Dan Kennedy took todays Globe story about the death of bank robber/cop killer Lefty Dilday and, using his professional/institutional memory, brilliantly connected the dots to show the significance of Dilday’s dying confession that he was robbing banks for the Weather Underground. Dilday had previously denied this.
The Weather Underground was  Bill Ayer’s anti-war group. You know the one. The one Ayer’s has vehemently denied over the years as having ever been responsible for any deaths. Especially cops.
Unfortunately Dan also points out some shitty journalism. The Globe reporter who got this confession from Lefty didn’t appreciate the importance of the statement so he did not persue it. WTF?
Hey, dude, how about a little research before you interview one of the most famous convicts in the prison system while he is preparing to die. This wasn’t Whitey Bulger with a library’s worth of material. The guy was in for one bank robbery/murder. One incident. The info Dan pointed to was short and easily accessible. Especially the Globe stories.
A+ for Dan.
F- for the Globe reporter.
Note to Dan: Don’t get cocky because of this. I’m just waiting on that last count in the Herald/Scholz libel suit. đŸ™‚
Mark L. Bail says
was not an anti-war group, it was a radical splinter from Students for a Democratic Society. They were against the war, but saw themselves as the vanguard of a revolution and engaged in a number of non-lethal terrorist bombings.
By the time the Weathermen became Weather Underground, they were largely split up and in hiding in different parts of the country. Dohrn was probably deeply involved in the bombing that killed a SF police officer, but Ayers was pretty much out of the loop. He and Dorhn weren’t living together at the time.
They had already turned themselves in by the time of the Brinks Robbery and accompanying killing that sent some members to prison for life.
Some Weather Underground members probably deserve prison for the SF cop-killing. But Bill Ayers is not one of them. If the FBI hadn’t overreached so badly with COINTELPRO, more of these people would have been brought to justice.