WEBVTT - The United States v. The Harrisburg Seven 0:00:01.040 --> 0:00:06.160 You're listening to History on Trial, a production of iHeart Podcasts. 0:00:06.720 --> 0:00:16.680 Listener discretion advised. Like most of us, Elizabeth McAllister never 0:00:16.880 --> 0:00:20.720 expected to hear her love letters discussed on the radio. 0:00:21.880 --> 0:00:25.440 She certainly didn't imagine that the person doing the discussing 0:00:25.840 --> 0:00:29.960 would be the director of the FBI, Jay Edgar Hoover. 0:00:31.520 --> 0:00:35.280 But here she was, on a November day in nineteen seventy, 0:00:35.960 --> 0:00:39.680 driving to her sister's house in Maryland, listening to a 0:00:39.800 --> 0:00:44.240 news broadcast in which Hoover discussed information that he could 0:00:44.360 --> 0:00:50.000 only have learned. McAllister thought from reading her private correspondence, 0:00:51.280 --> 0:00:56.240 I almost went into a stupor. McAllister remembered, I thought, 0:00:56.600 --> 0:01:01.160 what is this? My God, what is this? She kept 0:01:01.160 --> 0:01:03.800 the radio on for the rest of the three hour drive, 0:01:04.560 --> 0:01:09.039 listening to the story repeat over and over, talking back 0:01:09.120 --> 0:01:13.560 at the broadcasters, trying to make sense of it. How 0:01:13.600 --> 0:01:16.479 else would an ordinary person react to something like this? 0:01:18.600 --> 0:01:21.920 Of course, there were a few ways in which McAllister 0:01:22.240 --> 0:01:26.720 was not an ordinary person. To start with, she was 0:01:26.760 --> 0:01:29.960 a nun, a member of the religious of the Sacred 0:01:30.000 --> 0:01:33.920 Heart of Mary. Plus the man she was writing love 0:01:34.000 --> 0:01:39.959 letters to, Philip Berrigan, was a priest, Okay, so these 0:01:40.040 --> 0:01:43.880 letters might be scandalous, But what made them so interesting 0:01:43.920 --> 0:01:48.320 to Jay Edgar Hoover. Well, there was also the fact 0:01:48.400 --> 0:01:52.760 that Philip Barrigan and Elizabeth McAllister were both passionate anti 0:01:52.880 --> 0:01:57.920 war activists. Barrigin was so passionate that he'd ended up 0:01:57.920 --> 0:02:02.440 in jail for destroying Vietnam tree files. McAllister had been 0:02:02.480 --> 0:02:08.919 writing to him in the United States Penitentiary at Louisbourg, Pennsylvania. 0:02:09.080 --> 0:02:12.200 And then there was the content of this particular letter. 0:02:13.040 --> 0:02:16.080 Because McAllister hadn't just written to ber Agin about how 0:02:16.120 --> 0:02:19.280 much she cared for him or how much she missed him. 0:02:19.880 --> 0:02:22.920 She had also written to ask his thoughts on a 0:02:22.960 --> 0:02:27.560 plan to kidnap Henry Kissinger, President Nixon's national security advisor 0:02:27.800 --> 0:02:32.840 and the future Secretary of State. How romantic. Now sitting 0:02:32.880 --> 0:02:38.360 in her car, McAllister was terrified. The letter, written three 0:02:38.360 --> 0:02:42.919 months earlier had been a thought exercise. She and bar 0:02:42.960 --> 0:02:46.920 Agin were always brainstorming new ways to draw attention to 0:02:46.960 --> 0:02:50.720 their anti war cause. He had replied to her letter 0:02:50.800 --> 0:02:55.799 with thoughts, suggestions, and concerns, but it had gone no further, 0:02:56.639 --> 0:03:00.800 or so she thought. But now Hoover was claiming that 0:03:00.880 --> 0:03:05.359 she and her fellow activists were actively plotting to kidnap Kissinger. 0:03:06.120 --> 0:03:10.200 How had Hoover even heard about the idea? McAllister had 0:03:10.200 --> 0:03:13.800 a guess. To get private letters in and out of prison, 0:03:14.440 --> 0:03:17.240 She and Barrigin had trusted a fellow inmate of his, 0:03:17.680 --> 0:03:21.040 named boyd Douglas, who was on a study release program, 0:03:21.480 --> 0:03:27.040 to carry their mail. Douglas must have snitched, But why 0:03:27.919 --> 0:03:31.240 McAllister had known him for months. He was just as 0:03:31.240 --> 0:03:33.760 opposed to the Vietnam War as she and Barrigin were, 0:03:34.320 --> 0:03:37.720 just as committed to the anti war movement. How could 0:03:37.760 --> 0:03:43.240 he have betrayed them? But those questions seemed small now. 0:03:44.200 --> 0:03:47.080 What mattered McAllister knew as she pulled up to her 0:03:47.120 --> 0:03:51.120 sister's house was that the United States government believed that 0:03:51.200 --> 0:03:54.840 she had planned to kidnap a White House official. The 0:03:54.920 --> 0:03:59.720 director of the FBI was calling her a threat to 0:03:59.800 --> 0:04:04.840 now national security. Whatever was coming next, it would not 0:04:05.400 --> 0:04:11.120 be good. That was putting it lightly. Over the next 0:04:11.200 --> 0:04:15.400 year and a half, McAllister, Barrigan, and five of their 0:04:15.440 --> 0:04:19.360 anti war colleagues from the Catholic left would be investigated 0:04:19.640 --> 0:04:23.880 and put on trial for conspiracy. It would be a 0:04:23.960 --> 0:04:29.160 journey so filled with shocking revelations and twists and turns 0:04:29.520 --> 0:04:33.080 that hearing her love letters referenced on the radio would 0:04:33.120 --> 0:04:38.760 come to seem like a triviality. To Elizabeth McAllister, Welcome 0:04:38.800 --> 0:04:43.719 to History on Trial. I'm your host, Mira Hayward. This 0:04:43.880 --> 0:04:52.520 week the United States v. The Harrisburg Seven. By the 0:04:52.560 --> 0:04:56.840 time he met sister Elizabeth McAllister in nineteen sixty six, 0:04:57.640 --> 0:05:01.280 father Philip Barrigan had made quite a name for himself 0:05:01.320 --> 0:05:07.480 in leftist political circles. An extroverted charismatic man, Berrigan and 0:05:07.520 --> 0:05:11.480 his older brother Daniel were vanguards of a mid century 0:05:11.520 --> 0:05:15.640 movement within the Catholic Church to liberalize the church and 0:05:15.880 --> 0:05:19.520 make it more appealing and relevant to young people. The 0:05:19.560 --> 0:05:23.359 brothers were also known for their bold and often controversial 0:05:23.640 --> 0:05:28.359 stances on civil rights. More than simply taking stances, though, 0:05:28.960 --> 0:05:34.120 the Barrigins had reputations as doers, they planned sit ins 0:05:34.240 --> 0:05:39.120 in support of racial desegregation, traveled the world meeting activists, 0:05:39.520 --> 0:05:44.640 and organized protests. By the mid nineteen sixties, the attention 0:05:44.760 --> 0:05:47.520 of both Barrigan brothers had been drawn to the war 0:05:47.680 --> 0:05:52.719 in Vietnam. In nineteen sixty five, Daniel founded the Clergy 0:05:52.800 --> 0:05:56.240 and Laymen Concerned about Vietnam, which became one of the 0:05:56.320 --> 0:06:02.000 largest anti war groups in the country. Meanwhile, became involved 0:06:02.040 --> 0:06:06.200 with the Baltimore Interfaith Peace Mission and organized pickets at 0:06:06.200 --> 0:06:10.279 the homes of the Secretaries of Defense and State. In 0:06:10.360 --> 0:06:14.800 nineteen sixty seven, Philip, feeling that more conventional methods of 0:06:14.839 --> 0:06:19.480 protest were not working quickly enough, decided to take a 0:06:19.520 --> 0:06:24.760 more radical step. On October twenty seventh, he and three 0:06:24.800 --> 0:06:29.679 fellow anti war activists strode into the Selective Service office 0:06:29.720 --> 0:06:33.520 at the Baltimore Customs House and poured blood onto the 0:06:33.600 --> 0:06:39.440 draft records held there, destroying them. The group's bold actions 0:06:39.440 --> 0:06:42.840 inspired dozens of similar raids over the next four years, 0:06:43.440 --> 0:06:47.360 in which protesters, often members of the Catholic left, would 0:06:47.360 --> 0:06:51.600 destroyed draft records. The raiders would normally wait outside the 0:06:51.680 --> 0:06:55.480 draft board offices until the police and the news media 0:06:56.040 --> 0:06:59.640 showed up, willingly going to jail as a show of 0:06:59.640 --> 0:07:04.200 their case commitment to the cause. Philip Berigan himself faced 0:07:04.279 --> 0:07:07.960 jail time for his actions in Baltimore, but while out 0:07:08.000 --> 0:07:11.480 on bail in the spring of nineteen sixty eight, he 0:07:11.600 --> 0:07:16.120 decided to double down and organize another Draft Board raid. 0:07:17.000 --> 0:07:20.760 This time, he convinced his brother Daniel to join him. 0:07:21.240 --> 0:07:25.560 On May seventeenth, the Barrigins and seven others entered the 0:07:25.640 --> 0:07:30.320 Draft board offices in Catonsville, Maryland, and stuffed three hundred 0:07:30.400 --> 0:07:34.240 and seventy eight draft records into a trash bin. They 0:07:34.240 --> 0:07:37.560 brought the bin to the parking lot, where news crews 0:07:37.680 --> 0:07:41.320 recorded the group as they used homemade napalm to burn 0:07:41.360 --> 0:07:46.560 the files. It was a highly symbolic action. Napalm is 0:07:46.560 --> 0:07:50.720 an extremely flammable compound that the American military was using 0:07:50.760 --> 0:07:54.080 as a weapon in Vietnam, and a photograph of the 0:07:54.120 --> 0:07:58.480 protesters praying for peace as they burned the files appeared 0:07:58.520 --> 0:08:03.400 in newspapers across the conry. In November nineteen sixty eight, 0:08:03.800 --> 0:08:06.720 the raiders, who had become known as the Catonsville Nine, 0:08:07.200 --> 0:08:10.640 were convicted and sentenced to various terms in prison for 0:08:10.680 --> 0:08:14.720 their actions. While the case was appealed, the nine remained 0:08:14.760 --> 0:08:19.160 out on bail. While on bail, Philip Barrigan made two 0:08:19.680 --> 0:08:24.960 very important decisions. The first was personal. He and sister 0:08:25.040 --> 0:08:29.440 Elizabeth McAllister decided to get married. After meeting in nineteen 0:08:29.480 --> 0:08:33.760 sixty six, the pair had grown closer and closer they 0:08:33.800 --> 0:08:38.000 eventually realized that they were in love. It was not 0:08:38.080 --> 0:08:40.480 as simple for this couple to wed as it would 0:08:40.520 --> 0:08:44.040 be for others. They were a priest and none after all, 0:08:44.760 --> 0:08:47.559 But by this time their commitment to each other and 0:08:47.760 --> 0:08:51.120 the anti war cause outweighed the rules of the church. 0:08:51.840 --> 0:08:56.520 They privately declared themselves married in nineteen sixty nine. The 0:08:56.559 --> 0:09:01.520 second big decision Philip Barrigin made was politic. After their 0:09:01.559 --> 0:09:05.679 appeals over the Catonsville convictions were rejected by the Supreme Court, 0:09:06.080 --> 0:09:09.760 the Berigin brothers were ordered to surrender themselves into custody 0:09:09.920 --> 0:09:14.160 in April nineteen seventy. In the past, going to jail 0:09:14.200 --> 0:09:16.840 had been part of the process for draft board raiders, 0:09:17.840 --> 0:09:21.080 but the Bearrigins had begun to wonder if surrendering was 0:09:21.120 --> 0:09:25.960 the most effective tactic. I wanted to confront the mythology 0:09:26.200 --> 0:09:29.760 of the good guy, whose goodness depends on his willingness 0:09:29.800 --> 0:09:33.679 to go to jail. Daniel Berrigan said he thought he 0:09:33.880 --> 0:09:36.480 and his brother could be more useful to the movement 0:09:36.880 --> 0:09:44.839 on the outside, so they decided to run. For first 0:09:44.880 --> 0:09:49.440 time fugitives. The Berigins were surprisingly successful at eluding capture. 0:09:50.280 --> 0:09:54.400 They moved from city to city, staying with sympathetic families 0:09:54.559 --> 0:09:58.199 or church colleagues. As the days went by and the 0:09:58.240 --> 0:10:02.400 FBI did not locate them, the brothers became bolder. They 0:10:02.440 --> 0:10:06.080 gave a number of lectures and sermons, always managing to 0:10:06.120 --> 0:10:11.040 slip out just before the FBI arrived. Finally, after twelve 0:10:11.120 --> 0:10:14.120 days on the run, Philip Barrigan was captured by the 0:10:14.160 --> 0:10:20.199 FBI and brought to Louisbourg Federal Penitentiary in Pennsylvania. Daniel 0:10:20.280 --> 0:10:23.880 managed to stay out for another four months, during which 0:10:24.040 --> 0:10:27.800 he made his feelings on the FBI clear. You could 0:10:27.840 --> 0:10:30.520 say that my survival is a triumph of the love 0:10:30.600 --> 0:10:34.319 and humanity of the people who shelter me over the FBI, 0:10:35.000 --> 0:10:39.800 who are merciless but extraordinarily unimaginative men, he said in 0:10:39.880 --> 0:10:47.200 one interview in Washington. J Edgar Hoover fumed he took 0:10:47.240 --> 0:10:51.319 Barrigin's taunt personally and put the priest on the FBI's 0:10:51.400 --> 0:10:57.199 ten most wanted list. Eventually, in August nineteen seventy, the 0:10:57.280 --> 0:11:00.440 FBI caught up with Daniel Berrigan, and he sent to 0:11:00.480 --> 0:11:06.240 the Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury, Connecticut. While his brother 0:11:06.320 --> 0:11:09.920 had been underground, Philip Bregan had been adjusting to life 0:11:10.000 --> 0:11:14.680 at Louisbourg prison. It had not been easy. Louisbourg was 0:11:14.720 --> 0:11:18.880 a maximum security prison, and most non violent anti war 0:11:18.960 --> 0:11:22.760 protesters who ended up there for processing were quickly transferred 0:11:22.800 --> 0:11:26.760 to a minimum security prison. For some reason, perhaps because 0:11:26.800 --> 0:11:30.920 of his time as a fugitive, Barrigin was not. Life 0:11:31.000 --> 0:11:34.200 at the prison was difficult for Barrigin. Prison officials and 0:11:34.240 --> 0:11:38.000 inmates alike were largely hostile to him, and he felt 0:11:38.000 --> 0:11:43.600 disconnected from his community. That isolation maybe why Brigin was 0:11:43.720 --> 0:11:49.400 so quick to trust a fellow inmate, Boyd Douglas. Douglas 0:11:49.480 --> 0:11:53.000 was the first participant in the prison's steady release program, 0:11:53.440 --> 0:11:56.720 which allowed him to attend nearby Bucknell University while he 0:11:56.720 --> 0:12:01.520 completed his sentence. While at Bucknoll, Douglas had become involved 0:12:01.520 --> 0:12:05.760 in the anti war movement. In April nineteen seventy, a 0:12:05.800 --> 0:12:09.080 Bucknell professor who mentored Douglas mentioned to him that the 0:12:09.120 --> 0:12:12.480 famous anti war priest Philip Barrigan had been sent to 0:12:12.559 --> 0:12:17.280 Louisbourg and encouraged Douglas to connect with Barrigin. The two 0:12:17.320 --> 0:12:21.360 men quickly struck up a friendship, and Barrigin soon asked 0:12:21.400 --> 0:12:23.640 Douglas if he would be able to carry a message 0:12:23.640 --> 0:12:28.840 for him out of the prison. Douglas happily agreed. Throughout 0:12:28.840 --> 0:12:32.880 the spring and summer of nineteen seventy, Douglas regularly carried 0:12:32.960 --> 0:12:36.480 letters in and out of Louisbourg. Many of these letters 0:12:36.480 --> 0:12:41.840 were between Philip Barrigan and Elizabeth McAllister. McAllister kept Barrigin 0:12:41.920 --> 0:12:46.079 updated on the movement's activities and their plans. She solicited 0:12:46.080 --> 0:12:49.959 his feedback on actions, encouraged him to keep his spirits up, 0:12:50.600 --> 0:12:54.480 and passionately expressed her love to him. It was in 0:12:54.559 --> 0:12:59.360 one of those letters, dated August eighteenth, that McAllister raised 0:12:59.360 --> 0:13:03.160 the idea of conducting what she called a quote citizen's 0:13:03.280 --> 0:13:08.359 arrest on a prominent government official. The day before, McAllister 0:13:08.559 --> 0:13:11.559 and a group of like minded activists had discussed the 0:13:11.640 --> 0:13:16.200 idea as part of a brainstorming session. The citizen's arrest 0:13:16.600 --> 0:13:20.800 had been proposed by Ekbal Ahmad. Ahmad was a Pakistani 0:13:20.840 --> 0:13:25.520 intellectual and activist who had helped coordinate the Barrigin's time underground. 0:13:26.320 --> 0:13:30.720 He now suggested kidnapping a prominent politician and holding them 0:13:30.880 --> 0:13:34.440 in exchange forgetting the US to stop bombing raids in Vietnam. 0:13:35.200 --> 0:13:39.840 The perfect candidate Ahmad proposed was Henry Kissinger, then the 0:13:39.920 --> 0:13:43.320 National Security Advisor, because Kissinger both had a lot of 0:13:43.440 --> 0:13:47.560 influence and also quote was a bachelor with girlfriends and 0:13:47.600 --> 0:13:50.959 wouldn't want a lot of bodyguards around. The group had 0:13:51.040 --> 0:13:54.040 tossed the idea around for a while before dropping it 0:13:54.080 --> 0:13:58.720 and moving on. McAllister raised the kidnapping idea again in 0:13:58.760 --> 0:14:02.480 her letter to Berrigan, writing about the group's discussion and 0:14:02.559 --> 0:14:07.319 asking barrigin to think about it. She also seemingly unronically 0:14:07.880 --> 0:14:11.959 wrote that the idea was being shared in uttered confidence 0:14:12.120 --> 0:14:15.760 and should not be committed to paper. Douglas delivered this 0:14:15.840 --> 0:14:21.080 letter on August twentieth. Barrigan, in his reply, indicated interest 0:14:21.160 --> 0:14:25.040 in the plan, but urged caution. He also mentioned that 0:14:25.080 --> 0:14:28.040 perhaps the kidnapping could be done in conjunction with another 0:14:28.080 --> 0:14:32.320 proposed action, which involved interrupting heat or power in Washington, 0:14:32.360 --> 0:14:36.880 d C. In order to impede government business. This letter, 0:14:37.080 --> 0:14:42.240 dated August twenty second, was the last written record of Barrigan, McAllister, 0:14:42.640 --> 0:14:46.400 and their activist cohort discussing plans to either kidnap Kissinger 0:14:46.720 --> 0:14:51.120 or disrupt Dacey's power grids. Soon after Douglas smuggled this 0:14:51.200 --> 0:14:55.480 letter out of Louisbourg, Philip Berrigan was transferred to Danbury Prison, 0:14:56.080 --> 0:14:59.320 where his recently captured brother Daniel was now an inmate. 0:15:03.360 --> 0:15:07.200 Three months later, Elizabeth McAllister was driving to her sister's 0:15:07.240 --> 0:15:11.320 house in Maryland when the radio broadcaster announced that FBI 0:15:11.440 --> 0:15:16.600 Director J. Edgar Hoover had just revealed shocking news in 0:15:16.640 --> 0:15:20.760 testimony to a Senate subcommittee. Hoover had stated that a 0:15:21.120 --> 0:15:27.960 quote militant group composed of Catholic priests and nuns, teachers, students, 0:15:27.960 --> 0:15:32.760 and former students, whose principal leaders are Philip and Daniel Berrigan, 0:15:33.320 --> 0:15:37.600 plan to blow up underground electric conduits and steam pipes 0:15:37.640 --> 0:15:42.200 serving the Washington, DC area in order to disrupt federal 0:15:42.240 --> 0:15:47.520 government operations. The plotters are also concocting a scheme to 0:15:47.640 --> 0:15:53.640 kidnap a highly placed government official. Hoover promised that quote 0:15:54.240 --> 0:15:59.760 intensive investigation is being conducted concerning this matter. Like McAllister, 0:16:00.160 --> 0:16:04.480 Ekba Ahmad was shocked to hear Hoover's announcement. It sounded 0:16:04.520 --> 0:16:08.360 so ridiculous to me, he said later, I knew I 0:16:08.400 --> 0:16:11.000 had brought up the matter of a citizen's arrest. But 0:16:11.080 --> 0:16:14.080 the discussion came to nothing. We talked about a lot 0:16:14.080 --> 0:16:18.120 of ideas that were rejected. I was worried about Hoover's accusations, 0:16:18.320 --> 0:16:22.240 but more amused than anything else. He became a lot 0:16:22.280 --> 0:16:26.000 more worried and a lot less amused when he learned 0:16:26.000 --> 0:16:29.640 that Elizabeth McAllister had written down the group's discussion in 0:16:29.680 --> 0:16:33.880 a letter that she had trusted a virtual stranger, boy Douglas, 0:16:34.200 --> 0:16:38.440 to smuggle into prison for her. Ahmad was right to 0:16:38.520 --> 0:16:43.080 be worried. Somehow or other, the FBI had obtained private 0:16:43.160 --> 0:16:46.720 correspondence from the group, and they weren't going to let 0:16:46.760 --> 0:16:50.600 the matter go. The barrigins had been thorns in the 0:16:50.760 --> 0:16:56.480 FBI's side for years. Now might be the bureau's chance 0:16:57.040 --> 0:17:06.199 to strike back. J Edgar Hoover's declaration to his Senate 0:17:06.240 --> 0:17:11.080 subcommittee that Catholic anti war activists were planning a bombing 0:17:11.160 --> 0:17:14.480 attack and a kidnapping did not just come as a 0:17:14.560 --> 0:17:19.560 surprise to Elizabeth McAllister and Ekbal Ahmad. It also came 0:17:19.720 --> 0:17:23.400 as a surprise to Hoover's own Federal Bureau of Investigation. 0:17:24.520 --> 0:17:28.760 Before Hoover's testimony to Congress, his prepared remarks had gone 0:17:28.800 --> 0:17:32.960 to Charles Brennan, an assistant director of the FBI's Domestic 0:17:33.000 --> 0:17:38.520 Intelligence Division, for review. Brennan had strongly encouraged Hoover to 0:17:38.600 --> 0:17:42.199 delete the section about the kidnapping and bombing plot, saying 0:17:42.240 --> 0:17:45.680 that revealing the FBI's knowledge of the potential plot could 0:17:45.760 --> 0:17:51.000 hurt an ongoing investigation. Hoover ignored Brennan's advice, discussing the 0:17:51.040 --> 0:17:54.600 alleged plot at least three times with government officials in 0:17:54.640 --> 0:17:58.159 the fall of nineteen seventy. In speaking publicly about a 0:17:58.200 --> 0:18:01.159 case in which no charges had been brought, Hoover was 0:18:01.240 --> 0:18:05.440 also ignoring Department of Justice guidelines, which discouraged this kind 0:18:05.480 --> 0:18:10.680 of pre trial statement. Attorney General John Mitchell publicly said 0:18:10.800 --> 0:18:15.560 that he was surprised by Hoover's testimony and privately scolded 0:18:15.600 --> 0:18:20.080 the FBI director. Why had Hoover acted against the advice 0:18:20.119 --> 0:18:23.440 of the Justice Department and his own bureau and spoken 0:18:23.480 --> 0:18:28.160 publicly about an ongoing investigation. Part of his motivation may 0:18:28.240 --> 0:18:31.919 have been personal. Hoover was seventy five years old in 0:18:32.000 --> 0:18:36.000 nineteen seventy, though he still enjoyed the staunch support of 0:18:36.040 --> 0:18:40.879 President Nixon. Public criticism of the longtime FBI director was 0:18:40.920 --> 0:18:45.639 growing as his reign entered its thirty fifth year. Hoover 0:18:45.800 --> 0:18:48.920 wanted to prove that he was still in control of 0:18:48.960 --> 0:18:52.520 his bureau's work. He may also have wanted to send 0:18:52.560 --> 0:18:55.560 a lesson to the Berrigan brothers, whose time on the 0:18:55.680 --> 0:19:00.600 run had humiliated the FBI. Hoover also wanted to prove 0:19:00.680 --> 0:19:04.880 the necessity of his agency. His testimony to Congress about 0:19:04.880 --> 0:19:07.880 the alleged plot had been part of a larger campaign 0:19:08.000 --> 0:19:11.800 to get more funding for the FBI. By demonstrating that 0:19:11.880 --> 0:19:15.679 threats against the United States existed, Hoover could justify his 0:19:15.800 --> 0:19:20.840 requests for more money and more agents. His plan worked. 0:19:21.280 --> 0:19:27.720 Congress would soon authorize additional funding for the bureau, but 0:19:27.840 --> 0:19:32.960 Hoover's plan had perhaps worked too well. Discussions of the 0:19:33.000 --> 0:19:37.240 alleged plot dominated the news cycle over Thanksgiving weekend. The 0:19:37.320 --> 0:19:41.080 FBI now needed to back up Hoover's claims, so a 0:19:41.119 --> 0:19:46.520 full blown investigation was launched. Hundreds of FBI agents from 0:19:46.520 --> 0:19:50.280 across the East Coast were reassigned to the case. Hoover 0:19:50.440 --> 0:19:54.960 reviewed all their reports, writing notes in the margins helpful 0:19:54.960 --> 0:19:58.320 things like pull out all stops and push this hard. 0:19:58.960 --> 0:20:02.720 An investigation alone was not enough for the hard charging Director. 0:20:03.359 --> 0:20:07.679 Hoover was determined to see the case prosecuted. In early 0:20:07.760 --> 0:20:12.480 January nineteen seventy one, a grand jury in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, 0:20:12.760 --> 0:20:17.040 began hearing testimony on the case. Guy Goodwin, an attorney 0:20:17.040 --> 0:20:20.800 working in the Justice Department's Internal Security Division, ran the 0:20:20.800 --> 0:20:26.040 grand jury's investigation. On January twelfth, the Justice Department announced 0:20:26.040 --> 0:20:31.520 an indictment in the case. Six people, Philip Berrigan, Elizabeth McAllister, 0:20:32.000 --> 0:20:37.720 Ekbaal Ahmad, Joseph Wenderroth, Neil McLoughlin, and Anthony Skoblick, were 0:20:37.720 --> 0:20:42.520 being charged with, quote, conspiring to blow up the heating 0:20:42.600 --> 0:20:46.119 systems of federal buildings in the nation's capital and also 0:20:46.160 --> 0:20:51.080 to kidnap presidential adviser Henry Kissinger. The conspiracy to commit 0:20:51.160 --> 0:20:56.879 kidnapping charges carried a maximum punishment of life imprisonment. The 0:20:56.920 --> 0:21:02.440 indictment also listed several unindicted co conspiras, including Daniel Berrigan. 0:21:04.119 --> 0:21:08.119 The actual material of the indictment was thin, and the 0:21:08.200 --> 0:21:12.800 press noticed. The Saint Louis Post Dispatch called the indictment 0:21:12.920 --> 0:21:18.080 quote one of the flimsiest on record. The Barrigans and 0:21:18.119 --> 0:21:22.280 their lawyers responded similarly, with one of their lawyers calling 0:21:22.320 --> 0:21:26.760 the charges quote a colossal blunder into which the government 0:21:26.840 --> 0:21:31.360 was stampeded after j Edgar Hoover concocted them to justify 0:21:31.400 --> 0:21:37.000 an appropriation for an additional thousand agents. Vice President Spiro Agnew, 0:21:37.240 --> 0:21:41.840 on the other hand, rebuked those who criticized the government's motives, 0:21:41.880 --> 0:21:45.320 saying impugning the motives of that grand jury and the 0:21:45.359 --> 0:21:49.199 investigative agencies which brought the matter to their attention. In 0:21:49.280 --> 0:21:52.959 other words, popping off for political advantage prior to trial 0:21:53.680 --> 0:21:57.359 is nearly as reprehensible as finding the defendants guilty before 0:21:57.400 --> 0:22:02.840 they have been tried and convicted Privately, however, Justice Department 0:22:02.840 --> 0:22:06.960 officials were concerned about the strength of the case. Instead 0:22:07.040 --> 0:22:09.960 of shutting down the grand jury after issuing the indictment, 0:22:10.640 --> 0:22:14.119 Guy Goodwin kept the grand jury running and continued to 0:22:14.119 --> 0:22:19.720 subpoena witnesses. Critics called it a phishing expedition. Goodwin responded 0:22:19.720 --> 0:22:23.480 that he was simply investigating the possibility of further indictments 0:22:24.800 --> 0:22:28.240 even as the prosecutors looked for more evidence. The government 0:22:28.359 --> 0:22:33.600 moved towards trial, arraigning the defendants on February eighth. In 0:22:33.680 --> 0:22:39.879 mid February, lead prosecutor Guy Goodwin was replaced by William S. Lynch. Lynch, 0:22:40.240 --> 0:22:43.879 the head of the Justice Department's Organized Crime and Racketeering Section, 0:22:44.359 --> 0:22:48.239 had an excellent reputation. He took the files home and 0:22:48.359 --> 0:22:53.280 studied the case for five days. Lynch was deeply troubled 0:22:53.280 --> 0:22:56.639 by what he saw in his estimation the case that 0:22:56.680 --> 0:23:00.119 Goodwin had drawn up, a case that focused on Hoover's 0:23:00.119 --> 0:23:05.520 allegations of bombs and kidnapping, was untenable. There was simply 0:23:05.760 --> 0:23:10.879 not enough evidence. Instead, he urged his superiors the case 0:23:10.960 --> 0:23:15.119 needed to include a broader range of criminal activity. Lynch 0:23:15.200 --> 0:23:17.919 wanted to tie in charges about the rating of draft 0:23:17.920 --> 0:23:21.720 board offices. That way, he believed he had a better 0:23:21.840 --> 0:23:25.399 chance of obtaining a conviction. Even more than that, he 0:23:25.480 --> 0:23:29.119 told colleagues he could avoid being laughed out of court. 0:23:30.119 --> 0:23:33.439 Lynch's superiors agreed, and he was given the go ahead 0:23:33.440 --> 0:23:37.879 to restructure the case. After another round of grand jury testimony, 0:23:38.400 --> 0:23:42.320 a new indictment was announced on April thirtieth. The new 0:23:42.440 --> 0:23:46.240 charges were subtly but crucially different from those in the 0:23:46.320 --> 0:23:51.000 January indictment. The indictment now included charges for draft board 0:23:51.119 --> 0:23:55.600 raids and omitted the conspiracy to kidnap charge. Lynch had 0:23:55.640 --> 0:24:00.679 replaced the conspiracy to kidnap charge with a general conspiracy charge. 0:24:00.760 --> 0:24:03.760 It was a much easier case to prove, although the 0:24:03.760 --> 0:24:08.480 possible punishments were correspondingly lower. Lynch also gave up on 0:24:08.600 --> 0:24:12.000 trying to connect to Daniel Berrigan to the trial, removing 0:24:12.040 --> 0:24:17.720 his name from the list of unindicted co conspirators. There 0:24:17.800 --> 0:24:22.520 was one more change. The April indictment added two new defendants, 0:24:23.440 --> 0:24:28.400 Mary kin Skoblick and John Theodore Glick. Glick's case would 0:24:28.400 --> 0:24:32.200 eventually be severed, leaving seven defendants to be tried together. 0:24:33.200 --> 0:24:38.320 Thus the group became known as the Harrisburg Seven. On 0:24:38.400 --> 0:24:41.880 May twenty fifth, the defendants were arraigned on the new charges. 0:24:42.400 --> 0:24:46.000 Each of them refused to enter a plea, citing their 0:24:46.000 --> 0:24:51.200 belief that the government was acting quote irregularly and extra judicially. 0:24:52.080 --> 0:24:55.800 Judge R. Dixon Hermann was uninterested in their speeches and 0:24:55.880 --> 0:24:59.680 registered each defendant as having pled not guilty. A trial 0:24:59.760 --> 0:25:05.240 date was set nearly seventeen months after Elizabeth McAllister had 0:25:05.280 --> 0:25:09.520 written her fateful letter about Citizen's arrest, and more than 0:25:09.560 --> 0:25:13.040 a year after j. Edgar Hoover had discussed the plot 0:25:13.119 --> 0:25:21.399 in Congress the Harrisburg Seven would go on trial. The 0:25:21.400 --> 0:25:26.040 courtroom for the Harrisburg Seven trial had a singularly ugly 0:25:26.240 --> 0:25:31.359 paint job. Reporters described the paint color as oppressive, green, 0:25:31.880 --> 0:25:37.440 tired algae and mill pond scum. It was an unprepossessing 0:25:37.520 --> 0:25:42.639 setting for such a dramatic case. After nearly three weeks 0:25:42.640 --> 0:25:47.520 of jury selection, opening statements took place on February twenty first, 0:25:47.880 --> 0:25:52.879 nineteen seventy two. As lead prosecutor William Lynch spoke to 0:25:52.960 --> 0:25:56.560 reporters outside the courtroom, it was clear that a change 0:25:56.600 --> 0:25:58.720 had come over the man in the year since he 0:25:58.800 --> 0:26:01.560 had first come to the case. Yes, While he had 0:26:01.600 --> 0:26:05.479 taken the case reluctantly, write Jack Nelson and Ronald j 0:26:05.600 --> 0:26:10.199 Ostro in their book The FBI and the Barrigans, Lynch 0:26:10.240 --> 0:26:13.479 had psyched himself to the point that he seemed to 0:26:13.760 --> 0:26:18.119 loathe the defendants. He described the defendants to the media 0:26:18.359 --> 0:26:24.320 as naive attention seekers who believed themselves above the law. However, 0:26:24.800 --> 0:26:29.880 Lynch usually kept his personal opinions to himself inside the courtroom. 0:26:30.040 --> 0:26:33.160 In his opening statement, he calmly laid out the government's 0:26:33.160 --> 0:26:37.840 case Philip Barrigan, Lynch said, was the ringleader of a 0:26:37.880 --> 0:26:43.400 group who quote hatched a conspiracy in January nineteen seventy 0:26:43.840 --> 0:26:47.480 to commit a series of illegal acts, the thrust of 0:26:47.520 --> 0:26:53.320 which was to disrupt governmental activities. These illegal acts included 0:26:53.400 --> 0:26:58.119 draft board raids in Philadelphia, which the defendant father Joseph Wenderoth, 0:26:58.359 --> 0:27:03.720 among others, had public taken responsibility for. Lynch claimed that 0:27:03.840 --> 0:27:07.679 he would prove that Philip Barrigan and two other defendants, 0:27:08.080 --> 0:27:13.120 Anthony and Mary Skoblick, were involved in planning these raids. 0:27:13.160 --> 0:27:16.840 The next plan in the conspiracy, Lynch shed, was bombing 0:27:16.920 --> 0:27:20.959 heating pipes in Washington. He claimed that Wenderrath and Philip 0:27:21.000 --> 0:27:26.400 Barrigan had personally visited underground tunnels in DC with quote 0:27:26.800 --> 0:27:30.040 the intent of casing or assessing the feasibility of this 0:27:30.080 --> 0:27:35.360 particular activity. Finally, Lynch shed the group planned to kidnap 0:27:35.440 --> 0:27:40.880 Henry Kissinger. Throughout his opening, Lynch buttressed his claims by 0:27:40.920 --> 0:27:43.320 saying that they would be supported by the testimony of 0:27:43.359 --> 0:27:49.879 the prosecution's star witness, boyd Douglas. Douglas was the inmate 0:27:49.920 --> 0:27:53.240 who had helped Philip Berrigan smuggle letters in and out 0:27:53.280 --> 0:27:57.879 of Louisbourg prison. The defense had long suspected that Douglas 0:27:57.920 --> 0:28:01.560 was the source of the leak, but Lynch's opening confirmed 0:28:01.600 --> 0:28:05.399 it and revealed just how much the prosecution's case was 0:28:05.440 --> 0:28:10.360 based on Douglas's information. Douglas, Lynch said, in his opening argument, 0:28:11.080 --> 0:28:16.359 had become an FBI informant in June nineteen seventy, almost 0:28:16.400 --> 0:28:20.639 immediately after he had begun working with Berrigan. In his 0:28:20.760 --> 0:28:25.119 statement for the defense, attorney Ramsey Clark went on the attack. 0:28:26.440 --> 0:28:29.520 The defendants had a whole cohort of lawyers representing them 0:28:29.680 --> 0:28:34.040 who would share responsibilities during the trial. Clark, the attorney 0:28:34.080 --> 0:28:38.560 General under President Johnson and Lynch's former boss, was chosen 0:28:38.600 --> 0:28:43.120 to deliver the rebuttal to Lynch's opening. Clark immediately went 0:28:43.160 --> 0:28:47.880 after the prosecution's motives and case. The charges, Clark said 0:28:48.240 --> 0:28:53.160 were only brought to quote, justify something j Edgar Hoover 0:28:53.280 --> 0:28:57.160 had done. He said that his clients were quote the 0:28:57.280 --> 0:29:02.080 gentlest of people, not capable of injuring anyone. Any actions 0:29:02.080 --> 0:29:04.400 they had taken against the war had not been part 0:29:04.480 --> 0:29:09.280 of a conspiracy, but had been individual actions. This was 0:29:09.320 --> 0:29:12.600 a key point for the defense. All of the defendants 0:29:12.720 --> 0:29:16.880 except Elizabeth McAllister, and Ekba Ahmad had at some point 0:29:16.920 --> 0:29:21.360 publicly confessed to participating in draft board raids. Clark wanted 0:29:21.400 --> 0:29:23.680 to make the distinction that these raids had not been 0:29:23.720 --> 0:29:28.360 part of a larger plot or a conspiracy, which is 0:29:28.400 --> 0:29:32.000 what the government was now charging the defendants with. Much 0:29:32.080 --> 0:29:36.960 of Clark's opening was devoted to attacking boy Douglas. You'll 0:29:36.960 --> 0:29:41.760 have to watch Boyd Douglas, see him, judge him, Clark said, 0:29:42.240 --> 0:29:46.560 He's made lying a way of life. It was clear 0:29:46.640 --> 0:29:50.280 from both the prosecution and the defense's opening statements that 0:29:50.360 --> 0:29:53.920 the trial would hinge on the testimony of Boyd Douglas. 0:29:54.320 --> 0:29:58.680 But who was Boyd Douglas exactly? This wasn't an easy 0:29:58.760 --> 0:30:03.120