Biography
Ed Mead was the principal theorist of the George Jackson Brigade, a Seattle-based militant prison-solidarity formation that conducted a series of bombings of state and corporate targets and bank expropriations in the Pacific Northwest from 1975 to 1978. He was arrested on January 23, 1976, after an attempted bank robbery at the Pacific National Bank in Tukwila, Washington in which Brigade member Bruce Seidel was killed and Mead was wounded. He was convicted of attempted bank robbery and conspiracy and sentenced to 30 years at the Walla Walla State Penitentiary in Washington.
Inside, he founded Men Against Sexism, the prisoners’ gay-and-anti-rape organization that confronted the white-supremacist gang structures running 1970s Walla Walla, and edited Prison Legal News for many years. He was released in 1993 after 17 years and has continued to be a major figure in U.S. anarchist and prison-abolition writing.
Founding member of the George Jackson Brigade, a Pacific Northwest revolutionary cell active 1975-1978. Captured January 23, 1976 during the failed Tukwila (WA) Pacific National Bank robbery in which fellow brigadier Bruce Seidel was killed and John Sherman was wounded. Held at Washington State Penitentiary at Walla Walla, where he co-founded Men Against Sexism. Released in 1993 after 18 years for his political actions (35 years of his life were spent in prisons total). Continued radical organizing post-release.
In his first-person account for the October 1992 International Tribunal program, Mead described transfers from Walla Walla to the federal prison at Marion, Illinois, followed by Leavenworth, Brushy Mountain in Tennessee, and Arizona State Prison at Florence before returning to Washington. He reported six months at Leavenworth and two years at Florence, where he helped organize the Committee to Safeguard Prisoners’ Rights. His 1992 correspondence address was Washington State Reformatory in Monroe. These transfers occurred within his existing imprisonment; no additional or overlapping prison term is added.
In his first-person account for the October 1992 International Tribunal program, Mead described transfers from Walla Walla to the federal prison at Marion, Illinois, followed by Leavenworth, Brushy Mountain in Tennessee, and Arizona State Prison at Florence before returning to Washington. He reported six months at Leavenworth and two years at Florence, where he helped organize the Committee to Safeguard Prisoners’ Rights. His 1992 correspondence address was Washington State Reformatory in Monroe. These transfers occurred within his existing imprisonment; no additional or overlapping prison term is added.
The Fall 1992 directory prints Ed Mead’s individual historical prisoner number 251397 with correspondence addressed to PO Box 777, Monroe, Washington. The Spring 1994 directory repeats that number but marks his entry FREE. These listings are historical correspondence and editorial-status references; the FREE stamp supplies no exact release day and is not substituted for the separately documented release history.
Mead’s signed May 23, 1976 King County Jail letter reports a first incarceration at thirteen, later radicalization through antiwar activity and prisoner struggles at McNeil Island, and release on a writ from Leavenworth in 1972. The earlier federal custody is distinct from his 1976 George Jackson Brigade case; no juvenile charge, birthdate or exact 1972 release day is inferred. The Seattle Under Attack report, pages 45–47, dates his state conviction on two assault-with-intent-to-kill counts to April 22 and names Judge Mifflin, who imposed consecutive life terms with two seven-and-a-half-year minimums. These minimums are parole terms, not actual time already served. The article reports incommunicado twenty-four-hour lockup and denied legal visits, while the July 6 federal trial was still prospective.
The chronology reports an August 6, 1976 federal conviction with twenty-five years for bank robbery plus five years on weapons charges. The issue prints Mead’s signed April 16 political response (PDF 40–44). The April 22 entry labels his state conviction robbery, whereas the previous issue specifies assault convictions; that discrepancy is retained. Nominal terms do not add physical custody days to overlapping imprisonment.
