Edward F. Pimental (June 19, 1965 – August 8, 1985) was an

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

soldier of the United States Army who was murdered by the Red Army Faction in West Germany.

Biography

Pimental was born on June 19, 1965, in

Fall River Fall River is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States. The City of Fall River's population was 94,000 at the 2020 United States Census, making it the tenth-largest city in the state. Located along the eastern shore of Mount H ...

, Massachusetts, and raised in New York City. He joined the United States Army and was assigned to the 563rd Ordnance Company, which was located at Camp Pieri in Wiesbaden, West Germany.

Death

On the night of August 7, 1985, Pimental and other American soldiers visited the Western Saloon nightclub in Wiesbaden, where he was invited by a woman to walk her home, leaving the bar with her. The woman was

Birgit Hogefeld Birgit Hogefeld (born 27 July 1956) is a former member of the West German Red Army Faction (RAF). Early life Born in 1956 in Wiesbaden, Hogefeld joined the RAF in 1984, once she turned clandestine, long after its founding members Andreas Baader, ...

, a member of the Red Army Faction, a militant

far-left Far-left politics, also known as the radical left or the extreme left, are politics further to the left on the left–right political spectrum than the standard political left. The term does not have a single definition. Some scholars consider ...

organization that carried out attacks against American military targets in West Germany. Pimental was killed by a shot to the head in the nearby woods, and his U.S. military identification card was stolen. Pimental's identification card was used the next morning by a male Red Army Faction member to gain access to the Rhein-Main Air Base and place a

car bomb A car bomb, bus bomb, lorry bomb, or truck bomb, also known as a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device (VBIED), is an improvised explosive device designed to be detonated in an automobile or other vehicles. Car bombs can be roughly divided ...

. A Volkswagen Passat loaded with about 240 kg of explosives was detonated at the base, resulting in the death of two American servicemen, the wounding of eleven, and substantial material damage. A "Command George Jackson" claimed responsibility in a letter signed by the Red Army Faction and the French ''

Action directe ''Action Directe'' (; AD, "direct action") was a French far-left militant group which committed a series of assassinations and violent attacks in France between 1979 and 1987. Members of Action directe considered themselves libertarian commu ...

'' armed group, reaching the

Frankfurter Rundschau The ''Frankfurter Rundschau'' (FR) is a German daily newspaper, based in Frankfurt am Main. It is published every day but Sunday as a city, two regional and one nationwide issues and offers an online edition (see link below) as well as an e-pa ...

desk and two news agencies the same day. Pimental's stolen identification card was sent to Reuters in Frankfurt on August 13.

Aftermath

The murder of Edward Pimental caused heated discussions in the far-left circles in West Germany because it was the first time a person without major political or economic status was killed deliberately, contradicting the legacy of the 1968 movement. The Red Army Faction attempted to justify the murder by proclaiming Pimental as a "contract warmonger" for being a voluntary member of the United States military, but they later referred to it as a "mistake". In 1994 and 1996, Hogefeld and

Eva Haule Eva Sybille Haule-Frimpong (born 16 July 1954) is a former terrorist associated with the third generation Red Army Faction (RAF). She took her abitur in Stuttgart before going underground in 1984. Terrorist activities *On 5 November 1984, Haule ra ...

were convicted of participation in the murder of Pimental and sentenced to

life imprisonment Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes for ...

by the Frankfurt Higher Regional Court. Haule was released on parole in 2007, while Hogefeld was eventually freed in 2011, being the last member of the Red Army Faction to leave prison.

References

External links

Photo with Pimental's ID

Baader-Meinhof Gang attacked U.S. troops, bases in 1970s-1980s
1965 births 1985 deaths People from Fall River, Massachusetts Military personnel from New York City Victims of the Red Army Faction American terrorism victims American people murdered abroad Deaths by firearm in Germany Assassinations in Germany {{US-army-bio-stub