Around midnight on July 10, 1970, four teams of two or three people each broke into Selective Service offices in Little Falls, Alexandria, Winona, and Wabasha, intending to destroy as many military draft files as possible — acts of protest against the war in Vietnam. They mostly failed. Eight of them were arrested and charged with federal crimes. They became known as the Minnesota Eight.
Resistance to the war in Vietnam, in Minnesota and elsewhere, took many forms. One of them was destruction of files in the offices of the Selective Service system (a draft eligibility agency). It is ironic that in Minnesota the least successful of such actions — that of the Minnesota Eight — is the best remembered. The first draft-board raid in the state, and possibly the first nationwide, took place in Elk River when Barry Bondhus poured two buckets of human excrement into the Selective Service files there in February of 1966. He was sentenced to eighteen months in prison. In the next three years similar acts took place in Chicago, Milwaukee, and Indianapolis, where hundreds and sometimes thousands of files were destroyed.
In January 1970, Brian Wells burned 2,400 files at the Nicollet County Selective Service office in St. Peter and received a sentence of up to six years of federal supervision. By far the most successful such action took place in St. Paul and Minneapolis the weekend of February 28, 1970, when anti-war activists destroyed thousands of files held in the St. Paul central post office and an office building in downtown Minneapolis. No one was ever arrested for these crimes.
After this, another group began planning break-ins in greater Minnesota. On July 10, 1970, it went into action. Chuck Turchick, Bill Tilton, and Cliff Ulen went to Alexandria; Don Olson, Peter Simmons, and Brad Beneke went to Winona; and Francis Kroncke and Michael Therriault went to Little Falls. Another team headed for Wabasha, while a fifth cancelled its action.
Around midnight the raiders all broke into the Selective Service offices, prepared to destroy files. They concentrated on those of citizens designated 1-A—that is, subject to call-up at any time. In Alexandria, Little Falls, and Winona, FBI agents were waiting. The men, soon known as the Minnesota Eight, were arrested without incident. The Wabasha team succeeded in destroying files, and no arrests in that case were ever made.
The men were charged with the federal crime of interference with the Selective Service. They and their lawyers made the trials, like the raids, political acts aimed at informing and persuading the public of the evils of the war in Vietnam.
There were three trials: two before Judge Edward Devitt, the third before Philip Neville. Rancor broke out before the first trial even began. At Brian Wells’s trial Brad Beneke called Devitt “a pompous ass.” Devitt sent him to jail for ten days. At his arraignment, Turchick said he could not expect mercy from a court that “jails people because they refuse to kill.” At the first two trials (Turchick and Tilton, then Olson, Simmons, and Beneke), Devitt positioned armed sentries in the courthouse and kept many defense supporters out of his courtroom. Some supporters refused to stand for the judge and were ejected. A bomb threat and then a jury-misconduct mistrial marred the second trial. All five defendants were quickly convicted.
The third trial, before Judge Neville, was completely different. He kept an open courtroom, used no armed guards, and allowed the defense to bring witness after witness to condemn the war in Vietnam. But in the end Neville ordered the jury to disregard all such evidence; Therriault and Kroncke were also quickly convicted.
Rancor resurfaced at sentencing. Tilton called Judge Devitt “a good German” who was “helping fascism come into this country.” Devitt told the defendants that they were worse than ordinary criminals because their conduct struck “at the very foundation of government.” Five of the seven got the maximum sentence of five years in federal prison; the two youngest, Beneke and Simmons, received indeterminate terms. All of their appeals were denied. They served between 14 and 20 months, mostly in medium security prisons, and were released in July 1973. Cliff Ulen, the lone defendant to plead guilty, got no prison time.
For more information on this topic, check out the original entry on MNopedia.
My room mate & long time friend and lawyer, Bill Tilton, was one of the Minnesota eight. I can’t tell you how proud I am of having a friend, who sacrificed time in Federal prison, because of his firm belief in the failure of this country to be truthful in it’s blind quest in what was the “Nightmare” of Viet-Nam! Today, Bill Tilton is one of the most celebrated and most successful lawyers in the State of Minnesota. Hail to you, Bill, for your courageous and lasting desire for truth and equality. Peace &Health- Jim
Thank you, I did not know this about Mr. Tilton. He’s truly an American hero and patriot, dissent being the highest form of patriotism.
Thoreau:
“Under a government which imprisons any unjustly the true place for a just man is also a prison.”
Chuck Turchick, one of the eight, was one of the top table tennis players in Minnesota and a terrific coach who helped me greatly in improving my backhand loop. Good memories and a great guy.
I, too, am a long time friend and admirer of Bill Tilton’s.
While I was opposed to the war, I did nothing to try to change things. Bill and the Minnesota 8 had the courage of their convictions and they paid the price for it. Heroes and patriots, that group.
I’m not sure if any criticism of MinnPost is not allowed, but I’ll try again.
The headline of the article is very misleading and not at all impartial or objective, which, correct me if I’m wrong, are values MinnPost strives to uphold.
Those who attempted to burn draft cards were trying to raise awareness of the immorality of the war, and thereby increase popular opposition and thus bring an end to the war. There is every reason to believe those efforts, coupled with the actions of thousands of other citizens, did in fact bring about an end to the war.
To suggest the efforts of these hero’s were “mostly unsuccessful ” is incredibly naive and very misleading to MinnPost readers.
You misread. If you go back to the text you will see that the reference to “unsuccessful” was in destroying Selective Service files. To your bigger point: Did such actions help end the war? Hard to say, but Nixon was re-elected by a landslide in 1972. After four years of war, Nixon was much more popular with the voters than he had been in 1968.
Nixon was so popular that he was impeached in 1974. He resigned in August 1974 after senior Republicans like Barry Goldwater told him he had no chance in an impeachment trial before the Senate. Don Olson and these other heroes inspired great opposition to the Viet Nam war which only ended because of popular resistance in the U.S. The American soldiers lost interest in dieing for nothing and the army began to fall apart. Many soldiers began to kill their officers (fragging with grenades) rather than be sent out to die.
Not to beat this to death, but Nixon got about 31,800,00 votes in 1968. After prosecuting the war for four years, he got 47,200,000 votes in 1972. That’s a 50 percent INCREASE. So you can’t seriously argue that the anti-war movement succeeded so far as the voting public was concerned. And Nixon’s impeachment had nothing to do with the war in Vietnam.
Don Olson still has a wonderful radio show on KFAI every Thursday from 1:00 to 2:00. You can tune it, live stream it, or listen to the archives.
It’s always amazed me that NO ONE in the local media has EVER interviewed Don, included him on a panel or discussion (hint hint Almanac).
You can usually find Don down at May Day book store after his show by the way if you ever want to meet an interesting guy who’s dedicated his life to social justice and peace.