Linda Sue Evans | |
---|---|
Born |
Fort Dodge, Iowa |
May 11, 1947
Other names | Linda Evans, Rebecca Ann Morgan, Christine Johnson, and Louise Robinett |
Known for | SDS, Weatherman, Weather Underground Organization |
Linda Sue Evans (born May 11, 1947) is an American radical leftist terrorist who was convicted for militant activities. Evans was sentenced in 1987 to 40 years in prison for using false identification to buy firearms and for harboring a fugitive in the 1981 Brinks armored truck robbery, in which two police officers and a guard were killed. In a second case, she was sentenced in 1990 to five years in prison for conspiracy and malicious destruction in connection with eight bombings including the 1983 United States Senate bombing. Her sentence was commuted in 2001 by President Bill Clinton.
Evans began her life as an activist by organizing demonstrations at Michigan State University during 1965. In 1967 Evans became a member of the East Coast chapter of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS). She stated that she became interested in the civil rights movement after getting attacked by police during a demonstration at the Pentagon. “When I first became a political activist, I was a pacifist. I had never experience real violence in my own life and naively hoped that it changed.” Evans demonstrated her interest in anti-racism movements by supporting various groups championing Black, Native and Puerto Rican causes.
Evans’ leadership role in SDS began after a conference held on July 15, 1969 at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York. At this she announced that she would be traveling with six other anti-war activists to Hanoi to participate in the release of three U.S pilots who were being held as prisoners of war. At this conference, she also read a statement from SDS which declared the organization's support for the National Liberation Front of South Vietnam. Almost a month later, on August 7, 1969, Evans returned from Hanoi along with the prisoners of war through Trans World Airlines.