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Greenwich Village townhouse explosion

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Coordinates: 40°44′03″N 73°59′45″W / 40.734289°N 73.995889°W / 40.734289; -73.995889
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40°44′03″N 73°59′45″W / 40.734289°N 73.995889°W / 40.734289; -73.995889

Greenwich Village townhouse explosion
Part of the Opposition to U.S. involvement in Vietnam
Firemen contain blaze caused and fed by gas lines broken in the explosion
LocationSub-basement furnace room at
18 West 11th Street, New York, NY 10011
DateMarch 6, 1970
Attack type
Premature explosion
WeaponsDynamite during bomb assembly
DeathsTheodore Gold, age 22
Diana Oughton, 28
Terry Robbins, 22

The Greenwich Village townhouse explosion occurred on March 6, 1970 in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of Manhattan. Members of the Weather Underground, an American leftist paramilitary group, were making bombs in the basement of 18 West 11th Street when one of them exploded, and the blast completely destroyed the four-story townhouse. Diana Oughton, Terry Robbins, and Ted Gold were killed, while Kathy Boudin and Cathy Wilkerson were helped out of the wreckage but then fled.[1][2]

Event

Members of the Weather Underground were assembling bombs packed with dynamite and roofing nails on Friday, March 6, 1970 when one of the bombs detonated shortly before noon. According to Mark Rudd, the plan was to set off the bombs that evening at a dance for non-commissioned Army officers and their dates at the Fort Dix Army base in New Jersey in order to "bring the war home" from Vietnam.[3] Other reports indicate that some bombs were destined for the Fort Dix dance and some were to be detonated inside the administration building at Columbia University.[4][5]

Preparation and construction

Weather Underground leader Cathy Wilkerson said that they were disappointed with the level of damage and injury which had been caused when they threw Molotov cocktails at the home of Judge Murtagh and other locations. Terry Robbins suggested that they use dynamite for future terrorist attacks. They purchased a large quantity of dynamite and a number of electric fuses, and they designated three targets, including a dance at Fort Dix, an army base in nearby New Jersey. It was reported that "arguments went on day and night" in the townhouse, with Kathy Boudin advocating that they kill as many people as possible by using anti-personnel bombs, while Diana Oughton had misgivings.[6]

None of the terrorists had experience with explosives, and Robbins and Wilkerson did not even understand the basics of electricity. They worked up a simple timer and trigger device that lacked any safety features, and they packed the dynamite with sharp roofing nails. No one knows the exact details of what the terrorists did wrong, but the resulting series of blasts in the sub-basement of the townhouse killed those near the bomb and caused the collapse of the whole building.[7]

Immediate aftermath

Diana Oughton and Terry Robbins were assembling the bombs, and they were killed by the blast. Ted Gold was returning to the townhouse and was crushed when it collapsed. Kathy Boudin and Cathlyn Wilkerson were upstairs when the bomb exploded, and they survived.

A police officer and an off-duty New York City Housing Authority patrolman rushed into the chaos in search of survivors, and they rescued Boudin and Wilkerson and led them to safety.[8] Other rescue workers were treated at St. Vincent's Hospital for smoke inhalation.[1]

Boudin and Wilkerson fled the scene before they could be questioned. They had been free on bail on assault charges stemming from the Days of Rage riots in Chicago.[9] 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 and provided them with showers and clothing. The terrorists then told their rescuers that they were going to a local drugstore, but instead they hailed a taxi and disappeared.[10][11]

The building was owned by Wilkerson's father, a radio-station executive[9] who was vacationing in the Caribbean at the time. The search for bodies continued for days after the explosion, and 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".[9] Wilkerson did not respond to the appeals.

Investigation

Investigators initially thought that the explosion had been a series of natural gas explosions, but they 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.[9] 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."[11]

Searchers discovered a 1916 37-mm anti-tank shell.[12] In the following days, they searched the rubble brick-by-brick and uncovered 57 sticks of dynamite, four 12-inch (300 mm) pipe bombs packed with dynamite, and 30 blasting caps. The pipe bombs and several eight-stick packages of dynamite had fuses already attached. They also found timing devices rigged from alarm clocks, maps of the tunnel network underneath Columbia University, and literature of the Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) from which the Weathermen had split.[9][11][12] Police described the building as a "bomb factory" and said that the terrorists were evidently wrapping dynamite in tape with nails embedded to act as shrapnel at the time of the explosion.[9][13]

The crime scene was gory. It took nine days of collecting body parts to determine how many people had died in the blast. Fingerprint records were required to identify the disembodied remains of Ted Gold, a leader of the Columbia University protests of 1968, and Diana Oughton, the organizer of the 1969 SDS national convention.[13][14][15][16] Rumors circulated among leftists and other terrorists that the third body 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".[17] That rumor was confirmed the following May in a statement issued by the Weathermen. It was a "declaration of war" by the terrorists which warned that they would "attack a symbol or institution of American injustice" within the next two weeks. This statement named Robbins as the third body and described Gold, Oughton, and Robbins as revolutionaries "no longer on the move".[18]

Fate of the survivors

Neighbors positively identified Wilkerson as one of the two women who had been led out of the wreckage. Boudin was not positively identified as the second survivor until some weeks later.[10] Both women were charged with illegal possession of dynamite in the townhouse blast. They forfeited their bail on the Chicago assault charges by failing to appear in Chicago for trial ten days later.[9] The 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. Boudin was later hired by Columbia University as an adjunct professor.

House

The Greek Revival townhouse at 18 West 11th Street was built in 1845. In the 1920s, it belonged to Charles E. Merrill, co-founder of Merrill Lynch.[4] Poet James Merrill spent his infancy and first few years in the house,[4] and lamented the bombing in the 1972 poem "18 West 11th Street".[19] Actor Dustin Hoffman and his wife Anne Byrne were living in the townhouse next door at the time of the explosion. He can be seen in the documentary The Weather Underground (2002) standing on the street after the explosion.[20] The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission rebuilt the house in 1978 in an angular, modernist style designed by architect Hugh Hardy.[4] It sold for $9,250,000 in December 2012.[21]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Robinson, Douglas (March 7, 1970). "Townhouse Razed By Blast and Fire; Man's Body Found". The New York Times. Retrieved December 5, 2007.
  2. ^ Mel Gussow (March 5, 2000). "The House On West 11th Street". The New York Times. Retrieved February 2, 2014.
  3. ^ Rudd, Mark. "The Kids are All Right". Archived from the original on April 3, 2009. Retrieved May 18, 2009. On the morning of March 6, 1970, three of my comrades were building pipe bombs packed with dynamite and nails, destined for a dance of non-commissioned officers and their dates at Fort Dix, N.J., that night.
  4. ^ a b c d Mel Gussow (March 5, 2000). "The House On West 11th Street". The New York Times. Retrieved July 3, 2009.
  5. ^ Wakin, Daniel (August 24, 2003). "Quieter Lives for 60's Militants, but Intensity of Beliefs Hasn't Faded". New York Times. Retrieved June 7, 2008. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  6. ^ "THE SEEDS OF TERROR". The New York Times. November 22, 1981. Retrieved January 16, 2009.
  7. ^ Wilkerson, Cathy (2007). Flying Close to the Sun. New York: Seven Stories Press. pp. 316–347. ISBN 978-1-58322-771-8.
  8. ^ Gussow, Mel (March 5, 2000). "The House On West 11th Street". New York Times. Retrieved April 22, 2008. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  9. ^ a b c d e f g Robinson, Douglas (March 12, 1970). "Miss Wilkerson's Parents Make Plea For Her to Clarify Toll in Bombing". The New York Times. Retrieved December 5, 2007.
  10. ^ a b Charlton, Linda (March 12, 1970). "Neighbor Tells of Aiding 2 'Dazed' Young Women". The New York Times. Retrieved December 6, 2007.
  11. ^ a b c Robinson, Douglas (March 11, 1970). "Bombs, Dynamite and Woman's Body Found in Ruins of 11th St. Townhouse". The New York Times. Retrieved December 5, 2007.
  12. ^ a b Robinson, Douglas (March 10, 1970). "1916 Antitank Shell Is Found In Rubble of 'Village' Building". The New York Times. Retrieved December 5, 2007.
  13. ^ a b McFadden, Robert D. (March 16, 1970). "More Body Parts Discovered In Debris of Blast on 11th Street". The New York Times. Retrieved December 10, 2007.
  14. ^ Charlton, Linda (March 9, 1970). "'Village' Fire Victim Identified as Leader of '68 Columbia Strike". The New York Times. Retrieved December 9, 2007.
  15. ^ Robinson, Douglas (March 18, 1970). "2d Victim in Blast Is Identified Here". The New York Times. Retrieved December 10, 2007.
  16. ^ McFadden, Robert D. (March 15, 1970). "3d Blast Victim Is Found In Ruins of Townhouse". The New York Times. Retrieved December 6, 2007.
  17. ^ Kifner, John (April 3, 1970). "12 S.D.S. Militants Indicted in Chicago". The New York Times. Retrieved December 10, 2007. A Federal grand jury indicted 12 leaders of the Weathermen today on charges of conspiracy and violation of the Federal antiriot act.
  18. ^ Kifner, John (May 25, 1970). "A Radical 'Declaration' Warns Of an Attack by Weathermen". The New York Times. Retrieved December 9, 2007.
  19. ^ Chattarji, Subarno (2001). Memories of a Lost War: American Poetic Responses to the Vietnam War. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 50. ISBN 0-19-924711-0.
  20. ^ Paglia, Camille (November 12, 2008). "Obama surfs through". Salon.
  21. ^ "Townhouse on site of Weather Underground explosion sells for $9.3M". The Real Deal. January 4, 2013. Retrieved April 22, 2013.
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