Co-editors: Seán Mac Mathúna • John Heathcote
Consulting editor: Themistocles Hoetis
Field Correspondent: Allen Hougland
Best
site: The COINTELPRO Papers COINTELPRO:
FBI Activities in Hollywood Cointelpro
Revisited - Spying & Disruption Armies
of Repression: The FBI, COINTELPRO and Far Right Vigilante
Networks 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: In his original statement
Abu-Jamal says he came across the scene in which his
brother, William-Cook, had apparently been shot: Here is the full statement by
Beverley: 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.
"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
"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".
"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."
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,