Biography
Carol Ann Manning was an early member of the United Freedom Front and the wife of co-founder Tom Manning, living underground with the group through its years of bombings and bank robberies aimed at U.S. militarism and apartheid. Apprehended in Norfolk, Virginia in 1985 (she evaded the November 1984 Ohio arrests), she was convicted in the federal conspiracy case and received a 15-year sentence, later accepting a plea in the seditious-conspiracy prosecution. She was released during the 1990s.
Manning was an underground activist associated with United Freedom Front, a clandestine group that opposed U.S. foreign policy in Central America and South African apartheid and carried out bombings and robberies that it framed as political retaliation. The group’s bombings were often preceded by warning calls, reflecting an emphasis on property destruction rather than mass-casualty attacks, while bank robberies were used to finance ongoing operations.
After years as a fugitive, Manning was captured with her husband in Norfolk in 1985 and later prosecuted as part of the “Ohio Seven” constellation of cases. She faced sweeping conspiracy and related charges tied to the group’s underground campaign and served a substantial prison term before release in the 1990s. Carol Ann Manning was a member of the United Freedom Front and the wife of Tom Manning. She was arrested with him in Richmond, Virginia in 1985, several months after the November 1984 capture of the Levasseurs. She was convicted in 1986 in federal court in Brooklyn and sentenced to 15 years in federal prison.
