The Murder of Fred Hampton

The Murder of Fred Hampton

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/files/img/kh4f97d0f8.jpg[/atsimg]

"You can kill a revolutionary, but you cannot kill a revolution. You can jail a liberation fighter, but you cannot jail liberation."

Hey all,

Fred Hampton is perhaps better known today as the slain Chairman and leader of the Chicago chapter of the Black Panther Party from the late 1960's; A young, charismatic leader slain in the most brutal and undignified fashion, shot to death while he slept in his apartment near his fellow party members and heavily pregnant girlfriend. In my opinion this is honestly one of the most inspiring figures I’ve ever come across, someone who was almost certainly murdered by those in government and finally someone who by far deserves to be discussed and remembered by far more than he currently is today. I mean It really is a shame that he’s not in all honesty, especially here on ATS, the biggest conspiracy forum out there.

Many of those today who have heard of his story, like myself, also choose to believe his death to be a murder and one ordered by some of the highest serving officials in a position to serve and protect the common people, most notably J. Edgar Hoover for example, the head of the FBI at the time and one of those in particular highlighted as being involved in his death through the controversial Cointelpro (Counter Intelligence Program) ran by Hoover and his FBI. For those who may not be fully aware of what Cointelpro is btw, I suggest It’s something you do read up on. Speaking of which, here is some reading material.

- Wikipedia - Cointelpro
- Cointelpro: The FBI's Covert Action Programs Against American Citizens
- FBI Records - Cointelpro
- A Short History of FBI Cointelpro, by Mike Cassidy and Will Miller

Now, Cointelpro has been, and in fact still is, largely and publicly criticized since It's outing in 1971, 2 years after the death of Hampton, after documents of It's secretive existence were stolen from an FBI field office in Media, Pennsylvania and were then handed to various news groups, and they’re criticized in large part due to the highly illegal way in which it went about gaining the information it had acquired; such as through the use of burglary for example, among much more. The program also set about targeting individual people it deemed an enemy, It made threats against them, lied publicly about them, humiliated them publicly and even more activity of this nature.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/files/img/hz4f97e567.jpg[/atsimg]

(J. Edgar Hoover, Head of the FBI and founder of Cointelpro)

Martin Luther king is perhaps their most famous "enemy" to date, some still believing that his demise is in large part down to Cointelpro, especially after documents were uncovered showing how he was targeted, how his apartments were bugged, how personal letters aimed at forcing him into killing himself before he was to receive his Nobel Peace Prize were found and so on, all of this among even more routes of personal attacks, intimidation and character assassination used upon him through this secretive program.

- FBI agents that spied on Martin Luther King also ran Cointelpro's 'Omaha Two'
- The FBI’s Attempt to Blackmail Martin Luther King Into Suicide
- Cointelpro: FBI tried to drive Martin Luther King, Jr. to suicide
- The FBI's Vendetta Against Martin Luther King, Jr.

In the 1950's and 60's in particular, this before Cointelpro was established by Hoover, a revolution in America was underway, a civil rights revolution. The FBI, and J. Edgar Hoover in particular, saw this movement as a threat to the social order of America and immediately set about putting an end to it through any possible means, thus Cointelpro was born and was actually originally designed to "increase factionalism, cause disruption and win defections" * inside the Communist Party U.S.A (CPUSA), It's claimed, however later being expanded to tackle Civil rights, the KKK and other organisations that were deemed a potential threat to America in any way shape or form.

By the late 60's some of America's most famous and respected Civil Rights leaders had already passed away in the most brutal fashion, Malcolm X for example was assassinated in 1965, something which was also later heavily blame on Cointelpro due to the outing of an FBI informant whose job it was to physically get close to Malcolm prior to his death, and most notably Martin Luther King's demise as mentioned above already, King being murdered in 1968 by James Earl Ray according to the official story, something Ray denied up until his death in 1998.

With their demise however, a new leader was free to emerge; Fred Hampton, a young 20 year old Law student. Hampton was born in Chicago in August of 1948, and he grew up studying law at Proviso East High School in 1966 and then Triton Junior College. Following graduation, and with growing up during the height of the civil rights movement, Hampton continued to study law and was said to often be on the streets willingly sharing what knowledge on the law he had, particularly to local police officers in police brutality situations, much to their disdain.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/files/img/ty4f97d632.jpg[/atsimg]

While still a student, Hampton started to become more and more involved in the civil rights movement, even studying law and correcting police on the street when needs be, as mentioned above. Still a student, he joined the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP), showing his leadership skills by becoming the Youth Council leader of the West Suburban branch. In the mid 60's though, a new party emerged in America, the Black Panther Party (BPP), founded by Bobby Seale and Huey Newton in 1966. The Black Panther party initially set about protecting local communities primarily in Oakland and also protecting citizens from racism and brutality, particularly from the police.

Rather quickly the party grew in size and stature, creating a new chapter in American history, but at the same time attracting unwanted attention from the government. FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, once described the party as “the greatest threat to the internal security of the country,” calling for "hard-hitting counter-intelligence measures to cripple the Black Panthers", which is essentially and rather unfortunately what occurred through Cointelpro. In 1967 the FBI also began to steer their attention towards an emerging leader, Fred Hampton, opening a file on him due to the speed he was growing in size, reputation and popularity as a speaker in Chicago.

Despite this, a year later in 1968 Hampton was still able to found the Chicago chapter of the Black Panther party, quickly becoming responsible for organizing weekly rallies, he taught police education classes in the early morning hours, even educating the police on the streets when he saw them doing wrong, and he also launched a project for community supervision of the police, something he himself had been doing for years before anyway.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/files/img/ef4f97e5c0.jpg[/atsimg]

With the demise of Luther King and also Malcolm X, Hampton as a leader, despite being tremendously young still, continued to grow and become widely respected. With founding the Chicago chapter of the Black Panther party Hampton make vast changes, most notably helping to establish a free breakfast program for local children in the community, free medical clinics for poor citizens, and something Hoover himself was never able to achieve, he persuaded the Chicago street gangs to stop fighting in what is commonly known as the 'Rainbow Coalition.'

The Rainbow Coalition was a coalition active in the late 1960s and early 1970s, founded in Chicago, Illinois by Fred Hampton of the activist Black Panther Party, along with William "Preacherman" Fesperman, Jack (Junebug) Boykin, Bobby Joe Mcginnis and Hy Thurman of the Young Patriots Organization and Jose (Cha-Cha) Jimenez, the Puerto Rican founder of the Young Lords. It later expanded to include various radical socialist groups. It was associated with the rising Black Power movement, which mobilized some African-American discontent and activism by other ethnic minority groups after the passage of the mid-1960s civil rights legislation under Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson.

The coalition also included members of various local ethnic gangs, among whom Hampton, Rising Up Angry, the Young Patriots, and the Young Lords had brokered treaties to end violence between them. The leaders worked to reduce conflict by the treaties, as they believed that poor youths' fighting each other in gang wars achieved little benefit for them. Hampton and his colleagues believed that the Daley Machine in Chicago and the American ruling class used gang wars to consolidate their own political positions by gaining funding for law enforcement and dramatizing crime rather than underlying social issues.

(Source)

This same year it was even revealed by an FBI agent that the Black Panther Party were primarily feeding breakfast to children and doing overall good in their respective communities, a far cry from what was being reported about them in the media thanks to Cointelpro which was determined to paint them in the darkest, most negative light possible. Hoover quite famously is said to have quickly fired back a memo to the FBI Agent which stated that his career ambitions were directly related to his supplying of evidence to support Hoover's view that the BPP was "a violence-prone organization seeking to overthrow the Government by revolutionary means" and more of the like. In other words forcing him to supply evidence they were a terroristic organisation, even if no such evidence existed.

This was seemingly common practice of Cointelpro from what I can find and have read about it over time. A short while after this Hampton was even arrested with stealing $71 worth of sweets which he's said to have given to local children - The FBI at the time were following certain people they deemed a threat, including Hampton, and it was common practice for Cointelpro to look for a reason to arrest those it deemed a threat, or, if needs be, arresting them knowing full well no crime had been committed.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/files/img/pw4f97eaac.jpg[/atsimg]

Hampton was initially convicted for the crime but this decision was later overturned. The Chicago branch of the Black Panther Party in particular became a real threat in the eyes of Hoover, the threat being the sheer popularity of Hampton. In 1969 Hampton was even finally in line to be appointed to the Black Panther Party's Central Committee's Chief of Staff, a position which came as no surprise and also a position he certainly would've achieved if he wouldn't have been the next potential victim of Cointelpro.

Hampton, along with his 8 month pregnant girlfriend at the time, lay asleep in one of the bedrooms in his Chicago apartment while a surprise raid took place. According to the official version of events, Black Panther party members fired the first shots at police, and continued to fire at police, injuring them thus causing a shoot-out to take place thus causing the death to Fred Hampton and also Mark Clark. According to Panther Brenda Harris however, the first shot fired actually struck Clark in the chest as he sat guarding the apartment, this causing him to drop his gun this causing it to go off.

During the shoot-out police claimed that panthers repeatedly fired back at them, however according to a federal grand jury It was later shown that only one shot could be proven beyond doubt to have been fired from the apartment, this perhaps the shot from Clark’s gun, and instead the vast majority of shots were fired in, officially between 82 and 99 shots.

It was later proven through the Church Committee, an investigation from the mid-70's chaired by Frank Church originally set up to investigate Illegal activities by Intelligence groups such as the CIA and FBI, an investigation which also doesn’t receive as much attention as it should on ATS in my opinion, Hampton’s body guard was actually an FBI informant at the time working under cover for Cointelpro, his name was William O'Neal. Prior to the raid which resulted in the death of Hampton and Clark, he provided them with detailed information on the apartment location, the location of the beds and furniture and anything else of interest. It was also later found that the majority of shots fired into the apartment were also conveniently aimed towards Hampton’s bedroom.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/files/img/lz4f97ed74.jpg[/atsimg]

Prior to the raid he even seemed to meet up with Hampton as well as fellow Panthers in order to set them up. Hampton was just returning from teaching a political education course at a local church where he was greeted by O'Neal who had prepared them all a late night dinner. O'Neal had also slipped the powerful barbiturate sleep agent, secobarbitol, into Hampton's drink to ensure he didn't wake during the pending raid that was about to take place a few hours later.

Although Hampton was not known to take drugs, Cook County chemist Eleanor Berman would report that she ran two separate tests which each showed a powerful barbiturate had been introduced into Hampton's blood. An FBI chemist would later fail to find similar traces, but Berman stood by her findings.

(Source)

After going to sleep that night Hampton would never wake up again. However, It's claimed by his girlfriend that he didn't die as a result of the raid itself, although he was shot in the shoulder still, but instead he was later murdered at point blank range. He is said to have been dragged from his bedroom, shot in the head and then left in the hallway (Graphic image!). Deborah Johnson, Hampton's 8 month girlfriend, and other surviving BPP members currently staying at the home of Hampton, were also arrested after the raid and then charged with attempting to murder the police.

Automatic gunfire then converged at the head of the bedroom where Hampton slept, unable to wake up as a result of the barbiturates that the FBI infiltrator had slipped into his drink. He was lying on a mattress in the bedroom with his pregnant girlfriend. Two officers found him wounded in the shoulder, and fellow Black Panther Harold Bell reported that he heard the following exchange:

"That's Fred Hampton."
"Is he dead?... Bring him out."
"He's barely alive.
"He'll make it."

Two shots were heard, which it was later discovered were fired point blank in Hampton's head. According to Deborah Johnson, one officer then said:

"He's good and dead now."

(Source)

Hampton, a young 21 year old leader determined to stick up for his fellow man, determined to bring some good and equality into out rather depressing world, seemingly shot down before he could achieve all he was destined to and shot down simply for trying to achieve good. He’s the largely forgotten leader, the one people, for whatever reason, don’t ever really seem to focus on or spend too much time thinking about today. With this thread though, I want to bring him to light for those who may not be fully aware of him.

Also William O’ Neal is a name which, once again in my personal and humble opinion, should be easily recognizable by most today due to his actions. According to some, and much like Hampton, he also went onto be killed in odd circumstances:

"We were just sitting around drinking beer," Heard recalls, "talking to some friends of mine. We had company. The company left and that's when he started acting kind of strange."

At 2:30 AM the 40-year-old O'Neal ran out of his uncle's apartment, across the westbound lanes of the Eisenhower Expressway, and was struck by a car and killed. His death was ruled a suicide.

O'Neal achieved lasting infamy in 1973 when his role in the 1969 raid in which Black Panther leaders Fred Hampton and Mark Clark were murdered was revealed. Though O'Neal was a Panther insider to the point where he was in charge of security for Hampton and possessed keys to Panther headquarters and safe houses, he was at the same time serving as an informant for the FBI. Among the information the teenaged O'Neal fed his FBI contact was the floor plan of Hampton's west-side apartment that was used to plan the fatal raid. After his cover was blown O'Neal entered the federal witness protection program, assumed the alias William Hart, and moved to California. He secretly returned to Chicago in 1984.

(Source)

Thanks to all of those who took the time to read this thread. I hope to hear your thoughts.

*Thread note: I've also posted this thread on my site which is in my sig*

reply to post by Rising Against


Great thread as always Rising!

I have to admit that I have never heard of Hampton or his murder.

I had never heard of the Church Committee either and I am very interested now.

Thanks for the info!!

ETA: For anyone who is interested here is the Wikipedia article on the Church Committee. It has links to all the documentation drafted by the committee.

reply to post by Rising Against


Fantastic thread!

I cannot believe I've never heard of this until now.

I also cannot believe the FBI informant that led Hampton to his demise was in charge of his security. What a weasel of a man!

Thanks for bringing this story to my attention....what a sad one though.

reply to post by Openeye

I had never heard of the Church Committee either and I am very interested now.

That's one of the main reasons for writing this thread, I wanted to try and bring it to light for those who aren't aware of Hampton or the Church Committee - And trust me, I really do recommend you, as well as others, look into it more. I honestly think It's one of the most important past investigations in all of American history and something everyone, even myself and the rest of us Brits as well as the rest of the world in fact, should be more than aware of, but of course that's just my most humble opinion.

Here's an interesting snippet of the Church Committee's findings found at Spartacus.Schoolnet:

Church's committee also discovered that the Central Intelligence Agency and Federal Bureau of Investigation had sent anonymous letters attacking the political beliefs of targets in order to induce their employers to fire them. Similar letters were sent to spouses in an effort to destroy marriages. The committee also documented criminal break-ins, the theft of membership lists and misinformation campaigns aimed at provoking violent attacks against targeted individuals.

One of those people targeted was Martin Luther King. The FBI mailed King a tape recording made from microphones hidden in hotel rooms. The tape was accompanied by a note suggesting that the recording would be released to the public unless King committed suicide.

In 1975 Church's committee interviewed Johnny Roselli about his relationship with the secret services. It emerged that in In September 1960, Roselli and fellow crime boss, Sam Giancana, took part in talks with Allen W. Dulles, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), about the possibility of murdering Fidel Castro.

Read more here..

I also posted about it in this past thread here: The Controversial HSCA Investigation and Beyond..

reply to post by MagesticEsoteric

I cannot believe I've never heard of this until now.

That's a common theme, lol.

All of this happened in the 60's so It's not a huge surprise that It's not a major talking point today, but I do think It's a shame still because It really is a story people should know about - After all, when those in government or positions of extreme power and influence murder their citizens, we ought to know about that. Every time.

I dare say Cointelpro continued after It supposedly ended in the early 70's (after being outed publicly) as well and I dare say similar incidents as the Hampton case have occurred since, perhaps even to this very day in fact. And that's why, in my opinion, It needs to be an important discussion point and not something anyone ever forgets about.

I'm a big believer that we forget about our history at our potential cost.

reply to post by Rising Against


Wow, thank you so much for this thread. Ever since you briefly touched on the subject of Hampton in your Hoover thread he has been a source of fascination for me. Until you mentioned him in that thread I had never heard of him either. In reading this I just have to wonder just what our country and maybe our world would look like today if Hampton, King, JFK and RFK had been allowed to live their lives and complete the works they were meant to. I have the feeling it would be a much better place should they have been allowed to complete their life's work.

In living during this time frame I can well remember how the Black Panther Party was made out in the press to be a group to be feared for their 'militant' attitude especially if you were a white person. It was not until I was in high school and we studied a little more in depth American history during the civil rights era that my opinion started to change. I was blessed to be able to attend a private school who was not bound by public school curriculum so we were allowed to 'see behind the curtain' a little better than most and encouraged to 'think outside the box' when it came to topics like civil rights and the history behind the movement.

In my humble opinion, I would love to see a modern day Fred Hampton emerge to take the reigns of the modern day civil rights movement. I would so support his kind of efforts, as while strongly and foremost attempting to rise up and advance african americans to be on equal footing with white americans, I firmly believe in reading up on him on my own, he advocated doing so in a responsible fair manner as to not increase tensions, heal past wounds and erase racial boundries setup by the likes of Hoover. What a better world this would have been if he were still around.

ETA: I am also very interested in what happened to his girlfriend and unborn (at the time) child. This aspect of the story is something that I've just started reading up on as it would be interesting to know if the persecution of the father followed through to the child and the girlfriend

Ah yes I remember this well. at the time the press demonized him when in truth this wasn't a muder , but an assination.
At the time the details of his death were very muddy in the media. He was made to seem a monster of the black cause.

Another great man with the potential to create change struck down in his prime. I didn't learn much about him till long after he was dead. Seems that TPTB were threatened by him So he was removed in a way that created a warning to others who may have taken up his cause. At least that's the way I feel about it.

Thanks RA, like others, I appreciate the opportunity to learn more about this man and what the US shady government did to him and others. I wonder where we would be now if these leaders had been allowed to follow their course. The whole subject enrages and frightens me and just makes me want to shake people until they wake up. We have to band together or we're screwed, because I feel we are still under this kind of, for lack of a better word, cabal.

reply to post by MyMindIsMyOwn

ETA: I am also very interested in what happened to his girlfriend and unborn (at the time) child. This aspect of the story is something that I've just started reading up on as it would be interesting to know if the persecution of the father followed through to the child and the girlfriend

Well, believe it or not, but Fred Hampton Jr. is quite well known today. I won't go into too much detail, but here's his wikipedia page for further reading:

Wikipedia - Fred Hampton Jr.

He's had something of a troubled time it seems, spending a great deal of time in jail.

In regards to the girlfriend however, well, I did come across this:

The panthers left alive, including Deborah Johnson, Hampton's girlfriend, who was eight months pregnant at the time, were arrested and charged with attempting to murder the police. Afterwards, ballistic evidence revealed that only one bullet had been fired by the Panthers whereas nearly a hundred came from police guns.

(Source)

I found that she also goes under the name Akua Njere. I was also able to find this but not much more:

Akua Njere (Deborah Johnson) joined the Black Panthers after hearing Fred Hampton speak at a public meeting. She was interviewed about her time in the organization by the Burning Spear magazine in June, 1990.

Fred Hampton was the originator of the concept of the Rainbow Coalition. He was the first person to come up with that concept in 1969. That was an effort to educate and politicize other poor and oppressed people throughout this world. He worked with and attempted to politicize the Young Patriots organization, which was a group of Appalachian whites in the near north area of Chicago, politicizing them and organizing them to recognize the leadership of the Black Revolution, the vanguard party, the Black Panther Party, and to work in their communities against this huge monster we had to deal with which is racism.

The Black Panther Party began to go out in the community from day one. We talked to residents of the community to see what issues they were concerned about that affected their survival. We did not ask them to fill out questionnaires.

We started survival programs. We started breakfast programs. We started feeding the children in the community without asking how many children you got and how many different daddies of children you got or if you're getting an aid check. Those things were not important to us and we did not say we had to wait for federal funds. As a matter of fact we could not accept any federal funds at all because we felt that an enemy that was trying to destroy us would not give federal funds to a group that had no vested interest in that enemy's survival.

We got doctors. We politicized the doctors and we let them know that public health is a priority over hospital wealth. We said it shouldn't be a question of how much insurance a person had or whether or not they had insurance or the money to pay. If people are sick and dying, then people have a right to treatment.

So the community was concluding that all this stuff they're reading about these Panthers is opposite to our practice in the community. The people began to question the role the media played in the community. They began to question even more so a government that they knew was oppressing them.

(Source)

Not sure what became of her admittedly. I know I'd love to find out more as well as yourself I'm sure.

reply to post by lonegurkha


Hey LG, Thanks for your input there. As you know already, I wasn't around at the time so It's nice to have the opinion from people like you who were. It's valuable.

What you said came as no real surprise as well. BPP members were just demonized from what I've read, It's just utterly disgusting what went on. And when we think about it, It wasn't even that long ago as well. We've come a long way of course but unfortunately as a society we're still not quite where we need to be in my opinion.

reply to post by Rising Against


Hey RA,
Great Work!

I hope to add a little here about this part of the conspiracy.

Originally posted by Rising Against

Martin Luther king is perhaps their most famous "enemy" to date, some still believing that his demise is in large part down to Cointelpro, especially after documents were uncovered showing how he was targeted, how his apartments were bugged, how personal letters aimed at forcing him into killing himself before he was to receive his Nobel Peace Prize were found and so on, all of this among even more routes of personal attacks, intimidation and character assassination used upon him through this secretive program.

- FBI agents that spied on Martin Luther King also ran Cointelpro's 'Omaha Two'

Interesting stuff here that gives further insight into the arrangements before Dr. Martin Luther Kings
assignation. King was with Kyles, and Abernathy that evening, in a Motel and King was
on the balcony.

Dr. King was shot while he leaned over a second-floor railing outside his room at the Lorraine Motel. He was chatting with two friends just before starting for dinner. www.nytimes.com...

Kyles who is currently a minister had this to say recently as he spoke at a Church in 2011.

It was as Kyles, Abernathy and King prepared to leave the Lorraine, the Memphis motel where
King was staying, when death came.

When the two were leaving the motel room, Abernathy still inside, a shot rang out.

"I looked back," Kyles said. "He had been knocked from the railing back onto the floor"
www.nj.com...

Now here is where it gets really interesting.

Here, Dick Gregory in a presentation shows his audience evidence from the King trial,
,an old film with [sic] Kyle....who came by to get King to take him to dinner.


www.youtube.com...

Pay careful attention at about 4:20 on into the video.
Gregory also talks some after he shows the old film, and has some interesting things
to say about Hoover.

S & F Rise! Honestly I went into your thread not knowing much on this subject. Very Interesting Indeed!

reply to post by burntheships


As always, a great post from you there.

Truly great info on King as well. Not watched that video yet as well but I will soon - I'm sure you know already Hoover is someone I've looked into quite a lot in the past.

reply to post by Rising Against


Well, thanks for this one. On the night of August 28, 1969 - the first anniversary of the Chicago police riots at the Democratic Convention, Hampton strode the stage of the Grant Park bandshell (the old one, near the Field Museum) with his hands holding his shirt open and baring his chest. He told the crowd that he knew "they" were going to kill him, so do it now, right here, kill me now is what he said, chest bared. Not too long after that, the murder of Fred Hampton happened just as he'd predicted.

reply to post by Aleister


I don't doubt you in the slightest, you're on of those members I have a great deal of respect for in fact, but do you have a source or a video of that out of curiosity?

I'd like to see it or read up on it more if possible. I've just never heard of that incident before. I'd like to try and (hopefully anyway) look into what may have caused such a seemingly random outburst from him. Perhaps he got one of the FBI's special letters?

reply to post by Rising Against


My eyes and ears. Phil Ochs sang at the same event, and a blood red moon was in the sky just as in Och's song about Lincoln Park which he sang there. Hampton probably knew by that time that he was toast, I have no idea how but the times were, ah, a changin', to coin a phrase.

If you or someone can find a semi-well known pic - I don't have a copy - of Hampton speaking from a ladder in Chicago's Daley Plaza (then Civic Center Plaza) near the Picasso statue, I'm the one holding up the ladder from in back of him. I'd enjoy seeing or saving a copy of that pic. Thanks again for the thread, and honestly, I didn't know anyone here had even taken notice of me.

reply to post by burntheships

Dr. King was shot while he leaned over a second-floor railing outside his room at the Lorraine Motel. He was chatting with two friends just before starting for dinner. www.nytimes.com...

Yes he was, and one of those people was Jessie Jackson. It's about his only claim to fame. He was a nobody before that.

Nice thread OP.

Fred was most definitely murdered in cold blood by our corrupt government.

reply to post by lonegurkha

Yes he was, and one of those people was Jessie Jackson. It's about his only claim to fame. He was a nobody before that.

Actually Jesse Jackson was one of SCLC's inner circle, and was active in the Chicago Open Housing Movement as well as in the top-tier of SCLC's involvement in the anti-war movement (as the guy who did the fundraising to keep them funded while they particpated in that movement).

Awsome - outing the COINTELPRO!

Is anyone else here suspicious of the same "club" regarding The Assassination of John Lennon, Matt Simmons (over BP's leak), oh and Andrew Brightbart too?

I sure am.