Leo Burt: The Boy From Havertown

Havertown, Pennsylvania, is a working-class suburb of Philadelphia. Founded in 1681 by Welsh Quakers, it now boasts one of the country’s highest percentages of Irish ancestry. One of those of Irish ancestry is Leo Burt.

Though his name may not be recognizable to many today, in 1970, and the years immediately following, he was the most wanted man in America.

Leo Frederick Burt was born in Darby, Pennsylvania to Howard and Mary Burt on April 18, 1948. Growing up with two brothers, Donald and Matthew, and three sisters, Rita, Margaret, and Barbara, the family was very Catholic. Leo was even an altar boy as a child. Many of Leo’s family members are buried in St. Denis Cemetery in Havertown.

“It was a typical middle-class suburban town outside of Philadelphia,” said Jim DeFalco, a former classmate of Burt.

“It’s a suburban town like any other suburban town. It’s a major city suburban town; it’s close to Philadelphia, well populated,” added Richard Colagiacomo, another former schoolmate of Burt’s.

Leo Burt attended St. Denis Parochial School in Havertown and Monsignor Bonner High School in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania. At Monsignor Bonner, an all-boys school, Burt excelled at rowing crew.

“I knew Leo. He sat next to me in one of my classes,” said DeFalco. “He was not a very political person in high school.”

He continued to row crew at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, eventually becoming the No. 4 oar on UW’s junior varsity crew.

“I know he was very dedicated to rowing,” said former University of Wisconsin-Madison crewmate Bill Evans.

Far from Havertown is Madison, Wisconsin. The University of Wisconsin-Madison has had a long history of activism. From the marches on the state Capitol in 2011 about the collective bargaining agreement to the Vietnam War protests, Madison has seen its fair share of political uproar.

Leo Burt is one of the most famous names in the history of Vietnam Era protests. In the early hours of Aug. 24, 1970, Burt, David Fine, and brothers Karleton and Dwight Armstrong detonated a Ford Econoline van stuffed with 910 kg of explosives, blowing up Sterling Hall on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus.

The bomb was intended to destroy the Army Mathematics Research Center (AMRC) located on the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th floors of the building. The explosion injured three and resulted in the death of physics researcher Robert Fassnacht. Neither Fassnacht nor the physics department were involved or employed by the AMRC. Fine, and the Armstrong brothers were all arrested in the years that followed, but Burt has remained a fugitive for over 50 years.

Many have tried to find him over time, including the FBI, conspiracy theorists, and a team of student journalists from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, all to no avail. Often dubbed “The Ghost of Wisconsin,” there have been a handful of claims of sightings of Burt, including at a homeless shelter in Denver, and in Canada, where he fled after the bombing.

Burt rowed crew for two years, but after being cut from the team he became more dedicated to journalism and student politics. He worked at the campus newspaper The Daily Cardinal. According to an article written for On Wisconsin in 1979 by Doug Moe, while working at the student paper, Leo Burt met fellow bomber David Fine.

“He took pleasure in sitting around the Cardinal office with two or three reporters retelling accurately and precisely what he had seen and experienced in student demonstrations,” an unnamed campus friend said in a New York Times article from 1970.

According to that same article, Prof. Harold Nelson, director of UW’s Journalism school, described him as “an intelligent student and a challenging one.”

The Vietnam War was a delicate time across the country. Many college campuses played host to protests and demonstrations against the war. Madison has been considered by many as one of the most liberal cities in America, and demonstrations and protests are common in the city.

“There was very strong anti-Vietnam feeling in that area, I can see why he was enraged to do what he did,” said Colagiacomo. “Mostly my whole generation was really against the war and at that time was fed up with it. Everybody was fed up with it.”

As college campus protests became more common, Burt decided to cover one on the UW campus for The Daily Cardinal. During the protest, Burt was beaten by a police officer. Many consider this a turning point to radicalization for Burt.

“From the time he was a sophomore in high school to when he was in college, he apparently got radicalized,” said DeFalco. “It didn’t seem in his personality for him to do something like that, but as people change their political views anything could have happened.”

“I’ve always viewed him as kind of an extremist,” said Evans.

Contributions from Jackson Minshall