even know it was a Panther crib. They knew they were raiding Fred Hampton’s apartment and knew exactly where he would be sleeping,” I said. I imagined Carmody coming in the rear, knowing Fred’s bed was only a few feet away.

“The FBI set Hanrahan up pretty good,” Flint answered. “Everything he needed for a raid plus FBI endorsement.”