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2
BACKGROUND
On August 17th, 1970, at 2:00 a.m., a 911 call was made in Omaha, Nebraska. The caller reported that a woman
had been dragged screaming into a vacant house at 2867 Ohio Street. Eight police officers responded to the call
for help. Using flashlights, they searched the vacant house. Officer Larry Minard, a seven year veteran and father of
five, was killed when a bomb-laden suitcase exploded. The explosion demolished the corner of the house, broke
windows in nearby houses and damaged utility lines.
If all you knew about this bombing was what you read in the Omaha World Herald, you would probably believe that
Mondo we Langa and Edward Poindexter had built the suitcase bomb, and then instructed a 15-year old youth
named Duane Peak to put it in the vacant house. Mondo we Langa and Ed Poindexter were convicted and
sentenced to life in prison in 1971. David Rice has since changed his name to Wopashitwe Mondo Eyen we Langa.
He is usually referred to as "Mondo." Both Mondo and Ed insist they are completely innocent of this crime. They
believe they were framed for the murder of this police officer because they were Omaha's version of Black Panthers
in the late 1960s. They belonged to an off-shoot of the Black Panther Party called the National Committee to
Combat Fascism, or NCCF. Duane Peak had also been a member of the NCCF.
At the trial, the State of Nebraska presented the following scenario to the jury. Edward Poindexter told Duane Peak
to meet him at his cousin Frank Peak's house at 9 p.m. on Monday, August 10th, 1970. From there they went to
Mondo we Langa's house. In Mondo we Langa's kitchen, Edward Poindexter constructed a bomb out of a suitcase,
dynamite, blasting caps and a battery. Poindexter told Duane Peak it would be his job to put the bomb in a vacant
house and call the police. Mondo noticed that the police had stopped a car on the nearest cross street. He left the
house to photograph them. Then, Mondo shouted for Ed Poindexter to come out of the house and join him. Duane
Peak stayed inside the house. When Mondo and Poindexter returned, Poindexter decided not to place the bomb in
the house that night because he had been spotted by the police.
A full week passed between the construction of the bomb and the time it was planted at 2867 Ohio. Duane Peak
testified that he did not want to put the bomb in the vacant house, yet AT NO POINT PRIOR TO THE BOMBING,
did he unburden his conscience to the police, or his sisters, or his father, or his grandfather, or his brother or his
friends. On Sunday, August 16, Duane Peak went to NCCF headquarters in the afternoon and told Mondo we
Langa he would pick up the bomb and deliver it to the vacant house. Duane supposedly received a ride from NCCF
headquarters to Mondo's house while riding in one vehicle. Carrying the bomb, he was taken in
this vehicle to
another address. He was seen with the suitcase at that address. Carrying the bomb again, he entered a second
vehicle, this one belonging to his sister, who drove him to his
other sister's house. Duane stayed at his sister's
house with the bomb from approximately 6 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. In all these hours, no one saw a hole, the size of a
nickel, in the side of the suitcase with 4 or 5 inches of insulated wire protruding from it.
At approximately 11:00 p.m., Duane took the bomb into a third vehicle. His sister is alleged to have driven him into
the alley between Lake and Ohio. She is supposed to have watched him walk west toward 2867 Ohio with the
suitcase.
An arrest warrant was issued for Duane Peak on August 22nd. He hid from the police until August 28. AT NO
POINT AFTER THE BOMBING did he tell anyone that Edward Poindexter or Mondo we Langa was responsible for
the construction of the bomb. In fact, he was in police custody for fully three days before Mondo and Poindexter
were mentioned.
Mondo and Ed Poindexter pleaded innocent at their trial and for Thirty two years they have maintained that the
testimony of Duane Peak was complete fiction.
This manuscript will present the state's evidence to you in chronological order, beginning with a transcript of the
911 call that lured police to the vacant house.
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