I was surprised this one hadn't been posted before, as it's one I often think back to and just wonder what the hell happened.
Case Summary
Karen Silkwood was a chemical technician working in a Fuel Fabrication plant in Oklahoma. She joined the union there and lobbied on behalf of health and safety issues at the plant, becoming the first woman to be on the union's negotiating team.
In 1974, she raised her concerns with the Atomic Energy Commission.
She discovered what she believed to be numerous violations of health regulations, including exposure of workers to contamination, faulty respiratory equipment and improper storage of samples. She believed the lack of sufficient shower facilities could increase the risk of employee contamination.
The union threatened litigation against the plant.
On the 5th of November 1974, Silkwood found almost 400 times the legal limit for plutonium contamination on her body after a routine self-check. She was decontaminated and sent home with a testing kit for urine and feces.
The gloves she had been using had plutonium inside, but had no holes on them, suggesting the contamination had come from some other source, and not from the glovebox.
The next day she tested positive again for plutonium, despite having only done paperwork that day. She was once again decontaminated.
On the 7th of November, she was found to be dangerously contaminated, even expelling contaminated air from her lungs. Traces of plutonium were found on several sources at her home - including the bathroom and the refrigerator.
Silkwood thought she had been contaminated at the plant, while the plant's management accused her of contaminating herself to make the company look bad.
While security at the plant was lacking, Richard Rashke's research found that the type of plutonium on Silkwood's body was from an area of the plant she had not had access to for four months.
Silkwood compiled documents for her claims against the plant and decided to go public. She contacted a journalist from the New York Times and on November 13, 1974, she took her documents (as testified by a witness) and headed 30 miles to Oklahoma city to meet the journalist.
She was found that evening, dead in her car on the side off the road. It had come off the road and struck a culvert.
- Her documents were missing from the car
- One or two sedatives were found, and some marijuana
- The report noted she fell asleep at the wheel
- The coroner found almost twice the recommended dose of the sedative in her system
- Some journalists believe Silkwood's car may have been rammed from behind - skid marks on the road indicated she may have been trying to get back onto the road
- Damage was noted on the rear of her car which according to relatives, had not been there prior
- Paint chips were found under microscopic examination that could only have come from rear impact with another vehicle
- The incident with the culvert was entirely a front-end collision
- Her family claimed she had received numerous death threats
Further Reading
http://ift.tt/1a5lQv2 (This is interesting because Ellis claims to know who killed Silkwood, and blamed the mental and physical duress of this on her later erratic behavior
http://ift.tt/1epzNW6 1983 movie about the case
EDIT I found this too, which includes a photo of the car wreck: http://ift.tt/1PhFx5X
Submitted May 13, 2015 at 06:58AM by officedaze http://ift.tt/1H2it1h UnresolvedMysteries
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