The well-written James Tobin piece about the Free John Sinclair era in Ann Arbor (Michigan Today, June 2008), freed a memory of a 1970 exciting news scoop — that I view differently over 35 years later.

During my college years, I earned some valuable, practical experience in
broadcasting at a small, local radio station, WYSI (later WSDS), in
neighboring Ypsilanti.

I was a typical, ambitious novice radio newsman who dreamed of landing a big “scoop,” a major news exclusive.

My break occurred in the late evening hours of March 6, 1970, when I
gathered some inside information from a reliable source.

Diana Oughton, 28, and two young men, all members of the radical, Ann
Arbor-based, “The Weatherman” underground, were killed in a violent
explosion in an alleged bomb factory/townhouse in New York’s Greenwich Village.

One problem with reporting the story: since our radio station broadcast only during the daylight hours, we were off the air until 6 a.m. the following day.

It was painful. I literally sat on my major news exclusive!

Since a frustrated young newsman is extremely anxious, in haste, I decided to telephone the story to the popular radio station CKLW-Radio 80, Windsor-Detroit, who catered to a college-age audience.

The CKLW newsman was somewhat reluctant to accept an unconfirmed report from an unknown person from a small, day-time radio station in Ypsilanti.

But when the next “20/20” newscast hit the CKLW airwaves, they inserted my audio news report and the story was first broadcast loud and clear to the CKLW listeners throughout Michigan and North America.

Today, I have removed the rose-colored glasses and I look at this news adventure from the perspective of an older adult and father. In 1970, the broadcast of this tragic news story was an opportunity to further my career. And I suspect young journalists in the 21st century are often obscure to a tragic news event as more than just names and numbers and the importance of beating a newspaper deadline in reporting it.

My wife and I have a 28-year-old son who was joyfully married two weeks ago on a beautiful Saturday in South Bend. We pray that he and his bride will have much happiness and a long and fruitful life. Diane Oughton was 28 when she died. At her gravesite, March 24, 1970, the presiding minister explained Diana’s death as part of the violent history of the times.

The Free John Sinclair concert was so crowded and it seemed like forever waiting for Lennon to arrive at the event. I made my way to the front of the stage and jumped into the press pit. No sooner had I jumped into the pit when all of a sudden I was offered a sip of beer from the lead singer from the band Joy of Cooking, who had played earlier that evening. When John Lennon hit the stage I was almost crushed from the surge of the crowd. I remember his National Steel Guitar strap had broken and he sort of yelled at Yoko to help him fix it. That’s when I knew he was more human than a god.

I was an agricultural distributor in Ann Arbor after I graduated from U of M (my mother was so proud — NOT!) I knew all the White Panthers-turned-Rainbow People (Free John Sinclair, June 2008), but was a cultural hippie rather than a political one. I was part of the alternative economic system.
All to be documented in the movie “Illegal Smile” coming to the silver screen in about 5 years.

I remember the Free John Sinclair rally well, along with the controversy. The word on the street was that John Sinclair was badgered by the FBI undercover guy until John gave him two joints just to get rid of the pest. It was obvious, with all the open pot smoking, that the object was to get John out of circulation by any means necessary, to steal a phrase. The imprisonment was a travesty.

The rally was an experience, for sure. Most of it, I slept through. The speeches, for the most part, were not inspired or inspiring. The music, on the other hand, was exciting and engaging. For it to go on for 8 hours, though, was unfortunate. Besides classes, I had work (University Cellar Bookstore, 12-hour days at that time of year, book rush) to do. So the rally stole away some of my sleeping time, but I didn’t allow it to steal all of the hours it occupied.

In 1968 my husband and I, in preparation for getting married, bought a reproduction Jacobean dining room set from the Treasure Mart in Ann Arbor. Someone had already bought the china cabinet separately so we got their address and sent them a letter asking that they contact us if they ever wanted to sell the china cabinet since we had the rest of the set.
A few years later we got a letter from someone in one of those two houses on Hill and Washtenaw, i.e. the homes of John Sinclair’s group (Free John Sinclair, June 2008), now calling themselves the Rainbow People. They had the china cabinet and would sell it to us because many of them were planning to move to Mexico to escape the FBI and needed money. However, they wanted a very inflated price. My husband and I said we wouldn’t pay that much so they reduced the price to something more reasonable. I always thought it was interesting that, although they wanted to see capitalism brought down, in a pinch they were willing to participate in the system and turn a profit. But I’m very grateful they contacted us and I still have the china cabinet today, almost 40 years later.

Professor John Taylor changed my life. In class, he taught passion, patience and vision. He could take the most complex problem or equation, simplify it down to its components and breeze to an answer. Outside of the classroom, he taught as many of us as he could about how our engineering knowledge could be extended in to the world around us to benefit society. And he taught us about our responsibility to dream big for ourselves and for our world. Finally, he showed by example the need to participate in communities to create positive change.

I remember the Free John Sinclair concert, but I don’t recall knowing who would be playing. I never saw a poster, let alone one advertising John Lennon and Yoko Ono. It was just something to do on a Friday night. My roommate and I walked to Crisler Arena and bought tickets. If I recall, $2.50 each. Neither of us ever smoked pot, but that didn’t matter, we had a great time and saw so many famous people. The story said John Lennon showed up eight hours later; I can’t believe I stayed there that long. It must be true, because I did see John Lennon and Yoko Ono. The highlight of the evening for me was Stevie Wonder – since I’m from Saginaw!

I was involved in the “anti-war” protest movement in Mt. Pleasant at Central Michigan University as a young idealistic adult. I was just figuring out my political views and acting out my late adolescent issues, plus caught up in the times. It was fun and being raised in a Democratic household I knew from the start that Nixon was not “my guy.”
Anyhow, I got invited to go to the Free John Sinclair concert by a Political Science graduate student/TA who had befriended my social circle. He had a white Economy Ford panel van and we loaded it up with young hippie types and hit the road for Ann Arbor. I grew up in MSU country and had never been to Ann Arbor.
When we arrived we made it to Crisler
Arena but did not have tickets; there were five of us. Some fellow was scalping tickets for a profit and one of the boys in the group talked him down to the face value of the ticket ($5,I think) because capitalism was not acceptable and a bad thing…
I remember enjoying the concert. We sat upstairs and I do remember many of the acts that were there. It did seem like it was lasting forever, though. But it was interesting and the allure of John Lennon coming on kept the interest and anticipation elevated.
Seeing my favorite Beatle was huge!!
Anyhow, the more interesting piece of my story is that the Political Science TA who transported us in his van and went on to be in one of boys wedding presently is 60 years old or so and is a big time advisor for Bush/Cheney on terrorism and media control, etc…
He did a complete turn around on his political stand and as it turns out is a right wing hawk type. We have made attempts to contact him and inquire if he worked for the FBI all along?? We think he was a “plant” somehow connected to the Nixon administration, although he has never returned our emails, was rude to my friend in a phone conversation, etc.
We were small time young kids just going with the flow of the anti-war movement. By no means were we dangerous revolutionaries. But that is my story and memory. We made it back to Ann Arbor about 7:00 am and the rest is a blur!! I am glad I got to participate. I saw the footage in the “John Lennon vs. US” documentary and also went and saw the John Sinclair film when he spoke at the Michigan Theatre.

Yes, I was there (Free John Sinclair). I pulled out my old photographs last year to show my daughter. I remembered being amazed by the talent and fame of the performers, but the photographs reveal something I had forgotten: it was a media event. There were always more photographers on stage than performers. I barely knew John Sinclair. Despite being the photography editor for the Ann Arbor Argus (which John claims he had mobilized in the service of the White Panthers), I remember seeing him at parties but not actually talking with him. But, I was certainly sympathetic to the cause of people disproportionately punished by fearful people in authority.