Norman Mayer

Norman David Mayer (March 31, 1916 – December 9, 1982) was an American anti-nuclear weapons activist who was shot and killed by the United States Park Police after threatening to blow up the Washington Monument.

He was discharged as a fireman first class and returned to a life of drifting, working in Miami as a machinist in the mid-1950s, as a hotel maintenance man in Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and Jamaica during the 1960s, and as a helicopter mechanic in South Vietnam from 1969 to 1970.

Mayer moved to Washington, DC in June that year, and spent every day for the next few months displaying large plywood signs in front of the White House and proselytizing to passing tourists.

On December 8, 1982, Mayer drove a white van bearing the message "#1 PRIORITY: BAN NUCLEAR WEAPONS" in large letters on its side up to the base of the Washington Monument and jumped out wearing a black motorcycle helmet, a bright blue snowsuit and carrying a remote control.

Mayer claimed that he would destroy the Monument with 1,000 pounds (500 kg) of TNT loaded in his van unless a national dialogue on the threat of nuclear weapons was seriously undertaken.

In the December 19, 1982, installment of his column "An Edge in My Voice", the writer and activist Harlan Ellison discussed the incident, expressing great sympathy for Mayer's position and outrage at what he regarded as an overreaction by law enforcement.

Ellison expressed his sadness over the unnecessary death of Mayer saying, "Had there been a scintilla of compassion, rather than macho posturing, in any of the authorities handling the situation, it need not have ended as it did.