Newburyport: Independence Day Mainiacs
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just — Francis Scott Key, “The Star-Spangled Banner” (verse not sung)
Bullfinch Court House, Newburyport, MA July 2023
Introduction
Newburyport is one of the quaintest cities in New England. Its brick downtown, ship captain mansions and wooden colonials are nothing short of charming. It’s quiet, perhaps complacent — but in an earnest, preppy sort of way, filled with Patagonia activewear and Golden Retrievers, Subarus and sailboats, rich locals and a rich history.
In this quaint city of New England on the town green stands one of the quaintest courthouses you will ever see. The Bullfinch Court House is located at 145 High Street on the Bartlett Mall by the Frog Pond, where generations of children have lurked by the edges to catch the amphibians in the summer and skate on its frozen surface in the winter. The town of Newburyport and the Essex County government built the structure in 1804 as a joint venture, hiring the renowned Charles Bullfinch, designer of the Massachusetts State House, as architect. Completed the following year in the Federal style, it was a striking structure, built by a people full of pride and aspirations for their new nation. Famous American attorneys such as John Quincy Adams and Daniel Webster argued cases in its courtroom. Newburyport citizens held their annual Town Meetings in it until 1834, when the town sold its stake in the building back to the county. Bullfinch Court House even briefly hosted a girl’s summer school.
In 1853, Essex County remodeled the front and removed the statue of Lady Justice from the roof, which was also redone in an Italianate style. Additional renovations over the years included the reconstruction of the first floor to accommodate a small front archive, and most recently work to incorporate handicapped access.
Winston Churchill once wrote that we shape our buildings and they in turn shape us. This is an American story about a building built by one revolutionary generation almost destroyed by a subsequent revolutionary generation. For the history of America and of New England in particular might be described as a long series of — in the epic words of Boston journalist Sean Maloney — “Angry locals blowing shit up.”
It’s hard to believe that quaint Newburyport was the site of a terrorist attack. But it was — 47 years ago this 4th of July.
Our story begins, not in Newburyport, but farther north — in Maine, with a group called SCAR.
What Was SCAR?
The prisoner’s rights organization Statewide Correctional Alliance for Reform (SCAR) was formed in Maine in late 1972 by a group of current and ex-convicts plus their straight-arrow supporters in the activist, legal and journalism fields.
The organization advocated for prison reform though community outreach, litigation and legislation. At the time the Maine State Prison (MSP) was brutal — think Shawshank Redemption without redemption or even Morgan Freeman. SCAR found a receptive audience among a Maine public horrified by events like the 1971 Attica State Prison riots in New York.
SCAR did have some small successes with Maine’s Bureau of Corrections, but the slow pace of reform combined with the trendy anti-establishment ethos of the era radicalized some members. Those members grew to believe that that the prison system was just a symptom of the sickness of the larger, repressive socio-economic system of “the Establishment,” a system that could not be changed from within but must be overthrown from without by violent, revolutionary means.
And in 1976, a few of these SCAR members decided to do something about it and splinter off into their own group.
The Fred Hampton Unit of the Peoples’ Forces
Who were the members of this splinter group?
Joseph “Joey” Aceto
Maine native Joey was the “funny man.” After a Dickensian upbringing in Munjoy Hill section of Portland succinctly summarized by authorities as “a rough childhood,” juvenile delinquent Aceto was sent to the Maine Boys Training Center in 1969 at age sixteen. Aceto attempted to run away but was caught. Training Center guards maced and threw him naked into a forty-degree solitary confinement cell. That bit of firm correctional pressure made the Maine Times. He was subsequently, perhaps not surprisingly, flagged as having possible psychiatric issues. Aceto graduated to Maine State Prison, serving a two-year term for assault between 1973 and 1975.
Everett “Picky” Carlson
Carson was the grandpa of the group, born in 1938. Carson did time in Maine both for a 1960 assault change and a 1972 rape. Sometime in between he went out west and did quarry work, learning how to handle dynamite.
Richard “Dicky” Picariello
A North Shore kid possibly born in Salem and grew up in Middleton, Dicky was a “rich kid turned stickup kid” although the rich part is hard to verify. A carpenter and laborer, Dicky had a couple of drug convictions by the time he was put away in Maine for armed robbery of a bank in Limerick in 1971. While at Maine State Prison, Dicky was beaten by guards and given multiple stints in solitary confinement. Paroled in October 1975, Dicky had an unaccredited but earnest degree in 1960’s revolutionary rebop and headed to Boston to hang out with fellow radicals. Dicky was the “mastermind” brains of the unit, such as they were.
Edward Gullion, Jr.
Twenty-eight-year-old Edward was a non-felon, non-Mainer mystery man. Living in Dorchester, MA, he was reputedly “sympathetic to underground movements.” It’s not clear how he connected with the other three, but he and Dickie Picariello may have run with the same crowd in the Boston area.
Ray Luc Levasseur
From Sanford, Maine, Ray Luc Levasseur is sometimes described as a member of the Fred Hampton Unit, but he was more of a fellow traveler, especially when that traveling involved robbing a bank. A Vietnam vet, in 1969 Levasseur was arrested in Tennessee on an intent to sell marijuana charge and spent five years in prison. Upon his release, he moved back to Maine and became active in SCAR. He also became active in crime and formed the Marxist terrorist group the Sam Melville-Jonaton Jackson Brigade, later known as the United Freedom Front. He and Aceto allegedly teamed up to rob a bank in Augusta in December 1975.
Aceto, Carlson and Picariello had done time together Thomaston State Prison. Career criminals, they all had suffered mistreatment at the hand of police officers and/or prison guards and were radicalized and bitter. Disappointed with SCAR, they formed The Fred Hampton Unit of the People’s Forces, named after a Black Panther shot and killed by the Chicago Police in 1969. Their manifesto claimed that they were “dedicated to fight imperialism/capitalism, racism, sexism, and the fascist judicial/prison system.” The Unit was in essence a political terrorist bombing cell, logistically supported and funded by their old criminal habits. If there was any silver lining of positivity to this nefarious group, it was the fact that they only wanted to damage property, not kill people.
The Bicentennial Summer Build Up
There were warning signs that something was up a month before the nation’s 200th birthday.
In early May, a construction firm in New Boston, New Hampshire reported the theft of two-hundred pounds of electric blasting caps and 1,200 pounds of dynamite.
Then on May 11, (and possibly two) bombs exploded at the Central Maine Power Company’s new offices on Edison Drive in Augusta.
Journalist Arthur Frederick was sitting at his desk the next day when his phone rang. He just barely got in a hello when a man shouted, “THIS IS THE FRED HAMPTON UNIT OF THE PEOPLE’S FORCES.” The man then claimed credit for the previous day’s power company bombing and hung up. Frederick sat there dumbfounded on a dead connection when an operator queried, “Are you through, sir?”
Frederick asked her for the number of the local FBI office.
The Stakeouts
The Unit began casing places to bomb. Guillion and Picariello scoped out potential targets in Massachusetts, including the Bullfinch Court House. Others cased Pease Air Force Base in New Hampshire, looking to target military jets. Only Picariello and Aceto crossed the base fence but they quickly retreated, fearing the presence of guard dogs.
By the last week of June, members of the Unit agreed to begin their bombing campaign on the Bicentennial weekend. They had a working list of nine (some say ten) potential targets:
- A US Navy submarine at the Portsmouth Naval Yard in Kittery, Maine
- A military jet at Pease Air Force Base in Portsmouth, New Hampshire
- The Thomas J. McIntyre Federal Building in Portsmouth, New Hampshire
- The Superior Courthouse (aka Bullfinch Court House), Newburyport, MA
- The National Guard Armory, Danvers, MA
- The National Guard Armory, Dorchester, MA
- The Superior Courthouse, Dorchester, MA
- The A&P grocery chain corporate headquarters
- The Polaroid Corporation headquarters
As Unit was looking for targets to attack, the authorities began looking at them.
FBI agents questioned employees at the Central Maine Power facility in Augusta if they’d seen anyone funny-looking checking out the plant. In fact, several had — two hippie-types wandering around the new plant building a couple hours before the explosion. None of the witnesses could agree on what the first guy looked like. But the second guy had a thin face, pointed nose, moustache and stubble. The FBI sketch artist drew a portrait based on the descriptions. The Agency then distributed the sketch to various wire services, Maine newspapers and its local field offices. It received forty phone calls about the sketch. Several callers were clearly referring to the same person. Which was good.
But when FBI agent Harold Jones from the Portland office saw the sketch, he recognized the face. That looks like Dicky Picariello, the kid put away for the ’71 Limerick bank job. He’s out on parole, isn’t he? The Agency re-interviewed the CMP witnesses with a photo of Picariello. Yep, that’s the guy we saw, they said.
The FBI set up surveillance on Picariello’s apartment at 46 Cushman Street in Portland. Rumors from informants mentioned that Picariello may be planning another heist at a bank in East Millinocket. The Agency kept tabs on the people entering and exiting the building.
The Fireworks Show
In the early afternoon of Thursday, July 1, 1976, Unit members decided it was go time.
Aceto, Carlson and Gullion purchased final supplies, including a bolt cutter to snip through the cyclone fences that surround the National Guard armories. Aceto partially assembled three bombs. Each bomb consisted of 20–25 sticks of dynamite taped together and attached to a blasting cap wired to a battery and a pocket watch as the timer.
The Fred Hampton Unit loaded the car with the bombs and the bolt cutter. For personal protection, Aceto carried a 9mm pistol. Guillon packed a .38. Piccariello ported a sawed-off M-1 rifle. Carson drove. The Unit left Portland and headed south.
In the car, the terrorists argued about which targets to attack, partially because they were not sure where exactly they are going to place the bombs at each location. They only thing they could agree on was not to do the submarine; they’d save that for another time, perhaps later that weekend. They would figure it out once they get there.
The first there there got to was the federal building in Portsmouth NH. Picariello cased the building but determined that they couldn’t get close enough to place a bomb. The Unit drove away.
The Unit entered Massachusetts and stopped at the courthouse in suburban Woburn. Gillion and Picariello checked out the structure, but Picariello decided against planting a bomb. He was interested in bombing a court that sent people to prison, but this is a district court, not a superior court. The Unit drove away again.
They stopped at a gas station to fill up two one-gallon containers with gasoline. The plan was to use these containers as an accelerant in conjunction with the bombs. The Unit then stopped at Gullion’s residence in Dorchester. Aceto and Picariello argued that the stop in Woburn was a waste of time. They argued and argued. They finally decided to stop arguing and continue looking for targets of opportunity.
The Unit got back into the car and drove to the Superior Courthouse in Dorchester. Seeing people in and perhaps about the building, they opted not to attack it. The Unit drove away.
The terrorists then traveled to the National Guard Armory in Dorchester, MA. That target looked good — meaning it was deserted. The terrorists cut a hole in the chain link fence and entered the parking lot filled with military vehicles. They placed their first bomb on top of the gas tank of a truck. Carson poured gasoline under the adjacent vehicles parked to one side; Gullion poured gas under the vehicles parked on the other side.
The terrorists snuck away to find a phone booth. They attempted to call the Boston Police but couldn’t get a connection. They drove to another phone booth and tried again. Aceto, in his best revolutionary voice, told the police receptionist, “THIS IS THE FRED HAMPTON PEOPLE’S FORCE AND WE ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE BOMBING. YOU’LL RECEIVE FURTHER COMMUNIQUES AND DEMANDS FROM US.”
The Unit drove to Logan Airport, where on a previous recon patrol Gullion and Piccariello had seen an unguarded airplane at an isolated section of the airport. Carson stayed in the car as a lookout. The others slipped through the gate, approaching the plane. Aceto and Picariello placed their second bomb and timer on the wheel of a Eastern Airlines four-engine Electra turboprop while Gullion stood guard.
The Unit then drove forty minutes back up Route 1 to Newburyport. It was now late in the evening. Getting off the highway — perhaps at Pond Street — the terrorists approached the empty and silent Bartlet Mall on High Street less than a quarter-mile away. The Unit broke into the Bullfinch Court House and made their way to the second-floor Probation Office at the northeast corner. They ransacked the filing cabinets and dumped court and case file records on the floor. On top of the paper and manila folder pile they placed their last bomb, set the timer, and fled back for Portland, Maine.
BOOM! Went the bomb at the Dorchester National Guard Armory at 12:45AM on July 2. Three parked trucks were severely damaged.
BOOM! Went the bomb at Logan Airport at 1:45AM, destroying the Turboprop.
BOOM! Went the bomb at the Bullfinch Court House at 3:38AM. The blast broke every window in the building and took out a ten-by-ten-foot section of brick wall (other accounts say it was a 10-foot-wide hole in the floor) The explosion was so loud it could be heard four miles away.
Newburyport had just experienced its first terrorist attack.
The Chase
Just before 10PM on Saturday, July 3rd, FBI agents observed Picariello place a 12”x12”x18” box and a small attaché case into a brown Plymouth. At 10:05PM, Picariello got into the passenger side of the vehicle. Aceto got into the driver’s seat, Carson the back. Aceto drove the car away from the apartment, out of Portland and onto the Maine Turnpike, heading south.
Clearly the Unit was on another mission.
The Unit had in fact kept up their pyrotechnic activities since their early-morning Massachusetts spree of July 2nd, setting a dynamite bomb at the Seabrook, NH Post Office. That blast occurred at 11PM on the 2nd, blowing the office’s air conditioning unit out of the window and forty feet away.
Two cars followed the terrorists at a discreet distance. Each unmarked car contained FBI agents and a police officer. Maine State Trooper Al Treadwell was in one of the tail cars, Trooper Paul Hooper in the other. They followed the Plymouth out of Maine, through New Hampshire and into Massachusetts.
The Plymouth exited Route 95 and took back roads towards Topsfield, site of a Massachusetts State Police barracks. The FBI cars followed discretely, which became difficult as Aceto began a set of evasive tactics and U-turns. On Route 1 at around midnight, Aceto pulled the Plymouth to the side of the road. Carlson and Picarello got out of the car and disappeared into the woods. Aceto drove away, but perhaps noticing the two cars still behind him, took the exit into the rural town. Then he put the petal to the metal.
One FBI car stopped on Route 1. The officers got out and followed the suspects on foot. The other FBI car tailed the Plymouth in a high-speed chase for fifteen minutes at speeds up to 100mph through Topsfield’s hilly, dark roads flanked with stone walls. At a curve, the Plymouth swerved left but the G-men couldn’t course-correct in time. The FBI car flew off the road, knocked over a signpost. The car snapped a 12-inch-thick tree trunk at the stump. It smashed into the front door of barn. It traveled through the barn, knocking down an interior cement wall and out the back, finally stopping when it was wedged between two trees. The officers were shaken, but unhurt. They called for backup.
At 5:30AM on Independence Day, Topsfield Police found the abandoned and damaged Plymouth a few miles away. In it were the attaché case and box, two pistols, the sawed-off M-1 carbine, plus 22–50 sticks (sources vary) of dynamite, some of them wired to timers. Aceto was captured on foot soon after, although it’s not clear if FBI, State Police, the Topsfield Police, or some combination of the three did the actual capturing.
The officers took Aceto to the nearby State Police Barracks for questioning where Aceto, in the lingo of a pulp detective novel, sang like a canary.
The Aftermath
Aceto was in custody, but it took awhile for the authorities to apprehend the other members of the Fred Hampton Unit of People’s Forces; several briefly earned a spot on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list. One wonders if their mugshots were displayed at the Seabrook Post Office, perhaps next to the new air conditioner. The FBI arrested Carlson in Maine. Picariello was arrested in Fall River and Gullion in Providence, both in October 1976. The latter was laying low, working at a jewelry store.
The FBI found more evidence, including nine-hundred sticks of dynamite — six hundred pounds’s worth of explosive — hidden in rusty steel drums in a wooded area of Boxford, MA.
In 1977 there were multiple trials, all of which were long, and complicated and a bit of a sensational side-show as such trials are. Aceto informed on his fellow Unit members, turning state’s evidence in exchange for a reduced sentence and assignment to the Federal Witness Protection Program. The best efforts of some of the most renowned defense attorneys in New England got their Unit clients acquitted of some of the charges. But all four were eventually convicted of illegally transporting explosives in interstate commerce and went back to prison. Here’s what happened after:
“Joey” Aceto (1953–2014)
Joey got out of prison in 1979 with a new name, Joey Balino. He laid low in the 1980’s, activities and whereabouts unknown.
In the 1990’s, he was sentenced to an Arkansas prison for a string of robberies. While in prison in Lincoln County, Joey and another prisoner were charged with first-degree murder in the stabbing death of a fellow inmate. Despite earning a 25-year sentence, Joey was released into the custody of federal authorities after only three years and relocated to Flathead, Montana in 1999.
A year later, Joey was arrested and with aggravated kidnapping of an (ex) girlfriend and attempted murder of her new boyfriend. He was convicted and sentenced to 210 years in prison. Joey died May 20, 2014 in the infirmary of the Montana State Prison at Deer Lodge after a long illness and a longer criminal record.
“Picky” Carlson
Carlson served his time for the transportation of explosives charge. In 1997, he was back in prison for assault and kidnapping. In 1996, he was a potential suspect in a 1996 murder of a Fitchburg woman. In 2012 he was convicted of attacking a prostitute. In 2017 Carson, at the ripe age of 77, was arrested on five counts of possession of oxycontin.
“Dicky” Picariello
Picariello served roughly twenty years in jail after the interstate transportation of explosives conviction in both a Maine Supermax prison and MCI-Cedar Junction.
After his release, he became involved in anti-war efforts, drawing the attention of the NYPD during the 2004 Republican Annual Convention. By the 2010’s he had relocated to Florida where he worked as a fisherman.
Edward Gullion, Jr.,
Edward Gullion, Jr., the outsider from Dorchester, served his prison sentence, then disappeared from the public record.
SCAR
SCAR was disbanded in late 1976, due to internal dissension, increased police repression and public revulsion, partially due to the antics of the Fred Hampton Unit. If prison reform led to prisons becoming a master class in political terrorism, best not to reform them at all.
The Bullfinch Courthouse
One year after the bombing, the Massachusetts Legislature passed Chapter 435, a spending bill that authorized Essex county to raise and expend up to $375,000 for the repairs and renovations to the courthouse. Governor Michael Dukakis signed the bill. The county raised the money. Workmen repaired the windows, the interiors and the outside wall, recycling the old bricks where possible.
The Bullfinch Court House is as graceful and formidable as ever. It is one of the longest-active courthouses in these United States. It is on the National Register of Historic Places. Despite age and damage, it is still stands, which perhaps is a hopeful metaphor for the state of our Republic as well.
Sources
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