![Sterling Hall bombing after explosion 1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a4/Sterling_Hall_bombing_after_explosion_1.jpg)
Dwight Alan Armstrong (August 29, 1951 – June 20, 2010) was an American anti-Vietnam War activist who helped use a truck bomb to shatter
Sterling Hall, a centrally located building on the
University of Wisconsin–Madison
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United Stat ...
campus, on August 24, 1970. Armstrong and three others targeted an army mathematical research center on an upper floor. They considered the University complicit in military research that enabled aggression. The bomb gutted the building, killing one person and injuring three. Armstrong spent several years on the run before being imprisoned.
Armstrong was born on August 29, 1951, in
Madison, Wisconsin
Madison is the county seat of Dane County and the capital city of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2020 census the population was 269,840, making it the second-largest city in Wisconsin by population, after Milwaukee, and the 80th-lar ...
. He grew up there as "an ordinary Midwestern boy, fond of playing baseball and bicycling around his exurban community" as described by ''
The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' in his obituary. He dropped out of high school in 10th grade and by 1970 he had joined his brother Karl in actively opposing the American war in Vietnam. In a previous action on New Year's Eve 1969, Dwight and Karl stole a light plane and dropped homemade bombs that failed to explode on an area ordnance factory.
[Fox, Margalit]
"Dwight Armstrong, Who Bombed a College Building in 1970, Dies at 58"
''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
,'' June 26, 2010. Accessed June 28, 2010.
In response to the
Kent State shootings
The Kent State shootings, also known as the May 4 massacre and the Kent State massacre,"These would be the first of many probes into what soon became known as the Kent State Massacre. Like the Boston Massacre almost exactly two hundred years bef ...
on May 4, 1970, in which four protesters were shot and killed by the
Ohio National Guard
The Ohio National Guard comprises the Ohio Army National Guard and the Ohio Air National Guard. The commander-in-chief of the Ohio Army National Guard is the governor of the U.S. state of Ohio. If the Ohio Army National Guard is called to fed ...
, they conceived of an attack on the Army Mathematics Research Center at the University of Wisconsin, which had been a frequent site of anti-War protests. Karl made a bomb out of dynamite, of fuel oil and of
ammonium nitrate
Ammonium nitrate is a chemical compound with the chemical formula . It is a white crystalline salt consisting of ions of ammonium and nitrate. It is highly soluble in water and hygroscopic as a solid, although it does not form hydrates. It is ...
fertilizer.
[
The bomb was placed in a stolen van left next to Sterling Hall, a building that housed the Army Mathematics Research Center, as well as the university's physics department. They lit the fuse after checking the windows of Sterling Hall and seeing no activity, assuming that the building was empty. A bomb threat was phoned in to the Madison Police Department, giving five minutes notice of the planned detonation, though previous such calls turned out to be pranks. A police cruiser was dispatched to the site minutes before the explosion. The bomb detonated at 3:42 AM on August 24, 1970, killing Robert Fassnacht, a physics post-doctoral researcher who was working late, injuring three others, and causing millions of dollars in damage to the building.][
Dwight Armstrong drove away with his brother, Leo F. Burt and David Fine to a truck stop where they celebrated the bombing. When they heard a news report on their car radio that someone had been killed by the explosion, all four went on the run, with Dwight's seven years at large the longest of the four people suspected in the bombing aside from Leo Burt, who is still at large. On September 4, the ]Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, ...
began a search for the four fugitives, placing them on the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives
The FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives is a most wanted list maintained by the United States's Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The list arose from a conversation held in late 1949 between J. Edgar Hoover, Director of the FBI, and William K ...
list. Armstrong remained underground until he was arrested in April 1977 in Toronto
Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...
. He pleaded no contest
' is a legal term that comes from the Latin phrase for "I do not wish to contend". It is also referred to as a plea of no contest or no defense.
In criminal trials in certain United States jurisdictions, it is a plea where the defendant neith ...
to state murder charges and federal conspiracy charges. As part of his plea bargain he was sentenced concurrently to seven years each in state and federal prison and was released on parole in 1980 on the condition that he participate in a community rehabilitation program.
He was arrested again in 1987 in Indiana where he was charged with operating a meth lab
A rolling meth lab is a transportable laboratory that is used to illegally produce methamphetamine.Staff writerMethamphetamine, meth-lab assessment and clean-up" ''Forensic Applications Consulting Technologies Inc.'' Retrieved on 2009-02-14. Rol ...
.[Staff]
"Armstrong faces prison term"
''The Milwaukee Journal
The ''Milwaukee Journal Sentinel'' is a daily morning broadsheet printed in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where it is the primary newspaper. It is also the largest newspaper in the state of Wisconsin, where it is widely distributed. It is currently ...
,'' September 6, 1988. Accessed June 28, 2010. He was sentenced to 10 years in prison and was released in 1991. He came back to Madison, where he tended to his mother and worked driving a taxi.[ In 2001, he purchased the Radical Rye Deli with Karl.][Martell, Chris]
"RADICAL REVISITED KARL ARMSTRONG REMAINS A CONTROVERSIAL FIGURE 31 YEARS AFTER THE STERLING HALL BOMBING. THE BUSINESSMAN LIVES AMONG THOSE WHO WILL PROBABLY ALWAYS VIEW HIM WITH CURIOSITY."
''Wisconsin State Journal
The ''Wisconsin State Journal'' is a daily newspaper published in Madison, Wisconsin by Lee Enterprises. The newspaper, the second largest in Wisconsin, is primarily distributed in a 19 county region in south-central Wisconsin. As of September ...
,'' December 1, 2001. Accessed June 28, 2010.
In a 1992 interview with ''The Capital Times
''The Capital Times'' (or ''Cap Times'') is a digital-first newspaper published in Madison, Wisconsin by The Capital Times Company. The company also owns 50 percent of Capital Newspapers, which now does business as Madison Media Partners. The o ...
'' of Madison, he stated that "My life has not been something to write home about". He justified the bombing, stating that "We did what we had to do; we did what we felt a lot of other people should have done", continuing that "I don't care what public opinion is; we did what was right."[
Armstrong died of ]lung cancer
Lung cancer, also known as lung carcinoma (since about 98–99% of all lung cancers are carcinomas), is a malignant lung tumor characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. Lung carcinomas derive from transformed, malign ...
at age 58 on June 20, 2010, at the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics
UW Health University Hospital (UW Health, University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics or UWHC) is a 515-bed academic regional referral center with 127 outpatient clinics, located on the western edge of the University of Wisconsin–Madison's camp ...
in Madison, Wisconsin
Madison is the county seat of Dane County and the capital city of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2020 census the population was 269,840, making it the second-largest city in Wisconsin by population, after Milwaukee, and the 80th-lar ...
. He was survived by his mother, his brother, two sisters, and a daughter.[
]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Armstrong, Dwight
1951 births
2010 deaths
American anti–Vietnam War activists
Deaths from lung cancer in Wisconsin
People from Madison, Wisconsin
American people convicted of murder
American people convicted of drug offenses
People convicted of murder by Wisconsin
Terrorism in the United States
People convicted of murder by the United States federal government