Outrage over terror speaker

Cops, widow blast governor on response

“It’s hugely offensive that a state school that receives tax dollars would invite Levasseur,” said Richard R. Brown, president of the State Police Association of Massachusetts. “This guy committed atrocities against our country and the talk was only canceled under pressure.”

The United Freedom Front was responsible for roughly 20 bombings, including one at the Suffolk County Courthouse in Boston, and for the attempted murder of two Massachusetts State Troopers, Mike Crosby and Paul Landry, in a blazing North Attleboro gun battle in 1982.

Update 11/09: Overpaid Academics do an end-run, terrorist to speak.

By Michele McPhee |   Friday, November 6, 2009  |  Link to Boston Herald Article |

New Jersey State Trooper and father of three Philip Joseph Lamonaco was murdered by members of Levasseur's terrorist organization on December 21, 1981

Gov. Deval Patrick pulled the plug on a planned UMass speech by a convicted terrorist yesterday after a plea delivered by the Herald from the outraged widow of a gunned-down state trooper – angering cops who protested the event for weeks.

“It was absolutely disgusting that we had to go through what we had to go through to get this canceled,” said widow Donna Lamonaco. “Police groups have been complaining for weeks. We organized a protest.

“We got nothing until the newspaper calls the governor?” she said. “It’s a disgrace.”

Lamonaco’s husband, Phil, a New Jersey state trooper, was shot dead by members of the United Freedom Front in 1981.

The radical group, also cited for the attempted assassination of two Massachusetts troopers and a rash of bombings and robberies, was led by Raymond Luc Levasseur.

Levasseur – now living under federal parole in a halfway house in Maine and still hailed by followers as a political prisoner – was set to speak at a “Colloquium on Social Change” at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst next Thursday.

“They were treating a terrorist as a hero. The governor was going to let him educate college students at a public school, a guy who represents an organization that killed my husband, that tried to execute two troopers in Massachusetts,” said Lamonaco, mother of three…Entire Boston Herald Article

The Attempted Murder of Massachusetts State Troopers Paul Landry and Michael Crosby:

On a cold winter night at approximately two o’clock in the morning of February 7, 1982, Massachusetts State Police Trooper Paul Landry pulled into the southbound North Attleboro, Massachusetts rest area off Route 95 for a routine check of all parked vehicles. It was customary State Police winter policy to check parked vehicles for their occupants’ safety and crime detection. There were two vehicles in the rest area on this night. One in particular was a 1978 green Plymouth station wagon, another was a van. Trooper Landry did not see anyone in the van, however, he noticed two men in the station wagon as he drove past it. Turning his cruiser around at the opposite end of the rest area he drove toward the station wagon stopping in front of it, shining the cruiser’s headlights into it. One of the occupants, the driver, was a white man, the passenger was a black man. He stepped out of his cruiser and approached the driver. As he approached, he noticed that the two men appeared nervous. Their vehicle’s engine was running, but the lights were out and there was a dog, a doberman pinscher in the back cargo area. Trooper Landry noticed a green bag on the floor under the passenger side and another duffle bag in back with the dog. Also, the passenger had his right hand tucked inside his jacket in the area of his trousers’ belt. Trooper Landry testified that he suspected the passenger had a gun.

He asked the two men why they were there and asked them for identification. They told him they had come from New Hampshire and were tired. They produced New York drivers licenses. The vehicle was registered in Massachusetts. The driver told the trooper the car belonged to his girl friend, but he didn’t know her telephone number when asked. One of the New York licenses, the driver’s, had a picture attached to it when it was handed to the trooper, however the passenger’s did not. The passenger turned out to be Christopher King. He presented Trooper Landry with a license with the name Lester Jordan printed on it with a Brooklyn, New York address. The other license was for a Salvatore Bella also of Brooklyn.

Trooper Landry returned to his cruiser with both licenses and the registration and called in to check on them. The response from headquarters was negative. There were no reports relative to either of the two men or the vehicle.

Troopers Paul Landry and Michael Crosby with weapons siezed from UFF terrorists after the late-night shootout.

While waiting for this report, the trooper moved the cruiser from the front of the station wagon to a point directly behind it to watch the two men. Trooper Landry noticed that they continued to act very nervous, constantly looking at each other and back at him. He was suspicious of their identity, the registration of the car, their demeanor and the way the passenger had held his hand inside his jacket. He decided to radio for assistance and Trooper Michael Crosby responded to the call, arriving a few minutes later. Landry briefed Crosby and then the two troopers approached the station wagon from the passenger’s side. This time the green bag on the floor under the passenger seat was not there. They asked the passenger to step from the vehicle and when he was outside of it Landry asked him what he had in his coat. As Landry asked the question he reached out to touch the man’s jacket and the man jumped back pushing Landry’s hand away. However, Landry felt what he thought was a bullet proof vest. Landry told Trooper Crosby to watch the driver and began to draw his gun ordering the passenger to put his hands on his head. Again, Landry reached toward the man’s belt and was pushed away. At this moment the driver jumped out of the car and crouching, ran back and forth along the opposite side of the car, popping his head up and down intermittently. Landry grabbed the passenger and pulled back from the car toward the woods behind him as the driver began firing a gun in their direction. Landry dropped the passenger to the ground, pulled a 9 MM semi-automatic pistol from the man’s belt and handcuffed him, then returned shots toward the driver who ran off into the woods adjacent to the rest area. Back up assistance arrived, the dog was removed from the station wagon and a light search of the vehicle was conducted at the scene turning up a .45 caliber semi-automatic carbine, a 12 gauge shot gun and quantities of ammunition from the duffle bag that was in the rear of the car. A later inventory search of the vehicle at headquarters turned up the green bag. It had been tucked under the seat and contained a .380 caliber semi-automatic pistol and more ammunition as well as numerous licenses and identification belonging to other persons. One of these, however, identified the driver as Jaan Laaman. The passenger, Christopher King, was searched at the barracks and he was found to be wearing a bullet proof vest.

Other links:

Survivors of the Triangle

Concerns of Police Survivors