Events

[LECTURE] In 1987 Claude Marks was featured on an episode of America’s Most Wanted. His story began when Puerto Rican revolutionary Oscar López Rivera was imprisoned in Leavenworth Penitentiary in the early 1980s for his involvement in the Fuerzas Armadas de Liberacion Nacional, better known as FALN. In 1983, Marks and an associate attempted to spring Rivera from Leavenworth, a task easier said than done. The plot to blow up the prison and land a helicopter amidst the chaos was a failure and Marks and his partner lived clandestinely for 13 years, avoiding arrest. Posters reading “Terrorist” were seen in their Pittsburgh neighborhood, and a few years after the airing of the America’s Most Wanted episode targeting the fugitive, Marks was captured and plead guilty to the conspiratorial escape plot. Now, having served his time in prison, Marks speaks in support of political prisoners, and on the topic of prison abolition. He’ll speak at Burning Books on Wednesday, April 22 at 7pm.