A Former 1960s Radical Dies at 78

Kathy Boudin served time over 1981 Brink's robbery that left 3 dead
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted May 2, 2022 6:45 AM CDT
Former Weather Underground Radical Kathy Boudin Is Dead
In this 1981 file photo, Weather Underground member Kathy Boudin is led from Rockland County Courthouse in New City.   (AP Photo/Handschuh, File)

One of the most famous members of the 1960s radical group the Weather Underground has died. Kathy Boudin, who spent decades in prison after a fatal Brink's robbery, died in New York after a battle with cancer at age 78, reports the New York Post. Boudin's life story reads like a movie script, though her exploits helped lead to the deaths of two police officers and a security guard. Her first major brush with the law came in 1970, when an inadvertent explosion ripped through a building where she and others were making bombs in New York City's Greenwich Village, reports the New York Times. Three fellow radicals were killed, and Boudin went underground with a series of aliases and low-paying jobs.

She surfaced in a big way in 1981 when the Weather Underground teamed up with the Black Liberation Army to rob a Brink's armored truck in New York's Rockland County. Boudin wasn't part of the actual robbery—in which a guard was shot to death—but she was in the cab of the U-Haul to which the $1.6 million was transferred. She surrendered at a police roadblock, but two men exited the back of the truck as she did so and fatally shot two officers. Boudin spent two decades in prison after the heist before being paroled in 2003 for good behavior. While imprisoned, Boudin got her master's in adult education and literacy, and mentored other inmates.

During her life underground, Boudin married fellow radical David Gilbert (he also was imprisoned over the heist) and had a son, Chesa Boudin. The latter is now the district attorney in San Francisco. “She made it long enough to meet her grandson, and welcome my father home from prison after 40 years," the DA said in a statement, per SFGate. He added this of his mother: "She always ended phone calls with a laugh, a habit acquired during the 22 years of her incarceration, when she wanted to leave every person she spoke with, especially me, with joy and hope. She lived redemption, constantly finding ways to give back to those around her.” (Gilbert was pardoned in 2021 by Andrew Cuomo.)

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