Leo Frederick Burt (born April 18, 1948) is an American man indicted in connection with the August 24, 1970 Sterling Hall bombing at the

University of Wisconsin–Madison The University of Wisconsin–Madison (University of Wisconsin, Wisconsin, UW, UW–Madison, or simply Madison) is a public land-grant research university in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. It was founded in 1848 when Wisconsin achieved st ...

campus, a protest against the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...

. The bombing killed physics researcher Robert Fassnacht and injured several others. Burt was reportedly involved in making and planting the bomb. He has been a fugitive from justice since 1970 and his status and whereabouts are unknown.

Early life and education

Born in Darby, Pennsylvania, Burt grew up in a Catholic family in Havertown, Pennsylvania. He attended St. Denis Parochial School and Monsignor Bonner High School, an all-boys school, where he was an athlete. He enrolled at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he was involved in varsity

crew A crew is a body or a group of people who work at a common activity, generally in a structured or hierarchy, hierarchical organization. A location in which a crew works is called a crewyard or a workyard. The word has nautical resonances: the ta ...

. After being cut from the team, he became more active in journalism and student politics, working at the campus newspaper, '' The Daily Cardinal,'' with future fellow bomber David Fine. Burt became radicalized after being beaten by a policeman while covering a protest against the

Kent State shootings The Kent State shootings (also known as the Kent State massacre or May 4 massacre"These would be the first of many probes into what soon became known as the Kent State Massacre. Like the Boston Massacre almost exactly two hundred years before (Ma ...

.UW Alumni magazine, ''On Wisconsin''. Doug Moe
The Last Fugitive
. Summer 2005.

Sterling Hall bombing

The bombing of Sterling Hall on the campus of the University of Wisconsin on August 24, 1970, killed Robert Fassnacht, a postdoctoral physics researcher, and injured three others. It also caused $2.1 million in damage. Burt was reportedly involved in making and planting the bomb and also introduced his fellow bombers David Fine and Karl Armstrong to one another in July 1970.

Life as fugitive and indictment

Burt and his associates fled to Canada where they were tracked by the FBI. One of the last times he was heard from was August 30, 1970, when he and David Fine escaped from their apartment building in

Peterborough, Ontario Peterborough ( ) is a city on the Otonabee River in Ontario, Canada, about 125 kilometres (78 miles) northeast of Toronto. According to the 2021 Census, the population of the City of Peterborough was 83,651. The population of the Peterborough ...

, Canada, as the police closed in on them. Burt left behind a wallet with a fake ID using an alias of Eugene Donald Fieldston. Burt was indicted by the federal government on September 2, 1970, for

sabotage Sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening a polity, government, effort, or organization through subversion, obstruction, demoralization (warfare), demoralization, destabilization, divide and rule, division, social disruption, disrupti ...

, destruction of government property, and

conspiracy A conspiracy, also known as a plot, ploy, or scheme, is a secret plan or agreement between people (called conspirers or conspirators) for an unlawful or harmful purpose, such as murder, treason, or corruption, especially with a political motivat ...

. Despite having been on the

FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives The FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives is a most wanted list maintained by the United States's Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The list arose from a conversation held in late 1949 between J. Edgar Hoover, Director of the FBI, and William ...

list for six years (September 4, 1970, to April 7, 1976), Burt has not been captured and is still at large, with an FBI reward of $150,000 outstanding for information leading to his arrest. In addition to the federal charges, there are state charges still pending against Burt. In 2010, near the fortieth anniversary of the bombing, several tips on Burt's possible location were received by the FBI, including a sighting at a Denver

homeless shelter Homeless shelters are a type of service and total institution that provides temporary residence for homelessness, homeless individuals and families. Shelters exist to provide residents with safety and protection from exposure to the weather whi ...

. Some have speculated that he could be in the

St. Catharines St. Catharines is the most populous city in Canada's Niagara Region, the eighth largest urban area in the province of Ontario. As of 2021, St. Catharines has an area of and 136,803 residents. It lies in Southern Ontario, south of Toronto ac ...

area of Ontario, an area he had visited during summers in his youth.

In media

The 1979 documentary film '' The War at Home '' focused on the anti-war movement in Madison, including the Sterling Hall bombing. On September 29, 2007, Burt was featured on the Fox television series '' America's Most Wanted'' as the "Ghost of Wisconsin". An episode of the

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's '' Mysteries at the Museum'', first aired on May 29, 2012, examined the Sterling Hall bombing and highlighted that Burt remained at large.

References

External links

FBI Wanted Posters with digitally aged imagesThe Full Story from America's Most Wanted
(web archive) {{DEFAULTSORT:Burt, Leo Possibly living people 1948 births 20th-century American murderers American anti–Vietnam War activists FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives Bombers (people) Fugitives wanted on murder charges People from Darby, Pennsylvania People from Madison, Wisconsin University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni Wisconsin Badgers rowers