Who was Kathy Boudin? Weather Underground member and mother of Chesa Boudin dies aged 78

Kathy Boudin was involved in the October 1981's robbery of $1.6 million. (Image via Twitter/@ecminstructsys)

American university teacher and former inmate Kathy Boudin passed away because of cancer at the age of 78 in New York on May 1.

Boudin's son, Chesa, told the outlet Chronicle that his mother had been fighting cancer for seven years.

He described her as "unshakably optimistic and courageous." He boarded a red-eye trip to New York to say goodbye and see her one final time.

The deceased was a member of the militant organization Weather Underground and spent decades in jail for her role in the tragic 1981 Brink's armored truck theft.

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Brief information about Kathy Boudin

Kathy Boudin was born on May 19, 1943, in Greenwich Village, New York, to a Jewish family with a long history of left-wing activism.

Boudin was strongly connected with the Weather Underground in the 1960s and 1970s. Also known as The Weathermen, the group blasted off The Pentagon, the US Capitol, the New York Police Benevolent Association, the New York Board of Corrections, and the offices of international corporations.

Boudin and Cathy Wilkerson were both survivors of the 1970 Greenwich Village townhouse explosion, which was caused by the premature detonation of a nail bomb meant for a soldiers' dance at Fort Dix, New Jersey. At the time, Boudin was 27 years old.

Both ladies were on bail awaiting prosecution for their alleged conduct in Chicago's Days of Rage. Wilkerson was freed on a $20,000 bail, while Boudin was freed on a $40,000 bond.

Kathy Boudin and others of their gang collaborated with the Black Liberation Army in the theft of October 1981, to help fund their anti-government efforts. They went for a Brink's armored vehicle in Rockland County, stealing $1.6 million in the process.

The gunmen killed Brink's security guard, Peter Paige, during the theft before moving the money to a U-Haul truck a mile away, where Boudin, 38, sat in the cabin.

Police halted the truck at a checkpoint, and Kathy Boudin, who was unarmed, promptly surrendered. Two Long Island police officers, Sgt. Edward O'Grady and Officer Waverly Brown were killed when gunmen in the rear of the vehicle opened fire on the cops.

In the killing of Paige in 1984, she pled guilty to first-degree robbery and second-degree murder. She served 22 years in jail before her release in 2003 on good behavior.

In 2008, she was employed as an adjunct lecturer at the Columbia School of Social Work Associate. In 2013, she was employed as a full-time lecturer to talk about challenges that criminals and their families face when they are released from jail.

Kathy Boudin was the mother of San Francisco District Attorney, Chesa Boudin, who petitioned former New York Governor, Andrew Cuomo, to shorten the sentence of his father, David Gilbert. David was also a member of the Weather Underground and was imprisoned for his involvement in the robbery.

Gilbert, who worked as a getaway driver, was serving a 75-year to life sentence with no chance of release until 2056. Gilbert is one of the robbery's final surviving participants.

Another former Weather Underground member, Judith Clark, was sentenced to 75 years in prison for her part in a heist at a mall in suburban Rockland County until Cuomo reduced her sentence in 2016. In the year 2019, she was granted parole.

According to the district attorney's office, Kathy Boudin is survived by her brother Michael Boudin, her life partner Gilbert and their son Chesa Boudin, as well as her daughter-in-law Valerie Block.