March 17, 2025 • 11 mins
Late on an evening in December 1969, Fred Hampton, a charismatic young leader, finishes a class on politics and law before sharing a quiet meal with his pregnant fiancée, Deborah Johnson. But beneath the calm surface, unseen forces are stirring. In the early hours of December 4th, an unexpected and violent raid unfolds. Within moments, a flurry of gunfire erupts, leaving Hampton and fellow Panther Mark Clark dead and the survivors facing arrest.
As the dust settles, shocking revelations emerge from disturbing autopsy findings to manipulated crime scene photos, intensifying the mystery surrounding Hampton’s death.
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Sources Black Against Empire by Joshua Bloom and Waldo Martin https://www.britannica.com/biography/Fred-Hampton
https://www.history.com/news/black-panther-fred-hampton-killing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Hampton
https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/black-panther-party/
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/one-mic-black-history--4557850/support.
As the dust settles, shocking revelations emerge from disturbing autopsy findings to manipulated crime scene photos, intensifying the mystery surrounding Hampton’s death.
Audio Onemichistory.com
Follow me on Instagram: @onemic_history
Follow me on Threads: https://www.threads.net/@onemic_history
Follow me on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Onemichistory
Please support our Patreon:
https://www.patreon.com/user?u=25697914
Buy me a Coffee https://www.buymeacoffee.com/Countryboi2m
Sources Black Against Empire by Joshua Bloom and Waldo Martin https://www.britannica.com/biography/Fred-Hampton
https://www.history.com/news/black-panther-fred-hampton-killing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Hampton
https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/black-panther-party/
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/one-mic-black-history--4557850/support.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Late on the evening of December nineteen sixty nine, fred
Hampton wrapped up a lecture on politics and law. He
then retreated to share a quiet meal with this deonce
Debrah Johnson. And despite the seemingly peaceful night, there were
unseen forces at play. In the early hours of December fourth,
without warning, a sudden, violent raid broke the stillness. Within moments,
(00:22):
a storm of gunfire left Fred Hampton and fellow Panther
member Mark Clark dead as the dust, subtle startling revelations
came to light, disturbing autopsy findings, manipulated crime scene photos,
driving the deeper mystery surrounding of Fred Hampton. And if
you like stories like this, you can find more stories
(00:43):
like this at onemichistory dot com. If you're like, oh,
the only episodes, you can find one mic history wherever
you get your podcasts. But without further ado, let's get started.
Fred Hampton was a young, influential black activist in Chicago,
known for his leadership qualities his community activism as the
chairman of the Chicago chapter of the Black Panther Party.
(01:04):
Yet to understand Fred Hampton, you need to start at
the beginning. He began his journey with the NAACP, where
he successfully expanded their local youth council. He also spearheaded
community service programs like their free Lunch initiative, and he
organized protests against racial discrimination, and his high school prompted
positive changes in the school staff. During the late sixties,
(01:26):
this was a time of significant social and political unrest.
His strong opposition to the war in Vietnam only drew
him closer to his activism. By November of nineteen sixty eight,
he had become the founding member of the Chicago chapter
of the Black Panther Party for Self Defense. But prior
to him joining the Black Panther Party, his activities had
(01:48):
already attracted the attention of the FBI, then led by
Jay Edgar Hoover. The FBI had labeled him as a
key leader in its Agitator Index, marking him for kind
considerable surveillance. To this end, his phone was tapped for
nine months as the FBI closely monitored his growing influence
and activism see The FBI's counterintelligence program was specifically focused
(02:14):
on undermining groups that it deemed subversive, with the Black
Panther Party being one of its main targets. The program
aimed to obstruct and neutralize these organizations and prevent the
rise of a Black Massiah hampless impact extended far beyond
the Black Panther Party. In a remarkable effort to bridge divides,
(02:35):
he worked tirelessly to unite various gangs in Chicago, leading
to the formation of a Rainbow Coalition. This movement was
based in economic solidarity, amplifying his influence and making him
a considerable concern for law enforcement and the FBI. The
possibility of a unified Black movement posed a significant threat
to j Ego Hoover and his vision, as he believed
(02:57):
that groups like the Black Panther Party, the Young Patriots,
the Young Lords can unite a revolution that could transform
the United States. This fear was a driving force behind
the establishment of their counterintelligence program with the intent to
disrupt and dismantle organizations just like these. So in the
fall of nineteen sixty eight, the Chicago FBI office initiated
(03:21):
its counterintelligence program specifically to target the Chicago Black Panther Party.
A special Racial Matter Squad within the FBI was organized
to focus on these efforts, with Roy Mitchell as a
notable agent involved in specialized actions against the Panthers. Mitchell
will recruit informant William O'Neill, who was serving time at
(03:43):
Cook County Jail, and recruited him to infiltrate the Black Panthers.
He was already on the payroll when the Chicago Black
Panther offices opened. O'Neill would then join the organization and
quickly rise through the ranks, becoming the chief Officer of Secure.
In November of nineteen sixty eight, Edward V. N. Ramahan
(04:04):
would become the Cook County State's Attorney and established the
Special Prosecution Unit. He then assigned a special squad of
nine Chicago police officers to work directly with the FBI's
Racial Maddis Squad against the Chicago Black Panther Party. By
June of nineteen sixty nine, the FBI was already coordinating
raids against the Chicago Black Panther Officers. Integral to these
(04:28):
operations was William O'Neill, who had already infiltrated the party
and was continuously relaying intelligence to the FBI. Unbeknownst to many,
O'Neil had risen through the ranks and not only become
the director of Security, but was serving as fred Hampton's
personal bodyguard. O'Neill's commitment seemed genuine, and he even went
(04:49):
so far to rent an apartment for fred Hampton. On
the night of November thirteenth, nineteen sixty nine, FBI agent
Roy Mitchell met with William O'Neil, who provided detailed information
on fred Hampton's apartment layout, including fred Hampton's bed location,
with other specific details to help create a plan for
(05:12):
a possible raid. On the evening of December third in
nineteen sixty nine, Fred Hampton taught a class on politics
at Law and returned to his apartment, where he had
dinner with his pregnant fiance, Dereborah Johnson. Afterwards, they both
fell asleep, unaware of the looming danger. In the early
hours of December fourth, nineteen sixty nine, a team of
(05:34):
fourteen officers arrived in fred Hampton's apartment, armed with the
search foreign for legal weapons. What unfolded next was a
rapid and violent sequence of events. Fred Hampton was resting
in the back bedroom when the rady began. Despite the
chaos and noise, he remained early unresponsive and passive, a
start contrast to his usual alertness. His fiancee, Deborah Johnson,
(05:57):
noticed this change, buckerdool little when events took a dog
turn as gunfire erupted. Fred Hampton briefly stirred, lifting his
head only slightly, but could scarcely move and remained silent.
After the initial barrage of bullets, Johnson was arrested and
pulled into the kitchen. She recounted hearing a chilling remark
from an officer stating that he's barely alive, but he'll
(06:19):
make it. Moments later, two gunshots echoed throughout the apartment,
followed by a cold declaration that he's good and dead now.
These surviving panthers described the raid in similarly haunting detail,
emphasizing that Hampton was still alive after the first shots
and subsequent gunfire seemed to confirm a more sinister attempt,
(06:41):
suggesting an execution rather than a legitimate police action. In
the rays aftermath, Fred Hampton and Mark Clark, a visiting
panther leader from a story Illinois, were left dead, and
the police arrested the remaining pantheons on charges of attempted
murder and aggravated battery. However, public outrage and skepticism grew,
particularly after his Cook County as his attorney, Edward Behm Ramahan,
(07:03):
claiming that the Panthers initiated the gunfire. This assertion was
starkly contradicted by both physical and surviral testimony. The numbers
alone painted a chilling story. Between ninety and one hundred
bullets were unleashed by the police. In stark contrast, the
Panthers only allegedly fired one shot. This massive gap in
(07:23):
gunfire quickly led to questions about the police claims of
self defense. Soon afterwards, an independent autopsy was spearheaded by
a Black Panther member, Bobby Rush, in coordination with Fred
Hampton's parents, unveiling a starling discovery. Hampton had a significant
dose of sedanol, a powerful sleep inducing drug, in his system.
(07:45):
This revelation explained his uncharacteristic passivity during the raid and
suggested that he was drugged, setting the stage for a
calculated murder. Peeling back the layers of that night's tragic events,
and autopsy clarified the bullet trajectory, astonishing the whole bullets
had penetrated Hampton's head from the right in parallel paths,
suggesting that he was shot at close range while he
(08:07):
was still asleep. Outrage few Chicago's Black community, and on
December ninth, five thousand mourners gathered to honor Hampton. Reverend
Ralph Abernathy delivered a poignan eulogy, caution that if the
Black Panthers were silence, other social organizations would be next.
Bobby Rush urged those presents to transform their grief into
(08:28):
action and perseverance in the struggle for justice. In a
controversial move, Edward Van Ramahan would share exclusive photos from
Fred Hampton's apartment with The Chicago Tribune attempted to substantiate
and claim it that the Panthers were the ones that
initiated the gun battle. However, investigative work by The New
York Times exposed that these photos were misleading, and what
(08:50):
was represented as bullet holes were in fact nail holes,
a revelation that just deepened the outrage. The escalating demand
for truth forced the Justice Department's hand, leading to the
appointment of a federal grand jury to investigate the deaths
of Fred Hampton and Mark Clarke. The community's efforts and
civil rights organizations like the NAACP and the Chicago aclu
(09:13):
rallied together, and he denounced the raid as part of
a wider government effort to dismantle the Black Panther Party,
branding the deaths as political assassinations. December nineteenth, despite widespread
upheaval and internal police reviewed clear Edward Van Ramahan's unit
of any wrongdoing, but the persistence of unanswered questions only
(09:33):
fueled scrutiny. By January third, nineteen seventy, a federal grand
jury mandated that Fred Hampton's body being humed for a
second autopsy. This investigation corroborated the Panthers account that Fred
Hampton was a sloop when the shooting began, and the
bullet sjectories painted a herrowing picture of him being shot
by someone who had entered his room. The public's plea
(09:54):
for justice was reverberating loudly, and by May eighth of
nineteen seventy would be Ramahan who drew all charges against
the seven surviving Black Panther members present on that night,
conceding that there was absence of evidence against him. Shortly thereafter,
a federal grand jury released a comprehensive report disclosing that
the Special Prosecution Unit officers discharged at least eighty two shots,
(10:19):
while only one of them could be traced back to
the Black Panthers. Over the next decade, leadpoal clashes reached
all the way up to Supreme Court, and in nineteen
eighty two, a settlement was reached for one point eight
million dollars to be allotted to the family of the
States of Fred Hampton, Mark Clark, and the surviving Panther members,
with the financial burden being shared between federal, county and
(10:40):
city authorities. Fred Hampton's influence as a revolutionary and a
leader who established community programs and allegiances made him a target,
but the backlatch of his death contributed to the political
downfall of Edward V. Ham Ramahan, who had once been
a potential candidate for Chicago mayor. In nineteen seventy two,
he was voted out of office and the effectively ended
(11:01):
his political career. That same year, Huey Newton closed all
Black Panther offices outside of Oakland, and the Black Panther
Party would officially disband in nineteen eighty two. In remembrance
all Fred Hampton's legacy, the Chicago City Council designated December
fourth as Fred Hampton Day. Thank You. This has been
one mined black history. I'm your host, country Boy. This
(11:22):
has been the death of Fred Hampton. If you're like
stories like this, you can find more stories like this
at onemcistory dot com. And if you're like all your
only episodes, you can find one mic wherever you get
your dcast. Also, I like that all my financial contributors.
Without you, none of this can be possible. I love
you all. Thank you. Peace,
Late on the evening of December nineteen sixty nine, fred
Hampton wrapped up a lecture on politics and law. He
then retreated to share a quiet meal with this deonce
Debrah Johnson. And despite the seemingly peaceful night, there were
unseen forces at play. In the early hours of December fourth,
without warning, a sudden, violent raid broke the stillness. Within moments,
(00:22):
a storm of gunfire left Fred Hampton and fellow Panther
member Mark Clark dead as the dust, subtle startling revelations
came to light, disturbing autopsy findings, manipulated crime scene photos,
driving the deeper mystery surrounding of Fred Hampton. And if
you like stories like this, you can find more stories
(00:43):
like this at onemichistory dot com. If you're like, oh,
the only episodes, you can find one mic history wherever
you get your podcasts. But without further ado, let's get started.
Fred Hampton was a young, influential black activist in Chicago,
known for his leadership qualities his community activism as the
chairman of the Chicago chapter of the Black Panther Party.
(01:04):
Yet to understand Fred Hampton, you need to start at
the beginning. He began his journey with the NAACP, where
he successfully expanded their local youth council. He also spearheaded
community service programs like their free Lunch initiative, and he
organized protests against racial discrimination, and his high school prompted
positive changes in the school staff. During the late sixties,
(01:26):
this was a time of significant social and political unrest.
His strong opposition to the war in Vietnam only drew
him closer to his activism. By November of nineteen sixty eight,
he had become the founding member of the Chicago chapter
of the Black Panther Party for Self Defense. But prior
to him joining the Black Panther Party, his activities had
(01:48):
already attracted the attention of the FBI, then led by
Jay Edgar Hoover. The FBI had labeled him as a
key leader in its Agitator Index, marking him for kind
considerable surveillance. To this end, his phone was tapped for
nine months as the FBI closely monitored his growing influence
and activism see The FBI's counterintelligence program was specifically focused
(02:14):
on undermining groups that it deemed subversive, with the Black
Panther Party being one of its main targets. The program
aimed to obstruct and neutralize these organizations and prevent the
rise of a Black Massiah hampless impact extended far beyond
the Black Panther Party. In a remarkable effort to bridge divides,
(02:35):
he worked tirelessly to unite various gangs in Chicago, leading
to the formation of a Rainbow Coalition. This movement was
based in economic solidarity, amplifying his influence and making him
a considerable concern for law enforcement and the FBI. The
possibility of a unified Black movement posed a significant threat
to j Ego Hoover and his vision, as he believed
(02:57):
that groups like the Black Panther Party, the Young Patriots,
the Young Lords can unite a revolution that could transform
the United States. This fear was a driving force behind
the establishment of their counterintelligence program with the intent to
disrupt and dismantle organizations just like these. So in the
fall of nineteen sixty eight, the Chicago FBI office initiated
(03:21):
its counterintelligence program specifically to target the Chicago Black Panther Party.
A special Racial Matter Squad within the FBI was organized
to focus on these efforts, with Roy Mitchell as a
notable agent involved in specialized actions against the Panthers. Mitchell
will recruit informant William O'Neill, who was serving time at
(03:43):
Cook County Jail, and recruited him to infiltrate the Black Panthers.
He was already on the payroll when the Chicago Black
Panther offices opened. O'Neill would then join the organization and
quickly rise through the ranks, becoming the chief Officer of Secure.
In November of nineteen sixty eight, Edward V. N. Ramahan
(04:04):
would become the Cook County State's Attorney and established the
Special Prosecution Unit. He then assigned a special squad of
nine Chicago police officers to work directly with the FBI's
Racial Maddis Squad against the Chicago Black Panther Party. By
June of nineteen sixty nine, the FBI was already coordinating
raids against the Chicago Black Panther Officers. Integral to these
(04:28):
operations was William O'Neill, who had already infiltrated the party
and was continuously relaying intelligence to the FBI. Unbeknownst to many,
O'Neil had risen through the ranks and not only become
the director of Security, but was serving as fred Hampton's
personal bodyguard. O'Neill's commitment seemed genuine, and he even went
(04:49):
so far to rent an apartment for fred Hampton. On
the night of November thirteenth, nineteen sixty nine, FBI agent
Roy Mitchell met with William O'Neil, who provided detailed information
on fred Hampton's apartment layout, including fred Hampton's bed location,
with other specific details to help create a plan for
(05:12):
a possible raid. On the evening of December third in
nineteen sixty nine, Fred Hampton taught a class on politics
at Law and returned to his apartment, where he had
dinner with his pregnant fiance, Dereborah Johnson. Afterwards, they both
fell asleep, unaware of the looming danger. In the early
hours of December fourth, nineteen sixty nine, a team of
(05:34):
fourteen officers arrived in fred Hampton's apartment, armed with the
search foreign for legal weapons. What unfolded next was a
rapid and violent sequence of events. Fred Hampton was resting
in the back bedroom when the rady began. Despite the
chaos and noise, he remained early unresponsive and passive, a
start contrast to his usual alertness. His fiancee, Deborah Johnson,
(05:57):
noticed this change, buckerdool little when events took a dog
turn as gunfire erupted. Fred Hampton briefly stirred, lifting his
head only slightly, but could scarcely move and remained silent.
After the initial barrage of bullets, Johnson was arrested and
pulled into the kitchen. She recounted hearing a chilling remark
from an officer stating that he's barely alive, but he'll
(06:19):
make it. Moments later, two gunshots echoed throughout the apartment,
followed by a cold declaration that he's good and dead now.
These surviving panthers described the raid in similarly haunting detail,
emphasizing that Hampton was still alive after the first shots
and subsequent gunfire seemed to confirm a more sinister attempt,
(06:41):
suggesting an execution rather than a legitimate police action. In
the rays aftermath, Fred Hampton and Mark Clark, a visiting
panther leader from a story Illinois, were left dead, and
the police arrested the remaining pantheons on charges of attempted
murder and aggravated battery. However, public outrage and skepticism grew,
particularly after his Cook County as his attorney, Edward Behm Ramahan,
(07:03):
claiming that the Panthers initiated the gunfire. This assertion was
starkly contradicted by both physical and surviral testimony. The numbers
alone painted a chilling story. Between ninety and one hundred
bullets were unleashed by the police. In stark contrast, the
Panthers only allegedly fired one shot. This massive gap in
(07:23):
gunfire quickly led to questions about the police claims of
self defense. Soon afterwards, an independent autopsy was spearheaded by
a Black Panther member, Bobby Rush, in coordination with Fred
Hampton's parents, unveiling a starling discovery. Hampton had a significant
dose of sedanol, a powerful sleep inducing drug, in his system.
(07:45):
This revelation explained his uncharacteristic passivity during the raid and
suggested that he was drugged, setting the stage for a
calculated murder. Peeling back the layers of that night's tragic events,
and autopsy clarified the bullet trajectory, astonishing the whole bullets
had penetrated Hampton's head from the right in parallel paths,
suggesting that he was shot at close range while he
(08:07):
was still asleep. Outrage few Chicago's Black community, and on
December ninth, five thousand mourners gathered to honor Hampton. Reverend
Ralph Abernathy delivered a poignan eulogy, caution that if the
Black Panthers were silence, other social organizations would be next.
Bobby Rush urged those presents to transform their grief into
(08:28):
action and perseverance in the struggle for justice. In a
controversial move, Edward Van Ramahan would share exclusive photos from
Fred Hampton's apartment with The Chicago Tribune attempted to substantiate
and claim it that the Panthers were the ones that
initiated the gun battle. However, investigative work by The New
York Times exposed that these photos were misleading, and what
(08:50):
was represented as bullet holes were in fact nail holes,
a revelation that just deepened the outrage. The escalating demand
for truth forced the Justice Department's hand, leading to the
appointment of a federal grand jury to investigate the deaths
of Fred Hampton and Mark Clarke. The community's efforts and
civil rights organizations like the NAACP and the Chicago aclu
(09:13):
rallied together, and he denounced the raid as part of
a wider government effort to dismantle the Black Panther Party,
branding the deaths as political assassinations. December nineteenth, despite widespread
upheaval and internal police reviewed clear Edward Van Ramahan's unit
of any wrongdoing, but the persistence of unanswered questions only
(09:33):
fueled scrutiny. By January third, nineteen seventy, a federal grand
jury mandated that Fred Hampton's body being humed for a
second autopsy. This investigation corroborated the Panthers account that Fred
Hampton was a sloop when the shooting began, and the
bullet sjectories painted a herrowing picture of him being shot
by someone who had entered his room. The public's plea
(09:54):
for justice was reverberating loudly, and by May eighth of
nineteen seventy would be Ramahan who drew all charges against
the seven surviving Black Panther members present on that night,
conceding that there was absence of evidence against him. Shortly thereafter,
a federal grand jury released a comprehensive report disclosing that
the Special Prosecution Unit officers discharged at least eighty two shots,
(10:19):
while only one of them could be traced back to
the Black Panthers. Over the next decade, leadpoal clashes reached
all the way up to Supreme Court, and in nineteen
eighty two, a settlement was reached for one point eight
million dollars to be allotted to the family of the
States of Fred Hampton, Mark Clark, and the surviving Panther members,
with the financial burden being shared between federal, county and
(10:40):
city authorities. Fred Hampton's influence as a revolutionary and a
leader who established community programs and allegiances made him a target,
but the backlatch of his death contributed to the political
downfall of Edward V. Ham Ramahan, who had once been
a potential candidate for Chicago mayor. In nineteen seventy two,
he was voted out of office and the effectively ended
(11:01):
his political career. That same year, Huey Newton closed all
Black Panther offices outside of Oakland, and the Black Panther
Party would officially disband in nineteen eighty two. In remembrance
all Fred Hampton's legacy, the Chicago City Council designated December
fourth as Fred Hampton Day. Thank You. This has been
one mined black history. I'm your host, country Boy. This
(11:22):
has been the death of Fred Hampton. If you're like
stories like this, you can find more stories like this
at onemcistory dot com. And if you're like all your
only episodes, you can find one mic wherever you get
your dcast. Also, I like that all my financial contributors.
Without you, none of this can be possible. I love
you all. Thank you. Peace,
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