Sterling Hall bombing
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| Sterling Hall bombing | |
|---|---|
 Once home to the physics department at UW-Madison, Sterling Hall also housed the Army Mathematics Research Center which made it the target of student protests. |
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| Location | Madison, Wisconsin, United States |
| Date | August 24, 1970 3:42AM (UTC-5) |
| Attack type | bombing (Ammonium nitrate) |
| Deaths | 1 |
| Injured | 4 |
| Perpetrator(s) | Karleton Armstrong, Dwight Armstrong, David Fine and Leo Burt |
The Sterling Hall Bombing that occurred on the University of Wisconsin–Madison campus on August 24, 1970 was committed by four young people as a protest against the University's research connections with the US military during the Vietnam War. It resulted in the death of a university physics researcher and severe injuries to four other building occupants.
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[edit] Overview
Sterling Hall is a centrally located building on the University of Wisconsin–Madison campus. The bomb, set off at 3:42AM on August 24, 1970, was intended to destroy the Army Math Research Center (AMRC) housed on the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th floors of the building. It caused massive destruction to other parts of the building and nearby buildings as well. It resulted in the death of the researcher Robert Fassnacht, injured four others and caused significant destruction to the physics department and its experiments. Neither Fassnacht nor the physics department itself were involved with or employed by the Army Math Research Center. The bombers used a stolen Ford Econoline van filled with close to 2,000 pounds of ANFO (i.e., ammonium nitrate and fuel oil).[1] Pieces of the van were found on top of an eight-story building three blocks away and 26 nearby buildings were also damaged; however, the targeted AMRC was scarcely damaged.[2] Total damage to University of Wisconsin-Madison property was over $2.1 million as a result of the bombing.[3]
[edit] Robert Fassnacht, physicist who died
Robert Fassnacht was a 33-year-old post-doctoral researcher at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. On the night and early morning of August 23/24, 1970, he had gone to the lab to finish up work before leaving on a family vacation. He was involved in research in the field of super conductivity, which had potential applications to everything from power distribution to high-speed trains. At the time of the explosion, Fassnacht was in his lab located in the basement level of Sterling Hall. He was in the process of monitoring an experiment when the explosion occurred.[4] Rescuers found him face down in about a foot of water.
He was survived by his wife, Stephanie, and their three children, a three-year-old son, Christopher, and twin one-year-old daughters, Heidi and Karin.
[edit] The Bombers
[edit] Karleton Armstrong
Armstrong was oldest of the bombers, and had been admitted into the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1964. He was radicalized by the Vietnam War and quit school a year later. He took on odd jobs for the next few years, and was re-accepted into the university in 1967. That fall he was witness to violence between protesters and police on October 18, 1967 when the Dow Chemical Company had arranged for job interviews with students on campus and many students turned out to protest and block potential interviewers.
After the bombing he went into hiding and wasn't caught until February 16, 1972. He was sentenced to 23 years in Waupun State Prison, but served only seven years. Armstrong returned to Madison and operated a popular deli called Radical Rye on State Street near the UW-Madison campus until it was displaced by the development of the Overture Center. Armstrong continues to reside in Madison and operates a juice cart on the library mall called Loose Juice just four blocks from Sterling Hall.
Armstrong was interviewed (at the cart) for the show "America's Most Wanted" where, when asked whether or not he thought Burt should have to serve prison time like he did, he refused to comment, stating that it was up to the government to decide if Burt was involved to begin with. When asked how he felt about Fassnacht's death, he appeared to still feel strongly about the bombing and that it was justified and stated that Fassnacht's death was a pale comparison to the "millions killed in Indochina". He further stated that the death was not meant to happen.[citation needed]
[edit] Dwight Armstrong
The younger brother of Karl, he was 19 at the time of the bombing. After serving his sentence, he was again arrested. According to the Capital Times he was later convicted of drug charges and sentenced to 10 years for conspiring to distribute speed in Indiana.
After being released from prison, he returned to Madison and worked for Union Cab until January of 2001. [5]
[edit] David Fine
David Fine came to Madison as a freshman in 1969 at the age of 17. He wrote for the campus newspaper The Daily Cardinal, and associated with the other writers. He met Karl Armstrong for the first time in the summer of 1970.
At 18 years old at the time of the bombing, he was the youngest of the four bombers.
In 1987, after passing the Oregon Bar exam, Fine was denied admission to the Oregon Bar by the Oregon State Supreme Court based upon his participation in, and lack of remorse for, the bombing of Sterling Hall and the murder of Robert Fassnacht.
[edit] Leo Burt
Leo Burt was 22 years old, and worked at the Daily Cardinal. He introduced David Fine and Karl Armstrong to each other in July of 1970.
After the bombing Burt disappeared, and as of February 2008 was still at large.[6]
[edit] Army Mathematics Research Center
During the Vietnam war, the 2nd, 3rd and 4th floors of the southern (east-west) wing of Sterling Hall housed the Army Mathematics Research Center (AMRC). This was an army-funded think tank, directed by J. Barkley Rosser, Sr.
The staff at the center, at the time before the bombing, consisted of about 45 mathematicians, about 30 of them full-time. The director, Rosser, was the head of the U.S. ballistics program during World War II, and he was a contributor to research in several missiles that came to be used by the U.S. military.
The money to build a home for AMRC came from the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation in 1955. Their money built a 6-floor addition to Sterling Hall. In the contract to work at the facility, it was required that mathematicians spend at least half their time on army research.
The student newspaper, The Daily Cardinal, had obtained and published quarterly reports that AMRC submitted to the Army. The Cardinal published a series of investigative articles making a convincing case that AMRC was pursuing research that was directly pursuant to specific US Department of Defense requests, and relevant to counterinsurgency operations in Vietnam. AMRC became a magnet for demonstrations, in which protesters chanted "U.S. out of Vietnam! Smash Army Math!"
[edit] Quotes
- "The movement against the Vietnam War reveals the double standard of government...It was a remarkably nonviolent movement. There was one instance, so rare that it must be noted, where antiwar protesters in Madison, Wisconsin, planted a bomb in a military research building, timed to go off in the middle of the night, when no one would be in the building. But one man was working there, and he was killed." - pg. 143 of Declarations of Independence, by Howard Zinn
- "This I believe is a conspiracy of a small minority who do not believe in our system of government and are set to destroy our present way of life." - Wisconsin Governor Warren P. Knowles, August 25, 1970.[7]
- "[Fassnacht] was a dedicated person. This is what killed him." - Friend and coworker, Erhard H. Behr, August 25, 1970.[7]
- "Sometimes I still think about [the bombing]. It sends a shiver up my spine when I'm working late on Sundays." - Paul Quin, a physics researcher injured by the bombing. August 23, 1971.[8]
[edit] References
- Bates, Tom (1993). RADS: The 1970 Bombing of the Army Math Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Its Aftermath. Perennial. ISBN 0-06-092428-4.
- Morris, Michael (1988). The Madison bombings: The story of one of the two largest vehicle-bombings ever. Research House. ISBN 0-947002-30-8.
- ^ Wisconsin Historical Museum. Sterling Hall Bombing Engine Fragment.
- ^ Wisconsin State Journal. Sterling Hall bombing.
- ^ Wisconsin State Journal. Sterling Hall toll set at $2.1 million. August 17, 1972.
- ^ Hague, Bob (2007-05-19). UW honors Robert Fassnacht. Wisconsin Radio Network. Retrieved on 2007-05-19.
- ^ Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Online
- ^ FBI Fugitive's list. Accessed 12 February 2008.
- ^ a b Wisconsin State Journal. Van's blast at UW center kills one hurts four. August 25, 1970.
- ^ Wisconsin State Journal. The injured remember. August 23, 1971.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- WisconsinHistory.org on the bombing
- Wisconsin State Journal Sterling Hall Archives
- [1] Memorial website for Henry H. Barschall, whose laboratory was destroyed in the bombing.
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