Fred Hampton

Fred Hampton (August 30, 1948 - December 4, 1969) was chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party and a prominent Chicago community organizer. He was killed at age 21 in a pre-dawn Chicago Police Department raid on his apartment at 2337 W. Monroe Street on December 4, 1969. His fellow panther Mark Clark was also killed. FBI documents declassified in subsequent investigations established that Hampton's personal security chief, William O'Neal, was an FBI informant operating under COINTELPRO who provided a detailed floor plan of Hampton's apartment to the FBI and Chicago police in advance of the raid.¹

Black Panther Party Leadership

Hampton joined the NAACP youth chapter in Maywood, Illinois, in his teens and became chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party in 1968, at age 20. He was an effective organizer who established the Rainbow Coalition, an alliance between the Black Panthers, the Young Patriots Organization (a poor white group from Appalachia), and the Young Lords (a Puerto Rican organization), as well as with other Chicago street organizations. He also organized a free breakfast program for children and a community health clinic. The FBI identified him in 1969 as a potential "Black Messiah" - the specific language used in Hoover's 1967 COINTELPRO directive regarding Black organizations - and began intensive surveillance.¹

William O'Neal and the FBI Floor Plan

William O'Neal was recruited as an FBI informant under Special Agent Roy Mitchell of the Chicago FBI field office in 1969. O'Neal joined the Illinois chapter of the Black Panther Party and became Hampton's personal bodyguard and director of security. In late November 1969, O'Neal provided Mitchell with a detailed hand-drawn floor plan of Hampton's apartment, specifically marking the location of Hampton's bed. O'Neal also, according to investigators' findings, administered a dose of barbiturates (secobarbital) to Hampton in a drink the night before the raid, which rendered Hampton unable to wake during the assault.¹

The Raid

At approximately 4:45 a.m. on December 4, 1969, Chicago Police Department officers from the State's Attorney's office, directed by First Assistant State's Attorney Richard Elrod, executed a search warrant at 2337 W. Monroe Street. The official justification was a weapons search. The officers fired approximately 90-99 rounds into the apartment; the occupants fired one or two shots in response. Hampton was found unconscious, having been unable to wake from the drugged state. He was shot twice in the head at close range; forensic analysis conducted in the civil litigation found that these shots were fired with Hampton's head on a pillow, indicating he was lying down when shot. Mark Clark was also killed. Four other occupants were wounded and seven were arrested. Hampton was 21 years old.¹

Investigations and Legal Proceedings

The Chicago Police Department and State's Attorney initially characterized the raid as a gunfight initiated by the Panthers. A special grand jury was convened in 1970 under Special State's Attorney Barnabas Sears; Sears's report in 1972 concluded that the police had fired 90-99 rounds while evidence supported only one shot having been fired by the occupants, and that the operation had been planned with the intent to kill. However, Sears's recommendation for prosecution was not pursued.

A federal civil rights lawsuit, Hampton v. Hanrahan, was filed by Hampton's family and other survivors. After thirteen years of litigation, the case was settled in 1982 for $1.85 million, paid by the federal government (FBI), the City of Chicago, and Cook County.¹

FBI documents obtained through the civil litigation and subsequent FOIA requests confirmed O'Neal's role and established that the FBI's Chicago field office had shared O'Neal's apartment floor plan with the police in advance of the raid. O'Neal himself received a $300 bonus payment from the FBI following Hampton's death. He died in 1990, on the 21st anniversary of Hampton's death, in what was ruled a suicide.¹

COINTELPRO Context

Hampton's death is documented by the Church Committee and subsequent declassified records as among the most dramatic examples of COINTELPRO coordination between the FBI and local law enforcement resulting in the death of a targeted individual. The Church Committee found that the FBI's "neutralization" tactics against Black organizations included coordination with local police in ways that the committee characterized as having facilitated violence against targeted individuals.²