I’m not even content. That was their thing.”, According to The Assassination of Fred Hampton, O’Neal was the one pushing for violence. O'Neal discusses being recruited to be an informant for the FBI in Chicago, joining the Black Panthers as an informant, and giving them information about the Black Panthers' activities and Fred Hampton. He lost the job shortly before his suicide, owing to a fall-out with his boss. The film paints a suitably slippery picture of the spy, played by LaKeith Stanfield – but how much of it is grounded in truth? ... Akua Njeri Has Thoughts About William O’Neal’s Death. William O’Neal in an interview from the documentary Eyes on the Prize. We had Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali, I had an FBI agent.”, In life as on film, O’Neal infiltrates the Illinois Black Panthers only to find that his suspicions of violence and street crime were unfounded. Wikimedia Commons:Black Panthers outside the California Capitol in 1967. In my thinking, they were necessary. I have held his child in my hands, in my arms when he was one years old,” he said. William O'Neal, Self: Eyes on the Prize. William O'Neal's story is just as tragic as it is infuriating. He was relocated to California under the alias of William Hart via the Federal Witness Protection Program. Here's our roundup of the best new series of the year so far, and where to watch them. The police cleared out the people from the rest of the apartment, wounding several others, and went to Hampton's bedroom. Courtesy of PBS Fred Hampton’s assassination was planned and coordinated … HERE IS INFORMANT/AGENT WILLIAM O’ NEAL TELLING HIS STORY IN HIS OWN WORDS. William O'Neal was a teenager in Chicago. He denied having drugged Hampton the night before he was assassinated. The Story of William O'Neal, the Man Who Betrayed Fred Hampton Fredrick Allen Hampton, popularly known as Fred Hampton, was an American activist and revolutionary socialist. "), Regardless, O’Neal grew to like and respect the group's chairman.“I thought Fred Hampton was pretty idealistic. When it comes to William O’Neal, the chameleonic FBI informant who infiltrated the Illinois faction of the Black Panthers in the late Sixties, even the truth can’t be trusted. O'Neal's involvement in the raid was revealed in 1973. Chairman Fred Hampton was 21 years old when he was assassinated by the FBI, who coerced a petty criminal named William O’Neal to help them silence him and the Black Panther Party. The film ends with an actual clip of the interview. “I had been to Mitchell's home. “I think I'll let history speak for me.”. [10], O'Neal had said, "I had no allegiance to the Panthers. On an exterior layer, it is about a rat, William O’Neal (Lakeith Stanfield) plotted in Black Panther Party by the FBI in the year 1968, to gather evidence against their rising Black Messiah, Fred Hampton (Daniel Kaluuya). Let it be no mistake, Huey P. Newton was locked down, the Black Panther Party was Huey P. Newton, and Huey P. Newton was the Black Panther Party. He simply thought of himself as a man who “had the courage to get out there and put it on the line”; a man who had been made a “better person” through his work with the FBI. O’Neal gave no reason for leaving Hampton’s apartment early that night. Somewhat strangely, in his Eyes on the Prize interview, O’Neal refused to entertain the idea that Hampton could have been drugged by anyone, let alone himself. Fred was the type of person that you didn't have to drug anyway. (What happened after O’Neal appeared on that documentary is revealed just before the end credits.) I had no allegiance to the Panthers,” O’Neal told the interviewer, in a section that ultimately didn’t air. Sign up to our newsletter to get more articles like this delivered straight to your inbox, Need some positivity right now? Unluckily for him, he had signed over his personal details at a nearby pool hall prior to the mysterious incident, and that’s how FBI agent Roy Mitchell got a hold of him months later. Witnesses said that they heard two bangs, presumably the close-range shots to the back of Hampton's head that killed him. [8] The ballistics investigation of the raid found that the Chicago police fired as many as 99 shots, but only one shot was fired by the Panthers, and it hit the ceiling.[9]. Initially he didn’t ask for anything. “I need you to let the chairman read it tomorrow night. Is Netflix's 'The English Game' A True Story? The Assassination of Fred Hampton: New Documents Reveal Involvement of FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, The Assassination of Fred Hampton: How the FBI and the Chicago Police Murdered a Black Panther, 2 of 3, The Assassination of Fred Hampton: How the FBI and the Chicago Police Murdered a Black Panther 3 of 3, Involvement in the killing of Fred Hampton, “Eyes on the Prize; Interview with William O'Neal”, "Fact-checking 'Judas and the Black Messiah': Was Fred Hampton drugged or arrested over ice cream? Esquire participates in various affiliate marketing programs, which means we may get paid commissions on editorially chosen products purchased through our links to retailer sites. So he would not wake up during the police cleared out the from! January 1970, a coroner 's jury held an inquest have held child., and went to his mother on the Prize. '' his role was in! [ watch ] Alpo Martinez Speaks on the Prize. '' the already! Stories are a conscious human being, and went to his mother the... 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