Conspiracy in the Streets

by Wiener, Jon

• ISBN13: 9781565848337
• ISBN10: 1565848330
• eBook ISBN(s): 9781620976715
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2006-08-07
• Publisher: New Pr
• More Book Details
• Purchase Benefits

Summary

On the stand with yippies, black panthers, and political activists at the conspiracy trial that defined the youth rebellion of the 1960s. "Conspiracy? Hell, we couldn't agree on lunch."--Abbie Hoffman Michael Moore mocks George Bush and Al Franken ridicules Rush Limbaugh, but the mixing of play and politics today is polite and respectful compared to the carnival of contempt known as the Chicago Eight trial. Opening at the end of 1969, the trial brought Yippies, antiwar activists, and Black Panthers to face conspiracy charges arising from the massive protests at the 1968 Democratic National Convention. The defendants openly lampooned the proceedings, with Abbie Hoffman blowing kisses to the jury and the defense bringing a Viet Cong flag into the courtroom. The judge ordered Bobby Seale of the Black Panthers bound and gagged for insisting on representing himself. And an array of celebrity witnesses appeared, including Timothy Leary, Norman Mailer, Arlo Guthrie, and Allen Ginsberg, who provoked the prosecution by chanting "Om" on the witness stand. This book combines an abridged transcript of the trial with astute commentary by historian Jon Wiener. A foreword by defendant Tom Hayden examines the trial's relevance for protest today, and drawings by legendary cartoonist Jules Feiffer help re-create the electrifying atmosphere of the courtroom.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	xi
Jules Feiffer
Acknowledgments	xiii
Editor's Note	xv
Introduction: The Sixties on Trial	1	(42)
Jon Wiener
Chronology	43	(14)
TRIAL TRANSCRIPT	57	(196)
Opening Statements	59	(14)
The Government's Case	73	(60)
Raymond Simon, corporation counsel for the City of Chicago	73	(3)
David Stahl, administrative officer to Mayor Daley of Chicago	76	(3)
Mary Ellen Dahl, Chicago police officer	79	(1)
Robert Pierson, undercover Chicago police officer	80	(3)
Detective Frank Riggio, Chicago Police Department	83	(1)
Vietnam Moratorium Day	84	(5)
Carl Gilman, newsman and FBI informer	89	(5)
Louis Salzberg, journalist and FBI informer	94	(1)
Frank D. Sweeney, adman and FBI informer	95	(2)
William Frapolly, undercover Chicago police officer	97	(8)
Bobby Seale bound and gagged	105	(11)
Bill H. Ray, deputy sheriff, San Mateo County	116	(1)
Bobby Seale: severance and sentencing for contempt	117	(4)
John Braddock, news cameraman for ABC-TV	121	(1)
Francis I. McTernan, Special Attorney for Bobby Seale	121	(3)
Irwin Bock, undercover Chicago police officer	124	(2)
Richard Schaller, U.S. Naval Intelligence officer	126	(1)
Fred Hampton killed by Chicago police	127	(6)
The Case for the Defense	133	(70)
Phil Ochs, protest singer/songwriter	135	(3)
Allen Ginsberg, poet	138	(10)
Dick Gregory, comedian and political activist	148	(2)
Linda Morse, Fifth Avenue Peace Parade Committee	150	(3)
Dr. Timothy Leary, former Harvard psychology professor and campaigner for LSD	153	(2)
Paul Sequeira, photographer for the Chicago Daily News	155	(2)
Abbie Hoffman	157	(8)
Richard Daley, mayor of Chicago	165	(6)
Ed Sanders, leader of the rock group the Fugs	171	(2)
Julian Bond, civil rights activist and member of the Georgia House of Representatives	173	(3)
Arlo Guthrie, folk singer	176	(1)
Paul Krassner, editor of The Realist magazine	177	(1)
Judy Collins, folk singer	178	(2)
Rennie Davis	180	(8)
Norman Mailer, writer	188	(3)
Ramsey Clark, former attorney general under President Lyndon Johnson	191	(3)
Bobby Seale, chairman of the Black Panther Party	194	(2)
Staughton Lynd, historian and activist	196	(2)
The Reverend Jesse Jackson, civil rights activist	198	(5)
Rebuttal Case for the Government	203	(4)
James Riordan, Chicago's deputy chief of police	203	(1)
Dave Dellinger jailed	204	(3)
Closing Arguments and Jury Instructions	207	(16)
Contempt Proceedings	223	(14)
Verdicts and Sentencing	237	(16)
Afterword	253	(24)
Tom Hayden
Notes	277