The murder of Robert Fassnacht

 

                                                                          Burt, left  

Leo Frederick Burt is a murderer whose preferred weapon of choice is a bomb.  In 1970, Burt took part in the  Sterling Hall bombing at the University of Wisconsin–Madison campus. He wanted to protest the war in Vietnam….so he used a bomb to protest a war. Burt’s bombing killed physics researcher Robert Fassnacht, the father of three very young children, and injured several others and caused $2.1 million in damage.

It was Burt who introduced his fellow murderers David Fine and Karl Armstrong and Armstrong’s brother Dwight. Together they formed an anti-war cell called “The New Year’s Gang”

The gang set about their plans of destruction by dropping mayonnaise jars filled with explosives out of a plane onto a munitions plant. That attempt at mass murder failed but their bombing of an Army Mathematics Research Center on the upper floors of Sterling Hall on the UW Campus succeeded.  

The group assembled a stolen Ford Econoline van and packed it with 2000 pounds of ammonium nitrate and fuel oil. One of the killers, Fine, phoned the police and warned them about the impending bomb attack.

“OK, pigs, now listen and listen good. There’s a bomb in the Army Math Research Center at the University, set to go off in five minutes. Clear the building. Get everyone out. Warn the hospital. This is no bull . . ., man.”

The officer who took the call, Madison Police Department Sgt. Robert G. Birrenkott took exactly one minute and 15 seconds to place a call to the University’s Department of Protection and Security but it was too late.

 The explosive-filled van, which was parked at the side of Sterling Hall went off at 4:30 in the morning, causing an explosion big enough to hollow out the bottom of the building.

                          

Burt, who was then 22,  justified his action by claiming to have become radicalized after being beaten by a policeman while covering a protest against the Kent State shootings.

Rather than face the music for his horrific crime, they fled and disappeared into the underground and eventually went to Canada. In 1972, Karl Armstrong was arrested in Toronto. Fine was apprehended in California in 1976. Dwight Armstrong was captured in Toronto in 1977. Remarkably, Dwight Armstrong and Fine served under three years for the murder. Karl Armstrong served only seven years of a 23-year sentence.

A total of less than 13 years for the murder of a promising young father of three.

Karl Armstrong now operates a healthy-juice stand near the site of where the building he destroyed once stood.  Fine moved to Portland (Of course) and works as a paralegal and Dwight Armstrong died of cancer in 2009. He still outlived his murder victim by 29 years.

The FBI tracked Burt down, but he managed to slip their trap.

In 2010, near the fortieth anniversary of the bombing, several tips on Burt's possible location included Denver homeless shelter, others spotted him in Lakewood, Washington, one tipster placed him as a waiter in a resort in Costa Rica and others claim they spotted him near St. Catharine’s in Ontario. Some who actually knew him said that he attended his father's funeral several years ago.

The Justice Department is offering a $150,000 reward for the 6 foot four Burt, who, as cowards will, is probably armed and considered dangerous by the FBI.