Greenwich Village townhouse explosion

Infobox civilian attack
title = Accidental detonation in
Greenwich Village townhouse

---

caption = Firefighters contain blaze fed by broken gas lines caused by explosion
location = Subbasement furnace room
at 18 West 11th Street
New York City
date = March 6, 1970
time =
timezone =
type =
fatalities = 3 members of the
Weatherman:
Theodore Gold, age 22
Diana Oughton, 28
Terry Robbins, 22
perps =
weapons = Dynamite, during bomb assembly

The Greenwich Village townhouse explosion was the premature detonation of a bomb as it was being assembled by members of the American "urban guerilla" organization, Weatherman (later rechristened the Weather Underground), in the basement of a townhouse at 18 West 11th Street in New York City's Greenwich Village. The three persons nearest the bomb were killed, two others in the house were slightly injured, and the four story townhouse was reduced to rubble and caught fire. cite news
url= http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FB0E14FF3C5A157493C5A91788D85F448785F9
title= Townhouse Razed By Blast and Fire; Man's Body Found
date= 1970-03-07
publisher= The New York Times
accessdate= 2007-12-05 ] Shortly before noon on Friday, March 6, 1970, people in the townhouse were assembling anti-personnel weapons armed with roofing nails and packed with dynamite. Years later, former members of the organization who had not been at the scene advanced differing (but not incompatible) claims as to the plans for use of the bombs. Thus, according to Mark Rudd, the plan was to set them off that evening at a dance for noncommissioned officers at the Fort Dix, New Jersey Army base.cite web
url= http://www.markrudd.com/Homepage/Harpers%20piece.htm
title=The Kids are All Right
last= Rudd
first= Mark
authorlink=Mark Rudd
quote=
accessdate= 2008-08-03] According to a detractor, "former members" have reported that some of the bombs were destined for the Fort Dix dance and others for Butler Library at Columbia University.cite news |first=Daniel |last=Wakin |authorlink= |coauthors= |title=Quieter Lives for 60's Militants, but Intensity of Beliefs Hasn't Faded |url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F04E4DE1539F937A1575BC0A9659C8B63 |quote=|publisher=New York Times |date=August 24, 2003 |accessdate=2008-06-07 ]

Immediate aftermath

Killed by the blast were Theodore Gold, Diana Oughton, and Terry Robbins. Surviving in a stunned and bleeding state were Weatherman members Kathy Boudin and Cathlyn Wilkerson, who were upstairs at the moment of the blast. The two survivors were led out from the burning structure by a police officer and the off-duty New York City Housing Authority patrolman who had entered in search of survivors. [cite news |first= |last= |authorlink= |coauthors= |title= The House On West 11th Street. |url=http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C02E4DB1638F936A35750C0A9669C8B63 |quote=|publisher=New York Times |date=March 5, 2000 |accessdate=2008-04-22 ] The rescuers were treated at St. Vincent's Hospital for smoke inhalation.

Boudin and Wilkerson disappeared before they could be questioned. They had been free on bail on assault charges stemming from the Days of Rage riots in Chicago. A neighbor who rendered aid after the blast described them as "dazed and trembling" as they were led "staggering" from the wreckage, one clad only in blue jeans and the other naked. The neighbor brought them to her house, where they showered, borrowed some clothing and told a housekeeper they were going to a local drugstore, then got into a taxi and disappeared. cite news
url= http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FB0C15FD3C5A157493C0A81788D85F448785F9
title= Neighbor Tells of Aiding 2 'Dazed' Young Women
date= 1970-03-12
publisher= The New York Times
accessdate= 2007-12-06 ]

The building was owned by Wilkerson's father, a radio-station executive. cite news
url= http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F20A17FD3C5A157493C0A81788D85F448785F9
title= Miss Wilkerson's Parents Make Plea For Her to Clarify Toll in Bombing
date= 1970-03-12
publisher= The New York Times
accessdate= 2007-12-05 ] As the search for bodies continued days after the explosion, Wilkerson's parents made a televised appeal to their missing daughter to avoid needlessly risking the lives of searchers. They asked her to "let us know how many more people, if any, are still left in the ruins of our home", saying "more lives would be needlessly lost and only you have the key".

Investigation

The blast was initially thought to be a series of natural gas explosions, but investigators quickly concluded from the extent of the damage that dynamite or some other powerful explosive was the cause. Gas lines broken by the blast fed an ensuing fire. According to the police investigator in charge, "The people in the house were obviously putting together the component parts of a bomb and they did something wrong." cite news
url= http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F60C17FC3C5A157493C3A81788D85F448785F9
title= Bombs, Dynamite and Woman's Body Found in Ruins of 11th St. Townhouse
date= 1970-03-11
publisher= The New York Times
accessdate= 2007-12-05 ]

An initial search turned up a 1916 37-mm. antitank shell. cite news
url= http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F30710F83D5C1B7493C2A81788D85F448785F9
title= 1916 Antitank Shell Is Found In Rubble of 'Village' Building
date= 1970-03-10
publisher= The New York Times
accessdate= 2007-12-05 ] In the following days, a brick-by-brick search of the rubble uncovered 57 sticks of dynamite, four convert|12|in|mm|sing=on pipe bombs packed with dynamite, and 30 blasting caps. The pipe bombs and several eight-stick packages of dynamite had fuses already attached. Also found were timing devices rigged from alarm clocks, maps of the tunnel network underneath Columbia University, and literature of the political protest organization, Students for a Democratic Society (SDS), from which the Weatherman organization had split off. Police described the building as a "bomb factory", and said that at the time of the explosion dynamite was apparently being wrapped in tape with nails embedded to act as shrapnel. cite news
url= http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F10912FC355E1A718DDDAF0994DB405B808BF1D3
title= More Body Parts Discovered In Debris of Blast on 11th Street
date= 1970-03-16
publisher= The New York Times
accessdate= 2007-12-10 ]

The crime scene was gory. It took nine days of collecting body parts to determine how many persons had died in the blast. Fingerprint records were required to identify the corpses of Theodore Gold, a leader of the 1968 Columbia University student protests, and Diana Oughton, the organizer of the 1969 SDS national convention. cite news
url= http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F1091FF6345C117688DDA00894DB405B808BF1D3
title= 'Village' Fire Victim Identified as Leader of '68 Columbia Strike
date= 1970-03-09
publisher= The New York Times
accessdate= 2007-12-09 ] cite news
url= http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F5091FF83C5A157493CAA81788D85F448785F9
title= 2d Victim in Blast Is Identified Here
date= 1970-03-18
publisher= The New York Times
accessdate= 2007-12-10 ] cite news
url= http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F40915F73A55107A93C7A81788D85F448785F9
title= 3d Blast Victim Is Found In Ruins of Townhouse
date= 1970-03-15
publisher= The New York Times
accessdate= 2007-12-06 ] As to the identity of the third corpse, rumors circulated in radical circles that it was that of Terry Robbins, a leader of the 1968 Kent State University student rebellion and a founder of the Weathermen, who would be indicted the following month along with 11 others for organizing and inciting riots during the "Days of Rage". cite news
url= http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F20D11FB385B107B93C1A9178FD85F448785F9
title= 12 S.D.S. Militants Indicted in Chicago
date= 1970-04-03
publisher= The New York Times
quote= A Federal grand jury indicted 12 leaders of the Weathermen today on charges of conspiracy and violation of the Federal antiriot act.
accessdate= 2007-12-10 ] That May, this rumor was confirmed in a communique purportedly issued by the Weathermen. The message was a "declaration of war" by the organization which warned that it would "attack a symbol or institution of American injustice" within the next two weeks. This communique named Robbins as the third body and described Gold, Oughton, and Robbins as revolutionaries "no longer on the move". cite news
url= http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F50D17FF3B5A157493C7AB178ED85F448785F9
title= A Radical 'Declaration' Warns Of an Attack by Weathermen
date= 1970-05-25
publisher= The New York Times
accessdate= 2007-12-09 ]

The fate of the survivors

Neighbors positively identified Wilkerson as one of the two women who had been led out from the wreckage. Boudin was not positively identified as the second survivor until some weeks later. Both women were charged with illegal possession of dynamite in the townhouse blast. They forfeited their bail on the above mentioned Chicago assault charges by failing to appear in Chicago for trial ten days later. The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) placed them on its Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list, but they succeeded in avoiding capture for a decade. Wilkerson surrendered in 1980. Boudin was apprehended in 1981 for her role in the Brink's armored car robbery.

The house

The townhouse at 18 West 11th Street was originally built in 1845. In the 1920s it belonged to Charles E. Merrill, cofounder of Merrill Lynch, who lived there with his family until 1931. [cite book|last=Chattarji|first=Subarno |title=Memories of a Lost War: American Poetic Responses to the Vietnam War|publisher=Oxford University Press|location=Oxford|date=2001|pages=50|isbn=0199247110] The bombing is lamented in a poem by Merrill's son, the poet James Merrill, titled with the address of the house: "Shards of a blackened witness still in place. / The charred ice-sculpture garden / Beams fell upon. . . ." ["18 West 11th Street." cite book|last=Merrill|first=James|title=Collected Poems|editor=J. D. McClatchy and Stephen Yenser|publisher=Knopf|location=new York|date=2002|pages=316|isbn=037570941X]

Controversy

Ayers has raised the possibility that Oughton may have intentionally detonated the explosion, it has been reported that a vicious argument occurred during all of the previous day and night in which Boudin favored using antipersonnel bombs, and that Oughton had misgivings. [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9402E0D6103BF933A0575AC0A9679C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=print]

References

Eternal links

* [http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=17534987#17478269 Excerpt: "Flying Close to the Sun," by Cathy Wilkerson]