[Ppnews] Omaha Two story: (Part 20) - Police allegedly find dynamite

[Political Prisoner News]

<http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/detective-jack-swanson-claimed-to-find-dynamite-black-panther-house>http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/detective-jack-swanson-claimed-to-find-dynamite-black-panther-house


Detective Jack Swanson claimed to find dynamite in Black Panther house

By 
<http://www.examiner.com/user-richardsonreports>Michael 
Richardson, COINTELPRO Examiner

Omaha Two story:  April 2, 1971

The second day of testimony in the capital murder 
trial of 
<http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/prison-interview-with-ed-poindexter-on-cointelpro-and-the-omaha-police>Edward 
Poindexter and 
<http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/prison-interview-with-mondo-we-langa-on-cointelpro-and-omaha-two-case>Mondo 
we Langa, then David Rice, continued police 
testimony about the tragic events of August 17, 
1970, when Patrolman 
<http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/omaha-patrolman-larry-minard-killed-ambush-bombing-after-911-call>Larry 
S. Minard, Sr. was killed with an ambush bomb.

The two men were leaders of Omaha, Nebraska’s 
Black Panther affiliate chapter, National 
Committee to Combat Fascism, and were charged 
along with confessed bomber, 15 year-old Duane Peak, for the crime.

Friday’s testimony followed the same direction as 
the first day of trial as patrolmen Thornton, 
Rust, and Dennis corroborated the previous day’s 
testimony.  Thornton’s testimony provided the 
most emotional statements of the day as he 
described the mutilated body of Minard.

Douglas County Attorney Donald Knowles presented 
13 witnesses in the first two days of trial.

The Omaha Police intelligence unit, headed by 
Detective Jack Swanson, provided the most crucial 
testimony of the day when three members of the 
squad, including Swanson, testified about a 
police raid at the home of Mondo we Langa on 
August 22nd in a search for Duane Peak.

Mondo was out of town in Kansas City, Missouri, 
speaking at a rally for Black Panther Pete O’Neal 
who was facing a federal charge brought by the 
<http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/atf-agents-compete-with-fbi-summer-1970-to-arrest-black-panthers-omaha>Division 
of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms for an out-of-state purchase of a shotgun.

In a dramatic moment, courtroom microphones were 
switched off as blasting caps entered the 
courtroom.  Patrolman Dennis Taylor was a member 
of Swanson’s intelligence unit and identified the 
blasting caps he said the squad found at Mondo’s home.

Jack Swanson testified he found 14 sticks of 
dynamite in a “cubbyhole” in the basement of the 
residence.  A picture of dynamite, in the trunk 
of a police cruiser, was introduced as evidence 
over the objection defense attorney David Herzog.

Swanson’s hour-long testimony was riddled with 32 
defense objections, many of them sustained by District Judge Donald Hamilton.

Assistant Sam Cooper questioned Swanson about his 
unit’s investigation of “militant groups” in 
Omaha.  Swanson said his unit kept watch on 
motorcycle gangs, organized gangs, and “any group 
which might be involved in a conspiracy.”

Swanson testified his unit used informants, 
studied pertinent literature, and conducted 
direct surveillance.  Swanson said he personally 
conducted surveillance six times of the 
headquarters of the National Committee to Combat Fascism in Omaha.

Swanson said that an August 22nd raid on N.C.C.F. 
headquarters yielded “stacks of Black Panther 
Party literature.”  Swanson said that most of the 
same officers that raided the headquarters at 
about 5:00 p.m. also raided Mondo we Langa’s house around 10 p.m.

Swanson did not testify to the jury about the 
<http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/omaha-police-arrest-3-men-with-stolen-dynamite-and-impose-media-blackout>stolen 
dynamite seized by Omaha Police on July 28th or 
the three men arrested, Luther Payne, Lamont Mitchell, or Conrad Gray.

Swanson’s testimony he found dynamite in Mondo’s 
basement was corroborated by Sergeant Robert 
Pfeffer who said he saw Swanson carry dynamite 
upstairs from the basement.  The Nebraska Supreme 
Court would later describe the police testimony:

“At trial, Swanson testified that he found 
dynamite in Rice’s basement and that Pfeffer was 
also in the basement when the dynamite was 
found.  Pfeffer, on the other hand, testified at 
trial that he never went to the basement and that 
he did not see the dynamite until Swanson carried 
it up from the basement.  Trial counsel did not 
spend time exploring who was really in the basement.”

Pfeffer would later change his testimony and in a 
post-trial proceeding told Douglas County 
District Judge Russell Bowie that Swanson did not 
find any dynamite contradicting his own trial testimony.
Advertisement

Robert Bartle, Ed Poindexter’s attorney, 
described the various police stories in an appeal brief:

“At Poindexter’s post-conviction hearing on May 
30, 2007, Pfeffer’s testimony about finding the 
dynamite in Rice’s basement was significantly 
different from his sworn trial testimony 36 years 
earlier.  On May 30, 2007, Pfeffer testified he 
was the one who found the dynamite in Rice’s 
basement
.Pfeffer claimed that Swanson was right 
behind him and that when Pfeffer saw the 
dynamite, he become scared and told Swanson that 
they needed to “get the heck out of here.”

“When confronted with the discrepancy between 
Pfeffer’s sworn trial testimony in 1971 and his 
recent testimony of actually being the officer 
who found the dynamite, Pfeffer swore that his 
trial testimony in 1971 was not correct, that the 
court reporter, somebody got it wrong.”

Bartle continued, “Whether perjury or simply 
inconsistent statements, Pfeffer’s testimony 
about being in the basement when the dynamite was 
found was an extremely significant discrepancy.”

“When confronted with this contradiction on May 
30th, he vehemently denied that he had testified 
thus at trial.  For Officer Pfeffer now to 
disavow his trial testimony calls into question 
the credibility of the trial testimony of both Officers Swanson and Pfeffer.”

Jack Swanson is now deceased and unable to 
explain discrepancies over his role in the August 
22, 1970 search of Mondo we Langa’s 
house.  Pfeffer, who had given widely divergent 
accounts of his own actions during the search, 
further undermined his credibility in testimony to Judge Bowie.

Pfeffer has twice claimed to have found evidence 
of bomb-making supplies that were never seen by 
anyone else, not identified in any police report, 
and are missing from Pfeffer’s own investigative reports.

Robert Bartle on Pfeffer’s 
credibility:  “Pfeffer’s post-conviction 
testimony is also notable related to what he 
claimed to have found in a closet in Rice’s first 
floor bedroom.  Pfeffer claimed that during the 
search he went into Rice’s bedroom, and in a 
closet, he found three attaché suitcases, 
Samonsonite, kind of grayish, kind of bluish, 
gray color that had wires sticking out of all 
three of them.  Pfeffer claimed that after 
finding these attaché cases, either the ATF or 
one of the cruisers got a rope and “gingerly 
wrapped” the rope through the three handles of 
the suitcase and “lead it out the bedroom through 
the front room, outside the steps, hid behind a 
cruiser and pulled it;  Pfeffer then claimed that 
because the suitcases didn’t “go off”, they 
opened the case and found they were wired inside, 
probably he assumes, to make three more suitcase bombs.”

The brief continues, “Asked about the reports 
that he completed regarding the search at 2816 
Parker, Pfeffer acknowledged that Exhibit 142 and 
106 were reports of the search; but that these 
reports stated nothing about any attaché cases being found.”

Bartle wrote:  “Interestingly, Pfeffer also 
claimed to have found an attaché case during the 
search of NCCF headquarters on August 22, 1970. 
More specifically, Pfeffer testified at 
Poindexter’s suppression hearing that he 
(Pfeffer) found “an attaché case in the front 
room with wires and a clothespin attached to 
it.”  Pfeffer also acknowledged that the property 
and incident reports contained no mention 
whatsoever of finding the attaché case with wires and a clothespin attached.”

The jury that would convict the Omaha Two never 
got to hear all the different versions 
ultimately  told by Swanson and Pfeffer about 
dynamite and suitcases--including versions in 
conflict with the officers' own written reports.

During the second week of trial, prosecution 
would call to the stand its star witness, Larry 
Minard’s confessed killer, 
<http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/confessed-omaha-bomber-changes-story-during-preliminary-hearing>Duane 
Peak.

To view all of the Omaha Two story articles click 
<http://www.examiner.com/omaha-two-story-in-national>HERE

Permission granted to reprint

Michael Richardson
COINTELPRO Examiner
Examiner.com



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