Who is Bill Dunne?

Bill Dunne is an anti-authoritarianpolitical prisoner imprisoned for anattempted 1979 prison break from theKing County Jail in Seattle,Washington. Dunne and his former co-defendant, Larry Giddings, wereaccused by police of being “membersof a small, heavily armed group of rev-olutionaries,” associated with theWellspring Communion.

Based primarily in San Francisco, theWellspring Communion, engaged inradical Leftist political outreach, merg-ing the ideas of communism and anar-chism into a single praxis. Thoughactive mainly in the Bay area, theorganization was said to have practiceguerrilla training on a property inHumboldt County. According to mediareports, the group was once known asthe Tribal Thumb.

Prior to Dunne’s arrest, anotheraccused member of the WellspringCommunion, Artie Ray Dufur (alsoknown as Artie Ray Baker), was arrest-ed for the murder of a border inspectorthat took place during a scuffle. Bakerwas scheduled to have his sentencehearing at the King County Courthouseon October 19, 1979. Dunne andGiddings, along with unknown individu-als from a San Francisco Anarchist col-lective, organized a no-holds-barredattempt to free Baker.

October 14, 1979. On Sunday evening, October 14,

1979, seven inmates, including Baker,

escaped from the high security jail onthe 10th floor of the King CountyCourthouse. Using a gun smuggledinto the jail, the inmates capture theguards, locked them in a holding tankand took over the jail’s central controlroom. Within 20 minutes, the escapeeswere on the street, heading for theirgetaway cars.

Waiting for the escapees in two sep-arate cars were Bill Dunne and LarryGiddings. As escaped prisonersclimbed into the red mustang driven byBill Dunne, an officer spotted the men.While in pursuit, the officer opened fire,injuring Dunne in his left shoulder andkilling one of the escapees. Dunne lostcontrol of his car, crashed the car into acement retaining wall and was arrestedby the police.

While the police were detaining twoescapees who had fled after the crash,the second get away car, driven byLarry Giddings, approached the scene.A brief gun battle ensued, leaving LarryGiddings and one officer wounded. AsGiddings attempted to flee from thescene, his car lost traction on the wetroad, colliding with two patrol cars.After regaining control of the car,Giddings drove down a street but wascaptured when his car was run off theroad by police.

Within 45 minutes, all of theescapees had been recaptured exceptone man, who was apprehended twodays later.

Dunne was charged with possessionof an automatic weapon, the M-2 car-bine. Giddings was charged with theattempted murder of a police officer.

Both men were charged with auto theftand with aiding and abetting theescape. Charges further alleged thatthe operation was financed by bankexpropriations and facilitated by illegalacquisition of weapons, explosives, andother equipment.

Larry Giddings was sentenced to twolife sentences, plus an additional 80years- all to run consecutively. BillDunne was sentenced to 80 years infederal prison, in addition to 5 to 15years for state charges. Dunnereceived an additional 15 years andseven-and-a-half years of lockdown inMarion Federal Prison for his attempt-ed self-emancipation from LewisburgFederal Penitentiary in 1983.

In January of 1993 Larry Giddingswas paroled from the sentences givento him by the State of Washington,which landed him in federal custody toserve what amounted to a 75-yearterm. In March of 1993 he received a"Sentence Computation Summary"

stating that he would become eligiblefor parole in another ten years, in2003. In August 2004, he was finallyreleased.

Bill Dunne spent over a decade inthe notorious Marion prison for over adecade before transferring to USPLeavenworth. There he assisted socialprisoners in both political and scholas-tic education.

One prisoner, Ernesto Santiagoreceived his GED (General EducationDiploma) with the help of Dunne andfellow Political Prisoner Jaan Laaman.

Bill has continued to maintain hispolitical activity organizing solidarityruns in conjunction with the ABCF’sRunning Down the Walls 5K Run forPolitical Prisoners. He is also works onthe Prisoner Committee of theAnarchist Black Cross Federation. Billhas worked as an editor and writer forthe 4Struggle magazine produce bypolitical prisoners and Montreal ABCF.

In 2010, Bill Dunne was placed insegregation for his alleged involvementin a work strike in USP Inez. The workstrike never took place and to Bill’sknowledge was never even discussedor planned. However, because of thisallegation, the BOPwas consideringtransferring Dunne to the’ terrorist unit’in USP Terre Haute. While they pon-dered his future, Bill stayed in segrega-tion for months. Finally, without notice,they transferred him to USP Pollock.

Free Bill Dunne!Free All Political Prisoners!

Write to Bill Dunne at:

Bill Dunne10916-086

USP PollockP.O. Box 2099

Pollock, LA 71467

Jericho Amnesty CoalitionPO Box 34186

Los Angeles, CA 90034

Anarchist Black Cross Federation(ABCF)

PO Box 11223Whittier, CA 90603email: la@abcf.net

YOU CAN HELP BY GIVING POLITI-CAL PRISONERS A VOICE AND VISI-

BILITY

THE TRUTH CAN SET THEM FREE!

Bill Dunne

Anti-AuthoritarianPolitical Prisoner Serving

75 Years in Prison

Free Bill Dunne