Black Panthers' Gun Supplier Was FBI Informant

A prominent 1960s Black Panther Party activist who supplied the group with its first firearms that were used in gun battles with Oakland police was working as an FBI informant.

August 22, 2012

Screenshot via Center for Investigative Reporting.

A prominent 1960s Black Panther Party activist who supplied the group with its first firearms that were used in gun battles with Oakland police was working as an FBI informant.

Richard Aoki's role was revealed by Seth Rosenfeld in the new book "Subversives: The FBI's War on Student Radicals, and Reagan's Rise to Power" that was published Tuesday.

Aoki, who committed suicide in 2009, was "one of the best sources we had," said Burney Threadgill Jr., the FBI agent who recruited Aoki.

Read the full Fresno Bee story.

Watch the Center for Investigative Reporting's short documentary here.

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