Biography
Les Bayless was a young layperson living at the Blair House commune near the draft board.
A young layperson (age 22) living at the 'Blair House' commune near the draft board, Les Bayless was one of three men who on May 21, 1969 walked into the Silver Spring, Maryland Selective Service office and destroyed several hundred draft records with blood and black paint, then waited for the FBI. Already out on bail for draft resistance, he received a 5-year sentence for draft evasion plus an additional 3-year sentence (from Judge Roszel C. Thomsen) for the draft-board action. He was later interviewed for the 2013 documentary 'Hit & Stay.'
Photo credit
The Washington Free Press, April 1–15, 1969, printed page 14 (PDF page 12), documents Leslie Bayless’s separate induction-refusal detention: FBI arrest and D.C. jail admission January 23, followed by actual release on personal bond February 14. The subsequently scheduled April trial is not treated as a custody event. Source.
