Kathy Boudin
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In the 60s and 70s Kathy Boudin was involved with the Weather Underground. In 1981 Boudin and several members of the Black Liberation Army attempted to rob a Brinks armored car at the Nanuet Mall, near Nyack, New York. Boudin dropped her infant son, Chesa Boudin, at the baby sitter's and took the wheel of the getaway U-Haul truck. Boudin waited in a nearby parking lot as the heavily armed Black Liberation Army members took another vehicle to a local mall, where a Brinks truck was making a delivery. They confronted the guards and immediately began firing, almost severing the arm of guard Joe Trombino and killing his co-worker, Peter Paige. The four then took $1.6 million in cash and sped off to the waiting Boudin. The murder and robbery took less than two minutes.
When they reached the U-Haul, they abandoned their first vehicle and climbed into the back of the truck. A high-school student called the police after spotting the heavily armed gang. When one unit of four police officers spotted and pulled over the U-Haul, they could only see Boudin in the drivers seat. Boudin then got out of the cab, and raised her hands.
Some accounts claim Boudin pleaded with the police to put down their guns, convincing them to drop their guard; others claim Boudin was silent, and the officers relaxed spontaneously. In either case, one thing is not disputed: although Boudin knew the back of her U-Haul contained six heavily-armed robbers, she did nothing to warn the police. Once their guard was down, six of the men in the back of the truck armed with automatic weapons burst out of the back of the truck, surprising the four police officers. A black police officer, Waverly Brown, was killed instantly. He was then fired at, point-blank, as he lay on the ground.
Officer Edward O'Grady lived long enough to empty his six-shot revolver - but as he reloaded, he was shot several times with an M-16. Ninety minutes later, he died on a hospital operating table. The other two officers escaped with only minor injuries. The occupants of the U-Haul scattered, some climbing into another getaway car, others carjacking a nearby motorist. Boudin made the mistake of fleeing on foot. An off-duty corrections officer who just happened to be driving apprehended her.
Three other Black Liberation Army members failed to escape that day - Boudin's boyfriend David Gilbert, Samuel Brown, and Judith Clark crashed their own car while negotiating a sharp turn, and were arrested by police. Two days later, Samuel Smith and Nathaniel Burns were spotted in a car in New York. After a gunfight with police that left Smith dead, Burns was captured. Three more participants were arrested several months later.
The majority of the defendants received three consecutive twenty five years to life sentences, making them eligible for parole in the year 2058. Boudin' s parents found her a lawyer, who previously had defended members of the Symbionese Liberation Army. Leonard Weinglass arranged for a plea bargain and Boudin pled guilty to one count of felony murder and robbery, in exchange for one twenty years to life sentence.
Kathy Boudin was granted parole on August 20, 2003 and released from Bedford Hills Correctional Facility on September 17, 2003.