A former Black Liberation Army soldier wanted for the coldblooded 1971 slaying of an Atlanta cop is behind bars today, thanks to two dogged New York cops.
NYPD Detective Chris Karolkowski first crossed paths with Freddie Hilton last year.
Hilton – who fathered fugitive BLA leader Joanne Chesimard’s daughter in a New York jail cell – had been accused of molesting a 12-year-old girl and having an illegal gun.
Karolkowski said Hilton – who called himself Sadiki Kamau and worked for a telephone company – “told me about [BLA] shootings and killings in the 1970s, but he didn’t implicate himself.”
But the Brooklyn detective was suspicious and contacted Port Authority Detective Thomas McHale, a Joint Terrorist Task Force member and Chesimard expert.
They learned Hilton was wanted for allegedly gunning down Atlanta cop James Greene in November 1971 in his police van.
At the time, Hilton and other BLA members were living in an Atlanta-area safehouse, practicing urban guerrilla tactics.
Hilton allegedly walked up to Greene pretending to ask for directions and opened fire while his BLA buddy Twyman Meyers blasted away through the passenger’s window.
The two were indicted for the murder after an informer told cops they had returned to the safehouse with Greene’s gun and badge, gleefully boasting, “We did it! We did it!”
But the case languished until last year, when Karolkowski and McHale got involved.
While Hilton served a year in a New York jail for the gun-possession charge, the two city detectives helped Atlanta build a case against him.
Meyers was out of the picture – he was killed in a 1973 Bronx shootout with cops.
Karolkowski said he located a Queens man who had been in the Atlanta safehouse and “acknowledges that Hilton gave him the gun and shield to get rid of.”
McHale found a witness who was able to ID Hilton. He also tracked down two ex-BLA members who heard Hilton brag about the crime.
In March, when Hilton was released from prison, he was arrested and extradited to Atlanta. Last Friday, he was indicted for the murder.