Biography
Patricia "Pat" Swinton was a New Left radical charged in connection with a wave of bombings of corporate and government buildings in New York City in 1969. Between July and November 1969, eight buildings were bombed by a small group around Sam Melville and Jane Alpert; Melville, Alpert, and David Hughey were arrested in November 1969, but Swinton — who lived under the name "Shoshana" — went underground and remained a fugitive for more than five years.
The FBI captured her on March 12, 1975 at a commune in Vermont. At trial she was acquitted in September 1975. Afterward she said her case illustrated "one of the ways the Government is willing to use its power... to get political dissenters."
The CCR annual-report extract, printed pages 4–5 contains a conflicting 1976 chronology for Swinton and the related Hughey witness-contempt proceedings. The Second Circuit opinion in United States v. Hughey, 571 F.2d 111 (1978) instead places Swinton’s apprehension and trial in 1975, with trial beginning September 22 and acquittal September 26. Her existing 1975 record has not been changed to match the erroneous report year. The court describes Hughey being remanded September 22 and ordered released September 26; those are his proceedings, not proof of Swinton’s own jail admission or physical discharge.
