Word: grathwohl
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...life is austere and squalid. Using phony names, many hard-core radicals collect welfare payments and food stamps. Their time is largely spent shoplifting food and other necessities, stealing purses, cashing forged checks, searching for new hideouts and plotting. "It's a tough, dirty life," says Larry D. Grathwohl, 27, a San Francisco area resident who is the only FBI informant known to have successfully penetrated the Weather Underground. Although his experiences took place from November 1969 until April 1970, law officials believe that they still accurately reflect underground life in California and elsewhere. Last week TIME Correspondent John...
hile living in Cincinnati, Grathwohl was recruited after a chance meeting with two Weatherpeople. He was just the type of person that the organization, which was overloaded with upper middle class members, wanted to recruit. His background was working class, and the recruiters wrongly believed that he had become a munitions expert during four years in the Army...
...exclaimed: "Not only did they kill those pigs, they shoved a fork in [Sharon] Tate's stomach and then sat down and ate dinner there." Dohrn's details were wrong-it was Leno LaBianca who was stabbed with a fork-but her enthusiasm was catching. Says Grathwohl: "For the next several days, we all went around giving a sign of three fingers extended. It was to symbolize the fork...
...network of four-or five-member cells which were constantly on the run. Known as "foco," the Spanish word for "focus" or "center," they each operated independently, recruiting new members and carrying out bombings and other terrorist acts that had been cleared in advance by the Weather Bureau. Says Grathwohl: "We were all paranoid as hell. We never parked cars closer than two blocks from where we were staying. We never left or came back in groups. If we had the slightest idea that we were being followed, we spent hours losing the tail by riding buses endlessly or dodging...
...average day began at about 10 a.m. Says Grathwohl: "We'd get up and start with physical exercise-push-ups, situps, that sort of thing. If there was anything to eat-and often we'd go for days with very little-we'd have a quick meal. The day's activities would vary. The women frequently were sent out to steal. If we were near a university, they would go into women's dorms and steal purses. If they managed to get an ID and a checkbook, they'd go out as fast...