OK OK - Karen Silkwood, testified to Atomic Energy Commission, 1974 - murder/accident?

[rpipergirl]

http://www.legacy.com/ns/news-story....ilkwood&id=162
In the summer of 1974, Silkwood testified to the Atomic Energy Commission that she had found serious violations of health and safety regulations – including evidence of spills, leaks, faulty fuel rods and enough missing plutonium to make multiple nuclear weapons. She also alleged the company had falsified inspection records.

Not long after, some strange things began happening.

On November 5th, during a routine check, Silkwood discovered she had been exposed to over 400 times the legal limit for plutonium. She was sent home with a sample kit to conduct more self-tests. The following morning, despite having handled no dangerous materials as part of her job that day, she tested positive once more. On the 7th, plutonium contamination was found in her lungs and she was sent to Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico for further testing.

Silkwood believed she was deliberately contaminated as a result of her whistleblowing efforts against Kerr-McGee. The company would later maintain in court that she willfully contaminated herself in an effort to make them look culpable. While radiation levels at her apartment were high, no radiation was detected either in her car or her work locker.

By November 13th, she had decided to go public with her story. She gathered evidence documenting the plant’s wrongdoing and was enroute to meet a national representative of her union and a New York Times reporter in Oklahoma City when her car went off the road and struck a culvert, killing Silkwood. She was 28-years-old.

Quaaludes were found both in her car and in her bloodstream, and the Oklahoma State Troopers ruled that she had fallen asleep at the wheel. But her family and supporters noted there were skidmarks in the road – how could she have hit the brakes while asleep? Dents and paint scrapes on her rear bumper lead her supporters to believe that she was deliberately forced off the road by a trailing vehicle. The documents she’d planned to share with New York Times reporter were never found.
I have seen the movie and believe she contaminated to shut her up. I also believe she was run off the road. MOO What do you all think?

[LinasK]

I saw the movie in the 1980's? and I came to the same conclusions as you.

[Kimster]

I was just reading about her again the other day. I think it's a travesty that they haven't found out what REALLY happened to her.

[Elphaba]

I think she was murdered, for sure...

[rpipergirl]

I'm so glad I posted her case and got a conversation started. Here is her wiki:

Wikipedia (Thumbnails)

Wikipedia (Thumbnails)
Wikipedia (Thumbnails)

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/ar...912701,00.html Time magazine article.

[nosysw]

So strange...For some reason I was just thinking about this case the other day and was trying to remember the details (many years since I watched the movie)...Thanks for posting. It was a very disturbing movie...

[neverletgo]

The Life and Mysterious Death of Karen Silkwood

It was 7:30 p.m. on November 13, 1974, and driver James Mullins was driving down Highway 74, from Oklahoma City, Okla., toward the neighboring small town of Crescent. He caught a glimpse of a car on the side of the road, crashed in a ditch.

<snipped>

Source: The Life and Mysterious Death of Karen Silkwood

[Stella]

Why was she driving with Quaaludes in her system? And why didn't those New York reporters meet her at her home, why did she have to go to them?

[jaleach123]

I'd be suspicious about taking a film as gospel when it concerns something like this, especially when it concerns nuclear power and corporations...both of which Hollywood hates with a passion. Just my two cents.

[teedie2]

The picture of her car didn't come from Hollywood. The damage to the rear end of the car doesn't look like a love tap.

I haven't seen the movie. just read newspaper articles.

I would prefer that Karen S made the story up rather than it be true. Either way, I don't like it.

Wish there were a better view of the rear end of her car.

[john's mom]

There were drugs in her system because it was the 70's! Ok, just half kidding....

I do believe she was killed. Whistle blowing by a girl back then? Yup, they killed her. I think she was meeting them AWAY from her home for a reason, so as to not let them be seen there.

[micki68]

I also think Karen Silkwood was murdered to shut her up. I've seen the movie, it was very disturbingly but well done. I'm afraid there will never be an answer regarding her death.