Photos: Remembering the UW-Madison Sterling Hall bombing 50 years ago
From the Throwback galleries: A look inside the State Journal's archives series
Early in the morning of Aug. 24, 1970, four anti-Vietnam War radicals — Karleton Armstrong, his brother Dwight Armstrong, David Fine and Leo Burt — used a van filled with almost a ton of ammonium nitrate and fuel oil to bomb UW-Madison's Sterling Hall, killing researcher Robert Fassnacht and injuring three others.
The target of the blast was the Army Mathematics Research Center, which only suffered minor damage in the bombing, while the most damage was to the university's physics department, where Fassnacht was working.
The blast was so powerful that it was heard in Belleville, 30 miles from the heart of campus. Pieces of the stolen 1967 Ford Deluxe Club Wagon that had held the bomb were found on top of an eight-story building three blocks away. It was considered the worst act of domestic terrorism in the United States until the bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building in 1995. The UW-Madison campus was a center of anti-war protests in the 1960s and 1970s.
Sterling Hall bombing
The Army Mathematics Research Center was the target when Sterling Hall was bombed just after 3 a.m. on Aug. 24, 1970. The bombing killed a young physics researcher, Robert Fassnacht, and has often been labeled the death of the peace movement.
Sterling Hall bombing
Damage from the bombing of Sterling Hall on the University of Wisconsin campus is shown in August 1970. Despite an attempt to detonate the bomb when the building was vacant, a physics researcher conducting research unrelated to the Army Math Research Center was killed in the explosion. The impact of Robert Fassnacht's death brought a sudden halt to the violence to which anti-war protesters and police had resorted.
Death in bombing
Dane County police and Madison firefighters carry the body of Robert Fassnacht, 33, from UW-Madison's Sterling Hall after the graduate student was killed in a bombing targeting the Army Math Research Center, which was in that building.
Sterling Hall bombing
Investigators comb through the wreckage of Sterling Hall after the August 1970 blast that tore it apart.
Robert Fassnacht
Robert E. Fassnacht was a grad student at UW Madison and working in Sterling Hall on August 24, 1970 when he was killed in the bombing there.
Sterling Hall bombing
The Aug. 24, 1970, bombing of UW-Madison's Sterling Hall killed physicist Robert Fassnacht, who was working on research in the basement of the building when a massive truck bomb went off outside.
Sterling Hall bombing
The aftermath of the Sterling Hall bombing.
Sterling Hall interior
The interior of Sterling Hall was heavily damaged in the bombing.
Sterling Hall bombing on front page
Front page of the State Journal, the day after the bombing of Sterling Hall.
Sterling Hall bombing suspects
Wanted in the Aug. 24, 1970, bombing of Sterling Hall were: David Fine, top left; Karleton Armstrong, top right; Dwight Armstrong, bottom left and Leo Burt.
Sterling Hall bombers caught
Three of the Sterling Hall bombers - (from left) Dwight Armstrong, his brother Karl Armstrong, and David Fine - were caught years after the attack. A fourth co-conspirator, Leo Burt, was never caught.
Leo Burt
Leo Burt dropped off the FBI's 10 Most Wanted List a few years after the 1970 bombing of UW-Madison's Sterling Hall.
Leo Burt, then and now
In 2010, the FBI circulated new images of what fugitive Leo Burt might look like today, alongside a 1969 photo from his UW-Madison days.
Engine fragment
An engine fragment from the van used in the Sterling Hall bombing at the Wisconsin Historical Society.
Sterling Hall plaque
A plaque mounted on Sterling Hall in memory of Robert Fassnacht, who was killed in a bombing at Sterling Hall in 1970.
In this Series
Throwback galleries: A look inside the State Journal's archives
Teryl Franklin | Wisconsin State Journal
Senior editor for audience development
Teryl Franklin is the senior editor for audience development for the Wisconsin State Journal. She has worked at the paper since 1996 in a variety of roles, including business editor, city editor and managing editor.
Browse our galleries of throwback photos from the Wisconsin State Journal archives.
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