The Panthers among us

A Cyberpal selection sent by the boss on 29 July 2004

I was up early this morning to hear the first local broadcast of the Toronto Star story copied below. The lead on the first broadcast story around 6:30 AM made me sit up and take notice. Gosh! Something like "Toronto library worker nabbed for attempted murder in the US 35 years ago." As I listened to the details, it seemed a bit more mundane. Sure. Makes sense. After living underground for so long, Pannell must have got careless. Let one too many relative or in-law know where he was or blabbed something to someone at a party. As the morning wore on and I scanned the front-page coverage of all four Toronto dailies, I started to have a different reaction.

On subsequent broadcasts and in the Globe story there were interviews with his victim, who had retired from the Chicago police force in 1977. That would be truly remarkable work for our local newshounds, who usually cannot reliably report anything that they don't learn at a press briefing. Exactly. It started to sink in. This was a managed news story to let us know how effective our new intelligence networks are. Tracked down through fingerprints acquired through a customs run-in in 1983, Pannell must have been on a US security service watch list. With all the new energy put into keeping our borders secure from Osama bin Forgotten and his friends, it would be unlikely that the new anti-terror dragnet would find nothing. It's just knowing what to look for. And of course the FBI had so many Hoover-era enemies lists ready to be run. Now that makes sense. COINTELPRO meets the Patriot Act.

Of course, none of the stories went into that aspect. No one was even much interested in why a young Chicago Black Panther might shoot first when accosted by a Chicago police officer in 1969. Must just have been pure evil or something. The last newscast I heard even had a victim-impact statement from the retired cop talking about how painful it is to be shot. The PR folks handling stories like this might want to go easy on that story line. A cub reporter at the Sun might go off and Google the net about people getting shot in Chicago in the 1960s. He might come across the name Fred Hampton and take the story to his editor. "Mr. Goldstein, I have some really interesting follow-up material on the Pannell case for tomorrow's Sun." But then again historical amnesia is so much easier. Nobody gets screamed at and Lorrie Goldstein's blood pressure doesn't set off warning sensors. Reporters get home earlier and there will always be another handout story tomorrow. Don't ask too many questions. Just work on those headlines. By the way, the Sun chose to use the retro Hawaii Five-0 headline "Book Him!" for this story. And that's about all the history we're going to get with this story.

Toronto Star Jul. 29, 2004. 06:22 AM

Fugitive nabbed for 1969 crime

Toronto library worker held, Chicago officer was shot 4 times

JORDAN HEATH-RAWLINGS, STAFF REPORTER

Shortly after Joseph Coleman Pannell crossed the border to Canada from the United States in 1972 — and police still aren’t sure how he did it — he became a free man. Literally.

By crossing the border, Pannell was leaving his name behind in the United States, where he was wanted for the attempted murder of a police officer in 1969. He had skipped bail twice in Chicago before heading north. Upon entering Canada, he chose himself a fitting new name: Douglas Freeman.

Terrence Knox, the Chicago police officer that Pannell allegedly shot in the arm, suffered a severed main artery and severe nerve damage. He stayed on and moved up in the police force, eventually retiring as an inspector in 1977, but never regaining the full use or feeling in his arm.

And he never forgot his assailant.

After attending a Chicago police news conference yesterday announcing the capture, Knox thought back to the March 7, 1969 shooting and said, “I thought he was gone.”

Pannell was gone, for more than 30 years.

In Canada, Pannell had quickly shed his former identity. As Douglas Freeman, he lived in Montreal for several years before moving to Toronto. He flew under the authorities’ radar for more than a decade, before Pannell, as Freeman, was arrested on federal customs charges in 1983.

He was fingerprinted and charged but was never sent to jail. Police won’t say exactly what the charges were.

In Toronto, Pannell went about his life, police say. He married, had a family and found a job. He even got himself an Ontario driver’s licence. He lived in the city and worked as a research assistant at the Toronto Reference Library on Yonge St. just above Bloor. He worked at the library for 13 years, and he left his shift at 8:30 p.m. Tuesday unaware that his past was lurking in the shadows beyond his car.

Before he could climb into his vehicle and head home, he was overwhelmed by Canada’s immigration task force, arrested at age 55 for the crime he allegedly committed at 19.

“To say that he was shocked after 30 years of being a free individual would say the least,” said RCMP Corporal Tony Gollob, leader of the task force arrest team. “He was quite surprised to be taken into custody.”

The Chicago Police Department’s fugitive apprehension and cold case units had been working Pannell’s case for years. Every few years, Knox would come around to check on the case and urge them to nab his attacker.

Last November, the cold case unit received information that Pannell had contacts in Canada. Earlier this month, they had the FBI pass along a set of Pannell’s fingerprints to the immigration task force — a squad comprised of officers from the RCMP, Canada Border Services Agency, Toronto police and the OPP — hoping the Canadian team could give them another lead to follow.

Instead, three days later, thanks to Douglas Freeman’s 1983 run-in with customs, they had their man.

“I’m relieved,” Knox, now 56, said yesterday from Chicago. “But I won’t feel validated until the entire criminal justice system goes through its process.

“Hopefully the Canadian government will extradite him back to the U.S. so he can face justice here in Illinois,” he said. “I never thought this case would come to closure in my life.”

Pannell is now in custody in Toronto, awaiting hearings. One is an admissibility hearing, to determine if he can stay in Canada or not. The second is an extradition hearing, which the FBI has requested in order to bring Pannell back to the United States to be prosecuted. The Canadian courts will determine whether or not to extradite him.

“If the extradition arrest warrant is issued, that would take precedence (over the admissibility hearing),” Gollob said, and in that case Pannell would be sent south.

The Chicago Tribune reports today that Knox was on patrol in 1969 when he spotted Pannell, a former Black Panther. The officer asked Pannell why he wasn’t inside a nearby high school.

Pannell responded by allegedly pulling out a gun and shooting Knox four times. One of the bullets hit a major artery. Surgeons were able to save Knox’s arm and repaired most of the damage.

Police are still trying to flesh out Pannell’s Canadian background, Gollob said, when pressed for details about his home life and work history. They have also not determined yet whether or not Pannell’s family was aware of his past.

The Toronto Public Library was still trying to come to terms yesterday with the fact that a long-time employee may be a fugitive from the law.

“He was apparently arrested last night and we’ll be co-operating with the police, but that is all I can say,” said Tania Ensor, manager of the Toronto Public Library.

She was just as shocked as Pannell.

“He’d prepared for this day for over 30 years,” said Gollob. “And although he’d prepared for such an event he was still shocked at the arrest.”

with files from kerry gillespie