Today In History: The Trial of the Chicago Eight
September 24th: Today in 1969 began the trial of the “Chicago Eight” for allegedly causing riots at the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago. The eight were Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, John Froines, Bobby Seale, Rennie Davis, David Dellinger, Lee Weiner, and Tom Hayden and they turned the trial into a political event every bit as potent as the riots themselves had been. Bobby Seale was so disruptive early on that he was gagged and chained to his chair before his trial was separated from the rest leaving the ‘Chicago Seven’ to complete the trial. The trial was in the end mostly meaningless with almost all the charges overturned on appeal, the government charges of conspiracy were thin, with Norman Mailer famously testifying “Left-wingers are incapable of conspiracy because they’re all egomaniacs.” However as political theatre the trial was one of the tops of all times in American history.