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LOS ANGELES, Oct. 24
A long‐time informer for the Los Angeles Police Department ap peared to offer an intriguing glimpse last week into the shadowy world of domestic es pionage against radical politi cal groups. But no one seemed quite sure.
The informer, 28‐year‐old Louis E. Tackwood, is a self proclaimed con man and con spirator. The brunt of his rambling and sometimes con tradictory testimony is that po lice informants and undercover agents are deeply involved in these radical groups.
Often, he charges, agents actually help plan criminal conspiracies and then allow them to proceed to where they can endanger innocent victims —just so the conspirators will be caught in the act.
Tackwood alleges, for exam ple, that the police knew well in advance that black militants would try to invade the Marin County Courthouse in August, 1970, kidnap hostages, and then exchange them for the three “Soledad Brothers,” including George Jackson.
The escaping kidnappers were stopped by the police, and in the ensuing gun battle, four men were killed, including Judge Harold Haley, one of the hostages.
Passes Lie Detector Test
Tackwood has told his story in a series of press conferences and interviews over the last two weeks. The police acknowl edge that he is an informer, and he passed a lie detector test paid for by several news media and administered by a recognized expert.
At the same time, many who have heard him tell his story say Tackwood sounds like a fast ‐ talking “hustler” who seldom tells exactly the same story twice. Even his lawyers concede “that when Louis doesn’t answer, he makes it up.”
Why Tackwood decided to talk is still uncertain. Appar ently disillusioned with the po lice, he approached a group of young leftists here, who have helped make his story public. He now refers to the Criminal Conspiracy Section of the Los Angeles Police Department as the “gestapo” and insists that, “They believe in the total pow er of the police over the people.”
In addition, Tackwood is hardly averse to publicity and hopes to write a book about his experiences and sell it to the movies for a high price.
He acknowledges that it is virtually impossible to prove many of his charges. What is needed, he says, is a Con gressional investigation that would impartially evaluate his evidence.
The Los Angeles Police De partment has refused to answer questions about Tackwood, but it did issue the following statement:
“The use of informants is dangerous unless they are han dled by professionals. The L.A.P.D. evaluates everything obtained from informants prior to using. Newsmen should be just as cautious as police are in separating fact from fiction.
“Mr. Tackwood is one of many people our investigators have interviewed. Mr. Tack wood also has developed a flair for fiction, although there have been times he has come up with substantial facts.
“We are not responsive to Mr. Tackwood’s allegations. If the news media want more color, let them go back to Mr. Tackwood. If still unsatisfied, let them go to their local in sane asylum and interview the inmates.”
Without police cooperation it is very difficult to verify many of Tackwood’s charges, but it is obvious that he knows his way around. The informer grew up with many of the cur rent black leaders in Watts and joined the “street life” at an early age.
After a long record as a juvenile offender he started co operating with the police in 1962, when he was arrested for stealing a car. At first he informed mainly about criminal activities, while pursuing sev eral careers on his own—dope peddler, car thief, armed robber.
In recent years he graduated to political intrigue, and worked mainly for the Criminal Conspiracy Section, an elite corps in the police department formed specifically to monitor radical groups. In payment for his services, Tackwood esti mates that he has received $7,000 to $9,000—all in cash— as well as a “free hand” to pursue his own illegal enterprises.
Incidents and Charges
Among the incidents in which he has been involved or charges he has made are the following:
¶In 1965, on police instruc tions, he made an anonymous phone call to a local station house, telling them that guns were being hidden in a Black Muslim mosque. The mosque was then raided and shot up, but no guns were found.
¶He acted as a contact be tween the police and Ron Karenga, leader of a group of black cultural nationalists called US. The police were financing Mr. Karenga as an alternative to the increasingly influential Black Panther party, he said, and urged Mr. Karenga to as sassinate Panther leaders. Sev eral US members were con victed of shooting Alprentice Carter and John Huggins, two prominent Panthers, late in 1968.
¶He charged that the police had allowed narcotics to be sold in black and Chicano communities to “create a dependency” on the drug and undercut political movement.
¶He infiltrated the campaign of a radical slate running for the Berkeley City Council last spring. He carried a listening device with him and recorded several strategy sessions and other pertinent information.
¶He charged that the police had been discussing a plan to foment disturbances at the Re publican National Convention in San Diego next year. The dis turbances would give the Presi dent a good issue for the cam paign and provide an excuse for rounding up known militants across the country, he said.
¶Me alleged that Melvin Smith, the state’s star witness in the current trial of 13 Black Panthers here, had been a po lice informant since 1967. Mr. Smith was the No. 3 man in the Los Angeles Panther hier archy and planned the group’s defense strategy. The police say that Mr. Smith turned state’s evidence after being arrested.
Tackwood seems particular ly knowledgeable about the Marin County shootout. He con tends that he was sent to Santa Cruz to investigate a “hit squad” of Black Panthers who were training to invade the courthouse and seize hostages. One of the squad leaders, he alleges, was Mr. Smith.
According to Tackwood, the “hit squad” abandoned the plan on the morning of the attack when they saw that the court house was too well guarded. But no one, he says, remem bered to tell Jonathan Jackson, George Jackson’s 17‐year‐old brother, who went ahead and was killed in the subsequent shootout.
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