9,487
edits
Changes
no edit summary
[[Image:GoldsbySimmons.jpg|thumb|right|Matt Goldsby, left, and [[Jimmy Simmons]] are handcuffed for their arraignment at the [[United States Post Office and Courthouse|federal courthouse]].]]
A '''trio of anti-abortion bombings''' took place on [[December 25|Christmas Day]], [[1984]]. The attacks, planned under the code-name "'''Gideon Project'''," were perpetrated by [[Matt Goldsby]] and [[Jimmy Simmons]], two 21-year-old members of the [[First Assembly of God]] congregation, as well as Goldsby's fiancee [[Kaye Wiggins]] and Simmons's wife [[Kathy Simmons|Kathy]], both 18. They targeted the [[Ladies Center]] abortion clinic and two offices of OB/GYN doctors who performed occasional abortions.
==Background==
[[Image:LadiesCenterBombing.jpg|thumb|right|The [[Ladies Center]] following the [[June 25]] bombing.]]
Goldsby and Simmons had already committed an abortion clinic bombing that year, destroying the [[Ladies Center]] with a pipe bomb on [[June 25]], [[1984]]. They had detonated the bomb in the early morning hours, before employees had arrived, so there were no injuries. The damage, estimated at more than $200,000, forced the Ladies Center to relocate to a new office on [[Ninth Avenue]], which opened on [[August 13]]. No arrests were made in the June bombing, which Goldsby and Simmons took as a sign of divine approval and began plotting another bombing of the Ladies Center, which reopened a [[Ninth Avenue]] location on [[August 13]].
==Christmas bombings==
Exactly six months after the first bombing, in the early dawn of [[December 25|Christmas Day]], the [[Ladies Center]] was bombed again at its new location, along with the two offices of Drs. [[William Permenter]] and [[Bo Bagenholm]], OB/GYNs whose practices included some abortion. (Goldsby was an aspiring weightlifter who exercised at the same gym as Bagenholm.<ref>Dallas A. Blanchard and Terry J. Prewitt. ''Religious Violence and Abortion: The Gideon Project'', p. 45.</ref>) The damages incurred by the three bombings were about $100,000, $225,000 and $100,000, respectively.<ref>[http://www.wforw.it/Usaviolenza.html Abortion violence timeline, 1982-1998]</ref> As before, there were no injuries.
Following the new bombings, the ''[[Pensacola News Journal]]'' received an anonymous letter taking credit for the bombings. The author, apparently female, wrote that the bombings were the result of guilt over an abortion she had while in the [[Navy]].<ref>"Letter-Writer Takes Responsibility for Bombs." ''New York Times'', December 29, 1984.</ref>
==Arrests & trial==
An investigation by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms traced pipe used in the bombings to the construction company where Goldsby worked, and he was arrested on [[December 30]]. His fiancee [[Kaye Wiggins]], along with [[Jimmy Simmons|Jimmy]] and [[Kathy Simmons]], were arrested on [[January 2]], [[1985]]. On [[January 16]], the two men (both 21 at the time) were each indicted on nine counts related to the bombings, while the women (both 18) were charged with seven counts each.
On [[April 24]], [[1985]], Goldsby and James Simmons were convicted by the jury on all counts related to the bombings. Wiggins and Kathy Simmons were convicted on counts of conspiracy, but acquitted of the charges that they had actually manufactured and detonated the bombs. On [[May 30]], the two men were both sentenced to ten-year sentences, which they began on [[June 17]], [[1985]], while the women received five years' probation.
==See also==
*[[Michael Griffin]]
*[[Paul Hill]]
==References==