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Co-editors: Seán Mac Mathúna • John Heathcote
Consulting editor: Themistocles Hoetis
Field Correspondent: Allen Hougland

E-mail: editors@fantompowa.net

"I killed Jamal cop" - new evidence suggests Mob and police involvement in Police murder in 1981
Seán Mac Mathúna

Mumia Abu-Jamal Web Links

Best site: The COINTELPRO Papers

COINTELPRO: FBI Activities in Hollywood

Cointelpro Revisited - Spying & Disruption

COINTELPRO STILL LIVES!

Armies of Repression: The FBI, COINTELPRO and Far Right Vigilante Networks

COINTELPRO: The Sabotage Of Legitimate Dissent

Photograph by Tom Filmyer

"I never confessed to anything because I had nothing to confess to. I never said I shot the policeman. I did not shoot the policeman. I never said I hoped he died. I would never say something like that" Mumia Abu-Jamal

According to a report in Journalist (June 2001), the UK magazine of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) has reported that a man has confessed to killing Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner in December 1981 - a crime that Mumia Abu-Jamal always claimed he had been framed for and sentenced to death. What is sensational about this news is that the man, Arnold Beverley has claimed he shot Faulkner as a favour for the Mob and other corrupt policemen in Pennsylvania as he was "interfering" with their illegal activity.

The political activist and journalist has been on death row in Pennsylvania for 19 years. The case of Mumia Abu-Jamal is currently pending a habeas corpus action before Judge William H Yohn in the District Court. According to the Journalist, Abu-Jamal has for the first time produced a complete statement of the facts surrounding his case - he had stayed silent at his original trial.

In a report not even mentioned in the mainstream Irish and British media, the man, Arnold Beverly, has given a statement to Mumia Abu-Jamal's defence team that he shot the police officer in 1981. Results of the lie detector test have corroborated the confession of Beverly, and his statement has added credibility because the test was taken by a leading US polygraph expert, Charles Honts of Boise State University. In a statement, Beverley says:

"I was hired, along with another guy, and paid to shoot and kill Faulkner. I had heard that Faulkner was a problem for the mob and corrupt policemen because he interfered with the graft and payoffs made to allow illegal activity including prostitution, gambling, drugs without prosecution in the Center City area".

In his original statement Abu-Jamal says he came across the scene in which his brother, William-Cook, had apparently been shot:

"I recognized my brother standing in the street staggering and dizzy. I immediately exited the cab and ran to his scream. As I came across the street I saw a uniformed cop turn toward me gun in hand, saw a flash and went down to my knees. "I closed my eyes and sat still trying to breath. The next thing that I remember I felt myself being kicked, hit and being brought out of a stupor. When I opened my eyes, I saw cops all around me."

Here is the full statement by Beverley:

I, ARNOLD R.. BEVERLY, state that the following facts are true and correct: I was present when police officer Daniel Faulkner was shot and killed in the early morning hours of December 9, 1981 near the corner of Locust and 13th Streets. 'have personal knowledge that Mumia Abu-Jamal did not shoot police officer Faulkner,

I was hired, along with another guy, and paid to shoot and kill Faulkner. I had heard that Faulkner was a problem for the mob and corrupt policemen because he interfered with the graft and payoffs made to allow illegal activity including prostitution, gambling, drugs without prosecution in the center city area.

Faulkner was shot in the back and then in the the head before Jamal came on the scene. Jamal had nothing to do with the shooting. Before the shooting, I was shown a picture of Faulkner and told that Faulkner was supposed to check something at Johnny Os (at 13th and Locust) sometime in the early morning hours of December 9. Two of us were hired for the shooting so that either of us could take the opportunity to make the hit, get the job done, and leave. The other guy gave Inc a .38 caliber policeman‚s special and I was also carrying my own .22 caliber revolver.

I waited at the speedline entrance at the north east of corner of Locust and 13th at the parking lot, I was wearing a green (camouflage) army jacket. The other guy waited on the south side of Locust street east of 13th Street towards Camac Street.

While I was waiting at the speedline entrance for Faulkner to arrive at the location, I saw police officers in the area. Two undercover policemen were standing on the west side of 13th north of Locust. Also a uniformed police officer was sitting in a car in the corner of the parking lot, They were there while the shooting of Faulkner took place. I was not worried about the police, being there since I believed that since I was hired by the mob to shoot and kill Faulkner, any police Officers on the scene would be there to help me.

After a while I saw Faulkner get out of a small police car parked behind a VW parked on Locust Street, east of 13th ~ Faulkner was alone. He got out of the police car end went up to the VW, I heard a shot ring out coming from east on Locust Street, Faulkner fell on his knee on the sidewalk next to the VW, I heard another shot and it must have grazed my left shoulder. I felt something hard on my left shoulder. I grabbed at my shoulder and got blood on my hand.

I ran across Locust Street and stood over Faulkner, who had fallen backwards on the sidewalk, I shot Faulkner in the face at close range. Jamal was shot shortly after that by a uniformed police officer who arrived on the scene.

Cop Cars came from all directions. Foot patrol also arrived. I saw a white shirt getting out of a car in the middle of the 13th & Locust intersection just as I was going down to the speedline Steps. I left the area underground through the speedline system and by pro-arrangement met a police officer who assisted me, exited the speedline underground about three blocks away. A car was waiting for me and I left the center city area.

The foregoing is stated subject to the penalties of 15 Pa.C.S. Section 4904 relating to unsworn falsification to authorities.

ARNOLD E. BEVERLY

This is the best news for Abu-Jamal and his defence team - if all this is true, then it means that Abu-Jamal has been fitted up for a crime committed on behalf of the Mob and corrupt police, which of course opens a whole can of worms about police corruption and the fact that this has led to a totally innocent facing the death penalty rather than the full facts being investigated. It also suggests that Faulkner was a honest cop trying to work against Mafia and police corruption in Philadelphia - something that he has paid for with his life.

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