Cathlyn Platt Wilkerson (born in 1945), known as Cathy Wilkerson, is an American radical who was a member of the 1960s radical group called the Weather Underground. 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. Members of the Weathermen 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. Wilkerson, already free on bail for her involvement in the Chicago "Days of Rage" riots, avoided capture for 10 years by hiding under an assumed name. She turned herself in to police in 1980, pleaded guilty to unlawful possession of dynamite and was sentenced to up to three years in prison.

Early years

Wilkerson was the daughter of James Platt Wilkerson, a radio station owner from the Midwest. Cathy graduated from Abbott Academy in Andover, Massachusetts in June 1962. Cathy's mother graduated from Smith College and later took a job as a teacher in Manhattan.

Other involvements

She attended Swarthmore College and graduated in 1966. In 1967, Wilkerson was employed in the national office of the Students for a Democratic Society. Shortly after her graduation from college, she 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.

Chicago

At the time of the townhouse explosion, Wilkerson was free on $40,000 bail on charges of attacking a Chicago policeman with a club during the "Days of Rage".

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, at 18 West 11th Street in Greenwich Village. The blast killed three people, but Wilkerson and Kathy Boudin were helped from the rubble and immediately went underground. 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.

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. Police also found several handbags with personal identifications that had been stolen from college students over the previous few months. 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.

Three members of the WUO were killed in the explosion. They were Theodore Gold, who was 23 years old and a leader of a student strike at Columbia University in 1968. Another former college student, Diana Oughton, was also killed in the explosion. Seven days later, the police found the body of another member of the Weathermen, Terry Robbins. Cathy Wilkerson and Kathy Boudin stayed overnight at her parents' house a few blocks away on St. Luke's Place before they both went underground. Her father, who owned both houses, was on vacation in the Caribbean. She was charged, in absentia with illegal possession of dynamite and criminally negligent homicide and eluded capture for 10 years.

Arrest

They became wanted on the F.B.I. ten most wanted list and avoided capture for ten years. Wilkerson resurfaced in 1980, was tried and convicted of illegal possession of dynamite, and was paroled after serving 11 months in prison.

Later years

Wilkerson has worked in New York City Public Schools training teachers for the last 20 years, and wrote a book about her experience in the Weather Underground, Flying Close to the Sun: My Life and Times As a Weatherman

Book

• Wilkerson, Cathy (2007). Flying Close to the Sun: My Life and Times as a Weatherman.

References

External links

• Crime library
• History Matters interview
• Book review by Cathy Wilkerson
• Cathy Wilkerson interviewed on The Marketplace of Ideas