0:02

Previously on SNAFU.

0:04

FBI record stolen from the media Pennsylvania

0:06

office showed that one goal of the bureau was

0:08

to spread that very impression among left

0:11

wing organizations that there was an agent

0:13

behind every male box.

0:14

We just knew that Hoover was beside

0:17

himself that this had happened. He

0:19

dispatched two hundred agents to

0:21

flood the Philadelphia area to find

0:24

us.

0:25

Who decided, We're not getting together as a group ever

0:27

again.

0:28

We really parted ways.

0:31

I knew that the only way that they could find

0:33

us was through somebody talk.

0:45

It had been three and a half months since the media

0:47

burglary, and the FBI's hunt for the burglars

0:49

was going nowhere. They'd interviewed

0:52

hundreds of suspects but failed to turn up anything

0:54

useful. All the fingerprints they could

0:56

identify from the crime scene turned

0:58

out to belong to FBIA Jens. The

1:01

g men even hired a quote unquote staple

1:03

expert to examine the packets of stolen

1:05

documents distributed by the burglars, but

1:08

shockingly, his conclusion that

1:10

at least five different types of staples

1:12

had been used did not lead

1:15

to a major breakthrough. The

1:17

FBI was grasping at

1:19

Staples. But

1:22

all that changed on June twenty fifth, nineteen

1:24

seventy one, three and a half months

1:26

after the Media burglary. On that

1:29

day, a contractor named Bob Hardy

1:32

walked into an FBI office in Camden,

1:34

New Jersey, just a stone's throw

1:36

from Media, Pennsylvania, and handed

1:38

the FBI exactly the break

1:41

they'd been looking for. Hardy

1:44

was fair haired, with a square jaw and big

1:46

ears. He told the agents that he knew

1:48

some people who were planning on burglarising

1:50

the local draft board office in Camden.

1:53

Here's Betty Medzger.

1:55

He had just learned that some friends were

1:58

planning on raiding a draft board,

2:00

the Camden draft Board, and

2:03

that he liked them and

2:06

he would like to

2:08

help protect him from doing that. But

2:10

they thought the FBI ought to know that

2:12

some people were thinking of this, and.

2:15

Not just any random people.

2:17

The leaders of wait for

2:19

it, the Catholic

2:21

Peace Movement. Suddenly,

2:26

out of nowhere, the Medburg investigation

2:29

had a promising lead that

2:31

they hadn't found an ounce of evidence to prove

2:33

it. The FBI had been assuming, literally

2:36

since day one, that those dastardly

2:39

pastors and parishioners in the Catholic

2:41

Peace Movement were responsible

2:43

for the media burglary.

2:45

The FBI agents were

2:47

thrilled, absolutely thrilled,

2:50

because they just assumed

2:53

that people in this group might

2:55

be related to the media burglary,

2:58

and so on the spot, he was

3:00

hired as an informer.

3:03

Hardy's FBI handlers instructed

3:05

him to infiltrate the group planning the draft

3:07

board raid and to do everything he could to

3:09

keep the plot moving forward. Hoover

3:12

monitored the situation closely, maybe

3:14

even obsessively. He poured

3:16

agents and resources into Camden, totally

3:19

convinced that the media burglars were

3:21

influential members of the Catholic Peace

3:23

Movement. This was his chance

3:25

to catch the people who'd embarrassed him red

3:27

handed in the middle of another break

3:29

in. Here's the thing,

3:31

the Catholic Peace Movement and the citizens

3:34

commissioned to investigate the FBI were

3:36

not the same thing. Bill

3:39

Davidon, architect of the media break in,

3:42

had nothing to do with the Camden

3:44

draft Board raid. In fact,

3:46

he purposely excluded one of the Camden leaders

3:49

from his plans in media because he knew

3:51

the FBI was keeping close tabs on

3:53

the guy. Hoover was taking

3:55

a big swing based entirely on a hunch.

3:58

But even a sumptuous, conniving, paranoid,

4:01

racist, old broken clock is

4:03

right twice a day, because,

4:05

as it turns out, two of the

4:07

media burglars were involved

4:10

in Camden. And that's how

4:12

Keith Forsyth and Bob Williamson

4:15

fell right into the clutches of Jade

4:17

Gar Hoover. I'm

4:19

met Helms and this is Snaffo,

4:21

A show about history's greatest screw

4:24

ups. Season two medburg

4:26

the story of a daring heist and the

4:28

colossal FBI snaffoo.

4:31

It exposed this

4:33

week a failed raid, a triple

4:35

cross, and the trial of the Camden

4:38

twenty eight.

4:56

In the wake of the media.

4:57

Burglary, most of the participants laid

5:00

John and Bonnie Rains swore off criminal

5:02

activity for good. Judy Feinegeld left

5:05

the East Coast all together and started

5:07

a new life out west. But

5:09

Bob Williamson wasn't quite ready to

5:11

stop. Just a few months after

5:13

the media action, he got a call from a

5:15

friend telling him the usual suspects

5:17

from the Catholic Peace Movement were

5:19

planning a draft board raid in Camden,

5:21

New Jersey.

5:23

Bob wanted in.

5:26

I said, Oh, Camden, that's my draft board. That

5:29

was the draft board that I was registered

5:31

in. I had gone to high school in Camden. I knew

5:33

the city pretty well. There were large

5:36

numbers of minority people and

5:38

they were the ones that were getting drafted and

5:41

sent to fight.

5:42

Keith, fresh off his heroic pride

5:44

barring of the media FBI office door,

5:47

also got involved. He was

5:49

determined to strike another blow against

5:51

the war machine, even though he

5:53

had some reservations about the size of

5:55

the team.

5:57

It just seemed like to me, there was like too many

5:59

people, and an awful

6:01

lot of brand new people that I wasn't

6:03

quite sure exactly what they were doing.

6:06

Keith had a point. The Camden crew was

6:08

more than three times the size of the media

6:10

group. There's a direct correlation

6:12

between the number of people involved in your criminal

6:14

plot and the chances of getting busted.

6:17

In other words, there's a reason it was Oceans

6:20

eleven and not Ocean's thirty

6:22

eight ten.

6:23

Ou to do it anything?

6:25

Do you think we need one more?

6:27

All right, we'll get one more.

6:29

But then again, this was a much more

6:31

complex job than the media break in.

6:34

In order to get up on the fire

6:36

escape, you had to pull down this

6:38

ladder and some kind of alarm

6:41

on it, so we cut the wire to that. There

6:43

were a couple of tools that we needed

6:46

to be able to get into the building.

6:48

And maybe that's why the team was so quick

6:50

to welcome a friendly neighborhood contractor

6:53

named Bob Hardy.

6:54

And walkie Talkies was one of them.

6:56

They were a little expensive, but Hardy you always

6:59

managed to come up with the tools the team

7:01

needed.

7:02

And gave us the impression

7:04

that he'd paid for it with his own money.

7:06

Hardy's handiness and extensive tool collection

7:09

apparently made up for his lack of anti war

7:11

credentials.

7:13

Bob Hardy was not a pacifist. There

7:15

wasn't anything about him that seemed that

7:17

way. So in

7:19

that sense, he just didn't seem to

7:21

fit.

7:23

Somebody had to go out and make a grocery

7:25

run, and somehow or other it ended up

7:27

being me and Hardy in his van and he

7:29

said, well, if there is a problem

7:31

with the guard, I got something for you, and

7:34

he said it's in the glove compartment.

7:36

So I opened the glove compartment and

7:38

there's a revolver in there, and

7:40

I'm like, are you nuts? You

7:45

think I'm going to shoot a minimum wage

7:47

guard to keep from going to jail for breaking

7:49

into a draft board. What the hell is wrong with you?

7:52

And I really should have told everybody

7:54

about that.

7:57

What Geek didn't know was that the van radio

8:00

was bugged and the entire conversation

8:03

was being broadcast directly to the

8:05

FBI.

8:09

The Feds had.

8:10

Been watching the entire operation like

8:12

hawks. In their minds. This

8:14

had to be the same group that embarrassed them

8:16

in media just a few months earlier, and

8:19

this time the FBI was

8:21

going to catch them in the act. As

8:24

Bob Keith and the others prepared to break

8:27

into the federal building, at least eighty g

8:29

men and dozens of other federal agents

8:31

took up positions nearby. Many

8:34

waited within the building itself, but others

8:36

had to hide inside a local funeral home,

8:38

spending the evening in eerie silence

8:41

with corpses for company

8:45

in Washington. Hoover was up all night

8:47

with Attorney General John Mitchell monitoring

8:49

the situation in Camden. Throughout

8:52

the evening, they exchanged calls with President

8:54

Nixon, who was following along closely

8:56

from his house in Orange County, California.

8:59

Forget I'll leaversus Frasier for

9:01

the President and his highest law enforcement

9:03

officials. This was the fight of

9:05

the century. After

9:09

a delay of roughly two hours, they forgot

9:12

their ladder and had to go back for it. The

9:14

burglars entered the Camden Federal

9:16

Building, home of the Camden

9:18

Draft Board. This was an

9:20

enormous and well guarded office building,

9:23

equipped with an alarm system, and located

9:25

right in the middle of the city,

9:27

precisely the kind of target build Davidon

9:30

wouldn't have touched with a ten foot pole.

9:33

It was on one of the top floors, eighth floor,

9:36

something like that of that Federal building.

9:39

Bob and a few others scaled the fire escape

9:41

and disconnected the alarm using a

9:43

glass cutter. They made a hole in the office window.

9:47

Now that they were in the inside crew

9:49

removed draft files and placed them in

9:51

sacks, passing them out the window to Bob.

9:54

For about two hours, they quietly went about

9:56

their work. Then just after

9:58

four point thirty in the morning, the Feds

10:01

swooped in.

10:03

And then I hear this guy

10:05

yelled freeze. I look

10:07

around and he's got a gun pointed at

10:09

me.

10:11

Keith was at a secondary location with a few

10:13

other members of the team. As soon

10:15

as he heard a car pull up outside, it

10:18

all clicked. Bob Hardy

10:20

had sold them out.

10:22

I mean, I realized it as soon as I heard

10:24

his tire screech. I'm

10:26

like, I was right. I'm a dumb ass. I

10:28

should have said something. They

10:33

came through the doors, guns drawn and

10:36

put us up against the wall. One

10:39

of them had a shotgun, so he pushes my face

10:41

back up against the wall with the business end of the shotgun,

10:44

which really pissed me off.

10:46

And the FBI agent. Everybody's in a good mood

10:49

among the FBI agents.

10:51

And even though the Feds have just gotten one

10:53

over on him, Bob can't resist the

10:55

opportunity to wipe the smiles off their

10:57

faces.

10:58

And they had a cheer that went like

11:01

this, am I

11:03

allowed to say four letter words, go

11:05

for it, man, Okay?

11:07

So I said what do we eat?

11:09

And they all yelled back eagle

11:12

me and I said what do they

11:15

eat?

11:15

And they said, shit, what

11:20

do we what

11:22

do they sure?

11:24

What do we? They

11:31

Soon a young Dan Rather was announcing

11:33

the dramatic arrests on CBS.

11:36

The FBI arrested twenty persons in

11:38

Camden, New Jersey, early today and charged

11:40

them with trying.

11:41

To steal draft records from the federal building there.

11:45

The following morning, Hoover took a victory lap.

11:47

He and Attorney General John Mitchell held

11:49

a triumphant press conference to announce the arrests.

11:53

This was a highly unorthodox, one

11:55

might even say, petty thing to do,

11:58

but hey, Hoover was feling

12:00

himself. The FBI was about

12:02

to turn a huge embarrassment into

12:04

a massive victory. Hoover even

12:06

wrote a letter to Henry Kissinger bragging about

12:08

his success. He just caught the media

12:11

burglars. It was only a matter

12:13

of time before one of them confessed.

12:16

I was in that room by myself, with

12:19

handcuffed to the desk until

12:22

about noon the next day.

12:24

One of the FBI agents has a copy of

12:27

I don't know Time or Newsweek or

12:29

one of those.

12:30

The cover story.

12:32

The headliner on the cover story was America's

12:34

prisons. How bad are they really?

12:37

So the FBI agents going like

12:39

this with the cover over like, pretending

12:41

to read it, making sure we all see it,

12:43

you know, I'm like, jeez, you

12:46

guys are lame.

12:50

Out of the group that came to be known as the Camden

12:52

twenty eight Bob and Keith were the only ones

12:54

with any knowledge of what happened in media.

12:58

I wasn't worried because I knew Bob was going

13:00

to talk, and I knew I wasn't going to talk, So

13:03

you know, I'm like, okay, send me to jail.

13:09

Internal FBI memos, which Betty Medzger

13:12

later unearthed, show that Hoover and his

13:14

cronies were very pleased with the press coverage

13:16

of the arrests, but increasingly

13:18

concerned as the days wore

13:20

on and nobody confessed

13:23

to the media burglary hit

13:25

him hard and turn the spotlight of public

13:27

opinion against them.

13:28

Now.

13:29

One of Hoover's deputies recommended in a

13:31

memo, heavy pressure, he wrote,

13:34

will likely serve as the means to obtain

13:36

admissions regarding the FBI media

13:38

burglary. That pressure

13:40

came when the charges against the Camden twenty

13:42

eight were announced seven felonies

13:45

per person, meaning the possibility

13:48

of decades in prison.

13:50

Forty seven years would have been

13:52

the maximum, And that was true for

13:55

I think most of us in the twenty eight were

13:57

facing forty seven. There were a few that were facing

13:59

a little bit less.

14:02

Eventually, the camped in twenty eight made bail

14:04

and convened to strategize. They

14:06

knew they had an easy way out plead

14:08

guilty and they'd avoid the maximum sentence,

14:11

maybe even avoid prison altogether. But

14:13

as they conferred, they reached

14:15

a surprising conclusion.

14:18

We wanted to trial. By that time,

14:20

we had time to get over the shock of the addressed

14:23

and I was, for one, I was

14:26

ready. I wanted to do it.

14:29

I think it started with Father Doyle, and

14:31

you know, he said that he thought that part

14:34

of our witness against Vietnam was

14:37

our willingness to suffer

14:39

for our beliefs, and he thought

14:41

it was important. The suffering was

14:43

important, just like Jesus's suffering

14:45

was important to him in religious terms,

14:48

and so we should try to put

14:50

the war on trial. That was also,

14:53

you know, everybody agreed with that. That was unanimous.

14:57

It was virtually inevitable that you

14:59

are, we're going to get caught. That

15:02

was not the end of the opportunity

15:04

to further the cause of ending the war. That

15:07

was another opportunity

15:10

to persuade people that the war was wrong.

15:13

They wanted a jury to hear their case,

15:16

not just what they did, but why

15:18

they did it.

15:19

What we wanted was to persuade

15:22

the jury that the war was

15:24

wrong and that it had to be stopped,

15:27

and that our action was an

15:29

attempt to find a jury

15:32

who would set us free and end

15:34

the war.

15:36

The Camden twenty eight was going

15:38

to put the war on trial.

15:42

Our idea was what's called jury

15:44

nullification, where the jury

15:46

says, yeah, you broke the law, but we

15:49

think you did the right thing.

15:51

Jury nullification means a jury can find

15:53

a defendant not guilty even if

15:55

they totally did the crime in question.

15:58

The jury can rule that the law deserved

16:01

to be broken. In other words,

16:04

the morality of the situation trumps

16:06

the legality. But jury

16:09

nullification is a long shot,

16:11

to say the least. It basically never

16:13

happens. For this to work, the

16:15

Camden twenty eight would need a hard break

16:17

with traditional courtroom strategy. They'd

16:20

have to connect with the jury on a human level.

16:23

So contrary to what any reasonable defense attorney

16:25

would advise, they decided

16:27

they'd testify and explain

16:29

in their own words why they

16:31

broke the law. Some of them,

16:34

Bob included, even chose to represent

16:36

themselves in a typical criminal

16:38

trial.

16:39

This is a terrible idea because

16:42

well, you're not a lawyer.

16:44

But then again, this was not shaping

16:46

up to be a typical criminal trial, and

16:49

before it even began, there was

16:51

one more tragic twist.

17:00

Slowly began to realize

17:02

that Bob Hardy,

17:04

who had been working with us,

17:07

had indeed been an informer.

17:11

This is father Michael Doyle in an old interview.

17:14

He was Bob Hardy's priest and one of

17:16

the Camden twenty eight.

17:17

I had known him for some

17:20

years and his family, and

17:22

I felt had been helpful to him,

17:25

and indeed he to me.

17:27

Father Doyle, an Irish immigrant, had recently

17:29

guided Hardy through his conversion to Catholicism.

17:32

After that, he'd been the one to invite

17:34

Hardy into the group planning the Camden raid.

17:38

So realizing that he had

17:40

been the informer all along was

17:42

hard for me, and I felt angry and upset

17:46

and basically betrayed.

17:48

A few weeks after the arrests, Bob Hardy was

17:50

inside his house talking to a reporter. He

17:53

told his son Billy to go play outside.

17:56

Billy, who was nine years old, went

17:58

out and, having nothing better to

18:01

do, climbed a tree. But he

18:03

fell, and he fell on a fence

18:06

and tragically was impaled

18:08

on the fence and he was a wonderful

18:11

boy and I knew him very well. I

18:13

remember particularly going down to see

18:15

him in Cooper Hospital and

18:19

sitting in the waiting

18:21

room was Bob Hardie

18:23

and Michael Rymer, FBI

18:26

agent who was the Hardy

18:29

contact for the CAMT in twenty

18:31

eight uh, and I remember the three

18:33

of us sitting on a couch. Somehow

18:37

my mind was uh twisting in

18:39

some kind of unreality. There

18:41

was only one thing that was real, and

18:43

that was a child was dying. And

18:46

I remember driving out of that hospital that day

18:49

and and banging on my no

18:53

the h in front of my car, and

18:55

just time on to feel the

18:58

the feel of

19:00

of something that was there and real.

19:03

And he died on the

19:05

third of October nineteen seventy

19:07

one.

19:12

Father Doyle conducted the funeral mass

19:14

at his church in Camden.

19:17

It was an extraordinary funeral in the

19:19

sense that the family was there,

19:22

and the Camden

19:24

twenty eight was there, and

19:28

some of its more

19:30

active supporters were there,

19:33

all of them supporting Bob

19:35

Hardy and sympathizing with the family

19:37

and their tragedy.

19:40

So even facing decades in prison

19:43

from Hardy's betrayal, the Camden

19:45

twenty eight showed up anyway to

19:48

support Hardy in his darkest hour.

19:51

Meanwhile, just across the aisle sat

19:53

a crowd of clean cut federal agents,

19:56

some of whom Hardy had never even seen

19:58

before.

20:00

It would be hard to believe

20:03

that a host of FBI

20:06

agents who really didn't

20:08

know Bob Hardy were there

20:11

out of genuine human

20:13

sympathy. He

20:15

just had the feeling they were there to

20:18

make sure of their man that he held

20:20

up for their agenda,

20:23

which was to convict

20:26

the Canon twenty eight for j Edgar Hoover.

20:30

In the aftermath of the funeral, Hardy

20:32

talked to his wife about the upcoming trial.

20:35

I think he just had an attack of conscience

20:38

and he I think was touched

20:40

by Michael's christian

20:43

like behavior.

20:46

Hardy decided he had to tell the truth,

20:49

the whole truth, that he hadn't just

20:51

been an informant, but also

20:53

a provocateur helping the FBI

20:56

make the break in happen. Hardy

20:58

was still going to testify, but not

21:01

as a witness for the prosecution. He

21:03

was going to testify as a witness

21:06

for the Camden twenty eight. On

21:20

February fifth, nineteen seventy three, the trial

21:22

of the Camden twenty eight began, and the same

21:24

federal building where they'd been arrested.

21:27

Betty Medsger, the journalists who had published

21:29

the contents of the files stolen from media,

21:32

was assigned to cover it. The lead

21:34

prosecutor was John Berry.

21:37

My principal concern going in was

21:39

that it was going to be the swactive Clow.

21:42

Was it a frustrating situation?

21:43

Not at all, Not at all. I really

21:46

didn't care, because the one thing we had

21:48

in this case was substantial abinism

21:50

was not.

21:51

On the surface. Barry's task looked pretty

21:53

straightforward. After all, the defendants

21:55

weren't even pretending they hadn't done the crime.

21:58

Plus, the judge, the Honorable clarks And S.

22:00

Fisher, was conservative, an

22:03

Army veteran who had been appointed by Richard Dixon.

22:06

In the defense's opening statement, Father Doyle

22:08

asked the jury who had really gone

22:11

too far, the military that had

22:13

waged a brutal war in Vietnam for twelve

22:15

years, or the civilians simply

22:18

trying to end it. He painted

22:20

a vivid, shocking picture of the brutality

22:22

of war, referencing the violence,

22:25

bombs and bodies torn

22:27

apart. But

22:30

then it was time for the prosecution to call its

22:32

witnesses. John Berry asked a long

22:34

line of FBI agents the same questions.

22:37

Did you see people break into the office?

22:40

Yes?

22:41

Did they destroy draft board files? Yep?

22:44

Are the perpetrators in this room? You

22:47

betcha, there's a couple dozen of them

22:49

right there. Agent after

22:51

agent testified to the same basic

22:53

facts. This

22:56

went on for weeks, so it

22:58

must have been a nice break in the monotony whenever

23:01

Bob Williamson got up to cross examine

23:03

the very agents who'd arrested him.

23:06

This was Bob's chance. He stood

23:08

in front of the court holding copies of the stolen

23:10

media files.

23:12

We weren't allowed to admit those documents

23:14

as evidence because it couldn't be established,

23:18

you know, what their provenance was.

23:24

But he could still use them as he questioned

23:26

the FBI agents. We

23:28

don't have an exact record of what he asked,

23:31

but you can probably imagine what the questions

23:33

were, like, why was the bureau

23:35

spying on college kids? Why were

23:37

they tapping the phones of the local black panther

23:39

office. Oh, and why did the

23:41

FBI want Americans to feel

23:43

like there was quote an agent

23:46

behind every mailbox?

23:48

The jury was paying attention to

23:51

the questions that I was asking, and

23:54

they were noting that the FBI

23:57

agents were claiming

24:00

that they had never seen or

24:02

heard of that anywhere. Those

24:05

FBI agents must have been

24:08

exposed to some mysterious

24:12

agent that destroys memories because they

24:14

couldn't recall anything.

24:16

The point of this wasn't to force some kind of confession

24:19

out of the FBI agents. The point

24:21

was to undermine them by reminding the

24:23

jury of the abuses of power described

24:26

in the files. Abuses of power

24:28

that violated the constitutional right

24:30

of American citizens to protest a

24:32

war they felt was unjust.

24:35

So compared to what the FBI had done,

24:38

how bad was it really to tear

24:40

up some draft files?

24:42

It made our whole case of what

24:45

the FBI was up to, that

24:47

they wanted to enhance the paranoia

24:50

of the civil rights movement and

24:52

the anti war movement.

24:54

After more than two months of testimony from

24:57

the prosecution's witnesses, it was

24:59

time for the defense to call theirs.

25:05

Now.

25:05

In order to really make their case, they

25:08

were going to need Judge Fisher to agree to

25:10

some unusual motions. The

25:12

defense was planning to call a number of people who

25:15

technically had nothing at all to do with the

25:17

Camden case. They weren't really

25:19

there to testify about Camden. They

25:21

were there to testify about Vietnam.

25:25

This is from a private letter which Bob wrote

25:27

to Judge Fisher two months into the trial.

25:30

All of us need courage. Now

25:33

you the defendants, the

25:36

prosecutors, the jury, but

25:39

perhaps right now you do most

25:42

of all.

25:43

He framed the trial and the judge's

25:45

role in it, as a matter of personal courage.

25:48

He told the judge that he was undertaking a fast,

25:51

a tactic he'd learned from Gandhi. But

25:53

Bob's fast wasn't a public spectacle.

25:56

It was intended as a personal message

25:58

to the judge, a demonstration

26:00

of courage which he hoped the judge

26:03

would reciprocate.

26:04

I would not have undertaken this if

26:06

I did not believe that you are capable

26:09

of demonstrating this kind of courage.

26:12

I will continue to fast

26:14

until my sisters and brothers and

26:16

I are free.

26:18

Bob says the judge checked in with him frequently

26:20

throughout the trial, that he

26:22

seemed genuinely concerned for his well

26:24

being, and while will never

26:26

really know exactly what the judge was thinking,

26:29

his actions were encouraging to Bob and

26:32

the Camden twenty eight.

26:33

As the case moved forward,

26:36

he started ruling more in

26:38

favor of them, and as it turned out,

26:41

he started reading books about

26:43

the Vietnam War who became genuinely

26:45

interested in what was happening.

26:49

It helped that the defendants presented themselves

26:51

as respectable, conscientious citizens.

26:54

If the judge had been expecting a rabble of pot

26:56

smoking, foul mouthed hippies, what

26:58

he got instead was a group of normal

27:00

people expressing reasonable, principled

27:03

opposition to the Vietnam War. Even

27:06

John Barry, whose job was to put

27:08

the Camden twenty eight in prison, seems

27:10

to have liked them on a personal level.

27:13

Mays, people were.

27:13

Very hard to really dislike. I

27:16

think that carry rot away from century.

27:19

But Barry had a job to do.

27:21

He needed to convict the Camden twenty eight, and

27:23

the federal government needed him to

27:26

prove the link between Camden and the

27:28

media burglary. Soon

27:31

he'd have his chance. It

27:33

came when Bob Williamson called himself

27:37

to the stand. He wanted

27:39

to tell the jury his story, but his

27:41

decision to do this came with enormous

27:43

risk.

27:45

We all knew that this

27:47

would at least potentially

27:50

open the door for the prosecution

27:52

to start asking me, as they had

27:55

with other defendants who had taken the

27:57

stand, asked questions about my

28:00

a prior involvement in other illegal

28:02

activities.

28:05

Bob told his story how Gandhi and Martin

28:07

Luther King Junior had inspired him

28:09

to work with the poor and to oppose

28:11

all forms of violence. It was

28:13

inspiring stuff. But then, of

28:15

course came the cross examination,

28:18

and John Barry wasn't interested in Gandhi,

28:21

he was interested in media.

28:24

So John Barry started immediately

28:26

in asking me questions about other actions. And

28:28

I said, I'm not gonna I'm not gonna

28:31

talk about that. I'm not gonna

28:33

help you prosecute my friends.

28:36

So then all the lawyers are standing up, you

28:38

know, trying to get the judge's attention.

28:42

Was At

28:45

this point, Judge Fisher had every right to

28:47

tell Bob answer the question or

28:49

you'll be held in contempt of court. If

28:52

he did, Bob would have three choices. He

28:54

could tell the truth, he could commit

28:56

perjury, or he could refuse to

28:58

answer and spend the rest of the trial

29:00

in jail. But Judge Fisher

29:03

didn't do that. Instead, he

29:05

addressed John Barry, and

29:08

the.

29:08

Judge just looks at the prosecutor

29:11

John Barry and says, mister

29:13

Barry, it's clear he's

29:15

not going to answer the question.

29:16

Move on.

29:18

Bob was off the hook, at least for

29:20

now.

29:22

Soon it was time for the other Bob, Bob

29:24

Hardy, the handyman turned criminal

29:27

turned FBI informant, turned tool

29:29

supplier turned witness for the defense.

29:32

Initially, the camp in twenty eight had considered

29:34

an entrapment defense, arguing that the

29:36

government had essentially baited them into their

29:38

crime. The problem with that was,

29:41

of course, they hadn't needed much baiting.

29:44

They totally wanted to commit this crime,

29:47

and.

29:47

Trapman would not have applied

29:49

in our case because

29:51

none of us were reluctant to break into

29:54

that draft board. But certainly they did

29:56

everything they could to make sure that that action,

29:59

you know, happened.

30:01

Nevertheless, the government had done just

30:03

about everything in its power to make sure the Camden

30:05

twenty eight broke the law. In

30:08

fact, there had been two occasions when the team

30:10

had seriously considered calling it off until

30:13

Bob Hardy came through with the tools

30:15

they needed to keep going. Hardy

30:18

had also given them crucial advice like

30:20

teaching them how to use a glass cutter. That

30:23

glass cutter and other tools that Hardy

30:26

supplied had all been entered as

30:28

evidence, so the Camden twenty

30:30

eight brought them into the courtroom to

30:32

prove that the FBI had been instrumental

30:35

to the break in. One by

30:37

one, Defense attorney David Carris picked

30:40

up the tools and asked Hardy

30:42

where they came from.

30:44

They made a pile of all of the stuff

30:46

that the government had paid for that we used

30:49

in the brake in, and then another

30:51

pile of the stuff that we had brought.

30:53

To our own one pair

30:55

of bolt cutters, FBI pile,

30:58

one hammer FBI, one

31:01

roll duct tape. Well, actually that came

31:03

from Hardy's personal toolbox, but

31:05

the walkie talkies the team used during the break

31:07

in those had been supplied

31:09

by the FBI.

31:11

I think they bought a ladder

31:13

so that we could practice ladder

31:16

climbing, which cracked

31:19

me up. They

31:22

thought we needed to practice out of climb a ladder.

31:25

When the crew needed a portable drill.

31:27

One FBI agent had actually gone to his

31:29

own house, gotten his own drill

31:32

and given it to Hardy. It was starting

31:34

to look like the FBI had been the driving

31:36

force behind the whole operation.

31:39

The government's pile was way bigger.

31:41

It was a nice visual point.

31:45

The defendants pile ultimately consisted

31:47

of just four things, two drill

31:50

bits, a quote small flat piece

31:52

of metal, and a single can of

31:54

V eight juice. I have to

31:56

assume that they threw that in there for comedic

31:58

effect. Next to that, in the middle

32:01

of the courtroom for all to see, was

32:03

the proverbial mountain of evidence that

32:05

the FBI had facilitated

32:07

a federal crime.

32:15

In a trial this.

32:16

Long, you have to do something to break the monotony.

32:19

The Camden twenty eight often began the morning

32:21

by asking to commemorate some unusual

32:23

event or anniversary.

32:25

With a moment of silence.

32:27

On March eighth, nineteen seventy three, they

32:29

asked the judge if they could begin the day by

32:31

observing the second anniversary

32:34

of the media burglary.

32:35

I said, you are you know I

32:37

must respectfully persist

32:41

on this wise, I said, somehow

32:43

seems to me to be totally inappropriate

32:45

for a federal court to be commemorating

32:47

the anniversary of an unsolved federal crime.

32:51

So I judge looked at me, and he goes

32:54

strike much recon and

32:57

the defense glad like, yeah, you flying

32:59

won.

33:05

One thing was clear, things were happening in

33:07

this courtroom that don't usually happen

33:09

in courtrooms.

33:11

A woman who was testifying, and

33:14

basically she said, well, I can't express I

33:18

can't express my views and words that have

33:20

to do with music, and he allows for playing this good

33:22

plot for about ten minutes.

33:25

Yeah, that one might have been a little overboard,

33:31

putting aside the occasional guitar player.

33:33

Other unconventional witnesses were much more

33:36

substantive. A psychiatric specialist

33:38

testified about the effects of war on the people

33:40

experiencing at firsthand. The

33:43

defense also called Major Clement Saint

33:45

Martin, a former draft board administrator,

33:47

which may seem like an odd choice, but

33:50

he'd.

33:50

Actually seen enough to

33:53

realize that the system was racist

33:55

because he could see the people getting

33:57

drafted were poor and of color, and

34:01

disproportionate to the you

34:03

know, their percentage of the population,

34:06

wildly disproportioned in some cases.

34:09

And so he quit.

34:12

Somebody asked him, you know what he thought of people breaking

34:14

into draft ws. He says, if they do it again, I think

34:16

I might join him.

34:19

Another witness for the defense was Tron Hongtoyet,

34:23

a woman who had emigrated from Vietnam. She

34:25

took the stand and described life in her homeland

34:28

before the American invasion and after.

34:31

In the name of liberty, she told a silent court

34:34

room, you have destroyed my country.

34:39

Then came the defensive star witness,

34:41

Howard zen Zen hadn't

34:44

yet written his famous People's History of the United

34:46

States, but he had helped publish the Pentagon

34:48

Papers, newly leaked documents

34:50

which showed the American government's true rationale

34:53

for the war. That made

34:55

him the perfect person to explain to

34:57

a Camden, New Jersey jury that

35:00

the US war machine was guilty and

35:02

the Camden twenty eight were innocent.

35:06

So he went into a lot of

35:08

significant detail and just

35:10

hammered home the point that

35:13

while the government was telling

35:15

our government was telling us,

35:18

the American people, that

35:20

this war was being fought to

35:23

fight communism and to keep Vietnam

35:25

Southeast Asia free, the

35:28

actual motivation for the

35:31

war and the reason why it

35:33

was being continued at such great cost,

35:37

had to do with the natural resources of the

35:39

region, primarily tin,

35:41

rubber, and oil.

35:45

By this point, the Vietnam Wars toll was

35:47

staggering. More than fifty eight

35:49

thousand Americans had lost their lives

35:52

between the armies of the North and the South.

35:55

A million Vietnamese soldiers had died.

35:58

We'll never know exactly how many pavillions

36:00

were killed, but by nineteen seventy three

36:02

the total was almost certainly higher

36:05

than one million. In

36:07

Zen's mind, there was no doubt millions

36:10

of lives had been cut short and a

36:13

nation burned for the sake

36:15

of tin, rubber and oil.

36:19

And he kept saying that over and over

36:21

again, tin rubber and oil. It made a big impact

36:24

on the jury.

36:28

Betty Good, mother of one of the defendants,

36:30

was in the audience that day, even though she

36:32

didn't approve of what the Camden twenty eight had

36:34

done. Missus Good had lost her younger

36:37

son, Paul, when he was killed in action

36:39

on June nineteenth, nineteen sixty seven.

36:41

He was three months shy of his twentieth birthday.

36:45

She went out into the hallway and the

36:48

other women were there supporting her shoes, just bawling

36:51

her eyes out because

36:53

it had just dawned on her that

36:56

the government had been lying to her

36:59

too about why we were there,

37:01

and she just felt so betrayed.

37:04

She lost a son over tin, rubber

37:06

and oil.

37:10

Zinn's testimony concluded on a Friday.

37:13

Over the weekend, missus Good asked her son

37:15

if she could testify. She didn't tell

37:17

him what she planned to say, so on Monday,

37:20

her son called her to the stand and simply

37:22

asked her about her life. Missus

37:25

Good described herself as a conservative, someone

37:27

who'd supported the war even after it claimed

37:29

the life of her son, but that had

37:32

finally changed. The following

37:34

is an excerpt from Betty Good's testimony at

37:36

the Camden trial, read by Betty

37:38

Metzger.

37:41

And I still, even until

37:43

last Friday, I still

37:46

tried to hang on to the theory

37:48

that my boy died

37:50

for his country. I realized,

37:53

you know, it was pretty stupid

37:56

of us. It was pretty stupid

37:58

of us just wallow all

38:01

that business about America

38:03

being over in South Vietnam to

38:05

save it from the Communist I

38:09

really feel guilty. I

38:11

feel guilty that we have

38:14

satisfide and let them

38:17

take our boys. Mister

38:19

Zinn said it so beautifully when

38:22

he said that they were kidnapped

38:25

literally and taken ten thousand

38:28

miles away from home. Why

38:31

should these lives be cut down

38:34

for tin rubber and oil.

38:43

To his credit, John Barry decided there was

38:45

really no benefit in the prosecution cross

38:47

examining missus Good. She

38:50

returned to the gallery. It was time

38:52

for closing arguments. In

39:06

his closing statement, Bob Williamson asked

39:08

the jury what had more significance

39:11

pieces of paper torn up in a draft

39:13

board office or the bodies of

39:15

soldiers and civilians torn to pieces

39:18

and the countless families torn apart by

39:20

the Vietnam War. And what

39:22

was more offensive the Camden twenty

39:24

eight's nonviolent crime or

39:26

the government's tireless work behind

39:29

the scenes to make it happen. In

39:31

other words, Bob was simply asking

39:34

whose motives offend you more

39:37

hours or theirs. Judge

39:40

Fisher told the jurors that if they decided

39:43

there had been a quote intolerable degree

39:45

of overreaching government participation,

39:48

they could find the defendants not guilty.

39:52

The trial had already lasted over one hundred

39:54

days by the time the jury began its deliberations.

40:00

Probably more than anything else numb, you

40:03

know, because it had been such an exhausting experience.

40:06

The jury was out deliberating for I

40:09

think two three days seemed

40:11

like it took forever. Nobody

40:13

else wanted to say, Hey, I think they're going to

40:15

find us not guilty. I didn't say it either,

40:18

but I know that I felt hopeful. And

40:21

then we get a phone call to go

40:24

to the courtroom because the jury had reached a verdict.

40:27

It was on a rainy Sunday afternoon.

40:30

The word went out through a

40:32

telephone tree that a verdict

40:35

was about to come in, and so we

40:37

all started driving to the Camden Courthouse.

40:40

The courthouse was starting

40:42

to fill up by the time I

40:44

got there, and certainly

40:47

all the defendants had arrived. Some

40:49

of them had their children there, and the children

40:51

were walking along the railings.

40:54

I'm talking about very small children.

40:56

As we waited, two

41:02

hundred supporters of the Camden twenty eight packed

41:04

the courtroom. Every seat was

41:06

taken. People even stood shoulder to shoulder

41:08

along the perimeter of the room. Judge

41:11

Fisher entered and addressed the audience.

41:14

He was concerned. He was concerned how

41:16

the audience might react. He saw how

41:18

big it was, and he said,

41:22

we have to go through a lot of

41:24

defendants and ask the jury

41:26

foreman about each one on

41:29

each count.

41:30

Judge Fisher asked that there'd be no interruptions

41:33

or outbursts. As the verdicts were read, he

41:36

called the jurors in. They took their

41:38

seats.

41:39

They'd looked very, very tired, and

41:42

so he called on the jury foreman

41:45

and said, do you have verdicts? And he

41:47

said he did.

41:50

The accused sat shoulder to shoulder at

41:53

long tables near the front of the room. They

41:55

were two floors below the very draft

41:57

board offices they had raided.

41:59

Twenty one months earlier.

42:01

So of course we're all very nervous

42:04

in everything, but of course the

42:06

adrenaline was just going crazy in

42:09

my body.

42:11

The judge began alphabetically with

42:14

defendant Terry Buccaloo, and

42:16

he asked the jury foreman what the

42:19

verdict was on count

42:21

one for Terry Bucaloo, and

42:24

he said, not guilty.

42:27

There was this sort of.

42:30

Stunned feeling,

42:32

and then the judge went through each of the

42:35

of the counts and ask

42:37

him the same question, and

42:41

each time the jury foreman said,

42:44

uh, not guilty.

42:47

There was a kind of a murmur in the courtroom,

42:49

and the judge says, to the four

42:52

person, do you have any other verdicts

42:54

on any of the other defendants that

42:57

are different? On any of these counts.

43:00

Foreman said no, your honor. So

43:03

at that point it

43:06

was bedlam.

43:10

First, it was like people were sort

43:13

of gasping, almost. The

43:15

defendants were looking

43:17

at each other in these

43:20

at first puzzled ways, and

43:23

then very happy,

43:27

very grateful prase, I'm sorry, and

43:31

they started embracing each other. And

43:34

the people in the in

43:36

the audience were also stunned,

43:39

and they started singing

43:42

Amazing Grace, and

43:46

it was a little difficult for them because

43:50

many of them the tears were streaming down their

43:52

faces as they were trying to sing.

43:54

It just sounded beautiful.

43:56

I mean, it was just it

43:58

was just such the the perfect

44:00

thought of, the perfect way to

44:03

show our appreciation for what had just happened.

44:06

The judge was smiling as

44:08

he left the room. I

44:11

was standing right behind the

44:13

prosecutors, and then I realized

44:16

that the Chief Prosecutor, John Barry,

44:19

had walked from his position

44:22

at the prosecutor's table over to the

44:24

defendants. Everybody had

44:26

that look of and what

44:28

do I do on their faces, and

44:32

he put out his hand to one

44:34

of them, and as he shook hands,

44:37

the handshake turned into an embrace

44:40

of the defendant, and

44:42

then he just kept moving from defendant

44:45

to defendant, and then he walked

44:47

back to his seat, and he turned around

44:50

and he said to me, it

44:52

ended the way it should have ended. I

44:56

certainly don't think that any

44:58

prosecutor in any anti war

45:00

trial, and perhaps any case

45:03

that I've ever known of, has said such

45:05

a thing.

45:08

I had to go to the bathroom, and

45:11

so I went into the men's room, and

45:15

there was like four stalls,

45:17

and three of them were occupied, and one in the

45:20

center was open. So I went to that

45:22

one, and on either side of me was

45:24

an FBI agent, And after we

45:26

all finished our business, they both

45:28

shook my hand and congratulated

45:31

me and wished me luck.

45:34

The defendants started to gather in the halls outside

45:37

the courtroom, where they were welcomed by singing

45:39

supporters and a throng of TV

45:41

cameras.

45:49

This was the scene in the courthouse lobby minutes

45:51

after the not guilty verdicts were announced. More

45:53

than one hundred relatives and friends were present

45:56

as the defendant's two year ordeal ended.

45:58

Betty Good, who had lost one

46:01

son in Vietnam and had another son

46:03

amongst the Camden twenty eight, couldn't

46:05

believe the outcome.

46:06

She was practically giddy with relief.

46:09

I thought it would be a hung jury.

46:11

But I didn't know any of the people accept my son

46:13

and know the most beautiful.

46:14

People in the world.

46:15

I had to go back and convert my husband, not

46:18

only my husband, but might family.

46:19

But a husband's a good fellow.

46:21

But you know he was, so he was who's afraid to come today?

46:23

Because he was afraid, you know, that verdict would be bad,

46:27

so he didn't come.

46:28

It was clear to anyone watching this wasn't

46:30

just a victory for the Camden twenty eight. It

46:33

was a victory for every American who had fought

46:35

to end the war in Vietnam.

46:37

We did it.

46:38

After five years.

46:40

We finally made sense to them.

46:42

We've been having a guilty, guilty,

46:44

guilty for five years for proposing this war, and

46:47

we finally got not guilty.

46:48

The people understood.

46:50

I was surprised, pleasantly,

46:53

but still surprised. It was Sue was really

46:55

intense. This group of

46:58

twelve regular people were

47:00

saying that we were right and the government was

47:02

wrong. Far as I knew,

47:04

none of these people had ever participated

47:07

even you know, they hadn't even written a letter

47:10

to the editor against Vietnam, let alone

47:12

done anything else, and I'm

47:14

like, damn, we are getting somewhere.

47:16

It was a great victory for the movement.

47:19

I remember turning around and

47:22

seeing John and Vonnie Rains and

47:25

they were all smiles and

47:30

they were just very, very happy. There

47:32

were some tears on their faces.

47:37

John Rains would later say that at that very

47:39

moment he decided he needed to go on

47:42

a diet. He wanted to look good

47:44

in a suit in case he was eventually

47:46

arrested for the media burglary and went to

47:48

trial, because the Camden verdict

47:51

gave him hope that a potential trial

47:53

might not send him straight to prison, but

47:55

rather give him a platform to tell the world

47:58

that his cause had been just and that

48:00

the FBI's was not. The

48:03

Camden twenty eight were free, and it wasn't

48:05

just a victory for the defendants. It was

48:08

also a massive embarrassment for

48:10

the FBI. When

48:12

the trial began, the bureau thought not

48:14

only was this a slam dunk, but

48:16

it would also be an end to the media saga,

48:19

a satisfying conclusion where the

48:21

g men put a whole bunch of bad guys behind

48:24

bars, just like they did on that corny

48:26

FBI TV show. Instead,

48:29

the cracks originally exposed in the media,

48:32

burglary had only split wider

48:35

and the story still wasn't over.

48:38

The whole damn dam was about

48:40

to burst.

48:44

Next week on SNAFU and

48:47

flipping through the pages, I noticed

48:49

one.

48:51

It said Cohen Telpro new

48:53

List.

48:54

As for the records at FBI headquarters, they

48:56

were put in a special file called the.

48:58

Do not file.

49:00

Subsequently, we learned to find a lot of those people

49:02

where in fact not only agent Provoca

49:05

tools but undercover officers.

49:07

It's a very sad spectacle and

49:09

that's just you know, one of probably

49:12

two Salzaners.

49:13

So cases like throughout

49:16

the country.

49:16

There has never been a full public accounting

49:19

of FBI domestic intelligence operations.

49:22

Therefore, this committee has undertaken such

49:24

an investigation.

49:26

Snafu is a production of iHeartRadio,

49:28

Film, Nation Entertainment, and Pacific Electric

49:31

Picture Company in association with Gilded

49:33

Audio. This season of Snaffoo

49:35

is based on the book of the Burglary, The Discovery

49:37

of j Edgar Hoover's Secret FBI, written

49:40

by Betty Metzger.

49:42

It's executive produced by me Ed Helms,

49:44

Milan.

49:45

Papelka, Mike Walbo, Whitney, Donaldson,

49:47

Andy Chug, Dylan Fagan, and Betty

49:49

Metzger. Our lead producers

49:51

are Sarah Joyner and Alyssa Martine. Producer

49:54

is Stephen Wood. This episode

49:56

was written by Albert Chen, Sarah Joyner and Stephen

49:59

Wood, with the dish writing and story editing from

50:01

Melissa Martino and Ed Helms. Tory

50:04

Smith is our associate producer. Nevin

50:06

Callapoly is our production assistant. Fact

50:09

checking by Charles Richter. Our creative

50:11

executive is Brett Harris. Sensitivity

50:13

consult from Olowa Kemi, Ala de Suiy,

50:16

editing, sound design and original music by

50:18

Ben Chugg, Engineering and technical

50:20

direction by Nick Dooley. Additional editing

50:22

from Kelsey Albright, Olivia Canny

50:25

and Jimma Castelli Foley. Theme

50:27

music by Dan Rosatto. Special

50:29

thanks to Alison Cohen, Daniel Welsh, and

50:31

Ben Rizak. Additional thanks to director

50:34

Joanna Hamilton for letting us use some of the original

50:36

interviews from her incredible documentary

50:39

nineteen seventy one. Finally,

50:41

our deepest gratitude to the courageous

50:43

Citizens Commission to Investigate the FBI,

50:46

Bill Davidon, Ralph Daniel, Judy

50:48

Finegold, Keith Forsyth, Bonnie

50:51

Rains, John Rains, Sarah Schumer

50:53

and Bob Williamson

51:00

Co