One of the
Bay Area's most prominent radical activists of the era, Richard
Masato Aoki was known as a fierce militant who touted his street-fighting
abilities. He was a member of several radical groups before joining
and arming the Panthers, whose members received international
notoriety for brandishing weapons during patrols of the Oakland
police and a protest at the state Capitol...
But unbeknownst
to his fellow activists, Aoki had served as an FBI intelligence
informant, covertly filing reports on a wide range of Bay Area
political groups, according to the bureau agent who recruited
him.
That agent,
Burney Threadgill Jr., recalled that he approached Aoki in the
late 1950s, about the time Aoki was graduating from Berkeley High
School. He asked Aoki if he would join left-wing groups and report
to the FBI.
"He
was my informant. I developed him," Threadgill said in an
interview. "He was one of the best sources we had."
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
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. He always wore dark glasses," Threadgill recalled.
