He pleaded guilty to conspiracy and to bombing the Federal Office Building in lower Manhattan, as well as to assaulting a marshal in a failed escape attempt.

Back in New York, Melville completed high school, studied singing, found employment as a draftsman, married and started a family.

Although Melville had enjoyed his job, he quit his position in outrage when his employer assigned him to a project designing office buildings in South Africa, then still operating under apartheid, on behalf of Chase Manhattan Bank.

[5] Afterwards, Melville survived by working odd jobs, including for the National Guardian, a weekly left-wing newspaper published in New York City.

He became particularly interested in the story of George Metesky, a man who had engaged in a mass-bombing campaign across New York City between 1940 and 1956, having targeted a total of 37 terminals, theaters, libraries, and office buildings.

[7] On November 12, 1969, hours after the Criminal Courts Building bombing, police arrested Melville and Demmerle as they placed dynamite charges in National Guard trucks parked outside the 69th Regimental Armory at 26th Street and Lexington Avenue.

During a conference with his attorney on a Saturday, when the building was almost deserted, he jumped the marshal, knocked him down and tied him up with his own belt before running out of the room and down a stairway.

[11] Melville, 28 other inmates, and 10 hostages were shot and killed by state police on September 13, when the uprising was put down by order of Governor Nelson Rockefeller.

in the indifferent brutality, incessant noise, the experimental chemistry of food, the ravings of lost hysterical men, i can act with clarity and meaning.

i read much, exercise, talk to guards and inmates, feeling for the inevitable direction of my life.On August 28, 2000, a federal judge awarded $8 million to the survivors of the Attica uprising.