Lawrence (Pun) Plamondon

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Lawrence (Pun) Plamondon was a 1960s left-wing activist who was one of the founders of the White Panther Party. He was the first hippie to be listed on the FBI's Most Wanted List.

Pun's father was a half-Ottawa Indian and his mother was part-Ojibwa Indian, but he was unaware of this early in life. These facts were revealed to him only by investigative papers turned over to his lawyers during his prosecution. He then learned that while both his birth parents were institutionalized, (the father for being an alcoholic and his mother being treated for syphilis), he was conceived out of wedlock and given up for adoption. A Traverse City couple adopted him and gave him his name, Lawrence Robert Plamondon. Pun, feeling he just didn't fit in, led a troubled youth and left home as a teenager.

At the age of 21, Pun Plamondon wound up in Detroit in 1967 during its turbulent year of war protests and riots. He lived on the streets and made friends with radicals including Allen Ginsberg. Making sandals during the day and smoking pot in the evening, he was soon meeting with people like journalist Peter Werbe, John Sinclair and artist Gary Grimshaw who were running the two underground newspapers, the Detroit Sun and the Fifth Estate.

In 1968, Plamondon with a few of his friends moved to Ann Arbor where they established a commune at 1510 Hill Street. With John Sinclair, they founded the White Panther Party, a group supporting the Black Panther Party in its goals. While there, he learned of his indictment on charges of being a conspirator in the bombing of the CIA office in Ann Arbor on September 29, 1968. Changing his appearance, he went underground and fled to San Francisco, to Seattle, to New York then to Germany, Italy and finally to Algeria. In May 1969, at the age of 24, he was listed on the FBI's Most Wanted List.

After a few months he covertly returned to the United States. In July 1970, Plamondon was discovered and arrested after an earlier stop for littering. While waiting trial and after being convicted his appeals, he spent 32 months in federal prison. During the trial, it was discovered that the government officials admitted to wiretapping without a warrant which finally led to the dismissal of the charges against him, after the case went all the way to the United States Supreme Court in a landmark decision called United States vs. United States District Court (commonly known as the Keith case) which held that even the president of the United States' invocation of "national security" couldn't insulate an illegal scheme from the Constitutional rights of privacy guaranteed to citizens. 407 U.S. 297 (1972).

Later, Plamondon found work driving equipment trucks for rock bands including KISS and Foreigner.

His life was characterized by alcohol and drug abuse, but in 1981 an American Indian, Lewis Sawaquat, introduced him to his Indian heritage and he cleaned himself up.

Pun Plamondon now lives in Barry County, Michigan, with his wife Patricia Lynn. He is now a carpenter with his own business. In his spare time, he tells American Indian stories to young children at schools, libraries and museums. Situated on a 40 acre (162,000 m²) lot, his home is a gathering place for American Indian celebrations.

[edit] Writings of Plamondon

Pun's autobiography:

  • Lost from the Ottawa: The Story of the Journey Back

412 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #04-0093; ISBN 1-4120-2265-7;

Pun's web site

[edit] References

  • Marsha Low, "'60s radical takes long trip back to his roots," Detroit Free Press, Oct. 27, 2004, Sec. B.

[edit] References

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