Michelle Leavitt
News Reporter
Howard Mechanic was one of many standing and chanting outside the Air Force ROTC building on the night of May 4, 1970, on the west side the Washington University campus.
But while he was not a major force in the WU militant activist student movement at the time, a night of violence by WU militants made him the celebrity of the WU anti-war movement.
As St. Louis County police arrived along with firetrucks at 1:00 a.m. to put out the flaming ROTC building and restore order, a protester threw a cherry bomb towards the policemen. No one was injured.
In response, the police rounded up seven students-among them Mechanic-who were likely suspects.
Mechanic was eventually tried under state and federal law for violating the 1968 Civil Disobedience Act. Donald Richard Burn, a student and a police informant who had been at the riot, said he witnessed the cherry bomb coming from “near Mechanic’s person.” His was the only testimony linking Mechanic to the cherry bomb. As a result of Mechanic’s trial, he received a six-month sentence and a $500 fine for state charges, and 5 years and a $10,000 fine for his federal charges.
The Charges and the Aftermath
Mechanic was the first, and one of only two people ever, to be convicted under the new Civil Disobedience Act. The other, Larry Kogan, was also convicted for throwing a cherry bomb at the May ROTC burning. Just last year Kogan admitted to throwing the cherry bomb.
Mechanic appealed his sentence, and when the Supreme Court declined to hear his case in late 1972, he skipped bail and went on the run. This left WU professor Carter Revard in the lurch: Revard had put up his house as bond to secure Mechanic’s $10,000 bail. Revard was only able to keep his house with the assistance of WU faculty and a $2,000 check from Mechanic’s father.
Mechanic made his way first to Albuquerque, where he intended to settle but he eventually continued on to Phoenix and moved to Scottsdale, a posh suburb, assuming the name Gary Tredway. Unable to claim his college-educated background, Mechanic worked minor jobs without success. Eventually he went into business for himself, starting a health-food supply company and purchasing the Abode, an apartment hotel. He remained, as always, politically active.
Mechanic was instrumental in pushing through a campaign finance reform initiative in Scottsdale that has since been ruled unconstitutional. He also focused his efforts on environmental issues and helping the needy.
Mechanic’s life as a political activist led him to run for city council in the spring of 2000. A reporter researching Mechanic’s background uncovered his secret, and on February 10, 2000, Mechanic surrendered to federal marshals in Phoenix.
Since that time, he has protected friends and family by refusing to name anyone who knew anything about his double life. He has admitted, though, that only twelve people knew the “real” Mechanic during those years, and that he did keep in contact with his family, contrary to popular belief. At his first hearing, Mechanic apologized for lying to the people in Scottsdale and for cutting himself off from family and friends for the nearly three decades he was living under a false identity.
Mechanic was convicted of a third charge for illegally obtaining a passport under his assumed name. He served eleven months in prison while his family and friends searched for a way to free him.
Mechanic’s situation was one very few Vietnam-era protesters have had to face: instead of being charged of a crime and later convicted, Mechanic was tried and convicted during that time of civil conflict. In spite of Kogan’s admission of guilt, thereby removing the basis for the charges against Mechanic, there was no way to remove the sentence. The only option was to receive a presidential pardon, which experts deemed “highly unlikely.”
However, as one of his last acts in office, then-President Clinton pardoned Mechanic.
Now a free man, Mechanic is unsure what he will devote his life to. He intends to remain politically active, but he will probably not run for political office again. He and his life-mate still keep residence in Scottsdale, and Mechanic plans to focus on his health food business. He plans to sell the apartment complex he owns to support that goal. In the process he intends to write a book about his life, and there is some talk about a full-length film detailing his ordeal.
Mechanic finds himself “a little happier about life.considering I don’t have to carry that burden around” anymore.
Once again going by his given name, Mechanic said, “I hope my fifteen minutes of fame is nearly up.I think I’ve had more than
fifteen minutes.”