Raymond "Ray" Luc Levasseur (October 10, 1946 - ) was a member of the United Freedom Front, a militant Marxist organization that conducted a series of bombings throughout the United States from 1976 to 1984.[1]
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In 1965 Levasseur enlisted in the United States Army, and was sent to Vietnam two years later, for a 12 month tour of duty.He felt that this experience radicalized him—claiming that he experienced racism, and began to feel strong opposition to fighting against the Vietnamese, who he felt were struggling for their right to self-determination.[1]
After returning from Vietnam, Levasseur moved to Tennessee, where he began attending college.[1] There, he began working with the Southern Student Organizing Committee (SSOC).[1]
In 1969, Levasseur was arrested for attempting to sell six dollars worth of marijuana to an undercover police officer. Even though he had no prior criminal history, due to his political activism, Levasseur was given the maximum penalty of 5 years in prison. He was sent to the Tennessee State Penitentiary, where he spent 2 years in solitary confinement, before being released on parole.[1]
He then moved to Maine, where he began working with Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW), and the Statewide Correctional Alliance for Reform (SCAR), a prisoners'-rights organization. It is while working with these activist groups in Maine, that Levasseur met his future wife, Pat Gros.[1]
Levasseur was arrested on November 3, 1984, by Emery R. Jorden, U.S Marshal, who managed to track him down from a trail of aliases that his wife was using, which led to a post office box in Columbus, Ohio.[2] During the arrest, his wife and 3 children were taken into custody. His children were subjected to over 5 hours of interrogation by the FBI and were then turned over to a state child welfare agency, despite the fact that numerous relatives lived in the area, were gainfully employed, and expressed willingness to take the children into custody.[2]
After being convicted, Levasseur was sentenced to 45 years in prison, and was sent immediately to Control Unit of the supermax prison, USP Marion.[3] While there, he refused to work for the prison labor corporation UNICOR, producing weapons for the U.S. Department of Defense.[1]
In 1994 he was transferred to ADX Florence in Colorado, possibly as a result of his refusal to work for UNICOR.[1]
In 1999 he was transferred to the Atlanta Federal Prison, where he was released from solitary confinement for the first time in 13 years. Soon afterwards, he began to publish writings on the website Letters from Exile[1]
Levasseur was released from prison on parole in 2004.
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