Leo Burt

Born in Darby, Pennsylvania, Burt grew up in a Catholic family in Havertown, Pennsylvania.{{cite web|title=Where is Leo?|author=Katherine M. Skiba|publisher=The Milwaukee Journal's Wisconsin Magazine|date=June 1, 1986|accessdate=January 4, 2010|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=_2IaAAAAIBAJ&dq=sterling-hall&pg=5560%2C597365}} He attended St. Denis Parochial School and Monsignor Bonner High School, an all-boys school, where he was an athlete. He enrolled at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where he was involved in varsity crew. After being cut from the team, he became more active in journalism and student politics, working at the campus newspaper, The Daily Cardinal, with future fellow bomber David Fine.

Burt became radicalized after being beaten by a policeman while covering a protest against the Kent State shootings.UW Alumni magazine, On Wisconsin. Doug Moe. [http://www.uwalumni.com/media/documents/pdf/onwisconsin/2005summer/Fugitive.pdf The Last Fugitive] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080828230523/http://www.uwalumni.com/media/documents/pdf/onwisconsin/2005summer/Fugitive.pdf|date=2008-08-28}}. Summer 2005.

{{main|Sterling Hall bombing}}

The bombing of Sterling Hall on the campus of the University of Wisconsin on August 24, 1970, killed Robert Fassnacht, a postdoctoral physics researcher, and injured three others. It also caused $2.1 million in damage.[http://www.madison.com/library/LEE/81772.pdf "Sterling Hall toll set at $2.1 million,"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080719000915/http://www.madison.com/library/LEE/81772.pdf |date=2008-07-19 }} Wisconsin State Journal, August 17, 1972. Burt was reportedly involved in making and planting the bomb and also introduced his fellow bombers David Fine and Karl Armstrong to one another in July 1970.

Burt and his associates fled to Canada where they were tracked by the FBI. One of the last times he was heard from was August 30, 1970, when he and David Fine escaped from their apartment building in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada, as the police closed in on them. Burt left behind a wallet with a fake ID using an alias of Eugene Donald Fieldston. Burt was indicted by the federal government on September 2, 1970, for sabotage, destruction of government property, and conspiracy. Despite having been on the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list for six years (September 4, 1970, to April 7, 1976), Burt has not been captured and is still at large, with an FBI reward of $150,000 outstanding for information leading to his arrest.{{cite web |publisher= FBI |url= https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/dt/leo-frederick-burt |title= Wanted Domestic Terrorist - Leo Frederick Burt }} In addition to the federal charges, there are state charges still pending against Burt.

In 2010, near the fortieth anniversary of the bombing, several tips on Burt's possible location were received by the FBI, including a sighting at a Denver homeless shelter.{{cite news|last=Markon|first=Jerry|title=After 40 years, search for University of Wisconsin bombing suspect heats up again|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/09/21/AR2010092106588.html|accessdate=September 22, 2010|newspaper=Washington Post|date=September 21, 2010}} Some have speculated that he could be in the St. Catharines area of Ontario, an area he had visited during summers in his youth.{{cite news|title=The last radical - dead or alive?|url=http://www.philly.com/dailynews/top_story/The_last_radical.html|newspaper=Philadelphia Daily News|date=July 15, 2010|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20100819104103/http://www.philly.com/dailynews/top_story/The_last_radical.html|archivedate=August 19, 2010}}

The 1979 documentary film The War at Home focused on the anti-war movement in Madison, including the Sterling Hall bombing.{{cite web|url=https://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/the-classic-vietnam-era-documentary-the-war-at-home-and-its-lessons-of-nonviolence|title=The Classic Vietnam-Era Documentary The War at Home and its Lessons of Nonviolence|author=Canby, Peter|website=NewYorker.com|publisher=The New Yorker|access-date=12 October 2018}}

On September 29, 2007, Burt was featured on the Fox television series America's Most Wanted as the "Ghost of Wisconsin".{{cite web |publisher= America's Most Wanted |url= http://www.amw.com/fugitives/brief.cfm?id=47481 |title= Leo Frederick Burt profile |archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20071021104744/http://www.amw.com/fugitives/brief.cfm?id=47481 |archivedate= 2007-10-21 }}

An episode of the Travel Channel's Mysteries at the Museum, first aired on May 29, 2012, examined the Sterling Hall bombing and highlighted that Burt remained at large.{{cite web |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2173008/ |title=Mysteries at the Museum {{!}} Black Dahlia, French Angel, Sterling Hall Bombing |website=IMDb |accessdate=January 7, 2023}}

• List of fugitives from justice who disappeared

{{Reflist}}

• [https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/dt/leo-frederick-burt FBI Wanted Posters with digitally aged images]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20071021104744/http://www.amw.com/fugitives/brief.cfm?id=47481 The Full Story from America's Most Wanted] (web archive)

{{DEFAULTSORT:Burt, Leo}}

Category:Possibly living people

Category:1948 births

Category:20th-century American murderers

Category:American anti–Vietnam War activists

Category:FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives

Category:Bombers (people)

Category:Fugitives wanted on murder charges

Category:People from Darby, Pennsylvania

Category:People from Madison, Wisconsin

Category:University of Wisconsin–Madison alumni

Category:Wisconsin Badgers rowers