By P..A. Geddie
Longview native and whistle blower Karen Silkwood died in a car crash on November 13, 1974. She was on her way to meet investigative reporter David Burnham to discuss unsafe practices at a nuclear power plant.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of her suspicious death.
Silkwood gained national attention after voicing concerns of health and safety issues at the Kerr-McGee nuclear facility in Crescent, Oklahoma. Her life was the subject of a motion picture titled Silkwood, released in 1983.
Meryl Streep portrays Silkwood in the movie with a supportive cast that includes Kurt Russell and Cher.
Until recently, the movie was only viewable on a rare physical copy. In honor of the 50th anniversary of her death it is now streaming on Hulu.
Michael Meadows is one of Silkwood’s three children. He is keeping his mother’s story alive on a Facebook page and fought for the movie to be available for people to see, although he admits the film is just a piece of the story.
“(Her death) wasn’t the end of the story,” he says. “The plant shut down. The people who worked at the plant have gotten ill and passed. So, there’s so much more that happened.”
In April 2014, Anadarko Petroleum Corporation that then owned Kerr-McGee agreed on a settlement of $5.15 billion, the largest pollution cleanup settlement in history, to clean up their toxic waste pollution at sites all over the country. Two percent of that settlement was to go to the Crescent plant, where soil and groundwater are polluted with uranium.
Silkwood was the first to draw national attention on the health violations by Kerr-McGee. She became the first Kerr-McGee female employee to hold a position on the Oil, Chemical, and Atomic Workers’ Union’s negotiating team.
“Mom wasn’t an activist of any kind. She wasn’t anti-nuke or anything like that. In fact, she loved all things science related,” Meadows said. “I believe she did what she did not because she was anti-nuclear energy, but because she knew the way things were being handled and the danger her coworkers were being exposed to, among other things, was wrong. Plain and simple.”
Silkwood ultimately testified to the Atomic Energy Commission on those safety hazards. Her voice was heard and sparked the interest of many, including David Burnham of the New York Times.
In agreement to reveal her findings on the safety of her workplace to Burnham, Silkwood left a union meeting at the Hub Café in Crescent to meet the reporter and union official Steve Wodka in Oklahoma City.
Silkwood never joined the two. Her body was found in her 1974 Honda Civic, which struck a culvert. Officials deemed the situation a one-car accident as a result of falling asleep at the wheel and many disagree with that determination.
Reports indicate that there was a dent in the rear bumper of Silkwood’s vehicle that showed metal and rubber fragments, indicating that another car rammed into it. Silkwood’s documents she was taking to Burnham were missing from the vehicle, which stirs strong speculation.
“Having only the information that I have read over the years to draw from, I personally believe that mom’s death was a murder,” Meadows said. “It is my opinion that whoever forced her off the road was trying to scare her, or even trying to convince her to surrender the documents she was carrying, and then the worst possible outcome that could have occurred, just happened.”
David Burnham passed away just weeks before the 50th anniversary of the fateful night. On October 1, at the age of 91, he died after choking during a meal.
Search Silkwood on Hulu to watch the movie and follow Karen G Silkwood on Facebook for discussion and continued interest in this story.