Betty Louise Van Patter (née Floyd; October 12, 1929 – ), was a bookkeeper for the

Black Panther Party The Black Panther Party (BPP), originally the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, was a Marxist-Leninist and black power political organization founded by college students Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton in October 1966 in Oakland, Califo ...

, although she herself was white.

Disappearance and discovery of body

Van Patter was aged 45 when, after being missing for five weeks, her body was found. She had been beaten to death. Some sources indicate she had been raped. While no one was ever charged for the crime, it has been suggested that it was committed by members of the party. She had reportedly threatened to make public her discovery that the party doctored its books and had major tax problems.

Biography

After serving as a bookkeeper for '' Ramparts'' magazine, Van Patter became an aide to Panther leader Elaine Brown in 1974, after being introduced to the Party by David Horowitz. Van Patter went missing on December 13, 1974. Some weeks later, her severely beaten corpse was found on a San Francisco Bay beach. There was insufficient evidence for police to charge anyone with van Patter's death but the Black Panther Party was "almost universally believed to be responsible," wrote Frank Browning in 1987. According to other authors,

Huey Newton Huey Percy Newton (February 17, 1942 – August 22, 1989) was an African-American revolutionary, notable as founder of the Black Panther Party. Newton crafted the Party's ten-point manifesto with Bobby Seale in 1966. Under Newton's leadership ...

allegedly confessed to a friend that he had ordered Van Patter's murder, and that Van Patter had been tortured and raped before being killed.Kelley, Ken. September 15, 1989. "Huey Newton: I'll Never Forget". ''East Bay Express'', Volume 11, No. 49. https://archive.org/details/Huey-Never-Forget-1989

Christopher Hitchens Christopher Eric Hitchens (13 April 1949 – 15 December 2011) was a British-American author and journalist who wrote or edited over 30 books (including five essay collections) on culture, politics, and literature. Born and educated in England, ...

wrote in the '' Los Angeles Times'' in 2003 that: "There is no doubt now, and there was precious little then, of the Panther leadership's complicity in this revolting crime"."Left-leaving, left-leaning"
, Christopher Hitchens, ''Los Angeles Times'', November 16, 2003. "While it was true that I had come to dislike Betty Van Patter, I had fired her, not killed her", Elaine Brown wrote in 1993. Brown said Van Patter was fired because she was too nosy about the Black Panther Party and was no longer of use to the party. FBI files investigating Van Patter, likely inquiring into her death, have been destroyed for reasons the Bureau has declined to provide.

References

1970s missing person cases 1974 in California 1974 murders in the United States December 1974 events in the United States December 1974 crimes Black Panther Party Bookkeepers Deaths by beating in the United States Female murder victims Formerly missing people Missing person cases in California Murder in the San Francisco Bay Area People murdered by African-American organized crime Unsolved murders in the United States History of women in California {{US-crime-bio-stub

Disappearance and discovery of body

Biography

See also

References