Biography
Ellen Grady, daughter of Camden 28 defendant John Grady and sister of Clare and Teresa Grady, was an aide to an elderly woman and peace worker in Ithaca, NY at the time of Plowshares Number Four. She and her husband Peter DeMott (Plowshares Number Two) helped establish the Ithaca Catholic Worker community in the 1990s and have continued lifelong nonviolent resistance, including organizing against drone-warfare operations at Hancock Air Force Base. Peter DeMott died in a fall in 2009.
Identified community photograph
The Hartford Catholic Worker Lent 2009 newsletter, page 7, explicitly captions this photograph as Peter DeMott and Ellen Grady. Grady is at right, beside DeMott, holding their nuclear-disarmament sign. The original embedded 500-by-397 JPEG is preserved unchanged, with both participants visible; it is not an arrest photograph. The photographer and capture date are not established.
Source: Hartford Catholic Worker, Lent 2009, page 7.
Plowshares Number Four custody reconstruction
The original January 1983 report names all seven and dates the action and arrest to November 14, 1982. It reports December 22 release on a promise to appear, after initial imprisonment. This 38-day detention is separate from the later sentence, so time outside prison is excluded.
The May 20, 1983 disposition was six months. A separate record preserves that sentence without equating sentence length with time actually served or copying the initial arrest into later custody.
The July 15 date in issue 18 is an expected release, not confirmation that it occurred; no exact final release has been inferred from it.
Sources: The Nuclear Resister 14, January 14, 1983, pages 3–4; issue 17, June 6, 1983, page 5; issue 18, July 7, 1983, printed page 6; Art Laffin participant chronology.
The January 1983 report says Grady spent her final two pretrial weeks in solitary after resisting invasive searches.
Dismissal conditional on service. NR203/204.
The March 4, 2024 Electric Boat report and reproduced New London Police media release individually name this participant among five arrested for blocking vehicle access. Police reported first-degree trespass and disorderly-conduct charges and release of all five on non-surety bonds. The March 15 court date was scheduled, not proof of a completed hearing. No jail admission, overnight term or imprisonment-day total is inferred.
Source: The Nuclear Resister, report 0081.
The Nuclear Resister individually names Ellen Grady among eighteen people arrested on November 30, 2023 after blocking entrances to the U.S. Mission to the United Nations in New York, demanding U.S. signature of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. The report states that the eighteen were charged with disorderly conduct, processed within a couple of hours and released with a December 20 court date. The court date was prospective; no subsequent outcome, jail admission or complete day of imprisonment is inferred. The Nuclear Resister, December 1, 2023.
The Nuclear Resister individually names Ellen Grady among eleven people detained on August 14, 2023 after blocking the construction gate at Büchel air base in Germany, opposing U.S. nuclear bombs. Police took their identification, imposed a one-day ban and bar order, transported them in police vans and released them in Müllenbach. The one-day ban is not a prison sentence; no individual criminal charge, jail admission or completed confinement duration is established. Contemporary Nuclear Resister action report.
The Nuclear Resister individually names Ellen Grady among sixteen people arrested on August 9, 2023 while digging beneath the fence at Volkel Air Base in the Netherlands, where U.S. nuclear weapons are stockpiled. Police detained participants one by one and questioned them at a local police station before later release. The four U.S. participants were taken to Venlo for further investigation and later released, with twenty-eight days to leave. The account additionally reports a one-year European Union entry ban and passport stamp for this participant, who had been arrested at the base two days in a row. This is not recorded as an ongoing exile status or a year of imprisonment. No individual statutory charge, jail admission or completed confinement duration is established. Contemporary Nuclear Resister action report.
The Nuclear Resister individually names Ellen Grady among ten people taken into custody on August 8, 2023 after entering Volkel Air Base in the Netherlands, where U.S. nuclear bombs are stockpiled, and kneeling on the runway during an anti-nuclear action. The participants were later released with a small fine, which none paid. No exact fine amount, individual statutory charge, jail admission or completed confinement duration is established. Contemporary Nuclear Resister action report.
The Nuclear Resister individually names Ellen Grady among nine people arrested on November 13, 2023 during a blockade of the General Dynamics–Electric Boat engineering complex in New London, Connecticut. The report gives charges of criminal trespass, criminal mischief and breach of the peace. It states that those arrested were processed at the New London police station for up to seven hours and then released; that group maximum is not assigned as this person’s individual completed duration. The November 27 arraignment was prospective, not a documented outcome. No overnight jail admission or imprisonment-day total is inferred. The Nuclear Resister, November 14, 2023.
The December 14, 2012 report identifies Ellen Grady among eleven defendants convicted of trespass by Judge Jokl in DeWitt Town Court on December 13 over the June 28 Hancock gate action. A fifteen-day jail sentence was imposed, but the later surrender was prospective. The printed January 11, 2012 surrender date conflicts with the December 2012 report chronology and is not silently corrected or recorded as actual admission. The June 28 date describes the underlying action; this report does not independently fix this person’s arrest date. The four original protesters not among these eleven defendants are not identified.
The June 28, 2012 contemporary press release individually names Ellen Grady among the fifteen people arrested at Hancock Air Base at 1:41 p.m. It reports release without bail for the participants other than the three explicitly held for prior community-service noncompliance. This identifies the initial arrest underlying the separately reported December 13 verdict and sentence; it does not establish an additional prison admission or completed custody duration.
The sheriff’s roster reproduced with the April 22, 2011 Hancock Field protest report individually named Ellen Grady among the people arrested outside the base in the anti-drone demonstration. The article reports trespassing and obstruction-of-justice charges. It describes handcuffs, a wait, and boarding a bus intended for Justice Center processing; it does not establish an individual jail-admission or release time.
Sources: The Nuclear Resister, report 893.
The August 2016 profile describes Ellen Grady’s arrest during the 1982 Trident submarine action at Groton, her conviction and an imposed six-month prison sentence. It separately says she later completed a fifteen-day drone-protest sentence. The six-month imposed term and the later completed fifteen days concern different episodes; the article does not supply the later stay’s exact dates. Contemporary report, The Nuclear Resister.
The March 6, 2015 Creech Air Force Base report individually includes Ellen Grady in its named arrest roster. The compilation reports trespass and roadway-related allegations and describes citation-and-release processing, but one person held on an outstanding warrant is unnamed. Neither that warrant detention nor an overnight stay is allocated to this person. The differing reported aggregate totals are retained without inventing an additional identity or completed custody duration.
Sources: Contemporary report.
Hancock blockade acquittal in 2013
A contemporary report identifies this defendant among the five people prosecuted for the February 13, 2013 Hancock Air Base blockade. Judge Robert Jokl acquitted all five of disorderly conduct on October 24. The account does not establish a jail duration. Contemporary trial reports.
