WASHINGTON (UPI) -- A Senate subcommittee today released secret accounts telling how the White Panther Party allegedly used a rock band to lure young people Into a commune life of drugs and sex.
It also claimed party leaders had discussed the possibility of kidnaping Vice President Spiro T. Agnew, the governor of Michigan, or a member of Congress.
The party's aim, two Michigan state police detectives said, was to cause a Mao Tse-tung style revolution in this country.
The band, called the MC-5 had as its manager, John A. Sinclair Jr., one of the two cofounders of the White Panthers.
Sinclair and Lawrence (Pun) Plamondon organized the White Panthers in Ann Arbor, Mich., in December, 1968, after they were refused permission to join the Black Panthers, the testimony said.
"If a youngster was interested as a fan of the MC-5 band and wrote for a picture or something of this type, they would in turn receive this White Panther literature," Detective Sgt. Clifford Murray told the subcommittee.
Murray said a "confidential source" had told police that party personnel were considering using the tactics of the Tumpamaro guerrillas in Uruguay to win the release of "political prisoners."
This recommendation included the suggestion that Michigan congressmen could be traded for John Sinclair. "Prominent national figures such as Sen. Robert Griffin and Congressman Gerald Ford might be good for trading for Black Panther Party leaders such as Huey Newton and Bobby Seale," Murray said. "This recommendation included the suggestion that with someone of the prominence of the Vice President Spiro Agnew, one could 'write his own ticket."
Murray said the source also reported that Plamondon once said riots were no longer useful but "he noted that during a riot was a good time to 'rip off banks' or to 'snatch Governor (William) Milliken (of Michigan)."
He added that the White Panthers began a series of rock concerts in May, 1969, which appeared to be politically oriented.
"Each of these concerts, along with a band for music, would include the distribution of materials printed by the White Panther Party that related to city and state politics and the aims of the White Panther Party." he said. "All of these concerts have featured profane language and the distribution of profane literature."
Murray testified along with Detective Richard M. Schave in September, and the transcript was released today. Murray said it was both his opinion and that of the state police that the White Panthers were working toward obtaining control of young people "for the primary purpose of causing revolution in this country."
"The methods used to recruit these people is based upon a complete dropout of our society and the adoption of a system involving 'rock music and the free use of drugs and sex in a setting of commune living," Murray added.
The detective said much of the material used In the publications of the party "came directly from the 'Red Book' of quotations by Mao Tse-tung."
John Sinclair was sentenced to 9 1/2 to 10 years imprisonment on a narcotics charge and is serving that term.
The subcommittee was told the Mc-5 band stopped support ing the White Panthers when Sinclair went to jail, and another group called the "U Band" began working with youth in a similar manner.
In October, 1969, a federal grand jury in Detroit indicted Sinclair, Plamondon and another person for conspiring to bomb Central Intelligence Agency offices in Ann Arbor.
Nevertheless, Murray told the subcommittee, the White Panthers have spread to at least 10 states.
During the testimony Murray said the White Panthers had 200 active followers in the Detroit area, and known chapters In Kent and Cleveland, Ohio: Berkeley, Calif.; Madison, Wis.: Chicago; and Ann Arbor.
He said they also had reports of chapters being set up in New York, Georgia, Arizona, Texas, young people "for the primary Pennsylvania, and Washington, D.C.
