Potus Geeks Summer Reruns: The Catonsville Nine
(This was originally posted on April 24, 2018 as part of our series on the pivotal year of 1968. Though more about the protest than the President, it nevertheless chronicles a interesting time in American political history and tells a fascinating story from those turbulent times.)
On May 17, 1968, nine Roman Catholic activists, who became known as the Catonsville Nine, protested US involvement in the Vietnam War by burning files that they removed from the draft board office in Catonsville, Maryland. They removed 378 draft files, took them to the parking lot in wire baskets, dumped them out, and doused them with home-made napalm (an incendiary used extensively in Vietnam), and set them on fire.
The members of the Catonsville Nine were (1) Father Daniel Berrigan, a Jesuit priest; (2) his brother Philip Berrigan, a former Josephite priest; (3) Brother David Darst, a De La Salle Christian Brother; (4) John Hogan, a former Maryknoll Brother; (5) artist Tom Lewis; (6) Marjorie Bradford Melville, a former Maryknoll nun; (7) Thomas Melville, a former Maryknoll priest who was married to Marjorie Melville; (8) George Mische, an army veteran and former State Department employee; and (9) Mary Moylan, a registered nurse and a longtime friend of Mische. Mische and Philip Berrigan were the main organizers of the group. In planning their protest, the group had a frequent number of meetings, with decisions decided by show of hands.
For two of the group's members, Philip Berrigan and Tom Lewis, this was not their first protest. The two had been part of a group dubbed "The Baltimore Four" that had poured blood on draft records. The other two members of that group were David Eberhardt and James Mengel. The act of pouring of blood was a symbolic gesture intended to represent the shedding of innocent blood caused by the violent acts of the government. Philip Berrigan and Lewis were out on bail for their actions in Baltimore at the time of their protest at Catonsville.
On May 17, 1968, this group of two women and seven men arrived at the Selective Service office, Local Board 33, located in the Knights of Columbus building in Catonsville, a suburb of Baltimore. Entering the second-floor Selective Service office, the group walked past three shocked employees and headed for the filing cabinets along the wall. They seized several hundred A-1 draft records and stuffed them into two wire incinerator baskets. During the raid, Mary Moylan kept her hand on the telephone receiver button to prevent employees from calling for help. The group then left, taking the files outside in the parking lot. The files were spilled on the ground, doused with homemade napalm, and ignited. Their act of protest was witnessed by onlookers, including members of the media who had been informed of the the plan in advance, As the documents burned, the nine held hands near the fire and quietly recited the Lord's Prayer. Someone in the group told a reporter, "We do this because everything else has failed". After a short time, five police officers arrived, arrested the participants, and loaded them into the back of a paddy wagon. Baltimore County firefighters arrived to put out the fire. The entire incident took less than fifteen minutes.
The trial of the Catonsville Nine began in federal court in Baltimore on October 5, 1968. The lead defense attorney was noted criminal attorney William Kunstler, who made a name for himself defending defendants for these types of offenses. Roszel C. Thomsen was the judge who presided over the trial. The prosecutor was Stephen H. Sachs. The Baltimore Defense Committee had organized fundraising events for the support of the defendants. These events were also used to attract media attention to protest the war. A popular target in these protests was Maryland Governor Spiro Agnew, who had been selected as Richard Nixon's vice-presidential running mate and who was a vocal critic of these protests. Faculty and students from area colleges, including Goucher College, the University of Maryland, and Johns Hopkins University, joined the protest efforts.
The trial was to be held in downtown Baltimore in the main Post Office, which also housed federal courts. Third Party candidate George Wallace held a presidential campaign rally on the trial's opening day at the nearby Civic Center. When the trial began, several hundred police were on the scene in full riot gear. They surrounded the Post Office. The trial attracted international press coverage of both what was going on in the courtroom and also the trial in the street.
The trial lasted for four days. All of the defendants were found guilty of destruction of U.S. property, destruction of Selective Service files, and interference with the Selective Service Act of 1967. All nine were sentenced to three years in jail. The Defendants were granted bail pending the appeal of their conviction, but when the appeals were unsuccessful, Mary Moylan, Phil Berrigan, Dan Berrigan and George Mische, did not show up. The FBI had to try to find them.
Father Daniel Berrigan caused considerable embarrassment to the FBI by giving sermons while he was on the run. While on the run, Father Daniel Berrigan was interviewed for Lee Lockwood's documentary The Holy Outlaw. The FBI apprehended him on August 11, 1970 at the home of William Stringfellow and Anthony Towne. Father Berrigan was then imprisoned at the Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury, Connecticut until his release on February 24, 1972.
Philip Berrigan hid at the home of Liz McAlister, the nun who would later become his wife, in New Jersey. Twelve days later he was arrested by the FBI and jailed in Lewisburg.
Daniel Berrigan later wrote, of the Catonsville incident: "Our apologies, good friends, for the fracture of good order, the burning of paper instead of children." He later wrote "I knew I would be apprehended eventually, but I wanted to draw attention for as long as possible to the Vietnam War, and to Nixon’s ordering military action in Cambodia."
The Catonsville Nine inspired many other anti-draft and anti-military actions, including the D.C. 9, Silver Spring 3, Chicago 8, Harrisburg 7, Camden 28. Later, on September 9, 1980, the Berrigan brothers and six others began an organization called the Plowshares Movement. They trespassed onto the General Electric nuclear missile facility in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, where they damaged nuclear warhead nose cones and poured blood onto documents and files. They were arrested and charged with over ten different felony and misdemeanor counts. On April 10, 1990, after ten years of appeals, Berrigan's group was sentenced and paroled for up to 23 and 1/2 months in consideration of time already served in prison.
On May 17, 1968, nine Roman Catholic activists, who became known as the Catonsville Nine, protested US involvement in the Vietnam War by burning files that they removed from the draft board office in Catonsville, Maryland. They removed 378 draft files, took them to the parking lot in wire baskets, dumped them out, and doused them with home-made napalm (an incendiary used extensively in Vietnam), and set them on fire.
The members of the Catonsville Nine were (1) Father Daniel Berrigan, a Jesuit priest; (2) his brother Philip Berrigan, a former Josephite priest; (3) Brother David Darst, a De La Salle Christian Brother; (4) John Hogan, a former Maryknoll Brother; (5) artist Tom Lewis; (6) Marjorie Bradford Melville, a former Maryknoll nun; (7) Thomas Melville, a former Maryknoll priest who was married to Marjorie Melville; (8) George Mische, an army veteran and former State Department employee; and (9) Mary Moylan, a registered nurse and a longtime friend of Mische. Mische and Philip Berrigan were the main organizers of the group. In planning their protest, the group had a frequent number of meetings, with decisions decided by show of hands.
For two of the group's members, Philip Berrigan and Tom Lewis, this was not their first protest. The two had been part of a group dubbed "The Baltimore Four" that had poured blood on draft records. The other two members of that group were David Eberhardt and James Mengel. The act of pouring of blood was a symbolic gesture intended to represent the shedding of innocent blood caused by the violent acts of the government. Philip Berrigan and Lewis were out on bail for their actions in Baltimore at the time of their protest at Catonsville.
On May 17, 1968, this group of two women and seven men arrived at the Selective Service office, Local Board 33, located in the Knights of Columbus building in Catonsville, a suburb of Baltimore. Entering the second-floor Selective Service office, the group walked past three shocked employees and headed for the filing cabinets along the wall. They seized several hundred A-1 draft records and stuffed them into two wire incinerator baskets. During the raid, Mary Moylan kept her hand on the telephone receiver button to prevent employees from calling for help. The group then left, taking the files outside in the parking lot. The files were spilled on the ground, doused with homemade napalm, and ignited. Their act of protest was witnessed by onlookers, including members of the media who had been informed of the the plan in advance, As the documents burned, the nine held hands near the fire and quietly recited the Lord's Prayer. Someone in the group told a reporter, "We do this because everything else has failed". After a short time, five police officers arrived, arrested the participants, and loaded them into the back of a paddy wagon. Baltimore County firefighters arrived to put out the fire. The entire incident took less than fifteen minutes.
The trial of the Catonsville Nine began in federal court in Baltimore on October 5, 1968. The lead defense attorney was noted criminal attorney William Kunstler, who made a name for himself defending defendants for these types of offenses. Roszel C. Thomsen was the judge who presided over the trial. The prosecutor was Stephen H. Sachs. The Baltimore Defense Committee had organized fundraising events for the support of the defendants. These events were also used to attract media attention to protest the war. A popular target in these protests was Maryland Governor Spiro Agnew, who had been selected as Richard Nixon's vice-presidential running mate and who was a vocal critic of these protests. Faculty and students from area colleges, including Goucher College, the University of Maryland, and Johns Hopkins University, joined the protest efforts.
The trial was to be held in downtown Baltimore in the main Post Office, which also housed federal courts. Third Party candidate George Wallace held a presidential campaign rally on the trial's opening day at the nearby Civic Center. When the trial began, several hundred police were on the scene in full riot gear. They surrounded the Post Office. The trial attracted international press coverage of both what was going on in the courtroom and also the trial in the street.
The trial lasted for four days. All of the defendants were found guilty of destruction of U.S. property, destruction of Selective Service files, and interference with the Selective Service Act of 1967. All nine were sentenced to three years in jail. The Defendants were granted bail pending the appeal of their conviction, but when the appeals were unsuccessful, Mary Moylan, Phil Berrigan, Dan Berrigan and George Mische, did not show up. The FBI had to try to find them.
Father Daniel Berrigan caused considerable embarrassment to the FBI by giving sermons while he was on the run. While on the run, Father Daniel Berrigan was interviewed for Lee Lockwood's documentary The Holy Outlaw. The FBI apprehended him on August 11, 1970 at the home of William Stringfellow and Anthony Towne. Father Berrigan was then imprisoned at the Federal Correctional Institution in Danbury, Connecticut until his release on February 24, 1972.
Philip Berrigan hid at the home of Liz McAlister, the nun who would later become his wife, in New Jersey. Twelve days later he was arrested by the FBI and jailed in Lewisburg.
Daniel Berrigan later wrote, of the Catonsville incident: "Our apologies, good friends, for the fracture of good order, the burning of paper instead of children." He later wrote "I knew I would be apprehended eventually, but I wanted to draw attention for as long as possible to the Vietnam War, and to Nixon’s ordering military action in Cambodia."
The Catonsville Nine inspired many other anti-draft and anti-military actions, including the D.C. 9, Silver Spring 3, Chicago 8, Harrisburg 7, Camden 28. Later, on September 9, 1980, the Berrigan brothers and six others began an organization called the Plowshares Movement. They trespassed onto the General Electric nuclear missile facility in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, where they damaged nuclear warhead nose cones and poured blood onto documents and files. They were arrested and charged with over ten different felony and misdemeanor counts. On April 10, 1990, after ten years of appeals, Berrigan's group was sentenced and paroled for up to 23 and 1/2 months in consideration of time already served in prison.