Biography
Helen Woodson was an anti-nuclear activist who on Nov. 12, 1984 performed a protest action with 3 others where the group cut a padlock on a fence surrounding a Missouri-based ICBM missile silo containing a Minuteman II nuclear-armed warhead and used a rented jackhammer to chip away at the silos concrete. The damage they caused was minimal but Woodson received an 18-year sentences. Woodson was released in 1993 and 3 days later walked into a Chicago bank, produced a fake pistol and asked the teller to empty all the cash drawers. After being handed $25,000 in cash, Woodson piled the money in the middle of the bank lobby, doused it with lighter fluid, and ignited it. She made a statement elaborating on her belief that money is the root of all evil. She was immediately arrested and imprisoned again for another 11 years until being released on March 9, 2004. Hours after her release Woodson mailed a number of letters to government and corporate officials that included a 38. caliber bullet and stated their actions were like bullets fired into the heart of creation. The next day she went to the District Courthouse in Kansas City and poured a mixture of cranberry juice and red paint onto the security desk. She was again arrested and convicted of sending threatening communication and being a felon in possession of ammunition. Woodson was released for the final time in September of 2011.
The demonstration report prints a prison solidarity message identifying Helen Woodson at Alderson. This is evidence of the institution at the time of the April 1986 report; it supplies no exact transfer day and does not change a later or earlier institution in the existing case. Source: Report on the Marion/Lexington demonstration, April 19, 1986, PDF page 21. https://freedomarchives.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/3.report.demo_.4.19.1986.pdf#page=21
Earlier White House custody in 1982
The Nuclear Resister No. 13, November 30, 1982, page 7, explicitly reports Helen Woodson released November 15 on a sentence of time served, after being jailed since September 4 for pouring blood against the trappings of the White House in an anti-nuclear protest. These are actual reported custody endpoints in 1982, not forecasts or dates calculated from a sentence. This episode is separate from her later missile-silo and bank-related cases. The source does not identify the formal statutory charge.
Separate 1983 Air and Space Museum custody context
The Air and Space Museum item names Helen Woodson and Brigette Cooke at a September 12, 1983 arraignment for destruction of government property following blood-pouring on missile mock-ups. It supplies a D.C. Jail address for Woodson, also listed in the prisoner directory. This is not her already recorded 1982 White House or later 1984 missile-silo episode. The six-month sentence grammatically refers to Brigette in the item and must not be silently assigned to Helen. The directory’s March 1984 date is projected, not an actual release. Exact intake, disposition and actual release for Helen remain unresolved.
Separate 1983 episode and contemporary limits
On May 15, 1983 Helen Woodson and Mary Beth Schlageck conducted a nuclear-deterrence protest at St. Raphael Cathedral in Madison. Both were arrested for trespass and initially released, Woodson on medical grounds and Schlageck on bond. On May 17 they refused a fine and were sentenced to three days, with service due to begin July 18. July 18 was future at publication and is not evidence of actual intake or completed service. This event is separate from Woodson’s White House, museum, missile-silo and later cases; no new jail counter is manufactured.
Correction identifying Helen Woodson as the six-month prisoner
The November 15, 1983 issue expressly corrects its previous Air and Space Museum report: lost lines had wrongly assigned the six-month jail sentence to Brigette Cooke; Helen Woodson actually received that sentence. The same issue describes Helen writing from D.C. Jail, lists her there, and discusses her jail-written newsletter. This establishes a distinct 1983 Air and Space Museum imprisonment and corrects the earlier attribution uncertainty. The September 12 arraignment is not independently an exact prison-admission or sentencing date. February 1984 in the directory is a forecast, not actual release; no six-month completed total is inferred.
Contemporary 1983–1984 custody evidence
The directory affirmatively lists Helen Woodson among those recently released. The reprinted Jonah House appeal discusses her six-month Air and Space Museum sentence, while its editorial footnote still says release was scheduled as press approached. The affirmative directory is preserved separately from the forecast; no exact discharge day or six months actual total is inferred and the already-recorded distinct case is not duplicated.
The Nuclear Resister No. 23, February 12, 1984, original PDF 4 / printed 3, The Nuclear Resister No. 23, February 12, 1984, original PDF 8 / printed 7.
February 1985 verdict and contemporary custody limits
The original trial report individually identifies Helen Woodson, Paul and Carl Kabat, and Larry Cloud-Morgan, and dates their guilty verdict on all counts to Friday, February 22, 1985. They remained in jail pending a March 25 sentencing date that was still future; it is not entered as the actual sentencing day. This account dates the N-5 action to November 12, while the previously reviewed appellate opinion’s opening narrative gives November 9 and its quoted jury instruction says on or about November 12. The conflict is preserved rather than silently moving existing arrest/admission dates. Paul’s separately documented actual March 27 sentence and official later endpoint are unchanged; this source’s forecast does not overwrite them.
The Nuclear Resister No.29, February 27, 1985, original PDF pages 2,6.
1985 custody evidence and limits
The contemporary Silo Pruning Hooks report explicitly places sentencing on March 27, 1985 before Judge D. Brook Bartlett. This confirms the sentencing date for this already recorded missile-silo case; it does not settle the separately preserved November 1984 arrest/admission-day conflict, alter actual release, or convert the nominal sentence into time actually served.
Later reduction of the original sentence
The October 24, 1985 directory lists Helen Woodson’s original eighteen-year Silo Pruning Hooks term. The December 9 report expressly says Judge Brooks Bartlett reduced the term to twelve years, and the January 20, 1986 directory lists twelve years. This is a later modification within the same custody phase, not another imprisonment or twelve years actually served. The December report’s projected May 15, 1996 release is not an actual discharge and does not replace her independently established 1993 endpoint. The original sentence and all actual dates remain preserved.
The Nuclear Resister: original PDF page 4; original PDF page 6; original PDF page 4.
