Sterling Hall bombing

src: www.library.wisc.edu

The Sterling Hall bombing that occurred at the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus on August 24, 1970, was conducted by four youths in protest at a university research connection with the US military during the Vietnam War. It resulted in the death of a university physics researcher and an injury to three others.

Video Sterling Hall bombing

Overview

Sterling Hall is a building located on the campus of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The bomb, which departed at 3:42 am on August 24, 1970, was intended to destroy the Army Mathematical Research Center (AMRC) located on the 2nd, 3rd and 4th floors of the building. This caused great damage to other parts of the buildings and nearby buildings as well. It resulted in the death of researcher Robert Fassnacht, injuring the other three and causing significant damage to the physics department and his equipment. Neither Fassnacht nor his own physics department was involved with or employed by the Army's Center for Army Research. The bombers used the Ford Econoline van stolen from the University of Wisconsin Computer Science professor. It is filled with nearly 2,000 pounds (910 kg) of ANFO (ie, ammonium nitrate and fuel oil). Pieces of van were found on top of an eight-storey building three blocks away and 26 nearby buildings were damaged; however, the targeted AMRC has almost no damage. The total damage to the University of Wisconsin-Madison property is over $ 2.1 million ($ 12.3 million today) as a result of the bombing.

Maps Sterling Hall bombing

Army Research Center for Army Mathematics

During the Vietnam War, 2nd, 3rd and 4th floors of the south wing (west-west) of Sterling Hall housed at the Army Mathematical Research Center (AMRC). This is a think tank funded by the Army, directed by J. Barkley Rosser, Sr.

The staff at the center, at the time of the bombing, consisted of about 45 mathematicians, about 30 of them full time. Rosser is famous for his research in pure mathematics, logic (Rosser tricks, Kleene-Rosser paradox, and Church-Rosser theorem) and in number theory (Rosser sieve). Rosser has been the head of the US ballistic program during World War II and has also contributed in research on some of the missiles used by the US military.

The money to build homes for the AMRC came from the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) in 1955. Their money builds an additional six floors for Sterling Hall. In a contract to work at the facility, it was necessary that mathematicians spend at least half their time on US Army research.

Rosser publicly minimized the military role of the center and implied that AMRC pursued mathematics, including pure and applied mathematics. The Wisconsin University student newspaper, The Daily Cardinal , obtained and issued quarterly reports that the AMRC was handed over to the Army. Cardinal published a series of investigative articles making the case convinced that AMRC pursues research directly in accordance with the request of a particular US Department of Defense, and is relevant to counterinsurgency operations in Vietnam. AMRC became a magnet for demonstrations, in which demonstrators chanted "US out of Vietnam! Smash Army Math!"

The Army Mathematical Research Center was phased out by the Department of Defense at the end of fiscal year 1970.

Patty Hearst and the Era of Televised Terror - WSJ

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The bombers

The bombers were Karleton "Karl" Armstrong, Dwight Armstrong, David Fine, and Leo Burt. They called themselves the "New Year's Gang", a name derived from exploits on New Year's Eve 1969. In the previous attack, Dwight and Karl, with Karl's girlfriend, Lynn Schultz (who drove the holiday car), stole a small plane from Morey Field in Middleton. Dwight and Karl dropped homemade explosives at the Badger Army Ammunition Factory, but the explosive failed to explode. They managed to land the plane at another airport and escape. Prior to the Sterling Hall bombing, Karl performed several other acts with anti-war sentiments, including burning ROTC installations at the University of Wisconsin Armory and Gymnasium (Red Gym) and intended for the State Selective Service headquarters which instead pressed the University of Wisconsin Primate Research Center. Karl also tried to plant explosives at a Prairie du Sac electrical substation that supplies electricity to an ammunition mill, but is frightened by the night watchman.

Karleton "Karl" Armstrong

Karl was the oldest of the bombers, and was accepted at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1964. He was changed by the Vietnam War and quit school a year later. He took on odd jobs over the next few years, and was accepted back to university in the fall of 1967. He witnessed violence between police and demonstrators on October 18, 1967, when Dow Chemicals Company arranged job interviews with students on campus and many students protested and blocked interviewers potential of the building where the interview was held.

After the bombing, he hid until he was captured on February 16, 1972, in Toronto. He was sentenced to 23 years in prison, but served only seven years. Once released, Armstrong returned to Madison, where he operated a juice outlet named Loose Juice at the library mall. In the early 2000s, he also owned a food shop called Radical Rye on State Street near the UW-Madison campus until it was moved by the development of the Overture Center.

Dwight Armstrong

Karl's younger brother, Dwight was 19 at the time of the bombing. After the bombing, he lived in a commune in Toronto, where he used the name "Virgo." After a few months, he left the commune, went to Vancouver and then reappeared in San Francisco, where he connected with the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA), who held Patty Hearst at the time. It is believed he is not active in the SLA. He returned to Toronto and was arrested there on 10 April 1977. He pleaded guilty to the bombing, was sentenced to seven years in prison, and served three years before his release.

In 1987, he was arrested and later found guilty and sentenced to ten years in prison for conspiring to distribute amphetamines in Indiana. After his release from prison, he returned to Madison and worked for Union Cab until January 2001 when he bought Radical Rye Deli with his brother, Karl.

Dwight Armstrong died of lung cancer on June 20, 2010, at the age of 58 years.

David Fine

David Fine came to Madison as a freshman in 1969 at the age of 17. She writes for The Daily Cardinal's newspaper newspaper, and deals with other writers, including Leo Burt. He met Karl Armstrong for the first time in the summer of 1970.

18 years old at the time of the bombing, he was the youngest of four bombers. He was arrested in San Rafael, California, on January 7, 1976. He was sentenced to seven years in federal prison for his involvement in the bombing, and he served for three years.

In 1987, after passing the Oregon exam exam, Fine was denied entry to The Bar on the grounds that he "had failed to show good moral character." Fine appealed the decision to the Supreme Court of Oregon that upheld the decision.

Leo Burt

Leo Burt is 22 years old, and works for The Daily Cardinal's campus newspaper, with David Fine. Burt came to Wisconsin following his interest to paddle, and he joined the crew team. He introduced Fine and Karl Armstrong to each other in July 1970.

After the bombing, Burt fled to Canada with Fine, and until September 2016, still not seen. In 2010, there were new clues about the possibility of its existence, which appeared unconvincing.

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Victim

Robert Fassnacht is a 33-year-old postdoctoral researcher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. On the evening and morning of 23/24 August 1970, he went to the lab to finish work before going on a family vacation. He is involved in research in the field of superconductivity. At the time of the explosion, Fassnacht was in his lab located on the ground floor of Sterling Hall. He was monitoring the experiment when the explosion occurred. The rescue team found it crashing around one foot of water. He survived by his wife, Stephanie, and their three children, a three-year-old son, Christopher, and one-year-old twins Heidi and Karin.

Injured in the bombing were Paul Quin, David Schuster, and Norbert Sutler. Schuster, a South African graduate student, who became deaf in one ear and with only partial hearing on the other ear, was the most seriously injured of all three, suffering from broken shoulders, cracked ribs and broken ear drum; he was buried in the ruins for three hours before being rescued by firefighters. Quin, a postdoctoral physics researcher, and Sutler, a university security officer, suffered injuries from broken glass and bruises. Quin, who became professor of physics at U. W. Madison, has always refused to discuss the bombing in public.

Havertown rower's route from Boy Scout to bomber to fugitive - Philly

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References

Documenting Tragedy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison: - ppt ...

src: slideplayer.com

External links

The Sterling Hall 1970 bombing at the University of Wisconsin Archives
The bombing of the Army Mathematical Research Center - CBS Sunday Morning , 2011
FBI releases 19 bombing documents UW - Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article, 2011

Source of the article : Wikipedia

Sterling Hall bombing

Senin, 18 Juni 2018