On December 4, 1969, Fred Hampton, a Marxist-Leninist African American activist, chairman of the Black Panther Party's Illinois chapter, and founder of the Rainbow Coalition, was shot and killed in his sleep during a predawn police raid at his apartment in Chicago, Illinois. He was 21 years old. Also killed was fellow Panther Mark Clark, who was on security duty. The raid was conducted by a team of 14 officers from the Chicago Police Department and the Cook County State's Attorney's office, organized by State's Attorney Edward Hanrahan, and orchestrated with the assistance of the FBI as part of its COINTELPRO program to neutralize the Black Panther Party and Rainbow Coalition.
The police claimed they had been attacked by the Panthers and defended themselves accordingly, this claim was later disproven. An internal investigation was undertaken, and the police claimed that their colleagues on the assault team were exonerated of any wrongdoing, concluding that they "used lawful means to overcome the assault." A coroner's jury ruled the deaths justifiable homicide, but a subsequent federal grand jury criticized the police action as "ill-conceived". A 1982 civil lawsuit brought by the survivors and the families of Hampton and Clark resulted in a $1.85 million settlement from the City of Chicago, Cook County, and the federal government. No one was ever criminally convicted for the killings. The assassination came less than a year after the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy in 1968, and less than a year before the police shootings of students at Kent State University in 1970.Shahid M. Shahidullah, Crime Policy in America: Laws, Institutions, and Programs (2015), p. 94.
Prelude Throughout 1969, Fred Hampton's prominence as a leader of the Black Panther Party (BPP) in Chicago grew, and he became a target of the FBI's COINTELPRO program, which aimed to "expose, disrupt, misdirect, discredit, or otherwise neutralize" the activities of black nationalist groups.Democracy Now!, 01 Feb. 2021 "The Assassination of Fred Hampton: New Documents Reveal Involvement of FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover"
On the night of November 13, 1969, while Hampton was in California, Chicago police officers John J. Gilhooly and Frank G. Rappaport were killed in a gun battle with Panthers; one died the next day."Second Cop in Gun Battle Dies, Wounded Describe Nightmare", Chicago Tribune, November 14, 1969, p. 1. A total of nine police officers were shot. Spurgeon Winter Jr, a 19-year-old Panther, was killed by police. Another Panther, Lawrence S. Bell, was charged with murder. In an unsigned editorial headlined "No Quarter for Wild Beasts", the Chicago Tribune urged that Chicago police officers approaching suspected Panthers "should be ordered to be ready to shoot.""No Quarter for Wild Beasts", Chicago Tribune, November 15, 1969, p. 10.
In late November 1969, Clark made the decision to go to Chicago following the death of Panther Spurgeon "Jake" Winters, who had just been killed by the Chicago Police Department in a shootout that claimed the lives of two police officers. Clark's family and friends, as well as Clark himself, knew that the party had likely been infiltrated by the FBI and that his life was in danger upon arriving in Chicago. As he prepared to return to Chicago on Thanksgiving Day, November 27, Clark told family members, "I probably won't see ya'll again, but just know that I love all of you."
As part of the larger COINTELPRO operation, the FBI was determined to prevent any improvement in the effectiveness of the BPP leadership. The FBI had obtained detailed information about Hampton's apartment, including a layout of furniture, from a turncoat informant, William O'Neal, who had infiltrated the Chicago chapter. An augmented, 14-man team of the State's Attorney's Special Prosecutions Unit was organized for a predawn raid; they were armed with a search warrant for illegal weapons.Ward Churchill, Agents of Repression, p. 66.Bush, Rod (2000), We Are Not What We Seem, p. 216.
On the evening of December 3, Hampton taught a political education course at a local church, which was attended by most Panther members. Afterward, as was typical, he was accompanied to his Monroe Street apartment by Johnson and several Panthers: Blair Anderson, James Grady, Ronald "Doc" Satchell, Harold Bell, Verlina Brewer, Louis Truelock, Brenda Harris and Mark Clark. O'Neal was already there, having prepared a late dinner, which the group ate around midnight. O'Neal had slipped the secobarbital into a drink that Hampton consumed during the dinner to sedate Hampton so he would not awaken during the subsequent raid. O'Neal left after dinner. At about 1:30 a.m., December 4, Hampton fell asleep mid-sentence while talking to his mother on the telephone.
Although Hampton was not known to take drugs, Cook County chemist Eleanor Berman later reported that she had run two tests, each showing evidence of barbiturates in Hampton's blood. An FBI chemist failed to find similar traces, but Berman stood by her findings.
Assassination
Raid
The office of Cook County State's Attorney Edward Hanrahan organized the raid, using officers attached to his office.Napoliatno, Jo. "Edward Hanrahan, Prosecutor Tied to '69 Panthers Raid, Dies at 88" , The New York Times, June 11, 2009. Retrieved June 13, 2009. Hampton had recently strongly criticized Hanrahan, saying that Hanrahan's talk about a "war on gangs" was really rhetoric used to enable him to carry out a "war on black youth".
At 4 a.m., the heavily armed police team arrived at the site, divided into two teams, eight for the front of the building and six for the rear. At 4:45 a.m., they stormed the apartment. Mark Clark (22), sitting in the front room of the apartment with a shotgun in his lap, was on security duty. The police shot him in the chest, killing him instantly. An alternative account said that Clark answered the door and police immediately shot him. Either way, Clark's gun discharged once into the ceiling. This single round was fired when he suffered a reflexive death-convulsion after being shot. This was the only shot fired by the Panthers.Berger, Dan (2006), Outlaws of America: The Weather Underground and the Politics of Solidarity, AK Press, , pp. 132–133.
Fred Hampton, drugged by barbiturates, was sleeping on a mattress in the bedroom with his fiancée Deborah Johnson (18) who was eight and a half months pregnant with their child. Police officers removed her from the room while Hampton lay unconscious in bed. Then the raiding team fired at the head of the south bedroom. Hampton was wounded in the shoulder by the shooting. According to the National Archives and Records Administration, "upon that discovery, an officer shot him twice in his head and killed him."
Fellow Black Panther Harold Bell said that he heard the following exchange: Churchill and Vander Wall cited court transcripts of Iberia Hampton, et al. vs. Plaintiffs-Appellants, v Edward V. Hanrahan, et al., Defendants-Appellees (Nos. 77–1968, 77–1210 and 77–1370) as the primary source for their account of the police raid. Witnesses Harold Bell and Deborah Johnson testified to the comments by police.
"That's Fred Hampton." "Is he dead?... Bring him out."
"He's barely alive."
"He'll make it."
The injured Panthers said they heard two shots. According to Hampton's supporters, the shots were fired point-blank at Hampton's head. According to Johnson, an officer then said: "He's good and dead now."
Hampton's body was dragged into the bedroom doorway and left in a pool of blood. The officers directed their gunfire at the remaining Panthers who had been sleeping in the north bedroom. This included Ronald "Doc" Satchel (18), Blair Anderson (18), Verlina Brewer (17), and Brenda Harris (19). Brewer, Satchel, Anderson, and Harris were seriously wounded, then beaten and dragged into the street. They were arrested on charges of aggravated assault and attempted murder of the officers. They were each held on $100,000 bail.
In the early 1990s, Jose "Cha Cha" Jimenez, founder of the Young Lords, a Puerto Rican separatist street gang, who had developed close ties to Hampton and the Chicago Black Panther Party during the late 1960s, interviewed Johnson about the raid. She said:I believe Fred Hampton was drugged. The reason why is because when he woke up when the person [Truelock] said, "Chairman, chairman," he was shaking Fred's arm, you know, Fred's arm was folded across the head of the bed. And Fred—he just raised his head up real slow. It was like watching a slow motion. He raised. His eyes were open. He raised his head up real slow, you know, with his eyes toward the entranceway, toward the bedroom and laid his head back down. That was the only movement he made [...]Interview by Jose "Cha-Cha" Jimenez, c. 1990, File Folder 10, Box 4, The Collection on the Young Lords, DePaul University Special Collections and Archives. The seven Panthers who survived the raid were indicted by a grand jury on charges of attempted murder, armed violence, and other weapons charges. These charges were subsequently dropped. During the trial, the Chicago Police Department claimed that the Panthers were the first to fire shots, but a later investigation found that the Chicago police fired between 90 and 99 shots, while the only Panthers shot was from Clark's dropped shotgun.
After the raid, the apartment was left unguarded. The Panthers sent some members to investigate, accompanied by videographer Mike Gray and stills photographer Norris McNamara to document the scene. The footage was later released as part of the 1971 documentary The Murder of Fred Hampton. After a break-in at an FBI office in Pennsylvania, the existence of COINTELPRO, an illegal counter-intelligence program, was revealed and reported. With this program revealed, many activists and others began to suspect that the police raid and Hampton's killing were conducted under this program. One of the documents released after the break-in was a floor plan of Hampton's apartment. Another document outlined a deal that the FBI brokered with U.S. deputy attorney general Richard Kleindienst to conceal the FBI's role in Hampton's death and the existence of COINTELPRO.
Aftermath
At a press conference the next day, the police announced the arrest team had been attacked by the "violent" and "extremely vicious" Panthers and defended themselves accordingly. In a second press conference on December 8, the police leadership praised the assault team for their "remarkable restraint", "bravery", and "professional discipline" in not killing all the Panthers present. Photographic evidence was presented of "bullet holes" allegedly made by shots fired by the Panthers, but reporters soon challenged this claim. An internal investigation was undertaken, and the police claimed that their colleagues on the assault team were exonerated of any wrongdoing, concluding that they "used lawful means to overcome the assault."
Five thousand people attended Hampton's funeral. He was eulogized by black leaders, including Jesse Jackson and Ralph Abernathy, Martin Luther King Jr.'s successor as head of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. In his eulogy, Jackson said that "when Fred was shot in Chicago, black people in particular, and decent people in general, bled everywhere." On December 6, members of the Weather Underground destroyed numerous police vehicles in a retaliatory bombing spree at 3600 N. Halsted Street, Chicago.Weather Underground Anon. Prairie Fire: The Politics of Revolutionary Anti-Imperialism. UK, Red Dragon Print Collective, c. 1970.