Murder of Betty Van Patter explained

Betty Van Patter
Birth Date:12 October 1929
Birth Name:Betty Louise Floyd
Birth Place:U.S.
Death Place:San Francisco, California, U.S.
Death Cause:Beating
Body Discovered:January 17, 1975
Occupation:Bookkeeper
Known For:Victim of unsolved murder

Betty Louise Van Patter (née Floyd; October 12, 1929  -), was a bookkeeper for the Black Panther Party, although she herself was white. Van Patter was murdered, a crime which remains unsolved.

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.[1]

Disappearance and discovery of body

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.[2] According to other authors, Huey Newton 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.[3] [4] Christopher Hitchens 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".[5] "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. She had reportedly threatened to make public her discovery that the party doctored its books and had major tax problems.[6]

See also

Notes and References

  1. Web site: . Who killed Betty Van Patter? . David Horowitz . https://web.archive.org/web/20151222101852/http://www.salon.com/1999/12/13/betty/ . December 22, 2015 . Horowitz . David . December 13, 1999 . April 3, 2024.
  2. The Strange Journey of David Horowitz . Browning . Frank . Frank Browning (author) . https://web.archive.org/web/20160128100327/https://books.google.com/books?id=recDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PT28 . January 28, 2016 . . May 1987 . 34 . April 3, 2024 . Google Books.
  3. News: Kelley . Ken . Ken Kelley (journalist) . September 15, 1989 . Huey Newton: I'll Never Forget . . 11 . 49 . .
  4. Book: Pearson, Hugh . The Shadow of the Panther: Huey Newton and the Price of Black Power in America . 1994 . . 0-201-48341-6 . 328.
  5. News: Left-leaving, left-leaning . https://web.archive.org/web/20160630005259/http://articles.latimes.com/2003/nov/16/books/bk-hitchens16 . June 30, 2016 . Christopher . Hitchens . Christopher Hitchens . . live . November 16, 2003.
  6. News: Bender. Kristin. Mother's slaying fuels daughter's devotion. January 15, 2007. Oakland Tribune. July 27, 2015. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20160110093526/http://www.insidebayarea.com/ci_5016589. January 10, 2016.