Linda Evans (U.S. radical)
Encyclopedia
Linda Sue Evans is an American radical left
ist who was convicted for militant activities. Evans was sentenced in 1987 to 40 years in prison for using false identification to buy firearms and for harboring a fugitive in the 1981 Brinks armored truck robbery
, in which two police officers and a guard were killed. In a second case, she was sentenced in 1990 to five years in prison for conspiracy
and malicious destruction in connection with eight bombings including that of the U. S. Capitol in the mid-1980s. Her sentence was commuted
in 2001 by President Bill Clinton.
(SDS). She stated that she became interested in the civil rights movement after getting attacked by police during a demonstration at the Pentagon. “When I first became a political activist, I was a pacifist. I had never experience real violence in my own life and naively hoped that it changed.” Evans demonstrated her interest in anti-racism movements by supporting various groups championing Black, Native and Puerto Rican causes.
Evans’ leadership role in SDS began after a conference held on July 15, 1969 at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York. At this she announced that she would be traveling with six other anti-war activists to Hanoi to participate in the release of three U.S pilots who were being held as prisoners of war. At this conference, she also read a statement from SDS which declared the organization's support for the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam. Almost a month later, on August 7, 1969, Evans returned from Hanoi along with the prisoners of war through Trans World Airlines
.
Soon after Evans return from Hanoi, SDS held various conferences so that she could relate her experiences in Hanoi. During these conferences Evans stated that "SDS is on the side of North Vietnam and the National Liberation Front", called the U.S. the aggressor, and spoke of the "extremely humane treatment" given to captured American GIs. To conclude many of her appearances, she mentioned how willing the Vietnamese women and children were to bear arms in order to fight for their cause, and told of seeing an antiaircraft gun operated by Viet Cong women, cradling the gun in her arms and "wishing that an American plane would come over."
Two of these conferences were notable for their high attendance. One took place at St. Joseph’s Episcopal Church in Detroit
on August 11, 1969, while the other took place at Cleveland
during the SDS National Conference held August 29 through September 1, 1969. While at the SDS national convention, Evans announced her loyalty to Communism
.
In 1970 Evans was arrested for conspiracy and crossing state lines to incite a riot while organizing for SDS’s National Action, more commonly known as the Days of Rage
. The charges were dropped after it was disclosed that the government had used illegal wiretaps to obtain evidence. Evans was released on a $75,000 bond.
After Evans was released from prison in 1970, she moved to Texas where she continued to participate in radical causes.
, a group that derived from SDS. She organized and led many Weatherman actions. Following the Greenwich Village townhouse explosion
that killed three Weatherman members (Ted Gold
, Diana Oughton
, and Terry Robbins
), Evans was one of the Weatherman members who chose to go underground in 1970. During her membership in the Weather Underground Organization, Evans provided safe housing for members of the Weather Underground Organization and by providing funding for their assumed identities. She generated these funds through her participation in various robberies. Evans also participated in the May 19th Communist Movement
, a group that included some former members of the Weather Underground Organization.
On April 15, 1970, Evans and Dianne Donghi
were arrested for trying to forge checks using false identification. The FBI was able to arrest them because of a tip they received from an ex-member of Weatherman named Larry Grathwohl, who was working as an undercover informant for the FBI. Grathwohl's testimony was later used in Evans’ final arrest by the FBI to prove that she had repeatedly been involved in illegal activities.
Evans' final arrest was on May 11, 1985 for harboring Marilyn Jean Buck
, a fugitive in the 1981 Brinks armored truck robbery
case, in which two police officers and a guard were murdered. At the time of her arrest, Evans was wearing a wig and glasses to disguise herself. The FBI agents obtained from her purse a Browning 9mm pistol and false documents with the name of Rebecca Ann Morgan, Christine Johnson, and Louise Robinett. The FBI was able to trace the gun to Louisiana, where Linda Evans was found to have purchased four firearms and three boxes of ammunition from three separate businesses under the false identity of Louise Robinett. Having purchased the four guns under a false identification, Evans was charged with eleven violations of the Gun Control Act of 1968
. From March 16 to March 20, 1987 she was tried before a jury. Along with the eleven violations charges and housing a fugitive, she was also charged for terrorist actions after 740 pounds of dynamite were found in her apartment along with evidence of a plan to target the U.S Capitol Building, the National War College, the Navy Yard Computer Center, the Navy Yard Officers Club, Israeli Aircraft Industries, the FBI and the New York Patrolman’s Benevolent Association. On March 20, 1987 she was found guilty of all charges and was sentenced to 40 years in prison.
While incarcerated at the Federal Corrections Institution in Dublin, Evans advocated for an AIDS educational program for women and lesbian inmates. She helped raise funds for the program by creating quilts and served as a peer AIDS counselor and educator. Evans advocated for inmates' rights, claiming that “When I was in jail in Louisiana we were able to win a jail house lawyer’s legal suit forcing the jail to give women glasses and false teeth”.
On January 20, 2001, President Bill Clinton
commuted Evans' sentence, commuting her 40 year sentence to the 16-years already served.
In 2003 Evans gave an interview in which she identified her sexuality as an influence for her political activities, stating that “Being a lesbian has always been an important part of the reasons why I am a revolutionary – even before I was self-conscious about how important this is to me“ and “Because I experience real oppression as a lesbian and as a women, I am personally committed from the very core of being to winning liberation for women, lesbians, and all oppressed people.”
Radical left
Radical left is a term used in the names of several political movements:* Det Radikale Venstre, a social-liberal party in Denmark* Radical Party of the Left , a social-liberal party in France...
ist who was convicted for militant activities. Evans was sentenced in 1987 to 40 years in prison for using false identification to buy firearms and for harboring a fugitive in the 1981 Brinks armored truck robbery
Brinks robbery (1981)
The Brink's robbery of 1981 was an armed robbery committed on October 20, 1981, which was carried out by Black Liberation Army members; including Jeral Wayne Williams , Donald Weems , Samuel Smith, Nathaniel Burns , Cecilio "Chui" Ferguson, Samuel Brown ; several former members of the Weather...
, in which two police officers and a guard were killed. In a second case, she was sentenced in 1990 to five years in prison for conspiracy
Conspiracy (crime)
In the criminal law, a conspiracy is an agreement between two or more persons to break the law at some time in the future, and, in some cases, with at least one overt act in furtherance of that agreement...
and malicious destruction in connection with eight bombings including that of the U. S. Capitol in the mid-1980s. Her sentence was commuted
Commutation of sentence
Commutation of sentence involves the reduction of legal penalties, especially in terms of imprisonment. Unlike a pardon, a commutation does not nullify the conviction and is often conditional. Clemency is a similar term, meaning the lessening of the penalty of the crime without forgiving the crime...
in 2001 by President Bill Clinton.
Students for a Democratic Society
Evans began her life as an activist by organizing demonstrations at Michigan State University during 1965. In 1967 Evans became a member of the East Coast chapter of Students for a Democratic SocietyStudents for a Democratic Society (1960 organization)
Students for a Democratic Society was a student activist movement in the United States that was one of the main iconic representations of the country's New Left. The organization developed and expanded rapidly in the mid-1960s before dissolving at its last convention in 1969...
(SDS). She stated that she became interested in the civil rights movement after getting attacked by police during a demonstration at the Pentagon. “When I first became a political activist, I was a pacifist. I had never experience real violence in my own life and naively hoped that it changed.” Evans demonstrated her interest in anti-racism movements by supporting various groups championing Black, Native and Puerto Rican causes.
Evans’ leadership role in SDS began after a conference held on July 15, 1969 at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York. At this she announced that she would be traveling with six other anti-war activists to Hanoi to participate in the release of three U.S pilots who were being held as prisoners of war. At this conference, she also read a statement from SDS which declared the organization's support for the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam. Almost a month later, on August 7, 1969, Evans returned from Hanoi along with the prisoners of war through Trans World Airlines
Trans World Airlines
Trans World Airlines was an American airline that existed from 1925 until it was bought out by and merged with American Airlines in 2001. It was a major domestic airline in the United States and the main U.S.-based competitor of Pan American World Airways on intercontinental routes from 1946...
.
Soon after Evans return from Hanoi, SDS held various conferences so that she could relate her experiences in Hanoi. During these conferences Evans stated that "SDS is on the side of North Vietnam and the National Liberation Front", called the U.S. the aggressor, and spoke of the "extremely humane treatment" given to captured American GIs. To conclude many of her appearances, she mentioned how willing the Vietnamese women and children were to bear arms in order to fight for their cause, and told of seeing an antiaircraft gun operated by Viet Cong women, cradling the gun in her arms and "wishing that an American plane would come over."
Two of these conferences were notable for their high attendance. One took place at St. Joseph’s Episcopal Church in Detroit
Detroit, Michigan
Detroit is the major city among the primary cultural, financial, and transportation centers in the Metro Detroit area, a region of 5.2 million people. As the seat of Wayne County, the city of Detroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and serves as a major port on the Detroit River...
on August 11, 1969, while the other took place at Cleveland
Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and is the county seat of Cuyahoga County, the most populous county in the state. The city is located in northeastern Ohio on the southern shore of Lake Erie, approximately west of the Pennsylvania border...
during the SDS National Conference held August 29 through September 1, 1969. While at the SDS national convention, Evans announced her loyalty to Communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
.
In 1970 Evans was arrested for conspiracy and crossing state lines to incite a riot while organizing for SDS’s National Action, more commonly known as the Days of Rage
Days of Rage
The Days of Rage demonstrations were a series of direct actions taken over a course of three days in October 1969 in Chicago organized by the Weatherman faction of the Students for a Democratic Society...
. The charges were dropped after it was disclosed that the government had used illegal wiretaps to obtain evidence. Evans was released on a $75,000 bond.
After Evans was released from prison in 1970, she moved to Texas where she continued to participate in radical causes.
Weather Underground Organization
Evans became involved in WeathermanWeatherman (organization)
Weatherman, known colloquially as the Weathermen and later the Weather Underground Organization , was an American radical left organization. It originated in 1969 as a faction of Students for a Democratic Society composed for the most part of the national office leadership of SDS and their...
, a group that derived from SDS. She organized and led many Weatherman actions. Following the Greenwich Village townhouse explosion
Greenwich Village townhouse explosion
The Greenwich Village townhouse explosion was the premature detonation of a bomb as it was being assembled by members of the American radical left group, Weatherman – later renamed the Weather Underground – in the basement of a townhouse at 18 West 11th Street between Fifth Avenue and...
that killed three Weatherman members (Ted Gold
Ted Gold
Theodore "Ted" Gold was a member of Weatherman.-Early years and education:Gold was a red diaper baby. He was the son of Hyman Gold, a prominent Jewish physician and a mathematics instructor at Columbia University who had both been part of the Old Left. His mother was a statistician who taught at...
, Diana Oughton
Diana Oughton
Diana Oughton was a member of the Students for a Democratic Society Michigan Chapter and later, a member of the 1960s radical group Weatherman. Oughton received her B.A. from Bryn Mawr College. After graduation, Oughton went to Guatemala with the VISA program to teach the young and older...
, and Terry Robbins
Terry Robbins
Terry Robbins was a U.S. leftist radical activist. A key member of the Students for a Democratic Society Ohio chapter, he led Kent State into its first militant student uprising in 1968. Robbins was credited for drawing inspiration from Bob Dylan’s song Subterranean Homesick Blues which later...
), Evans was one of the Weatherman members who chose to go underground in 1970. During her membership in the Weather Underground Organization, Evans provided safe housing for members of the Weather Underground Organization and by providing funding for their assumed identities. She generated these funds through her participation in various robberies. Evans also participated in the May 19th Communist Movement
May 19th Communist Movement
The May 19 Coalition , was a US-based, self-described revolutionary organization formed by members of the Weather Underground Organization...
, a group that included some former members of the Weather Underground Organization.
On April 15, 1970, Evans and Dianne Donghi
Dianne Donghi
Dianne Marie Donghi is a former member of Students for a Democratic Society and Weatherman .-SDS:...
were arrested for trying to forge checks using false identification. The FBI was able to arrest them because of a tip they received from an ex-member of Weatherman named Larry Grathwohl, who was working as an undercover informant for the FBI. Grathwohl's testimony was later used in Evans’ final arrest by the FBI to prove that she had repeatedly been involved in illegal activities.
Evans' final arrest was on May 11, 1985 for harboring Marilyn Jean Buck
Marilyn Buck
Marilyn Jean Buck was an American Marxist revolutionary, convict, and feminist poet, who was imprisoned for her participation in the 1979 prison escape of Assata Shakur, the 1981 Brinks robbery and the 1983 U.S. Senate bombing...
, a fugitive in the 1981 Brinks armored truck robbery
Brinks robbery (1981)
The Brink's robbery of 1981 was an armed robbery committed on October 20, 1981, which was carried out by Black Liberation Army members; including Jeral Wayne Williams , Donald Weems , Samuel Smith, Nathaniel Burns , Cecilio "Chui" Ferguson, Samuel Brown ; several former members of the Weather...
case, in which two police officers and a guard were murdered. At the time of her arrest, Evans was wearing a wig and glasses to disguise herself. The FBI agents obtained from her purse a Browning 9mm pistol and false documents with the name of Rebecca Ann Morgan, Christine Johnson, and Louise Robinett. The FBI was able to trace the gun to Louisiana, where Linda Evans was found to have purchased four firearms and three boxes of ammunition from three separate businesses under the false identity of Louise Robinett. Having purchased the four guns under a false identification, Evans was charged with eleven violations of the Gun Control Act of 1968
Gun Control Act of 1968
The Gun Control Act of 1968 , by president Lyndon Johnson, is a federal law in the United States that broadly regulates the firearms industry and firearms owners...
. From March 16 to March 20, 1987 she was tried before a jury. Along with the eleven violations charges and housing a fugitive, she was also charged for terrorist actions after 740 pounds of dynamite were found in her apartment along with evidence of a plan to target the U.S Capitol Building, the National War College, the Navy Yard Computer Center, the Navy Yard Officers Club, Israeli Aircraft Industries, the FBI and the New York Patrolman’s Benevolent Association. On March 20, 1987 she was found guilty of all charges and was sentenced to 40 years in prison.
While incarcerated at the Federal Corrections Institution in Dublin, Evans advocated for an AIDS educational program for women and lesbian inmates. She helped raise funds for the program by creating quilts and served as a peer AIDS counselor and educator. Evans advocated for inmates' rights, claiming that “When I was in jail in Louisiana we were able to win a jail house lawyer’s legal suit forcing the jail to give women glasses and false teeth”.
On January 20, 2001, President Bill Clinton
Bill Clinton
William Jefferson "Bill" Clinton is an American politician who served as the 42nd President of the United States from 1993 to 2001. Inaugurated at age 46, he was the third-youngest president. He took office at the end of the Cold War, and was the first president of the baby boomer generation...
commuted Evans' sentence, commuting her 40 year sentence to the 16-years already served.
Life since prison
Along with her partner, Eve Goldberg, Evans travels around the United States advocating for lesbian and female inmates' rights. Evans is involved with the activist organization the Center for Third World Organizing. In March 2002 she held a conference entitled “Tear Down the Walls,” in an attempt to gain support for giving amnesty to people she identified as political prisoners, claiming that “These political prisoners of war are women and men incarcerated because of their involvement in political activities which challenged the unjust nature of the U.S socioeconomic system."In 2003 Evans gave an interview in which she identified her sexuality as an influence for her political activities, stating that “Being a lesbian has always been an important part of the reasons why I am a revolutionary – even before I was self-conscious about how important this is to me“ and “Because I experience real oppression as a lesbian and as a women, I am personally committed from the very core of being to winning liberation for women, lesbians, and all oppressed people.”
See also
- Bill Clinton pardons controversyBill Clinton pardons controversyPresident Bill Clinton was criticized for some of his pardons and acts of executive clemency. While most presidents grant pardons on several days throughout their terms, Clinton chose to make most of them on January 20, 2001. Collectively, the controversy surrounding these actions has sometimes...
- UndergroundUnderground (documentary film)Underground is a 1976 documentary film about the Weathermen, founded as a militant faction of the Students for a Democratic Society , who fought to overthrow the U.S. government during the 1960s and 1970’s. The film consists of interviews with members of the group after they went underground and...
, documentary film - Weather Underground Organization
- May 19th Communist Organization
- List of Weatherman actions
Writings
- The Prison Industrial Complex and the Global Economy, with Eve Goldberg
- Statement from Women Political Prisoners on the Takeover of KPFA, July 14, 1999