AT&T Sabotage
Wow, two posts in a short period of time from me. Fascinating!
There was some discussion of bombings of some AT&T microwave sites in the 1960s on a mailing list I frequent. Here's some URLs with photos of the damage:
http://www.long-lines.net/places-routes/WendoverNV/index.html
http://www.long-lines.net/places-routes/CedarMtnUT/index.html
The damage was done by the "American Republican Army". I was curious about what this group was but couldn't find any good information quickly so I searched around a bit. Here's what I found.
Apparently this "Army" was actually just two guys. The leader, a
self-styled two-star general, was Bernard Jerome Brous who was 52 at
the time (1961) and his "lieutenant" was Dale Christian Jensen aged
23. They claimed they "advocated political overthrow of the United
States" and that the Army was "similar in some respects to the
militantly conservative John Birch Society, but more active". Brous
also said they supported the nationalization of the United States
utility companies. [1]
They were both arrested on June 18, 1961, about three weeks after the
blasts, in Ensenada, Lower California, Mexico on a 47-foot two-masted
yacht named the Monsoon. [2] Brous seemed to have some serious issues
with AT&T. He claimed that Southwestern Bell had given maintenance
and emergency services to a competitor which forced him out of
business. [3] He also was quoted as saying "We planned blowing up the
communication equipment as a spectacular effort to bring notice to the
organization. It has been said we would kill for our cause, but this
is not true. We do not support violence. It was just a scare." [1]
In addition to Brous and Jensen, Brous's second wife, Minnie Brous was
arrested along with a Reno, NV gambling house dealer, Robert Gerald
Bartoli. [4] On Aug. 29, 1961 Minnie Brous committed suicide by
overdosing on sleeping pills in San Diego. [5]
Brous and Jensen pleaded innocent when they were brought back to the
US and were held in Reno after being unable to post $300,000 bail
each. The FBI investigated and found that the army was in fact just
the two men. When asked how large the army was Brous reportedly
pointed at Jensen and said "it's pretty slim right now, just me and
Slim here." [5]
It seems that one of the things that lead to FBI to the pair was a
number of letters Brous had written to government officials protesting
telephone company "cartels". He was diagnosed by psychiatrists as
having a persecution complex but was found fit to stand trial. He and
Jensen pleaded guilty on Oct. 15, 1961 to charges of conspiracy and
destroying and obstructing vital communications. A grand jury
declined to charge them with sabotage which would have carried up to a
30 year sentence. In the end they were sentenced to 8 years in
federal prison and not fined. However AT&T did file a $2.75 million
civil suit against them for damages. [6]
There are some other interesting details I dug up. Apparently when
Brous was found on his boat he was standing on the deck with an M-2
rifle in his hand, a pistol in his belt, and two hand grenades on a
table next to him. Jensen arrived shortly after police officers
arrived carrying a bag with two more hand grenades. Police also found
two .50 caliber machine guns, three carbines, three rifles, a shotgun,
1500 rounds of 22 mm and .30 caliber ammunition, a bundle of TNT and
as one of the Ensenada police said, "a great big bomb". Brous also
claimed to have sent 19,000 letters from various places in Mexico to
people in the United States in an attempt to gain sympathy for the
American Republican Army. [7]
Interestingly, it seems like in the following years the name "American
Republican Army" was taken up by a number of other people from time to
time. It's hard to say if they were referencing Brous and Jensen or
if they were completely unrelated. One was a group of neo-Nazis with
a notable member who was convicted in the early 1960s for arson and
defacing Jewish graves [8] and was eventually convicted of murdering a
17-year old girl and given life in prison in the 1970s. [9]
I guess the moral of the story is, if you meet someone who claims to
be in the American Republican Army, stay away!
[1] New York Times, June 19, 1961, p. 8, Col. 4
[2] New York Times, June 19, 1961, p. 8, Col. 1
[3] New York Times, June 19, 1961, p. 8, Col. 3
[4] New York Times, June 19, 1961, p. 1
[5] New York Times, Aug. 27, 1961, p. 5
[6] Los Angeles Times, Nov. 3, 1961, p. 7
[7] Chicago Daily Tribune, June 19, 1961, p. 1
[8] New York Times, Feb. 26, 1975, p. 84
[9] New York Times, Apr. 24, 1975, p. 75
There was some discussion of bombings of some AT&T microwave sites in the 1960s on a mailing list I frequent. Here's some URLs with photos of the damage:
http://www.long-lines.net/places-routes/WendoverNV/index.html
http://www.long-lines.net/places-routes/CedarMtnUT/index.html
The damage was done by the "American Republican Army". I was curious about what this group was but couldn't find any good information quickly so I searched around a bit. Here's what I found.
Apparently this "Army" was actually just two guys. The leader, a
self-styled two-star general, was Bernard Jerome Brous who was 52 at
the time (1961) and his "lieutenant" was Dale Christian Jensen aged
23. They claimed they "advocated political overthrow of the United
States" and that the Army was "similar in some respects to the
militantly conservative John Birch Society, but more active". Brous
also said they supported the nationalization of the United States
utility companies. [1]
They were both arrested on June 18, 1961, about three weeks after the
blasts, in Ensenada, Lower California, Mexico on a 47-foot two-masted
yacht named the Monsoon. [2] Brous seemed to have some serious issues
with AT&T. He claimed that Southwestern Bell had given maintenance
and emergency services to a competitor which forced him out of
business. [3] He also was quoted as saying "We planned blowing up the
communication equipment as a spectacular effort to bring notice to the
organization. It has been said we would kill for our cause, but this
is not true. We do not support violence. It was just a scare." [1]
In addition to Brous and Jensen, Brous's second wife, Minnie Brous was
arrested along with a Reno, NV gambling house dealer, Robert Gerald
Bartoli. [4] On Aug. 29, 1961 Minnie Brous committed suicide by
overdosing on sleeping pills in San Diego. [5]
Brous and Jensen pleaded innocent when they were brought back to the
US and were held in Reno after being unable to post $300,000 bail
each. The FBI investigated and found that the army was in fact just
the two men. When asked how large the army was Brous reportedly
pointed at Jensen and said "it's pretty slim right now, just me and
Slim here." [5]
It seems that one of the things that lead to FBI to the pair was a
number of letters Brous had written to government officials protesting
telephone company "cartels". He was diagnosed by psychiatrists as
having a persecution complex but was found fit to stand trial. He and
Jensen pleaded guilty on Oct. 15, 1961 to charges of conspiracy and
destroying and obstructing vital communications. A grand jury
declined to charge them with sabotage which would have carried up to a
30 year sentence. In the end they were sentenced to 8 years in
federal prison and not fined. However AT&T did file a $2.75 million
civil suit against them for damages. [6]
There are some other interesting details I dug up. Apparently when
Brous was found on his boat he was standing on the deck with an M-2
rifle in his hand, a pistol in his belt, and two hand grenades on a
table next to him. Jensen arrived shortly after police officers
arrived carrying a bag with two more hand grenades. Police also found
two .50 caliber machine guns, three carbines, three rifles, a shotgun,
1500 rounds of 22 mm and .30 caliber ammunition, a bundle of TNT and
as one of the Ensenada police said, "a great big bomb". Brous also
claimed to have sent 19,000 letters from various places in Mexico to
people in the United States in an attempt to gain sympathy for the
American Republican Army. [7]
Interestingly, it seems like in the following years the name "American
Republican Army" was taken up by a number of other people from time to
time. It's hard to say if they were referencing Brous and Jensen or
if they were completely unrelated. One was a group of neo-Nazis with
a notable member who was convicted in the early 1960s for arson and
defacing Jewish graves [8] and was eventually convicted of murdering a
17-year old girl and given life in prison in the 1970s. [9]
I guess the moral of the story is, if you meet someone who claims to
be in the American Republican Army, stay away!
[1] New York Times, June 19, 1961, p. 8, Col. 4
[2] New York Times, June 19, 1961, p. 8, Col. 1
[3] New York Times, June 19, 1961, p. 8, Col. 3
[4] New York Times, June 19, 1961, p. 1
[5] New York Times, Aug. 27, 1961, p. 5
[6] Los Angeles Times, Nov. 3, 1961, p. 7
[7] Chicago Daily Tribune, June 19, 1961, p. 1
[8] New York Times, Feb. 26, 1975, p. 84
[9] New York Times, Apr. 24, 1975, p. 75