Convicted in the Brink's robbery, Kathy Boudin went on to become an educator and advocate for former inmates.
Chesa Boudin told the Chronicle, which was first to report the news, that his mother had been battling with cancer for seven years. He said he took a red-eye flight to New York to say goodbye and to see her one last time, describing her nature as “unshakably optimistic and courageous.”
“She made it long enough to meet her grandson, and welcome my father home from prison after 40 years," Boudin said in a statement his office shared with SFGATE."She always ended phone calls with a laugh, a habit acquired during the 22 years of her incarceration, when she wanted to leave every person she spoke with, especially me, with joy and hope. She lived redemption, constantly finding ways to give back to those around her.
Born on May 19, 1943, Kathy Boudin was raised by civil rights lawyer and left-wing activist Leonard Boudin and poet Jean Boudin while growing up in New York City’s Greenwich Village. She went on to attend Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania, majoring in Russian studies, and was valedictorian of her class in 1965.
In October of the following year, Kathy Boudin, Gilbert and other members of the organization worked in conjunction with the Revolutionary Armed Task Force and the Black Liberation Army to partake in aof $1.6 million in a Brink’s armored car at the Nanuet Mall in New York. A Brink’s guard was killed by one of their accomplices in the holdup, and two New York police officers were killed by the group during a shootout in the escape.
Weather Underground members Bill Ayers and his wife, Bernardine Dohrn took Chesa Boudin into their care when he was 14 months old. Kathy Boudin pleaded guilty in 1984 and entered Bedford Hills Correctional Facility in exchange for her release on parole in 2003, while Gilbert took the case to trial and was eventually sentenced to 75 years to life in prison. He received a grant of clemency from Governor Andrew Cuomo on Aug. 23, 2021 before he was granted parole and then released on Nov.