Site 2

The Panthers declared 1969 the Year of the Youth.

J. Edgar Hoover declared the Party the greatest threat to the internal security of the United States.

He pledged to destroy it by the end of the year.

Police repression increased across the country. Branches and chapter offices were being raided, including at least three raids on the Illinois Chapter’s headquarters. Leaders were killed, beaten, and jailed. In Illinois, Fred Hampton's appeal was denied, and he was to turn himself in to begin serving a two-to-five-year prison sentence.

The Illinois Chapter had a purge. The frequent friction with law enforcement made suspicion and paranoia palpable; flushing out informants was central to the path forward. All members were demoted from Panthers to Community Workers and had to earn their titles back. Then, on November 13, 1969, Spurgeon "Jake" Winters was in a gunfight with Chicago police at 5801 S. Calumet. This location is now an empty lot. Jake was an expert marksman who was firearms-trained by his father and had just been purged. He and two Chicago police officers lost their lives that night.

On November 19, within a week of the gun battle, FBI Special Agent Roy Mitchell called his informant in. FBI Informant William O'Neal provided the floor plan to the Panther crib where Fred and other Panthers lived. Several members of the assassination squad had been involved in the Jake Winters gunfight.

The Illinois Panthers called a leadership meeting, and on December 3, Illinois leadership arrived in Chicago, including Mark Clark, Peoria's leader and Defense Captain. Fred Hampton led the political education class that night, and the plan was for the Illinois leadership to gather at the 2337 W. Monroe apartment afterward for a meeting. Known as a “Panther Crib,” the apartment at 2337 W. Monroe served as the residence of Illinois Deputy Chairman Fred Hampton, Illinois Deputy Minister of Education Billy Brooks, and other Party members. It was less than a block from headquarters at 2350 W. Madison and served as an important organizing space for Party leadership.

O’Neal would have let Mitchell know that all of Illinois’ Party leadership would be at the meeting and then the apartment. The Gang Intelligence Unit had its own informants and would also know.

Leadership discussions centered on several questions: would Fred turn himself in, would he go underground and leave the country, or something else? The FBI discussed these same questions. In its files, allowing Fred to turn himself in would create a movement like the “Free Huey!” movement and make him larger than life. Going underground and emerging overseas, as Eldridge Cleaver did, would allow him to influence the Party and politics. No. Neither of those was ideal, as far as the FBI was concerned.

After the political education meeting, William O'Neal picked up Fred’s girlfriend Deborah Johnson, who had been at a friend's house that night. Both went to the apartment.

Reports on what happened at the apartment vary. As it became very late, members who lived elsewhere returned to other Panther cribs and homes. Deputy Minister of Defense Bobby Rush, Deputy Minister of Information Chaka Walls, and others left the apartment. A total of nine people remained in the apartment.

Sometime during the night, Fred Hampton was drugged with the powerful barbiturate Seconal.

Between approximately 4:30 a.m. and 4:45 a.m. on December 4, 1969, Chicago police arrived. Fred Hampton and Mark Clark were killed. Ronald "Doc" Satchel, Brenda Harris, Blair Anderson, and Verlina Brewer were wounded by gunfire. Deborah Johnson, Harold Bell, and Louis Truelock survived without being shot.

As word of the raid and Fred Hampton's death spread, Panthers began calling the apartment. Chicago police answered the telephone, laughing as they told callers, "The Chairman is dead." As daylight began, the police hurried out of the area and left the apartment unsecured.

That very day, Cook County State’s Attorney Edward Hanrahan was on the radio describing the events as a shootout and claiming that his officers were under attack by the Panthers. That very day, the Panthers conducted tours of the apartment to show the community what took place.

Fred Hampton's assassination remains one of the most significant political assassinations in United States history and one of the most consequential examples of coordinated FBI and police action against a political organization.