ABSTRACT

In the fall of 1969, J. Edgar Hoover intensified his secret war against the Black Panther Party. The party's 'pick up the gun' rhetoric and call for socialist revolution fed Hoover's worst paranoia and his hatred of blacks. He called the Panthers America's greatest internal threat to security. When the Federal Bureau of Investigation and local police raided Panther offices in twelve cities, more than ten Panthers and two policemen were killed in the ensuing gun battles. On December 4, a special squad of Chicago police, assembled by Illinois state's attorney William V. Hanrahan, charged into Hampton's apartment in the early morning hours. The police poured more than ninety rounds of ammunition into the rooms. In April, Leonard and Hanrahan worked out a deal at a secret meeting. Leonard promised that the federal grand jury would not indict Hanrahan or the Chicago police involved in the raid in exchange for dropping the charges against the seven Panthers.