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</font><font face="Verdana" size=2>Original Content at
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<b>March 16, 2008<br><br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=4>15 year-old killer "turned"
Black Panthers in COINTELPRO case to escape threatened execution in
Nebraska murder trial<br><br>
</b></font><font face="Verdana" size=2><i>By Michael Richardson<br><br>
</i></font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3>Duane Peak, a 15
year-old dropout with reported substance abuse problems, took out his
angst against the world on August 17, 1970, when he killed an Omaha,
Nebraska police officer, Larry Minard, the father of five young
children. Police had been lured to a booby-trapped vacant house
with a false report of a woman screaming. Instead of a rape victim,
the eight responding patrolmen found only a suitcase. Officer
Minard was killed instantly when the dynamite-rigged suitcase blew up in
his face. Seven other officers were injured. <br><br>
Two years earlier, J. Edgar Hoover, the director of the Federal Bureau of
Investigation had ordered FBI field offices to "disrupt" the
Black Panthers, a group Hoover had declared the most dangerous in
America. Code-named COINTELPRO, the secret operation against the
Black Panthers used illegal tactics and engaged in a wide range of
misconduct against numerous individuals around the nation. When
reports came in about the lethal trap that took Minard's life the Omaha
district office sprang into action and assisted the Omaha Police
throughout the investigation. <br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=2> <br><br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3>After an intensive
police sweep of Omaha's Near-Northside and the arrest of over a dozen
individuals, the investigation focused on Peak who had been seen by
witnesses with a suitcase around the time of the bombing. While
under interrogation Peak gave a half-dozen different versions of the
crime but failed to name the two individuals police wanted most. Ed
Poindexter and Mondo we Langa (formerly David Rice) were leaders of
Omaha's Black Panther chapter, the National Committee to Combat Fascism,
and had been COINTELPRO targets for two years.<br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=2> <br><br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3>Finally, during his
last interrogation, Peak implicated Poindexter and Langa as his
accomplices. That version of the crime was to be the script for
Peak's preliminary hearing except that the murderous state's witness
didn't stick to his story. When Peak failed to name the two Panther
leaders in his morning testimony the prosecution called for a
recess. When Peak returned to the stand he was wearing sunglasses
and was "shaking and nervous."<br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=2> <br><br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3>When defense counsel
David Herzog had Peak remove his sunglasses his eyes were red and
puffy. The courtroom testimony follows:<br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=2> <br><br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3>Defense Attorney:
What happened to make you shake and bring your nervous condition about
now?<br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=2> <br><br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3>Duane Peak: I
don't know.<br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=2> <br><br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3>Defense Attorney:
You had a conversation between the time you were placed on the witness
stand this morning and the present time now, isn't that correct?<br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=2> <br><br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3>Duane Peak:
Yes.<br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=2> <br><br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3>Defense Attorney:
And there were the same things that the police officers told you about
what would happen to you, like sitting in the electric chair, isn't that
correct?<br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=2> <br><br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3>Duane Peak: I
didn't have a chance.<br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=2> <br><br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3>Defense Attorney:
You didn't have a chance did you?<br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=2> <br><br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3>Duane Peak:
No.<br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=2> <br><br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3>Defense Attorney:
You are doing what they want you to do, aren't you.<br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=2> <br><br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3>Duane Peak:
Yes.<br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=2> <br><br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3>After implicating
Poindexter and Langa, in the solitude of his jail cell, the young killer
would express remorse in a letter, known to the prosecution but withheld
from the defense.<br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=2> <br><br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3>"The Lord knows I
tried but something happened which forced me to realize that I had no
alternative but to say what I said. No matter what anyone says from
now on I refuse to call myself a man, or anything close to a man because
I did what I did. Even though there was no other way, because they
already had enough evidence to convict those other two bloods."<br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=2> <br><br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3>Peak continued his
lament trying to explain his testimony.<br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=2> <br><br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3>"I not only turned
against those two bloods, but I turned against myself and my own
people. I could have denied everything and all three of us would
have gone up to the chair. And then again if I denied everything
one of those other bloods would have gave them a story and sent me and
the other dude up."<br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=2> <br><br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3>Peak ended up getting
his deal and was sentenced as a juvenile delinquent serving just 33
months before his release. <br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=2> <br><br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3>Two Omaha detectives,
Jack Swanson and Robert Pheffer, gave conflicting testimony both claiming
to have been the one who discovered dynamite at Langa's house.
Pheffer would later contradict his own trial testimony and embellish his
tale with finding wired suitcases that were never listed on any police
inventory sheets and not seen by anyone else.<br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=2> <br><br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3>Assistant Chief of
Police Glenn Gates later would ask the Special Agent-in-Charge of the
Omaha FBI office to forget about a tape recording of the emergency call
that led Minard to his death. Gates had sent a tape into FBI
headquarters for analysis but lost interest when it was determined the
tape would be "prejudicial" to the prosecution because the
voice on the tape did not match Peak, leaving an unidentified accomplice
on the loose. <br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=2> <br><br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3>The police case against
the two Panther leaders would unravel if a search for all involved was
conducted. The request by Gates to ignore the deadly tape recording
was sent directly to J. Edgar Hoover who personally monitored
developments in the COINTELPRO operation.<br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=2> <br><br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3>The supplier of the
dynamite that killed Larry Minard was a suspected police informant,
Raleigh House, who only spent one night in jail for the crime and was
never formally charged or brought to trial.<br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=2> <br><br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3>Ed Poindexter and Mondo
we Langa were convicted of first degree murder and sentenced to life
imprisonment and are presently incarcerated in the maximum-security
Nebraska State Penitentiary. Both men deny any involvement in the
death of Minard.<br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=2> <br><br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3>A request for a new
trial by Poindexter is pending before the Nebraska Supreme Court.
No date has been set for a decision.<br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=2> <br><br>
</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times" size=3><i>Permission granted
to reprint.<br>
</i> <br><br>
<br><br>
</font><font face="Verdana" size=2>Authors Bio: Michael Richardson is a
freelance writer based in Boston. Richardson writes about politics,
election law, human nutrition, ethics, and music. Richardson is also a
political consultant on ballot access. <br><br>
<br><br>
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