Charles Grimm Jr
Charles Grimm Jr is a former police informer and undercover operative used by the Tuscaloosa Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation to uncover drug crimes and to instigate violent action by anti-war protesters at the University of Alabama.
Grimm became involved with the FBI's COINTELPRO efforts through Tuscaloosa Police Detective Loyd Russell, who put him in touch with FBI agent Eric Taylor. Grimm has said that Taylor, while not directly ordering him to commit violent acts, made clear that an event such as a fire would make it possible for the bureau to "crush those Communists that are on campus".
Grimm admitted to having burned Dressler Hall on campus on May 7, 1970 while anti-war groups had occupied the basement cafeteria at the Student Union building, part of a nationwide reaction to the deaths of four students at Kent State University. The fire was blamed on dissenters and served as cause to declare campus protests "unlawful assemblies". University president David Mathews, who had earlier acceded to certain demands from the anti-war faction, requested Alabama State Troopers be sent to Tuscaloosa to disperse the protesters.
In the following days, various small protests were quickly put down by the Troopers. Grimm also admitted to throwing rocks at Troopers from the roof of the Union Building on May 18, triggering 45 arrests. In all, 150 students were arrested, briefly uniting the campus' "freaks and Greeks" against a common enemy.
Grimm left the state before his name was brought up in the trial of one of the protesters. He denied involvement when interviewed soon afterwards in Minneapolis by Los Angeles Times reporters, and the FBI officially denied involvement in acts of provocation. In 1971, however, Grimm appeared on a PBS program and admitted that he "did burn a few buildings and throw a few Molotov cocktails." The University collected $140,000 from its insurers for the loss of the building (an intramural sports building which had been previously slated for demolition), but no criminal charges were ever made.
References
- Chevigny, Paul (1972) Cops and Rebels. New York, New York: Pantheon Books
- Haden, Courtney (May 6, 2010) "When the world seemed afire." Birmingham Weekly