Days of Rage (84 page)

His partner Mutulu Shakur, was the cocaine-addled head of “the Family,” the ragtag alliance of black and white radicals that staged the era’s bloodiest raid, the $1.6 million robbery of a Brink’s armored car in suburban Nanuet, New York, October 20, 1981.

Marilyn Buck, the only white member of the Black Liberation Army, walked away from a federal prison to become Odinga and Shakur’s aide-de-camp.

Buck, together with Silvia Baraldini, formed the nucleus of the band of radical women the Family nicknamed “the white edge.”

The U-Haul trailer and a police cruiser pockmarked by bullets fired in the shoot-out following the Brink’s robbery.

Those who joined the underground struggle met a variety of fates. Assata Shakur, lives in Cuba. She remains a wanted fugitive today.

Dhoruba bin-Wahad, is an activist living in the Atlanta area.

Bill Ayers, Bernardine Dohrn, and their son, Zayd Dohrn, outside a New York federal courthouse in 1982.

Ayers, is an author, activist, and retired professor of education at the University of Illinois, Chicago.

Silvia Baraldini, right, lives in Rome.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This book, like so many others, is built on the kindnesses extended by so many people, from friends and family to research assistants to my fellow writers and historians. I have been very fortunate to work for and with some of the most talented people in media and publishing. Graydon Carter, the editor of
Vanity Fair
magazine, where I have had the privilege to write for twenty-three years, remains the very best in the business, probably one of the best ever. For twenty-one of those years I have worked with the same amazing editor, Doug Stumpf, whose patience I have probably tested more during this book than all my other books combined. His assistant, Jaime Lalinde, has been invaluable, and is surely on his way to a long career in this business. Andrew Wylie, my agent now for a startling twenty-six years, is unsurpassed; it is a rare gift to work with an agent this prominent and this capable, yet who rarely fails to return a message inside ten minutes. Andrew’s colleague Jeff Posternak has overseen my daily hand-holding for years. I could not do this without Jeff. In Los Angeles, Brian Siberell at the Creative Artists Agency has been
Days of Rage
’s biggest proponent. Thanks to you all.

At Penguin Press, Scott Moyers edited this book with his typical sure hand. Mally Anderson orchestrated the prepublishing process with aplomb. Karen Mayer provided valuable guidance. My friend Kurt Eichenwald read
the first two chapters and made useful suggestions. Daisy Prince and Ben Kalin tracked down hard-to-find news clippings. Melissa Goldstein gathered the photos. Joyce Pendola handled the fact-checking, a grueling six-month process that saved me severe professional embarrassment.

And then there is Liz Fink. I should pause here to offer a special word of thanks to the estimable Ms. Fink, who is probably best known in New York as one of the lead attorneys on the long-running litigation springing from the Attica riots in 1971. There is a word journalists use for a person who knows everything about his or her subject matter, and who offers unlimited help: the “rabbi.” Over time, Liz became the rabbi for this book. Her knowledge of the 1970s-era underground is encyclopedic, and her memory is superb. It was Liz who introduced me to many of the important figures of the era, people like Ray Levasseur, Dhoruba bin-Wahad, and Silvia Baraldini, none of whom had ever publicly discussed details of their underground careers. I am deeply grateful to Liz and to the other radical attorneys, especially Dennis Cunningham and Robert Boyle, who gave me guidance along the way.

A number of people lent a hand gathering documents used in
Days of Rage
. These include Claude Marks at the Freedom Archives in San Francisco, who did so despite the fact that he clearly never trusted me; and James Mathis and the wonderful archivists at the Library of Congress and also at New York University’s Tamiment Library, an incredible repository of left-wing history.

A far-flung network of retired FBI agents was indispensable, especially Don Wofford and Lou Vizi, who pursued the FALN; Stockton Buck, who pursued the New World Liberation Front; Leonard Cross, who pursued Ray Levasseur’s group; Max Noel, William Reagan, and Donald Shackleford, the Weather Underground; and Danny Coulson, Jim Murphy, and Bob McCartin, the BLA. Perhaps the most generous of these men was Richard Hahn of Southern California, who laid out the entire story of the FALN, directing me to many of the sources he had made researching his own as-yet-unpublished book. A huge thanks to Rick, and to all those who took the time to offer guidance.

This book was produced during a challenging period in my life, a time when I have leaned on family and close friends as never before. My deepest
thanks go to Winnie O’Kelley, who always gave wise counsel; to Brett Haire, who has looked after me like a member of his own family; to Ed and Marybeth Leithead, who always had steaks and a bottle of red at the ready; and especially to the two young men I am proud to call my sons: Griffin Burrough, today a freshman and budding writer at Kenyon College; and Dane Burrough, a rising scholar of Russian history at Rice University. Thanks also to my parents, John M. and Mary Burrough of Temple, Texas, who were never too busy to listen, no matter the hour, and to Margaret Walsh.