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The anonymous letter, penned by FBI agents in Omaha against Ed Poindexter, is located in the PRA archive of COINTELPRO documents.
"I wish to report a violation against the people by the leader of the United Front against Fascism in Omaha, Nebraska. Ed Poindexter claimed he was put in jail by the Pigs on Feb. 11 and he got donations from the people to get him out of jail. I gave two bucks. Last week while in the Pig Department i overheard a Pig laughing and telling another Pig (Black) how the Black Panther chief Poindexter screwed the people on the North side. The Pig said Poindexter was not in jail and he snowed the people getting donations for his bail money. If thats the kind of leaders you want in the panthers I don’t want to join. Power to the Pigs if thats how you treat us fellow brothers and sister. Right On. Former supporter of the BPP."
On April 3, 1970, Hoover authorized sending the bogus letter. "Take the usual security precautions to insure this letter and mailing cannot be traced to the Bureau."
"Advise the Bureau and San Francisco of any positive results obtained by means of this letter. You are also authorized to discreetly make anonymous local phone calls to the publishers of 'Black Realities,' 'Everyone magazine, and 'The Omaha Star,'….Use discretion in making these calls in insure that they cannot be traced to the bureau."
FBI dirty tricks escalated and when Omaha police officer Larry Minard was murdered on August 17, 1970 by an ambush bomb, Ed Poindexter and Mondo we Langa were targeted to take the blame for the crime. On August 19th Hoover ordered Ivan Willard Conrad, FBI Crime Laboratory director, to withhold a formal report on a voice analysis of the 911 recording of the Minard's killer luring police to a vacant house where the lethal trap waited.
The two Panther leaders were convicted in April 1971 by a jury that never heard the withheld 911 tape or knew anything about the FBI duplicity and targeting of the pair under the clandestine COINTELPRO operation.
Ed Poindexter and Mondo we Langa were sentenced to life imprisonment are held at the maximum-security Nebraska State Penitentiary where they both continue to deny any involvement in Minard's death. Poindexter has a new trial request pending before the Nebraska Supreme Court. No date for a decision has been announced.
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