Incredibly one of his cohorts walked away from a 45 year sentence after a few years:
Friday, August 6, 2004
Paroled radical to return to Maine
By GREGORY D. KESICH, Portland Press Herald Writer
Copyright © 2004 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.
E-mail this story to a friend
Also on this page:
Raymond Levasseur:
Raymond Levasseur:
RAYMOND LEVASSEUR: BOMBINGS, THEN ON THE RUN
May 1977: Raymond Levasseur's name is placed on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted List.
November 1984: Seven years as a fugitive end with his arrest by the FBI in Deerfield, Ohio.
March 1989: Levasseur and five other radicals are tried in U.S. District Court in New York for numerous bombings at corporate offices and military installations. Levasseur is convicted and, a month later, sentenced to 45 years in prison.
August 2004: Police say Levasseur is about to be paroled to a federal halfway house in Portland.
SOME OF THE 22 bombings linked to Levasseur's groups:
April 1976: Suffolk County Courthouse in Boston.n May 1976: Central Maine Power's headquarters in Augusta.
July 1976: U.S. Post Office, Seabrook, N.H.
May 1983: Roosevelt Army Reserve Center, Long Island and Navy Reserve Center, Queens, N.Y.
September 1984: Union Carbide offices, Mt. Pleasant, N.Y.
To top of story
Self-styled revolutionary Raymond Luc Levasseur will soon return to Portland after serving 18 years in prison for his part in a string of terrorist bombings beginning in the 1970s, police said.
Levasseur, 57, is a member of a group dubbed the "Ohio Seven" after their 1984 arrest in Cleveland. The group, also known as the United Freedom Front, was believed to have been responsible for 19 bombings and 10 bank robberies over a nine-year period, as well as the murder of a New Jersey state trooper.
Levasseur was on the FBI's most wanted list for seven years before his capture. In 1986, he was convicted of bombing corporate offices and military installations in and around New York City and was sentenced to 45 years in prison.
But he is expected to be transferred to a Portland halfway house as early as today under federal parole laws, said Portland Police Chief Michael Chitwood.
"Am I concerned? Absolutely," Chitwood said. "This guy has been in prison for 18 years for extremely violent criminal conduct. This guy is truly a revolutionary. They don't like cops. I'm concerned."
Levasseur was known as the intellectual leader of the group that was opposed to racism and corporate capitalism and has a reputation of avoiding bloodshed. In the bombings he was convicted of, a warning was always issued, and no one was injured.
In 1989, Levasseur was acquitted of attempting to overthrow the government under little-used sedition laws. He defended himself against a $50 million prosecution in a trial that took 10 months.
The same jury could not reach a verdict on charges of racketeering, and a mistrial was declared.
Levasseur calls himself a political prisoner and continues to protest the capitalist system in essays posted on a Web site under the title "Letter from Exile."
In a 1992 essay, he describes his time on the run:
"During those years I joined efforts with others in attempting to build a revolutionary resistance movement," he said. "We sought to bring to the attention of the American people the horrendous crimes being committed by their own government and transnational corporations. We targeted the worst criminals because they are the ones who hurt the most people. . . . Now I am one of over 100 political prisoners held in the U.S. gulag."
MOLDED BY ARMY EXPERIENCE
Levasseur was born in Sanford, the son of immigrant mill workers from Quebec. He went to work in a shoe factory at 17 and joined the Army at 19.
Levasseur said his experience as a soldier radicalized him. "I saw intense racism directed toward the Vietnamese people, which recalled the anti-Franco bigots and white supremacy I'd encountered" at home, he wrote. "As I saw the culture and poverty of the Vietnamese ridiculed, I recalled the intolerant (people) of my youth."
After receiving an honorary discharge, he became an organizer for Vietnam Veterans Against the War. He was arrested for selling marijuana in Tennessee, and was sentenced to five years in prison.
After his release in 1971, Levasseur came to Portland, where he began working with another Vietnam veteran and ex-convict, Thomas Manning. The two worked for Statewide Correction Alliance for Reform, a prisoners' rights organization. They tutored inmates and opened Red Star North, a radical bookstore on Congress Street.
In 1975, Levasseur was arrested in Connecticut on a firearms violation. He jumped bail and began life as a fugitive.
Levasseur, Manning, their wives and children and other allies spent the next nine years moving from place to place in the Northeast. They were indicted in a bank robbery in Portland, a charge that was later folded into the sedition and racketeering prosecution. They were also blamed for numerous bombings that targeted businesses that worked with South Africa's apartheid government.
TROOPER KILLED IN TRAFFIC STOP
They were often rumored to return to Maine. Portland's deputy police chief, William Ridge, then a young patrolman, said the department was always on guard when they heard those reports.
"The biggest fear was that you would pull someone over for a traffic stop and get shot," Ridge said. "When we heard they were around, we didn't make a lot of traffic stops."
The search for the group intensified after the murder of New Jersey Trooper Philip Lamonaco, who was killed after pulling over a car on the New Jersey Turnpike. Manning later admitted to killing Lamonaco, but claimed it was done in self-defense.
Levasseur, his wife, Patricia Gros, and three others were arrested in Cleveland in November 1984. Manning and his wife, Carol Ann, were captured in Norfolk, Va., in April 1985.
Levasseur was sent to New York for trial in a bombing case. He and co-defendant Richard Williams were both convicted and sentenced to 45 years in prison.
Manning was convicted of felony murder for the death of Lamonaco. He was sentenced to 80 years in prison, in addition to 53 years for a separate bombing conviction.
Because he was convicted before sentencing laws changed in 1987, Levasseur is eligible for parole, which means he can serve part of his sentence outside of prison if he meets certain conditions.
"Mr. Levasseur will be under strict supervision. He can stay in the community as long as he remains a law-abiding citizen," said Claire Cooper, chief of the Maine office of federal Probation and Parole.
CONSIDERED A LOW CRIME RISK
His first stop will be the Pharos House shelter on Grant Street, where he will live with other federal inmates making the transition to life outside prison. Although he would not comment about Levasseur, Pharos House director Bob Feener said only inmates deemed to present a low risk of committing new crimes are eligible for the program.
Chitwood said federal parole officials informed him that Levasseur would spend about three months at Pharos House, and then move into a West End apartment with his second wife, Jamila Levy Levasseur, a few blocks from his old bookstore.
Federal officials should have consulted with the city before resettling someone with Levasseur's history, Chitwood said.
"I would have objected," he said. "I don't want him in the city of Portland. He hasn't shown that he is rehabilitated."
Not everyone is worried. The man who will probably become Levasseur's new landlord said he would be happy to rent to him.
"He has suffered enough, he deserves a break, " said Fred Clarke. "I feel very, very positive about this."
Staff Writer Gregory D. Kesich can be contacted at 791-6336 or at:
gkesich@pressherald.com