"The Secret Wars of Judi Bari" — by Kate Coleman
Review by Mary Moore (12/16/2004)

At long last, the first book to come out about the life of my friend Judi Bari before and after the 1990 bombing is here. It includes little understood details about her life leading up to May 24, 1990, when a bomb exploded in her car as she was beginning a tour to promote Redwood Summer. Kate Coleman has done a remarkable job of taking a tight knit ball of string and untangling it while remaining concise with her words.

Through interviews with many of Judi’s friends about her life in both Sonoma and Mendocino counties beginning in 1979, Coleman simply lays out the details of Judi’s marriage to Mike Sweeney along with the better known facts about her political work. She reveals the abuse that Judi endured during the decade of her marriage and the raising of her children. Coleman talks about the solicitation of Irv Sutley to kill Judi’s ex-husband (before the bombing) and the scapegoating of Sutley as FBI informer (after the bombing). She shows how Judi was haunted by the possibility of Mike filing for custody of their girls because of her post bombing notoriety. Some of the skeletons in Mike’s closet however are also revealed such as an Airport fire in Santa Rosa which Judi at the time told several people he had done. The truth was that both of them had dirt on the other and I have long believed that if they had gone to court they would have both lost custody of their two girls.

Coleman also includes the details of Judi’s relationship with journalist Steve Talbot who first met with her after the bombing to make a video called “Who Bombed Judi Bari?”. This film laid out the four theories for the bombing: Timber, FBI (through Irv Sutley), the Anti Abortionist Bill Staley and ex husband Mike Sweeney. During the weeks of interviews for this film Judi and Steve got close enough for her to confess the abuse in the marriage to him and to reveal that she suspected her ex as the bomber. Steve sat on all this for over a decade and it was well after her death before he finally went on TV with this information.

Judi was a strong willed and independent woman which is at odds with the characteristics of a battered woman but in truth she did exhibit some of those traits. Judi was either extolling the virtues of Mike Sweeney (his intelligence, his good genes) and their cooperative marriage or complaining about his ongoing physical and mental abuse. The first description is what she used as her public face but the latter is what she told too many of her friends. Now those friends have come forth to make a compelling case as to why this case needs a fresh and new investigation with the goal being a consideration of all the theories including the one that points to her ex.

That means that the small group of people who have supplemented their income over the years from fundraising for the lawsuit may have to end their silence on the issue of domestic violence and at least consider the role of Mike Sweeney in the bombing. These “friends” have been reluctant to do this because as a legacy it’s a far sexier tale to be targeted by the FBI than an ex husband and the ten years of raising money for the lawsuit has been economically advantageous for them. The scope of the now settled and successful lawsuit was ONLY on the issue of whether Judi and Darryl were knowingly carrying the bomb. Curiously the question of who placed the bomb in the first place was not deemed important then or now. Curious to be sure.

For those who have not paid close attention this book may be hard to read. Coleman has presented the facts surrounding Judi’s life and marriage. Now it’s up to the reader to draw their conclusions. And it’s way overdue to use our voices to call for an honest and unbiased investigation into WHO bombed Judi Bari.

Click here for a biography of author Kate Coleman.

For more information on this issue stay tuned to the Sonoma County Free Press, or: www.flatlandbooks.com