Diamond Dave, Judi Bari, and Bruce Anderson

District 5 Diary bumped into Diamond Dave Whitaker, former D5 candidate for Supervisor and co-founder of the D5 Candidates' Collaborative, the other day in Cafe Abir. Dave mentioned that he had just read Kate Coleman's book on the late Judi Bari, the Earth First! leader (The Secret Wars of Judi Bari, Encounter Books). 

I said that I too had read the book and thought it wasn't any good. He referred to my brother Bruce, former Editor of the Anderson Valley Advertiser, who was one of Coleman's primary sources. I replied that that was the problem with the book. 

For years my brother has clung irrationally to delusional opinions on who carried out the 1990 assassination attempt on the late Earth First! leader. The problem with Coleman's book is that all the sources she relied on, my brother included, believe Bari's ex-husband planted the car bomb that almost killed her. 

She didn't bother to talk to those of us who thought otherwise. There's no real evidence for the ex-husband theory, as Nick Wilson---the best source on the subject, who of course was not interviewed by Coleman---demonstrates in great detail. Interpretation and sources aside, for a long list of just the factual errors in the Coleman book, go here.

And my analysis of the bombing and the ex-husband theory several years ago holds up pretty well as an intro.