Latest / When Killers Get Caught with Brittany Ransom / The Assassination of Fred Hampton: COINTELPRO, the Black Panther Party & the 1969 Chicago Police Raid

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The Assassination of Fred Hampton: COINTELPRO, the Black Panther Party & the 1969 Chicago Police Raid · When Killers Get Caught with Brittany Ransom

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  He was 21 years old. A rising political leader, a
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  father to be in the US government, decided that he was
• 0:06
  too dangerous to live. On December 4th, 1969 in
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  Chicago, IL, a pre dawn police raid shattered the quiet of a
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  West Side apartment. Officers stormed inside and
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  unleashed 99 shots. One bullet was fired by the
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  Panthers. When it was over, Fred Hampton
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  lay dead in his bed. Authorities called it a
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  shootout. Survivors called it an
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  execution. I'm Brittany Ransom, and This is
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  When Killers Get Caught, the podcast where we examine the
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  lives, behavior and psychology behind the most extreme acts of
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  violence and what happens when the truth finally catches up.
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  This week, we're talking about Fred Hampton.
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  He wasn't just another activist. As the chairman of the Illinois
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  chapter of the Black Panther Party, he was building something
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  radical, not only resistance to police brutality, but
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  multiracial working class unity. And that kind of coalition drew
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  the attention of the FBI and its secret counterintelligence
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  program. This story isn't just about one
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  deadly raid. It's about government
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  surveillance, race power and state violence.
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  It's about what happens when political movements are labeled
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  threats and the lasting legacy of political repression within
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  America. Fred Hampton was born in 1948 in
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  Maywood, IL, just outside of Chicago.
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  From an early age, he stood out. Teachers and classmates
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  described him as sharp, discipline, and fearless when it
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  came to speaking his mind. By his teens, Hampton wasn't
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  just participating in student activities, he was organizing
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  them. He had a natural ability to
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  command a room, blending his charisma with a deep
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  understanding of both history and politics.
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  Before he ever joined the Black Panther Party, Hampton served as
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  the president of the local N Double ACP Youth Council.
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  Under his leadership, membership reportedly grew into the
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  hundreds, and he pushed for better recreational facilities
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  and resources for Black youth in his community.
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  Even then, he showed a pattern that would define his life,
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  organizing at the grassroots level and demanding structural
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  change, not symbolic reform. When Hampton joined the Black
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  Panther Party, his rise was very rapid.
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  He became chairman of the Illinois chapter at just 21
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  years old. He was named deputy chairman of
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  the national organization. But his leadership wasn't only
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  rhetorical, it was practical. He helped expand the Panthers
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  Free Breakfast program, eating children before school at a time
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  when food insecurity was widespread.
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  He supported community health clinics that offered basic
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  medical care. He prioritized political
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  education classes and organized against police brutality in
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  Chicago within neighborhoods where tensions with law
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  enforcement were constant and often violent.
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  Perhaps his most groundbreaking effort was the formation of what
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  he called the Rainbow Coalition, an alliance between the
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  Panthers, the Young Lords, and the Young Patriots organization.
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  This coalition united Black, Puerto Rican, and poor white
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  communities around shared economic struggles rather than
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  racial division. That multiracial class based
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  solidarity is precisely what made Hampton so powerful to many
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  within our government. So threatening.
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  He wasn't just criticizing the system, he was building
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  relationships across racial lines among working class
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  people. A united coalition of poor and
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  marginalized communities had the potential to disrupt entrench
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  political and economic power structures.
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  The question becomes, was Hampton targeted because he was
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  radical or because he was effective?
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  Now, the assassination of Fred Hampton didn't happen in a
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  vacuum. Unfolding during one of the most
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  volatile decades in modern American history, the 1960s were
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  defined by mass movements, political upheaval, a deep
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  crisis of legitimacy within the United States government.
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  The civil rights movement had already transformed the country
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  from SIT insurance to Freedom Rides to the March on
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  Washington. Activists forced the nation to
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  confront segregation and racial terror.
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  But legislative victories like the Civil Rights Act and Voting
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  Rights Act did not end systemic inequality.
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  Frustrations over housing discrimination, economic
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  injustice, and release brutality continued to grow, especially in
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  northern cities like Chicago. At the same time the Vietnam War
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  was escalating, graphic television coverage brought the
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  brutality of the conflict into American living rooms, fueling
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  massive anti war protests. Young people were marching,
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  resisting the draft and questioning the morality of US
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  foreign policy. Trust in government institutions
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  was eroding. Urban uprisings erupted across
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  the country in response to police violence and entrenched
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  poverty, from Watts in 1965 to Detroit and Newark in 1967.
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  These rebellions were often framed as riots, but many
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  participants described them as reactions to years of systemic
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  neglect and abuse. It actually reminds me very much
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  of the Mike Brown shooting. I don't know if I guess it was
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  already over 10 years ago. It's crazy.
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  I didn't even think about that. But for people who don't know,
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  Mike Brown was an 18 year old who was shot and killed by
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  police officer named Darren Wilson in Ferguson, MO.
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  It was August 9th, 2014 and the resulting riots that came from
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  his death were not just because he was killed, but because
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  within Ferguson, MO there had been a history of systemic
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  inequality. Essentially, the Police
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  Department were using the citizens of Ferguson as a way to
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  boost the money that the Police Department was getting.
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  Now, for most police departments in the United States, you get
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  your money based on taxing the people within your community.
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  The problem is Ferguson is a community, Ferguson, MO, a
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  suburb of Saint Louis, that struggles financially.
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  And so they guessed they felt that they weren't getting enough
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  money. So they were doing things that
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  were bordering illegal, but kind of technically still legal.
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  Essentially, they were creating like debtors prisons, which is
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  something that's been banned within the United States for
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  decades. And they were doing it through
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  aggressively ticketing people. And then they would take their
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  cars. And it was just this whole
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  situation equation that had stacked on top of themselves so
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  aggressively that by the time the shooting happened August
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  9th, the people of Ferguson were already primed to be upset.
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  And that's the same thing that was happening in the States in
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  the 60s, riots, as they were being called, you know, like
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  Watts in 1965 and in Newark in 1967.
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  These were a response, a response to years of systemic
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  neglect from their police and from within their local
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  government. Now you have all that going on.
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  But then you have to layer on to this tension are the
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  assassinations of the two most prominent black leaders in the
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  country at the time. Malcolm X was assassinated in
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  1965, and Martin Luther King Junior was assassinated in 1968.
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  These deaths deepened both the grief and radicalization within
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  the Black community. Many activists to begin to
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  question whether non violence alone could protect them or
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  bring about any meaningful change.
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  And then amidst this unrest, the federal government intensified
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  its surveillance operations. The FBI's counterintelligence
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  program, COINTELPRO, expanded its focus on Black nationalist
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  organizations specifically. It was officially designed to
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  monitor subversive threats, but they 100% focused on engaging in
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  infiltration, psychological warfare, disinformation
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  campaigns, and efforts to sow internal conflict, specifically
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  in organizations that were projecting Black excellence and
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  trying to put Black people in a better position in this country.
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  Which means we were being directly sabotage by our own
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  government. And a lot of people know this,
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  but this all happened under FBI Director J Edgar Hoover, who did
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  a host of very illegal things. The last time I probably
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  referenced J Edgar Hoover on this podcast was when I talked
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  about Killers of the Flower Moon, that book about what
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  happened to the indigenous people on the West Coast who
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  owned a lot of gas and natural oil and how they were slowly
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  being killed within their own community by people within their
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  community. And the US government just
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  didn't seem to care for a while. So we have a history of not
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  liking J Edgar Hoover on this podcast.
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  And he specifically labeled the Black Panther Party as the
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  greatest threat to the internal security of the country.
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  And there are internal FBI memos that revealed his specific
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  objective to prevent the so-called surprise of the Black
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  Messiah who could unify and electrify the movement.
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  In this climate where activism has been equated with subversion
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  and dissent with danger, it's not really a surprise that
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  someone like Fred Hampton was being monitored.
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  He was being viewed as a threat that needed to be neutralized.
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  It's just how they did it was pretty jacked up, too.
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  Now, behind the scenes of Fred and his rising influence was a
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  quiet operation already in motion.
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  The FBI had planted an informant inside the Illinois chapter of
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  the Black Panther Party. His name was William O'Neill,
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  and he wasn't just a casual source.
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  He had infiltrated this organization, gained trust, and
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  he was climbing the ranks. And eventually he became
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  Hamptons personal bodyguard, a position that gave him direct
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  access to meeting strategies and Hampton himself.
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  While presenting himself as a loyal Panther, O'Neill was
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  feeding information back to the FBI.
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  But most critically, he provided A detailed floor plan of Fred
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  Hampton's apartment at 2337 W Monroe St. in Chicago.
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  He identified where in the apartment that Hampton slept.
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  He mapped out the entrances and exits.
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  And that intelligence would later shape the trajectory of
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  bullets in the early morning hours of December 4th, 1969.
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  And then came the setup. On the night before the raid,
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  Hampton returned home after teaching a political education
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  class. According to later testimony, he
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  drank from a beverage that had been laced with barbiturates.
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  Multiple survivors reported that Hampton was unusually difficult
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  to wake up the following morning.
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  Some believe that he was intentionally drugged, a claim
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  that has long shadowed this case, though the exact
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  circumstances are still debated. Just before dawn, a heavily
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  armed tactical unit from the Cook County State's Attorney
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  office, working in coordination with the Chicago Police
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  Department, executed a raid on the apartment.
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  The operation tied to the COINTELPRO and the officers
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  burst inside, firing before anyone even knew what happened.
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  Nearly 100 shots were discharged, ballistic evidence.
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  What later suggested only a single shot came from inside the
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  apartment, which was an accidental firing by Panther
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  Mark Clark as he was being fatally shot.
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  Hampton reportedly remained unconscious and heavily sedated
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  the entire time they were in there.
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  He was found deceased in his bed, and witnesses say that he
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  was shot at a very close range. I'm going to go more into the
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  raid, but I want you to ask yourself, would you consider
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  this a police shootout or an execution?
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  Because for me, when an informant supplies the floor
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  plan and then the leader is incapacitated and the raid
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  unfolds with such overwhelming force, even though the
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  organization has not shown this force was needed, I feel like
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  the line between law enforcement action and political elimination
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  becomes very impossible to ignore.
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  But like I said, this was the early morning hours of December
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  4th, 1969. The police all converge on 2337
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  W Monroe St. It's a modest West side
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  apartment and members of the Illinois Chapter of the Black
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  Panther Party were all asleep. They forced their way in shortly
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  before 5:00 AM. Now, authorities would claim
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  they were met with gunfire, that the Panthers shot first,
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  triggering a violent exchange. But forensic analysis and later
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  investigations paint a starkly different picture.
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  Nearly 100 shots were fired during this raid, and Ballistics
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  would show that almost all of them came from police weapons.
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  Only a single shot came from within the apartment.
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  And again, they think that's when Panther Mark Clark fell
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  after he got shot, and he reflexively pulled the trigger
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  when he was dying now. But Hampton lay in a back
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  bedroom, and he was beside his pregnant partner, Akua Najera.
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  Akua Najeri, who was known at the time as Deborah Johnson.
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  Survivors, reported that Hampton was extremely difficult to wake
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  up. They ran to him and tried to
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  shake him awake. But as the gunfire erupted
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  through the apartment walls, Akua just couldn't wake him up.
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  When the officers entered the bedroom, she later recounted
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  that they pulled her out of the room.
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  She said she heard two shots fired after officers stood over
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  Hampton's body. And according to her testimony,
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  one officer remarked that Hampton was barely alive,
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  followed by another person saying he'll make it.
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  And then came the final shots. Johnson maintained that Hampton
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  was shot at point blank range while laying in his bed.
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  When it was over, only two Panthers were dead, Mark Clark
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  and Fred Hampton. Several others were wounded, and
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  police initially described the scene as a fierce gun battle.
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  But the official account would be challenged with real facts
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  very, very quickly. One fact cut through the
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  political debate. Fred Hampton was only 21 years
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  old. He didn't have a chance to stand
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  up, no opportunity to defend himself in any meaningful way.
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  Weeks after his death, his son, Fred Hampton Junior was born.
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  And that raid at 2337 W Monroe St. did more than just end the
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  life. It became one of the most
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  controversial police operations in American history, a
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  flashpoint in the ongoing conversation about state power,
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  accountability and political dissent.
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  In the immediate aftermath of the raid, they quickly tried to
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  control the narrative. Officials described it again as
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  a fierce and justified gun battle.
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  Police claim they have been met with heavy gunfire and were
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  forced to defend themselves. Press conferences was emphasized
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  the danger officers already faced, framing this operation as
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  a lawful response to armed militants.
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  But that version of offense would unravel almost immediately
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  because members of the Black Panther Party said come on in,
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  guys. And they invited the reporters
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  and community members and other activists into the apartment
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  before it was repaired. And what they saw contradicted
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  the official account. The bullet holes all travel
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  inward from the outside. There are virtually none toward
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  the doorway where the police would have been standing.
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  The walls were riddled with police gunfire, and the physical
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  evidence suggested that it was a barrage directed into the
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  apartment rather than equal crossfire.
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  Independent investigations and later forensic analysis
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  supported this observation. Nearly all of those shots came
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  from police weapons. The idea of a prolonged shootout
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  suddenly looked to much less credible and the families of
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  Fred Hampton and Mark Clark, along with other survivors of
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  the raid, began to file civil lawsuits against the City of
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  Chicago, Cook County and federal officials.
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  What followed was a grueling 13 year legal battle marked by
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  delays, dismissed charges, appeals, and the eventual
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  revelation of prior hidden documents.
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  During the proceedings, evidence surfaced of coordination between
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  local law enforcement and federal authorities through
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  Cohen's help Pro. Internal memos and records show
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  that the FBI had not only infiltrated the Panthers, but
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  provided intelligence that directly contributed to the
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  raid. The involvement of the Bureau
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  challenged the narrative that this was just a local political
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  matter, this had nothing to do with the local police, and this
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  all came from the FBI. And then in 1982, without
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  admitting any wrongdoing, the government agreed to pay $1.85
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  million to the family and survivors.
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  At this time, it was on the largest civil rights settlements
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  in U.S. history. But the settlement didn't bring
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  criminal convictions. No officer was charged for
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  Hamptons murder, but the civil case forced disclosure of
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  documents that confirmed illegal surveillance and disruption
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  tactics that were carried out under COINTELPRO.
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  The broader implications were profound, and the case exposed
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  how federal and local agencies had collaborated to target a
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  political organization. It revealed the extent to which
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  dissent, particularly Black people organizing.
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  It revealed the extent to which dissent, particularly black
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  people organizing, was treated as a national security threat.
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  And it's cemented the assassination of Fred Hampton
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  not only as a tragic killing, but a defining example of
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  government overreach and political repression in the
• 17:40
  United States. More than 5 decades after his
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  death, Fred Hampton remains a powerful and polarizing figure
• 17:46
  in American political memory. For years, his story lived
• 17:49
  primarily in activist circles, documentaries, and community
• 17:52
  history, but in 2021 it reached a much wider audience with the
• 17:56
  release of Judas and the Black Messiah, a dramatization of
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  Hamptons leadership within the Black Panther Party, and the
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  betrayal by his FBI informant William O'Neill.
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  It introduced a new generation to Hampton, speeches, his
• 18:11
  organizing, and the circumstances of the raid that
• 18:13
  killed him. The movie sparked renewed public
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  conversation about COINTELPRO, government infiltration, and the
• 18:20
  extent to which the state viewed black political movements as
• 18:23
  internal enemies. For many viewers, it was the
• 18:26
  first time they encountered Hampton not as a footnote in
• 18:29
  history, but as a charismatic, strategic and deeply committed
• 18:33
  leader. That renewed interest didn't
• 18:36
  exist in isolation. The film arrived during a period
• 18:39
  of heightened national reckoning over police violence and racial
• 18:43
  injustice. Protests following high profile
• 18:46
  police killings led to widespread examination of law
• 18:49
  enforcement accountability, systemic racism, and the
• 18:53
  militarization of policing. In that context, Hampton's death
• 18:57
  felt less like distant history and more like part of an ongoing
• 19:00
  pattern within this country. Conversations about government
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  surveillance also resurfaced, from digital data tracking to
• 19:07
  federal monitoring of activist groups.
• 19:10
  Questions about how the state response to dissent remain
• 19:12
  relevant. Hamptons targeting under
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  COINTELPRO serves as a historical precedent, a reminder
• 19:17
  that intelligence agencies have in the past moved beyond
• 19:21
  surveillance into disruption and elimination even of people
• 19:25
  within our own country. His legacy also lives in the
• 19:28
  language of modern activism. Hampton emphasized coalition
• 19:32
  building across racial and economic lines, focusing on
• 19:36
  shared material conditions rather than division.
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  Today, organizers who advocate for multiracial working class
• 19:42
  solidarity reference similar principles.
• 19:46
  Perhaps the most enduring piece of his legacy is a quote that
• 19:49
  continues to circulate widely. You can kill a revolutionary,
• 19:52
  but you can't kill the revolution.
• 19:55
  This line captures why Hampton story persists.
• 19:58
  While his life was cut short at just 21, the ideas he championed
• 20:02
  community empowerment, political education, collective
• 20:05
  resistance. They didn't disappear with him.
• 20:08
  Instead, they echo through contemporary movements that
• 20:11
  continue to challenge state power.
• 20:14
  In that sense, Hamptons cultural impact extends beyond film or
• 20:17
  historical debate. It lives in the ongoing struggle
• 20:20
  over who gets to define justice, security, and freedom within
• 20:23
  America. More than 50 years later, the
• 20:26
  assassination of Fred Hampton still forces us to confront
• 20:29
  uncomfortable truths. This was the youth leader
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  Hampton wishes 21 brilliant, disciplined, already building
• 20:37
  programs that fed children and united communities.
• 20:40
  And his age matters. It shows just how powerful young
• 20:44
  voices can be and how threatening those voices are to
• 20:47
  entrench systems. This was about state power, not
• 20:51
  just police at someone's doorstep, but coordinated
• 20:54
  intelligence operations and narratives shaped before the
• 20:57
  public could ever see the evidence.
• 20:59
  Hampden's death forced us to ask who controls the story and who
• 21:03
  benefits from that story. This was about fear, fear of a
• 21:07
  multiracial solidarity. Hampden's Rainbow Coalition
• 21:11
  wasn't symbolic. It was uniting Black, Puerto
• 21:14
  Rican and poor white communities around a shared economic
• 21:18
  struggle, something we should be doing right now, too.
• 21:22
  That kind of unity doesn't just challenge policy, it challenges
• 21:25
  the hierarchy. It disrupts long standing
• 21:28
  strategies of dividing working class people.
• 21:31
  And ultimately, this is about the cost of dissent.
• 21:34
  Today, that conversation is urgent.
• 21:37
  Political actions are escalating, protest is being
• 21:39
  framed as extremism, and everyday Americans demanding A
• 21:43
  fairer society are being treated like threats.
• 21:46
  Hampton's story is a warning. When they equate our
• 21:50
  organization with danger, our lives are at stake.
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  I worry that if we don't learn from this history, we may see
• 21:57
  more Fred Hamptons in our future.
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  The answer isn't division. It is unity.
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  What Hampton fought for, solidarity among working people
• 22:06
  across race and background. It's exactly what this country
• 22:09
  needs right now. Not billionaires separating us
• 22:12
  for profit, not culture wars meant to distract, but real
• 22:15
  coalition workers recognizing our shared power.
• 22:20
  They need us remember the truth always leaves a trail.
• 22:25
  If we follow it, question official narratives and examine
• 22:29
  power critically. We don't just honor Hamptons
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  legacy, we protect our own future.
• 22:34
  I'm Brittany Ransom and this has been when killers get caught.
• 22:38
  I leave you with one final question.
• 22:40
  What does it mean if the government decides someone is
• 22:42
  too dangerous to live and what should we do about it?