Sterling Hall bombing
Encyclopedia
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 injuries to three others.
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 Mathematics 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 three others and caused significant destruction to the physics department and its equipment. Neither Fassnacht nor the physics department itself were involved with or employed by the Army Mathematics Research Center. The bombers used a stolen Ford Econoline
van filled with close to 2000 pounds (907.2 kg) of ANFO
(i.e., ammonium nitrate and fuel oil
). 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. Total damage to University of Wisconsin–Madison property was over $2.1 million as a result of the bombing.
, 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 of the bombing, consisted of about 45 mathematicians, about 30 of them full-time. Rosser was well known for his research in pure mathematics
, known for research in logic
(Rosser's trick
, the Kleene–Rosser paradox, and the Church-Rosser theorem) and in number theory
(Rosser sieve). Rosser had been the head of the U.S. ballistics program during World War II
and also had contributed to research on several missiles used by the U.S. military.
The money to build a home for AMRC came from the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) 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 U.S. Army research.
Rosser publicly minimized any military-role of the center and implied that AMRC pursued mathematics
, including both pure and applied mathematics. The University of Wisconsin student newspaper, The Daily Cardinal
, 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!"
The bomb missed its target of the AMRC. The truck was pulled up beside a physics laboratory on the floor below the AMRC, destroying that laboratory. One physics researcher was killed and another seriously injured. The AMRC lost only one day's work.
, David Fine
, and Leo Burt
. They called themselves the "New Year's Gang", a name which was derived from a previous exploit from New Year's Eve 1969. Dwight and Karl, with Karl's girlfriend Lynn Schultz driving the getaway car, stole a small plane from Morey Field
in Middleton
. Dwight and Karl dropped homemade explosives on the Badger Army Ammunition Plant
, but the explosives failed to detonate. They successfully landed the plane at another airport and escaped. Before the Sterling Hall bombing, Karl committed several other acts of terrorism, including arson attacks on ROTC installation at the Red Gym
and one meant for the state Selective Service headquarters which instead hit the UW Primate Research Center. Karl also attempted to plant explosives at the Prairie du Sac
electric substation which supplied power to the ammunition plant, but was frightened off by the night watchman.
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
arranged for job interviews with students on campus and many students protested and blocked potential interviewers from the building where the interviews were being held.
After the bombing, he went into hiding until he was caught on February 16, 1972 in Toronto. He was sentenced to 23 years in prison, but served only seven years. After this release, Armstrong returned to Madison, where he operated a juice cart called Loose Juice on the library mall just four blocks from Sterling Hall. In the early 2000s he also owned a deli called Radical Rye on State Street
near the UW–Madison campus until it was displaced by the development of the Overture Center
.
In a 1986 interview about the attack, Armstrong said,
in Toronto, Ontario, where he used the name "Virgo". After a few months he left the commune, went to Vancouver and then re-appeared in San Francisco where he connected with the Symbionese Liberation Army
(SLA), which was holding Patty Hearst at the time. It is believed he was not active in the SLA. He returned to Toronto and was arrested there on April 10, 1977. He pleaded guilty to the bombing, was sentenced to seven years in prison, and served three years before being released.
In 1987, he was arrested and then later convicted and sentenced to ten years in prison for conspiring to distribute amphetamines in Indiana. After being released from prison, he returned to Madison and worked for Union Cab until January 2001 when he purchased the Radical Rye Deli with his brother Karl.
Dwight Armstrong died from lung cancer on June 20, 2010 at age 58.
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.
Being 18 years old at the time of the bombing, he was the youngest of the four bombers. He was captured in San Rafael on January 7, 1976. He was sentenced to seven years in federal prison for his part in the bombing, and he served three years.
In 1987, after passing the Oregon Bar exam, Fine was denied admission 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 which upheld the decision. In its decision the court wrote:
. He introduced David Fine and Karl Armstrong to each other in July 1970.
After the bombing Burt fled to Canada with Fine, and as of September 2010 remains at large, though at that time there were new leads on his possible whereabouts.
. At the time of the explosion, Fassnacht was in his lab located in the basement level of Sterling Hall. He was monitoring an experiment when the explosion occurred. 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.
Also injured was David Schuster, a South African graduate student, who suffered fractured ribs and a broken eardrum, amongst other injuries, and had to be dug out of the rubble by firefighters, after his professor, Henry Barschall, had to be physically restrained from going in himself.
Barschall's laboratory was destroyed by the bombing—and the records of 25 years of his research, measuring nuclear cross-sections under neutron bombardment, were destroyed, there having been no off site data storage.
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
. It resulted in the death of a university physics researcher and injuries to three others.
Overview
Robert Fassnacht
Robert E. Fassnacht was a physics post-doctoral researcher who was killed by the bombing of Sterling Hall on August 24, 1970 on the University of Wisconsin–Madison campus....
, injured three others and caused significant destruction to the physics department and its equipment. Neither Fassnacht nor the physics department itself were involved with or employed by the Army Mathematics Research Center. The bombers used a stolen Ford Econoline
Ford E-Series
The Ford E-Series, formerly known as the Econoline or Club Wagon, is a line of full-size vans and truck chassis from the Ford Motor Company. The E-Series is related to the Ford F-Series line of pickup trucks. The line was introduced in 1961 as a compact van and its descendants are still produced...
van filled with close to 2000 pounds (907.2 kg) of ANFO
ANFO
ANFO is a widely used bulk industrial explosive mixture. It consists of 94 percent porous prilled ammonium nitrate , that acts as the oxidizing agent and absorbent for the fuel — six percent Number 2 Fuel Oil...
(i.e., ammonium nitrate and fuel oil
Fuel oil
Fuel oil is a fraction obtained from petroleum distillation, either as a distillate or a residue. Broadly speaking, fuel oil is any liquid petroleum product that is burned in a furnace or boiler for the generation of heat or used in an engine for the generation of power, except oils having a flash...
). 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. Total damage to University of Wisconsin–Madison property was over $2.1 million as a result of the bombing.
Army Mathematics Research Center
During the Vietnam WarVietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
, 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 of the bombing, consisted of about 45 mathematicians, about 30 of them full-time. Rosser was well known for his research in pure mathematics
Pure mathematics
Broadly speaking, pure mathematics is mathematics which studies entirely abstract concepts. From the eighteenth century onwards, this was a recognized category of mathematical activity, sometimes characterized as speculative mathematics, and at variance with the trend towards meeting the needs of...
, known for research in logic
Mathematical logic
Mathematical logic is a subfield of mathematics with close connections to foundations of mathematics, theoretical computer science and philosophical logic. The field includes both the mathematical study of logic and the applications of formal logic to other areas of mathematics...
(Rosser's trick
Rosser's trick
In mathematical logic, Rosser's trick is a method for proving Gödel's incompleteness theorems without the assumption that the theory being considered is ω-consistent . This method was introduced by J...
, the Kleene–Rosser paradox, and the Church-Rosser theorem) and in number theory
Number theory
Number theory is a branch of pure mathematics devoted primarily to the study of the integers. Number theorists study prime numbers as well...
(Rosser sieve). Rosser had been the head of the U.S. ballistics program during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
and also had contributed to research on several missiles used by the U.S. military.
The money to build a home for AMRC came from the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) 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 U.S. Army research.
Rosser publicly minimized any military-role of the center and implied that AMRC pursued mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
, including both pure and applied mathematics. The University of Wisconsin student newspaper, The Daily Cardinal
The Daily Cardinal
The Daily Cardinal is a student newspaper that serves the University of Wisconsin–Madison community. The sixth oldest daily student newspaper in the country, it began publishing on Monday, April 4, 1892...
, 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!"
The bomb missed its target of the AMRC. The truck was pulled up beside a physics laboratory on the floor below the AMRC, destroying that laboratory. One physics researcher was killed and another seriously injured. The AMRC lost only one day's work.
The bombers
The bombers were Karleton Armstrong, Dwight ArmstrongDwight Armstrong
Dwight Alan Armstrong was an American anti-Vietnam War activist who was one of four persons involved in the August 24, 1970, Sterling Hall bombing on the campus University of Wisconsin–Madison, in an act of political protest against the University's research efforts on behalf of the United States...
, David Fine
David Fine
David Sylvan Fine is an American domestic terrorist who was one of four perpetrators of the August 24, 1970, Sterling Hall bombing on the campus University of Wisconsin–Madison, in an act of political protest to the University's research efforts on behalf of the United States armed forces. The...
, and Leo Burt
Leo Burt
Leo Frederick Burt was indicted in connection with the 1970 Sterling Hall bombing at the University of Wisconsin–Madison campus, which killed Robert Fassnacht, a physics researcher, and injured several others...
. They called themselves the "New Year's Gang", a name which was derived from a previous exploit from New Year's Eve 1969. Dwight and Karl, with Karl's girlfriend Lynn Schultz driving the getaway car, stole a small plane from Morey Field
Middleton Municipal Airport
Middleton Municipal Airport , also known as Morey Field, is a General aviation airport located five miles northwest of Middleton, a city in Dane County, Wisconsin, United States. It has two runways....
in Middleton
Middleton, Wisconsin
Middleton is a city in Dane County, Wisconsin, United States. It is a western suburb of the state capital, Madison but it was actually founded before Madison. It got its name from Middletown, Connecticut; the "w" being dropped was due to a paper work error made by long time historian Edward Kromrey...
. Dwight and Karl dropped homemade explosives on the Badger Army Ammunition Plant
Badger Army Ammunition Plant
The Badger Army Ammunition Plant or Badger Ordnance Works is an excess, non-BRAC, United States Army facility located near Baraboo, Wisconsin. Badger consists of 7,354 acres of land. It manufactured nitrocellulose-based propellants during World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam...
, but the explosives failed to detonate. They successfully landed the plane at another airport and escaped. Before the Sterling Hall bombing, Karl committed several other acts of terrorism, including arson attacks on ROTC installation at the Red Gym
University of Wisconsin Armory and Gymnasium
The University of Wisconsin Armory and Gymnasium, also called "the Red Gym," is a building on the campus of University of Wisconsin-Madison, which houses the University's Multicultural Student Center, Campus Information and Visitors Center, the Morgridge Center for Public Service, and other student...
and one meant for the state Selective Service headquarters which instead hit the UW Primate Research Center. Karl also attempted to plant explosives at the Prairie du Sac
Prairie du Sac, Wisconsin
Prairie du Sac is a village in Sauk County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 3,231 at the 2000 census. The village is surrounded by the Town of Prairie du Sac, the Wisconsin River, and the village of Sauk City; together, Prairie du Sac and Sauk City are referred to as Sauk...
electric substation which supplied power to the ammunition plant, but was frightened off by the night watchman.
Karleton Armstrong
Karl was oldest of the bombers, and had been admitted into the University of Wisconsin–Madison in 1964. He was radicalized by the Vietnam WarVietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
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
Dow Chemical Company
The Dow Chemical Company is a multinational corporation headquartered in Midland, Michigan, United States. As of 2007, it is the second largest chemical manufacturer in the world by revenue and as of February 2009, the third-largest chemical company in the world by market capitalization .Dow...
arranged for job interviews with students on campus and many students protested and blocked potential interviewers from the building where the interviews were being held.
After the bombing, he went into hiding until he was caught on February 16, 1972 in Toronto. He was sentenced to 23 years in prison, but served only seven years. After this release, Armstrong returned to Madison, where he operated a juice cart called Loose Juice on the library mall just four blocks from Sterling Hall. In the early 2000s he also owned a deli called Radical Rye on State Street
State Street (Madison)
State Street is a pedestrian mall located in downtown Madison, Wisconsin, United States, near the Wisconsin State Capitol. The road proper extends from the west corner of land comprising the Capitol westward to Lake Street, adjoining the campus of the University of Wisconsin - Madison at Library...
near the UW–Madison campus until it was displaced by the development of the Overture Center
Overture Center
Overture Center for the Arts is a performing arts center and art gallery in Madison, Wisconsin, which replaced the Civic Center. The center was commissioned by Jerome Frautschi, designed by Cesar Pelli, and built by J.H. Findorff and Son. Flad Architects and Potter Lawson led the project as...
.
In a 1986 interview about the attack, Armstrong said,
"I still feel we can't rationalize someone getting killed, but at that time we felt we should never have done the bombing at all. Now I don't feel that way. I feel it was justified and should have been done. It just should have been done more responsibly."
Dwight Armstrong
The younger brother of Karl, Dwight was 19 at the time of the bombing. After the bombing, he lived in a communeCommune
Commune may refer to:In society:* Commune, a human community in which resources are shared* Commune , a township or municipality* One of the Communes of France* An Italian Comune...
in Toronto, Ontario, where he used the name "Virgo". After a few months he left the commune, went to Vancouver and then re-appeared in San Francisco where he connected with the Symbionese Liberation Army
Symbionese Liberation Army
The Symbionese Liberation Army was an American self-styled left-wing urban militant group active between 1973 and 1975 that considered itself a revolutionary vanguard army...
(SLA), which was holding Patty Hearst at the time. It is believed he was not active in the SLA. He returned to Toronto and was arrested there on April 10, 1977. He pleaded guilty to the bombing, was sentenced to seven years in prison, and served three years before being released.
In 1987, he was arrested and then later convicted and sentenced to ten years in prison for conspiring to distribute amphetamines in Indiana. After being released from prison, he returned to Madison and worked for Union Cab until January 2001 when he purchased the Radical Rye Deli with his brother Karl.
Dwight Armstrong died from lung cancer on June 20, 2010 at age 58.
David Fine
The Daily Cardinal
The Daily Cardinal is a student newspaper that serves the University of Wisconsin–Madison community. The sixth oldest daily student newspaper in the country, it began publishing on Monday, April 4, 1892...
, and associated with the other writers. He met Karl Armstrong for the first time in the summer of 1970.
Being 18 years old at the time of the bombing, he was the youngest of the four bombers. He was captured in San Rafael on January 7, 1976. He was sentenced to seven years in federal prison for his part in the bombing, and he served three years.
In 1987, after passing the Oregon Bar exam, Fine was denied admission 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 which upheld the decision. In its decision the court wrote:
"He has not shown himself to be a credible person and did not establish that he now has the good moral character required to practice law. We base our decision on applicant's present statements about his past acts. We recognize that persons can and do reform. However, in this case applicant's deceitful, self-serving conduct persisted at the time of the hearing."
Leo Burt
Leo Burt was 22 years old, and worked at the Daily Cardinal. Burt came to Wisconsin following his interest in crewRowing (sport)
Rowing is a sport in which athletes race against each other on rivers, on lakes or on the ocean, depending upon the type of race and the discipline. The boats are propelled by the reaction forces on the oar blades as they are pushed against the water...
. He introduced David Fine and Karl Armstrong to each other in July 1970.
After the bombing Burt fled to Canada with Fine, and as of September 2010 remains at large, though at that time there were new leads on his possible whereabouts.
Victims
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 superconductivitySuperconductivity
Superconductivity is a phenomenon of exactly zero electrical resistance occurring in certain materials below a characteristic temperature. It was discovered by Heike Kamerlingh Onnes on April 8, 1911 in Leiden. Like ferromagnetism and atomic spectral lines, superconductivity is a quantum...
. At the time of the explosion, Fassnacht was in his lab located in the basement level of Sterling Hall. He was monitoring an experiment when the explosion occurred. 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.
Also injured was David Schuster, a South African graduate student, who suffered fractured ribs and a broken eardrum, amongst other injuries, and had to be dug out of the rubble by firefighters, after his professor, Henry Barschall, had to be physically restrained from going in himself.
Barschall's laboratory was destroyed by the bombing—and the records of 25 years of his research, measuring nuclear cross-sections under neutron bombardment, were destroyed, there having been no off site data storage.
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 ZinnHoward ZinnHoward Zinn was an American historian, academic, author, playwright, and social activist. Before and during his tenure as a political science professor at Boston University from 1964-88 he wrote more than 20 books, which included his best-selling and influential A People's History of the United...
- "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. KnowlesWarren P. KnowlesWarren Perley Knowles , born in River Falls, Wisconsin, was an American lawyer and politician from New Richmond, Wisconsin.-Biography:...
, August 25, 1970.
- "[Fassnacht] was a dedicated person. This is what killed him." - Friend and coworker, Erhard H. Behr, August 25, 1970.
- "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.