Murder of Betty Van Patter
Betty Van Patter | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | Betty Louise Floyd October 12, 1929 U.S. |
| Died | c. December 13, 1974 (aged 45) San Francisco, California, U.S. |
| Cause of death | Beating |
| Body discovered | January 17, 1975 |
| Occupation | Bookkeeper |
| Known for | Victim of unsolved murder |
Betty Louise Van Patter (née Floyd; October 12, 1929 – c. December 13, 1974)[1] was a bookkeeper for the Black Panther Party, although she herself was white. Van Patter was murdered, a crime which remains unsolved.
Biography
Van Patter worked as a bookkeeper for Ramparts magazine, and was introduced in 1974 to Panther leader Elaine Brown by the magazine's co-editor, David Horowitz, who had created the Educational Opportunities Commission for the Panthers. He suggested Van Patter as bookkeeper for the commission, and Brown hired her in June 1974.[2] Van Patter went missing on December 13, 1974. On January 20 of the following year, her severely beaten corpse was found floating in San Francisco Bay.[3]
Van Patter discovered major discrepancies in how the party managed its finances and warned that they were facing major tax problems.[4] Elaine Brown wrote in her 1993 memoir, A Taste of Power, that she fired Van Patter after telling her to "cease her interrogations" and Van Patter refused. “Our accountants and tax lawyers could hold off the IRS,” Brown wrote. “It was for the party to keep our affairs in order. Betty Van Patter was showing herself useless in that endeavor, her nose in our business more than our books.”[5][4]
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 journalist Frank Browning in 1987.[6] Ken Kelley, a former associate of Huey P. Newton, claimed in 1989 that Newton told him that he had ordered Van Patter's murder, and that she had been tortured and raped before being killed.[7][8] 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."[9]
See also
Further reading
- Who Killed Betty Van Patter?, David Wier's ten-part investigation into the murder
References
- ^ Ancestry.com, California Birth Index, 1905-1995 [database on-line], retrieved April 26, 2017
- ^ Horowitz, David (December 13, 1999). "Who killed Betty Van Patter?". Salon.com. Archived from the original on December 22, 2015. Retrieved April 3, 2024.
- ^ Editors (Jan 21, 1975) "Body of woman found in Bay is identified." San Francisco Examiner. Page 38.
- ^ a b Bender, Kristin (January 15, 2007). "Mother's slaying fuels daughter's devotion". Oakland Tribune. Archived from the original on January 10, 2016. Retrieved July 27, 2015.
- ^ Weir, David (December 20, 2024). "Who Killed Betty Van Patter (Part 8)". David Weir's Newsletter. Retrieved November 29, 2025.
- ^ Browning, Frank (May 1987). "The Strange Journey of David Horowitz". Mother Jones. p. 34. Archived from the original on January 28, 2016. Retrieved April 3, 2024 – via Google Books.
- ^ Kelley, Ken (September 15, 1989). "Huey Newton: I'll Never Forget". East Bay Express. Vol. 11, no. 49 – via Internet Archive.
- ^ Pearson, Hugh (1994). The Shadow of the Panther: Huey Newton and the Price of Black Power in America. Da Capo Press. p. 328. ISBN 0-201-48341-6.
- ^ Hitchens, Christopher (November 16, 2003). "Left-leaving, left-leaning". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on June 30, 2016.
