The Savage City (61 page)

Bin Wahad travels nationwide:
Interview with Dhoruba Bin Wahad (September 16, 2008).

Growing disillusionment with BPP Central Committee:
Interview with Dhoruba Bin Wahad (September 16, 2008); interview with Cleo Silvers (March 26, 2009); Austin,
Up Against the Wall,
pp. 286, 298–312.

Thomas Jolly and Robert Bey as “knuckleheads”:
Ibid.

Huey Newton released from jail:
Fraser, C. Gerald, “Newton Expected to Set Up Headquarters in Harlem,”
New York Times,
July 12, 1970; Newton,
Revolutionary Suicide,
pp. 295–316; Pearson,
Shadow of the Panther,
pp. 218–225; Austin,
Up Against the Wall,
p. 287.

“When Huey and them founded the party”:
Interview with Dhoruba Bin Wahad (September 16, 2008).

Philosophical differences with Huey Newton:
Ibid.; interview with Cleo Silvers (March 26, 2009); interview with William “B.J.” Johnson (January 23, 2009); Austin,
Up Against the Wall,
pp. 297–334.

“These motherfuckers had no sense of history”:
Ibid.

New York sides with Cleaver faction:
Ibid.; “The Divided Panthers,”
Time,
February 22, 1971.

COINTELPRO fuels the split:
FBI COINTELPRO files, various memos; Churchill and Vander Wall,
The COINTELPRO Papers,
pp. 148–150; O'Reilly,
Racial Matters,
pp. 300–324, 329, 330.

“To create friction”:
FBI COINTELPRO memo.

“Purpose of counterintelligence action”:
FBI COINTELPRO (confidential Hoover memo).

“Should reword this memo to convey”:
FBI COINTELPRO (confidential Hoover memo).

Fred Bennett murder:
Pearson,
Shadow of the Panther,
pp. 232– 233; Austin,
Up Against the Wall,
p. 324; interview with Dhoruba Bin Wahad (September 16, 2008). Bin Wahad, who met Bennett on one of his trips to Panther headquarters in Oakland, cited the Bennett murder as having “raised the stakes” in the growing tension between the East Coast and Newton.

“Increasing evidence points to rising dissention within BPP”:
FBI COINTELPRO (confidential Hoover Airtel memo).

BPP Central Staff Meeting in Queens:
Interview with Dhoruba Bin Wahad (September 16, 2008); FBI COINTELPRO files; Austin,
Up Against the Wall,
p. 317.

Disagreements between Bin Wahad and Panther Twenty-one defendants:
Interview with Dhoruba Bin Wahad (September 16, 2008); interview with Gerald Lefcourt (January 25, 2010). Lefcourt, who was attorney of
record for both Dhoruba and Lumumba Shakur, noted that “Lumumba and the others were very upset with Dhoruba. In fact, they wanted to kick his ass. And it had nothing to do with any split between the East Coast and West Coast. The whole reason Dhoruba had been chosen as the one to be released on bail was because he was supposed to work every day on getting the others out of jail, to organize around the Panther Twenty-one and raise money. Lumumba felt Dhoruba was spending too much time womanizing and ego-tripping.”

Panther Twenty-one letter to the Weather Underground:
Interview with Dhoruba Bin Wahad (September 16, 2008); interview with Gerald Lefcourt (January 25, 2010); Austin,
Up Against the Wall,
p. 321; FBI COINTELPRO files.

Bomb set off outside home of Judge Murtagh:
The bombing occurred early on the morning of February 21, 1970. Murtagh's son, John Jr., was eight years old at the time. Many years later, he described the event in a magazine article: “I still recall, as though it were a dream, thinking that someone was lifting and dropping my bed as the explosions jolted me awake, and I remember my mother pulling me from the tangle of sheets and running to the kitchen where my father stood. Through the large windows overlooking the yard, all we could see was the bright glow of flames below. We didn't leave our house for fear of who might be waiting outside. The same night, bombs were thrown at a police car in Manhattan and two military recruiting stations in Brooklyn. Sunlight, the next morning, revealed three sentences of blood-red graffiti on our sidewalk: FREE THE PANTHER 21; THE VIET CONG HAVE WON; KILL THE PIGS.” Murtagh, John M., “Fire in the Night: The Weathermen Tried to Kill My Family,”
City Journal,
April 30, 2008; interview with John M. Murtagh (February 5, 2010).

Six weeks after the firebombing at the Murtagh home, a mysterious blaze was ignited at the office building of the Panther Twenty-one defense team at Union Square West in Manhattan. Twenty-eight firemen were injured in the four-alarm blaze. A battalion chief characterized the fire as “highly suspicious.” Attorney Lefcourt noted in the
New York Daily News
that his office had received numerous threats by mail and phone leading up to the fire; he suggested that papers crucial to the defense may have been damaged or destroyed in the fire, which resulted in yet more delays in a legal proceeding that would become the longest in city history. McCarthy, Philip, and McNamara, Joseph, “Panther Legal Offices Burn: 28 Are Injured,”
Daily News,
April 13, 1970.

“I told them not to publish it”:
Interview with Dhoruba Bin Wahad (September 16, 2010).

Newton expels the Panther Twenty-one:
Newton, Huey P.,
“On the Defection of Eldridge Cleaver from the Black Panther Party and the Defection of the Black Panther Party from the Black Community,”
Black Panther,
April 17, 1971; Pearson,
Shadow of the Panther,
p. 220; Austin,
Up Against the Wall,
p. 310; Newton,
Revolutionary Suicide,
p. 327; FBI COINTELPRO files, various memos.

Bin Wahad informed he is on Newton hit list:
Interview with Dhoruba Bin Wahad (September 16, 2008).

Bin Wahad and others meet to discuss strategy:
Ibid. At this meeting, Afeni Shakur was five months pregnant with a child conceived by fellow Black Panther Billy Garland. The child would be born in East Harlem on June 16, 1971, and named Tupac Shakur, who would grow up to become a famous rapper and movie star, and eventually be shot dead as part of a war between East Coast and West Coast factions of the hip-hop industry.

“This was some heavy shit”:
Ibid.

Bin Wahad and Cetewayo meet with Newton in New Haven:
Interview with Dhoruba Bin Wahad (September 16, 2009); Austin,
Up Against the Wall,
pp. 306–308; Hilliard,
This Side of Glory,
pp. 327–331. David Hilliard, who had been loyal to Newton since childhood, describes this meeting in
This Side of Glory
as the moment he knew Huey Newton was possibly losing his soul.

Bin Wahad, Cetewayo, and Connie Matthews escape:
Interview with Dhoruba Bin Wahad (September 16, 2008); Austin,
Up Against the Wall,
pp. 311–313.

Bin Wahad jumps bail:
Interview with Dhoruba bin Wahad (September 16, 2008); interview with Gerald Lefcourt (January 25, 2010); Asbury, Edith Evans, “2 Panther Defendants Are Missing,”
New York Times,
February 23, 1971; Austin,
Up Against the Wall,
p. 320; Newton,
Revolutionary Suicide,
p. 327; FBI COINTELPRO files.

Newton expels Bin Wahad et al.:
Interview with Dhoruba Bin Wahad (September 16, 2008); Newton, Huey P., “On the Defection of Eldridge Cleaver from the Black Panther Party and the Defections of the Black Panther Party from the Black Community,”
Black Panther,
April 17, 1971; Asbury, Edith Evans, “Newton Denounces 2 Missing Panthers,”
New York Times,
February 10, 1971; “Newton Assailed Action by Moore,”
New York Times,
June 6, 1971; Austin,
Up Against the Wall,
pp. 320–321; Newton,
Revolutionary Suicide,
p. 327; Hilliard,
This Side of Glory,
p. 335; Pearson,
Shadow of the Panther,
p. 230.

Robert Webb murder:
Austin,
Up Against the Wall,
pp. 313–314; FBI COINTELPRO files.

“That crew who killed Webb”:
Interview with Dhoruba Bin Wahad (September 16, 2008).

16. PANTHER JUSTICE

NYPD concerns about BPP persist:
Asbury, Edith Evans, “Policeman Says Panther Shot at Him,”
New York Times,
May 12, 1970; Faso, Frank, and Paul Meskill, “National Conspiracy to Kill Police Seen,”
Daily News,
September 2, 1970.

“It has been reported”:
NYPD BOSS files.

“This amendment would give control”:
Black Panther file, Harlem branch (SCRBC); NYPD BOSS file.

Marcy Housing Project “tribunal”:
NYPD BOSS file.

Phillips meets Xaviera Hollander:
Shecter with Phillips,
On the Pad,
pp. 22–30; Hollander, Xaviera,
The Happy Hooker,
pp. 286–292; Knapp Commission testimony, October 20, 1971.

“Almost from the moment”:
Hollander,
The Happy Hooker,
p. 1.

Phillips and Hollander at P.J. Clarke's:
Ibid., p. 288; Shecter with Phillips,
On the Pad,
p. 22.

Phillips and Officer O'Keefe:
Shecter with Phillips,
On the Pad
, pp. 29–31.

Teddy Ratnoff:
Interview with Mike Armstrong (August 12, 2009); Markham, James M., “Uncovered Undercoverman Changes Jobs,”
New York Times,
October 21, 1971; Shecter with Phillips,
On the Pad,
pp. 22–30; Hollander,
The Happy Hooker,
pp. 281–292. In her book, Hollander does not use Ratnoff's real name; she refers to him as “Abe the Bugger.”

Mike Armstrong:
Interview with Mike Armstrong (August 12, 2009).

Armstrong meeting with Harlem editor:
Ibid.

Armstrong meeting with ADA Phillips:
Ibid.

Ratnoff goes to work for Knapp Commission:
Interview with Mike Armstrong (August 12, 2009); Shecter with Phillips,
On the Pad,
pp. 25–26; Markham, “Uncovered Undercoverman Changes Jobs,”
New York Times
, October 21, 1971.

Irwin Germaise:
Schultz, Ray,
New York Times,
October 17, 1972; Shecter with Phillips,
On the Pad,
pp. 36–41.

“So we scrounged the money together ourselves”:
Interview with Mike Armstrong (August 12, 2009).

Germaise confronts Ratnoff:
Shecter with Phillips,
On the Pad,
pp. 40–41.

Phillips and Germaise catch Ratnoff with wire:
Interview with Mike Armstrong (August 12, 2009); Shecter with Phillips,
On the Pad,
pp. 41–43. The dialogue among Phillips, Germaise, and Ratnoff is taken directly from the transcript of the wire recording in
The Knapp Commission Report on Police Corruption
.

“I thought, shit, he's wired”:
Shecter with Phillips,
On the Pad,
p. 43.

Armstrong meeting with Phillips:
Interview with Mike Armstrong (August 12, 2009).

Zyad Shakur press conference:
“Destroying the Panther Myth,”
Time,
March 22, 1971; Knight, Michael, “Death Here Tied to Panther Feud,”
New York Times,
March 10, 1971; Austin,
Up Against the Wall,
pp. 307–308.

“The urban guerrilla must know”:
Marighella, Carlos,
Mini-Manual of the Urban Guerrilla,
p. 6.

Killing of Sam Napier:
Interview with Dhoruba Bin Wahad (September 16, 2008); interview with William “B.J.” Johnson (January 23, 2010); interview with Gerald Lefcourt (January 25, 2010); Austin,
Up Against the Wall,
pp. 308–313.

“After the Webb murder”:
Interview with William “B.J.” Johnson (January 23, 2010); Austin,
Up Against the Wall,
p. 314.

Johnson and the Napier killing:
Ibid.

“On the way out, I asked the sister”:
Ibid.

“The hit on the Queens distribution office”:
Interview with Dhoruba Bin Wahad (September 16, 2008).

“First, let it be understood”:
Moore, Richard, “A Black Panther Speaks,”
New York Times,
May 12, 1971.

“These internal contradictions”:
Ibid.

Panther Twenty-one verdict:
“Panthers Acquitted,”
Time,
May 24, 1971; Kennebeck,
Juror Number Four,
pp. 222–238; Zimroth,
Perversion of Justice,
pp. 363–404; Kempton,
The Briar Patch
, pp. 189–195; FBI COINTELPRO files, Airtel memo.

COINTELPRO assessment of Panthers:
FBI COINTELPRO confidential memo.

Shooting of Curry and Binetti outside home of D.A. Hogan:
O'Malley, Daniel, Patrick Doyle, and John Murphy, “2 Cops in Hogan's Guard Machine Gunned,”
Daily News,
May 20, 1971; interview with Robert Daley (January 21, 2010); Tanenbaum and Rosenberg,
Badge of the Assassin,
pp. 15–17; Daley,
Target Blue,
pp. 75–86; Seedman and Hellman,
Chief,
pp. 257–270.

Communiqué from BLA:
Ibid.

Killing of Jones and Piagentini outside Harlem housing project:
Duddy, James, and Henry Stathos, “2 Cops Die in Harlem Ambush,”
Daily News,
May 22, 1971; McCarthy, Phillip, and Henry Lee, “A Grim Hunt Seeks Out Cop Killers,”
Daily News,
May 23, 1971; OPERATION NEWKILL files.