Q417 Transcript

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[Editorial note: Much of this transcript consists of the reading of an article published in New Times, a biweekly magazine. Jim Jones offers commentary throughout. The commentary during the reading of the article is set off in green type.]

Jones: –does not want to assist without trying to impose its capitalistic controls on the economy, and Guyana is firmly resisting that. The same applies to England, so they’re going to accept the aid from the only country that’s willing to give it, with no strings attached. That is China. China’s asking for no controls or nothing at all. It’s just a long-term loan. So that’s where it is. Things look good for us on that front, and we’re certainly glad to hear that China has made this assistance offer. We’re glad for its aid to Zambia, that’s standing up against USA, perhaps China at least is manipulating the vacuum– power vacuum in the Caribbean, because USA is preoccupied with Africa. In the long run, it will certainly still aid– aid an independent course for the Third World nations in the Caribbean.

The book – and that’s really what it is – New Times [magazine] all devoted to the destruction of Huey [Newton]. “The Party’s Over,” written by Paul Avery, who used to be a liberal, who spent several days in Redwood Valley, and secretly checked out all of our healings and found that I had unusual miraculous powers, he said. In those days he talked against the Vietnam War, and seemed to understand our socialist course. But he sold out. Even [Steve] Gavin, the editor of The Chronicle, who has now left The Chronicle, is very friendly to us, is back with the Baltimore Sun, said that Paul Avery had questionable connections. The inference was he was with the CIA. He spoke at our congregation one time, as you know, championing a Chinese young man, but that uh, group the Chinese young man was with, had uh, unquestionable Mafia connections. Anyway, Paul Avery and Kate Coleman write this book. The last we saw Paul Avery, he was trying to debate with his conscience as to whether he should come into Peoples Temple, but he was high on dope and drinking all the time. So now he’s sold his soul to the white company store. The beginning of the article:

* * * *

“Several weeks ago, a thirty-year-old black woman went to police in Oakland, California, to report she had been kidnapped and sexually assaulted. She said the incident had occurred two days earlier, in the afternoon. The woman gave this account.” Again, no names, so it makes it so easy to destroy a man.

“While waiting for a bus in crowded downtown Oakland” – crowded downtown Oakland, note that – “she had stepped into a phone booth to make two quick calls. She spoke first with her fiancé, and was about to call her mother, when a gold Cadillac pulled up nearby, and a huge man got out. The woman later guessed he stood six feet, seven inches, and weighed about 400 pounds.

“He said, ‘Mr. Newton would like to see you,’ gesturing towards the late-model Cadillac.

“‘I don’t know any Newton,’ the woman replied.” That’s hardly likely, in that Huey Newton is a word that anyone would know in Oakland.

“A light-skinned black man with a large Afro got out of the Cadillac and beckoned to her. Then the big man, indicating a gun in his pocket, said, ‘You’d better come with me.’ He pressed up against her, and she could feel the barrel. He warned that if she yelled for help, ‘I’ll blow your brains out all over the phone booth.’

“Both men then shoved her into the back of the car, and the big man took the wheel, leaving the other man in back with the woman. ‘You know where to go,’ he told the driver. And the car sped off toward the industrialized section of West Oakland, where it pulled in behind a building and stopped. The man in back snorted some white powder” – there again, indicating he’s a coke freak – “and began bragging to the woman about his sexual prowess, about what a superior man and lover he was. He started to unbutton her blouse, then tried to lift up her tee shirt underneath. She shoved him away. ‘No bitch pushes me around!’ he yelled, smacking her back and forth across the face. He went for her shirt again, pulled it up and began fondling and kissing her breasts. When she resisted, he burned her left wrist severely with a cigarette, and called her a street whore.

“The driver turned around in his seat. ‘Huey, can’t you see she isn’t a street woman?’” Imagine, kidnapping and raping a woman that he would call Huey by his first name? “He said– he urged that they let her go, but the man in back told the driver that he should just follow orders.” They always appeal to– to people in a movement, by such tactics. They paint the driver not quite as bad as Huey, so if he ever wants to turn against Huey, he can feel that he won’t get it in the end. However, after they use all finks – they either disappear, get killed, or end up jailed themselves. Note that is one of the clever tactics that they use. “At that, the driver pulled out a pistol and directed the woman to do what she was told.” She’s just painting the driver as brainwashed, but not really mean, because he was asking for mercy for the woman. And of course it’s really rather resistance– or rather– rather, ridiculous that Huey is a very short man, much shorter than myself, and he’s supposed to be able to order a man around, that has the gun, behind the wheel, 400 pounds. Quite unlikely. “She stopped all resistance then, and when the man in the back seat ordered her to fondle his penis through his pants, she obeyed, but he was dissatisfied with her efforts. He ordered her to excite him. Yet despite her attempts, he failed to get an erection. Finally he pulled the woman’s slacks down to her knees and ordered that she spread her legs while he performed cunnilingus,” using his tongue on her vagina. “It lasted about five minutes.

“Afterward, he went through the woman’s purse and took out $46 in cash.” Now imagine, a man with a late-model gold Cadillac needs to steal?! And $46? Now he’s a rapist, a kidnapper, and a thief? Anybody with a right mind can see through these lies, but people don’t, or these magazines wouldn’t sell. “He carefully examined her wallet and warned her, ‘Now I know who you are, and where you live. If I hear anything about this, you’ll be taken care of.’ Seeing pictures of her three children, he threatened to kill them too.

“The big man h– h– h– the big man headed the Cadillac for North Oakland, where the woman was released. Later she estimated the ordeal had lasted about two-and-one-half hours. The man in back handed her five dollars – ‘to catch a cab,’ he said – and threatened to kill her if she took action.

“Badly shaken, the woman went to her mother’s house. Her brother and her fiancé,” her boyfriend, “arrived soon after. She had been so affected by the experience that she fainted several times that evening, until finally her family brought her to the emergency room at Doctors Hospital in Oakland, where she told the examining physician the whole story. The doctor urged her to call the police.” I think the doctor would have done more than that, because a doctor is a criminal unless they demand that the police be brought into such things. “But the woman was too frightened. It was two days before she reported the incident” – My, my, my, how convenient – “and then only at the urging of her boyfriend, her fiancé.

“The woman told Oakland Police that her assailant was Huey Newton – founder and leader of the Black Panther Party. She said she had recognized him ‘from seeing him on TV and in the papers,’ but she identified him again from police photos, and from the sheaf of photos she unhesitatingly identified the big man as Robert Heard, Newton’s six-foot-eight-inch bodyguard, who has been variously described as weighing between 380 and 470 pounds.

“Police began the paperwork on her complaint, anticipating the arrest of Newton and Heard on charges of kidnapping and sexual assault, but the woman refused to press charges. She remembered the threats and was terrified.” My, my. See, that’s so convenient, there’s no police record, uh, (chuckles) so they can use all kinds of lies. No, this woman certainly was perfectly safe to do that. Black power – the P– Panther Party – had no clout, and if it had been that she really didn’t want to, the police could have done so, on the complainant themselves. They had the right, and as much as they hate Huey, hi– his socialism, they certainly would’ve done it. Anyone can see through that lie, that has any sense, but USA public has no sense.

“After various parts of the woman’s story surfaced locally, Newton and his law-lawyer, Sheldon Otis, insisted that Newton had nothing to do with her– with the attack, ‘assuming, of course, that it even took place,’ Otis said. They said he had been exonerated,” freed, that is, “by a privately commissioned lie-detector test.” He’d been freed of any– uh, he’d been shown to be innocent. “But in a source close to the district attorney’s office” – now imagine, “source close” – what the hell does that mean, wastebasket? “But a source close to the district attorney’s office says the test was poorly conducted, that only four questions were asked, and that the two dealing with sexual assault were unspecific enough that Newton might have been able to pass a test he would otherwise have failed.

“Nevertheless, Newton’s defense team made copies of the lie detector test available to reporters as a way of refuting the woman’s story. But a refutation or denial was unnecessary. Even with prodding from the police and assurances of protection, the woman still refused to press charges, fearing Panther retribution,” retaliation. I never heard of Newton ever being charged. There was certainly no news about it. And if he’d done it, or been accused of it, we’d have read something about it. They send me all such clippings. These lies are too much.

“The woman had good reason to be afraid. Over the last few years, Huey Newton and other Panthers have moved like a street gang of hoodlums through the Oakland area,” says the so-called socialist New Times. It’s just a ruse to make U.S. look like they’re liberal, to have these magazines, New Times, New West – they’re sisters, you know. New West is the one that was used to detra– to try to destroy us. “They have, say reliable sources” – again, what are these reliable sources? No names – “committed a series of violent crimes, including arson,” setting buildings on fire with people in them, “extortion,” threatening people to kill them if they don’t give them money, “beatings, even murder. Unlike the skirmishes that marked the Party’s infancy in the late sixties, the recent incidents appear to have no political ex– explanation whatsoever. The Panthers are no longer under siege by the police.” Oh my God! That’s too much, uh, being that he’s been, since he got back from Cuba, charged with four more (chuckles) murders, even one on a– a young woman that didn’t even exist, according to record. “And this is not self-defense. It seems to be nothing but senseless criminality, directed in most cases against other blacks.” See how clever, to get the black population divided from Huey. “And sometimes it’s done against Panthers themselves,” to cause the Panthers then, there’re still the few of them left, to be paranoid.

“Most of these crimes remain open on police ledgers. The victims are too frightened, or the evidence is too circumstantial, to bring Newton or his Panther subordinates to trial.” Circumstantial means there’s no evidence. (chuckles) “Only a few of the incidents, in fact, have been covered in the Oakland and San Francisco press.” Naturally that’s what we’re gonna say now, and how anxious the San Francisco press and Oakland, have been to destroy him, and the murders, they surely mentioned all of that, so– and all these other stupid set-ups and frame-ups. But now this is the way they covered it, because be– even the incidents were not covered in the Oakland and San Francisco press because there were no sources. Hell, you don’t have to have sources. This is being written entirely without sources or evidence. “Some have never been reported to the police,” even. Oh, now that’s nice, convenient.

“Now, after six months of interviews with disaffected Party intimates, the police and others, it is imposs– it is possible to learn the scope of recent Panther violence. It is possible, too, to see how the wave of brutality has affected the Black Panther Party, and the effect has been great. Already the Party support– the Party support (Pause)  in the community has diminished” – that’s exactly what this magazine wants to do, to stop it all – “its grant money has dried up, and valuable workers and supporters have left”, for good cause. Oh, how beautiful this New Times is used by the establishment to destroy progressive forces, while all the time, New Times magazine has appeared to be progressive. But now it’s showing its true colors, in this horrible murder in press against Huey. “The Panthers’ day care center/grade school, is still operating, as is the free health clinic. But these institutions exist side-by-side with another Newton creation of an entirely different” criminal “sort.” They want to even close those down, you can see.

“New Times has learned had– that there is a secret wing of the Party, assembled originally by Newton as his own palace guard, loyal to him personally, against any contender. Within the Party, the group is known as ‘the Squad.’ By all appearances, the Squad is simply a team of Newton’s bodyguards, but they often operate like underworld hit men.

“An uncanny duality has grown up around the Panthers, a myth and a reality, difficult to penetrate and sort out. Over the years, many supporters have regarded Panther militancy as a legitimate response to police brutality, and the country, USA’s, long history of racism. Now confronted by Panther behavior that seems to defy explanation, some Bay Area blacks and leftists nevertheless continue to protect and defend the Party.” That’s why they’re writing this article, to stop all defense. “There has been a fear that any exposé of the Panthers would play into the hands of reactionary fascist forces and hurt the entire black community. Party support has dwindled, but to many people, still, Panthers, and above all Huey Newton, are liberators of oppressed blacks, heroes standing up to malignant police forces, great teachers in the vein of Mao Tse-Tung and Che Guevara. Also, illegal government actions aimed with particular zeal at the Panthers by the FBI and other agencies, as revealed two years ago by the Senate Intelligence Committee and s– subsequent Freedom of Information Act lawsuits, created a well of sympathy for the Party, and suspicion of efforts to expose it.” It ought to, because the FBI was using dirty tricks and lies and crimes to discredit them under their COINTELPRO program. That’s my commentary. Anything decent about Huey will be my commentary, because this is nothing but a total smear.

“But there is growing sense among many sympathizers and ex-Panthers that it is Huey Newton himself who has discredited the Party, and by seemingly gratuitous violence, uncalled for, betrayed the principles on which it was founded.”

I’m sorry to have to read, and you’d to hear my voice, but I on– only have one copy and I’m afraid it’ll get destroyed, so I want you all to hear it.

“It was in the fall of 1966 that Huey Newton, the son of a Baptist minister [Walter Newton]” – who I healed, by the way, and  healed his mother [Armelia Johnson] of cancer – “founded the Black Panther Party, along with his friends Bobby Seale and David Hilliard. The Oakland-based Panthers marked a departure from the trend of black cultural nationalism then on the rise in the ghetto, and nationalism that declared all whites the enemy. The Party argued that black liberation could not be won without the support of white revolutionaries and radicals, and is welc– it welcomed them to the fight against a common ruling-class enemy.” And that’s why the system is after him. They didn’t mind black nationalism, separatism, but oh my, integrate the working class, black and white? No, no, Huey. You had to be killed for that. “The Panthers’ ‘Ten Point Program’ went further than any nationalist group demand by calling for ‘all power to the people,’ and the armed self-defense of blacks” and Indians and minorities.

“In Oakland, particularly, blacks had little power. That predominantly black city was run, until very recently, by a white,” right-wing – I’m calling it that, they don’t call it that, they call it Republican, but it was right-wing – “Republican administration, and a police department described by a local black politician as ‘no different from the most rabid, white cracker police force in a small Mississippi town.’

“To keep an eye on the police, Newton and his fellow Panthers began patrolling Oakland ghetto streets on weekend nights, (Pause) defiantly toting shotguns, pistols, and a copy of the California Penal Code. The Panthers, (Pause) though, were careful to remain within the law. They advised Oakland residents of their legal rights, and acted as an armed presence to prevent police brutality. The effect on the left was electrifying. The outcry on the right” – fascist, that is, ri– fascist right-wing that’s growing night and day in USA – “prompted state legislators to draft a bill in California that made it illegal to bear unconcealed arms.” You couldn’t even carry them openly, as all white people do in every little country town. “In May 1967, a delegation of Panthers went to the California State Capitol carrying their weapons. They were lobbying against the bill, but the furor unleashed by their disciplined military presence assured its passage.

“The trip to the Capitol was well publicized, but the incident that would catapult Newton to national prominence came later, on October 28, 1967. Newton’s car was stopped by Oakland Police that night, leading to an exchange that ended with Newton shot in the somach– in the stomach, charged with murdering the other officer, John Frey. Newton pleaded innocent. His story was that Frey had called him ‘nigger’ and probed his genitals while searching him. He said that he had been shot point blank in the stomach” – and he had many witnesses to that too – “and had not shot back. But in 1968, a jury convicted Newton of voluntary manslaughter and he went to prison.” In fact, in the face of the evidence that a policeman had shot a policeman– that’s what they’ll do, the ruling class, to get at someone like myself or Huey, an activist.

“While in prison, Newton became a political martyr. ‘Free Huey’ buttons cropped up everywhere, and the West Coast-based Peace and Freedom Party dedicated itself to support the Panthers in a black-white coalition, adopted ‘Free Huey’ as its principal slogan. The Peace and Freedom Party also made Eldridge Cleaver its candidate for president of the USA in 1968. Cleaver, the celebrated Soul on Ice author,” now born again to Jesus, “helped run the Panthers when Newton went to prison.” It was Cleaver’s idea, too, to parade those guns in California. He might have been a provocateur even then. Who knows? It was certainly a– a stupid thing to do when they were trying to get a bill to ban the carrying of arms, to march into the legislature at that point in time, openly, with arms. Whatever, it was a mistake, however well-intentioned.

“During this period, white leftists and liberals flocked excitedly to the Black Panther Party, because they saw it as a nonracist revolutionary vanguard. The Party was self-consciously modeled after the Algerian FLN” – that we saw in that moodie– movie, The Battle of Algiers. It was modeled– Huey modeled directly after them – “with its urban guerilla warfare tactic of deliberate skirmishes with police. Leftists saw Newton as the only black leader dedicated to Marxist” Leninism, “but also capable of transforming ghetto blacks into a disciplined revolutionary army. Newton affected a swagger stick to go along with the Party’s militarism, and went by a variety of lofty titles over the years, showing his ego, including Minister of Defense, The Supreme Commander, Supreme Servant, The Servant, and most recently, President.” Nothing wrong with that. Sound like necessary titles. The DOP, uh, the dictatorship that represents the people.

“In predominantly black Oakland, only two percent of the police force was then made up of minorities,” even though better than half of Oakland is black. I’m s– making that point. “Panther claims that the police were an occupying army, and that the law enforcement agencies were out to crush the Party” – obviously, even with the help of so-called progressive magazines now, like New Times – “were concepts embraced immediately by white leftists,” of course, because it was easily seen that Oakland Police were racist and an occupying army in a black community. “When in 1968 and 1969, these law enforcement agencies raided Panther offices across the country, resulting in hundreds of arrests, and a long list of dead and wounded blacks” – I might mention killed by the police – “see ‘The Unquiet Grave of Fred Hampton,’ New Times, May 31, 1974.” That’s put in there to make them appear liberal and concerned about blacks being killed, to m– dignify them as liberals, but n– of course no one is gonna go back to 1974 in a library to find a New Times magazine.  “Panthers and many white leftists alike viewed armed struggle as coming very soon, imminent.

“The money began to flow into Panther coffers as never before, and prominent white liberals and leftists, including such people as then-Yale University– (Pause) He was the then-Yale University uh, head, uh, president Kingman Brewster” – Wasn’t too clear, now I’ve got the, I can read through it – “And author Jessica Mitford,” former member of the Communist Party, noted leftist now, “raised money. Both of those raised money or spoke publicly in support of the Party. It was the era of Radical Chic” – C-H-I-C – “of Leonard Bernstein’s swank New York cocktail party for the Panthers, and everywhere lib– liberals and leftists were demanding that Huey be freed.

“In the summer of 1970, he was freed, his conviction reversed, because the judge had erred in his instructions to the jury.” Fact– In fact, witnesses even stepped forward – they don’t mention that – to s– show that Huey was innocent. “Newton faced two more trials on the charge, both ending in jury deadlocks. Finally the district attorney declared that any further attempt to prosecute Newton would be futile, and the case was dismissed.” Futile, with that district attorney being a known racist in Oakland, it only can be futile because there was no evidence, because he certainly has hounded Huey to death. And this ought to show you as black, in this community, that if a man like Huey with powerful connections with Jane Fonda and all this rich set, and the president of Yale University, that he’s gone down to the dust, that you wouldn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell.

“When he came out of prison in 1970, Newton brought with him plans for major changes in the Black Panther Party. He reversed the stand on armed insurrection that was being preached by Eldridge Cleaver, saying there was little support for it in the black community” – and he was wise at that time, there was no mood for armed struggle – “and that the cost to the Party in lives and resources had been staggering. Instead, Newton called for ‘survival programs, pending the revolution’” – until the revolution came – “and began putting Party resources into projects such as the Black Panther School, the free health clinic, food giveaways, and sickle cell anemia testing” – free, all of this.

“In style, as well as content, Newton backed away from the militant, violent posturing of Eldridge Cleaver. Cleaver used– used to visit local black churches, accompanied by his leather-jacketed Panther bodyguards, and stand in the pulpit, addressing the congregation as ‘motherfuckers,’ demanding support for the Party.” Now the church has accepted him, although they don’t trust him. He was to speak at a religious convention of whites, and they wouldn’t have him, even though now he’s waving the American flag, praising motherhood, flag, apple pie, and capitalism. “As with the Panthers ‘off the pig’ rhetoric, the obscenity, the cuss words, were a part of revolutionary style. But when Newton was released, he ordered Panthers to clean up their language and attend church regularly, a move to win over mainstream blacks. Cleaver, meanwhile, had fled the country well before Newton’s release, to avoid trial on charges stemming from a 1968 shootout with Oakland Police. From Algeria” – it’s often been a haven for black people oppressed by the United States – “he ran the international wing of the Panthers.

“But as the Panthers assumed a nonviolent stance, there flared within the Party an intense power struggle between two factions, and it threatened to destroy the Panthers. Ideologically, the split came over Newton’s orders to back away from ‘military’ skirmishes with the police.

“The underground military wing of the Party was committed to immediate armed struggle, viewing Panther survival programs as symbolic alternatives to existing institutions, useful primarily as propaganda to build support for the Party. But Newton pushed through his changes, despite the underground’s objections. And to solidify or unify his position, he expelled the Party’s violent militants who formed the only organized group within the Panthers tough enough to challenge him. One of the first to go was leading Los Angeles Panther Elmer, known as ‘Geronimo,’ Pratt,” P-R-A-T-T. “In his wake went the entire New York Chapter. Cleavler– Cleaver protested strengous– strenuously from Algeria, but Newton’s break with Cleaver went beyond ideological matters. It was a public battle between two titanic egos, exac– exacerbated by Newton’s fears after nearly three years in prison, that the Party had slipped beyond his control.” That’s ridiculous. It wasn’t a matter of ego, he saw it as a matter of survival for the Black Panthers. “He worried that even in Algeria, Cleaver posed a threat to his leadership. The FBI, it was later learned, exploited this fear by forging defamatory letters from Newton and Clever– Cleaver” – I might mention – “as a way to play on their mutual paranoia.

“To ensure his authority” – the argo– the New Times s– smear goes on – “Newton closed most of the thirty Panther chapters nationwide, calling loyal members to Oakland, but warring between the factions continued, and people on both sides were murdered. Newton loyalist Sam Napier, for example, the national distributor of the Panther newspaper, was cut down by bullets in New York.” I might mention it was ordered done by Eldridge Cleaver. Cleaver had many murders committed, and now he’s accepted, cleaned up, whitewashed, but unhappy, grossly unhappy. It’s reported that he’s now drinking excessively. “The atmosphere became so volatile that when Geronimo Pratt’s pregnant wife [Saundra Pratt] was stabbed repeatedly and killed in 1971, many attributed the murder to the ongoing internecine warfare, ” the inner war between the old Panthers under Cleaver and the new Panthers wanting to do peaceful, progressive work that could bring change.

“Ultimately, Newton prevailed, beefing up his one-man rule of the Party. But he remained plagued by insecurities for years, sometimes doubting his oldest and closest lieutenants. In early 1974, in a move that puzzled, [and] upset supporters, he expelled co-founder David Hilliard from the Party. So great was New– Newton’s displeasure, that he went into the Panther School and personally pulled” and pushed “out all four of Hilliard’s children.” Didn’t do it – another lie.

“Hilliard, Newton’s friend since childhood, was in prison at the time for his role in the 1968 shootout with Oakland Police, the same incident that forced Eldridge Cleaver to flee the country. According to Panther insiders, Newton told Party members that Hilliard had orchestrated a coup against him; and Newton charged Hilliard’s wife, Pat, a tireless Party worker, with misusing Panther funds.

“David Hilliard’s expulsion sent out severe shockwaves. He was widely loved and regarded” – said the smear – “as the heart of the Party.” That’s not true. “Hilliard was the organization man who ran the Panthers when both Newton and Bobby Seale were in prison, and Cleaver was out of the country. He had worked unflaggingly for Newton’s release.” To try to make Newton appear ungrateful, and not even have pity on the children of a poor man in prison. It’s all a bunch of shit. “To those who knew Hilliard, the ‘coup’ story put out by Newton seemed preposterous. And to this day, even to close friends outside the Party, Hilliard professes bewilderment about the real reasons for his expulsion.

“It was against this backdrop of insecurity, and to guarantee his dominance over the Party, that Newton created ‘the Squad.’” I might mention too that Hilliard has become a capitalist religious apologist. Maybe he was a police agent. I’m sure the magazine would not give the true reason why he was expelled. That Newton created the Squad, was in the backdrop of all of the insecurity and what they call schizophrenia and paranoia, and they try to make him look like a nut. It’s the same tactic they use on all of us. “But the Squad was– (clears throat) was also an outgrowth of a much earlier fascination Newton had with small-time gangsterism: pimping, running card games, and burglarizing houses of the poor in the Berkeley Hills” and surrounding areas, and the rich too, “activities he has acknowledged in his autobiography” – And oh, what a distortion that is! – “Revolutionary Suicide. Newton selected Squad members himself.” They’re even using his own book where he said he had done crimes against the rich, and now they’re trying to make him look like a gangster by his own book. And it’s a terrible distortion. He does not portray himself as someone harming poor people or black people, but they claim he does here in his own book.  “Newton selected Squad members himself. A source” – another source, no names – “familiar with the initiation rites described the process.

“‘There would be some guy who would come into the Party off the streets. He’d work his ass off doing the hard day-to-day stuff that keeps the Party going – you know, standing on the corner with the sickle-cell anemia cans, or hawking the paper. After a while he’d get the summons to go up to Newton’s” large expensive “penthouse. That alone would be very flattering, because those people lived in dire poverty. But then he’d be up there with Huey, and they’d snort cocaine together –’” And I don’t approve of Huey livin’ above the people, and I don’t approve of this shit. “‘– and then he’d be told he had been selected for the Squad. For somebody low down in the Party, the whole thing would wow them – the coke, the good liquor, and just being able to hang out with Huey.’ Party members have also related stories about the Squad sharing woman– women with Newton.” Now remember, they’re doing this to Newton, who took a peaceful course and denounced violence. I don’t know why individual blacks here, who never had any power or clout with any rich actors and rich presidents of universities, white liberal supporters, I don’t know why you think you could make it back in USA. “The carousing together with the accoutrement of good cocaine was a major reward of Squad service.” Now they make ‘em all look like drug addicts.

“The Squad itself has always been small, reportedly made up of two ‘fire teams,’ usually with five or six men each. The duties of Squad members varied, but frequently they accompanied Newton when he ventured out into Oakland’s tough nightlife, into the bars and after-hour joints. It was during such forays, say the police and other sources, that Newton and the Squad began the practice of extorting money from bars, pimps, and dope dealers.

“The practice appears to have had its roots in the legal fundraising effort begun by Huey Newton in the summer of 1971. The Panthers began a boycott of black-owned liquor stores when recalitrant – recalicant [recalcitrant] owners, those who refused to accede to Newton’s demands that they pay reparations to the black community for all the things they were doing to them by pouring liquor and taking their money instead of giving them real services, and they were to pay their ‘reparations,’ the– the Panthers insisted, by contributing money to Panther programs. Negotiations ended the boycott in early 1972, and although no money ever changed hands, in Newton’s mind, the pr– the principle was firmly established: the Panthers were entitled to a piece of the action from businesses selling liquor to the black community.” By the way, all the pictures are an appeal to leftists to get them to read it. Good pictures, like they were of me in the New West, showing pictures with me with important people. And they’re showing all of the people with free food programs, to suck people in to read it. There’s only one bad, negative picture of Huey, that makes him – it’s exaggerated, it obviously has been uh, doctored up to make him look like a b– a beast.

“Now with the Squad, these payments from bars and clubs began to look suspiciously like protection money. The amounts paid by different owners varied, but some clubs were said to be shelling out as much as $500 a week.” That shows how much these abominable, petty, bourgeois, black, Uncle Tom business people were shaking down the black community, if they were able to give $500 a week donations. “Yet none of the owners were willing to come forth and testify against Huey Newton or Squad members. It has been a neppling [nettling] problem over the years for law enforcement officials.” Oh yes, I’m sure they want to do justice so bad, the police. “They know what is going on, the black community knows what is going on, but no one can do anything about it because victims won’t go to the police.” An appeal looking like (pause) uh, black leader has so much power, Huey has so much power, when obviously he doesn’t have any power, because this magazine’s destroying him in a smear, with no evidence given from anybody, just calls it “sources.”

“One clo– club owner did have his nephew contact the office of Representative Ron Dellums.” See how our good Dellums, once a socialist, now the Democrat congressman from California, see how he’s selling out. So of– Dellums’ office said, for this newspaper smear– “‘The man’s uncle had just opened a bar,’ says Dellums’” chief “aide, Don Hopkins, ‘and he said that it appeared that the bar was not going to be successful because of the terrible extortion demands of the Black Panther Party. I raised the possibility,’” said Dellums, “‘of him going to police, but he discounted that as a choice.’” Now Dellums is on the side of the white establishment.

“Newton enjoyed the tough nightlife in Oakland and Berkeley. He bragged once of being a ‘two-fisted drunk’ [drinker].” Now that’s rather ridiculous. “And he was a two-fisted fighter as well. A lawyer who had worked for the Party says fighting ‘is one of New– Newton’s forms of recreation.’” That shows how lawyers just don’t respect confidentiality, and they come out later to haunt you and destroy you, it making it tough to fire a lawyer. Uh– The lawyers are one hell of a breed. No wonder our two lawyers here [Euene Chaikin and Harriet Sarah Tropp] don’t want to be considered as lawyers. And this lawyer, past lawyer of his, said Party, (stumbles over words) fighting, is one of Newton’s forms of recreation, “’like the fastest gun in the West.’ His rap sheet bears this out,” said the lawyer, pointing it [out] to them, “beginning with his arrest at sixteen for beating a schoolmate with a hammer.’” Now that makes him sound like cruel, inhumane. “Newton has subsequently said he used poor judgement. ‘I was immature then.’ But there were other scrapes in the years that followed,” the magazine smear goes on. “At 22, for example, he stabbed an unarmed black youth in the head with a steak knife. Newton could be particularly violent when crossed, or when he felt himself to be,” from his paranoia.

“This streak of vengefulness would become characteristic of the Squad too, as those who didn’t comply with extortion demands would learn. There were the fires at the Fox Oakland Theater in 1973. The first blaze occurred on August 10, the second on December 5, 1973. Both were arson” – purposeful fires set by the Panthers, they’re saying. “In the opinion of investigators, they were arson.” Opinion now. What the hell is an opinion? “The estimated property damage came to $89,000” on one occasion alone.

“The fires were set within two days of scheduled rock concerts promoted by Oakland businessman Ed Bercovitch” – a Zionist, by the way, who is not a friend of black liberation. “He had leased the theater from its absentee owners, and finally secured an Oakland City Council special permit to put on live en– live entertainment. The city council gave its approval in part because Bercovitch had worked out a deal with local youth groups to hire unemployed teenagers in Oakland, a large majority of them black, to clean up the theater, sell tickets, and usher.” I remember the damned incident. There were about five blacks hired at horribly cheap labor by this Zionist.

“Newton resented it. The Black Panther Party had once had a subletting arrangement at the Fox Oakland, to show movies. Newton had dreams of taking over the theater, and turning it into a black cultural center, with the kind of live entertainment that Bercovitch had succeeded in lining up.” Well now, if Hue– Huey was ever so strong in Oakland, why did a white man get the option on a theater instead of him? Kind of contradictory, if he’s supposed to have all that power. “But the theater’s owners weren’t interested in Newton’s plans.

“Shortly after one of Fox’s fires” – the Fox Theater fires – “Newton intimated to a penthouse visitor that the blaze had been set by the Panthers as retal– retaliation.” I’m sure he would brag of that. That’s ridiculous. He wouldn’t indi– indict himself. “But he left out another part of the story: Bercovitch had refused to pay extortion money to the Party.

“Months before the first show was even scheduled, Bercovitch says, he was approached by a Panther go-between, the owner of a bar frequented by Newton, where he always was drinking with his friends.” Now they’re trying to make him look like a drunk, wasting time. “The go-between urged Bercovitch to come to some kind of agreement with the Panthers. He offered to set up the meeting, telling Bercovitch the Panthers wanted ‘a piece of the action.’” You see, that’s criminal talk. They want him not to look not like a revolutionary, but a criminal. “And he warned that if a deal wasn’t made” – the Panther spokesman warned this white man, Bercovitch – “not one show would go on, ‘they would burn the place down,’ as Bercovitch remembers it.” Oh, now he conveniently remembers it.

“‘Everything he said would come true, came true,’ Bercovitch says, shaking his had– his head sadly. ‘And I had all those kids working for me.’” Poor, poor white man, liberator of the– of the black youth.

“Even as he and the Squad acted like thugs, Newton continually tried to conceal his ‘bad-ass nigger’ side from his educated friends, just as he submerged his intellectual– intellectuality beneath a macho” – I mean, uh, machismo – “exterior when he sorted– sortied out with Squad members among the bars of Oakland. One former intimate characterizes–” Now who is this? One former intimate? No name. Never. Never. “One former intimate characterizes Newton as a ‘schizoid’ paranoid, chiding himself for having taken so long to realize it.” Oh, now he just realizes it, after all these years. “‘He had different faces for different people,’ he says. ‘I never saw him crazy, never saw him brutalize people. I only saw him in his intellectual mode. He’d talk about Zen Buddhism or dialectics. It was always intellectual questions. It’s interesting, because I have a non-intellectual friend, and when Huey ran into him at a party, the only thing he would talk about was dope, street stuff, and fights, like bragging about the last fight he was in. Huey would never talk politics to this guy. Never. With me, he never talked about anything else.’” Accusing then, Newton, of being many faces of Eve, having opportunism, not really believing in anything. That’s what they’re trying to get across now.

“Newton managed his image most of all with wealthy or intellectual supporters, and while such people sometimes caught glimpses of the high-handedness, his criminality with which the Party was run, they told themselves that Newton stood outside such practices. But most of these sympathizers were not around when Newton meet [met] Party members” – of course – “sometimes ordering Squad members to hold their guns on them when he did. An eyewitness says – ” There again, “an eyewitness.” Who is this eyewitness? – “says that when Newton beat Seale, bodyguard Carl Colar, he even ordered Len Colar” – C-O-L-A-R – “Carl’s brother, to train his gun on the victim. Newton then pummeled Carl with fists and a lead pipe, beating him over and again. And most sympathizers did not see the harsh disciplinary actions of the Squad, which over the years included, according to a number of sources” – Ain’t this too much, not one name – “beatings, bull whippings, ‘mud-holing.’ The mud hole, a deep pit dug on the site of the Party’s first school in Oakland, was filled with cold water before the Panther being punished was thrown in. When he or she tried to climb out, the others would beat the Panther back down” into the cold freezing water again.

“One former Party member traces the severe discipline to the Panthers’ sense of themselves as an army of war. In that context, infractions real or imagined had to be dealt with swiftly. Long after the Party abandoned urban guerilla warfare, the corporal punishment remained.

“Few sympathizers saw the cramped dormitories where the Party” – Isn’t this too much? Cramped dormitories. Have we heard that before? – “the cramped dormitories where the Party rank and file lived. They saw only the inside of Newton’s apartments or took tours of the school.” There, the same thing we, would they accused us of beautiful things in our church. Yes, but the people really crammed up like mackerel, they don’t have enough to eat, we don’t have enough to eat here. Same damned tactics. It looked like they have a file, they just pick it out and put whoever’s name on it they want to get: Joe’s one time, Huey another time, and who’s next? You, if you were there. “There always seem to be cadres willing to do the work of the Party, but supporters may not have known that many Panthers left over the years, slipping away from Oakland in secrecy, lest they be caught and beaten.” No, they left because they were cowards, like a lot of people of our own traitors, that can’t sta– take the heat for being a socialist.

“Panther sympathizers may have seen little of this, but to others, Newton’s erratic side, his insane side, was more visible, and experiencing it tested their activism sorely. Such was the case when Newton single-handedly destroyed a potential chapter of the Party in Texas in early 1974, according to a Bay Area activist who traveled there a year after the incident.” Another, again– a “Bay Area activist.” Who in the hell is this activist? All these sources that they’re destroying this man with? Just this powerful capitalist magazine that’s trying to act like it’s liberal and left.

“The group in Texas, People’s Party II, was a grassroots organization that operated several enterprises, including a store and a nightclub, to raise money for service projects” – so-called – “in the black community. The group was considering becoming a chapter of the Black Panther Party, and Newton in turn wanted to bring the Texas business operation under the Panther aegis” – under its control. “So far along was the proposed merger, that Newton and a small entourage flew to Texas to inspect the local set-up” that was doing so much good for the people. Yeah, they’re doing good now, because they’re being used to speak out against the Panthers. “One of the former leaders of People’s Party II told a visiting Bay Area activist that from the start of Newton’s visit, the Texas people found his behavior disturbing. It seems to his hosts– it seemed to his hosts that Newton was on drugs.” Well, they’re gonna accuse him of everything: rape, drugs, killin’ little children, brutalizing children.

“On Newton’s last night in Texas, he met with the group in its nightclub. Decked out in a cape, he strutted around the room screaming, ‘I am the Supreme [note: word “Servant” deleted]!’ He made a play for the women [woman] leader of People’s Party II,” the chief woman leader, “asking her to dance. She told him she was there with someone else. An argument ensued. In the course of the altercation, Newton hit the woman, delivering a severe beating to her escort, and threatened to kill another person who tried to intervene.

“The incident ended as quickly as it had begun.” Now it’s amazing that the white press has never told us about this, the capitalistic newspapers, before. “Newton left the bar and headed back to Oakland in the morning. But the woman told the Bay Area activist” – this unknown activist – “that the man Newton had beaten flipped out shortly afterward, and was still institutionalized” in an insane asylum. Oh, isn’t this outrageous? Hot damn, this is outrageous. “The woman herself admitted to being so devastated that she had not done anything political since the incident.” Oh, uh-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha. That gives reason for her being not involved in liberation any longer, just because of the devastation. Well, that’s too bad, dear lady, that your commitment was so little, even if it had been the case that you would allow one man to devastate you and give up your civil rights views and your socialistic views. “Moreover, she said, the local Party was demoralized and weakened by the startling affair.

“This behavior was in sharp contrast to Newton as a genial host to scores of luminaries” – now they want to get these rich luminaries away from him – “who answered his summons to share fine cognac and long rambling conversation. Visitors would arrive at Newton’s” expensive “penthouse apartment in Oakland” – they never talk about his expensive penthouse of the rich, but oh my, they’re gonna [unintelligible phrase] with him in that penthouse. That’s why he always thought he shouldna been there, although he claimed he had to be on the top floor to be safe, and there’s no doubt some truth in that. “Newton’s penthouse apartment. They would arrive, expensive penthouse in Oakland, and find themselves ushered into a modern, expensively-furnished living room of brown leather couches and stark walls. They would breathe in the heavy scent of gardenias floating in a brandy snifter. And Newton would flatter his guests with attentiveness. ‘When I was up there,’ says Alameda County Supervisor John George, a black lawyer boosted into office with Panther support, ‘he would serve me. He’d bring me a drink or a sandwich, and he would fix it himself. He didn’t ask Gwen [Fontaine], his secretary, to do it. He would sit sipping Rémy Martin, and we would talk. He always seemed so happy to have someone to talk with.” Well, that seems to be the only name they can come up with thus far.

“Because of Newton’s charm, guests such as John George willfully ignored the dark rumors they heard about him. ‘I like him,’ George says, shaking his head in a troubled manner. ‘That is why I may continue to excuse and excuse.’” Well, naturally he’s gonna have to be a little apologetic, with all the white press and police and all the capitalists after him. But here George, you see, even though he’s a supervisor, can’t accuse him of anything really bad. “Among some of Newton’s former intimates too, there is a tendency to excuse his violence, or even to deny it. Take the case of Bobby Seale, who founded the Party with Newton and Hilliard.

“In 1974, Seale, who was then the Party’s chairman, reportedly was beaten and had to be treated by a doctor for his injuries.” Now, no name for the doctor, no one named that saw the beating. “By several accounts, Newton ordered his bodyguards to train their guns on Seale to insure he did not fight back while Newton administered the terrible beating. After the attack, Seale left the Party and disappeared from public view, emerging only within the last year to publish a book,” on some kind of new stupid form of religion.

“Reached by phone in Philadelphia, where Seale now lives, Seale denies he was ever beaten. ‘It’s not true,’ he says, ‘the police put all– put out a lot of crap initially. I’ve even heard that off and on, but I don’t pay any attention to it. Whoever said that is lying.’” Now– Now why would this Bobby Seale, who’s also got involved in religion, not say he was beaten? He’s far away in Philadelphia, there’s no Panthers left. Every Panther headquarters been destroyed all over the nation. The only thing left is a little handful in Oakland. If he was beaten, he should talk about it. No, he doesn’t. But this uh, magazine is outrageous. Even with Seale denying it, “whoever said that is lying,” him saying, the magazine goes on and says, “but it was said by many who were not police, who were in a position to know, including someone who treated his injuries.” Jesus Christ! Everybody, these unnamed people, know more about it than Bobby Seale, who says it’s a big lie, it never happened?!

“‘What injuries?!’ Seale screams into the phone. ‘I had no injuries whatsoever. I don’t give a damn who said it. Tell them I said they’re a flat, black-assed, motherfucking liar,’ or ‘white-assed liar, whoever the hell they are.’” I guess maybe Bobby Seale’s now being picked up, because Bobby Seale’s in religion, and very straight. I guess they want to ha– haunt him. It’s not good enough that he’s changed. That’s why you people ought to take a look at the finks, when– if you decide you ever want to be a fink, to save your ass. They never let you get– they never get you by, uh, by. This very– screaming, and making him look insane, and calling white-assed liars and so forth, is a scenario set up to go after Bobby Seale later, probably.

“Seale’s departure came in July 1974, just as Newton, according to the Alameda” – that’s in Oakland – “County District Attorney’s Office, police, and various witnesses, was embarking on a bizarre rampage of intermittent violence that would stretch over 18 days. It began on July 30 with a run-in he had with two plainclothes cops in the Fox Lounge in Oakland. Newton accused them of following him simply to harass him. He turned belligerent, the police said, and pointing a finger gun-like at one of the officers, screamed for bodyguard Robert Heard to shoot him. ‘Shoot the pig-ass, motherfucker. Shoot him!’ When Heard slipped his hand into the briefcase he carried, the policemen drew their weapons. Inside the briefcase was a loaded .38 caliber revolver and one thousand dollars in cash.” Now you know damned well they’re not gonna pull a gun on a bunch of police. “Heard was busted. Later that night, with other officers for reinforcement, Newton was also arrested, along with Panther heavies Larry Henson and Flores” – that’s F‑L‑O‑R‑E‑S – “’Fly’ Forbes.

“It was just the kind” – he went by Fly, his nickname – “it was just the kind of event to jack Newton up. It heightened his schizoid paranoia, ‘made him crazy,’ as one of his friends said.” Again, who’s “a friend”? “Six days later, Kathleen Smith, a 17-year-old prostitute” – who they’ve never been able to find under that name as existing – that’s my commentary – “and her friend Crystal Gray were standing on an Oakland street corner, hustling johns” – prostitute, in other words. “There were other prostitutes in the vicinity as well. It was a slow evening, a Monday before midnight. Crystal and Kathleen, or Kathy as she was called by the other woman, smoked a joint together. They were both feeling ‘mellow,’ as Crystal later testified at a preliminary hearing, when a big, fancy, metallic-colored car cruised by their corner. Crystal hailed the occupants with a ‘Hey, baby.’ The car kept going and stopped at the light. Both women noted with some appreciation that the car was a Might– Mark IV Lincoln Continental. Ten or fifteen minutes later, Crystal noticed the same car again, parked at the corner on a side street. She saw one of the occupants, ‘the light-skinned one,’ get out.” He– he got out of the car.

“’Which one of you ladies called me?’ Crystal later quoted him as saying.

“The two women exchanged glances, those, ah, ‘what’s– what’s his trip?’ expressions, and stepped back, sensing trouble. The man star– stared hard at them. Suddenly, Crystal said, he lunged forward and struck Kathy. ‘Her eyes got big,’ Crystal later recalled, ‘and Kathy stumbled backwards.’ Crystal was angry and said to the man, ‘Say, brother, why did you hit my girlfriend? She didn’t do nothing to you.’” Everything to make people feel that he’s oppressing people, picking on prostitutes now.

“The man’s chilling, cold response, she said, was to draw a small silvery gun from his breast pocket. Crystal yelled to Kathy to run, and she herself made for the nearby Ebony Plaza Hotel. Hearing her cries, the other prostitutes ran inside the hotel. All except for Kathy. Crystal went back outside to see what had happened to her friend. As she did, a shot rang out. Rushing to the sidewalk, Crystal saw the same man standing over Kathy’s slumping body. The Mark IV slid out of its berth and swung over toward the tableau of the wounded Kathy, held in Crystal’s arms. The light-skinned man jumped in the car and it sped off.”  Now why in the hell– who is a guy who is supposed to be picking up prostitutes, gonna step out and shoot her, and look, uh, with all the world to see, over her slumping, dying body? Uh– It’s ridiculous. It’s just totally ridiculous.

“Kathy had been shot in the jaw, and was unconscious, in a coma. The trauma from the wound damaged her spinal con– column and put her in an immediate coma. It was a half-death that lingered for 96 days. When hospital authorities finally decided to move Kathy’s inert,” paralyzed “body to a nursing home to continue life-sustaining treatment, the shock of the move was too great for the small spark of life still left in her. She died.” I’m sure, that if she did exist, they would want her to die, because if she lived many more days, they couldn’t’ve charged her [him] with murder, because if you don’t die within a certain amount of time after you’ve been killed – which laws are now being changed all over the United States, because of black crime. The Boston Globe, that was something that came over the news last night, that if someone dies five years later, the person can be – if they some– somehow injured them – they can be charged with murder. It’s an open, blatant, fascist law. If someone hits somebody in the head, and five years later they died, or even had an innocent brawl, they could be charged with first-degree murder. But not then. The law wouldn’t enable them to get Huey unless she died. So it’s very convenient that she dies en route to a new nursing home. “The small spark of her life that was still left in her couldn’t take the move and she died.

“Three prostitutes identified Huey Newton as the man who pulled a gun on Kathy. One of them was Crystal Gray, and her testimony, authorities believed, would be the most convincing to a jury.” Yeah, that’s what they want, frame him.

“Eleven days after the shooting of Kathleen Smith, two young women stopped in at the Lamp Post, an Oakland bar nominally owned by Newton’s cousin, Jimmy Ward, but run by the Panthers. They ordered hamburgers, and then according to one– according to the police statement of one of the women, Helen Robinson, Robert Heard came to the table and began to ‘get smart’ with her friend, Diane Washington. Washington sassed back, and it turned mean. Heard whispered something to a ‘little guy,’ and the next thing they knew, the ‘little one’ came over and grabbed the other woman, Helen Robinson, by the jacket. He yanked her off her chair, and Heard began pushing her back and forth. They each socked her whenever she came within their grasp. The ‘little guy’ was Huey Newton” – Again, they’re beating on poor innocent women – “the two women said.

“According to Robinson’s statement, the two men then knocked her to the floor. Eventually someone in the bar – Robinson is not sure who – grabbed her by the collar and threw her into the street.” That’s amazing, this prostitute will uh, name– give her name, when business people will not give theirs. Obviously business people would have more protection than a– uh, a– a street p– prostitute. Uh– She’s probably getting a lot of money, and she’s surely not very afraid, uh, ‘cause she’s giving her name here, to– to back these lies. “But eventually someone in the bar – Robinson’s not sure who – grabbed her by the collar and threw her into the street.” Trouble is, you see, the Panthers did own businesses like this lounge, and they were getting too big, giving too much encouragement to uh, movements of liberation, so they had to be destroyed. “Several times she tried to return, to get Washington out, but each time she was rebuffed,” thrown out.

“It was seven or eight minutes before Washington managed to escape from the bar. Robinson noted that Washington’s lips was ‘big and bleeding, her jaw was swollen, and her eye was kind of black.’” Jesus, uh, you’d think that a little of this would be enough to destroy this man. They just keep it goin’ on and on. “Robinson said that Washington had actually made her way out of the bar at one point, but that Huey Newton came out after her and ‘dragged her right back in.’ The women called police that night and six days later made a complete report and identified Newton and Heard from a series of 12 photos marked with numbers, no names.

“The Lamp Post Bar incident had occurred in the early morning, about 4 a.m. Later that day, in the afternoon, there was more bloodshed, this time in Newton’s own apartment.” Yes, he’s a murderer, he even sheds blood in his own apartment. “The victim was Preston Callins,” C-A-L-L-I-N-S, “a handsome, middle-aged, middle-class, black tailor. His account of the incident, two days after it happened” – oh, yes, always after it happens – “was tape-recorded by police.” I notice he’s not afraid to talk.

“Callins said that three weeks earlier he had been intro– introduced, he had been introduced to Newton at The Lamp Post by a mutual friend. The two had met before, but didn’t really know each other. Callins did know, however, that Newton ordered his clothes from [a] men’s store in San Francisco, and that the store in turn farmed its orders out to Callins. Callins told Mr. Newton uh, in The Lamp Post and suggested they eliminate the middleman – that Callins,” Callins, C-A-L-L-I-N-S, “make Newton’s clothes for him directly. Newton agreed, gave Callins his phone number and suggested he give him a call.” Again, a little old tailor, not afraid to give his name, because he’s paid well enough. Why are all these other sources so afraid? “After trying for several days, Callins finally reached Newton and was invited to come over and measure him for a suit.

“The tailor arrived with his materials packed in a sample case. Newton greeted him and began showing him around the penthouse apartment. ‘He did everything but get down to business,’ Callins later told police. ‘He was drinkin’ some cognac. I think he s– paid $19 a bottle for his cognac.’”  (chuckles) God, they’re always trying to make him look like he’s wasting the people’s money. “‘And he was drinking the whole time, and drunk as a skunk. Very potent stuff. I asked him to pour me just a little taste. I wanted to see how it tastes, you know.’” Yeah, this poor tailor, he’d never tasted expensive litter– liquor. (Stumbles over words) “In a show of hospitality, Newton told Callins he would order a bottle of the same cognac for him to take home, and he did so by speaking into an intercom to a woman in another room.” It doesn’t sound like he’s too unfriendly then. And why would he be unfriendly with this man? He was going to offer to tailor his clothes and cut out the– the big businessman, the middleman. That would be to Newton’s advantage to be kind to this man. But let’s go on.

“Seated comfortably now in the presence of another man whom Callins said was Newton’s brother-in-law, or possibly his uncle, the two began to talk. He says, ‘I’ll tell you what. Everybody’s been rippin’ me off, Preston, on getting clothes made,’ Callins recalled. ‘Now if you give me a full price on a suit, one price,’ he said, ‘I’ll have all my clothes made from you.’ I said, ‘I can make you a suit for $180 with my material.’

“But Callins said he never got around to showing Newton the materials in his sample case. ‘I had a suit, that I had on, that he kept telling me he didn’t like, and I said, “Well, I didn’t bring this suit over here for you to like. I’ll show you some samples.” But he wouldn’t let me show him any. He said something like – he said, “Oh God damn it, I’ve been ripped off, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.”’” Now what’s that supposed to mean?

“’I said, “Oh, baby, don’t feel that way.” And when I said “baby,” that’s what started the whole thing, because I have a habit of calling my friends “baby.” You know, my wife, my mother, my other friends, I call “baby,” and he didn’t like that.’” Now trying to imply that he’s ho– homosexual, and insecure, and can’t stand uh, to be called “baby,” because he– he has an effeminate sort of face, you know.

“‘He jumps up and he goes buggy. “Nobody calls me no damned baby.”’ Then Callins said Newton marched from his dining area, where they had been sitting, and returned with a .357 Magnum revolver. ‘I’m sitting, talking to his brother-in-law across the table,’ Callins said, ‘and he’ – Newton – ‘whacked me several times, I mean hard blows right across the back of my head while I was sitting at the table. Blood shot everywhere. Then he turned around and whacked me on the other side again and again. Then he said, ‘I’m gonna shoot you.’ And I said, ‘Aw man, you gonna invite me to your home to start some stuff for nothing? What’s wrong with you?’” I’m sure that’s the way a man’s gonna talk if he’s been beaten all that many times. He wouldn’t be able to talk.

“’So he says, “Oh, man, you called me a baby, and I don’t like you no way. You’re a little bit yellower than I am.”’” Now ain’t that pitiful? Try to make him look like he notices people’s color of their skin. This is outrageous. Jesus Christ! Overkill. “‘“I don’t like you.” I said, “Aw, man, get off of this shit.” So then he hit me again, and he hit me and knocked me on the floor. He kicked me in the mouth. And by that time I was tired of being hit.’” Amazing! This guy’s still tired of being hit, he’s not unconscious. “‘I jumped up and hit him in the mouth, knocked him upside the wall. By that time I was bleedin’, I was bleedin’ a lot. I had lost, I betcha, three or four pints of blood.’” Ain’t this ridiculous? Three or four pints of blood! Outrageous! Co– He wouldn’t– wouldn’t even be able to get off his feet with the loss of three or four pints of blood. Outrageous damned stuff. I mean– And they never think the American people –  uh, this is what it says! “‘I was bleedin’, I’d lost three or four pints of blood. I couldn’t be no match for that little youngster there.’

“Callins managed to make it to the apartment door.” It makes it look like he picks on middle-aged or older people, too. “Callins managed to make it to the apartment door.” With four pints of blood gone! Jesus Christ! “Unlocked it and stumbled out into the hallway, but Newton followed him. Now he had a different gun. The first was of no use to him anymore.” I wonder why. Why wouldn’t it? A gun’s a gun. “The first was of no use to him anymore. The grips, Callins told police, had broken on his head.” Oh, I see. “Callins tried to hide in a small recess of the hallway.

“’He said, “I’m gonna kill you, motherfucker.” He came and he followed me and he made me go back, and by that time I was just bleeding everywhere. By the time I got to the door, I just fell on the floor, blood all down the hall and all in his apartment. I saw his brother-in-law. I told him, I says, “You– You– You must be out of your mind. Can’t you stop this maniac from doing what he’s doing?”’

“The other man tried to calm Newton down. In the meantime, Callins said Newton had called in two of his bodyguards.

“Newton beat him again and again, according to Callins’ statements, (chuckles) and then brought out a tape recorder and tried to pressure Callins into making statements that would exonerate him and prove him innocent. ‘He asked questions like, “Did you come in my house and molest me?”’” Oh, this is the same– same lies they said we do – same old scenario. “’I said, “No,” and each time he hit me, each time he slapped me. Boom, boom. He said, “Did you do me wrong in my house?” I said, “No, I didn’t do no wrong. I came here in peace. I came to make you clothes– your clothes. You offered me a drink.”’” Now I imagine the man about to die, he’d say anything if uh– if Huey had really done this. He’d have said, “Yeah, I– I did do wrong.” He’da been glad to get out of there. “‘”I took a little shot, and you got drunk, and then you started hitting me upside the head with your pistol, and I couldn’t stand it. That’s why I hit you back.”’

“Callins said the two bodyguards then brought a car around from the garage. Callins was ordered out of the building.” Now, why wouldn’t they just murder him? Because he says he resisted them, wouldn’t say he was innocent, and that he was uh, guilty, on the tape recorder. He was supposed to’ve killed everybody else. Why’d they let him go home? “He asked for his sample case, and the big fellow, whom he later identified as Robert Heard, retrieved it, got it back for him. Oddly, Callins said Newton ordered Heard to get the gift bottle of cognac for Callins to take home.” Now that, uh, that– Jesus Christ. “The two bodyguards then ushered Callins downstairs, placed newspapers on the floor of the car so Callins wouldn’t bleed on the carpet, and drove him home. They ordered him out and chuckled– chucked his sample case onto the sidewalk beside him. Threw it out on the street. As Callins fumbled with his garage door lock, he fainted. His wife called the police and an ambulance.

“Callins was taken to Kaiser Hospital in Redwood City, where his four depressed skull fractures required neurosurgery. When police visited him in intensive care to take his statement” – Now he’s in intensive care. This is too much. “Callins told him, ‘Every time he hit me with that pistol, you could hear the bones crash.’” And yet he managed to walk home and unlock his garage door before he faints.

“In a preliminary hearing last fall, three years later, Alameda County Deputy District Attorney Tom Orloff” – noted racist, I’m saying that – “called Callins to the stand to give testimony against Newton on the pistol-whipping charges. The tailor shocked the courtroom when he said that while he remembered the beating, he could no longer recall the perpetrator who did it.” Oh, now, that’s convenient. “He said his memory loss was a result of the injuries he suffered. Despite the playing in court of his tape-recorded statement to police shortly after the beating, in which he clearly described Newton as the sole assailant, C– Callins could not be shaken from his testimony.” Hell, maybe the police is the one that did him– beat him up to try to get him to talk. “What Callins failed to tell the court, New Times has learned, was that he had recently received $6,000 from the Newton side.” Oh? He’s a rich tailor. Why would he need $6,000? That’s not very (stumbles over words). That’s not very much money at all.

“Callins refused to comment on his testimony. When asked about the money, his lawyer, Howard Moore” – He’s a– the Communist, uh, he is– he defended Angela Davis – “Howard – When he asked about the money, his lawyer Owar– Howard Moore denies Callins was paid off for his silence. ‘Anybody has the right to sue anybody in civil court,’ he fumes, implying that the $6,000 represented settlement of claims Callins had against Newton.” And no doubt it did. “Alameda County records, though, show that Callins never filed suit.” Well, that’s often the case. You don’t have to file it, they threaten to do it, and they pay off. “Sheldon Otis” – O-T-I-S – “Newton’s lawyer, says that Callins passed along ‘verbal demands for civil damages for injuries to his person.’ Beyond that, Otis refuses to comment on the matter. He was not involved in arranging for the payment. Howard Moore puts it this way: ‘Mr. Callins had a claim against Mr. Newton for personal injuries, and that claim has been resolved.’” Howard Moore, by the way, is an attorney who wants to visit here. We want to remem– remember– remember that, maybe invite him along with some others.

“By the end of August 1974, police had filed a variety of felony counts against Newton.” ‘Course, we’ll check him out too, to see if he’s not an agent. “There was the assault charge stemming from the Fox Lounge altercation or fight with the plainclothes cops, which was later amended to include charges uh relating to the shooting of Kathleen Smith.” Yeah, amended. Whenever they want more– they didn’t feel they had enough, so they add something else to it. “The beating of Preston Callins also was added to it, and the incident with the two young women. That was also added to it, at The Lamp Post,” that was owned by the Panthers. “When Kathleen Smith died nearly three months later, the charges were amended again to include a murder count.” Of course!

“But Newton was long gone by then, sources saying he had fled to Mexico, and from there, by boat, to Cuba. The Cubans granted him sanctuary on the condition that he keep his nose clean, live modestly, and work. Newton agreed.” When I was there, he wasn’t doing much work. He was just setting in an apartment, a defeated man, because he needed to be back in the United States. And we all know that conflict. But there was more. I think Huey did like the taste of the bourgeois too much, or he would have appreciated Cuba. Jesus, how I– I’d loved to have lived in peace in that beautiful apartment they provided him.

“When Newton failed to show up for a preliminary hearing in late August” – the reason I say I know he didn’t go back f– to action or to fight, because I painted the picture just as clear as it was, that there was no hope. But he– he could see that, but he said if he didn’t believe there was hope, he couldn’t live. That’s why I distrust all socialists who commit themselves without the acceptance of a possibility of defeat. It’s a full rich life you live when you’re a socialist. Whether you’re defeated or killed uh, is no difference. The purpose uh, is to live by conscience. That’s the only thing gives peace or dignity to your life, or any meaning – and everybody dies. It’s said uh– even the people here who I’ve resurrected look forward to that on occasion. Everyone dies except somebody close to me. And then we have such a rich life, if it were just one day, standing up for what we believe, giving people hope, helping so many babies, as we have here. Saved a baby and a mother’s life a couple of days ago. Every week we save some baby. We got a new baby, you know, beautiful new baby [likely Ebony Duncan, born July 7, 1978].

“Panther August” – uh, uh, well, let’s see, “When Newton failed to show up for a preliminary hearing in late August, Panther lawyer Charles Garry, met with reporters” – Charles Garry is our lawyer – “met with reporters to announce that Newton had jumped bail and fled because pimps in Oakland had put out a contract on his life.” Well, that’s very likely too. “To prove it, Garry played a tape-recorded phone conversation he had had with then-police chief Charles Gain. Gain had called Garry to say that an underworld source had tipped off police to the contract. But Gain’s phone call had actually taken place almost a year before Newton left the country.” So they try to make out Charles Garry a liar now. And Charles Garry no longer works for Huey. Some force inside of the Panthers got him to give up Charles, and Charles said it was Elaine Brown, Garry says it was Elaine Brown, and she’s been proved to be an agent provocateur. But even though she uh, uh, came out and offered evidence against the Panthers, she too now has been charged with murder, of some woman floating in the East Bay in Oakland.

“As Newton fled to Cuba, it seemed to many in Oakland that the Party was breathing its last gasp, but that judgment was premature.” That must make the– that’s why this magazine’s so sad, he’s back again. And they’re so vindictive. They never, never, never forget, no matter what you do. They are a vengeful people, capitalists, white capitalists. They’re all capitalists. “There were to be three years of impressive and previously unimaginable Panther inroads into the Oakland political establishment. This would all occur under Elaine Brown, Newton’s successor.

“The glamorous 34-year-old Brown had come to Oakland four years earlier from Los Angeles, where she had interrupted a singing career.” I hope you will listen to this and study it. You– Some said you wanted to hear it. And I can’t risk the only copy. And this is like hell, for me to read all this. And I’m the one that knows some of the history, that can give you interpretation, which is important, because some of you even believe everything you read. “ –where she had interrupted a singing career. She came from where she had interrupted a singing career in Los Angeles, to work for the Party, the Panthers. She was smart, articulate” –  that means well able to speak – “and completely loyal to Newton, qualities that helped her rise quickly through the ranks. With Newton’s blessings as he left the country, Brown became chairperson of the Party. Even from Havana,” the beautiful capital of Cuda– Cuba, “he remained Number One, conferring regularly with Brown by telephone, monitored by the CIA, and more private messages delivered by trusted couriers.” Even this magazine admits it was monitored by the CIA. Well, interesting. “But it was Elaine Brown who engineered the Party’s sudden acquisition of respectability.

“Brown buzzed about Oakland in a red Mercedes– Mercedes” – big car too, rich car – “and always (unintelligible word) dressed.” What is it? (pause) Uh– Well, uh, “the panache– uh, the panache–“ uh, the elegance “of a young woman executive. She had a flair for public relations, using the Panther School, begun under Newton, to gain favorable poli– to gain favorable publicity for the Party, and to impress state and county officials.” Even the governor, [Jerry] Brown, was about to give her a post like uh, he offered me. Then when it came out that she was (chuckles) an agent, and the Party was under attack, he acted like he never knew her. That’s always the case. “And from Alameda County, the cities of Oakland and Berkeley, State of California, as well as private donors, she led in a series of service and educational grants for the Party that came to over $300,000. Part of the grant money funneled into the Party came from the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration, LEAA–” Hell, even trying to make it look, I guess, like it’s a communist source, and it’s one of the most right-wing agencies in the world. The only way they could have gotten any money from that was because G– uh, Mrs. Brown had– They wouldn’t give that money to Huey, uh, it was because Elaine Brown was an agent. “–and was earmarked” – this LEAA assistance – “for a Panther program to help juvenile delinquents. Bay Area leftists noted with amusement that the LEAA, formed in the days of law and order to aid local criminal justice systems, was a favorite agency of the [Richard] Nixon administration.” Now I notice me, myself a pure socialist, nobody ever offered us any money. When you’re really a pure socialist, they never offer you any money. We never were offered a dime, not a dime. We never got a penny from anybody. I had to earn it by the sweat and blood of my brow – and other things in my body. Jesus Christ! Only that proves Elaine Brown was indeed the agent that has come out by press to say she was.

“During Elaine Brown’s tenure, Oakland’s first black mayor, Lionel Wilson,” Judge Wilson, “and Alameda County’s first black supervisor, John George, were both helped into office by the crucial campaign support of the Black Panthers. One year before his election, John uh, George had been Brown’s campaign chairman when she herself ran for a seat on the city council [in] 1975. She waged an impressive campaign and finished” only “second. ‘She got all the Democratic groups’ endorsements,’ George says. ‘They recognized that the Panthers were moving into the legitimate political arena, and it was better to go to work with them than against them.’ In previous Panther attempts at public office, most Democratic politicians had been skittish about forming alliances with the Party that had Newton at the helm. In Newton’s absence, the way was open for cooperation and tradeoffs.” Yes, because Elaine Brown was a sellout. But remember, they don’t pay their finks well. She now too is charged with murder.

“Elaine Brown’s rapport with politicians didn’t stop at the Alameda County line. In 1976, she went to the Democratic National Convention as Jerry Brown’s delegate, and the governor couldn’t’ve failed to notice that when nearly all of his other California delegates had switched their votes to Jimmy Carter in a show of unity once his nomination was assured, Elaine Brown remained steadfast in voting for him. Perhaps that is why the governor agreed to see her when she came to Sacramento to lobby for completion of the Grove Shafter Freeway in Oakland, a project stalled by his freeze on highway construction funds. Speaking on behalf of an ad hoc organization formed largely by Republican businessmen in Oakland, Elaine Brown argued that without the Grove Shafter Freeway, a huge downtown development plan for Oakland would not be built. Thousands of jobs were at stake, she said, and she had won a guarantee from the development’s backers that a percentage of the jobs would go to hard-pressed minorities.

“‘She said she didn’t give a damn about the freeways, all she wanted was the jobs,’ says J.L. Anthony Cline, legal affairs secretary to the governor, who attended the meeting. ‘She was very convincing. We did what she wanted done, we agreed to complete the freeway.’” This is an effort to get Brown now, I suppose, making him a part of something illegal. Even Brown, a sellout, is gonna pay because he worked with some liberals that he thought was to his advantage, ‘cause he never had any principles, but they’re getting uh, the stage set for him to be defeated by the attorney general, right-wing fascist who’s tried to frame me openly, and reveal it to the public. He– uh, I don’t even know his ugly name– the attorney general of the State of California. Evel– Oh, it’s Evelle Younger.

“But despite the high regard in which she was held by officials in Oakland and Sacramento” – Elaine Brown – “there were others who uh, quietly referred to Elaine Brown as the ‘Dragon Lady.’ Sources say she had a pronounced vengeful streak” – (chuckles) sources say, again. “A local television reporter, for example, says Brown, who was then press spokeswoman for the Party, called him after he had broken the story of Bobby Seale’s disappearance and ‘resignation.’ The reporter says Brown told him, ‘We know who you are, and if you ever come to Oakland, you’re in trouble.’ After that, he says, he stopped pursuing the Seale story, and has not wanted to cover the Panthers since.” My, my, my, I never knew any news people that were discouraged. With all of our power, and we had plenty of it, they don’t get discouraged. They are a vicious bunch. It’s a lie.

“Elaine Brown’s precise relationship to the Squad is not clear. It is known, though, that the group continued its criminal activities during her administration.” And now why would they do this to her, good fink that she was? “And there are no reports that she moved against it. Some Squad members served as her bodyguards, but unlike Newton, Brown did not tour the streets and bars with the Squad on shakedown runs.” And it could be even that this is the schizophrenia of Paul Avery who don’t like finks. Nobody likes a fink, even though he’s willingly doing the establishment’s biddings in destroying the threatening symbol that Huey Newton represents, he–so he’s going s– to take slaps at Elaine Brown too.

“During Newton’s three-year absence, there were a series of robberies, shootings, and murders that police regard as the work of the Squad.” The murderous Squad again. “Other sources close to the Panthers” – See, all this “other sources.” How easy it is to destroy anyone. Don’t have to name a person, just say, “other sources” – “close to the Panthers share that belief. Witnesses in most of these cases refused to make formal identifications.” Of course. That’s convenient. “In others, identifications were impossible because the assailants, the murderers, wore ski masks.” (chuckles) Jesus Christ, going through the town with ski masks.

“All the cases are unsolved, save one murder for which a Panther, George Robinson, was convicted. The conviction was later reversed because of an illegal police search. But Oakland and Berkeley Police who are careful not to simply list any unsolved crime as Panther-related, see Squad involvement in the following cases.” Oh, now this is convenient. They’re gonna – all their unsolved murder cases.

“Tommy Johnson [Jackson]– .” There’s a big black sign uh, pointing to these people, so you’ll all – all the public – will believe that Huey Newton is a senseless killer. “Tommy John– Johnson was a doorman at The Brass Rail, a Berkeley after-hours bar operating as a private social club, and regarded in the surrounding community as a headquarters at the time for cocaine dealers. At 6 a.m. on August 27, 1974, the nineteen-year-old Jackson was admititing– uh, admitting a customer when a car pulled t– to the curb, and several black men inside opened fire with shotguns.” You– All the students should take note of this – uh, the teachers too – of how they destroy anybody they want to in the press, the arm of capitalism, uh, the fist that reaches out to destroy first, then the authorities come later and finish it off, or assassins. “Jackson was killed and several customers in the bar were wounded. Club owners Wilbert LaTour had reported–reportedly balked at Squad demands for money, although he denied it to the of– uh, police.” Now, let’s see, he denied it to the police. “Case still unsolved.

“The Brass Rail was the scene of two other murders: Willie Ralph Duke, twenty-four, was a heroin dealer who police informants say was making payoffs to the s– Black Panther Squad.” “They say, they say,” anything. (Stumbles over words) They can say what they want. “He had reportedly missed a payment because he had lost his money. While Duke was drinking at The Brass Rail on January 25, 1975, with three Panthers and club owner LaTour, Billy Carr approached Duke and suggested they step outside. Police have theorized” – theorized now – “that the twenty-one-year-old Carr was attempting to warn Duke that he was going to be killed. As both men began to walk away from the bar, say witnesses” – here again, “witnesses,” not named – “the three Panthers suddenly pulled guns. Two of them opened fire and shot Duke. Carr tried to stop them, and was also shot. Both men died. Neither LaTour, who saw the shooting, nor the other witnesses, would name the three gunmen.” Would name! Uh– “Case unsolved.” Oh, God.

“LaTour himself was found murdered four months later. Oakland Police, acting on a tip that he was dead, went to LaTour’s apartment and found his car gone. A week later another tip was received that LaTour’s car could be found in the San Francisco International Airport garage, with his dead body inside. It was long dead. The body had been stuffed head first into a sleeping bag and jammed into the trunk of the car. Case unsolved.” Another big black mark by this.

“On April 26, 1975, Vernon McInnis, a dope dealer, known on the streets as Preacher Man, was gunned down by two shotgun blasts, and five .45 caliber shots. Several days before his murder, McInnis had been approached in The Lamp Post to buy a copy of the Panther newspaper. He refused, reportedly saying the Panthers ‘rip people off.’ The remark led to an argument with Panthers Robert Heard and George Robinson, both Squad members. McInnis was bounced from the bar and killed several days later. George Robinson was convicted of the murder, but the conviction was reversed because police had improperly conducted their search of his car when he was arrested.” Making the police look like their hands are tied, when they’re living in a police state USA. “The district attorney’s office is appealing the reversal. Although the motive established at the trial was the Lamp Post altercation or fight, several sources familiar” – Here again, several sources, unnamed – “are familiar with the case believe the killing had much more to do with drug-related payoffs to Panthers.” Now they got the Panthers involved in pushing dope. Anything to tear their image up.

“Two other shootings involved shot– involving shotguns were thought to be the work of the Panthers.”  “Thought to be” – what a hell of a way to– The magazine becomes juror and judge, becomes the court. I thought innocents were not to be (chuckles) judged, were not to be executed in the press. I thought that was one of the guarantees of the Constitution, but it doesn’t work anymore. “So two other shootings involving shotguns were thought to be the work of Panthers because the spent shells found at the scenes had markings almost identical” – almost, now – “to those in the McInnis case. Police could not act on the evidence, though, because there were no eyewitnesses” – oh, shit – “as there were in the McInnis case, and because shotgun casing marks are not as specific as those from handguns.” It’s true, but if they wanted to do it, they could’ve framed him. “One case involved Phillip Cole, an owner of the Black Knight Bar. Cole was reported to have been the victim of Panther extortion, although he angrily denies it. On September 12, 1974, he was shot at on the street. The bullets missed. Cole could not identify his murdering assailants, or attempted murderers. In the other case, the week before the Vernon McInnis murder, two men were shot” – (Pause) This is a long damned thing. Oh, Lord – “S– These– Two men were shot soon after leaving The Lamp Post. Willy White lost both an arm and a leg in a shotgun blast, and James Harris died from the wounds he received in the back of his head. Both men had been in an argument with a Lamp Post cocktail waitress that had widened to include others. Case unsolved.” Just because they had a fight with a Lamp Post wi– waitress, that’s supposed to mean that he was mur– they were murdered by the Black Panthers. What a reasoning!

“In February 1975, one dope dealer was robbed at his home by two armed blacks in ski masks, and another dealer was kidnapped by three black men and killed. Police suspect the Panthers because of the reports– of reports that both men were being shaken down by the Squad.

“Finally, there’s still the unexplained (Pause) murder of Betty Van Patter, the Party’s attractive, 45-year-old white bookkeeper. She was a Berkeley liberal who dabbled in the more faddish aspects of the occult, but was nevertheless described by a former associate as ‘a first-rate bookkeeper, very responsible.’ Van Patter landed her job in the summer of 1974. She was hired originally to keep books for the Panther School, but her duties expanded soon after to include bookkeeping for the Party itself, and for The Lamp Post Bar. Although pleased to be working for the Panthers, Van Patter told some friends that The Lamp Post was not paying its taxes, and that money was taken directly out of the cash register and passed along to the Party Squad members. Van Patter” – capital V-A-N, capital P‑A‑T‑T‑E‑R – “was known to be fastidious about her work, and she didn’t like going along with accounting procedures she considered” illegal or “shaky.

“Betty Van Patter disappeared on Friday, December 13, 1974” – even appealing to people’s superstition, Friday the 13th – “after having stopped in at one of her favorite Berkeley bars. She had entered alone, saying uh– said acquaintances, and– (tape edit; page from article not recorded)

“–out of bed, although usually she [Mary Matthews] is slow and considered, uh, in her movements” – In other words, she’s normally slow, but this time she was very fast – “She retrieved her .38 revolver, and without wasting a gesture, dialed Richmond Police. While holding the phone, she heard the sudden round [sound] of ripping metal, and realized the screen door had been torn completely off its hinges.

“Someone was out to kill her. It had” – it had, of course – “to be that, she thought, because there was so little in the house that anyone would want to uh– to steal.

“At first she recited her address to the police– As she rece– recited her address to the police, the first shot was fired outside. The lock, she thought, he’s shooting off the lock.” Oh, he– she knows it’s a he. “She dropped the telephone receiver on the floor.” Well, of course that’s– she’d heard a voice, so that would fit in. “She dropped the telephone receiver on the foo– the floor, pointed the gun at the back door and fired. The very act of firing the gun she had kept for so long but never used, panicked her further. That, and a fusillade– fusillade of return fire, the muzzle flashes coming through the doorway and lighting up her kitchen. She ran to a small room in the rear of her house to hide, locking the door behind her, cowering in there behind the furniture, this poor little lady. S– It seemed forever before she heard the crackling of police radios that indicated she might finally be safe.

“Outside Mary Matthews’ door was a pool of blood and a 12-gauge shotgun. On the sidewalk lay the dead body of a black man. From the trail of smeared blood, police could tell the man had been dragged and then dropped, and the blood went beyond the dead body, indicated– indicating another assailant had been wounded. In searching the area along the Richmond ghetto street, a block of corrugated metal warehouses interspersed with a few houses and vacant lots, police found a second shotgun, an automatic rifle, and ammunition. They also found discarded clothing similar to that worn by the dead man. From these items, police surmised there were at least three assailants, and that the discarded blue overalls and watch caps were probably donned to be shed after the killing in order to make eyewitness identification difficult. It was a cold, planned murder attempt.” Now, how did Mary Matthews, firing one shot, kill one man, and wound another? Rather strange.

“But why Mary Matthews? It didn’t make sense.” They don’t even bother to get into that. Now this is uh– this is so damned wild, that it’s outrageous, that this senior lady is able– never shot a gun before, never used it before– she’s able to hit right directly, with one shot – yes, I’m gonna check back here – yes, one shot, and she k– kills one man and uh, wounds another. “But why Mary Matthews? It didn’t make sense. What would anyone have– have against this middle-aged mother and grandmother who worked as a bookkeeper out of her own modest home?

“The answer came from the pink clapboard house directly behind Mary Matthews. She owns that house as well, renting its two apartments to a single– to single mothers with children. One of the women was dark-skinned and pretty, barely five feet tall. She approached the police and said she was one of the gun– uh, she was the one the gunmen had come to kill, not Mary Matthews. She identified herself as Rafael Garry, done– known on the streets as Crystal Gray.” Oh my. Now you know if the Panther Squad was gonna kill somebody, they would certainly find out the exact address. This is a s– bull corn.

“Newton was due in court the very next day, October 24, for a preliminary hearing in the Kathleen Smith murder case. Crystal Gray was also scheduled to be there to testify against him. The charges involving the altercation, the fight with plain-clothes cops at the Fox Lounge, and the beatings of the two young women at The Lamp Post, were eventually reduced to misdemeanors, and severed from the Smith and Preston Callins case. All charges were still pending.” They wanted to get Huey there on another murder and conspiracy. “The Smith-Callins trial will probably begin in August or September.” Another chance to get at Huey.

“It was hours before Richmond Police verified the fingerprints of the body in blue overalls outside Mary Matthews’ house” – where this good little senior grandmother, who’d never fired a shot, was able to kill one man and wound another. That’s my commentary. “The dead man was Louis T. Johnson, a 27-year-old Black Panther, who lived in Berkeley, in a house with other Party members. In a preliminary autopsy performed later that day–” [15 seconds of faint, unintelligible reading] “–Squad well-trained, couldn’t keep from shooting one another?

“It was a botch. They had attacked the wrong house, and they failed to kill anyone but one of their own. Moreover, another of the assailants had been wounded in the hand, judging by one of the gloves police found on the scene. It was ripped and bloodied.

“What happened– what had happened in Richmond was not publicly revealed until the following morning, when Deputy District Attorney Tom Orloff” – as I said, a racist, real reactionary – “broke the bizarre news in Oakland’s Municipal Court. In an outraged voice Orloff called the incident in Richmond, ‘planned assassination’ attempt of the ‘most important witness’ in his case against Huey Newton. Orloff linked the uh– the dead assailant to Newton directly, saying, among other things, that Johnson had recently visited Huey Newton–” Where at? Oh, “–when he was briefly jailed after returning from Cuba. But outside the courtroom, free on $80,000 cash bail, Huey Newton denied any involvement in, or knowledge of the Richmond affair.” It was carried, by the way, on every front page of The Chronicle, The Examiner, on every TV. So (sighs) uh, he denied involvement. There’s no doubt he was not invol– volved in what was clearly a police set-up, in the Richmond affair – “hinting at nefarious doings by the police.” And quite correct in doing so. “‘At this point, I wouldn’t be surprised if the police set up– set anything up,’ he said. He claimed not to know Louis Johnson. Crystal Gray– Ke– Gray, the prostitute, was given police protection, and began her testimony later that week.

“Newton’s suggestions of the police septing– a set-up looked unlikely, when four days later it was revealed that Flores Forbes” – spelled the same as our beloved Prime Minister Burnham, F-O-R-B-E-S – “a Squad member arrested with Newton at the Fox Lounge, had sought emergency treatment at an Oakland hospital for a gunshot wound in the hand, consistent with the torn, bloody glove found in Richmond.

“Forbes arrived at the hospital with his hand bandaged, using an old music book as a crude splint. Unwrapping the bandages, the attending physician saw that the whole back of Forbes’ hand had been torn away. Forbes told the doctor he had been injured in an industrial accident with a rivet gun. The man who accompanied Forbes– Forbes, Panther Nelson Malloy, backed his story, but the doctor knew a bullet wound when he saw one, and said he would have to report it to the police. At that, the two men fled the hospital.

“Publicity about Richmond was potentially so damaging to Newton’s case, and the Party itself, that Newton finally agreed to meet with two reporters.” Now you can imagine these guys, they’re not gonna go to that hospital seeking repair of the hand and give their names, until they see what– what the doctor’s attitude is gonna be about it. Or they’d give false names. But they didn’t, no, no, they have– they’ve gone to this hospital and given their own names. This is such bullshit. Anyway, “the publicity about Richmond was potentially so damaging to Newton’s case and the Party itself, that Newton finally agreed to meet with two reporters. Looking thinner than before he left for Cuba, Newton was attractively decked out in a pinstriped three-piece suit donned for a courtroom appearance” so he could look straight. Now they would make him look evil all the way earlier that day. “He tried to convince the reporters that Panther Flores Forbes was only peripherally– uh, only connected on the outside to the Party, but local newspapers had already revealed that Forbes was on the payroll of a Panther youth services program, and was intimately involved in some of the Party’s violent criminal activities.

“Sipping cognac” – Yes, gotta make him look like a– splurging the people’s money again – “Newton conceded that the gunmen may have been ‘overzealous and figured that they would hunt down a witness,’ but he nevertheless denied that he or the Party were involved.” Now, I read the article before in The Chronicle. He didn’t even indicate a’tall that uh, they may be overzealous. He completely disowned them. “He insisted that both Johnson and Forbes had quit the Party a few weeks before the trial started. ‘I don’t remember exactly what date, but in any event,’ Newton said, they were no longer Panthers at the time of the Richmond attack.

“A few days after the interview, several tourists in the Nevada desert, about forty miles from Las Vegas, heard a moaning sound a few yards off the road.” I know how people [are] just so anxious to get out in the Nevada desert and uh, listen for anything. They– They wouldn’t get out [if] they saw a man dyin’ on the side of the road. But they hear a moaning, and they get out – conveniently. “They heard a moaning sound a few yards off the road. Then they noticed a man’s feet sticking out from under a pile of rocks. The tourists snapped a Polaroid picture of the shallow grave and brought it to local rangers, who rushed to the site and unearthed a seriously wounded black man buried alive and left for dead.” The only thing that does sound real is that that’s what tourists would do: they would take a picture, rather than help the moaning person under the rocks. “He had been shot twice and was paralyzed from the neck down.

“When Las Vegas Police questioned him in the hospital, the man gave a fake name and said he had been robbed and shot while hitchhiking. Eventually, though, he admitted to police that he was Nelson Malloy, the man who had accompanied Flores Forbes to the Oakland hospital the day after the Richmond assault. The story that Malloy finally told sounded like something out of the annals of the Mafia – loyal soldiers turning on other loyalists then ordered from above.” Why would a man crippled from his waist down sell out from police pressure? Amazes me, amazes me.

“Forbes, Malloy said, had come to his house– Forbes, Malloy said, had come to his house after the attempt on Mary Matthews’ life. Malloy had only recently arrived in Oakland, summoned by Newton bodyguard Robert Heard. Before that, Malloy had worked in the Panthers’ small Winston-Salem, North Carolina, chapter, to set up a free ambulance service for poor blacks in the community.” Trying to make him look good now. When he’s– becomes a fink, they’ll make him look good, until they get ready to kill him. “He was dedicated, a believer. After moving west, Malloy (clears throat) went to work at the Party’s free health clinic in Berkeley, impressing clinic personnel with his diligence and aptitude. (coughs away from mic)

“Perhaps Forbes– Forbes went to Malloy for help because of his paramedic skills. Malloy bandaged Forbes’ shattered hand, and wrapped it in the music book splint, but his medical experience was insufficient, and he knew it– insufficient, and he knew it. He told Forbes that surgery was necessary, and he would not perform it.

“It was then that the two men went to the hospital in Oakland, (clears throat), only to flee in the fear that the doctor would turn them in. According to Malloy’s account to police, they remained in hiding until Oakland Panther Rollin Reid drove them to the airport the next day. Forbes and Malloy took a Western Airlines flight to Las Vegas– Las Vegas. (Pause) There, they were met by Panther Allen Lewis, who drove Forbes to a Las Vegas hospital, where he was treated under a phony name.” Why didn’t he use a phony name in the Oakland hospital? They had all that know-how there, they could’ve done it then. A lot of things just don’t jibe in this story, but the people, all they care is to discredit everything, because nobody wants to see goodness. Then that excuses them from living like the animals when– which U.S. are more animalistic than any people on earth, even the Uncle Toms and Aunt Janes. Well anyway, it went under the hi– the phony name. “Malloy told police that both Reid and Lewis arrived several days later at his hotel room with orders to drive him to Houston, because Las Vegas was getting too hot. Malloy du– dutifully climbed in the back of a rented van, and the three left Las Vegas.

“About 45 minutes later, Malloy said, Reid and Lewis stopped the van for a rest break. Malloy said he was standing beside the van when the two men pulled pistols and shot him in the back and left arm. He dropped to the ground but remained conscious while they dragged him off the roadway and piled rocks on top of him.

“Malloy believes that police in the Bay Area agree– and police in the Bay Area agree, that Flores Forbes was executed by Lewis and Reid. Police describe the shooting of Malloy, and the probable murder of Forbes, as a housecleaning effort to prevent any possible implication of the Panther higher-ups, and particularly Huey, who (stumbles over words) ordered the Richmond assassination attempt.” Oh, how they just simply (Pause) uh, charge, prosecute– trial by news media, instead of trial by court, as supposedly guaranteed to everyone in the Constitution. Anyway, now it has uh, Newton, with no evidence, ordering the Richmond assassination attempts. “Lewis and Reid, being sought for the shooting of Malloy, have disappeared.

“Much of the support for Huey Newton prior to Richmond began to seriously erode when the dead gunman outside Mary Matthews’ home proved to be Panther Louis Johnson. The chilling account told by the permanently paralyzed Nelson Malloy about Forbes, Lewis, and Reid seemed to confirm the pa– Party’s involvement in Richmond. When the Bay Area press heavily covered Malloy’s release from the Las Vegas hospital in a wheelchair, and his return home to Winston-Salem hospital ward aboard a plane chartered by his aggrieved family–” Oh yes, I’m sure they would give attention to this black man for a little while in his wheelchair, and then dump him in Carolina, where he’ll go back to his (Pause) loneliness without friends. Anyway, (Clears throat) “The Panthers had never looked worse. Alameda County Supervisor John George, for example, a long-time Newton supporter, was deeply troubled by the direction the Party had taken.

“But suddenly there was another blow, and it had the potential to harm Newton–” Of course, it was planned to do so, destroy him. “–and the Party in the local political arena, as much as the Richmond and Molloy incidents. Party chairperson Elaine Brown had disappeared.

“The disappearance triggered rumors that Brown might be dead. She wasn’t. But there were other accounts that she had been physically beaten in a clima– climactic power struggle with Newton after his return. So persistent were these reports, that in Los Angeles, where Brown had reportedly fled after a speedy exodus from her Oakland apartment in the middle of the night, police circulated to local hospitals– circulated to local hospitals – a description of her alleged injuries: severe swelling of one eye, and a broken nose.” Wonder how they knew all about that, unless they participated.

“Nearly a month after her disappearance, Brown’s letter of resignation from the Party was finally made public in the Bay Area press. Saying her decision to quit was made with Huey’s understanding–” But before that, there– it was– she spore– spelled out a lot of Panther information– was supposed to have even been over in Iran. “–she wrote of ‘unhappiness in personal matters, my mental and physical strength after ten years were waning, in fact nearly collapsing.’ The doctor who has treated Party members says, however, that colleagues in Los Angeles told him that Brown did receive the injuries described in police circulars, and that she was treated for them. Repeated attempts to reach Elaine Brown were unsuccessful. She did not respond to messages left for her at an office in Los Angeles where she is reportedly editing film scripts and writing songs.

“The theories surrounding Brown’s sudden departure have run the gamut from unrequited love for Newton, who married his long-time secretary, Gwen Fontaine in Cuba, to opposition to the Richmond assassination attempt, to the reassertion of male dominance of the Party now that Newton had returned. But whatever the reason, her resignation, along with Newton’s return, the Richmond attack, began to signal the end of the Party’s era of legitimacy. Richmond especially was a jolt to many sympathizers, who now found it impossible to overlook reports of Panther brutality.” That’s what the press smear and the conspiracy of police and law enforcement, FBI, government, wanted done. Break them off from their sources, like they’ve tried to do us, cut us off from our sources in USA. And it’s taken my sweat night and day, with a devoted staff, to keep us afloat, I’ll tell you.

“The Party’s problems were soon compounded by disclosures that Panthers had mismanaged investments and government grants. The grants had been administered by an offshoot of the nonprofit Educational Opportunities Corporation, EOC.” We’re about to the end, my dears, about to the end. Uh– Well, co– I’ve got a page left – a page left, and uh, it’ll be to the end, and you have heard– uh, you’ve had uh, given to you uh, 44 pages up ’til now. That’s how many pages they’ve used to destroy this man. “This offshoot, the EOC Service Corporation, was created under Elaine Brown’s leadership to run the Party’s school. One man formerly close to the Panthers says that funds channeled through the EOC Service Corporation were used to ‘keep the Squad sweet,’ needing to establish steady income and fringe benefits (Pause) for the heavies. This was confirmed in part by a newspaper account that grant dollars approved for Panther programs paid the rent for Robert Heard, and Squad member Larry Hensen, in an expensive, luxurious apartment.” Uh, see how they paint that? They don’t mind at all the rich dogs are in expensive and luxurious apartments. Yes. “An expensive, luxurious apartment on Oakland’s Lakeshore Avenue. Oakland Tribune” – always known for its fascism – “Reporters Pearl Swartz [] and Lance Williams.” Remember, the Oakland Tribune owner found life so empty he had to commit suicide. That’s what capitalists [capitalism] does for people, it doesn’t give them any happiness. He had no loved ones. His own family turned against him. But it’s still being run uh, by his son, who just recently sold it to another real capitalistic right-wing chain. Anyway, “Oakland Tribune reporters Pearl Stewart and Lance Williams broke the story and also reported that Heard and Hensen, as well as Flores Forbes and another Panther facing serious charges, were all on the payrolls of the Party’s grant-funded projects.

“Learned– When he learned of the Panthers’ financial irregularities last fall, Oakland mayor,” former judge “Lionel Wilson, resigned from the board,” even though they’d elected him, “of the Party’s school, where he had served even before his elections. A city audit of publicity– publicly-funded Panther programs, meanwhile showed a wide pattern of irregularities. For example, investigators could find no evidence that Panthers on the program payrolls were even ‘physically in attendance,’ although their paychecks were cashed, bearing signatures that looked like possible forgeries to city auditors.” Oh, now they’re for– guilty of forgery, fraud of governmental funds for the poor. “These irregularities might have been overlooked or allowed to be rectified by the Party, were it not for (Pause) the controversy surrounding Newton and the Richmond affair. Eventually when the city council voted to cancel Oakland’s con– contract with the Panthers, the move was uncontested. Mayor Wilson abstained because of his former board position. Some in Oakland think the city council action still might not have been so drastic, if the Panthers had not, on one particular p– application for school grants, listed Newton as the head of the EOC. ‘It was just plain stupid of the Party,’ one observer says. ‘They should have kept Huey completely out of it.’

“Mismanagement and misappropriation,” fraud, “are old charges against the Panthers when it comes to money. One doctor who formerly worked at the Party’s free health clinic says bitterly that ‘the clinic always comes last.’ Funds awarded to the health facility by the City of Berkeley were frequently siphoned off and used for other projects, like Bobby Seale’s campaign for mayor of Oakland, in 1976– uh, 73, the doctor said.” Whoever the doctor is.

“Amazing that the Party was maintained– has maintained a steady flow of money over the years despite grumblings from some other supporters that money went only to the highest echelon of the Party, and that Newton let other members rot in jail” – There, now he’s uh– he’s inhumane, he let his own members rot in jail – “while he and ranking Panthers always made bail.

“Considering all the money donated to the Panthers, the Party by now could’ve been financially solid if there had been careful investment and moderate spending – but there wasn’t. ‘They could have been big, big, real big, as rich as the Muslims,’ one former supporter says, ‘but they blew it. They were several fucking up with money.’ Several weeks ago the IRS put a $200,000 lien.” That’s always the way it goes, along come the taxes after the newspapers cut you down. “A $200,000 lien against the new– the now-defunct Stronghold Consolidated Productions Incorporated, the New York-based Panther corporation was uh– that was set up to handle the flow of money from Newton’s books. The corporation which also purchased real estate for the Party, was accused by the IRS of not paying its corporate taxes from 1971 to 1973. There is even some indication that the IRS might hold Newt– Newton personally accountable for the money.” Oh yes, I’m sure! “If he or the Party as a whole must pay the lien, it could well bankrupt both.

“Now there’s no one left in the Party with any power” – that’s what you wanted, magazine – “to challenge Newton’s supremacy. The identification of the Panthers with Newton, and Newton alone, is complete. ‘I am we,’ he has sometimes said, and one suspects he sees himself as inseparable from the Party. What he does, Newson– Newton has written, he does in the name of all black people.

“But what he has done, in fact, is to destroy the Party he created. The grants are gone now, the clinic and school still have their doors open, but the Panther newspaper has published only intermittently in recent months. Each week brings more defections from the already decimated, destroyed Party.” That’s what you wanted, magazine! “They often take place unnoticed, but the impact is great. That’s when newspaper editor Michael Fultz quietly slipped out of town in May. It was people like Fultz who did the back-breaking legitimate work of the Party.” They’re probably gonna use him for a fink for a while. “Now what remains is an isolated Huey Newton, surrounded by his muscle and his lawyers.

“New Times recently asked Newton for an interview, but he declined. He would grant one, he said, if the story concerned the Panther School and only the school.” He’s getting wiser, at least, about the press.

“Even as Newton awaits trial on the Smith-Callins charges, violence continues to swirl around him. And the party at 4 a.m. on Sunday in late March– at a party at 4 a.m. on Sunday in late March, two days after an Alameda County Board recommended to the Oakland City Council that grant money for the Panthers be cut off, a 5000 Datsun 260Z belonging to Oakland Tribune reporter Pearl Stewart was fire-bombed. Two hours earlier, a separate fire had been set in a boxcar next to a Tribune warehouse. The door of the boxcar had been pried open, and the newsprint storied– stored inside, were torched.” I remember how they tried to s– accuse us of that and the Examiner. Same old lines.

“Stewart had been writing articles critical of the Panthers for months. Coincidentally, she lived in the apartment building where Panthers Hensen and Heard had lived, until it was revealed in one of her stories that their apartment was paid for with poverty funds from the EOC grant money.” Trying to make all poor people resent them now. “Stewart says the locks on the security garage where her car was parked had not been changed since Heard and Hensen moved out, although she points out that the garage could be entered without a resident key if someone were intent upon doing so.” But clearly trying to make the Panthers responsible for the bombing of the reporter’s car. “The fire-bombing incident was a chilling reminder of Richmond, and it was not lost on the Oakland City Council, which acted the following day to halt all funds for the Panthers.” Yes, the ones they’d help elect now destroy them.

“Newton spends much of his time these days in Santa Cruz, where he is working toward a doctorate at the University of California. He is in a program called ‘History of Consciousness.’ Enrolling at Santa Cruz shortly after returning from Cuba helped bolster his public image, and Newton also scored points by landing an appointment in February as a student teacher at Merritt College, a non-paying job that will count towards his Ph.D. Newton’s brother, Melvin, runs the school’s liberal arts department. It didn’t matter that Newton showed up late for his first class.” Even with a Ph.D., they’re making hi– Newton look like a– a mass murderer. “Didn’t matter that he showed up late for his first class, looking and s– looking and sounding as if he had a hangover. He had been celebrating his thirty-sixth birthday the night before. It mattered only that the job carried respectability.” They’re going to probably try to get his brother for getting him the job now.

“But even as he pursues his Ph.D.” – his doctorate of philosophy – “there are reports that Newton has returned to his old routines. Once again he is said to be frequenting the bars in Oakland and Berkeley, accompanied by Squad members. And once again stories of extortion demands are making the rounds. ‘He’s back to his same old criminal stuff,’ one source says” – again, nameless – “‘hitting up the clubs, the pimps, and the dope dealers.’ Not all the barroom sorties involve extortion. On May 11 of this year, in the small town of Seacliff, twenty miles south of Santa Cruz, Newton and Robert Heard got into a barroom fight with a 26-year-old white, Kenny Hall.” Naturally they name him white, to whip up prejudice of white people. “The sheriff’s office had been unable to reconstruct the events precisely, but he has determined he– that during the fight at least one handgun was drawn, and at least two shots were fired.” See, they have to be sure at the end – we’re right at the end now – that whites hate him too. This is the first time they named a poor white soul that’s been hurt by Huey and his big 400-pound bodyguard. “Heard and Hue– and Newton were both seen with a gun, according to the sheriff’s office. Hall was unarmed. Afterward, Newton and Heard fled the bar but were arrested later that night. Kenny Hall was treated for a minor head injury suffered when he was knocked into a glass divider.

“Police in the Bay Area find the situation frustrating. Their hands are tied.” Oh yes, I know how the white police’s hands are tied in USA. “Their hands are tied because victims and witnesses will rarely step forward to testify against Huey Newton or his friends, out of fear. Police cite the recent incident at the Café d’Elegance, an after-hours club in Berkeley. Newton was there, making his rounds, when a pimp reportedly accosted him and complained about the shakedowns of his women. Newton, said one witness, ordered his bodyguards to draw their guns. No one was permitted to leave while Newton ranted and lectured his captive audience on political theory for about an hour.” Isn’t this ridiculous? “But nobody in the club that night ever pressed charges.” No– Nobody in that whole club, being held there, hostage against their will.

“Undoubtedly, much of the reluctance to testify against Newton stems from fear. But there is also a lingering feeling among some blacks and white radicals that Newton was once an important leader in the fight for equality, and that sending him to prison would serve the interests of racists.” Which it wouldn’t. This bastard, New Times, socialist magazine ought to be of itself. It’s just a front for capitalist conspiracy.

“The Seacluff– Seacliff brawl made local headlines” of course, “and prompted Deputy District Attorney” racist “Tom Orloff” – I’m calling him racist, ‘cause he is – “back in Oakland, to ask that Newton’s bail in the Smith-Ca– Callins case be raised from $80,000, which Newton had posted in cash, to $200,000. Panther watchers were already amazed at the speed with which Newton had raised the $50,000 cash bail for the Seacliff incident. After several days, the judge in the Smith-Callins case set an additional cash bail for Newton at $75,000. Newton showed up in court on May 19, the day the bail decision was to be handed down, with a slew of supporters from the Party, including Panther schoolchildren to face the crowd of reporters. At his side was his wealthy, long-time supporter, Hollywood producer Bert Schneider,” which he’s supposedly having a homosexual affair with. “Newton was placed in custody for a scant fifteen minutes before the extra $75,000 surety bond came through. When it did, he was released. On June 15, news broke that Newton lawyer, Sheldon Otis, had bowed out of the case, and had been replaced by Michael Kennedy, a close friend of Schneider.” Probably Otis was threatened, too, to get out.

“Now it appears to be a waiting game all around, the police stymied.” Oh, how humane they are, and their hands are tied, they want to do justice. “The police, stymied by reluctant witnesses, won’t move against Newton without solid evidence, for there is a sensitivity about Panther cries of police harassment. Besides, law enforcement officials believe that they have a solid case against Newton on the current charges, and that he will be put away.” I would think so, they’ve got him with five murder charges and conspiracy. “Victims of continuing Panther extortion are also waiting. Their attitude is, why bother doing something about it now? Why risk trouble, when it will be resolved in the courts? Huey will be convicted, and the rest of them will be too weak to continue.

“But some believe that Newton will do anything to avoid prison, despite his boast years ago that he could do hard time because there was a side of him that liked solitude, being alone. These observers believe” – never named, of course – “These observers believe Newton will jump bail and leave the country once again, although it is not certain whether Cuba would receive him so readily this time.” Yeah, they’re trying to dirty his name politically so he’ll have no place to go. I hope Cuba will not be taken in by it.

“And there are others who think Newton is intent on self-destruction.” And how do they deduce this? As I told you in the Peoples Rally, “I’m going down in a blaze of glory.” They conclude he’s going to commit suicide, because of this. “Look at the titles of his books,” says this smear magazine. “They say To Die for the People and Revolutionary Suicide.”

* * * *

And Paul Avery ought to be sick in his gut, because he knew what those historic words meant. To die for the people means to give up your life for the people you love. And revolutionary suicide is an act of giving yourself – if it even sacrifices yourself – to bring down the corrupt racist capitalist system. Thus ends this horrible smear, the new means in which USA assassinates anyone that represents hope for the people. Even though Huey Newton had been playing it very safe, and talking nonviolence like Martin Luther King. Thus– the– the title of the uh, magazine that covers the entire New Times, “The Party’s Over.” And indeed the press has assured that the party’s over, so the law enforcement can move in now and put him away, and probably even put him in the gas chamber.

Sorry to have to give you such depressing news, but some of you don’t wake up to the evil manipulations and conniving of the U.S. press and how impossible it would be for you to go back there, even if you wanted to sell out and let your lips drip with the blood of the people that are being oppressed by U.S. capitalism in USA and all over the world. They’re being killed every moment by our tax day– dollars, which should cause no small amount of guilt.

Thank you. I love you very much.