92 lines
4.6 KiB
Markdown
92 lines
4.6 KiB
Markdown
**Karen Gay Silkwood** was a chemical technician and [trade
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union](Trade_Union "wikilink") activist known for raising concerns about
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corporate practices related to health and safety in a nuclear facility.
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After testifying to the Atomic Energy Commission about her concerns and
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driving to meet with a *New York Times* journalist and an official of
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her union's national office, she died in a car crash under unclear
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circumstances.
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## Life
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Born in Texas, she married William Meadows, an oil pipeline worker, with
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whom she had three children. Following the couple's bankruptcy due to
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Meadows' overspending, and in the face of Meadows' refusal to end an
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extramarital affair, Silkwood left Meadows in 1972 and moved to Oklahoma
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City, where she briefly worked as a hospital clerk.
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After being hired at the Kerr-McGee Cimarron Fuel Fabrication Site plant
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near Crescent, Oklahoma, in 1972, Silkwood joined the local Oil,
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Chemical & Atomic Workers Union and took part in a strike at the plant.
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After the strike ended, she was elected to the union's bargaining
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committee, the first woman to achieve that position at the Kerr-McGee
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plant. She was assigned to investigate health and safety issues. She
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discovered what she believed to be numerous violations of health
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regulations, including exposure of workers to contamination, faulty
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respiratory equipment and improper storage of samples.
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## Death
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Later that evening, Silkwood's body was found in her car, which had run
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off the road and struck a culvert on the east side of State Highway 74,
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180 meters south of the intersection with West Industrial Road. The car
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contained none of the documents she held in the union meeting at the Hub
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cafe. She was pronounced dead at the scene in what was believed to be an
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accident. The trooper at the scene remembers that he found one or two
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tablets of the sedative methaqualone in the car, and he remembers
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finding cannabis. The police report indicated that she fell asleep at
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the wheel.
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### Evidence for a Conspiracy
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Some pointers to a conspiracy around her death include:
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- Key documents related to her efforts to expose the health and safety
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violations were missing from the car. Multiple family members and
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friends confirmed she had the documents with her and took them in
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her car. The documents have never been found.
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- The coroner found 0.35 milligrams of methaqualone per 100
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milliliters of blood at the time of her death — an amount almost
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twice the recommended dosage for inducing drowsiness.
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- Skid marks from Silkwood's car were present on the road, suggesting
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that she was trying to get back onto the road after being pushed
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from behind
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- Investigators also noted damage on the rear of Silkwood's vehicle
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that, according to Silkwood's friends and family, had not been
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present before the accident. As the crash was entirely a front-end
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collision, it did not explain the damage to the rear of her vehicle.
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- A microscopic examination of the rear of Silkwood's car showed paint
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chips that could have come only from a rear impact by another
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vehicle. Silkwood's family claimed to know of no accidents of any
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kind that Silkwood had had with the car, and that the 1974 Honda
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Civic she was driving was new when purchased and no insurance claims
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were filed on that vehicle.
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- According to her family, she had received several threatening phone
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calls very shortly before her death.
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- One of the investigators disappeared under "mysterious
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circumstances".
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- One of the witnesses committed suicide shortly before she was to
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testify against the Kerr-McGee Corporation about the alleged
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happenings at the plant
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- Silkwood family's legal team were followed, threatened with
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violence, and physically assaulted.
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However, if she was assassinated as part of a conspiracy. Her killers
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are not known, the nuclear plant and the CIA have been suggested, with
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one author alleging a secret underground plutonium-smuggling ring
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(explaining the 30kg in missing plutonium from the plant), in which many
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government agencies, including the highest levels of government and
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international intelligence agencies CIA, MI5, Israeli Mossad, and a
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"shadowy group of Iranians" were involved.
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## See Also
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- [Conspiracy Theory](Conspiracy_Theory "wikilink")
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- [Juanita Nielsen](Juanita_Nielsen "wikilink")
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## References
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The information in this article comes from the [Wikipedia page on Karen
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Silkwood](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_Silkwood), the conspiracy
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evidence comes from the book *The Killing of Karen Silkwood, The Story
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Behind the Kerr-McGee Plutonium Case by Richard L. Rashke*, (published
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in 2000). |