Kathy Boudin and the Weather Underground: A Look Back
In 1969 young people were looking for change. With youth being impressionable, the Weather Underground was formed. Their list of “accomplishments” ranged from bombing the Capitol Building to the “Days of Rage.” Their members were upset over the Vietnam War and the harsh racism occurring throughout the country.
Kathy Boudin wanted change as well. She came from a good background. Her father was Leonard Boudin, a notable civil rights attorney. Her grandfather was a leader in the Communist part in the former U.S.S.R. This afforded her many opportunities such as frequent trips to Moscow and attending prestigous private schools. She was unhappy with race relations in America and decided that the United States needed to be liberated. Based upon the Bob Dylan lyric “You don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows,” The Weather Underground seemed like the perfect fit. Boudin soon joined the Students for a Democratic Society, a faction of the Weather Underground. However, what made Kathy Boudin infamous was not the “good” that she believed she was doing. She became known for the violence that she was involved in.
It was the beginning of the 1980’s and the Weather Underground needed to gain more money to finance their “revolution.” The plan was to rob an armored truck by using six gunmen. A successful heist of this truck would produce over one and a half million dollars. On October 20th, 1981 Kathy Boudin was in the cab of a U-Haul truck several miles down the road. The truck was driven by her future husband, David Gilbert the mastermind of most of the “Weather Underground’s” plots. At this time Boudin was three months pregnant. While she and Gilbert waited in the truck the six gunmen robbed the Brinks armored security outside the Nanuet Mall in Rockland County, New York. Peter Paige, the Brinks security guard was killed. The U-Haul was stopped a short time after by Sgt. Edward O’Grady and Patrolman Waverly Brown who had set up a road block.
According to court documents, when the U-Haul truck was stopped Boudin raised her hands and surrendered to police immediately. When police began to open the back of the U-Haul, the gunmen began to shoot. O’Grady and Brown were subsequently killed. Boudin would be forever linked to the murders, although legally she was not responsible. By the time the barrage of bullets began, Boudin had already been in police custody.
The Weather Underground was a notably violent group. For decades the government had been seeking to arrest and punish members for their attacks. Some of the members were not directly involved in the planning and carrying out in the violence. They honestly believed they were fighting for a just cause. In fact, many of the members are regular contributors to society today, some being college professors.
Prior to accepting her plea, the Hon. David S. Ritter reviewed the results of a polygraph that showed Ms. Boudin had neither carried a weapon nor been personally involved in any act of violence in connection with the robbery, and had never in her life been directly involved in causing physical injury or death to any person. At sentencing, the District Attorney recognized that she “personally did not fire a single shot and was unarmed.” Transcript of May 3, 1984. The defense contended she was a last minute addition to the scenario, and emphasized that the prosecution’s investigation confirmed that she did not participate in the planning. The District Attorney’s office also confirmed, after checking with both New York City and federal authorities, that there was no evidence that she had ever participated in any offence in which anyone was injured.
On the basis of all the information before him. Judge Ritter imposed what he characterized as a “minimal” but “just” sentence of twenty years to life in prison. He explained his reasons for doing so: “In my judgment there is evidence of honest contrition and remorse, and abhorrence of violence as a technique to further goals, however noble.” Transcript of May 3. Having studied the memoranda prepared by presentence investigators and the District Attorney, he concluded that her role in the tragedy was a “secondary one,” and concluded that “there is no evidence…to believe she is guilty of…any form of terrorist activity.” Transcript of April 26, 1984. Finally, Judge Ritter expressed his expectation that, subject to Parole Board approval, “I see no reason in the world why Miss Boudin should not be paroled at the expiration of the twenty years…” She was now the poster-girl for the violence of the late 1960’s radicals to the mid 1980’s. The interesting part is not the crime itself, but the evolution of a woman at one point considered a type of domestic terrorist into a human being.
