Biography
Jean Gump was a long-time Catholic peace and civil-rights activist who became especially focused on nuclear weapons in the 1980s, shifting from marches and lobbying to civil disobedience as part of the Plowshares movement’s nonviolent disarmament actions. Her activism emphasized personal accountability and the view that faith required direct confrontation with institutions preparing for mass violence.
On Good Friday 1986, she participated in a break-in at a Minuteman missile silo site near Holden, Missouri, where activists used symbolic actions—pouring blood and damaging parts of the facility—to protest nuclear war preparations. She was convicted and received a lengthy federal prison sentence, serving multiple years (including time at Federal Prison Camp, Alderson). Even after release, she continued direct-action peace work and was arrested again in later life during protests at Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge.
Exact federal-custody exit and distinct earlier stays
A fresh ordinary Bureau of Prisons register-number search for 03789-045 identifies JEAN T GUMP and reports Not in BOP Custody as of October 15, 1990. This replaces the previous October month-only placeholder, not a claim that all supervision ended. The original prisoner newsletter, physical page 4, independently reports her October 15 release. Official federal locator; Original newsletter, page 4.
The Plowshares chronology names her among those sentenced August 22, 1986, but also describes recognizance release after the action and a separate contempt stay ending July 8. The original arrest is not treated as uninterrupted custody through 1990, and sentencing is not automatically admission. Plowshares chronology, Silo Plowshares section.
Journalist Neil Steinberg republishes his own prison visit report, identifying Jean T. Gump and her birth name Jean Theresa Dalton. It describes presence at Alderson since September 4, but does not explicitly give the arrival year; that day is not promoted to a complete structured admission date. Existing identified photograph retained. Original reporter's prison interview.
Sentence service began in September 1986
The complete New York Times obituary syndicated by WRAL explicitly dates the start of Jean Gump's sentence service at Alderson to September 1986. This resolves the admission month previously left open; the exact day is not entered. September 1 is a storage placeholder at month precision, not a documented admission day. Earlier recognizance release and contempt custody remain separate from this sentence-era stay. The verified October 15, 1990 federal endpoint is unchanged, and no exact-day total is calculated from a month-only start.
Prison-written appeal withdrawal and a source-year discrepancy
Jean Gump’s letter dated October 13, 1986 expressly says she was writing from prison and would not join the Silo Plowshares appeal. The December directory lists her at Alderson, while the update reports transfers of the group’s three men to different prisons. A letter date or transfer is not a new admission. The letter’s editorial footer says Good Friday 1985, while this issue’s own directory says March 1986; this internal discrepancy is preserved rather than used to overwrite the existing 1986 action dates. Eight years is an imposed term, not eight actual years established by this issue.
The Nuclear Resister No.43, December 12, 1986: Original PDF page 5 (printed page 4); Original PDF page 7 (printed page 6); Original PDF page 4 (printed page 3).
Contemporary 1986 custody evidence
The contemporary Silo Plowshares report explicitly states all five defendants were free until September 15, 1986, when they entered federal prisons; the accompanying roster individually places Jean Gump at Alderson. This supplies the exact later sentence-admission day previously stored only as September. Her separately described earlier recognizance release and contempt stay are not merged into it. The undated-year September 4 arrival wording in a later prison-visit account remains a source discrepancy rather than overriding this complete contemporary date. The verified October 15, 1990 endpoint is unchanged.
The Nuclear Resister No. 41, September 18, 1986, original PDF page 2 (printed 1).
