Wanted by the FBI: Interstate Flight - Assault with Intent to Commit Murder / Leroy Eldridge Cleaver by [AFRICAN AMERICANA] FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION - December 13, 1968

Washington DC: Federal Bureau of Investigation, December 13, 1968. First Edition. Original photo-illustrated poster, offset printed in black on white stock, measuring 56.5cm x 86cm (22 1/8" x 34"). Modest wear and handling to extremities, several tiny nicks and small edge tears, discreet pin-holes to corners, with a few faint, scattered stains; shallow loss to left corners, with a small abrasion to upper right corner, and an old tape remnant on verso; Very Good/Very Good+. Scarce, large-format issue of FBI Wanted Flyer No.447, issued on December 13, 1968, and signed in facsimile by J. Edgar Hoover, three days after a Federal warrant was issued in San Francisco, "charging Cleaver with unlawful interstate flight to avoid confinement." Additionally, "CLEAVER ALLEGEDLY HAS ENGAGED POLICE OFFICERS IN GUN BATTLE IN THE PAST. CONSIDER ARMED AND EXTREMELY DANGEROUS." This alleged "gun battle" took place in Oakland in April, 1968, during which two officers were wounded and seventeen-year-old Panther member Bobby Hutton was killed. Cleaver, who was also wounded during the fight, fled to Cuba and later Algeria, where he founded an overseas Black Panther office. Among Cleaver's physical attributes noted on this flyer are "Numerous pock scars on back" and a small gold earing in his left ear lobe. Adorned with four photographs, two taken in 1966, as well as Cleaver's 1968 mugshots. Uncommon in this format; OCLC notes 2 holdings for the smaller broadside (Yale, U.Mississippi), though none for the poster.