revolutionary action movement (ram) - Michael Schwartz Library

Party members had tried to wake Hampton repeatedly in the opening
rounds of the raid .
Hampton's personal bodyguard, Tom O'Neal, turned out to be an
FBI infiltrator who made more than $10,000 on the deal, having
fed information to the FBI on the Panthers from January, 1969
through July, 1970 . 34
The ex-FBI informant who confessed to the Black Panther Party in affidavit
asserted he provided the FBI with a
layout of the Southern California
Chapter BPP's office in Los Angeles, prior to a police raid on December 8,
1969 . "It was my work and the work of known informant, Melvin 'Cotton'
Smith, which caused the raids to happen, the affidavit asserts ." 35 On
December 8, 1969, 500 cops from the Los Angeles Police Department led by
SWAT, laid seige on
the Southern California Black Panther Party Chapter's
headquarters for over eight hours while simultaneously 18 Party Members
were arrested throughout Los Angeles .
In Los Angeles, murder was committed by both the Los Angeles Police
and the FBI .
Steve Bartholomew, Tommy Lewis and Robert Lawrence, Black
Panthers were sitting in a parked car at a gas station on August 25, 1968,
when members of the
LAPS's metro squad opened fire, killing them almost
instantly . 36 The Los Angeles FBI office was constantly at work to destroy
the Panthers by promoting the war between the Panthers and the U .S .
organization
.
Bobby Seale former Chairman of the BPP recalls the COINTELPRO tactics :
I remember the times following John Huggins' and Bunchy Carter's
deaths . They would post a couple, of cars at this corner, a couple
of cars at that one, the Black Panther office in the middle of the
34"FBI Plotted to Eliminate BPP Leadership," p 1 .
35"The FBI Plotted Against Black Leaders," p . 98 .
36Suppl ementar Detailed Staff Reports , p . 189 .