Born to a Boston postal clerk, Tom Manning is known for killing a police officer during a routine traffic stop, and for his involvement with leftist militants who bombed a series of US military and commercial institutes in the 1980s.

As a youth, he shined shoes and raised pigeons, before finding work as a stockboy. He joined the US Military in 1963, and the following year was stationed at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba before being transferred off to spend the following year in the Vietnam War.

Some time shortly after 1965, he was sentenced to five years in prison for armed robbery and assault, serving the last ten months in Massachusetts Correctional Institution - Cedar Junction. He claims it was during these years that he became heavily politicized, through his interactions with other prisoners

After his release in 1971, he married Carol and together they produced three children, Jeremy, Tamara, and Jonathan.

Together with his arrest for the bombings, Manning was also convicted for his role in killing New Jersey police officer Philip Lamonaco during a traffic stop on December 21 1981.

The killings launched the largest manhunt in NJ police history, and ended with the arrests of Raymond Levasseur, Patricia Gross, Richard Williams, Jaan Laaman, and Barbara Curzi on November 4th 1984, and Manning and his wife Carol on April 24, 1985. All of them were associated with the United Freedom Front.

He pled self-defence at trial, while defence counsel showed that Lamonaco had emptied his entire .357 Magnum clip at Manning and his associates. He was sentenced on February 19, 1987.

In September 2006, the University of Southern Maine removed his art from an art presentation, and apologised for allowing him to be heralded as a "political prisoner" by event organizers.

His projected release date is August 20, 2020. He is currently being held in a federal prison in Florida.

Prisons housed

• United States Penitentiary, Hazelton
• Massachusetts Correctional Institution - Cedar Junction
• United States Penitentiary, Leavenworth
• Medical Center for Federal Prisoners, Springfield (1999 hip surgery)
• United States Penitentiary, Marion
• ADX Florence
• Federal Correctional Institution, Cumberland

Wikipedia.org
  

Tom Manning

A Short Biography

Tom Manning Homepage - Geocities.com/CapitolHill/3400

Boston born and raised in a large, Irish working class family-never enough $-though my father worked day and night-with sleep in between- his only days off were when he was hurt or some crisis in the family-a longshoreman and a postal clerk- he worked himself to death- trying to get one end to meet the other- he never did make ends meet- that would be a cycle & capitalism is not made that way- he always got the worst end.

As kids we tried to help where we could- I shined shoes & sold newspapers in the subways and the bars, otherwise I spent my time like most kids in the neighborhood - roaming the docks and freight yards looking for anything that could be converted into cash, bartered, or used in some way. also playing stickball & raising pigeons. As I grew older, I worked as a stockboy, then construction laborer til joining the military in '63. Cuba in '64- Viet Nam in '65-66.

Back on the streets for a minute, then state prison for 5 years, armed robbery and assault & battery. Given the area where I grew up and being a 'Nam vet, prison was par for the course. I ran into a lot of boyhood friends and veterans inside. I became somewhat politicized in prison, taking part in food and work strikes, being around people willing to teach and organize at great personal risk. I spent my last 14 months in Walpole's 10 Block, where I first read Che, and where all the prisoners- black, brown, and white- were united out of necessity. In contrast to general population in the prison and in the city of Boston.

I completed my sentence in May of '71-took one quick tour of the old streets, and headed for the country, the woods, and small towns of Northern New England, where I met Carol, married, and had a child, the first of three. Jeremy, Tamara, and Jonathan. The second two came during our ten years underground. In Portland, Maine we became active in an organization named SCAR, whose work was done by and for prisoners, ex prisoners, and their loved ones.

The work was rapidly expanding into all areas of the community, finding jobs and housing for people coming out, trying to stay out, support & welfare advocacy transportation to the prisons for visiting , childcare, organizing young people, a bail fund, a book store.

With this work and the study it required, it became increasingly clear who got the best end, at whose expense, and what was needed also became clear- socialism- a system where ends meet. The bosses oppose this system with a vengeance. They attack it with their armies and police. The People must fight for their own system in all ways- one of these being armed clandestine struggle. We have a long way to go, but we are getting there.

I was captured in 1985, sentenced to 58 years in federal prison for a series of bombings carried out as armed propaganda against apartheid in South Africa, U.S. imperialism in Latin and Central America, including a concerted campaign against Mobil Oil and U.S. military targets in solidarity with the FALN's campaign for the release of the five Nationalist prisoners. And against racist, genocidal capitalism here in the belly of the beast. I'm also sentenced to 80 years- (two 25 to life, plus 20 for armed robbery, plus 10 for escape) in New Jersey for the self-defense killing of a state trooper.

At present I am at the U.S penitentiary at Leavenworth, Kansas. where I am classified as a high max prisoner restricted to a high accountability status (orange card) that requires me to be checked in every two hours during the daytime and evening hours. I am forced to work in the prison print shop, which has a higher security than any other job shop. And if I refuse or get fired from this job, I 'll be returned to the hole. [editor:  As of August 1999, Thomas Manning has been moved to Springfield, MO for hip surgery]

This is the first prison I've been held in where I can walk around un-handcuffed and un-shackled. The prison authorities, because of my political beliefs and affiliations, have declared me a "threat to the secure and orderly running" of their prison system. As a result, I have spent the last 12 years in continual lockdown, from the control unit in New Jersey to U.S.P. Marion in Illinois, and ADX Super -max in Florence, Colorado.

I stand accused of being a part of the Sam Melville/Jonathan Jackson unit in the 1970's and the United Freedom Front in the 1980's. I am proud of the association and all that it implies...

  

Trooper Philip Joseph Lamonaco
New Jersey State Police
New Jersey
End of Watch: Monday, December 21, 1981

Biographical Info

Age: 32
Tour of Duty: 11 years
Badge Number: 2663

Incident Details

Cause of Death: Gunfire
Date of Incident: Monday, December 21, 1981
Weapon Used: Handgun; 9 mm
Suspect Info: Two sentenced to death

Trooper Philip Lamonaco was shot and killed during a traffic stop in Knowlton Township.

The incident occurred when he stopped two members of a radical environmental group, known as the United Freedom Front, on I-80. The suspects robbed banks to fund their radical operations which included bombing energy sites.

Several suspects were apprehended and two of them were sentenced to death for Trooper Lamonaco's murder. A third suspect was sentenced to 30 years in prison on federal charges. He was also sentenced to life on state charges, which will start when he is released from federal custody.

On July 19, 1983, Lieutenant Lester Pagano was killed in an automobile accident while investigating Trooper Lamonaco's murder. Lieutenant Pagano had finished following up on leads in reference to the case when the accident occurred.

Trooper Lamonaco had been employed with the New Jersey State Police for 11 years. He is survived by his wife and three children.

A seven mile portion of I-80 was renamed and dedicated in Trooper Lamonaco's memory.

Odmp.org