IN THE KING OF PRUSSIA

Eight men and women, a group of Catholic activists led by the two Jesuits Reverends Daniel Berrigan and his brother Philip, broke into the Re-Entry Division of the General Electric Space Technology Centre in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, on September 9, 1980, damaged several nuclear missile nose cones and poured blood on secret documents. A few months later «The Plowshares Eight» (named after the biblical forging of ploughshares out of swords) appeared in court in Norristown. They were charged with a variety of crimes, including burglary, trespassing and simple assault. In the King of Prussia is partly a reconstruction of the trial which Emile de Antonio bases on the court transcript, and partly an account of the scandalous circumstances surrounding it. The defendants played themselves while the others, including Judge Samuel W. Salus, were played by actors.