Biography
Tom Lewis was a member of the "Baltimore Four", a group of antiwar protestors during the late 60s who poured blood on draft notices to protest the waste of blood in Vietnam at the time. Lewis also stole draft files on a separate occasion and destroyed them with napalm. For these actions,
he was sentenced to a total of 9 and a half years in prison.
While in prison, Lewis produced much art of his fellow inmates to depict their horrible states. After prison he continued to produce art in the Worcester, MA area and display his creations at the Worcester Art Museum. The Prince of Peace Plowshares was a six-person nonviolent direct-disarmament action at Bath Iron Works in Bath, Maine on February 14, 1997. Philip Berrigan, Susan Crane, Stephen Kelly S.J., Mark Colville, Steve Baggarly, and Tom Lewis-Borbely entered the shipyard and hammered on, and poured blood on, the Tomahawk cruise-missile vertical launching system installed on the destroyer USS The Sullivans (DDG-68) under construction. They were charged in U.S. District Court for the District of Maine with conspiracy and damage to government property, with prosecutors alleging $28,000 in damage. All six were convicted; in addition to prison, each received two years of supervised release and a $4,000 restitution fine.
Thomas Lewis was a Catholic Worker artist and peace activist, one of the Baltimore 4 (Oct 27, 1967 blood pouring on draft files at the Baltimore Custom House) and one of the Catonsville 9 (May 17, 1968 burning of 378 draft files at the Catonsville Maryland draft board with homemade napalm). He was convicted in October 1968 and sentenced to 3.5 years in federal prison. He served his sentence and continued decades of nonviolent direct action against U.S. militarism. He died on April 4, 2008.
Lewis joined Meg Brodhead and Dan Ethier in the 1987 South Weymouth Transfiguration Plowshares action, hammering and pouring blood on military aircraft. Brodhead’s firsthand account describes base-security custody, Boston federal court and release that afternoon on personal-recognizance bonds. This was brief initial detention, separate from his earlier prison terms. Source: https://merton.bellarmine.edu/files/original/217a22e7feceeb8e66c2c6d1609f0ee7b8b5d8b5.pdf#page=1
Contemporary anti-nuclear custody report
Individually named among the GTE-Sylvania Good Friday arrestees at Westboro, Massachusetts, April 9, 1982. All except Louis Doughton refused bond and remained jailed over the weekend until explicitly reported release on their own recognizance Monday April 12. April 9 to April 12 is three elapsed calendar days, not four complete days. Trial was still scheduled for May 11, not a conviction. This April episode is distinct from December 1982 and other existing cases.
National No-Nukes Prison Support Collective newsletter No. 11, April 15, 1982, original pages 4.
Additional individually documented custody
Tom Lewis was among the January 25, 1986 USS Alaska commissioning protesters held in New London, Connecticut. He remained jailed after the February 3 arraignment because he would not sign a promise to appear. The report explicitly dates his physical release and dismissal in consideration of time served to February 13. January 25–February 13 is nineteen elapsed calendar days, distinct from his 1982 GTE and 1960s cases.
The Nuclear Resister No.38, March 10, 1986, original PDF pages 3.
The Movement’s May 24, 1968 Baltimore-datelined report distinguishes the earlier draft-record blood-pouring prosecution from the May 17 Catonsville action. It reports six-year sentences for Philip Berrigan and Thomas P. Lewis, three years for David Eberhardt, and postponement of James Mengel’s sentencing. The terms concern the prior October 1967 action; they are not substituted for the Catonsville sentence or entered as actual service. The report’s dateline is preserved as report context without inventing prison-entry or discharge dates.
The GTE account individually identifies this defendant in the April 5, 1985 arrest. All eight refused a promise to remain off GTE property and were held on $1,000 bond until April 11 conviction and time-served sentencing, with seven credited days. This is actual multi-day imprisonment distinct from the August 1985 GTE action. Seven credited days are not equated with six elapsed calendar days; physical release on April 11 is not explicitly reported and remains blank. The source’s Claire/Daniel Lawrence spellings are bridged to the existing distinctive GTE community identities; Daniel Either remains separately held for spelling verification.
