This picture has been in the making for almost thirty-two years. It began when  Shelly Waxman had a terrifying dream about the police raid on the Black Panther Party apartment on Chicago’s Westside, which caused the killing of two and the wounding of many, including a pregnant young woman.

Shelly Waxman - 1974. Assistant U.S. Federal Attorney, Chicago. Assigned to defend the FBI and William O' Neal.

Shelly’s nightmare has become the opening nightmare sequence of picture. Unlike most nightmares that fade from memory, the horror of the events surrounding the murders on December 4th 1969, overcame the young federal attorney four years later in a sweating fevered nightmare that would linger the rest  of his life.

“I was under a lot of pressure when I went to sleep that night. I saw the nightmare as a movie and endeavored for the many years thereafter to get the movie made. It was not until I connected with Lance Flores and Mockingbird Films that it became a reality. I can now put the nightmare to bed because the story will now be told.” Shelly said.

In 1973, Shelly had been assigned to defend William O’Neal and the FBI in a civil suit brought by the survivors of the raid. Shelly learned of O’Neal’s involvement in the raid during testimony and preparation for a deposition. O’Neal was a government mole embedded in the Black Panther Party at the time.

“O’Neal was an enigma,” says Waxman. “It was difficult to determine whether he really thought he was a hero or whether he was just a psychopathic personality. But, I guess, since he committed suicide many years later, he was just somebody who had been manipulated by high up suits, and he had a conscience.”

After investigation, and  review of the Roy Wilkins and Ramsey Clark Report (Commission of Inquiry into the Black Panthers and Police), Shelly concluded  that the Chicago Police supervised with assistance by the FBI, planned the assassination of Fred Hampton.

Shelly refused to cave into pressure to hide evidence that would incriminate the FBI and Chicago Police. After pressure from members of J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI special investigation and the Justice Department’s upper echelon to stall discovery requests and hide evidence, Shelly resigned with his integrity intact, but not career nor his life.

“I was terrified of getting involved in a cover up. These were the days of the prosecution of Attorney General John Mitchell, my boss, for a cover up,

and then there was the Nixon impeachment. I didn’t realize that those who cover up for the government are rewarded for their efforts. I was naïve.” Waxman said.

Had he stayed, and if caught, taken the fall for falsifying or suppressing evidence, he may have been rewarded with appointment to the position of Chief of Staff for the Governor of Illinois. Or, if he were able to effect a successful cover-up of the murders, he may have had a lifetime appointment to the federal bench.

“That’s what happened to the guy who succeeded me on the case. He became wealthy in the commodities market and ended up the Chief of Staff for Governor Jim Thompson. It would have made a big  difference in my life if I had gone along with the cover up, but I did the right thing by quitting.”

Is it not strange, that had Shelly Waxman joined a government conspiracy as did his colleagues,  we might be addressing as  “your honor” as are some who were complicit in

William O' Neal