From gangs to the militaryĪoki was born in San Leandro in 1938, the first of two sons. “He had swagger up to the moon,” former Berkeley activist Victoria Wong recalled at his memorial. His fierce demeanor intimidated even his fellow radicals, several of them have said. In Berkeley in the late 1960s, Aoki wore slicked-back hair, sported sunglasses even at night and spoke with a ghetto patois. Before he shot himself, Dong said, Aoki had laid out in his apartment two neatly pressed uniforms: One was the black leather jacket, beret and dark trousers of the Black Panthers. “I mean, that’s a big surprise to me.”ĭong recalled that Aoki tended to “compartmentalize” the different parts of his life. “It’s definitely something that is shocking to hear,” said Dong, who was the executor of Aoki’s estate. Harvey Dong, who was a fellow activist and close friend, said last week that he had never heard that Aoki was an informant. Neither mentions that he had worked with the FBI. In a 2009 feature-length documentary film, “Aoki,” and a 2012 biography, “Samurai Among Panthers,” he is portrayed as a militant radical leader. Since his death – Aoki shot himself at his Berkeley home after a long illness – his legend has grown. Black panther informant code#16, 1967, intelligence report on the Black Panthers lists Aoki as an “informant” with the code number “T-2.”Īn FBI spokesman declined to comment on Aoki, citing litigation seeking additional records about him under the Freedom of Information Act. However, the FBI later released records about Aoki in response to a Freedom of Information Act request. Later during the same interview, Aoki contended the information wasn’t true.Īsked if this reporter was mistaken that Aoki had been an informant, Aoki said, “I think you are,” but added: “People change. He then replied, “ ‘Oh,’ is all I can say.” Aoki’s first response was a long silence. In a tape-recorded interview for the book in 2007, two years before he committed suicide, Aoki was asked if he had been an FBI informant. He always wore dark glasses,” Threadgill recalled.Īoki’s work for the FBI, which has never been reported, was uncovered and verified during research for the book, “Subversives: The FBI’s War on Student Radicals, and Reagan’s Rise to Power.” The book, based on research spanning three decades, will be published tomorrow by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. “I said, ‘Well, why don’t you just go to some of the meetings and tell me who’s there and what they talked about?’ Very pleasant little guy. The former agent said he asked Aoki how he felt about the Soviet Union, and the young man replied that he had no interest in communism. I developed him,” Threadgill said in an interview. Aoki is listed in an FBI report on the Black Panther Party as an “informant” with the code number “T-2.”
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