[Ppnews] Dynamite supplier walked free in COINTELPRO case against Black Panthers

[Political Prisoner News]

Original Content at 
http://www.opednews.com/articles/genera_michael__080310_dynamite_supplier_fo.htm

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March 10, 2008

Dynamite supplier for bomb that killed Omaha 
policeman walked free in COINTELPRO case against Black Panthers

By Michael Richardson

The investigation into the tragic bombing murder 
of Omaha Police patrolman Larry Minard on August 
17, 1970, which led to the conviction and 
lifetime imprisonment of two Black Panther 
leaders, was marred by false police statements, 
withheld evidence and ended with the named 
supplier of the fatal explosives going unpunished.

The two convicted Panthers, Ed Poindexter and 
Mondo we Langa (formerly David Rice), were 
leaders of the Omaha chapter of the National 
Committee to Combat Fascism and both were targets 
of J. Edgar Hoover's secret and illegal Federal 
Bureau of Investigation operation, code-named 
COINTELPRO, which was ordered to "disrupt" the Black Panthers.

Poindexter and Langa, who deny any involvement in 
the crime, were implicated by 15 year-old Duane 
Peak, the confessed bomber.  Peak obtained his 
freedom with brokered testimony against the 
Panther leaders and served less than three years 
in juvenile detention for the murder of Larry Minard.

Although Peak gave police a half-dozen different 
versions of the crime before naming Poindexter 
and Langa, the young killer stated he obtained 
the dynamite for his suitcase bomb from another 
Panther, Raleigh House.  Peak testified at his 
preliminary hearing that he obtained the 
explosives from House, repeated the claim during 
his deposition, and testified at the 1971 murder 
trial that House supplied the dynamite for the bomb.

Officer Minard was killed and seven other Omaha 
policemen were injured when they responded to an 
emergency call about a woman screaming in a 
vacant house.  A booby-trapped suitcase at the 
scene exploded when Minard examined it killing him instantly.

Federal agents and Omaha police had recruited 
informants within the Black Panther group as part 
of the campaign to disrupt the organization and 
had a lengthy list of suspects when they began a 
sweep of Omaha's Near-Northside in the days following Minard's murder.

At least 60 people were brought in for 
questioning and over a dozen were arrested on 
various charges while the police searched for 
Peak.  On August 23, 1970, the police arrested 
Raleigh House, a former "lieutenant of 
information" of the Omaha Black Panther chapter, 
and, according to the Omaha World-Herald, charged 
him with suspicion of conspiracy to commit 
murder.  House was jailed with a $10,000 bond 
placed on him.  After House's arrest, Assistant 
Chief of Police Glenn Gates told the newspaper 
that naming suspects had made, "every member of 
the Police Division extremely glad."  Gates 
called Minard "a brother officer" whose death 
"does strike fear into the heart of officers on the street."

Gates would later ask the FBI to cancel a voice 
analysis of the emergency call tape that lured 
Minard to his death.  The emergency call was 
allegedly made by Peak.  According to a secret 
COINTELPRO memo that surfaced years later from 
the Omaha FBI Special-Agent-in-charge to J. Edgar 
Hoover, Gates explained the tape would be 
"prejudicial" to the prosecution.  In 2007, voice 
analyst Tom Owen testified in an Omaha courtroom 
that to a high degree of probability the voice 
was not that of Peak--leaving an unidentified accomplice on the loose.

Mysteriously, out of the 13 people arrested while 
Peak was still at large during the first weekend 
following the bombing, one suspect was released 
after just one day in jail, Raleigh House.  Even 
more unusual was that House did not have to post 
$10,000 bail, instead he was released on a 
signature bond.  Police told the Omaha 
World-Herald that House was freed under the 
authorization of Chief Deputy County Attorney 
Arthur O'Leary who refused to comment on House's release.

After Peak was arrested and questioned, he 
implicated House as the source of the 
dynamite.  At his preliminary hearing in open 
court, Peak testified Raleigh House drove him to 
House's residence where House picked up a 
suitcase full of dynamite and gave it to him.

Peak persisted in his deposition and again at the 
murder trial that House supplied the dynamite 
that took Minard's life.  However, House, who had 
been released on his own recognizance, was never 
formally charged for providing the explosives 
according to Douglas County District Court records.

Two months after the bombing, and just days after 
Peak's preliminary hearing where Peak fingered 
House, Omaha Police Captain Murdock Platner 
traveled to Washington, D.C. and gave a false 
statement under oath to the U.S. House Committee 
on Internal Security about the source of the 
dynamite.  Platner falsely testified, "In the 
preliminary hearing he [Peak] testified that 
David Rice [Langa] brought a suitcase filled with 
dynamite to his house or to somebody's house, I'm 
not for sure just which place."

 From the Nebraska State Penitentiary where 
Poindexter is serving a life sentence for a crime 
he denies, the imprisoned Panther leader has an 
explanation. "Raleigh House was implicated by 
Duane Peak, but the state did not pursue it 
because they were after only Mondo and myself, 
the so-called ring leaders.  Selective 
prosecution is the term for that
.they got who they were after."

Poindexter has been seeking a new trial because 
of evidence withheld from the original jury and 
contradictory testimony of police 
witnesses.  Additionally, the role of the FBI in 
the case and the abuses of justice under Hoover's 
COINTELPRO operation were not known until long 
after the original trial was over.  The matter is 
now pending before the Nebraska Supreme Court 
where no date has been set for a decision.

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.




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