August 6, 2010

An "anti-imperialist freedom fighter" dies of uterine cancer at the age of 62.

"Marilyn Buck, who served more than two decades in prison for her role in the 1981 Brink’s armored-car robbery in Rockland County, N.Y., in which three people were killed, died on Tuesday at her home in Brooklyn."



She was sentenced to 50 years in prison but was released last month... to die.

93 comments:

tim maguire said...

She robbed a Brinks truck at age 12?!? And got 50 years?!?

Tried as an adult, apparently.

kathleen said...

she held up a Brinks truck at age 13?

Fred4Pres said...

That is a typo on her age, correct?

Too bad the doctors that diagnoised her condition to the prison officials were not on the Libya Lockerbee case.

Fred4Pres said...

I see she just jumped in age from 42 to 62.

Fred4Pres said...

How about calling her a felony murderer instead. Who is dead. Who should have died in prison.

Eric said...

Meh. Good riddance.

Ann Althouse said...

Sorry about the typo.

Eric said...

Some (most likely temporary) editorializing on Wikipedia:

"She died at home in Brooklyn on August 3, 2010, after a long battle with uterine cancer Thankfully she suffered."

David L. said...

Do check the brief WikiPedia entry on Buck's death.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marilyn_Buck#Death

"She died at home in Brooklyn on August 3, 2010, after a long battle with uterine cancer Thankfully she suffered.[24]"

Surely a typo, and surely soon to be revised, but it does express a sentiment that some of the survivors of those killed in the course of her crimes might feel.

The Ghost said...

I'm not a survivor of her victims and I'm thankful she suffered ...

jr565 said...

Wait a second. Weather Underground. Was that the group that had the song about Heroin? Oh, no that was the Velvet Underground.
Wait a second, was that the terrorist group led by Bill Ayers that Barack was associated with that the left said associations don't matter about?
Bill Ayers the unrepentant terrorist who bombed capitol buildings and ended up working with Obama in Chicago Schools? Also the guy who's apartment OBama used when he kicked off his career in politics? Also was he the author of the book Prairie Fire which dedicated itself to, among others, Sirhan Sirhan?
Really, who knew?

Eric said...

The wiki page also notes her first conviction for buying ammo with a false ID (x2) got her a ten year sentence. That seems a bit harsh to me.

Superdad said...

why do we let people out of prison to die. They are in prison for a reason let them die there. What was her sentence 50 years or one month before you die which ever comes first?

jr565 said...

Eric wrote:
The wiki page also notes her first conviction for buying ammo with a false ID (x2) got her a ten year sentence. That seems a bit harsh to me.


the courtroom of honor, the judge pounded his gavel
To show that all's equal and that the courts are on the level
And that the strings in the books ain't pulled and persuaded
And that even the nobles get properly handled
Once that the cops have chased after and caught 'em
And that ladder of law has no top and no bottom
Stared at the girl who bought ammo awrongly
Who just happened to be feelin' that way witout warnin'
And he spoke through his cloak, most deep and distinguished
And handed out strongly, for penalty and repentance
Marilyn Buck with a 10 year sentence
Oh, but you who philosophize disgrace and criticize all fears
Bury the rag deep in your face
For now's the time for your tears.

Anonymous said...

But she lived long enough to see her dream take root and begin to flourish.

jr565 said...

Reading off the list of radicals linked to Obama is like a version of Back to Bacon, only with Obama taking the Kevin Bacon role.
It's a fun game. Name a radical, any radical and see how man steps it takes to get back tto Obama.

I'll start: Mariliyn Buck... well that was too easy.

Rose said...

Quayle said...
But she lived long enough to see her dream take root and begin to flourish.

The last word.

PatHMV said...

She had a hell of a lot more comfort than the people she helped kill.

jr565 said...

She did translate a book of Uruguayan poetry while in prison, so she can't be ALL bad.

Unknown said...

"a politically motivated act gone violently awry."

Why do they say it went awry?

Lem the artificially intelligent said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Revenant said...

The Brink’s robbery endures in the national memory as a powerful example of a politically motivated act gone violently awry.

How exactly did it go "violently awry"? Killing the guards was the plan from the beginning. The only "awry" part was that the killers were caught.

Robt C said...

When I Googled her, I got lots of hits that were very sympathetic and "free XXX-ish." It made me sick. I can't believe how many people out there think like this.

SteveR said...

Just short of thirty years after three people died of unnatural causes due to her actions, she dies at 62 having lived, in comparison, a long and rich life. I hope she was thankful

Anonymous said...

Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi could learn a thing or two from this one.

mesquito said...

At age 26, she was sentenced to 10 years in prison on charges that she bought guns and ammunition for the group. Buck was four years into that term in 1977 when she failed to return from a prison furlough and became a fugitive.

Holy shit. The bitch was Willie Horton.

Cedarford said...

Like it or not, early release on compassionate grounds is a Western tradition.
We may rant and rail at it, but cpmpassionate release has a longer history and more legitimacy than a lawyer dressed in robes ordering early release simply because a prison is overcrowded. (wich happens all the time).
The Libyan release was sensible, except doctors miscalculated the terminal cancer patient's life expectancy. (Sort of like with Elisabeth Edwards - it's not rare - thank God - that some cancer patients beat the predicted medical disease progression curves and charts.)

Why was it sensible if the bomber had the good grace to die when he should have? Because Libya paid a heavy financial price and gave a massive monetary settlement to the Lockerbie families. For starters. The real reason is Libya renounced terrorism and opened their books to US and Brit agencies on what the Soviets, IRA, Chicommies, NORKs, and East Germans were doing. For terror and weapons transfers. The biggest plums were the NORK and Chinese weapons networks. And the full uncovery of the AQ Khan nuclear network, including the very embarassing to our Walmart suppliers discovery that CHina gave Pakistan full blueprints of plutonium implosion nuke bombs - and Khan and the Paks sold that to the NORKs, Iran, Libya.
It is rather embarassing that blueprints stamped "Top Secret" in Chinese with notations of two top Chicommie scietists appear on the margins and the blueprints were wrapped in Karachi dry-cleaning bags.

To doubt, there are "purists" that fetishize and champion "justice for victimhood!" at any price.

Maybe Michelle Buck deserved to rot out from cancer and die in jail. That would be my preference.

But "justice for the Lockerbie bomber's victims" at the price of Libya not renouncing terror, us not knowing about AQ Khans exact work in spreading nuke bomb technology, the NORK and CHinese missile technology networks........seems too high a price.
Libya paid the families close to a billion dollars as a price of rejoining the civilized community and having the right to normal civil aviation infrastructure, travel routes, parts access.

Some neocons said the way we should have dealt with Libya was to do a "cakewalk war" rather than peacefully. Then spend several hundred billion and take several thousand casualties to make Libya a grateful nation of Israel-friendly purple-fingered freedom lovers.

No, we would have simply been stuck in a 3rd "eternal war" with no end in sight, with another Karzai or Malaki puppet ruler carting away whole planeloads of 100 dollar bills while our "heroes" tried to interact with Noble Libyans of the Religion of Peace and win hearts and minds.

Unknown said...

uncanny resemblance

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

The Libyan release was sensible, except doctors miscalculated the terminal cancer patient's life expectancy.

I heard that it was only on the prognosis of ONE doctor.

Unknown said...

Too bad all her friends didn't join her - at age 30.

I'm Full of Soup said...

Her parents must have been devastated when she became a radical. A highly educated [veterinarian]father spawns idiot daughter. Maybe we should share this story with the kid from Hunter High School cause you just don't know how people will turn out.

David said...

Born Midland, Texas, 1947. Did she know Bush?

PatHMV said...

Cedarford, what the hell are you smoking? Libya's renunciation of terror had ZIP to do with the release of the murdering scum-bag. Qaddafi publicly renounced terrorism when it became clear (during the last administration) that the U.S. was ready and willing to go to war with state sponsors of terrorism, and after decades of some serious sanctions.

To the contrary, the release of the terrorist scum has reminded Libya that the West is fickle and unwilling to truly stand strong for our beliefs, and provided them an opportunity to celebrate, rather than condemn, a terrorist for his actions. He was treated as a returning, conquering hero. Not a sign that Libya's renunciation of terror and payment to the Lockerbie victims was anything more than a desperate act to avoid the potential for being attacked during the last decade.

Randy said...

why do we let people out of prison to die.

Because it's cheaper?

Meade said...

edutcher said...
"Too bad all her friends didn't join her - at age 30."

But then who would've helped found the Apollo Alliance and who would've helped write Obama's stimulus bill?

http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2009/09/02/phil-kerpen-unions-van-jones-apollo/

Jeff Jones had felt as early as 1975 that the underground had run its course and that it was time to consider surfacing, but supported those who chose to remain there. He essentially believed that the time for armed acts was over.[5] However, Jones would not surface until late Oct. 1981 when he was unexpectedly caught up in a police sweep of individuals suspected of participating in the deadly robbery of an armored truck. A SWAT team arrested Jones and Eleanor Raskin, and allowed a friend to take custody of their four-year-old son.[1] In Dec. 1981, a week before the couples’ sentencing, they were married legally. At sentencing Jones received probation and community service, while the charges against his wife were dismissed.[1]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Jones_(activist)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mEfajmtOLA&feature=related

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Staring at the picture of this woman It occurs to me that she might be the exception to Rush's No. 24 on his list of "35 Undeniable Truths of Life,"

"Feminism was established to allow unattractive women easier access to the mainstream of society".

Nobody told this gal that she was a looker.. its very simple ;)

Scorpius said...

Maybe it's just me, but every time I'm told someone is a "Freedom Fighter" my response is "so, you fight freedom". And then I run, leftists have no sense of humor.

Rialby said...

I hope Marilyn finds her paradise in the next world.

Big Mike said...

The biggest pity is that she probably died still holding onto the self-image of a noble freedom-fighter.

Irene said...

Bug theme, tonight.

bagoh20 said...

That's a happy set of tags on this post. A fitting epitaph.

Unknown said...

Ann, if you're reading these comments you should check out this hitchens video. You posted a while back on the question of how hitchens could be so unkind to his mother; but he makes clear here that is not the case. He must have been annoyed by the nytimes reporter.

Meade said...

Irene said...
"Bug theme, tonight."

Ken Mitchell said...

I'm sorry to read about her passing.

Not sorry that she's dead; murderers deserve to die young. I'm sorry that the state let her die free, at home. She should have died behind bars, and should have been buried there.

Is that too harsh?

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

I believe my feminism link came from a mental slide of Gloria Steinem and Marilyn sharing the same taste in spectacles.

I thought I could do something with that.. my apologies ;)

bagoh20 said...

"Cedarford, what the hell are you smoking?"

No shit. It's Friday night, but that must be some vicious chronic. He usually sounds buzzed, but tonight must be a special occasion.

Peter said...

I read things like this and I really miss the death penalty of, say, 1925.

NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...

Yay, 60s terrorists living long enough to see the revolution not happen.

Cedarford said...

PatHMV - "Qaddafi publicly renounced terrorism when it became clear (during the last administration) that the U.S. was ready and willing to go to war with state sponsors of terrorism, and after decades of some serious sanctions."

No, Qaddafi was in negotiations with British and US and Italian diplomats to renounce terrorism prior to 9/11. Most areas were agreed to, what had to happen to normalize relations fully was still underway - mutual prisoner releases, parts and tech access, loans to replace aging Soviet equipment with US, Japanese, Euro stuff.
Neocons claimed Libya was a "triumph" that directly followed the "American Churchill" and his "Heroes" beating Iraq. But it really wasn't.

The Euros and Egyptians got some of their people released, Libya got some agents back who had acted on Qaddafi's orders. The Lockerbie agent was one of the tougher ones to get the prisoner exchange done on.

The benefits of the Libyan deal were enormous to the economies of all nations involved, the intelligence windfall the US and UK got was a bonanza.

Had we not dealt and had another "cakewalk war" as Libya was one of the 8 nations Neos wanted attacked after Afghanistan and Iraq - we would have been out more 100s of billions, had thousands of casualties, all the AQ Khan and 40 years of Libya's involvement in Soviet, Chinese, E German terror sponsorship would have been lost.

And we would have had a 3rd "eternal war" of nation-building underway in Libya paying off a corrupt Libyan version of Karzai and his henchmen.

Chef Mojo said...

Were I not an atheist, I'd wish this vicious bitch to burn in the lowest circles of Hell, amongst the murderers and traitors, screaming throughout her deserved eternal damnation.

As it is, however, I simply wish the bitch's dust to be pissed on before it passes into the sewers, and any memory of her spit upon and continually cursed.

She was a waste of oxygen. She was shown mercy she didn't deserve.

I celebrate her death, and the deaths of all those like her.

William said...

Early in his career as a revolutionary Stalin engineered a bank robbery in Tblisi that killed forty two people. Most of them were innocent bystanders. There was a good haul from the robbery, and the carnage involved never hurt his standing with Lenin.....Our revolutionaries weren't quite as successful nor as ruthless as Stalin, but these things take time. It is worth noting that they emulated the tactics of the early Bolsheviks.....I'd someday like to see a play or movie that documents how and why a nice girl from a good family evolves into such a mixture of idealism and evil.

Irene said...

Ha ha, Meade. When I saw that ad, my childhood flashed before my eyes.

jamboree said...

I remember a PJ O'Rourke line about a bunch of 80s/90s liberals looking like they came from a Weather Underground Days of Rage Costume Party.

That's all I know it from - the only cultural reference I have. And at 41 I'm just a year younger than the typo'd age.

It's kind of sad to get swept up in what was basically a cult and then screw your life completely while the leader larks about as a professor and trainer of Presidents.

What am I saying? SDS folk were my professors. Hated them on sight w/o even knowing their background.

So why is she the fall guy and the equivalent of Manson/Osama is running about free? It's always the true believers that are the suicide bomber recruits - the pawns for the spoiled rich kids' chess game against their parents.

jr565 said...

She actually looks a lot like Thelma from Scooby doo all grown up and blowing up buildings and killing cops. Should have stuck to fighting crime with Scooby & The Gang.
Though I wouldn't be surprised if after the gang broke up (right before Scrappy Doo showed up on the scene) she and her new buddies in the Weather Underground used the Scooby van to drive to the capitol buildings they were going to blow up. I'm also pretty sure they were into more hard core drugs than scooby snacks.

Irene said...

UIC announced Ayers's retirement today.

bagoh20 said...

"The benefits of the Libyan deal were enormous to the economies of all nations involved, the intelligence windfall the US and UK got was a bonanza."

C4, you really believe that all that was contingent on freeing the Lockerbie bomber? Damn those Lybians must be some stupid dudes. What kind of deal is that for them? One sick guy in exchange for oil deals, agents, serious intel....

We should have no problem defeating the terrorists in your world. We could probably take them all with a game of Three-card Monte.

Unknown said...

I think that what she did was awful. But I have to politely disagree with those who are happy about her suffering. It does me no good. It doesn't help anyone. It makes us look bad, as bad as the statist jerks who are always hating us.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

I think Sirius is right.

Meade said...

I agree with Lem. Repudiate hate.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Thats refudiate Meade..

Sir Meade what are you doing up ;)

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

BTW I answered your question on the Sox being 5 games behind the Yanks in the other post.

At this point we are battling the Rays and the Yanks for the wild card.

Meade said...

Just checking to see that all the lights are off and locks are on. Mañana, amigo.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

the odds makers don't give us much of a chance because we have a bunch of good players on the DL.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Ok.. see tomorrow.

JAL said...

@ NYT In 1973, Ms. Buck received a 10-year sentence for acting as a gun runner for the Black Liberation Army; four years later, while on furlough from a West Virginia federal prison, she disappeared. At the time of the Brink’s robbery, she was still being sought in connection with that disappearance.

Apparently there was more to the story than buying ammo with a false ID.

JAL said...

Bernardine Dohrn had a connection to the Brinks robbery (Surprise!!).

From wikipedia: (Not always reliable, but consistent with what I've read elsewhere.)

[Dohrn]She later served less than a year of jail time, after refusing to testify against ex-Weatherman Susan Rosenberg in an armed robbery case. [Note: this was the Buck /Brinks robbery, where she refused to testify. Rosenberg was involved as well as Buck.][27] Shortly after turning themselves in, Dohrn and Ayers became legal guardians of Chesa Boudin, the son of former members of the Weather Underground, Kathy Boudin and David Gilbert, after they were convicted of murder for their roles in a 1981 armored car robbery.[The Buck / Brinks robbery in which three innocent people were murdered.][29].

Hand in glove.

These are friends of POTUS.

JorgXMcKie said...

I'm old enough to remember the Weather Underground [and the SDS]. I was already a veteran and I knew at least a few peripheral figures. The ones I knew then were already free-loading scum.

Much, much later my friend and dissertation director was one of the early SDS at MSU. He left after less than two years. He never really said why, but in the 90s he seemed more libertarian than anything else, and I always thought he was just too level-headed [and very, very intelligent] to be able to go on with that bunch.

RIP, buddy.

And I couldn't care less about Buck. She's dead.

former law student said...

A former private-school honor student

Meritocracy fans: bet she coulda gotten into Hunter College High School.

Wikip says the Brinks robbery was conducted by an offshoot of the Weather Underground, with the Black Liberation Army, called the May 19 Communist Organization. Ayers and Dohrn were apparently not part of this offshoot.

Again, according to wikip, Billy Jeff pardoned Susan Rosenberg, the mother of Ayers and Dohrn's foster kid, while leaving Buck inside.

former law student said...

whoops sorry. rosenberg was not the mothe of the A-D foster kid. But she was involved with the robbery and she was pardoned by the 42nd President.

WhatWasLost said...

The only crime worse than the murder and mayhem she perpetrated is the white-washing of her memory that the left will continuously work to achieve.

The left works to make excuses for people like her in life, but this is nothing compared to how she will be lionized in death.

Just look at the mythology they've erected around Huey Newton, or the Rosenbergs.

It is important for honest people to know the truth about people like her so that when we are confronted with lies that cast her as a hero or victim we will have the ammo to fight back with.

Fen said...

I guess she couldn't become Distinguished Professor at the University of Illinois...

Jason said...

Were I not an atheist, I'd wish this vicious bitch to burn in the lowest circles of Hell, amongst the murderers and traitors, screaming throughout her deserved eternal damnation.

I am not an atheist. And that is why I do not wish her to burn in Hell.

Or job on Earth is to administer justice as best we can and show mercy as best we can. It's not right to pretend to know who should be damned to Hell and who should not.

bagoh20 said...

I don't really understand the desire to early release in cases like this. It was never part of the sentence, and seems to rob the victims of their full measure of justice while rewarding the murderer for living a long life. It's as if the victims have somehow breached their part of the agreement - releasing the murderer from their obligation. It's a warped and unexamined compulsion.

Fen said...

It's not right to pretend to know who should be damned to Hell and who should not.

So you're saying if I pretend to know who should be damned, I've sinned and will be damned? ;)

This is why I prefer being Evil. Her soul is mine to torment forever. I think I'll start her off with reruns of Larry King.

Revenant said...

It's not right to pretend to know who should be damned to Hell and who should not.

Really, nobody deserves an *eternity* of torment.

But a couple of hundred years with her head stuck up Hitler's ass would do this bitch some good.

chickelit said...

So what causes uterine cancer?

Here's a clue: linkage

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

I just finished watching Whip It (2009)

Enjoyed it.

NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...

El Pollo-

Socialism... which means lots of abortions.

Deb said...

Lem, if you're still awake - I loved Whip It too. Do you remember an old movie with Raquel Welch and (I think) Kevin mcCarthy (Invasion of the Body Snatchers) called Kansas City Bombers about the Roller Derby?

Gary Rosen said...

"The Libyan release was sensible, except doctors miscalculated the terminal cancer patient's life expectancy."

Would you expect C-fudd to do anything other than get on his knees to suck off any Islamofascist savagaes who have it in for da Jooooos?

The Scythian said...

"The wiki page also notes her first conviction for buying ammo with a false ID (x2) got her a ten year sentence. That seems a bit harsh to me."

Eric,

She got the maximum sentence because she was buying ammo for a terrorist organization that had by that point been involved in dozens of violent criminal activities, ranging from holding up bars and robbing banks to murdering police officers in cold blood. From what I understand, Judges frown on that sort of thing.

Penny said...

Someone is bound to die from uterine cancer...or some other "do you in" thing.

I think we need more party planners.

Ofc. Krupke said...

I think that what she did was awful. But I have to politely disagree with those who are happy about her suffering. It does me no good. It doesn't help anyone.

Fair enough. But as for me, I have only so much sympathy to go around, and this terrorist is entitled to none of it.

WV: caulem. I just caulem like I seayem. :)

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

@Deb
Do you remember an old movie with Raquel Welch.. called Kansas City Bombers about the Roller Derby?

No.. never saw it.

Hagar said...

For those who obsess over "the Lockerbie Bomber."
As I remember it, Ghaddafi wanted off the U.S. terrorist list, and the U.S. said OK, but we need a culprit and some evidence; Ghaddafi said, "Is that all?" provided same and was taken off the terror list.

The Drill SGT said...

PatCA said...
"a politically motivated act gone violently awry."


yeah, right... a bomb in the Capitol is a political act maybe.

doing armed robberies is just greed.

as for the tone on the NYT, she wasn't an innocent. as others have posted, she had jumped on the 10 year terrorist support felony, she was part of an armed robery and murder in the Bronx, THEN we had this little Rockland whoopsie with 3 dead.

Once is happenstance
twice is coincidence
three times, and you a stone cold dog and ought to be put down.

Anonymous said...

"Progressive" reactions:

http://news.infoshop.org/article.php?story=20100804181503487

http://www.workers.org/2010/us/buck_0729/

We are really lucky there have been so few of her ilk given how many of the Walter Duranty-John Reed-Howard Zinn types and their multitudes of less talented progeny that we've been cursed with.

kentuckyliz said...

I hope her paradise is being surrounded by 72 virgins. She'll be like, damn, stuck with women again! Paradise is another prison!

Clyde said...

Well, at least unlike the Lockerbie bomber, she at least had the grace to actually die.

I haven't read the other comments yet, so sorry if that's repetitive!

PD Quig said...

I am not in favor of the death penalty (too many errors). Instead, I would sentence murderers to life in prison with hard labor--preferably stultifyingly mindless, hard labor. No TV, no computers, no music. After 15 years I would allow them to opt for suicide to save on cost.

Michael said...

Hagar: Ghaddafi was scared shitless by the capture of S. Hussein and the fall of Iraq. He coughed up all his nuclear goods voluntarily. The strong horse gets better results than the weak one.

Gary Rosen said...

"No, Qaddafi was in negotiations with British and US and Italian diplomats to renounce terrorism prior to 9/11. Most areas were agreed to, what had to happen to normalize relations fully was still underway"

... except for a showing of American force that scared the thug shitless. Has C-fudd *ever* let the facts get in the way of a good story? The day he starts telling the truth will be the day after he converts to Judaism. Does anyone know a mohel with a rusty scalpel?

former law student said...

So what causes uterine cancer?

Assuming they meant endometrial cancer: obesity and a surplus of estrogen are the most prominent risk factors.

But obituary causes of death are not terribly precise -- people are said to die of "leukemia" when there are six distinct types.