[Pnews] Fugitive Black Panther leader Pete O’Neal was ATF target in Midwest 22 case

[Prisoner News]

  Fugitive Black Panther leader Pete O’Neal was ATF target in Midwest 22
  case

Michael Richardson
April 29, 2014
*http://www.examiner.com/article/fugitive-black-panther-leader-pete-o-neal-was-atf-target-midwest-22-case*

Felix “Pete” O’Neal, former head of the Black Panthers 
<http://www.examiner.com/topic/black-panthers> in Kansas City, Missouri, 
is self-exiled to Tanzania to avoid federal prison for a Gun Control Act 
violation. O’Neal was arrested on October 30, 1969 by Kansas City agents 
of the Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms Division for transporting a shotgun 
across state lines by a felon. O’Neal fled the country to avoid a 
four-year prison sentence on the gun charge but was unaware that ATF 
<http://www.examiner.com/topic/atf> also had plans to prosecute him as a 
part of the Midwest 22 <http://www.examiner.com/topic/midwest-22> 
alleged bomb conspiracy 
<http://oreaddaily.blogspot.com/2014/04/the-midwest-black-panther-22-and-never.html>.

The ATF was engaged in a turf fight with the Federal Bureau of 
Investigation over jurisdiction of bomb investigations and both rival 
agencies were after Pete O’Neal. The FBI had targeted the Kansas City 
leader under the clandestine COINTELPRO program directed by J. Edgar 
Hoover while ATF agents suspected there was a multi-state bomb 
conspiracy by the leadership of several Midwestern chapters of the Black 
Panthers.

James Moore, the Kansas City ATF agent who busted Pete O’Neal on the 
shotgun charge, discussed the Black Panthers and agency rivalry in a 
book, /Very Special Agents./ In the footnotes to Moore’s book, the 
retired agent explains he obtained his information from his own 
experience at work, examination of “ATF case files and memoranda” as 
well as “contemporaneous conversations” with Omaha ATF agent Thomas 
Sledge and head of the Omaha ATF office, Dwight Thomas.

Pete O’Neal was disliked by James Moore who showed his contempt for the 
Black Panther leader in the book. Moore wrote about O’Neal that he 
wanted to “put the jerk away.”

In profanity-laden passages, Moore revealed the identity of a FBI 
informant, O’Neal’s landlady, and ranted about the FBI getting credit 
for ATF investigations. Moore did not write about the Midwest 22 
directly but instead blamed the Omaha FBI for blotching up an ATF search 
for explosives. Moore wrote, “disillusionment solidified in Omaha.”

Pete O’Neal had a supervisory role within the Black Panther Party over 
the Omaha affiliate chapter, the National Committee to Combat Fascism. 
Three of the other Midwest 22 alleged co-conspirators, Ed Poindexter, 
Mondo we Langa (then David Rice) and Frank Peak, Jr. made trips to 
Kansas City for training and other party business.

Ed Poindexter and Mondo we Langa, now known as the Omaha Two 
<http://crimemagazine.com/j-edgar-hoover-and-framing-omaha-two>, are 
imprisoned with life sentences for the bombing murder of an Omaha 
policeman in 1970. The two Nebraska men were convicted in a COINTELPRO 
manipulated trial in state court largely on the testimony of another 
Midwest 22 would-be defendant, Duane Christopher Peak. Fifteen year-old 
Peak planted the bomb that killed Patrolman Larry Minard, Sr. but blamed 
the two leaders in exchange for a short sentence as a juvenile.

Ironically, Mondo we Langa was in Kansas City speaking at a rally for 
Pete O’ Neal when Mondo’s home was searched in Omaha. Police detectives 
allegedly recovered fourteen sticks of dynamite from Mondo’s basement 
although the purported discovery is marred by conflicting police 
testimony from two detectives, each claiming credit, Jack Swanson and 
Robert Pfeffer.

Pete O’Neal and his wife Charlotte fled the United States for Algeria 
before ending up in Tanzania where O’Neal was granted political asylum. 
O’Neal heads up the United African Alliance Community Center in the 
village of Imbaseni, near the northern city of Arusha. The UAACC is a 
community center providing a diverse array of culture and services to 
the village.

Other Kansas City Black Panthers on the ATF conspiracy list are Phillip 
Crayton, Phillip Deffenbaugh, Thomas Robinson, Jr., and Phillip Ortega. 
The role of the Kansas City members of the Midwest 22 is unclear since 
the bombings that hit Kansas City were blamed by Moore on the Students 
for a Democratic Society and the Weathermen.

None of the Midwest 22 alleged conspirators were prosecuted for an 
interstate bomb conspiracy. United States Attorney Richard Dier would 
not accept the ATF case explaining the “trend in the judiciary is away 
from major complex conspiracies.”

Pete O’Neal has sought clemency for the gun charge so that he would be 
able to return to the United States but has been denied any leniency. 
The secret effort by ATF to prosecute O’Neal as part of the Midwest 22 
conspiracy may explain why the exiled Panther has been denied a 
reduction in sentence.

-- 
Freedom Archives 522 Valencia Street San Francisco, CA 94110 415 
863.9977 www.freedomarchives.org
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