Steve Neavling

An undercover FBI informant was responsible for arming and training the Black Panther Party before violence broke out in the turbulent 1960s, the Center for Investigative Reporting has found.

Activists were alarmed to learn that Richard Masato Aoki, who was considered a fearless militant and street fighter, was an informant who covertly filed reports about the Black Panthers and others in the Bay Area.

Aoki’s background was uncovered as part of three decades of research for the book, “Subversives: The FBI’s War on Student Radicals, and Reagan’s Rise to Power.”

Aoki committed suicide in 2009.