Forty years ago today, the Hackwhackers were moving back into student housing in Madison, Wisconsin, when the report came over the radio that earlier in the morning a bomb had gone off at the University of Wisconsin's Sterling Hall, killing a 33-year old scientist. The target of the bombers was the Army Math Research Center and the scientist was Robert Fassnacht. The places and names of the people involved in the bombing (David Fine, Dwight Armstrong, Karl Armstrong and Leo Burt) are etched in the memory of what would be our last year at the UW. Only Leo Burt remains at large to this day (assuming he's still alive). The bombing cast a pall on the Wisconsin campus, as had the shootings at Kent State in May the same year.
It seems like such a long time ago, more than 40 years, more like a lifetime.
