Kathy Boudin

Kathy Boudin(May 19, 1943 – May 1, 2022)was an American radicalleftistwho served 23 years in prison forfelony murderbased on her role in the1981 Brink's robbery. Boudin was a founding member of the militantWeather Undergroundorganization, which engaged in bombings of government buildings to express opposition to U.S. foreign policy and racism. The 1981 robbery resulted in the killing of twoNyack, New Yorkpolice officers and one security guard, and serious injury to another security guard; Boudin was arrested attempting to flee after the getaway vehicle she occupied was stopped by police.She was released on parole in 2003. After earning a doctorate, Boudin became anadjunct professoratColumbia University.
Kathy Boudin was born inManhattanon May 19, 1943, into a Jewish family with a storied left-wing history.Boudin was raised inGreenwich Village, New York City. Her paternal grandparents had emigrated from Russia and Austria.Her great-uncle wasMarxisttheoristLouis B. Boudin, while her brother is former U.S. JudgeMichael Boudin. Her mother was poet Jean (Roisman) Boudin, whose sister Esther was married to radical journalistI.F. Stone(making him Kathy's uncle).Her father, attorneyLeonard Boudin, had represented controversial clients such asJudith Coplon,the Cuban government,andPaul Robeson.ANational Lawyers Guildattorney, Leonard Boudin was the law partner ofVictor Rabinowitz, himself counsel to numerous left-wing organizations.Kathy Boudin graduated fromBryn Mawr Collegein 1965 as class valedictorian.After college, she attended theCase Western Reserve University School of Lawfor less than a year.
Boudin met her romantic partner,David Gilbert, in the 1970s and gave birth to their sonChesa Boudinin 1980.When her son was 14 months old, she was arrested and subsequently convicted and incarcerated forfelony murderbased on her role in the1981 Brink's robbery.Her son was raised by former Weatherman leadersBill AyersandBernardine Dohrn.
In 1969, Boudin was a founding member of the Weatherman faction ofStudents for a Democratic Society, which in 1970 became theWeather Underground Organization(WUO). In 1970 she andCathy Wilkersonwere the only survivors of theGreenwich Village townhouse explosion, when a bomb that their comrades were constructing in the basement, intending to use it to attack U.S. Army personnel that evening, exploded prematurely, killing three of the militants and demolishing the building they were using as a hideout and bomb factory.The WUO soon after renounced actions that sought to inflict human casualties.Boudin remained a fugitive for more than a decade, engaging in multiple additional bombings (none of which resulted in injuries) and other actions.
In 1981, Boudin and several former members of the Weather Underground, with current members of theMay 19th Communist Organizationand theBlack Liberation Army, robbed aBrink'sarmored carat theNanuet Mall, inNanuet, New York.Boudin was in the front seat of a U-Haul truck used as a switchcar getaway vehicle and also acted as a decoy. Responding police testified that when they spotted and pulled her over, Boudin feigned innocence and encouraged the two responding officers put their guns down, whereupon her accomplices leaped from the back of the truck with automatic weapons and shot officersEdward O'GradyandWaverly Brown, killing them both. In addition to the deaths of O'Grady and Brown, the robbers had already seriously wounded guard Joseph Trombino; killed his partner, Peter Paige; and injured two other police officers.
Boudin was arrested while attempting to flee the scene on foot. As part of a negotiated plea agreement to avoid triple murder convictions, each carrying consecutive 25-year to life convictions, she eventually pleaded guilty to felony murder and robbery for an agreed sentence of a single 20 years to life in prison.While incarcerated, Boudin published articles in theHarvard Educational Review("Participatory Literacy Education Behind Bars:AIDSOpens the Door," Summer 1993, 63 (2)),inBreaking the Rules: Women in Prison and Feminist Therapyby Judy Harden and Marcia Hill ("Lessons from a Mother's Program in Prison:  A Psychosocial Approach Supports Women and Their Children," published simultaneously inWomen & Therapy, 21),and inBreaking the Walls of Silence:  AIDS and Women in a New York State Maximum-Security Prison. She co-authoredThe Foster Care Handbook for Incarcerated Parentspublished by Bedford Hills in 1993.  She also co-editedParenting from inside/out: Voices of mothers in prison, jointly published by correctional institutions and the Osborne Association.Boudin also co-founded AIDS Committee for Education (ACE) inside the prison in 1988 with other incarcerated women includingKatrina HaslipandJudith Alice Clarkto provide accurate education on living with HIV.
Boudin also wrote and published poetry while incarcerated, publishing in books and journals including thePEN CenterPrize AnthologyDoing Time,Concrete Garden, andAliens at the Border.She won anInternational PENprize for her poetry in 1999.
Boudin and Roslyn D. Smith contributed the piece "Alive Behind the Labels: Women in Prison" to the 2003 anthologySisterhood Is Forever: The Women's Anthology for a New Millennium, edited byRobin Morgan.
After almost 23 years' imprisonment, Boudin was granted parole on August 20, 2003, in her third parole hearing. She was released from theBedford Hills Correctional Facilityon September 18, 2003.
After her release from prison, Boudin accepted a job in theHIV/AIDSClinic atSt. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center, meeting the work provisions ofparolethat required active job prospects.Later, she founded the Coming Home Program at the Spencer Cox Center for Health atMt. Sinai/St.Luke’s HospitalinMorningside Heights, which provides health care for people returning from incarceration.
In May 2004 Boudin published an essay in theFellowship of Reconciliation's publicationFellowship, expressing remorse for her participation in the Brink's robbery, which she described as "horrific."Subsequently, she received an Ed. D. fromColumbia University Teachers College. In addition to her work at St. Luke's-Roosevelt, Boudin worked as a consultant toOsborne Associationin the development of a Longtermers Responsibility Project taking place in the New York State Correctional Facilities, utilizing a restorative practice approach, and co-authored the Coming to Terms curriculum used in the program. She also consulted for Vermont Corrections and the Women's Prison Association and supervised social workers.
Boudin was named an adjunct professor at theColumbia University School of Social Work, where she was the co-director and co-founder of the Center for Justice at Columbia University.Her appointment was controversial due to her guilty plea to a felony murder charge and her past participation in a group which carried out terrorist attacks in the United States.However, an opinion piece in theColumbia Daily Spectatornoted that she took responsibility for her crimes and successfully rehabilitated herself.Columbia School of Social Work Associate Dean Marianne Yoshioka, who hired Boudin for the adjunct-professor post in 2008, was quoted as saying that Boudin has been "an excellent teacher who gets incredible evaluations from her students each year."In 2013, she was Sheinberg Scholar-in-Residence atNew York University School of Law. The law school has maintained a video of her lecture.
Boudin was a model for the title role inDavid Mamet's playThe Anarchist(2012).She also was a model forWilly Holtzman's Off-Broadway playSomething You Did(2008).Boudin was an inspiration for the character Merry inPhilip Roth'sAmerican Pastoral.
On May 1, 2022, Boudin died in New York City at the age of 78, a day after returning from a visit toSan Francisco.According to her sonChesa Boudin, who was serving asDistrict Attorney of San Francisco, Boudin had been battling cancer for seven years.