Biography
Larry Purcell is a longtime Catholic peace activist arrested in Plowshares-style actions at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.
A separate 1981 Lockheed imprisonment
The March 1981 newsletter, page 2, names Larry Purcell among four activists arrested and jailed after the March 11, 1981 blood-pouring action at Lockheed in Sunnyvale. He remained at Elmwood Men’s Facility as of the June 20, 1981 issue, page 3, which gives an expected release around July 24. That forecast is not treated as actual release. This earlier custody is distinct from the 2013 and 2026 episodes currently dated in the profile; no final endpoint or total is inferred.
Earlier 1981 Lockheed action and sentence
The National No-Nukes Prison Support Collective newsletter No. 5, May 9, 1981, page 2, names Purcell in the March 11, 1981 blood-pouring action inside the Lockheed assembly plant at Sunnyvale. It reports March 26 no-contest pleas and an April 24 sentence of six months plus two years suspended; unlike the other three defendants, Purcell was convicted of the felony. He was then held at Elmwood Correctional Facility. The suspended portion is not time served. This earlier proceeding is separate from his 2013 detention; no precise original jail admission, actual release or new counter is inferred.
Earlier Lockheed imprisonment ended July 24, 1981
The September 19, 1981 newsletter, original page 4, explicitly reports Larry Purcell released July 24 after serving nearly five months in a California jail for entering a Lockheed Trident-missile assembly plant and pouring blood on missile sections and blueprints. This is a separate earlier episode, not his 2013 or 2026 protests. The report establishes an actual release day but does not give his precise jail-admission day, formal charge or sentencing day. No start date or exact served-day total is calculated from “nearly five months.”
National No-Nukes Prison Support Collective newsletter No. 7, September 19, 1981, original pages 1–4
Separate March 4, 2018 brief Nevada detention and same-day release
The April 2018 Ground Zero newsletter, original page 6, individually names Larry Purcell among twenty-four Pacific Life Community participants arrested at the Nevada National Security Site on March 4, 2018. Felice Cohen-Joppa’s report says the participants crossed the site boundary, were escorted to a nearby pen, briefly held, processed and released. This is a same-day temporary detention and release, not an overnight prison stay, a served-day sentence, or continuous custody beginning that day. No imprisonment counter or new discrete prison episode is added, and other case dates remain unchanged.
Separate 1983 custody evidence and limits
A participant report names Larry Purcell among seven arrested April 15, 1983 inside Lockheed’s Sunnyvale building after a symbolic anti-nuclear bread-baking action. All were held over the weekend and arraigned the following Monday, April 18. Six were credited with four days and released; those are three elapsed days. Purcell instead received ten days and was physically released four days later, giving April 22 by direct calendar-relative calculation from the Monday release. This is not an April 1981 release or the 2013 case. The ten-day imposed term is not ten elapsed days actually served, and the source does not specify a statutory charge.
The May 9, 1981 newsletter reports that the four Lockheed blood-pouring protesters pleaded no contest on March 26. On April 24 Larry Purcell received six months plus two years suspended, Larry Ferlazzo four months, Dan Delaney three months, and Kris Selvig forty-five days. It identifies the three men as currently at Elmwood Correctional Facility in Milpitas. Selvig’s impending release was only a forecast. The action occurred March 11; neither that action day nor the sentencing date is treated as a proven admission day.
National No-Nukes Prison Support Collective newsletter No. 5, May 9, 1981.
The participant account explicitly says the seven were arraigned the Monday following April 15, 1983; six were sentenced to four credited days and ordered physically released. Larry Purcell instead received ten nominal days and was released four days later. April 18 is sentencing, while the individually recorded actual custody endpoints and elapsed counters remain unchanged.
