FBI Informants and Prosecutions Effectively Destroy Black Panther Party

By 1971 the FBI had placed at least one informant in every Black Panther Party chapter. COINTELPRO operations forged letters to create lethal rivalries between the Panthers and US Organization, resulting in killings. Key leaders were imprisoned or exiled. FBI director Hoover called the Panthers 'the greatest threat to internal security.' Membership collapsed from a peak of 5,000.