{{Short description|American terrorist organization (1975–1984)}} {{Redirect|Ohio 7|the state highway|Ohio State Route 7|the Congressional district|Ohio's 7th congressional district}} {{Use American English|date=May 2026}} {{Use mdy dates|date=January 2024}} {{infobox war faction | name = United Freedom Front | native_name = | native_name_lang = | war = the Opposition to United States involvement in the Vietnam War | image = Recreation of the logo used by the United Freedom Front | caption = | active = October 1975 – 1984 | leaders = Raymond Luc Levasseur, Tom Manning | clans = Ohio 7 | headquarters = | area = Ohio and the Northeast of the United States | size = ~10 militants | partof = | predecessor = | successor = | allies = | split = | opponents = Government of the United States, Apartheid South Africa and associated corporations | battles = | url = }}
The '''United Freedom Front''' (UFF) was a small American revolutionary organization active in the 1970s and 1980s. It was originally called the '''Sam Melville/Jonathan Jackson Unit''', and its members became known as the Ohio 7 when they were brought to trial. Mainly led by Raymond Luc Levasseur and assisted by Tom Manning, between 1975 and 1984 the UFF carried out at least 20 bombings and ten bank robberies in the northeastern United States, targeting corporate buildings, courthouses, and military facilities associated with "South African Apartheid, imperialism, and corporate greed."<ref>{{Cite book|last=Smith|first=Brent L.|title=Terrorism in America : pipe bombs and pipe dreams|date=1994|publisher=State University of New York Press|isbn=0-585-06052-5|location=Albany|pages=111–112|language=en|oclc=42855404}}</ref><ref name="case study">{{cite web|title=Case-Study of US Domestic Terrorism: United Freedom Front|author= Phillip Jenkins|url=http://www.personal.psu.edu/faculty/j/p/jpj1/uff.htm|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120805163053/http://www.personal.psu.edu/faculty/j/p/jpj1/uff.htm|archive-date=2012-08-05|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="DaysOfRageBook"/> Brent L. Smith describes them as "undoubtedly the most successful of the leftist terrorists of the 1970s and 1980s."<ref name="smith110" /> The group's members were eventually apprehended and convicted of conspiracy, murder, attempted murder, and other charges.
==Activities==
The group was founded in 1975 as the Sam Melville/Jonathan Jackson Unit, setting off a bomb at the Massachusetts State House under that name but changed its name to the United Freedom Front later that year.<ref name="smith110">Smith 110</ref><ref name="martin" /> The initial members were Raymond Luc Levasseur and Tom Manning, and their respective spouses, Pat Gros and Carole Manning.<ref name="smith110" /> Levasseur and Tom Manning were both Vietnam War veterans, first active in Veterans Against the War, and both spent time in prison. The four had worked together in civil rights and prison reform groups before forming the UFF.<ref name="smith110" /> Four other members joined the group in the following years: Jaan Laaman and Barbara Curzi (another married couple), Kazi Toure (born Christopher King), and Richard Williams.<ref>Smith 110, 112</ref>
The UFF opposed US foreign policy in Central America, as well as South African apartheid. In March 1984, the group detonated a bomb after a warning call at an IBM building in Harrison, New York, in retaliation for the company's selling computer parts to the South African regime.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Incident Summary for GTDID: 198403190012|url=https://www.start.umd.edu/gtd/search/IncidentSummary.aspx?gtdid=198403190012|access-date=2022-02-15|website=www.start.umd.edu|archive-date=2022-01-23|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220123212836/https://www.start.umd.edu/gtd/search/IncidentSummary.aspx?gtdid=198403190012|url-status=live}}</ref>
The UFF's targets included South African Airways, Union Carbide, IBM, Mobil, courthouses, and military facilities.<ref>Smith 111</ref><ref name="case study"/><ref>{{cite news |author=Ronald Kessler |date=November 9, 1983 |title=Group Hit Other Targets, FBI Believes |url=https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP90-00806R000100010016-2.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://archive.today/20230525054001/https://www.cia.gov/readingroom/docs/CIA-RDP90-00806R000100010016-2.pdf |archive-date=2023-05-25 |newspaper=Washington Post}}</ref> The UFF called in warnings before all of its bombings, attempting to avoid casualties.<ref name="denver2" /> However, 22 people were injured in one 1976 bombing at the Suffolk County Courthouse in Boston, including a courthouse worker who lost a leg.<ref name="denver2">{{cite news|url=http://www.westword.com/1995-07-12/news/end-of-the-line/2|title=End of the Line|last=Prendergast|first=Alan|date=July 12, 1995|work=Denver News|pages=2|access-date=2009-10-28|archive-date=2010-11-18|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101118054834/http://www.westword.com/1995-07-12/news/end-of-the-line/2/|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="nicas">{{cite news|url=http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2009/11/umass_forum_sti.html|title=UMass forum stirs painful memories for courthouse bomb victim|last=Nicas|first=Jack|date=November 12, 2009|work=Boston Globe|access-date=January 20, 2010|archive-date=January 11, 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100111080250/http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2009/11/umass_forum_sti.html|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="mistrial">{{cite news |last=AP |date=November 30, 1989 |title=Judge Declares Mistrial for 3 in Sedition Case |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/11/30/us/judge-declares-mistrial-for-3-in-sedition-case.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110920221410/http://www.nytimes.com/1989/11/30/us/judge-declares-mistrial-for-3-in-sedition-case.html |archive-date=2011-09-20 |access-date=2009-10-28 |work=The New York Times}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=EJoWAAAAIBAJ&dq=united-freedom-front%20leg&pg=5681%2C5822398|title=Jury deadlocks in trial of radicals|last=AP|date=November 30, 1989|work=Wilmington Daily Star|access-date=2009-10-28}} {{Dead link|date=October 2010|bot=H3llBot}}</ref> The group was most active in the early 1980s.<ref name="martin">{{cite book|last=Martin|first=Gus|title=Understanding Terrorism: Challenges, Perspectives, and Issues|publisher=Sage|year=2009|edition=3|pages=433|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1Iwd0--ZBUcC&q=%22united+freedom+front%22+%22very+active%22&pg=PT461|isbn=978-1-4129-7059-4|access-date=2020-12-05|archive-date=2021-09-02|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210902025840/https://books.google.com/books?id=1Iwd0--ZBUcC&q=%22united+freedom+front%22+%22very+active%22&pg=PT461|url-status=live}}</ref> The UFF's members lived undercover in middle-class suburbs.<ref name="gus433">Gus 433</ref>
The UFF funded most of its activities through its bank robberies.<ref name="DaysOfRageBook">{{cite book |author=Bryan Burrough |title=Days Of Rage: America's Radical Underground, the FBI, and the Forgotten Age of Revolutionary Violence |date=2016 |publisher=Penguin Publishing Group |isbn=9780143107972 |chapter=23 - The Last Revolutionaries - The United Freedom Front, 1981 to 1984 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PAvTCwAAQBAJ&dq=Levasseur+bank&pg=PA427 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20230525025440/https://www.google.com/books/edition/Days_of_Rage/PAvTCwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Levasseur+bank&pg=PA427&printsec=frontcover |archive-date=2023-05-25 |url-status=live}}</ref> From 1974 to 1983, the UFF conducted ten bank robberies in the Northeast United States.<ref name="case study"/> Levasseur initially came up with the idea to rob Brink's armored trucks. Over time, the UFF transitioned to robbing banks. From 1980 to 1981, the group was not active, settling into a more stable lifestyle. In 1981, Levasseur and Gros move to a farmhouse outside Cambridge, New York living under fake identities. While living outside Cambridge, Levasseur recruited new members Richard Williams, Jaan Laaman, Barbara Curzi, and Kazi Toure.<ref name="DaysOfRageBook"/> With the new members, the UFF resumed bank robberies to support bombing operations.
On December 21, 1981, New Jersey State Police trooper Philip J. Lamonaco was shot dead during a routine traffic stop of Thomas Manning and Richard Williams.<ref name="LamonacoMemorial">{{cite web|url=https://www.nj.gov/njsp/memoriam/1980s/lamonaco.shtml|title=In Memoriam – 1980's – Trooper II Philip J. Lamonaco|archive-url=https://archive.today/20230525030640/https://www.nj.gov/njsp/memoriam/1980s/lamonaco.shtml|archive-date=2023-05-25|url-status=live|publisher=State of New Jersey}}</ref> Both Manning and Williams were charged with the murder of Lamonaco, alleged to have shot him eight times with a 9mm automatic pistol.<ref>{{Cite web|title=United States v. Levasseur, 619 F. Supp. 775 (E.D.N.Y. 1985)|url=https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/619/775/1798281/|access-date=2022-02-15|website=Justia Law|language=en|archive-date=2020-12-04|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201204211441/https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/district-courts/FSupp/619/775/1798281/|url-status=live}}</ref> Manning claimed he was alone in the car at the time of the shooting while the prosecution claimed Williams was present at the scene and was the shooter of Lamonaco.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Manning testified, claims self-defense|url=https://www.upi.com/Archives/1986/12/29/Manning-testified-claims-self-defense/6298536216400/|access-date=2022-02-15|publisher=United Press International|language=en|archive-date=2022-02-15|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220215051459/https://www.upi.com/Archives/1986/12/29/Manning-testified-claims-self-defense/6298536216400/|url-status=live|author=Paul Basken|date=1986}}</ref><ref name="terrorist-dies"/>
The investigation of the group intensified after the killing of the police officer, leading a federal task force to be formed in 1983. Toure was captured in North Attleboro, Massachusetts in 1982, with two state troopers wounded in the course of the arrest.<ref name="nyt">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1989/01/12/us/after-9-months-of-delays-us-tries-3-for-sedition.html|title=After 9 Months of Delays, U.S. Tries 3 for Sedition|last=AP|date=January 12, 1989|work=The New York Times|access-date=2009-10-28|archive-date=2011-09-20|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110920043355/http://www.nytimes.com/1989/01/12/us/after-9-months-of-delays-us-tries-3-for-sedition.html}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Churchill |first=Ward |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DFlIcxsGUEIC&q=jaan+laaman&pg=PA316 |title=The COINTELPRO Papers: Documents from the FBI's Secret Wars Against Dissent in the United States |author2=Jim Vander wall |publisher=South End Press |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-89608-648-7 |location=Cambridge, Mass. |pages=316 |access-date=2020-12-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220215051459/https://books.google.com/books?id=DFlIcxsGUEIC&q=jaan+laaman&pg=PA316 |archive-date=2022-02-15 |url-status=live}}</ref> On November 4, 1984, police apprehended Levasseur and Gros near Deerfield, Ohio, and Laaman, Curzi, and Williams in Cleveland.<ref name="smith112">Smith 112</ref> Tom and Carole Manning<!-- Wasn't Tom Manning sentenced to life imprisonment already? --> were captured six months later in Norfolk, Virginia.<ref name="nyt" /> Dr. Gus Martin, the author of a book on terrorism, wrote that the UFF was "the most enduring of all New Left terrorist groups of the era," evading capture for almost a decade.<ref>425</ref>
==Trials and imprisonment==
The UFF's members were tried repeatedly on various federal and state charges. In March 1986, seven of them (the so-called "Ohio Seven") were convicted of conspiracy, receiving sentences ranging from 15 to 53 years.<ref name="courtcase1985">{{cite court |url=https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=12311743846988143737&q=Thomas+Manning&hl=en&as_sdt=6,48&as_vis=1|court=United States District Court, E.D. New York|date=1985|litigants=United States of America, Plaintiff v. Raymond Luc LEVASSEUR, Jaan Karl Laaman, Thomas William Manning, Richard Charles Williams, Carol Ann Manning, Patricia Gros and Barbara Curzi, Defendants|vol=620 |reporter=F.Supp. |opinion=624 }}</ref><ref>Smith 112-13</ref> In 1987, all eight members were charged with sedition and racketeering.<ref name="Smith 113">Smith 113</ref>
Eventually five accepted plea bargains, had charges against them dropped, or were tried separately. The trial of the remaining three ended in 1989 with an acquittal for sedition for all three and an acquittal for Patricia Levasseur (formerly Gros and now Rowbottom) for RICO Conspiracy and a deadlocked jury on the substantive racketeering charges.<ref name="mistrial"/><ref name="Smith 113"/><ref name="courtcase1987">{{cite court |url=https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=14686808236388299385&hl=en&as_sdt=2&as_vis=1&oi=scholarr|court=United States Court of Appeals, Second Circuit|date= 1987|litigants=United States of America v. Ramond Levasseur, Carol Ann Manning, Thomas William Manning, Barbara Curzi-Laaman, Richard Charles Williams, Jaan Karl Laaman|vol=816 |reporter=F.2d |opinion=37 }}</ref> Thomas Manning and Richard Williams were given life sentences for the 1981 murder of state trooper Philip Lamonaco,<ref name="smith112" /><ref name="geocitiesPage">{{cite web |author=Manning |first=Thomas W. |title=Tom Manning Short Biography |url=http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Parliament/3400/tom-bio.htm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091027133000/http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Parliament/3400/tom-bio.htm |archive-date=2009-10-27 |website=www.geocities.com}}</ref><ref name="nation">{{cite journal |last=Berger |first=Dan |author-link=Dan Berger (American academic) |date=December 14, 2005 |title=Two Prisoners Named Williams |url=http://www.thenation.com/article/two-prisoners-named-williams/ |url-status=live |journal=The Nation |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150713215622/http://www.thenation.com/article/two-prisoners-named-williams/ |archive-date=2015-07-13 |access-date=2015-07-13}}</ref> and Laaman was convicted in the 1982 attempted murder of two state troopers.<ref>{{cite book|last=Stohl|first=Michael|title=The Politics of Terrorism|publisher=CRC Press|year=1988|pages=315|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R60c_2nCcnYC&q=karl+laaman&pg=PA315|isbn=978-0-8247-7814-9|access-date=2020-12-05|archive-date=2021-09-02|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210902215945/https://books.google.com/books?id=R60c_2nCcnYC&q=karl+laaman&pg=PA315|url-status=live}}</ref> The activist defense lawyer William Kunstler represented UFF members in some of these proceedings.<ref name="Smith 113"/><ref>{{cite book|last=Tomlinson|first=Gerard|title=Murdered in Jersey|publisher=Rutgers University Press|location=New Brunswick, N.J.|year=1994|pages=170|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QI4MbWrk5gQC&q=%22united+freedom+front%22+jackson&pg=PA170|isbn=978-0-8135-2078-0|access-date=2020-12-05|archive-date=2021-09-02|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210902215946/https://books.google.com/books?id=QI4MbWrk5gQC&q=%22united+freedom+front%22+jackson&pg=PA170|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Langum |first=David J. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z_1Wwp3g8bMC&q=%22united+freedom+front%22+children&pg=RA1-PA261 |title=William M. Kunstler: The Most Hated Lawyer in America |date=September 1999 |publisher=NYU Press |isbn=978-0-8147-5150-3 |pages=261 |access-date=2020-12-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210902215945/https://books.google.com/books?id=z_1Wwp3g8bMC&q=%22united+freedom+front%22+children&pg=RA1-PA261 |archive-date=2021-09-02 |url-status=live}}</ref>
Toure, Curzi, Gros, and Carole Manning were released during the 1990s,<ref>{{cite book |last=Berger |first=Dan |title=Let Freedom Ring: A Collection of Documents from the Movements to Free U.S. Political Prisoners |publisher=PM Press |year=2008 |isbn=978-1-60486-035-1 |editor=Matt Meyer |pages=32 |chapter=The Real Dragons: a Brief History of Political Militancy and Incarceration: 1960s to 2000s |access-date=2020-12-05 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=y0YXvh_iXIEC&q=%22May+19th+Communist+Organization%22+malcolm&pg=PA32 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210902220604/https://books.google.com/books?id=y0YXvh_iXIEC&q=%22May+19th+Communist+Organization%22+malcolm&pg=PA32 |archive-date=2021-09-02 |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Acoli |first=Sundiata |author-link=Sundiata Acoli |title=Imprisoned Intellectuals: America's Political Prisoners Write on Life, Liberation, and Rebellion |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-7425-2027-1 |editor=Joy James |pages=153 |chapter=An Updated History of the New Afrikan Prison Struggle |access-date=2020-12-05 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EVpIpSuP1TkC&q=%22united+freedom+front%22+kazi+toure&pg=PA153 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210902220604/https://books.google.com/books?id=EVpIpSuP1TkC&q=%22united+freedom+front%22+kazi+toure&pg=PA153 |archive-date=2021-09-02 |url-status=live}}</ref> and Levasseur was released on parole in November 2004. Williams died in prison in December 2005,<ref name="nation" /> Tom Manning died in prison in July 2019<ref name="terrorist-dies">{{Cite web|website=www.nj.com|author=Matt Gray|date=August 1, 2019|title=Domestic terrorist convicted in murder of N.J. State Trooper Philip Lamonaco dies in prison|url=https://www.nj.com/warren/2019/08/domestic-terrorist-convicted-in-murder-of-nj-state-trooper-philip-lamonaco-dies-in-prison.html|access-date=2021-09-04|language=en|archive-date=2021-09-02|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210902025839/https://www.nj.com/warren/2019/08/domestic-terrorist-convicted-in-murder-of-nj-state-trooper-philip-lamonaco-dies-in-prison.html|url-status=live}}</ref> and Laaman was released in May 2021.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://lpeproject.org/blog/rico-and-stop-cop-city-the-long-war-against-the-left/ | title=RICO and Stop Cop City: The Long War Against the Left | date=September 11, 2023 }}</ref>
==Legal cases== *USA v. Patricia Gros: 84-CR-0222 *USA v. Raymond Luc Levasseur et al.: 86-CR-180
==In popular media== *In an episode of ''The FBI Files'', "Radical Agenda" the FBI investigation of the United Freedom Front was featured and dramatized. *In a made-for-television movie, ''In The Line Of Duty: Hunt For Justice'', 1995, the murder of Trooper Philip Lamonaco was featured, as was the investigation into, and arrests of the members of the terrorist organization the United Freedom Front.<ref>{{Citation|last=Lowry|first=Dick|title=In the Line of Duty: Hunt for Justice|date=October 1, 1995|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113407/|type=Crime, Thriller, Drama|publisher=Patchett Kaufman Entertainment, World International Network (WIN)|access-date=2022-02-15|archive-date=2020-11-12|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201112023659/http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0113407/|url-status=live}}</ref>
==References== {{Reflist}}
==Further reference==
*{{cite book | last = Smith | first = Brent L. | title = Terrorism in America: pipe bombs and pipe dreams | publisher = SUNY Press | year = 1994 |isbn=9780791417607|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-3CuViIjqj8C}} *{{cite book | last = Burrough | first = Bryan | title = Days of Rage - America's Radical Underground, the FBI, and the Forgotten Age of Revolutionary Violence | publisher = Penguin Publishing Group|date=2015|isbn=9780143107972|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PAvTCwAAQBAJ}} *{{cite news|title=After 13 Bombings, FBI Says Terrorists Remain a Mystery|author= Rick Hampson|date=September 27, 1984|publisher=Associated Press}}
==External links== * [https://web.archive.org/web/20160304093648/http://www.personal.psu.edu/faculty/j/p/jpj1/uff.htm Case Study: The United Freedom Front] {{authority control}} {{American New Left}}
Category:American bank robbers Category:Crimes in Massachusetts Category:Defunct communist organizations in the United States Category:Far-left politics in the United States Category:New Left Category:Organizations designated as terrorist by the United States Category:Political violence in the United States Category:Terrorism in the United States Category:Guerrilla organizations