Abbie Hoffman Dies
On this day in 1989, Worcester native Abbie Hoffman died from a drug overdose. A hero of the 1960s counter culture, Hoffman once told a reporter, "I never left Worcester." He was 30 when he moved to New York and co-founded the Yippie movement. One of the Chicago Eight tried for conspiring to disrupt the 1968 Democratic Party Convention, Hoffman was acquitted on all charges. Five years later, he was charged with selling cocaine. He went underground and stayed there for seven years. Even while a fugitive, he managed occasional visits to Worcester. After his death, his brother remembered that "one of the happiest days of his life was [the day] the mayor presented him with a key to the city."
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