Posted on 02/23/2023 6:27:47 AM PST by Red Badger
On the night of Karen Silkwood’s untimely death, she had arranged to meet with a New York Times journalist to expose issues at a nuclear facility near Cimarron City.
She never made it to the meeting.
For the first time since that fateful night nearly 50 years ago, the same journalist told KOCO 5 what he thinks happened to Karen Silkwood.
…
Ask anyone in Oklahoma and most likely, they have heard of the strange and mysterious circumstances surrounding the death of Karen Silkwood. Even today, there is speculation about whether Silkwood died as a result of a car accident or if there was something darker at play.
In the years following her death, Silkwood and her personal life were thrown into the spotlight, with some believing a high level of sedative medication had caused her to crash her car. Others wondered whether the company she worked for, Kerr-McGee, played any role in the incident.
Kerr-McGee denied any involvement and all official investigations agreed that her crash was just a single-car accident.
KOCO 5 sat down with David Burnham, the New York Times journalist who was supposed to meet Silkwood that fateful night. He told us what he thinks happened to the woman whose story has haunted him for years.
"It’s an irritating, hanging question to me," Burnham said.
In the 1970s, Burnham was working at the New York Times as an investigative reporter, with a specific focus on police corruption and surveillance issues. One of his series on police corruption, published in the New York Times in the 1970s, went on to inspire the 1973 film Serpico.
He also published several stories about nuclear energy.
"I was hired by the Times in ‘68 and developed the idea of what a reporter should do is ask whether an agency is achieving its stated goals and if not, why not?" Burnham said.
One day in 1974, Burnham received a call from a representative of the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers Union. According to the representative, he was in touch with a woman who was willing to expose trouble at a nuclear plant in Oklahoma.
The woman, a 28-year-old technician, said that there were serious issues with the plant’s safety and she had documents that she claimed would prove it.
That woman was Karen Silkwood.
"I first said no," Burnham said. "But my bureau chief said, ‘Yeah, you’re going. So, I went to Oklahoma City."
So, in November of 1974, Burnham flew to Oklahoma City to hear Silkwood’s story. The representative’s assistant also traveled to Oklahoma City for the meeting.
"We had evidence she was going to talk about problems at Cimarron, that the production was not good," Burnham said.
Around 6 p.m., Burnham and the assistant had arranged to be picked up from the airport and taken to the Northwest Holiday Inn in Oklahoma City. Silkwood was scheduled to arrive at 8 p.m., along with her documents, after her union meeting at the Hub Café, just outside of Crescent.
"That was the schedule," Burnham said. "She never came."
Eventually, Burnham said they received a call.
Karen Silkwood was killed in a car crash.
At first, Burnham didn’t give the accident a second thought.
"Just a car crash out in Oklahoma, which that wasn’t news," Burnham said.
Others weren’t so sure. That night, Burnham and a few others drove out to the sight of the crash to see what, if anything, they could find.
However, Burnham could feel the attitude in the air shift.
"That night was very scary," Burnham said. "I don’t know why I drove slowly, but they kept saying ‘drive faster, drive faster.’"
When they arrived at the crash site, all that was left behind was some clutter, skid marks in the roadway and debris. The car, and Silkwood, were gone.
Also noticeably absent were her documents, with alleged proof of something wrong at the facility. To this day, those documents have never been found.
Almost immediately, an outside organization was hired to investigate the crash, finding it coincidental the night Silkwood was set to speak with Burnham, she died suddenly. It didn’t take long for a theory to develop - someone had run Silkwood’s car off the road.
That same allegation made its way to Burnham’s desk at the New York Times.
"That was the first story I had ever wrote about this," Burnham said.
The story spread like wildfire.
Silkwood’s story – a young whistleblower that under one theory was killed for her silence – was known across the nation, even internationally. Burnham followed the story, publishing several other articles about the Silkwood case and the practices at the plant.
Hollywood took interest in the case too, releasing the Silkwood movie in 1984, starring Meryl Streep, Kurt Russell and Cher. Everyone knew her story.
Meanwhile, Burnham had his doubts.
"At the time, I thought all of this was a little bit exaggerated," Burnham said. "I wasn’t sure. I was a little uneasy about what evidence there was to sustain this."
So, Burnham stopped covering the story completely. Burnham said he decided he didn’t trust the allegations fully and took a step back.
In the years following, Burnham went on to investigate other governmental agencies, including the New York Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He published award-winning books, and co-founded and co-directed the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, providing data on federal investigative and governing agencies.
Yet, the mystery and questions surrounding Silkwood’s death nagged at him. Over time, his doubts turned to theories.
Burnham agreed with the official reports that Kerr-McGee had no involvement in the incident.
"It was really unlikely that Kerr-McGee executives would try to kill her, especially in a way that’s so dubious…running into the back of the car. How is that going to work?" Burnham said.
But Burnham thought, "Someone was bringing nuclear material to her house and trying to poison her that way."
"It’s possible that someone came up and hit her," Burnham said.
Burnham speculated the ongoing controversy played a role in her untimely death.
"Came up and maybe hit the back of her to scare her," Burnham said. "And got out of hand and killed her."
Burnham has never shared his thoughts before-until now.
"They may not have wanted to kill her, but they wanted to scare her to make her shut up," Burnham said. "I have no evidence of that, of course. It’s just speculation on my part."
Therefore, the question remains: was Karen Silkwood murdered or was her death a tragic accident? KOCO 5 asked Burnham if he thinks there will ever be an answer.
"There’s lots of bits and pieces which raise questions and are tantalizing and sort of irritating to hang in your mind but it’s something you can’t answer," Burnham said.
Since then, many of the key players and organizations are long gone, leaving behind questions in their absence. Will we ever know what happened to Karen Silkwood?
Stay tuned for more of The Karen Silkwood Story as KOCO 5 digs for answers.
The question I have is; did that trouble at the nuclear plant ever occur? If not, then her death is probably due to a freak accident. If it did have problems, then her death becomes very suspicious.
I certainly do not remember any issues arising regarding a nuclear plant in Oklahoma, being reported on.
I remember that movie. That postmaster general was in it. Lesson: when Newman tells you to get in the truck, get in. There’s another way it could be going down.
“Wish I didn’t know now what i didn’t know then”…
We were so, so naive.
I remember this. It was during a time when Nuclear Energy was being hated on by all the news media.
I remember a made-for-TV movie based on this in Oregon, and a later movie staring Meryl Streep.
I no longer trust the news due to an incident here quite a few years back in which a local man accidentally shot someone, and not long after a state magazine concocted a story about his dad selling drugs, helicopter landings in the middle of the night. We all knew they man personally and knew it was bovine excrement.
I am also reminded of the original story of WALKING TALL in which Buford Pusser is killed in a car wreck and the movies make it out to be a gang hit.
One of my supervisors had kin living in that area and said the real reason Pusser went on a tear was because he was not getting what he considered his “fair shake” of the criminal take in that area.
Or, it was just an accident, and she wasn’t actually bringing documents to a ‘first meeting’.
Documents never found? Like that’s never happened before when ignorant people are cleaning out estates.
But that sort of thing isn’t as sexy as a conspiracy.
Odd and unwise to me how this plant and the other one operated by Kerr-McGee near Gore, Oklahoma are both near rivers. The EPA and their contractors have been poking away at the cleanup of the Gore plant for years now. The area they are piling the waste is not much more than a sand pile and without the rubber blanket anything in it washes or leaks directly into the Arkansas River.
I would not buy land near the former plant site or eat a fish from the Arkansas downstream of the plant site. The plant used a Uranium Hexaflouride gaseous diffusion process as I recall. There were emergency releases of gas according to reports I have read. I know there were several injuries and one death when a vessel exploded. The area has been well known to locals as a hotbed of cancer.
Here is the sketchy Wiki article on the plant.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sequoyah_Fuels_Corporation
We were running against the wind.
It’s a leftist conspiracy theory re-heat, nothing more.
I think all nuclear plants are near rivers. They use the water for cooling.
One nuke plant in Florida has a bunch of alligators that lice near the outlet pipe. They like the warmer discharge waters.
These are not plants in need of cooling water. They are fuel plants.
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