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United Freedom Front

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"Ohio 7" redirects here. For the state highway, see Ohio State Route 7. For the Congressional district, see Ohio's 7th congressional district.

The United Freedom Front (UFF) was a small American Marxist organization active in the 1970s and 1980s. It was originally called the Sam Melville/Jonathan Jackson Unit, and its members became known as the Ohio 7 when they were brought to trial. Between 1975 and 1984 the UFF carried out at least 20 bombings and nine bank robberies in the northeastern United States, targeting corporate buildings, courthouses, and military facilities.[1] Brent L. Smith describes them as "undoubtedly the most successful of the leftist terrorists of the 1970s and 1980s."[2] The group's members were eventually apprehended and convicted of conspiracy, murder, attempted murder, and other charges. Two, Tom Manning and Jaan Laaman, remain incarcerated today.

Activities

The group was founded in 1975 as the Sam Melville/Jonathan Jackson Unit, setting off a bomb at the Massachusetts State House under that name, but changed its name to the United Freedom Front the same year.[2][3] The initial members were Raymond Luc Levasseur (the UFF's leader), Tom Manning, and their respective spouses, Patricia Gros and Carole Manning.[2] Levasseur and Tom Manning were both Vietnam War veterans and ex-convicts. The four had worked together in prison reform groups before forming the UFF.[2] Four other members joined the group in the following years: Jaan Laaman and Barbara Curzi (another married couple), Kazi Toure (born Christopher King), and Richard Williams.[4]

The UFF strongly opposed US foreign policy in Central America, as well as South African apartheid.

The UFF's targets included South African Airways, Union Carbide, IBM, Mobil, courthouses, and military facilities.[5] The UFF called in warnings before all of its bombings, attempting to avoid casualties.[6] However, 22 people were injured in one 1976 bombing at the Suffolk County Courthouse in Boston, including a courthouse worker who lost a leg.[6][7][8][9] The group was most active in the early 1980s.[10] The UFF's members lived undercover in middle-class suburbs.[3]

Toure was captured in North Attleboro, Massachusetts in 1982.[11] Two state troopers were wounded in the course of arresting him.[12] On November 4, 1984, police apprehended Levasseur and Gros near Deerfield, Ohio, and Laaman, Curzi, and Williams in Cleveland.[13] The Mannings were captured six months later in Norfolk, Virginia.[11] Gus notes that the UFF was "the most enduring of all New Left terrorist groups of the era," evading capture for almost a decade.[14]

Trials and imprisonment

The UFF's members were tried repeatedly on various federal and state charges. In March 1986, seven of them (the so-called "Ohio Seven") were convicted of conspiracy, receiving sentences ranging from 15 to 53 years.[15] In 1987 all eight members were charged with sedition and racketeering.[16] Eventually five accepted plea bargains, had charges against them dropped, or were tried separately, and the trial of the remaining three ended in 1989 with an acquittal for sedition and a locked jury on the racketeering charges.[8][16] Thomas Manning and Richard Williams were given life sentences for the 1981 murder of state trooper Philip Lamonaco,[13][17] and Laaman was convicted in the 1982 attempted murder of two state troopers.[18] The well-known defense lawyer William Kunstler represented UFF members in some of these proceedings.[16][19][20]

Toure, Curzi, Gros, and Carol Manning were released during the 1990s,[21][22] and Levasseur was released in November 2004. Williams died in prison in December 2005, and Tom Manning and Laaman remain in prison.[17]

  • USA v. Patricia Gros: 84-CR-0222
  • USA v. Raymond Luc Levasseur et al.: 86-CR-180

References

  1. ^ Smith 111-12
  2. ^ a b c d Smith 110
  3. ^ a b Gus 433
  4. ^ Smith 110, 112
  5. ^ Smith 111
  6. ^ a b Prendergast, Alan (1995-07-12). "End of the Line". Denver News. p. 2. Retrieved 2009-10-28.
  7. ^ Nicas, Jack (12 November 2009). "UMass forum stirs painful memories for courthouse bomb victim". Boston Globe. Retrieved 20 January 2010.
  8. ^ a b AP (1989-11-30). "Judge Declares Mistrial for 3 in Sedition Case". The New York Times. Retrieved 2009-10-28.
  9. ^ AP (1989-11-30). "Jury deadlocks in trial of radicals". Wilmington Daily Star. Retrieved 2009-10-28. [dead link]
  10. ^ Martin, Gus (2009). Understanding Terrorism: Challenges, Perspectives, and Issues (3 ed.). Sage. p. 433. ISBN 978-1-4129-7059-4.
  11. ^ a b AP (1989-01-12). "After 9 Months of Delays, U.S. Tries 3 for Sedition". The New York Times. Retrieved 2009-10-28.
  12. ^ Churchill, Ward; Jim Vander wall (2002). The Cointelpro Papers : Documents from the FBI's Secret Wars Against Dissent in the United States. Cambridge, Mass.: South End Press. p. 316. ISBN 978-0-89608-648-7.
  13. ^ a b Smith 112
  14. ^ 425
  15. ^ Smith 112-13
  16. ^ a b c Smith 113
  17. ^ a b Berger, Dan (2005-12-14). "Two Prisoners Named Williams". The Nation.
  18. ^ Stohl, Michael (1988). The Politics of Terrorism. CRC Press. p. 315. ISBN 978-0-8247-7814-9.
  19. ^ Tomlinson, Gerard (1994). Murdered in Jersey. New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press. p. 170. ISBN 978-0-8135-2078-0.
  20. ^ Langum, David J. William M. Kunstler: the most hated lawyer in America. NYU Press. p. 261. ISBN 978-0-8147-5150-3.
  21. ^ Berger, Dan (2008). "The Real Dragons: a Brief History of Political Militancy and Incarceration: 1960s to 2000s". In Matt Meyer (ed.). Let freedom ring : a collection of documents from the movements to free U.S. political prisoners. PM Press. p. 32. ISBN 978-1-60486-035-1.
  22. ^ Acoli, Sundiata (2003). "An Updated History of the New Afrikan Prison Struggle". In Joy James (ed.). Imprisoned intellectuals : America's political prisoners write on life, liberation, and rebellion. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 153. ISBN 978-0-7425-2027-1.

Further reference

  • Smith, Brent L. (1994). Terrorism in America: pipe bombs and pipe dreams. SUNY Press.
  • "Group Hit Other Targets, FBI Believes," Ronald Kessler, 11/09/1983, Washington Post
  • "Case-Study of US Domestic Terrorism: United Freedom Front," Phillip Jenkins
  • "After 13 Bombings, FBI Says Terrorists Remain a Mystery," Rick Hampson, 09/27/1984, AP
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