# Marshall Ledbetter > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Marshall_Ledbetter > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Marshall_Ledbetter.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_Ledbetter > Source revision: 1288520409 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{Use mdy dates|date=September 2023}} {{Short description|American known for a strange protest (1969–2003)}} {{Infobox artist | name = Marshall Ledbetter | image = File:M ledbetter.jpg | imagesize = | caption = Marshall Ledbetter circa 2001 | birth_name = Marshall Ledbetter, Jr. | birth_date = {{Birth date|1969|06|10}} | birth_place = | death_date = {{death date and age|2003|07|14|1969|06|10}} | death_place = | nationality = | field = protest }} '''Marshall Ledbetter, Jr.''' (June 10, 1969 – July 14, 2003) was an American photographer, [psychedelics](/source/psychedelics) enthusiast, iconoclast, and unconventional protester. ==Protest== In the early morning of June 14, 1991, Ledbetter, then a student at [Florida State University](/source/Florida_State_University), broke into the [Florida State Capitol](/source/Florida_State_Capitol) building and phoned a number of odd demands from the office of Wayne Todd, the Sergeant At Arms of the [Florida Senate](/source/Florida_Senate). This triggered a police standoff (the police were not sure whether Ledbetter was armed or if he might have a hostage) that eventually ended peacefully. One recounting of the events stated: {{blockquote|One night in 1991, Ledbetter broke a window and walked unopposed into the state capitol building in [Tallahassee, Florida](/source/Tallahassee%2C_Florida). Once inside, the 22-year-old Ledbetter blockaded himself into an administrative office wing and called the police, demanding that society wake up and stop being automaton clones of one another and making all sorts of crazy demands of the State Police.{{cite news |title=Student holds up Capitol |date=June 15, 1991 |website=www.tampabay.com |url-access=limited |url=https://www.tampabay.com/archive/1991/06/15/student-holds-up-capitol/}} }} He told them that he wanted (among other things) a large Gumby's pizza, a case of beer and $100 worth of Chinese food. The demand note was not sent directly to the police but was faxed to the song request fax line of Gulf 104, a local rock station. The police surrounded the capitol building and set up [SWAT](/source/SWAT) teams and [sniper](/source/sniper)s throughout the area, while Marshall Ledbetter demanded that the police get the following people on the telephone so that he could talk to them: [Timothy Leary](/source/Timothy_Leary), [Jello Biafra](/source/Jello_Biafra), [Ice Cube](/source/Ice_Cube) and [Lemmy Kilmister](/source/Lemmy_Kilmister). {{blockquote|...[T]he standoff lasted several hours until a Capitol Television reporter named Mike Vasilinda talked Ledbetter out of the office by reading his list of demands over the closed circuit television system in the Capitol. Within minutes of the fake broadcast, Ledbetter opened the door and crawled out as police subdued him. He was arrested on B&E charges.}} frame|The demands note from Marshall Ledbetter Wayne Todd remembered the event this way: {{blockquote|"I was at a fishing tournament and got a call saying there was a hostage situation in my office", said Todd. "The maid had come in around 7:30 in the morning and he threw a liquor bottle at her."
As the SWAT team took Ledbetter out of the building, Todd said, "I told Larry Campbell [Leon County Sheriff] to get that liquor bottle out of his hand before the press got in to see us."{{cite web |url=http://www.polkonline.com/stories/062799/sta_retire.shtml |title=PolkOnline the Web Site of the News Chief: The State News Section |website=www.polkonline.com |access-date=13 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040119212738/http://www.polkonline.com/stories/062799/sta_retire.shtml |archive-date=19 January 2004 |url-status=dead}}}} Of the many apocryphal stories surrounding Ledbetter's standoff, perhaps none is more famous than the request for donuts contained in his demand note. While it was widely reported that Ledbetter had asked for "666 jelly donuts", a read of his actual demand note clearly shows he was ordering donuts from Dunkin' Donuts for the police: "666 [Dunkin' Donuts](/source/Dunkin'_Donuts) for my fine friends in the TPD ([Tallahassee Police Department](/source/Tallahassee_Police_Department)), FSUPD ([Florida State University Police Department](/source/Florida_State_University_Police_Department)) and the LCSD ([Leon County Sheriff's Department](/source/Leon_County_Sheriff's_Department))." After the standoff, Marshall was taken to the [Florida State Hospital](/source/Florida_State_Hospital) at [Chattahoochee](/source/Chattahoochee%2C_Florida) where he was eventually forced by court order to accept [anti-psychotic](/source/anti-psychotic) drug treatment. On the Florida State campus that fall (especially among the members of student government party the [Monarchy Party](/source/Monarchy_Party)), Marshall became something of a folk hero, with a few souls wearing homemade "Free Marshall Ledbetter Now" T-shirts (although an account from one FSU alumna states that they were really [FMLN](/source/FMLN) shirts and buttons borrowed from a local [left-wing](/source/left-wing) group supporting [El Salvador](/source/El_Salvador)'s [Frente Farabundo Martí para la Liberación Nacional](/source/Farabundo_Mart%C3%AD_National_Liberation_Front)). Marshall unsuccessfully attempted to escape from Chattahoochee that fall. ==Personal life== Marshall grew up in [Auburndale, Florida](/source/Auburndale%2C_Florida).{{citation needed|date=July 2012}} He was an avid photographer and worked at his father's camera store, Marshall's Camera. He always seemed to have a camera and generously shared his photos.{{citation needed|date=July 2012}} He was an enthusiast of the [Church of the SubGenius](/source/Church_of_the_SubGenius).{{cn|date=May 2023}} He had one daughter.{{citation needed|date=July 2012}} Ledbetter died by [suicide](/source/suicide) in 2003.{{cite news|title=Official Rules Death a Suicide|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1346&dat=20030716&id=0jlOAAAAIBAJ&sjid=8f0DAAAAIBAJ&pg=2453,4268854 |newspaper=Lakeland Ledger|date=July 16, 2003}} == Influence on pop culture == [Jello Biafra](/source/Jello_Biafra) penned "The Ballad of Marshall Ledbetter" for his band [Lard](/source/Lard_(band)) (the song was released in 2000). While Biafra never met Ledbetter, he said "I have spoken with him. He was lucky to get out of there alive. If it had happened now, I’m sure they would have just gone in there and blown the place up, or just done it [Waco](/source/Waco_siege)-style. He was institutionalized, and now he's back out again walking the straight and narrow. But he sends me some odd anecdotes in the mail now and then. He was somebody who had had enough of the injustice in our world and chose to do something about it in very colorful fashion. I’ve been a long time fan of creative crime. The best part about this one is, it made a statement, it was a work of art, and not a single person got hurt."{{cite web | title=Music News of the World | website=sniggle.net | date=December 20, 1996 | url=https://sniggle.net/Jello/jb3.php }} ==References== * {{cite book|last=Harrison|first=Daniel|title=Making Sense of Marshall Ledbetter: Politics, Protest, and Madness in the Florida Capitol|location=Gainesville, Florida|publisher=University Press of Florida|date=2014|isbn=978-0813060163}} ==Footnotes== {{Reflist}} == External links == * {{cite web | title=MarshallLedbetter.com | date=October 29, 2001 | url=http://marshallledbetter.com/ | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20011204030444/http://marshallledbetter.com/ | archive-date=December 4, 2001 | url-status=dead | ref={{sfnref | marshallledbetter.com | 2001}} }} {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Ledbetter, Marshall}} Category:1969 births Category:2003 suicides Category:2003 deaths Category:American SubGenii Category:People from Bartow, Florida Category:American psychedelic drug advocates --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Marshall Ledbetter](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_Ledbetter) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_Ledbetter?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.