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<h1 property="schema:name dc:title" datatype="" class="node__title">State
witness in COINTELPRO case was confessed bomber Duane Peak</h1>
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<div property="dc:date dc:created" content="April 3, 2014"
datatype="xsd:dateTime" class="date date--created">April 3, 2014<br>
<b><small><small><small>http://www.examiner.com/article/state-witness-cointelpro-case-was-confessed-bomber-duane-peak</small></small></small></b><br>
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<p>Duane Peak, the confessed bomber in the 1970 death of an Omaha
policeman, was the star witness against the <a
href="http://www.examiner.com/topic/omaha-two-1"
class="inline_link omniture-click-processed">Omaha Two</a>, <a
href="http://www.examiner.com/article/prison-interview-with-ed-poindexter-on-cointelpro-and-the-omaha-police">Ed
Poindexter</a> and <a
href="http://www.examiner.com/article/prison-interview-with-mondo-we-langa-on-cointelpro-and-omaha-two-case">Mondo
we Langa</a> (formerly David Rice). The Omaha Two were the leaders of
the local Black Panther affiliate National Committee to Combat Fascism
and targets of J. Edgar Hoover. The director of the Federal Bureau of
Investigation oversaw a vast, illegal counterintelligence operation
codenamed <a
href="http://www.examiner.com/article/burglary-of-fbi-office-did-not-stop-cointelpro-tampering-of-omaha-two-trial">COINTELPRO</a>
directed at the Black Panthers and other groups. Hoover gave orders to
withhold a report on the identify of an anonymous 911 caller in this
case.</p>
<p>The Omaha Two were <a
href="http://www.examiner.com/article/activist-says-it-is-the-courts-not-the-evidence-keeping-the-omaha-two-prison">convicted
largely on the testimony of Duane Peak</a>, the fifteen year-old killer
who said the two men directed the bombing ambush. However, young Peak
gave authorities six different versions of the crime and a FBI
Laboratory report had to be withheld to buttresses Peak’s story of
luring police to a vacant house where a bomb waited in the darkness.</p>
<p>Sitting alone in his cell at the Dodge County Jail in Fremont,
Nebraska, the teen wrote an eight-page letter laden with conflicts and
confusion to his grandmother, Hazel Godlett. The letter, a seventh
version of Peak’s story, was both a denial and a confession, deceptive
and candid, containing self-pity and shame. Peak’s letter was read and
photocopied by his jailors before being mailed. Excerpts reveal Peak’s
anger and grandiosity.</p>
<p>Peak blamed his problems on the death of his mother: “I had always
thought that when Moms died everything about being good went with her,
so I turned to hate. I thought the Lord was evil for taking her away.”
I wanted to get back at him for it so I started attacking everything
that was good. I was so absorbed in hate I could barely see.”</p>
<p>“So to quench my thirst for anger and revenge, I would beat
people….After I got kicked out of school it got larger.”</p>
<p>Peak rambled a bit then returned to his theme of hurting others. “I
thrived off watching them go wild with anger. It was like a trip on
dope. I had to have it”</p>
<p>“Then I heard about the trouble the Panthers were causing. There was
so much hatred there I had to adjust myself to hate more. Then after
encountering my newly found hatred I decided to turn against everyone
in my complete family because I had lost the ability to feel, the
ability to love, the ability to have emotions for someone, the ability
be friendly. I was worse than the devil himself,” wrote Peak.</p>
<p>Peak claims he became afraid of the Panthers and tried to quit. Peak
also sought to keep his older brother Donald out of trouble. “Then came
the time when Donnie joined. He was even staying at H.Q. I wouldn’t
stay there anymore because I was afraid I’d get killed, so I told them
I was staying at home when actually I was sleeping in jitney stands.”</p>
<p>“They had made me officer of the day and Education Cadre. I would be
teaching Political Education classes, and the Liberation School, and I
would also have charge of the office while everyone else was working.
So whenever Donnie would come in tired from selling papers I’d make him
take some more out. I knew Donnie wasn’t the type to be pushed so I
made it hard on him hoping he’d quit before it was too late,” claimed
the youthful prisoner. “Whenever he’d do the smallest thing wrong, I’d
put in a request for his expulsion because he was a security risk.
Finally I got him expelled.”</p>
<p>Duane Peak wrote: “there is one thing I will tell you. when I put
that suitcase in that house, I unlocked it so that when the Police
found it, they could take it and open it without anyone getting harmed.
Why it blew up is what the Police are trying to find out now, and I
promise to the best of my ability to help find out.”</p>
<p>Peak’s “best of my ability” turned out to be making a deal to trade
his murder charge to a finding of juvenile delinquency and escaping
prison. Meanwhile, Ed Poindexter and Mondo we Langa remain in the
maximum-security Nebraska State Penitentiary serving life sentences
despite their <a
href="http://www.examiner.com/article/mondo-we-langa-seeks-post-conviction-appeal-for-new-trial-cointelpro-case">repeated
requests for a new trial</a>.</p>
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