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<a href="http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/policeman-s-killer-testified-against-black-panthers-at-omaha-two-trial">
http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/policeman-s-killer-testified-against-black-panthers-at-omaha-two-trial</a>
<br><br>
</font><h2><b>Policeman’s killer testified against Black Panthers at
Omaha Two trial</b></h2>
<ul>
<li><font size=3>By
<a href="http://www.examiner.com/user-richardsonreports">Michael
Richardson</a>, COINTELPRO Examiner
<li>April 5th, 2011 1:08 pm ET
</ul><b>Omaha Two story: April 5, 1971<br><br>
</b>
<a href="http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/prison-interview-with-ed-poindexter-on-cointelpro-and-the-omaha-police">
Edward Poindexter</a> and
<a href="http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/prison-interview-with-mondo-we-langa-on-cointelpro-and-omaha-two-case">
Mondo we Langa</a> (formerly David Rice) are known as the Omaha Two, and
both men are serving life sentences for the August 17, 1970 murder of
Omaha Patrolman
<a href="http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/omaha-patrolman-larry-minard-killed-ambush-bombing-after-911-call">
Larry Minard, Sr</a>. The pair were leaders of Nebraska’s Black
Panthers and targets of the infamous COINTELPRO operation.<br><br>
<a href="http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/crimes-of-cointelpro-heard-at-northeastern-law-school-seminar">
COINTELPRO</a> was an illegal, clandestine program of the Federal Bureau
of Investigation under
<a href="http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/j-edgar-hoover-gave-order-to-let-policeman-s-killer-get-away-with-murder">
J. Edgar Hoover</a> that targeted political activists disliked by Hoover
for dirty tricks that included false prosecutions. The Black
Panthers attracted Hoover’s most immediate attention with a lethal
ferocity.<br><br>
Officer Minard’s confessed killer,
<a href="http://www.examiner.com/cointelpro-in-national/confessed-omaha-bomber-changes-story-during-preliminary-hearing">
Duane Peak</a>, gained a reduced sentence in juvenile detention in
exchange for his testimony implicating the two Panther leaders.
Peak served 33 months and was released despite his admission of planting
the bomb that killed the patrolman while responding to a 911 call of a
woman screaming.<br><br>
Forty years ago, on April 5, 1971, the second week of the Minard bombing
trial opened with all the melodrama of the first. Elaborate
security precautions were still being taken including the searching of
court room visitors. However, on Monday a new security device was
in operation. Closed-circuit TV cameras scanned the trial
proceedings seeking out potential disruptors.<br><br>
Duane Peak entered the Douglas County courtroom and took the witness
stand. The <i>Omaha World-Herald</i> described the killer, “Peak,
modishly dressed in gray charcoal pinstripe suit with a tapered jacket
and matching pink tie and handkerchief, spoke in a soft voice, at
times almost seeming to whisper.”<br><br>
The day was spent in Arthur O’Leary’s examination of his witness.
The nine women, three man jury listened in stoic silence and seemed at
times almost disinterested with the proceedings. As the day wore on
the jury did betray what appeared to be a mild irritation at defense
attorneys for their repeated and continued objections with long
looks.<br><br>
Between objections and conferences at the bench the state elicited from
young Peak his part in the death of Minard. Under O’Leary’s
questioning Peak described his role in the alleged conspiracy.
<br><br>
Duane Peak testified he didn’t learn his bomb worked for ten hours when
he heard about it on a newscast, having gone to sleep after placing the
suitcase bomb in a vacant house and allegedly calling police to the
trap.<br>
Advertisement <br><br>
Prior to confessing to placing the bomb, Peak testified it was
constructed at 2816 Parker, the home of David Rice, and that Ed
Poindexter gave detailed instructions on how to place and locate the
bomb. Poindexter allegedly told Peak that he had “a beautiful plan
to blow up a pig.”<br><br>
Peak described the simple triggering device of his bomb which used
thumbtacks, a small wood wedge, a clothespin, and a battery. During
a recess, Poindexter approached the suitcase used by Peak as a model
during his testimony and examined it curiously.<br><br>
Duane Peak claimed to have had two meetings at Mondo’s house, one to
build the bomb and then later to pick it up for delivery to the ambush
site. Peak claimed he also had a walk-by 2867 Ohio Street with
Poindexter as they scouted out vacant houses.<br><br>
About 10:30 p.m. on Sunday night, August 16, 1970, Peak was at his sister
Delia's apartment with the suitcase bomb. Peak said he had his
sister give him a ride to the vacant house dropping him off in the alley
behind the house.<br><br>
Duane Peak testified to the hushed courtroom: “I looked around the
house. There were some people around and I decided to
wait.”<br><br>
After waiting “about an hour” Peak entered the house and placed the
suitcase on the threshold of the front door setting the triggering device
to explode if the suitcase was lifted.<br><br>
Duane Peak testified he then “sat and thought” for about a half-hour on
the porch railing before leaving the bomb-rigged house.<br><br>
Peak said he walked back to Delia’s house arriving there at 1:00 a.m.
About 40 minutes later Peak left, he said, to make the fatal phone
call. Peak said he borrowed a dime from a stranger to place the
call.<br><br>
Peak testified, “I raised my voice and put it in a lower tone. I
told the man I saw a man dragging a screaming woman into the
house.”<br><br>
Four police cruisers responded. Eight patrolmen searched the house
and yard. <br><br>
At 2:11 a.m. a terrific explosion rocked the neighborhood, breaking
windows and half-demolishing the death house where 29 year-old
Larry Minard, Sr. was killed instantly while examining the
suitcase.<br><br>
Peak’s testimony would resume on Tuesday with cross examination by
defense attorneys for Ed Poindexter and Mondo we Langa. Both men
were held in the Douglas County Jail where they had been confined since
being arrested shortly after Minard’s death the summer before.<br><br>
The jury hearing the case was never informed about COINTELPRO and the
counter-intelligence measures used against the Omaha Two in the months
before the bombing. Nor was the jury informed about J. Edgar
Hoover’s personal order to withhold a FBI lab report on the identity of
the 911 caller whose voice did not resemble that of Duane Peak.<br><br>
<b>To view all of the Omaha Two story articles click
<a href="http://www.examiner.com/omaha-two-story-in-national">HERE</a><br>
<br>
</b><i>Permission granted to reprint<br><br>
</i>Michael Richardson<br>
COINTELPRO Examiner<br>
Examiner.com<br><br>
<br>
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