Larry David Grathwohl (1947-2013) | WikiTree FREE Family Tree

Sergeant Larry David Grathwohl

Born 13 Oct 1947 in Cincinnati, Hamilton County, Ohio, United States

Son of Earl G. Grathwohl and Mary Frances (Huff) Rickard

Brother of Earl M. Grathwohl [half]

[spouse(s) unknown]

[children unknown]

Died 18 Jul 2013 at age 65 in Amelia, Batavia Township, Clermont County, Ohio, United States

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Profile last modified 15 May 2024 | Created 9 Jul 2023

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Sergeant Larry Grathwohl served in the United States Army in the Vietnam War
Service started: October, 1964
Unit(s): 101st Airborne Division
Service ended: July, 1968

Larry Grathwohl was awarded the Bronze Star Medal.

Larry Grathwohl is Notable.

Biography

Ex Vietnam Veteran Sergeant Larry David Grathwohl the American Patriot that brought down the domestic terrorist organization the Weatherman. Also known as the Weather Underground Organization, was a radical left-wing militant group that carried out domestic terrorism activities from 1969 to the 1970s. The group's actions included bombings, jailbreaks, and riots, and targeted government and military facilities, including the U.S. Capitol, State Department, and Pentagon. The Weathermen also killed five police officers.[1]

Bringing Down America: An FBI Informer With the Weathermen[2] The full text of the 191 page book can be downloaded from here:^[1]

Larry Grathwohl on Bill Ayers[3]plan for American reeducation camps and the need to kill millions SD)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKTltWU1e7w

Larry Grathwohl - FBI Informant - Weather Underground Infiltrator, 2021

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqxOXddAV2U

No Place to Hide Banned Documentary About Terrorism 1982 003

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j41Q90Ked5o

In 1969, Larry Grathwohl stepped out of his life and became, according to Time magazine, “the only FBI informant known to have successfully penetrated the Weather Underground.” For a year, Grathwohl ran with America’s most dangerous radicals. He watched them plan bombings, murders, and political assassinations. He moved in a world of Maoist brainwashing, drugs, and enforced sexual experimentation, with a gang of thugs dedicated to bringing down America.

At the time, nobody could have imagined that the criminal leaders of the Weather Underground would elude punishment and rise to positions of authority in American public life. 'But today, they are influential professors, national leaders in K – 12 education “reform,” and were advisors to President Obama’s Recovery Act' [4]. Grathwohl’s story is now more important than ever. He exposed the network of American radicals, international terrorists, clergymen, journalists, and college professors who helped the Weathermen elude capture and continue to help in the cover-up of their crimes. On one occasion, his quick action averted the bombing of a Detroit police station. Two bombs wrapped in a waterproof bag with a total of 44 sticks of dynamite had been placed inside the toilet tank in the women's lavatory by the Weathermen. During this time as a precautionary move, Larry Grathwohl taped one of his U.S. Army dog tags to the inside of his boot so the police could identify his body in the event he died.

March 6, 1970: Three members of the Weather Underground are killed in an accidental explosion in Greenwich Village in New York City while building a bomb that the radical group intended to detonate at Fort Dix. [5]

The New York Times ran this news article on July 26, 1970 [6]

Court Records Show Weatherman Charged With Bombing Conspiracy Used Different Names

Inquiries into the back ground of one of the 13 Weathermen indicted Thursday for conspiracy to plant bombs around the country have led to a mysterious web of name changes and intrigue.

The indicted man—identified in the court papers as Larry Grathwohl, 22 years old, of Cincinnati—was arrested here on another charge last April, but under another name.

A search of Federal Court records yesterday showed that at that time Mr. Grathwohl was using an alias—Tom Niehman or Nietman, of 254 Sycamore Street, Staten Island.

In a development in the case yesterday, meanwhile, Jane Spielman, 23[7], another member of the indicted group, surrendered to the F.B.I. here. She was charged with being in the townhouse on West 11th Street in Greenwich Village during the fatal explosion March 6[8]. Miss Spielman[9] was arraigned before Federal Judge Edward Weinfeld[10] and released, in $10,000 bail.

Mr. Grathwohl was arrested on a charge of assaulting an agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation while the agent was arresting Linda Sue Evans, 23[11], on a complaint from Chicago that charged her with violating Federal antiriot laws last fall.

He, Miss Evans[12] and Dianne Donghi, 21[13], were all arraigned on April 15, and all three have also been charged in the bombing conspiracy.

Women Suspect Him

But according to the two women's lawyer, Henry di Suvero, both now suspect that Mr. Grathwohl is a police “plant” who infiltrated small under ground cells of the Weathermen here in Cincinnati and in New Haven for law enforcement authorities.

However, Guy Goodwin, the Justice Department official[14] in charge of the Federal Weathermen cases, said yesterday that he had no knowledge that Mr. Grathwohl was an informant, and the F.B.I. declined to comment on the report.

When he was brought before United States Commissioner Earle N. Bishopp on April 15, it was as “Tom Niehrnan,” and the complaint against him was that he “pushed” the F.B.I. agent, Paul W. Roemer, while Mr. Roemer was attempting to arrest Miss Evans[15] in the East Village.

Mrs. Charles Nietman of 254 Sycamore Street, who has a son named Tom, read of the arrest in the newspapers, she said yesterday, and appeared before Commissioner Bishopp a few days later to deny that the arrested youth—who is tall, husky and blond—was her son, who is tall, thin and reddish‐blond and was, she said, In Canada at the time of the arrest.

A few days later, she said, two F.B.I. agents visited her and her son at her home on Staten Island and listened to her story that her son had lost his driver's license, draft card and other identification, which were in the arrested youth's possession.

The arrested youth later told Assistant United States Attorney Maurice McDermott[16] and Commissioner Bishopp that his real name was Larry Grathwohl, of 3933 Nine Mile Road, Cincinnati. That identification appears on the $7,500 bond on which he was released on April 28. His bail limits for travel extend to Cincinnati.

He declared he was without means and was represented free by the Legal Aid Society.

Mr. McDermott said yesterday that he had no idea where Mr. Grathwohl, whose step father, Joseph F. Rickard, lives at 3933 Nine Mile Road in Cincinnati, was now. Mr. Grathwohl is being sought on the bombing conspiracy charges.

A Larry David Grathwohl attended the University of Cincinnati's two‐year Raymond Walters branch from 1968 to 1969. The university's public relations department said yesterday that he was born on Oct. 13, 1947, served in the Army from October, 1964, to July, 1968, and came out as a sergeant.

People in Cincinnati who knew him when he was in high school said he was about six feet tall and husky, and had blond hair.

They have not seen much of him since they said.

When he was in New York, the youth who was arrested as Tom Niehman said he had been a paratrooper.

Mr. di Suvero said yesterday that on Thursday, the day of the bombing conspiracy indictment, Mr. Grathwohl was in Fort Dodge, Iowa, and attempted to get in touch with Miss Evans[17], who was later arrested and held in the Webster County Jail there.

One of Mr. di Suvero's associates, Daniel Pochoda, said that Miss Evans[18] and Miss Donghi[19] “felt they had been ‘fingered’ by Nietman” after their arrest with him on the other charges in April.

They recently wrote a letter to Rat, the underground East Village newspaper, accusing “an undercover pig,” not named, of turning them in, and Mr. di Suvero said yesterday that they meant Mr. Grathwohl.

“We know he's appeared in Cincinnati two times,” Mr. di Suvero said. “He said he had been accused by Linda[20] and Dianne[21], but it wasn't true, that he was about to go to trial.”

No Trial Date Set

The Federal prosecutor, Mr. McDermott[22], said that no trial date had been set for Mr. Grathwohl on the charge of assaulting the F.B.I. agent, and that no charges had been lodged against him for using Tom Nietman's identification papers.

Mr. McDermott[23] argued in Federal Court here yesterday that Miss Donghi[24] should be held in $50,000 bail, which had been set Friday by Commissioner Bishopp, on the new bombing‐conspiracy indictment.

But Federal Judge Frederick van Pelt Bryan[25], noting that she had already been released on a total of $20,000 ball on other charges, and that her lawyers, Mr. Pochoda and Lewis M. Steel, had tried to arrange for her voluntary surrender on Thursday, released her in their custody over the weekend.

On Monday, he ordered, she would have to post $1,000 cash for a $10,000 bond.

Miss Donghi[26], a thin, blonde girl who last week took a $38‐ a‐week job with a Neighborhood Youth Corps center at Tompkins Square, said she was surprised by Judge Bryan's[27] ruling.

On Friday, she appeared before Commissioner Bishopp with her mother, with whom she said she lived in Dobbs Ferry, N.Y.

Her father, Frank Donghi, was a former National Broadcasting Company news bureau chief in Saigon. He died, apparently by suicide at a California resort lodge in March, 1969.

The girl's neighbors in Dobbs Ferry remember her as “a bright, serious” young woman who was not seen very often around town.

She attended Barnard College and was a freshman there during the student upheavals at Columbia University in the spring of 1968.

One of her family friends said yesterday that “she wasn't involved, she was just a curious bystander.”

Forged Check Charge

“She saw real brutality for the first time,” the friend said, “and she was terribly frightened.”

Judge Bryan said yesterday that Miss Donghi[28] had worked for the Neighborhood Youth Corps for about a year before her arrest last April.

On the 15th of that month, she was arrested in the Earle Hotel in Greenwich Village on a Federal charge of purchasing an airline ticket in Buffalo with a forged check and on that day she appeared before Commissioner Bishopp with Miss Evans[29] and Mr. Grathwohl.

She was released in $5,000 bond on April 24. But the next day, she was arrested on a state charge of being a fugitive from justice in Illinois, where she was being sought for her alleged involvement in a bomb factory in an apartment at 5433 North Kenmore Street on Chicago's North Side.

Others who were indicted with. Miss Donghi[30] were Cathlyn P. Wilkerson[31] and Kathy Boudin[32], who are thought to have fled a March 6 explosion that destroyed a townhouse at West 11th Street here. They were also named as defendants in Thursday's indictment.

Miss Donghi[33] stayed in jail on that charge until she made $15,000 bail in late June.

Since then, she said in court, she had been living with her mother and, recently, in an apartment at 25 Grove Street in Greenwich Village.

Lost in Court House

She got lost in the courthouse on Foley Square after her release yesterday and seemed to be on the verge of tears when she was found.

She said her release showed that “the U.S. Government is scared of their position in the world.”

Miss Spielman's[34] attorney, William Crain, said he had been contacted by her after the reduction of bail for Miss Donghi[35]. Miss Spielman[36], wearing blue jeans, a blue shirt and sandals, accompanied Mr. Crain to F.B.I. headquarters.

Although she was released in her own recognizance, she must post $500 collateral on Tuesday. At that time, there will be a Federal Court hearing on the warrant the Michigan grand jury delivered on Thursday.

Mr. Crain declared that his client was “miles away” when the explosion had occurred in the townhouse.

Miss Spielman[37] said she considered the charges “another desperate attempt of the Federal Government, the Nixon Mitchell Administration,” to attack the Weatherman group.

Law enforcement authorities were searching this weekend for nine other defendants in the bombing conspiracy case, besides Miss Donghi[38], Miss Evans[39], Miss Spielman[40] and Russell Neufeld, 22[41], who was apprehended in Chicago and held in $50,000 bail.

The defendants who are at large include the leaders of the Weathermen, originally a faction of Students for a Democratic Society but which is now thought to have split into small groups and to have gone under ground over the past winter.

They are Mark Rudd, 23[42]; Bernardine Dohrn, 27[43]; William Ayers, 25[44]; Kathy Boudin[45] and Cathlyn Platt Wilkerson[46], who have been missing since the explosion in Greenwich Village Mar. 6[47]; Ronald Fliegelman, 26[48]; Mr. Grathwohl; Naomi Jaffe[49], 27, and Robert Burlingham, 24.[50]

Larry GRATHWOHL Obituary

GRATHWOHL

Larry David, loving father of Denise, Lindsay and Lisa, grandfather of Lance, Michael and Brendan. He is survived by his mother, Mary Rickard and siblings, Lee (Bonnie), Mary Jo (Rick), Joey (Peg), Teresa (Ed), Sean (Trudy) and nieces, nephews, cousins and best friend, Sandi. Larry served his country with valor and distinction. He risked his life to defend his nation, first in Viet Nam as a member of the 101st Airborne Division where he was awarded the Bronze Star, and later with the FBI to combat terrorism in the form of the Weather Underground. Larry then authored "Bringing Down America", a book that recounted the story of how he battled radical terror. Larry, a resident of Pierce Township, passed away July 18, 2013 at the age of 65. Visitation will be held Wednesday, July 24 from 9 AM until the time of funeral service at 11 AM at E.C. Nurre Funeral Home, 177 W. Main St., Amelia. Interment with military honors at Mt. Moriah Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, please make a donation in Larry's honor to the Wounded Warrior Project (www.woundedwarriorproject.org) to support veterans and their families. www.ecnurre.com

To plant trees in memory, please visit the Sympathy Store.

Published by The Cincinnati Enquirer on Jul. 22, 2013.