Crime Immemorial

In the winter of 1974, in California, a woman who allegedly knew too much would go missing, only to turn up dead early the next year.

For the previous six months, forty-five-year-old Betty Van Patter had been working for an organization called the Educational Opportunities Corporation, which had been formed in order to provide educational services for the children of members of the Black Panther Party. Betty Van Patter herself was white, but had been working for the Party as a bookkeeper, first for the organization’s Ramparts magazine, and then as an aide to Panther leader Elaine Brown.

Evidently, though, Betty had come across some shady dealings in the Party’s finances, discovering numerous tax problems and cooked books. According to most sources, she had threatened to expose these irregularities, and someone within the Party ranks allegedly decided to stop her before she could do so.

On December 13th, 1974, Betty was last seen in a neighborhood bar called Berkeley Square near her home. She was spotted talking to friends and other bar regulars, and then, according to witnesses, she was approached by a tall black man who handed her a note. Shortly afterward, Betty was seen leaving the tavern, and she subsequently vanished.

When she didn’t return home that night, her boyfriend phoned Berkeley Square, but was told Betty was no longer there. He then phoned another tavern, the Lamp Post, a meeting place for the Panthers. He was allegedly told, “That party has left.”

Her car was later found parked back at her apartment, but her fate would not be discovered until more than a month later.

Only weeks into the new year, on January 17th, 1975, a dead body was fished out of San Francisco Bay in Foster City, near the San Mateo Bridge. Three days later, the remains were identified as those of former Black Panther Party bookkeeper Betty Van Patter, who had disappeared after leaving the Berkeley Square bar on December 13th of 1974. She had been beaten to death, and some sources claim that she had also been raped.

From the very beginning of the investigation, authorities suspected that someone associated with the Black Panther leadership was responsible for Betty’s murder, particularly since she had informed her boyfriend, daughter, and at least one other associate of the financial improprieties she had discovered in the organization’s books.

Members of the Party’s inner circle and security detail were extensively questioned, but no solid evidence could be found linking the murder to anyone inside the organization. Leader Elaine Brown was interviewed several times, and though she readily admitted that she had grown to dislike Betty and had fired her because she was becoming too nosy and was of no further use to the Party, she denied that anyone in the Panthers would have killed her.

Over the years, rumors of Panther involvement have persisted, to the point where investigators are certain that one or several of the Party’s members had a hand in Betty’s death. Party founder Huey Newton, who died in 1989, later allegedly admitted to a friend that he had been the one who had ordered the slaying, though he hadn’t carried it out himself. He also reportedly told this source that Betty had been raped and tortured before being killed.

The murder of Betty Van Patter remains unresolved.