Fred Hampton

Fred Hampton (August 30, 1948 – December 4, 1969) was a radical African American

The raid

In mid-November 1969, O'Neal provided the FBI with detailed information of Hampton's apartment, including the location of furniture and the bed in which Hampton and his girlfriend slept. An augmented, fourteen-man team of the SAO -- Special Prosecutions Unit -- was organized for a pre-dawn raid armed with an illegal weapons warrant. On the evening of December 3, Hampton taught a political education course at a local church, which was attended by most members. Afterwards, as was typical, several Panthers retired to the Monroe Street apartment to spend the night, including Hampton and Deborah Johnson, Blair Anderson, Doc Satchell, Harold Bell, Verlina Brewer,

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Louis Truelock, Brenda Harris, and Mark Clark. Upon arrival, they were met by O'Neal, who had prepared a late dinner including Kool Aid, which was consumed by the group around midnight. O'Neal left at this point, and, at about 1:30AM, Hampton fell asleep in mid-sentence talking to his mother on the telephone. (The Kool Aid was subsequently thought to have been laced with the powerful barbiturate, secobarbitol.)

Related Topics:
Mark Clark - Barbiturate

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At 4:00AM, the heavily armed police team arrived at the site, dividing into two teams, eight for the front of the building and six for the rear. At 4:45, they stormed in the apartment. Mark Clark, asleep in a front room with a shotgun in his lap, was killed instantly, firing off a single round — the only shot the Panthers fired — in a death spasm. The automatic gunfire converged at the head of the bedroom where Hampton slept. Two officers found him wounded in the shoulder, and the following exchange took place:

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:"That's Fred Hampton."

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:"Is he dead?... Bring him out."

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:"He's barely alive; he'll make it."

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Two shots were heard, which were fired point blank in Hampton's head. One officer then said:

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:"He's good and dead now."

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Hampton's body was dragged into the doorway of the bedroom and left in a pool of blood.

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The raiders then directed their gunfire towards the remaining Panthers, hiding in another bedroom. They were wounded, then beaten and dragged into the street, where they were arrested on charges of aggravated assault and the attempted murder of their assailants. They were held on US$100,000 bail apiece.

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