Cathlyn Platt Wilkerson
Born	January 14, 1945 (1945-01-14) (age 65)
Residence	Brooklyn, New York
Nationality	United States
Education	Swarthmore College (1966)
Occupation	teacher
Known for	1970s Weather Underground radical, bomb maker, fugitive
Children	one grown daughter
Parents	James Platt Wilkerson, Audrey Olena

Cathlyn Platt Wilkerson (born in 1945), known as Cathy Wilkerson, is an American radical who was a member of the 1970s radical group called the Weather Underground (WUO).^[1] She came to the attention of the police when she was leaving the townhouse belonging to her father after it was destroyed by an explosion on March 6, 1970.^[2] Members of WUO had been constructing a nail bomb in the basement of the building, intended to be used in an attack on a non-commissioned officers dance at Fort Dix, New Jersey that night.^[3] Wilkerson, already free on bail for her involvement in the Chicago "Days of Rage" riots, avoided capture for 10 years.^[4][5] She surrendered in 1980 and pleaded guilty to unlawful possession of dynamite. She was sentenced to up to three years in prison, serving 11 months.^[2][5]

[edit] Early years

Cathlyn Platt Wilkerson was born on January 14, 1945.^[4] Her father, James Platt Wilkerson (Amherst 1937, Lawrenceville 1933) was an advertising executive and part owner of a radio station in Omaha, Nebraska.^[6] and a radio station owner from the Midwest.^[2][7] Her mother, Audrey Olena, graduated from Smith College and later took job as a teacher in Manhattan.^[8] Wilkerson grew up in Connecticut and Massachusetts. In Stamford, Connecticut she attended Martha Hoyt School through 3rd grade, Emma Willard Middle School (5th grade), and New Canaan Country School (6th through 9th grade). In Andover, Massachusetts Wilkerson attended Abbot Academy, an all-girls school.^[9] She graduated from Abbot Academy in June 1962.

[edit] Early Activist Work

After graduating from high school, Wilkerson was accepted into Swarthmore College.^[4] During the first year of college she became interested in politics. In April, 1962 Wilkerson became involved with a civil rights group that organized anti-segregation work in Cambridge, Maryland.^[10] Her activist work continued throughout college. In June, 1963 Wilkerson attended Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) National Meeting in Pine Hill, New York, and wrote a pamphlet "Rats, Washtubs, and Block Organizations".^[11] She graduated in June 1966 and spent summer and fall working for Representative Robert Kastenmeier, a liberal Democrat from Wisconsin.^[4] In 1967, Wilkerson was employed in the national office of SDS, in Chicago, Illinois and became the editor of New Left Notes, an SDS newspaper.^[4] In 1967, she was elected into SDS National Interim Council and moved to Washington, DC to set up a regional office.^[4] Wilkerson and three other SDS members went to Cambodia where they met representatives of Vietnamese National Liberation Front.^[1] After the trip she wrote several articles describing her experiences and stressing issue of failing morale of U.S. troops.^[1] Although, as Wilkerson recalls in her memoir ^[12], she had few disagreements with the main ideas promoted by Weatherman, including their deep desire to be involved in the most effective endeavor to end the Vietnam War. Unfair policies both at home and abroad prompted her to become a member of Weatherman in 1969. Shortly after her graduation from college, Wilkerson traveled to Cuba to witness the results of the Cuban Revolution first hand. She was also very active in civil rights and the women–s movement. [1]^{[dead link]}

[edit] Arrests

In 1963, Wilkerson was arrested in Chester, Pennsylvania for distributing handbills advertising a mass meeting to discuss the planned boycott of the public schools. On August 25, 1968 she was arrested during the Democratic National Convention and charged with disorderly conduct and posting handbills on private property without permission of the owners. On May 2, 1969 Wilkerson was arrested and charged with unlawful entry and destroying property during takeover of Maury Hall at George Washington University, Washington DC. On September 4, 1969 she was arrested in Chicago on charges of disorderly conduct. On September 4, 1969 Wilkerson was arrested in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with 25 other female members of SDS, who were trying to recruit students to the anti-war movement by staging a high school "jailbreak". She was charged with inciting a riot, rioting, and disorderly conduct. On October 9, 1969 Wilkerson was arrested and charged with mob action, aggravated battery and resisting arrest.^[13]

[edit] Joining Weathermen

Wilkerson joined the Chicago Weatherman Collective during the summer of 1969.^[14] She actively participated in riots during the Days of Rage that took place in Chicago on October, 1969 and was arrested for attacking a Chicago policeman with a club.^[4] After spending two and half weeks in jail she was released on bail.^[15] Wilkerson attended the WUO "War Council" in Flint, Michigan during December 1969.^[1] In January of 1970 she was sent to Seattle, Washington to join a local collective. After a few days in Seattle Wilkerson was invited by Terry Robbins to come to New York, New York.^[16] After firebombing the home of New York State Supreme Court Justice Murtagh, who was presiding over the trial of the so-called "Panther 21" members of the Black Panther Party and few other unsuccessful fire bombings, the New York collective members decided to use dynamite in future actions. The bomb factory was set up in a townhouse owned by Wilkerson's father.^[17]

[edit] Greenwich Village townhouse explosion

On the morning of March 6, 1970, there was an explosion in the sub-basement of a townhouse owned by Wilkerson–s father, located at 18 West 11th Street in Greenwich Village.^[2] The blast killed three people, but Wilkerson and Kathy Boudin were helped from the rubble and they immediately went underground.^[2] The townhouse was being used by the Weather Underground to make bombs, in particular a nail bomb that was to be used against soldiers and their dates at a non-commissioned officer's dance at Fort Dix, New Jersey that night.^[3] That evening, a man's body was found in the basement of the townhouse, and a short time later, a woman's torso was discovered on the first floor.^[18] Police also found several handbags with personal identifications that had been stolen from college students over the previous few months.^[19] Over the next few days, police discovered at least 60 sticks of dynamite, a live military antitank shell, blasting caps and several large metal pipes packed solid with explosives and nails as shrapnel.^[18]

Three members of the WUO were killed in the explosion, Theodore Gold, the 23 years old leader of a student strike at Columbia University in 1968; Diana Oughton; and Terry Robbins. ^[2][19] Wilkerson and Boudin stayed overnight at Boudin's parents' house a few blocks away on St. Luke's Place before they both went underground. ^[20][2] Her father, who owned both houses, was on vacation in the Caribbean. [3] She was charged, in absentia with illegal possession of dynamite and criminally negligent homicide and eluded capture for 10 years.

[edit] Surrender

On June 23, 1970 Wilkerson and twelve other members of Weather Underground Organization were indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of conspiring to bomb and kill.^[21] Placed on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List, some avoided capture for as long as ten years. On March 25, 1977 Phoebe Hirsch and Robert Roth became the first two WUO members to surrender.^[22] Wilkerson stayed underground for three more years. She surrendered in 1980, was tried and convicted of illegal possession of dynamite and sentenced to three years in prison. She was released on a sentencing technicality after serving 11 months, with the judge noting that "her conduct while in jail has been exemplary." New York State's Commissioner of Correctional Services was critical of the early release, calling the judge's action "mistaken". He maintained that many inmates with better disciplinary records remained behind bars because they didn't have good lawyers and were black or Hispanic.^[5]

[edit] Later years

Today, Wilkerson lives in Brooklyn, and is the mother of an adult daughter. Wilkerson spent the last 20 years teaching mathematics in high schools and adult education programs.^[23] In August 2003, she gave the first telephone interview after not talking to reporters in about twenty years. Although Wilkerson agreed that mistakes were made, she maintained many of the ideas that she supported in the 1960s.^[23] Wilkerson wrote a book about her experience in the Weather Underground, Flying Close to the Sun: My Life and Times As a Weatherman [4].

[edit] Books

Cathy Wilkerson (left) with Meaghan Linick. Linick is an organizer with Students for a Democratic Society.

• Wilkerson, Cathy (1964). Rats, Washtubs and Block Organizations. New York, Distributed by Students for a Democratic Society. OCLC 2311381. 
• Wilkerson, Cathy (2007). Flying Close to the Sun: My Life and Times as a Weatherman. ISBN 1583227717. http://books.google.com/books?id=aPGfSQZKCQ4C&dq. 

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Cathlyn Platt Wilkerson on National Public Radio
• Crime library
• History Matters interview
• Book review by Cathy Wilkerson
• Cathy Wilkerson interviewed on The Marketplace of Ideas