From: barnhart@ddsw1.mcs.com (Mr. Aaron Barnhart)
Subject: Re: Who Killed Malcolm X?!!
Date: Sat, 12 Dec 1992 14:08:20 GMT
Organization: Evanston, Illinois, U.S.A.

isbell@ai.mit.edu (Charles L Isbell) wrote regarding the 1969 police
shootout that killed Panther leader Fred Hampton:
:
:Unfortuantely for the offical report, the next day Chicago Sun-Times
:reporter Brian Boyer showed that alleged bullet holes in the doors of
:Hampton's home which were supposedly made by the Panthers were in
:reality made by nails.  All but one of the bullets were fired into the
:house from outside.  Secondly, evidence shows that Fred Hampton was
:shot over forty-two times while asleep in bed with his fiancee.  His
:body was dragged to the doorway by police so as to make it appear that
:he was shooting back.  Later Dr. Charles Petty declared, "Paraffin
:tests performed upon the body...were completely negative, indicating
:that he had not fired a weapon of any sort immediately before his
:death."  Even with this staggering evidence in support of the plot to
:murder him, none of the officers involved were brought up on charges.
:

Although their boss's career was ruined.  Here's Mike Royko,
writing in _Boss_:

The raid had been conducted by the office of State's Attorney
Edward Hanrahan, the most ambitious of Daley's proteges.
Hanrahan, a vile-tempered, ambitious man, had risen through
his party routine and had become the Machine's loudest advocate
of law and order.  [...]

It wasn't surprising, then, that Hanrahan, after the 1968 elections,
declared war on the young black street gangs and on the Black 
Panther party.  The black gangs frightened Daley, and it wasn't
because [of the violence ...]  One of the gangs, the Black P.
Stone Nation, had grown to a loose-knit membership of several
thousand and was beginning to show signs of political and
economic awareness and the use of such power. [...]  There lay
the danger of black gangs.  Blacks had been killing each other
for years without inspiring any great concern in City Hall.  But
these young toughs could be ditating who their aldermen would be
if he didn't stop them.  And the Black Panthers, a more sophisiticated
though smaller group, was even more dangerous.  They had set up
a free-food program in the ghetto and had opened a health clinic
that was superior to those of his own health department. [...]

When the raid was over, they had the guns, and two Panther leaders
were dead:  Fred Hampton, the Chicago chairman, who had been reared
in the black middle class area of Maywood, one of the few integrated
suburbs; and Mark Clark, a downstate Panther leader.  Four other
Panthers had been wounded.

Hanrahan that morning said it was a miracle that his men had escaped
unharmed. [...] But pressure from even the most moderate blacks
was mounting for an investigation, and a federal grand jury was
convened to look into the case.  President Nixon's Justice Dept.
saw no reason to shield Daley from embarrassment.  And despite
the refusal of the distrustful surviving Panthers to testify,

[oh.]

the grand jury investigation was held, based primarily on material
gathered by the FBI.

So on Daley's 68th birthday, of all days, the report was made
public and it was damning. [...] Only one spent bullet could be
traced to the Panthers, and 80 to 100 by the police.  The police had
apparently sprayed the flat with shotgun, pistol, and machine gun
fire, with little provocation.



-- Then Royko's book comes to a conclusion, but I believe Hanrahan
was through politically as a result.

The State's Attorney for Cook County is currently one of the
few Republicans holding office, jack O Malley, who was re-elected
handily.

Aaron