The Sundaz story stated not only that Catherine Hearst gave or lent most of the $60,000-$70,000 purchase price for the company, but also that prior to that purchase, the foundation supported itself through "contributions" averaging $1000, provided by Pacific Telephone, Pacific Gas & Electric, railroads, steamship lines, banks, and the Examiner. In return, the files were available to those companies, as well as to local police and sheriff departments, the FBI, the CIA, and the IRS. The Examiner paid $1500 a year through 1975 to retain the services of Research West.

In another case, a member of the Santa Clara district attorney's office testified that FBI agent Charles Bates had "categorically denied" having any of the stolen documents sought by the Santa Clara district attorney for an investigation of FBI-sponsored political burglaries. After being confronted with the testimony of one of his own subordinates, Bates ultimately turned over the documents. Some of the stolen documents, according to Sundaz, ended up with Catherine Hearst's pet project, Research West.

In 1969, Charles Bates was Special Agent at the Chicago office of the FBI when police killed Black Panthers Fred Hampton and Mark Clark while they were sleeping. Ex-FBI informer Maria Fischer told the Chicago Daily News that the then-chief of the FBI's Chicago office, Marlon Johnson, personally asked her to slip a drug to Hampton; she had infiltrated the Panther Party at the FBI's request a month before. The drug was a tasteless, colorless liquid that would put him to sleep. She refused. Hampton was killed a week later. An autopsy showed "a near fatal dose" of secobarbital in his system.

In 1971, Bates was transferred to Washington. According to Watergate burglar James McCord's book, A Piece of Tape, on June 21, 1972, White House attorney John Dean checked with acting FBI Director L. Patrick Gray as to who was in charge of handling the Watergate investigation. The answer: Charles Bates--the same FBI official who in 1974 would be in charge of handling the SLA investigation and the search for Patty Hearst. When Patty was arrested, Bates became instantly ubiquitous on radio and TV, boasting of her capture.

And, in the middle of her trial--on a Saturday afternoon, when reporters and technicians were hoping to be off-duty--the FBI called a press conference. At 5:00 that morning, they had raided the New Dawn collective--supposedly the aboveground support group of the Berkeley underground Emiliano Zapata Unit--and accompanying a press release about the evidence seized were photographs still wet with developing fluid. Charles Bates held the photos up.

"Mr. Bates," a photographer requested, " real close to your head, please."

Bates proceeded to pose with the photos like Henry Fonda doing a camera commercial. Was there a search warrant? No, but they had a "consent to search" signed by the owner of the house, Judy Stevenson, who later admitted to being a paid FBI informant.

Not only did the raid seem timed to break into print simultaneously with the Sunday funnies, but the investigative technique also smacked of comic-strip morality. In Dick Tracy the next day, the "Crimestoppers Textbook" depicted a trio of stereotypical hippie terrorists preparing a time bomb, underscored by the question, "Would you deny police access to knowledge of persons planning your demise?"

Almost six weeks after that Saturday morning raid, I received a letter by registered mail on Department of Justice stationery:

Dear Mr. Krassner:

Subsequent to the search of a residence in connection with the arrest of six members of the Emiliano Zapata Unit, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, San Francisco, has been attempting to contact you to advise you of the following information:

During the above indicated arrest of six individuals of the Emiliano Zapata Unit, an untitled list of names and addresses of individuals was seized. A corroborative source described the above list as an Emiliano Zapata Unit "hit list," but stated that no action will be taken, since all of those who could carry it out are in custody.

Further, if any of the apprehended individuals should make bail, they would only act upon the "hit list" at the instructions of their leader, who is not and will not be in a position to give such instructions.

The above information is furnished for your personal use and it is requested it be kept confidential. At your discretion, you may desire to contact the local police department responsible for the area of your residence.

Very truly yours,

Charles W. Bates
Special Agent in Charge

But I was more logically a target of the government than of the Emiliano Zapata Unit--unless, of course they happened to be the same. Was the right wing of the FBI warning me about the left wing of the FBI? Did the handwriting on the wall read Co-Intelpro Lives? Questions about the authenticity of the Zapata Unit had been raised by its first public statement in August 1975, which included the unprecedented threat of violence against the left.

When a Safeway supermarket in Oakland was bombed by the Zapata Unit, they claimed to have called radio station KPFA and instructed them to notify police, so they could evacuate the area, but KPFA staffers insisted they never received such a call. Now The Urban Guerrilla, aboveground organ of the underground NWLF, commented:

Without offering any proof, the FBI has claimed that [those arrested] were members of the Emiliano Zapata Unit and mistakenly claimed that the Zapata Unit was part of the New World Liberation Front. These FBI claims and lies have been widely repeated by the media.

As soon as they were arrested, Greg Adornetto, whom we knew as Chepito, was separated from the others and disappeared . . .

A close analysis of all the actions and statements...by Chepito leads [us] to the inescapable conclusion that he is not just a weak informer, he is a Government infiltrator/provocateur. No other conclusion is possible when one considers that he led our comrades to a house he knew was under surveillance . . . carrying along things like explosives and half-completed communiques . . .

He recruited sincere and committed revolutionaries who wanted to participate in being a medium for dialogue with the underground, got a bunch of them in the same room with guns, communiques and explosives, or even got some of them involved in armed actions, and then had...Bates move in with his SWAT team and bust everybody . . .