David Fine
| David Fine | |
|---|---|
FBI wanted posters published shortly after the bombing. Fine is shown in the upper left.
|
|
| Born |
March 18, 1952 Wilmington, Delaware |
| Other names | William Lewes |
| Alma mater |
University of Delaware (B.A.), University of Oregon (J.D.) |
| Occupation | Paralegal |
| Criminal penalty | Conspiracy, Unlawful flight: seven years. Murder: seven years. All served concurrently. |
| Criminal status | Paroled after three years |
| Conviction(s) | Conspiracy, Unlawful flight to avoid prosecution, Third degree murder (June 1976) |
David Sylvan Fine (born March 18, 1952) is an American anti-Vietnam War radical who was one of four perpetrators of the August 24, 1970, Sterling Hall bombing on the campus University of Wisconsin–Madison, in an act of political protest to the University's research efforts on behalf of the United States armed forces. The bomb destroyed the building, killing one person and injuring three. Fine spent five and a half years as a fugitive after the incident.
Fine was born in Wilmington, Delaware, the second of two children in middle-class family. He attended the Wilmington Friends School, a private Quaker-run school. He enrolled at the University of Wisconsin-Madison beginning in the fall of 1969 on a full academic scholarship. At the university, he was reporter and editor for the student newspaper, The Daily Cardinal, and earned a 3.75 grade point index in his freshman year—the only year he was in attendance.
In response to the Kent State shootings on May 4, 1970, in which four protesters were shot and killed by the Ohio National Guard, Fine, along with brothers Karleton and Dwight Armstrong and Leo Burt conceived of an attack on the Army Mathematics Research Center at the University of Wisconsin, which had been a frequent site of antiwar protests. At age 18, Fine was the youngest of the four. Karleton made a bomb out of dynamite, 100 US gallons (380 l; 83 imp gal) of fuel oil and 1,700 pounds (770 kg) of ammonium nitrate 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. 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.
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