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Chapter 3 Excerpt
Agent Provocateur Ray Wood
When I first came to New York, I was warned about Ray Wood. I was told that at demonstrations he was a "loose cannon," who would yell profanities at police and urge other demonstrators to become violent. For example, Ray had broken storefront windows at past protests, and urged demonstrators to help him overturn a police car. On more than one occasion he was arrested for these acts, along with several others whom he had convinced to follow his example. Ray had been a member of CORE, but the group expelled him because of his disruptive and inappropriate behavior. He then began attending YSA activities. Our comrades met with him individually to explain why his violent actions at demonstrations were counterproductive.
Ray expressed interest in joining our Uptown YSA chapter. In order to evaluate him on a more personal level, Kathleen and I invited him over for dinner. If he had learned why his acts of violence harmed the movement, and if he had gained an understanding of our politics from the literature we gave him, we would consider his request for membership.
When Ray arrived, he asked for a tour of the commune. I began by showing him our bedroom. Upon seeing my amateur-radio station, he excitedly asked if this was where we received our instructions from Moscow. Dumbfounded, I hardly knew how to respond. I simply replied, "No." It was clear that the literature we gave him earlier had not been read, as he obviously had no conception of how Moscow viewed groups that supported Trotsky’s criticisms of the Soviet leadership. Ray then asked if we received our instructions from Cuba.
The remainder of the evening went downhill. Ray bragged about all he times he had been arrested as though these incidents should impress us. When I asked him political questions, he exhibited a total lack of comprehension of Marxism and socialism. Dismissing theory and analysis, he asserted that militant action was much more important. By this time I realized that his private talks with the other comrades had left no impact on him.
To join the YSA, one’s membership would be voted upon at a general-membership meeting in which the application for membership would be discussed without the applicant being present. Ray asked me to present his request for membership to the Uptown YSA. Though I agreed, it was not for the reasons he thought. At our next meeting, I explained Ray’s background, pointing to his total lack of theoretical understanding and especially to his belief that we received instructions from Moscow or Cuba. I asked if any members wished to speak in his defense, but none did. Supporting my report, two members who had known Ray before my moving to New York related accounts of his instigation of violence at earlier CORE demonstrations. As expected, Ray’s application for membership was rejected by a unanimous vote.
Frame-up of the Black Liberation Front
After I told Ray that the Uptown YSA had rejected his membership request, he began to spend time with a small group of Black nationalists I had met earlier at Columbia University. These African-American students came to the YSA’s attention because of their participation in a 1964 Cuba tour, which had been organized by Fair Play for Cuba. As frequently happened to participants of these Cuba trips, the 11 African-American students who traveled together were radicalized. On their way back to New York, they decided to form the Black Liberation Front, with the goal of becoming politically active. However, after two months, only four students were remaining in the group. The Black Liberation Front had no formal organizational structure and the members never did anything except get drunk together and pretend that they were revolutionaries to anyone who would listen.
After getting to know the four members, I concluded that they were what we would call "armchair revolutionaries." They talked like radicals but would never do anything concrete. I had made several attempts to get them involved in YSA activities at Columbia, but they were always "too busy" to help. Other YSA members also had attempted to involve the four students in off-campus activities, but without success. Consequently, I concluded that the Black Liberation Front was nothing more than a small, radical discussion circle.
It was in the Black Liberation Front that Ray found ready acceptance. Once a member, Ray began proposing actions the group could undertake. Suggesting that the Black Liberation Front expose the nation’s hypocrisy by defacing the Statue of Liberty, the Liberty Bell, and the Washington Monument, he gave the members an old US-Army manual of his, which outlined the use of explosives. Everyone agreed that Ray’s suggestion was a good idea, but no one except Ray was willing to take any action.
Ray led the Black Liberation Front on a reconnaissance trip to the Statue of Liberty. Having been an explosives expert in the military, he showed the members where to place their bombs in order to cause maximum damage. Since no one wanted to put up any money, Ray agreed to pay for the bomb materials himself. Next Ray convinced his Black Liberation Front girlfriend to accompany him to Montreal, Canada, to buy 30 sticks of dynamite. Upon returning, they hid the cache of explosives in a vacant lot in the Bronx.
On February 17, 1965, the lead headline of the New York Times proclaimed: "Four Held in Plot to Blast Statue of Liberty, Liberty Bell and Washington Monument." Under the bold headline were the pictures of the arrested Black Liberation Front members, along with a smaller headline, "A Rookie Policemen Here Infiltrates a Group of Negro Extremists." The article went on to discuss how a "loyal Negro hero cop" had infiltrated the "fanatical extremist Black Liberation Front."
Besides major front-page coverage, an entire inside page was devoted to the story. Two additional reports discussed Ray’s "heroic work" for the NYPD’s Bureau of Special Services. Although Ray had been in the department for less than a year, he was given an on-the-spot promotion from rookie to detective. The police fantasy that he had single-handedly uncovered and thwarted a horrendous terrorist plot was repeated on the front pages of all the US newspapers, and was the lead story on radio and television newscasts nationwide. The media portrayed this agent-provocateur as a bigger-than-life "American hero" who had put his life at risk by infiltrating a "dangerous group of ruthless, fanatical Black nationalists bent on destroying America."13
When the trial of the Black Liberation Front members began in May of 1965, the evidence that the defense presented received no publicity in most newspapers. In what little was reported, defense claims were always preceded with the word "alleged," while the testimony that Ray gave was presented as fact. Under cross-examination, Ray admitted that he had given the defendants US Army explosives books, and suggested the targets. Even more damning, he admitted that in order to purchase the explosives, he provided the money and the car, both of which had been supplied to him by the NYPD, and then drove to Canada to purchase the explosives. The only action the defendants could be accused of was agreeing with Ray. His girlfriend pleaded guilty to illegal transportation of explosives into the US, since she had ridden with Ray when he bought the dynamite.
This was such a clear-cut case of police entrapment that I could not fathom how the jury would find the defendants guilty. However, the all-White jury was terrified by the prosecutor, who depicted the defendants as dangerous African-American-extremist terrorists committed to destroying the nation. Even this attempt at further biasing the jury did not remove the fact that the only thing the defendants ever did was to agree with Ray. Although the prosecutor was seeking a much longer prison sentence, the four defendants were sentenced to 15 years in prison. After serving a few years, they were all paroled. Unfortunately, this case is but one example of the "dirty tricks" used by undercover agents seeking to win criminal convictions of political activists.
Notes:
13. New York Times. (1965, Feb. 17).
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