Chaos: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties

by Tom O'Neill

FBI had behaved conspiratorially with COINTELPRO, early and often. One of its greatest coups came in January 1969, when G-men had incited the murders of two Black Panthers on the UCLA campus. FBI infiltrators had lied to the Panthers’ rivals, the US Organization, telling them that the Panthers were meeting on the campus to plan their assassinations. US responded by ambushing two Panthers at a Black Student Union meeting and shooting them dead. LASO knew that the Panthers were murdered because of the FBI’s meddling. They didn’t care. In fact, they hid the FBI’s role in the violence. In their eyes, the most desirable outcome had been achieved: two Panthers were dead, three US gang members were in jail, and the American public was more fearful of black militants. The FBI used the incident to spur more violence between US and the Panthers, according to a 1970 memo from the Los Angeles Field Office: The Los Angeles Division is aware of mutually hostile feelings harbored between the organizations and the first opportunity to capitalize on the situation will be maximized. It is intended that the US Inc. will be appropriately and discreetly advised of the time and location of BPP [Black Panther party] activities in order that the two organizations might be brought together and thus grant nature the opportunity to take her due course. That emphasis comes from the Church Committee, who noted that “due course,” in this case, meant nothing less than first-degree murder. The committee’...