Weather Underground Organization
Evans became involved in Weatherman, a group that derived from SDS. She organized and led many Weatherman actions. Following the Greenwich Village townhouse explosion that killed three Weatherman members (Ted Gold, Diana Oughton, and Terry Robbins), Evans was one of the Weatherman members who chose to go underground in 1970. During her membership in the Weather Underground Organization, Evans provided safe housing for members of the Weather Underground Organization and by providing funding for their assumed identities. She generated these funds through her participation in various robberies. Evans also participated in the May 19th Communist Movement, a group that included some former members of the Weather Underground Organization.
On April 15, 1970, Evans and Dianne Donghi were arrested for trying to forge checks using false identification. The FBI was able to arrest them because of a tip they received from an ex-member of Weatherman named Larry Grathwohl, who was working as an undercover informant for the FBI. Grathwohl's testimony was later used in Evans’ final arrest by the FBI to prove that she had repeatedly been involved in illegal activities.
Evans' final arrest was on May 11, 1985 for harboring Marilyn Jean Buck, a fugitive in the 1981 Brinks armored truck robbery case, in which two police officers and a guard were murdered. At the time of her arrest, Evans was wearing a wig and glasses to disguise herself. The FBI agents obtained from her purse a Browning 9mm pistol and false documents with the name of Rebecca Ann Morgan, Christine Johnson, and Louise Robinett. The FBI was able to trace the gun to Louisiana, where Linda Evans was found to have purchased four firearms and three boxes of ammunition from three separate businesses under the false identity of Louise Robinett. Having purchased the four guns under a false identification, Evans was charged with eleven violations of the Gun Control Act of 1968. From March 16 to March 20, 1987 she was tried before a jury. Along with the eleven violations charges and housing a fugitive, she was also charged for terrorist actions after 740 pounds of dynamite were found in her apartment along with evidence of a plan to target the U.S Capitol Building, the National War College, the Navy Yard Computer Center, the Navy Yard Officers Club, Israeli Aircraft Industries, the FBI and the New York Patrolman’s Benevolent Association. On March 20, 1987 she was found guilty of all charges and was sentenced to 40 years in prison.
While incarcerated at the Federal Corrections Institution in Dublin, Evans advocated for an AIDS educational program for women and lesbian inmates. She helped raise funds for the program by creating quilts and served as a peer AIDS counselor and educator. Evans advocated for inmates' rights, claiming that “When I was in jail in Louisiana we were able to win a jail house lawyer’s legal suit forcing the jail to give women glasses and false teeth”.
On January 20, 2001, President Bill Clinton commuted Evans' sentence, commuting her 40 year sentence to the 16-years already served.
Read more about this topic: Linda Evans (radical)
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