Biography
Ken Rippetoe was a Catholic Worker in Rock Island, Illinois and a participant in the March 28, 1986 Silo Plowshares action at missile silos controlled by Whiteman Air Force Base. He was convicted of destruction of government property and conspiracy. A contemporary prisoner roster lists him in Duluth, Minnesota; the previously assigned USP Marion location is unsupported.
Separate Silo Plowshares custody episodes
The original Nuclear Resister reports March 28, 1986 arrest and recognizance release that evening, then posttrial jailing for Rippetoe's refusal of bond conditions. Original arrest report; trial continuation. The movement chronology dates conviction June 27, posttrial release July 8, and sentencing August 22. These are separate from the later prison term.
A September 23, 1986 press release reproduced in Insurgent dates actual prison entry September 15. Its roster lists Ken Rippetoe, register 03787-045, at Duluth. Original entry report; original register/location roster. The official BOP locator, searched by that register, returns Kenneth B Rippetoe and no BOP custody as of June 5, 1987. This replaces the approximate June report, not a claim that probation ended. No identified reusable portrait has yet been established.
Historical Silo Plowshares transfer, not a new custody interval
The December 1986 Silo Plowshares update reports that the three men had been moved to different prisons, and its directory individually places Ken Rippetoe at Oxford, Wisconsin. This is a contemporary placement/transfer record in the existing Silo Plowshares imprisonment, not a separate new arrest or admission. It supplies no exact initial confinement or physical-release day. The printed seven- or eight-year nominal term is not an actual completed duration.
The Nuclear Resister No.43, December 12, 1986: Original PDF page 7 (printed page 6); Original PDF page 4 (printed page 3).
Contemporary 1986 custody evidence
Ken Rippetoe’s signed July 1986 first-person account explicitly places him in Wyandotte County Jail on July 4 after his Silo Plowshares trial. It describes a meal protest, tear gas and Erny Davies’s removal from the cell block. This corroborates his already-recorded posttrial stay; it is not another arrest or a new continuous March-to-September interval. The front-page report separately confirms August 22 sentencing and actual September 15 prison entry, both already stored.
The Nuclear Resister No. 41, September 18, 1986, original PDF page 2 (printed 1), The Nuclear Resister No. 41, September 18, 1986, original PDF page 7 (printed 6).
