Biography
Patrick O’Neill is an American Catholic peace activist and co-founder of the Fr. Charlie Mulholland Catholic Worker House in North Carolina. He has spent many years engaged in nonviolent direct action opposing nuclear weapons, war, and social injustice, and has previously been jailed for similar civil disobedience actions.
O’Neill was one of the Kings Bay Plowshares 7 who on April 4, 2018, entered the Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base in southern Georgia to protest the deployment of nuclear weapons there. He and his co-defendants recorded their action, poured their own blood on base insignia, and hammered on symbolic displays of missiles before willingly submitting to arrest. For this action, O’Neill was convicted on federal charges and sentenced to 14 months in prison and ordered to pay restitution; he has served time in federal custody as part of his protest witness. Patrick M. O Neill, KBP7 defendant; 14 months federal prison. Patrick O Neill is a North Carolina Catholic Worker peace activist and co-founder of the Father Charlie Mulholland Catholic Worker House in Garner, North Carolina. On April 4, 2018 he was one of the seven Catholic activists known as the Kings Bay Plowshares 7 who entered the Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base in Georgia to symbolically disarm the Trident nuclear submarine fleet. He was convicted by a federal jury on October 24, 2019 of conspiracy, destruction of government property, depredation, and trespassing, and was sentenced to 14 months in federal prison.
The November 12, 2019 NYC Anarchist Black Cross compilation reproduces reporting on the Kings Bay Plowshares 7 jury verdict of October 24, 2019: conspiracy, destruction of property on a naval installation, depredation of government property and trespass. It describes the defendants other than Stephen Kelly as free at home awaiting sentencing, while Kelly remained jailed. The reported twenty- or twenty-five-year maximum was a possible penalty, not an imposed term or actual service. Later dispositions remain separately recorded. Source: https://nycabc.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/updates-12-nov-2019-1.pdf#page=2
Pershing Plowshares: custody episodes distinguished
The original May 1984 newsletter dates the action and initial detention to April 22, 1984 and reports continued detention while the eight refused bond. The August issue establishes sentencing on July 26, 1984. However, Jim Perkins subsequently described a period of freedom before the trial ended. The initial detention and later sentenced imprisonment are therefore recorded separately; the exact intervening release and later remand dates remain unresolved. The July 26 sentencing date is not silently treated as a new prison-admission date, and no arrest-to-final-release continuous total is inferred.
The sentence was three years for depredation and five years probation for conspiracy, with restitution. Christin Schmidt expressly corrected the earlier newsletter account of an extra suspended five-year term, and Perkins independently describes the same sentence.
Sources: Nuclear Resister 25, May 9, 1984, pages 1 and 3; issue 26, August 2, 1984, page 1; issue 27, December 3, 1984, page 10, Schmidt correction; Buddhist Peace Fellowship, Spring 1986, Perkins firsthand account pages 4-5.
The omitted 1984 Pershing prosecution is added independently of the existing 2018 and 2026 cases, which are untouched. The March 1986 newsletter reports transfer from prison to a Florida halfway house, but its page 3 roster says February 20 while its page 6 update says February 21. February 1986 is recorded at month precision, bounded to those two days; the stored first-of-month value is not an assertion of February 1. This is departure from prison, not final completion of halfway-house supervision. Source: Nuclear Resister 38, March 10, 1986, pages 3 and 6.
O’Neill’s March 27, 2026 Pentagon charges were dismissed a week before the June 4 hearing.
Paul Elie’s November 2019 account reports that all seven Kings Bay defendants pleaded not guilty at their October 21 trial, arguing that the action sought to prevent nuclear destruction. The jury convicted them three days later. The plea records their position at trial, separately from the verdict and later sentencing.
Paul Elie, The New Yorker, November 19, 2019, reproduced by The Nuclear Resister.
The contemporary court report dates O’Neill’s fourteen-month Kings Bay sentence to October 16, 2020. Ted Vaden’s March 24, 2021 account establishes his January 14 admission to FCI Elkton. O’Neill’s September 6 first-person letter states that he physically walked through Elkton’s gate on August 24, 2021 and entered a Raleigh halfway house; his November letter independently recalls the August 24 transfer. His initial pretrial jail stay ran April 5–May 24, 2018, as established by the contemporary arrest, continued-detention and actual-release reports. The two physical-custody intervals span 49 and 222 elapsed days, totaling 271 days. House arrest, the bail gap, halfway-house residence and the November 19 completion of home confinement are excluded from that total. Sources: April 2018 detention report; May 24 actual release update; September 6 first-person letter; November first-person retrospective.
On August 26, 2019, Judge Lisa Godbey Wood denied the Kings Bay defendants’ pretrial motions to dismiss, including their Religious Freedom Restoration Act defense. The contemporary account reports that the court accepted the sincerity of their religious beliefs and found prosecution burdened their religious exercise, but held that the government’s security interests justified applying the criminal laws. The following day the jury trial was scheduled for October 21. These were pretrial rulings, separate from the later verdict and sentence; they did not establish a new jail admission.
In his August 7, 2019 oral argument, O’Neill recalled seven weeks in jail without bond, followed by fourteen months of house arrest and curfew with an ankle monitor and cash bond. He described the interruption of his work as a hospital Eucharistic minister and access to Mass and Communion. The seven-week recollection and fourteen-month restriction were different kinds of restraint: the house-arrest period is not added as physical jail time, and this statement does not supply exact new custody endpoints. His reference to a 1984 felony conviction does not establish another arrest date or case duration here.
The reproduced Brunswick News report names this Kings Bay defendant as Patrick Michael O’Neill.
The Nuclear Resister, August 7, 2019, reproducing The Brunswick News.
In his March 27, 2022 letter, Patrick O’Neill recalls spending his sixty-fifth birthday the year before in a segregated-housing cell at FCI Elkton after four days shackled to a hospital bed. This is his first-person account of conditions within the already recorded prison stay, not an additional period added to its custody total.
Art Laffin’s participant account identifies Patrick O’Neill among six people arrested during the December 28, 2012 Holy Innocents witness at the Pentagon. They were taken to the Pentagon police center, processed, charged with failure to obey a lawful order, and released. The April 5 court appearance was prospective. Processing is not treated as a proved jail admission or completed prison day; the other five arrestees are unnamed in this account.
Contemporary participant reports, The Nuclear Resister, December 31, 2012.
Art Laffin’s contemporary account individually names Patrick O'Neill among seven people arrested during the December 28, 2015 Holy Innocents witness at the Pentagon. They were taken to the Pentagon Police Center, cited for violation of a lawful order and released, with a February 4, 2016 court date announced. The calendar day of physical release, separate jail admission, outcome and completed custody duration are not supplied. Contemporary report, The Nuclear Resister.
Bill Quigley’s report of the August 2, 2018 Kings Bay hearing identifies Stan Baker as the magistrate hearing dismissal motions, Lisa Godbey Wood as the district judge who would ultimately decide them, and Karl Knoche as the assistant U.S. attorney opposing dismissal. Those procedural roles and pending motions are distinct from a later trial verdict or sentencing disposition. Contemporary report, The Nuclear Resister.
The April 2018 report describes the Kings Bay defendants’ April 6 first appearance before Chief Magistrate Jennifer E. Lewis on the initial Georgia state allegations, with bail denied and detention at Camden County Public Safety Complex. This initial state-court phase is distinct from the later federal prosecution; the report’s April 5 arrest account does not resolve every conflicting legacy profile date. Contemporary report, The Nuclear Resister.
