A Good Deal

"The first duty of a revolutionist is not to get caught." -- Abbie Hoffman

Having broken rule No. 1, the New York trio charged with conspiring to bomb federal buildings dropped their revolutionary posture altogether last week. Like ordinary criminals facing possible conviction, they bargained with the authorities. Then Jane Alpert, 22, Samuel Melville, 34, and John Hughey III, 22, meekly dropped their defense and pleaded guilty to the conspiracy charges.

Why did these ideologues, steeped in the rhetoric of unremitting resistance and supreme sacrifice, cave in so ignominiously? "It was a good deal," said the soft-spoken Miss Alpert. Had they gone to trial, she could have received 65 years in jail. Melville faced up to 390 years, and Hughey 25 years. Under the bargain made with the prosecution, most of the charges concerning the actual planting of bombs contained in the 19-count indictment were dismissed. Melville--who also admitted one bombing--can now get a maximum of

18 years and a $30,000 fine; Alpert and Hughey, five years and a $10,000 fine each. Sentencing will take place next month.

Jane Alpert, an honors graduate of Swarthmore and ardent Women's Liberationist, argued that the copped plea was not a copout. "The enemy would have been sitting in judgment and using its own rules," she said. "It wasn't a political thing--just a purely pragmatic choice on our part."

It was an odd end for an almost incredibly naive band of self-styled narodniki. There had been a four-month spree of bombings in commercial and federal buildings and other public places in Manhattan. The explosions caused 19 minor injuries.

It was almost fortuitous that the cops ran down the New York threesome. A 39-year-old government informer, George Demmerle, made such an underground name for himself as a radical heavy--"he wore outlandish clothes, threw bottles at the cops, got arrested a number of times," one official says--that Melville actually sought him out to help. On Nov. 12, Melville and Demmerle were arrested as they planted four bombs in Army trucks at an armory at 26th Street and Lexington Avenue. Minutes later, Alpert and Hughey were caught in their apartment.

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