◆ SpookStack

Nos. 77-1698, 77-1210 & 77-1870 11 . credit the BPP among “liberal” whites, the promotion of violent conflicts between the BPP and other groups,’ the encouragement of dissension within the BPP, and_the disruption of the BPP’s Breakfast Program for Chil- dren. Memoranda from Washington directing the local employment of such tactics were transmitted to Johnson, Robert Piper (after March 1969 the chief of the Racial Matters Squad of the Chicago FBI which was respons- ible for FBI programs regarding the BPP), and Roy M. Mitchell (special agent assigned to the Racial Matters Squad in Chicago). The evidence presented by plaintiffs indicates that when the local chapter of the BPP opened in Chicago in November 1968, the Chicago FBI was quick to imple- ment the tactics mandated by Washington. One of the key figures in the Chicago FBI’s program to disrupt the Panthers was William O’Neal, O’Neal was a paid FBI informant whom Mitchell! originally had contacted while O’Neal was incarcerated in the Cook County Jail. Mitchell recontacted O’Neal and instructed him to join the BPP. O’Neal walked into the BPP office at 2350 West Madison Street the day it opened in November 1968 and joined,. soon. becoming the local chief of security for the Panthers. The local FBI was able to effectuate many of its plans to disrupt the BPP through O’Neal. O’Neal informed Mitchell about a proposed merger between the BPP and a local black gang, the Blackstone Rangers. The Chicago office, with Johnson’s approval, then sent an anonymous letter to Jeff Fort, the leader of the Rangers, telling Fort that the Panthers had a “hit out” on him. The purpose of the letter was to prevent a merger and to induce the Rangers to initiate reprisals against the BPP. O’Neal also falsely accused a member of the Vice Lords, another black Chicago gang, of being a police informant, thereby squelching another possible merger. O’Neal, 7 For example, in Southern California the FBI mounted a covert operation to escalate a “gang war” between the BPP and an organization called the “United Slaves.” This gang war resulted in the killing of four. Panthers by members of United Slaves and numerous beatings and shootings.