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Kim Wahl

Released
Gender:Female
Era:1980s
State:Washington
Time Imprisoned:
25 Days
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Kim Wahl

Biography

Kim Wahl was a peace activist jailed following a protest at Boeing against the murders of Jesuits in El Salvador. Her account distinguishes her own imprisonment from that of her husband, Bill Wahl.

Kathleen “Kim” Irene Melchior Wahl was born May 22, 1937 in Evanston, Illinois, and died July 31, 2024. She earned her RN degree at St. Francis School of Nursing and married physician William Wahl in 1959. After raising their family in Bellevue, they moved to Seattle in 1985 to work with Ground Zero against nuclear weapons. Her obituary explicitly reports multiple arrests and jail time. She also worked as a crisis counselor at Eastside Mental Health and served as a Eucharistic minister at St. Therese Parish. The obituary’s portrait caption identifies her at the August 7, 2023 Ground Zero action. Source: https://www.gzcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/10/October-2024-newsletter-for-website.pdf#page=7

Trident-blockade custody clarified

Kim Wahl's first-person interview in Rosalie G. Riegle's Doing Time for Peace, pp. 255–263, describes her August 12, 1982 arrest and transfer to a Coast Guard vessel with a brig. Matt Dundas's University of Washington oral-history-based account, drawing on Wahl's interview and the contemporary Ground Zero newsletter, reports recognizance release before dismissal eight days later. Custody began August12; release remains August1982 MONTH, bounded August12–20. The stored August12 is an earliest bound, not a verified discharge day. Dismissal is not substituted for release, and no exact served-day count is inferred. The university identifies her video interview; still reuse remains unresolved, so no new photo is installed.

Cases

Charges: Boeing sidewalk protest; exact statutory charge unverified
Sentence: Served twenty-five days in King County Jail after refusing to pay a fine. Exact protest and custody dates remain unverified.
Charges: Trident peace blockade at Oak Bay, Washington, August 12, 1982; exact statutory charge unverified
Arrested: Aug 12, 1982
Incarcerated: Aug 12, 1982
Released: August 1982
Sentence: Temporary Coast Guard custody during the August 12, 1982 Trident peace blockade. Her first-person account identifies her as one of fourteen arrested and describes transfer to a large Coast Guard vessel with a brig. The University of Washington oral-history-based account reports that the arrestees were brought to Seattle court and released on their own recognizance before charges were dropped eight days later. Release is recorded conservatively as August 1982 MONTH, bounded August12–20, not an individually documented discharge day. August12 is the earliest-bound placeholder, not proof of same-day release; the earlier August1 placeholder would predate arrest. No exact continuous served-days total is inferred; this is separate from the undated Boeing jail term.