Radical Bissell Released From Halfway House

A former anti-war radical who was a fugitive for 17 years has been released from a federal halfway house after serving 17 months for trying to bomb a University of Washington ROTC building at the height of the Vietnam War.

Terry Jackson, 46, who changed his name from Silas Trim Bissell, said in a telephone interview that he was released Friday from a Cleveland halfway house.

Jackson, whose family founded the Bissell carpet sweeper company, still must perform 90 days of community service. He said he plans to begin work Jan. 3 at the Cleveland Society for the Blind to fulfill that requirement.

After that, he and his wife, Ruth Evan, will head for Eugene, Ore., he said. It was there that he built a life for himself as a physical therapist while a fugitive.

Ex-Wife Also Accused

Jackson, who helped found the Weather Underground, was accused along with his then-wife Judith Emily Bissell of conspiring to damage federal property by placing a bomb at the University of Washington’s Air Force ROTC building on Jan. 18, 1970. The bomb did not explode.

The couple fled from custody in 1970 and eventually separated. Judith Bissell was arrested in 1977 and was convicted on federal charges in 1979. She was sentenced to three years in prison.

After Jackson was arrested in January, 1987, a number of friends pledged money and property for his bail, and nearly 200 letters were sent to the court on his behalf.

He was sentenced to two years in federal prison after pleading guilty in federal court to possession of an unregistered destructive device and in Superior Court to a second-degree assault charge stemming from an anti-war demonstration.