Ep. 3: Contaminated

Summary

Radioactive: The Karen Silkwood Mystery - Episode 3: Contaminated

Release Date: December 3, 2024
Host/Author: ABC News

Introduction

In Episode 3 of Radioactive: The Karen Silkwood Mystery, titled "Contaminated," ABC News delves deeper into the enigmatic events leading up to Karen Silkwood’s tragic death. This episode meticulously unpacks the series of contamination incidents Karen faced, the suspicions surrounding her death, and the ensuing legal battles that sought to uncover the truth.

Background and Prelude to Death

The episode opens with Mike Boettcher recounting a pivotal moment in October 1974, when Karen Silkwood joined other workers from Kerr-McGee’s nuclear fuel plant at a local veterans hall (00:33). Here, two leading nuclear physics experts revealed alarming truths about plutonium-239, highlighting its extreme toxicity—“20,000 times more toxic than cobra venom” (Bob Sands, 00:48). These revelations sent shockwaves through the workers, including Karen, who voiced her concern: “if we're going to be susceptible to cancer... then something has got to be done” (03:22).

Safety Meeting and Union Election

Steve Wadka, a union staffer, had recorded this crucial meeting. The underlying tension was palpable as the union faced an upcoming election that could potentially dissolve it. Karen passionately advocated for union support, stating, “if we lose next week, you're not going to have anything” (03:39). Despite mixed reactions from the workforce, the union triumphed with a significant vote, bolstering Karen’s hopes for improved safety conditions (04:32).

The Contamination Events

By mid-October 1974, Karen’s life took a dark turn. She began experiencing mysterious contamination incidents at work. On November 5th, eight days before her death, Karen was contaminated while working with plutonium in a sealed glove box, leading to a grueling decontamination shower (08:19). The harsh methods employed—using high-pressure water, Tide detergent, and bleach—left her skin raw and exacerbated her exposure risks (09:35). Despite multiple cleanings, Karen continued to show high levels of contamination, raising suspicions about the source.

Discovery of Spiked Samples

A critical breakthrough came when Karen’s urine and stool samples returned “astronomical” levels of plutonium, far exceeding what could be explained by her work exposure (25:08). Richard Raske, author of The Killing of Karen Silkwood, suggests that these samples were deliberately spiked with plutonium (26:47). This intentional tampering explained the pervasive contamination in Karen’s apartment and body, pointing to a possible act of retaliation aimed at silencing her advocacy.

The Investigation and Theory of Retaliation

Steve Wadka posits that the timing of the spiked samples—shortly after the union’s victory—hints at a retaliatory motive by Kerr-McGee. The accessibility of Karen’s samples in the plant made tampering feasible, suggesting internal sabotage. Furthermore, Karen had recently uncovered a more alarming issue: missing plutonium from the plant, equivalent to what could create a crude nuclear weapon (31:32). This discovery elevated her mission from workplace safety to a potential national security threat, intensifying the stakes.

Legal Battle: Lawsuit and Trial Proceedings

Following her untimely death in a car crash on November 13, 1974, Karen’s family filed a lawsuit against Kerr-McGee in 1979. Mike Boettcher and Bob Sands recount their extensive research into the case, highlighting the fierce legal confrontation that ensued (07:35). The trial, which began in March 1979, was a landmark event, attracting national attention. Art Angel, one of Karen’s lawyers, emphasized the David vs. Goliath nature of the case, illustrating the Silkwood family’s uphill battle against a powerful corporation (46:28).

During the trial, the Silkwood team meticulously presented evidence of Karen’s contamination and the company’s negligence. Dr. John Goffman, a renowned scientist, testified that Karen’s exposure was “married” to lung cancer (48:59). In contrast, Kerr-McGee’s defense argued that there was no direct evidence linking the contamination to severe health effects, asserting that Karen might have fabricated some incidents to tarnish the company’s reputation.

The Verdict and Settlement

After nearly three months and over 30 witness testimonies, the jury delivered a verdict in favor of the Silkwood family, finding Kerr-McGee negligent and awarding $10.5 million in damages (57:24). This decision was seen as a significant victory, affirming Karen’s warnings about the plant’s unsafe conditions. However, this triumph was short-lived. The verdict was overturned on a technicality and the case eventually settled in 1986 for $1.4 million, with Kerr-McGee admitting no wrongdoing (59:55).

Legacy and Continuing Mystery

Despite the legal resolution, the true circumstances surrounding Karen Silkwood’s death remain shrouded in mystery. Her family, particularly her father Bill Silkwood, remained convinced that her death was no accident, tirelessly seeking justice until his passing in 2004 (60:54). The episode underscores the enduring impact of Karen’s story, which continues to resonate as a symbol of corporate malfeasance and the struggle for worker safety and transparency.

Conclusion

Episode 3, "Contaminated," provides an in-depth exploration of the final, tumultuous month of Karen Silkwood’s life. Through newly-discovered tapes, testimonies, and expert insights, ABC News paints a comprehensive picture of the events that led to her contamination and subsequent death. The episode not only sheds light on the immediate dangers Karen faced but also highlights the broader implications for nuclear safety and corporate accountability.

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Notable Quotes:

• Bob Sands (00:48): “Plutonium 239 is at least 20,000 times more toxic than cobra venom...”

• Karen Silkwood (03:22): “...something has got to be done.”

• Steve Wadka (09:35): “...it could actually allow the plutonium to get into the body instead of removing it.”

• Art Angel (48:59): “...a person like Karen Silkwood exposed to that much plutonium is married to lung cancer. They are inseparable.”

• Linda Silkwood Vincent (45:19): “She was killed for what should be.”

Timestamps Reference:

• 00:33 – Mike Boettcher introduces the safety meeting.
• 03:22 – Karen’s plea for action against plutonium exposure.
• 09:35 – Steve Wadka discusses the decontamination process.
• 25:08 – Discovery of spiked urine and stool samples.
• 26:47 – Bob Sands explains the tampering of samples.
• 31:32 – Karen’s revelation about missing plutonium.
• 46:28 – Art Angel reflects on the legal battle.
• 48:59 – Dr. John Goffman’s testimony on Karen’s contamination.
• 57:24 – Verdict of $10.5 million in damages.
• 59:55 – Settlement details in 1986.
• 60:54 – Linda Silkwood Vincent on the ongoing quest for truth.

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This comprehensive summary encapsulates the critical discussions, insights, and conclusions drawn in Episode 3: "Contaminated," providing a thorough understanding of Karen Silkwood’s final days and the enduring quest for justice.

Transcript

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[Mike Boettcher]

In October 1974, just about four weeks before her death, Karen Silkwood filed into the local veterans hall with about 20 or 30 other workers from Kermagee's nuclear fuel plant.

[Bob Sands]

And then two of the country's leading experts in nuclear physics told the crowd something most of them had never heard before. Plutonium 239 is at least 20,000 times more toxic than cobra venom, 20,000 times more toxic than potassium cyanide, which is the gas used in gas chambers, 1,000 times more toxic than heroin.

[Steve Wadka]

And the thing that it causes is principally cancers.

[Mike Boettcher]

According to these scientists, the job these workers were doing it was riskier than they thought. It could make them very, very sick, possibly even kill them.

[Steve Wadka]

Steve Wadka, the union staffer who'd been working with Karen, had flown these experts to Oklahoma and recorded the meeting. At one point, he looked out over the room of workers sitting in folding chairs and asked, has the company ever.

[Karen Silkwood]

Explained what the consequences are of exposure to plutonium? No.

[Bob Sands]

Most workers hadn't heard much from Kermagee about the risks of high doses of plutonium exposure. Some workers eventually chimed in to say they'd been told it's like heavy metal poisoning or that it can cause bone cancer.

[Mike Boettcher]

Those things are true. But these scientists wanted the workers to know that's only part of the story. More importantly, it can also cause lung cancer, because if you're dealing with plutonium dust, like Karen and her co workers were, you might wind up inhaling it. In that case, the scientist explained, plutonium gets lodged in the lungs and stays there for months or years, and things in the body can go haywire. Cells get pretty stirred up, and when you get the cells riled up, they.

[Karen Silkwood]

Don'T know how they should act.

[Mike Boettcher]

You know, they don't know that they're.

[Bob Sands]

Alone really anymore, and they start to.

[Steve Wadka]

Start acting on their own, and that's cancer. It won't happen immediately, they explained, but eventually it could. And for some of the workers, this new information really freaked them out, including Karen. She knew exposure to plutonium was really serious, but this was the first she'd heard about lung cancer.

[Linda Silkwood Vincent]

If there is something going on, we are going to sedimentary cancer. We're not going to know about it.

[Karen Silkwood]

20 years, but something.

[Steve Wadka]

She was far from the mic, so it's hard to make out every word. But what Karen said was, if we're going to be susceptible to cancer and we're not going to know about it for 20 years, then something has got to be done.

[Mike Boettcher]

There was a not so subtle subtext to this meeting. It was meant to inform workers. Yes, but also to remind them they needed the union to look out for them. Remember, there was an election coming the next week that could dissolve the union at the plant. Steve Watka made his pitch.

[Karen Silkwood]

You see, if we lose next week, you're not going to have anything. And I can't see things getting any better here. And I can only see them getting worse. From my own personal experience, similar situations when our union's been kicked out and the people have been at the mercy of a multibillion dollar corporation like Kerr.

[Bob Sands]

McGee, one of Karen's fellow union leaders at the plant, Jack Tice, you heard him in the last episode, told us that not everyone who came to the safety meeting seemed persuaded both about the health and safety claims and about keeping the union alive.

[Mike Boettcher]

Do you remember how people reacted to those doctors and what they had to say? Were they afraid? Did they not believe it?

[Linda Silkwood Vincent]

I'm going to say it was split.

[Mike Boettcher]

Yeah. So it was a split workplace, you know, between union and non union members.

[Linda Silkwood Vincent]

Absolutely. You know, you have people that hated.

[Mike Boettcher]

Unions and was resentful. Union participation was at an all time low and support was flagging. But when the election came, the Union won with 80 votes to keep the union, 61 against. The union got more votes than they had members, which meant even some non union workers voted to keep the union. Steve Watka says it was a huge victory.

[Karen Silkwood]

We did get a call on October 16th and there's no delay. I mean, they counted the votes, you know, right there. And Karen and Jack were very happy, very happy that we won.

[Bob Sands]

The union had survived. Karen could put that worry to rest. But by mid October 1974, Karen had just one month to live. A month that went quickly downhill. A month she spent worried about mysterious contamination incidents at work that left her increasingly convinced she was going to die. As Karen was trying to close in on the proof she needed to show there were big problems at Kermagee, it felt like something dark was closing in on Her.

[Mike Boettcher]

From ABC Audio, this is Radioactive. The Karen Silkwood Mystery Episode 3 Contaminated I'm Mike Boettcher.

[Bob Sands]

And I'm Bob Sands. A lot of what we know about Karen's final month is because of a lawsuit filed after her death. Her family sued Kermagee in 1979.

[Mike Boettcher]

And last year, Bobby and I spent the better part of two weeks researching the Silkwood lawsuit, camped out in the University of Oklahoma's law library, poring over boxes of trial exhibits and hundreds of pages of court transcripts. The documents took me back 50 years to when I covered that dramatic trial in Oklahoma City. It gave Karen's family and supporters some relief and satisfaction, but only for a brief moment. You heard in the last episode, Karen had her first exposure to plutonium in July 1974. Air filters showed there had been contamination in the lab she'd been working in. She was told her contamination was low. Plus, Karen hadn't learned the full picture of how dangerous plutonium exposure could be. She wasn't too worried.

[Bob Sands]

Kerr McGee kept an eye on Karen's exposure levels for the next few weeks. And in terms of new exposures, things were kind of quiet for Karen from August through October. But in early November, Karen's contamination started to get a lot more serious. Serious and also mysterious.

[Mike Boettcher]

Tuesday, November 5th.

[Steve Wadka]

Eight days before Karen's death, Karen had.

[Bob Sands]

Been working with plutonium in a glove box. She waved her hands in front of a radiation monitor, and they were contaminated. That meant a trip to the company's health physics office for a more thorough check.

[Mike Boettcher]

According to Richard Raske, author of the Killing of Karen Silkwood, the process went something like this.

[Richard Raske]

They would use a counter up and down your body to see whether they detected any contamination. Like on your clothing, on your body. Click, click, click, click, click. You could hear it. The next thing is they took nasal swipes. Put a cotton on a stick up your nose and then hold against the counter. Click, click, click, click, click, click, click.

[Mike Boettcher]

A health physics officer checked Karen and got readings on her coveralls, her body, and on a nasal smear, according to court documents.

[Bob Sands]

But she'd been working in a sealed glove box. There was no leak in the glove, and there was no radiation in the room. How on earth had she gotten contaminated?

[Mike Boettcher]

Karen headed to the showers to try to wash the radiation off. But this wasn't any normal shower. It was high pressure water beating down on her skin. Plus scrubbing at the radioactive contamination with Tide detergent and bleach. Here's Steve Watka again.

[Karen Silkwood]

You're essentially rubbing off that layer of skin. So your skin is becoming raw.

[Steve Wadka]

It was a painful, miserable process. And turns out, according to one expert we talked to, it could also be a very bad idea to rub someone's skin raw when they've been exposed to plutonium. It could actually allow the plutonium to get into the body instead of removing it. These days, decontamination protocols try to avoid damaging the skin.

[Mike Boettcher]

After the scrub down, Karen was sent home and told to collect samples of her urine and stool for five days, which was standard practice. After that kind of exposure, the company wanted to monitor how much plutonium was passing through Karen's body as a way of estimating how much internal contamination she had.

[Bob Sands]

On the next day, Karen went back to work.

[Mike Boettcher]

Wednesday, November 6, seven days before her.

[Bob Sands]

Death, Karen got to the plant just before 8am she did some paperwork and didn't handle any plutonium, according to trial testimony. That day, the union had its first bargaining meeting with the company to negotiate their new contract. So on her way from the laboratory.

[Karen Silkwood]

To the meeting, she checks herself and she's hot. This is the second day in a.

[Mike Boettcher]

Row it was on her arm, which meant another trip to the health physics department, where they tried to wash the contamination off with soap and water. It didn't budge.

[Karen Silkwood]

They decontaminated her partway. They can't get part of it off. It's actually fixed in her skin.

[Bob Sands]

Karen was upset she was going to be late to this bargaining meeting. She asked the health physics techs if she could go.

[Karen Silkwood]

She's allowed to go to the meeting. She goes to the meeting, she comes back, and then they scrub her down. Finally, to get the contamination off, when.

[Mike Boettcher]

The tide and bleach mixture didn't work, they added even harsher chemicals, which finally did the trick.

[Bob Sands]

But then she asked for a nasal smear, and that turned up positive. In fact, the head of the health physics department would later say that Karen's nasal smear readings were about as high as they were the afternoon before, which was odd because she'd just been decontaminated, and not just once. It was her second scrub down in two days. Why was her nasal smear still turning up positive?

[Mike Boettcher]

According to trial transcripts, Karen was distraught and visibly upset. The health physics techs irrigated and decontaminated her nose and told her to come back to their office the next day, first thing, even before going to the lab. So the next day, Thursday, November 7.

[Steve Wadka]

Six days before Karen's death, she parks.

[Karen Silkwood]

Her car, she walks in the front.

[Steve Wadka]

Door, and she's hot, contaminated again. Third day in a Row. Not only that, her nasal smear readings were even higher than they had been the day before. And she hadn't even started work yet.

[Karen Silkwood]

The levels that they measured on her on the 7th of November were the highest levels they claimed they had ever seen on anybody at that plant.

[Mike Boettcher]

They found contamination on Karen's face, right hand, left index finger, and a few other places on her body.

[Bob Sands]

They did a preliminary test of her urine samples and found plutonium there, too. The readings were much higher than they expected. The health physics technicians checked Karen's car and her locker for contamination. Both were clean. She had another brutal decontamination shower. And the inside of her nose was irrigated multiple times. Also, this was all really weird. Karen and her urine kits were registering high on these radiation meters, even though she'd been decontaminated the day before. And all she'd done was gone home and come back to work.

[Karen Silkwood]

That's clear proof that it's not something in the plant. It must be something off site, that it's got to be something at her apartment.

[Bob Sands]

So three health physics techs and Karen got into a car and drove over to her apartment.

[Karen Silkwood]

They have a Geiger counter, and they walk in the front door, swift, and the Geiger counter is going off.

[Mike Boettcher]

Their instruments had detected radiation high levels in the bathroom and kitchen and lower levels in other rooms in the apartment.

[Bob Sands]

Two of the most contaminated items in Karen's apartment were packages of bologna and cheese in the fridge, which is, again, really bizarre.

[Mike Boettcher]

But first order of business, the plutonium needed to be cleaned up. So Karen's apartment got its own version of a decontamination shower.

[Karen Silkwood]

They come back with their moon suits to start ripping the place apart.

[Bob Sands]

Well, when I got down there, they were still loading stuff in barrels.

[Mike Boettcher]

Jim Smith was a manager at the plant. You heard him in the last episode talking about how production pressure at the plant caused all kinds of problems. He was down at Karen's apartment the day it got cleaned out. Years later, Jim described what he saw to a documentary film crew.

[Bob Sands]

Everything went. The refrigerator, the couch, coffee tables, the television set. I think they took the toilet off the floor, baseboards off around the. Just cleaned it out. Left nothing. Jim Smith told the film producers he remembered Karen standing outside her apartment watching as everything she owned got packed up and hauled away. She was down there standing out front, balling. And then she disappeared. I don't know where she went.

[Linda Silkwood Vincent]

Did you talk to her that night?

[Karen Silkwood]

No.

[Bob Sands]

She was just about half hysterical.

[Mike Boettcher]

Karen's apartment was a toxic empty shell. She moved into a hotel. Emotionally, physically, she was at a real low. But then she got some unexpectedly good news. Good news that would reveal yet another mystery.

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[Mike Boettcher]

Karen wasn't the only one who wanted to understand how plutonium got all over her apartment. Kerr McGee wanted answers, too, and early on they started looking at one person. Karen. Kermogee lawyers talked to Karen that day. They found plutonium in her apartment, trying to get her to admit she was somehow at fault.

[Bob Sands]

Karen stood firm. She hadn't contaminated herself. In a signed statement taken by a Kermogee attorney, Karen said, I have no knowledge of what happened, but I feel the contamination is coming out of my body.

[Mike Boettcher]

At some point, Karen left and went to her boyfriend Drew's house. He talked about that day with ABC News the following year. And she showed up down here.

[Bob Sands]

And she was shaking like a leaf.

[Mike Boettcher]

And she was hysterical. She was incoherent. And she kept saying over and over again that I'm going to die.

[Steve Wadka]

Steve Watka talked to Karen that day, too.

[Karen Silkwood]

She tells me what's going on. She gives me some of the data on the counts that they were finding on her. And we were really concerned that she was going to die, die immediately. Because she had gotten a huge dose. If she didn't die immediately, she would be sick for a long time until she passed.

[Bob Sands]

No one knew how much plutonium Karen had inhaled or ingested. So Steve was worried that she might have acute radiation poisoning. And would need to be hospitalized immediately.

[Mike Boettcher]

The presence of plutonium loose outside the plant. Wasn't just a health issue for Karen. It was now a matter of national security. The Atomic Energy Commission, the aec. Which regulated the plant. Needed to investigate the situation was blowing up. Karen was worried and asked Steve to come to Oklahoma.

[Karen Silkwood]

I said, look, I'll fly right down. Don't talk to the company. Don't talk to the AEC until I get there. So I fly right down the next morning, and I get there. Drew and Karen, they picked me up at the airport. And she was in pretty bad shape. I could tell she was wearing, like, you know, big sunglasses. And she took them off. And there were these really dark, dark circles under her eyes. And she was gaunt. She didn't look well at all.

[Bob Sands]

Karen would spend the last days of her life. Going through hours of grueling interviews.

[Karen Silkwood]

Literally, she's being interviewed back to back by AEC people. By the company's medical advisor. And this goes on all day.

[Mike Boettcher]

They asked Karen for all the details she could remember. Her medical history, her professional history. Trying to piece together what had happened. It was exhausting.

[Karen Silkwood]

She is crying. She says, look, I'm crying. The tears are burning her skin. Because her skin was so raw. From all the decontaminations of her skin.

[Mike Boettcher]

For weeks, Karen had been undeterred. In her secret mission. To prove Kerr McGee was falsifying quality control documents. But with all these contaminations, she seemed to waver. She called her family in Nederland, Texas. And her sister, Rosemary Silkwood Smith says she was really low. Like the fight was draining out of her.

[Linda Silkwood Vincent]

One weekend. And I had been over at Mother and Dad's. And Karen was hysterical one night when she called and said. They're trying to kill me. And I didn't know what she was talking about. She was asking me to Come up there. I was working. I had two children at the time. My husband at the time said, no, it's virtually impossible for you to go. And I was upset about that. But I knew she was in trouble because Karen didn't lie. And she didn't call me out of the blue like that.

[Mike Boettcher]

And was it really out of character for her to be used the word hysterics and they're trying to kill me? Was that kind of feeling coming from her? Unusual?

[Linda Silkwood Vincent]

Very, very. She would never have done something like that unless it was the truth.

[Steve Wadka]

As you heard in the last episode. Karen told Steve that she wasn't going to quit Kerm McGee. Until the plant was shut down. Or the safety conditions improved. But after multiple contaminations, she felt differently. Her sister, Linda Silkwood Vincent, remembers she wanted to leave.

[Linda Silkwood Vincent]

I remember mom getting a call two or three weeks before she was killed. And she had told us then told mom then. She was. She was ready to come home. She wanted to come home. She just had some things she had to finish. She had to finish what she had started at Kermit. Trying to help the people there finish what she started.

[Bob Sands]

In other words, she just needed to close the chapter on her undercover mission. And deliver those documents to the New York Times.

[Mike Boettcher]

After Karen was contaminated three days in a row. And plutonium turned up in her apartment. Kerr McGee arranged for her to go through more sophisticated testing. They sent Karen, her roommate and her boyfriend Drew. Who'd also spent time at the apartment in early November. To the Los Alamos National Lab in New Mexico. You might know Los Alamos as the central place. Where nuclear physicists coordinated their research for the Manhattan Project.

[Bob Sands]

Yes, that Manhattan Project. The one that produced America's first atomic bomb.

[Mike Boettcher]

The Los Alamos scientists put Karen through what's called a whole body counter. A sophisticated machine that could measure how much radio radioactive material was inside her organs.

[Bob Sands]

The doctors at Los Alamos found that Karen did in fact, have internal plutonium contamination. We have a copy of their report.

[Mike Boettcher]

But they told her not to worry. That her counts were below the AEC's permissible level for plutonium workers. She wouldn't die of radiation poisoning. And this exposure wouldn't give her cancer. They said she was going to be okay. And so were her roommate and boyfriend. Drew called Steve Watka with the results.

[Karen Silkwood]

Now we have some basis to believe that she's going to make it. She's going to survive.

[Bob Sands]

It was good news. And Karen was feeling much better after these results. But big question still remained. How did Karen get contaminated in the first place. How in the world did someone who was increasingly worried about plutonium get exposed to it over and over? How did it get on her skin, into her lungs, and onto the food in her refrigerator? How did this toxic material somehow leap from the protected areas at the plant into Karen's body and into her home?

[Mike Boettcher]

Karen never figured it out before she died. But it turns out there was a clue in Karen's urine and stool kits. See, the full analysis of Karen's urine and fecal samples took over a month to process. So the results from her collections in late October and early November 1974 wouldn't come back until after her death on November 13th. But when they did come back, they were really hot, quote, astronomical, one attorney said later in court. Hot to the point where a car McGee radiochemist could see plutonium with the naked eye In Karen's samples. The plutonium couldn't have passed through Karen's body. The radio chemist later testified in court. He said her kits were unequivocally spiked.

[Bob Sands]

Someone must have taken some plutonium and intentionally put it into the sample jars before she used them. And once that plutonium got into Karen's kits, we do know how it got all over her apartment and into her body. Here's Richard Rasky again, author of the Killing of Karen Soakwood.

[Richard Raske]

It turned out that she was giving a sample that day, a urine sample that day. And that she accidentally spilled some urine on the floor and wiped it up. And that her bologna and cheese sandwich was sitting in the bathroom. And so when she picked it up to take it to her bag that she was going to carry into the plant, she contaminated it. She put it in a refrigerator until it was time to go to work.

[Bob Sands]

We don't know if she ever ate the sandwich, but according to the aec, she had ingested plutonium.

[Mike Boettcher]

All of this, the spiked kits, Karen accidentally spilling her urine jar, it all explains a lot of the strange and alarming events during this period. It explains how high levels of contamination got into her apartment as she cleaned up the spill, touched other items, like that bologna sandwich and put it back in the fridge. It explains why she kept showing up for work contaminated even when she hadn't been working with radioactive materials. And it explains the disconnect why the levels in urine and fecal samples were higher than the levels Los Alamos found in her body.

[Bob Sands]

No one disputes that Karen's kits were spiked.

[Mike Boettcher]

The only question was who spiked them?

[Steve Wadka]

The AEC investigation was never able to determine who spiked Karen's kits. And later at trial, Kerr McGee would argue Karen did it to herself, that she wanted to embarrass the company, create problems so she could later blame them.

[Mike Boettcher]

Karen's good friend Don Gummo didn't buy it.

[Don Gummo]

I am absolutely sure in my heart of hearts that she did not contaminate those urine and fecal samples just because of the respect and fear she had for plutonium. I can't imagine that she took a sample of plutonium home with her and contaminated her apartment and that food. I don't believe it.

[Bob Sands]

Steve Watkins says there was something fishy about the timing of the spiking, too, because he says it all started one week after the union won the decertification election.

[Karen Silkwood]

We have the entire history of all of her urine samples from the beginning of 1974 on. And they're all basically normal until you get down to this one week after the union wins a dessert.

[Mike Boettcher]

As you heard in an earlier episode, Steve's been spending his retirement reinvestigating Karen's case. And the spike kits is the part of Karen's story Steve has really zeroed in on to Steve. The timing of the spiked kits smacks of retaliation against Karen for her union organizing.

[Steve Wadka]

The urine and fecal kits were stored on open shelves in a hallway in the plant, so they were easy for employees to grab on on their way out. There were names on them. So anyone could have grabbed Karen's kits and tampered with them. Someone from Kermagee Management or a fellow plant worker with a vendetta.

[Mike Boettcher]

Karen wasn't universally liked. There were mixed feelings around the plant about the advocacy work she was doing. Steve thinks whoever spiked Karen's samples was doing it to get her to quit, intimidate her, or make her give up.

[Karen Silkwood]

It would have crippled Silkwood's ability to be in the contract negotiations to complain about health and safety. I mean, she would have been contaminated. She would have been out of the plant. She would be dealing with all her health issues rather than trying to work on the contract negotiations. You know, it was a good strategy because that's exactly what happened.

[Bob Sands]

And Steve didn't know it at the time, but Karen had allegedly stumbled onto a new problem at the plant. Something more alarming than lack safety protocols or even falsifying important quality control reports.

[Mike Boettcher]

One night about a month before Karen's death, she called a friend and former Kermgie employee James Knowles, and she told him something that she hadn't told anyone else. At least not that we know of.

[Steve Wadka]

Can you tell us about that phone call?

[Don Gummo]

She talked about the People there being hired were quite young and had no experience and weren't trained properly. But most of her biggest concern was the missing material she was really distraught about missing. Plutonium? Yeah. Material unaccounted for. Yep.

[Bob Sands]

Material unaccounted for. It has a funny acronym, muff. And Karen told James that there was a very specific amount of muff, in this case plutonium, missing from the Kermogee plant. 17 kilograms, or just over 40 pounds.

[Mike Boettcher]

That might not sound like a lot, but it'd be more than enough to make a crude nuclear weapon and kill thousands of people, if not more. The AEC warned around this time that the instructions for how to make a simple nuclear weapon were out there. So all anyone would need, say a terrorist or foreign adversary, was access to this loose, unauthorized material and they could fashion their own homemade nuke.

[Bob Sands]

So based on what James Knoll told us, this means Karen had gone from trying to improve the working conditions for herself and her co workers to identifying a possible national security threat.

[Mike Boettcher]

Karen didn't tell James why she thought there was plutonium missing from the plant or how she discovered it. We know that she was snooping around, but why she told James and not Steve or anyone else at the union is also a bit of a mystery. It's one of about a million questions we'd love to ask her, but Karen.

[Bob Sands]

Silkwood was out of time. Just a few weeks after she called James, she got in her Honda Civic, drove seven miles down the highway and crashed into that concrete wall.

[Mike Boettcher]

But the battle between Karen and Kerm McGee didn't die with Karen. If anything, it only heated up.

[Karen Silkwood]

Stop. Stop. Stop. Had enough?

[Mike Boettcher]

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[Mike Boettcher]

Karen never got to meet New York Times investigative reporter David Burnham. But just a few days after she died, he published a report about her death and the safety concern she was trying to raise.

[Bob Sands]

Steve Watka says that once Burnham's article came out, things just broke wide open. About two months after Karen died, the AEC Published its own findings about the allegations Karen and the union had raised. The one she brought to D.C. in that initial meeting with Steve Watka and the OCAW. The agency was able to wholly or partially substantiate. 20 out of the 39 claims Karen had made. Incidents of messiness and neglect, like leaky pipes, people getting contaminated. And cleanup not being done quickly are thoroughly enough. And people storing plutonium samples in desk drawers. Those things were substantiated wholly or in part.

[Mike Boettcher]

But the agency didn't substantiate other things. Like Karen's main allegation. The one we heard her talk about in that phone call with Steve Watka. The lack of adequate training or instruction on the hazards of the job. The AEC said, quote. The training curriculum emphasizes good health and safety procedures and points out the hazards. And they cited pages of the Kermagee Manual. Where it reportedly talked about biological effects of exposure.

[Steve Wadka]

All in all, the AEC said the failings by Kerm McGee, quote, did not pose a hazard to workers or the public.

[Mike Boettcher]

At least that's what they said publicly.

[Bob Sands]

But we know from a memo from the AEC's regional director. That privately, the AEC met with the company's CEO, Dean McGee, just a few months after Karen's death. The memo later came out in congressional hearings. And showed that the AEC told Dean McGee. That there were, quote, Serious management control problems at the plant. Old equipment prone to breakdowns, Personnel turnover, inadequate training or lack of supervision. And the memo also said, quote, Kerm McGee. Management are not committed to as low as possible exposures to plutonium.

[Mike Boettcher]

Kerr McGee went into lockdown mode. Not commenting on Karen's death or the allegations she'd made. But again, privately, it was another story. The company started its own investigation.

[Bob Sands]

It started polygraphing its workers. 237 in total, including Karen's friend, Don Gummo.

[Don Gummo]

Well, the deal was, if your nose was clean. You shouldn't have any problems about taking a lie detector test. So we can find out if you took plutonium. So I thought, well, that's a fair deal, because I didn't take any plutonium.

[Bob Sands]

So Don went for his polygraph test.

[Don Gummo]

And they had a whole nother list of questions they wanted to ask. They were interested to know what I knew about Karen is what they were interested in. So they ask about drug use. They ask about taking plutonium. They ask about things that you would expect them to. And then they wanted to know, well, have you ever slept with her? Well, do you know anybody else who's slept with her? And they're asking me these questions while I'm sitting there wired to this machine. It was. It was kind of unpleasant.

[Mike Boettcher]

Workers told Steve Watka they were asked whether they were working with the union.

[Karen Silkwood]

The purpose of the polygraphing was not to find out who was telling the truth and who was lying. The purpose of the polygraphing was to figure out who had been talking to Sokwit, who had been talking to Watka and who else might have known what else was going on. So that any of the people who we were working with could be either isolated or fired.

[Mike Boettcher]

And Steve says that's exactly what happened. The company wound up transferring or firing employees at the plant. Notably Karen's friend Don Gummow and her fellow union leaders, who'd also raised safety concerns at the plant. As for the intel collected on Karen, it would take some years, but Kerr McGee would put that to use.

[Steve Wadka]

After Burnham's reporting in the New York Times, it wasn't long before Karen's story.

[Bob Sands]

Swept across the country.

[Steve Wadka]

The issues she tried so hard to bring attention to in her life became national news stories.

[Mike Boettcher]

After her death, ABC News did an investigation. You may have read or heard about the mysterious death of Karen Silkwood when it happened in November. On the face of it, it was a simple case of an auto accident caused by a drugged or drowsy driver. But there were nagging other facts.

[Steve Wadka]

National Public Radio produced a six part series.

[Linda Silkwood Vincent]

Karen Silkwood was mysteriously contaminated by plutonium just eight days before she died. And the Atomic Energy Commission and its public reports never established the circumstances of her contamination.

[Mike Boettcher]

There was an in depth article in Ms. Magazine. Even Penthouse did an investigation. The New York Times also did a deep dive into the missing nuclear material. A kermoge executive told the paper that at times the plant where Karen worked couldn't account for up to 60 pounds of plutonium. And remember, that's way more than you'd need to make a nuclear bomb.

[Bob Sands]

And it wasn't just Kerr McGee in the hot seat. Its regulator, the Atomic Energy Commission, had to answer to the missing nuclear material allegations too. They did an investigation into the facilities they regulated across the country. And determined that there were thousands of pounds of missing nuclear material. They conceded that the material could fall into the hands of a terrorist group and be fashioned into a crude bomb. But they reportedly pointed out there were no unresolved cases of theft.

[Mike Boettcher]

After these revelations, the AEC reportedly tightened security at facilities like Kermagee.

[Bob Sands]

And what about Karen's allegations that Ker McGee was falsifying important quality control reports? Potentially covering up defects in the fuel rods it was making. Well, the AEC investigated the claim and reported that, yes, a worker had, in fact, touched up defects in these reports. He admitted to making changes, but said it was to avoid more work, not to hide faults in the fuel rods. The agency dismissed the claim as an isolated case.

[Mike Boettcher]

The company who bought the fuel rods from kermagee said they rejected some of them, but the vast majority performed safely. The meltdown that the union feared never happened.

[Bob Sands]

And then things kind of quieted down for a couple of years, that is, until we got the first of two major investigations, Two big attempts to understand how plutonium escaped the plant and contaminated Karen and her apartment.

[Mike Boettcher]

The first was a congressional hearing in 1976, something Karen's family had really campaigned for. Hollywood filmmaker Buzz Hirsch spent a lot of time with Karen's father, Bill silkwood.

[Karen Silkwood]

He was sitting there at a card table, and he had a typewriter in front of him, and he was punching keys in the typewriter with one finger.

[Mike Boettcher]

Writing letters to congressmen, trying to get, you know, some interest in investigating his daughter's death.

[Bob Sands]

Buzz is now 80. He produced the 1983 movie Silkwood, about the final months of Karen's life. As Buzz researched Karen's story, he spent weeks in nederland, Texas, hanging out with Bill Silkwood. They drink vodka on Bill's front porch.

[Karen Silkwood]

On the fireplace, you know, wall behind him, was this big picture of Karen.

[Mike Boettcher]

And he was very fond of Karen.

[Karen Silkwood]

And he was crushed when she died.

[Mike Boettcher]

The congressional hearings Bill had helped push for ended up being a flop. They devolved into a spectacle. The subcommittee hit a brick wall trying to get information from the FBI and wound up threatening the department of justice with a subpoena. And the question about safeguards at the plant sent the hearings down a rabbit hole involving an FBI informant with possible ties to the Soviet union. A fascinating story, but a distraction from Karen's case. The hearings ended anticlimactically. They were indefinitely postponed and then never restarted.

[Bob Sands]

So the first big attempt to get some accountability for Karen's contamination didn't provide many answers.

[Mike Boettcher]

But Karen's father, Bill, had another idea. He'd take Kermagee to court. But as 1976 was coming to a close, he was running out of time. The statute of limitations was running out. Plus, it would take almost half a million dollars to hire a team and do all the investigative work it was going to take to beat Kerr mcgee in court. And Bill silkwood didn't have that kind of money.

[Bob Sands]

The national organization for women helped fundraise they partnered with civil rights advocates, social justice groups, progressive Catholics and other religious leaders, environmentalists and anti nuke folks, all with their own interest in the Silkwood cause. It was then that Karen really took off as a national symbol for feminists.

[Karen Silkwood]

Karen Silkwood is dead. She lived her last weeks in terror.

[Linda Silkwood Vincent]

She was killed for what should be.

[Karen Silkwood]

Every person's right, the right to better our conditions.

[Mike Boettcher]

She became a martyr for the anti nuclear cause.

[Linda Silkwood Vincent]

Are you on the side of nuclear free or are you on the side of Kernel McGee?

[Mike Boettcher]

Which side are you on?

[Bob Sands]

Popular musicians like Jackson Brown, Bonnie Raitt and Crosby, Stills and Nash played Karen Silkwood defense concerts. And folk singers from around the country wrote odes to Karen.

[Mike Boettcher]

Karen Silkwood was a worker in a nuclear plant. She worked six months, then joined a picket line. As money was being raised, the Silkwood attorneys were hard at work investigating the case and preparing for trial.

[Bob Sands]

The Silkwood legal team was an uneasy alliance of four lawyers, a couple of liberal activist attorneys, a local Oklahoma attorney, and a showboating, charismatic lawyer from Wyoming who was known to be one of the best trial attorneys in the country. One of the young, idealistic lawyers was Art Angel.

[Art Angel]

It was the biggest case, of course, that even now, 45 years later, that I've ever worked on.

[Mike Boettcher]

Angel's home office has mementos from the Silkwood Trail up on the wall, a framed article from the LA Times about the verdict, and pictures on the steps of the Supreme Court of him and Bill Silkwood.

[Art Angel]

Not only was it David and Goliath in terms of the disproportionate resources and, you know, the people that there were, but we were a ragtag bunch, our paralegals, one of whom had been a Haight Ashbury street person. You know, we had two priests who were our investigators and, you know, office organizers.

[Bob Sands]

In March of 1979, the Silkwood vs Kermogee lawsuit finally entered federal court in Oklahoma City. Karen Silkwood's family was seeking up to $70 million in damages after the disappointment of the congressional hearings. This was the Silkwood family's best chance at vindicating their daughter to validate her safety concerns at the plant and possibly shed some light on her contamination and death.

[Mike Boettcher]

As I mentioned before, I covered the trial as a young reporter. And one of the things I remember was it was a civil trial. Yes, but judging by the suspense in that grand ceremonial courtroom and the attention this trial got, you would have thought it was a criminal case. All the major news network sent reporters and hundreds of people would wait outside after the Proceedings to watch the attorneys and Karen's family come out.

[Bob Sands]

Art angel says the main question for the jury was whether Kerr Magee was.

[Art Angel]

Negligent, that they were responsible for her contamination, and that they ran the plant in a negligent or grossly negligent way.

[Mike Boettcher]

The Silkwood team first had to present the dangers of plutonium to the jury. They talked about Karen's autopsy, which showed radiation in her lungs, liver, lymph nodes, even her bones. And several doctors testified to her elevated risk of cancer.

[Bob Sands]

One of the most memorable parts of the trial was when the Silkwood lawyers put Dr. John Goffman on the stand, a scientist who'd worked on the Manhattan Project and was the third person in the world to ever handle plutonium.

[Mike Boettcher]

The trial attorney from Wyoming, Jerry Spence, questioned Goffman on the stand. Spence was this larger than life, charismatic guy, the guy who kind of became the star of this trial. He's up at the front of the courtroom in his buckskin jacket with fringe. And he asked Goffman, doctor, are you saying that at her death she had lung cancer?

[Steve Wadka]

Goffman answers, I'm saying unequivocally that a person like Karen Silkwood exposed to that much plutonium is married to lung cancer. They are inseparable. Again, attorney Art Angel.

[Art Angel]

So, you know, it artfully linked the scientific stuff with something that, you know, you could kind of emotionally connect with as well.

[Mike Boettcher]

Kerr McGee's attorneys brought in their own doctor to speak to Karen's contamination. And he said, quote, there was no evidence of any acute injury from her contamination, nor any evidence of any radiation sickness, nor any evidence of any cancer as of November 13th. He said, quote, based on reasonable medical certainty, Silkwood, had she lived, would have had no health effects from her exposure.

[Bob Sands]

So if Karen hadn't died in that car wreck in November 1974, would cancer have ended her life prematurely, or would she have been fine like the kermoge witness said? It's impossible to say for sure. We talked to one expert who said, knowing what we know today, Karen's exposure in 1974 might have slightly increased her risk for cancer above average for the general population. But that risk was still relatively low.

[Mike Boettcher]

But the Silkwood expert witness, Goffman, also made the point that Kerr McGee was negligent in the way they educated or better yet, didn't educate their plant workers about the dangers of plutonium.

[Bob Sands]

In his review of the company's safety hand book, the word cancer, Goffman said on the stand, should be on every page and probably in caps. I think it is deceptive and awful that people are not up front. I didn't see enough upfrontness in the manual.

[Mike Boettcher]

The second thing the Silkwood side had to prove was that it was Kerr McGee's negligence that allowed the plutonium to escape the plant and make its way into Karen's apartment.

[Steve Wadka]

Because, as Spence explained, if the lion got away, Ker McGee has to pay. It's that simple. That's the law. If the lion got away, Ker McGee has to pay.

[Mike Boettcher]

Meaning since Ker McGee's plutonium got away into Karen's home, they were responsible for Karen's contamination and they owed the Silkwood estate. So Spence tried to convince the jury that Kermagee was the kind of lax operation where plutonium could escape without people noticing.

[Steve Wadka]

They brought in Don Hammack, an Oklahoma state trooper turned operator at Kerm McGee's plutonium plant. He testified that, quote, there was no security at the plant.

[Mike Boettcher]

What do you mean there was no security? Jerry Spence asked him.

[Steve Wadka]

There was nobody to check or see what anybody was taking out. You could have taken it out of there any way you wanted to do it, Hammock said.

[Mike Boettcher]

How could you have taken it out?

[Steve Wadka]

You could put it in your pocket if you wanted to.

[Mike Boettcher]

How much could you take out?

[Steve Wadka]

All you could carry, Hammock said. And remember the 40 pounds of missing plutonium that Karen called her ex coworker James Knoll about?

[Bob Sands]

Well, that came up too.

[Mike Boettcher]

There was a dramatic moment before the trial even started. The judge was considering testimony alleging the smuggling of nuclear material out of the plant. And after a closed door meeting with high ranking officials from the FBI and the CIA, the judge said the testimony wouldn't be allowed due to national security concerns. He later wrote in his memoir that any disclosure of what he learned in that meeting, quote, would have international repercussions and endanger the lives of secret operatives and greatly damage our national security. But also, he said he didn't think the information had any relevance to the Silkwood case.

[Bob Sands]

And then during the trial, Jim Smith, the plant manager you heard earlier in this episode, testified that on Kermage's watch, 40 pounds of plutonium could have gone missing, just like Karen had alleged.

[Mike Boettcher]

Kermagee acknowledged that there was some unaccounted for material, but that it wasn't missing and it hadn't left the plant. Instead, they said it was just inside their equipment, spread over tanks, surfaces, glove boxes, and nearly a mile of piping throughout the building.

[Steve Wadka]

They said Karen's contamination didn't happen because of their negligence. Instead, they repeated a Familiar argument. Karen contaminated herself and Art angel says they tried to prove that by attacking her lifestyle.

[Art Angel]

Their strategy was to make her an other. She is not like you because she lived with a lesbian. She's not like you because she smokes pot. She's not like you because she didn't stay in her place. And was talking back to and being insubordinate to her bosses. It was really, don't believe her, don't rule for her. Because your lifestyle and your background are different from hers.

[Steve Wadka]

Reporters asked Karen's parents, Bill and Merle Silkwood, how they felt about the attacks on their daughter.

[Mike Boettcher]

Ker McGee implicated your daughter. You might say that they even tried to smear her.

[Bob Sands]

How do you feel about some of the things they said?

[Mike Boettcher]

Same thing that's been going on since she was killed there. Nothing but a cover up and sloppy job that they do.

[Don Gummo]

And really it's the only defense ahead.

[Mike Boettcher]

How about you, Mrs. Silkwood? How did that make you feel?

[Linda Silkwood Vincent]

Well, it made me feel bad, but.

[Don Gummo]

I should be used to it.

[Linda Silkwood Vincent]

They've been doing it since she died, but I know it's not true, so.

[Mike Boettcher]

I can live with it. Kerr McGee's attorneys argued that the company took good care of Karen during her contamination. They sent her to Los Alamos for testing the finest medical facility. And the finest medical personnel in the country. Only for Karen to scheme behind their backs as they saw it. Manufacturing a safety incident to embarrass the company. And use as leverage to improve the bargaining position of the union. In their closing arguments, Kermoge lawyers said Karen worked with Steve watka and the OCAW to, quote, inflict mortal wounds on Kerr McGee.

[Bob Sands]

In total, the trial lasted nearly three months. The attorneys interviewed over 30 witnesses.

[Mike Boettcher]

The jury deliberated for almost 24 hours. And when it was finally time for them to return their verdict. I remember filing into the crowded court, about 200 of us packed tight. And when the verdict was read, I don't think a single one of us was breathing. Art angel remembers that outside, a thunderstorm raged.

[Art Angel]

You know, it was like a Hollywood movie director had choreographed each detail. There was a hush in the courtroom where everybody was waiting for the journey. Then thunderclaps were kind of punctuating. As the jury read off the answers to the questions.

[Bob Sands]

One, do you find that Karen Silkwood intentionally carried from work to her apartment. The plutonium that caused her contamination?

[Mike Boettcher]

The jury said no.

[Bob Sands]

And two, do you find Kermogee Nuclear Corporation. Was negligent in its operation of the facility. So as to allow the escape of plutonium from the facility and caused the contamination of Karen Silkwood.

[Mike Boettcher]

The jury said, yes, that was it. Kerr McGee was negligent. The Silkwood family had won. The jury awarded the Silkwood Estate $10.5 million in damages.

[Bob Sands]

ABC reporters caught Karen's parents after the verdict was ready.

[Mike Boettcher]

And I feel like that Karen has been vindicated and what she was saying was true. And I think the American public believes her now. Till McGee Corporation out there was running a sloppy organization. It was unsafe and the health conditions were very poor. That's what she was saying.

[Linda Silkwood Vincent]

I just think it's wonderful and I'm finding glad that they've got Karen's name clear. She was only trying to help those people get a clean plant. She was going to quit and come home. She was just trying to help.

[Mike Boettcher]

The Silkwood case was a landmark case. It established an important legal precedent that a nuclear facility could be held responsible for damages outside their facility.

[Bob Sands]

After the verdict, Karen's friends and supporters drove out to Crescent to Highway 74. They stuck a sign in the hard red clay near the crash site in flowy wood burned script. The sign listed Karen's birth date, the day she died and the day she was, quote, vindicated. The day the jury gave its verdict.

[Mike Boettcher]

And if only it ended here. But it didn't. The verdict was eventually overturned on a technicality, then appealed until it made its way up to the US Supreme Court twice. The whole legal battle ended in a settlement in August 1986, 12 years after Karen's death. Kermogee paid Karen's estate almost $1.4 million and admitted to no wrongdoing or liability for Karen' contamination.

[Steve Wadka]

But none of these court proceedings dealt with Karen's death. And according to Karen's sisters, Linda and Rosemary, their father really struggled with the fact that no one was ever charged in Karen's death. Until the very end of Bill's life in 2004, he was sure someone killed Karen. And Linda says he never stopped looking for proof that could lead to a conviction.

[Linda Silkwood Vincent]

I always thought by now we would have known something. So it kind of surprises me we don't. Somebody out there feels like they've gotten one over on the American public. But I think anybody who's familiar with the case, they know, they know the truth. They see. You see or you wouldn't have worked on it this long. Right?

[Mike Boettcher]

True.

[Bob Sands]

Very true.

[Mike Boettcher]

Next time we travel to New Mexico to reexamine a critical piece of physical evidence from Karen's accident and we dig into the decades old recordings of a private investigator and the theory he was closing in on. Radioactive the Karen Silkwit Mystery is a production of ABC Audio in collaboration with Standing Bear Entertainment. I'm Mike Boettcher. My co host Bob Sands and I served as consulting producers on this podcast along with Brent Doneis. Thanks to the ABC News Investigative Unit and investigative producer Jenny Wagnon Kurtz, chief investigative Reporter Josh Margolin, reporter producer Sasha Pesnick and Associate Producer Alexandra Myers. This podcast was written and produced by Vika Aronson. Nancy Rosenbaum was our senior producer. Tracy Samuelson was our story editor, associate producer and fact checker Audrey Mostek story consultant Chris Donovan supervising producer Sasha Azlanian. Original music by soundboard mixing by Rick Kwan. Arielle Chester was our social media producer. Special thanks to Liz Alessi, Katie Dindos, Cindy Gall and the University of Oklahoma's Gaylord College of Journalism. Josh Cohan is ABC Audio's Director of podcast programming. Laura Mayer is our executive producer.

[Tommy John Advertiser]

In the dry states of the Southwest, there's a group that's been denied a basic human right in the Navajo Nation.

[Bob Sands]

Today, a third of our households don't.

[Tommy John Advertiser]

Have running water, but that's not something they chose for themselves.

[Bob Sands]

The Navajo Nation has been persistently denied.

[Karen Silkwood]

True sovereignty by the US Government because of the ongoing colonial relationship that we have.

[Tommy John Advertiser]

In this season of Reclaimed. I'll take you back over 100 years to when a controversial deal was signed that would change the fate of the Navajo and how today a new deal being negotiated between the tribe and its neighboring states may do it again.

[Don Gummo]

We will hear argument this morning in case 211484 Arizona versus the Navajo Nation.

[Tommy John Advertiser]

Can the Navajo people reclaim their right to water?

[Mike Boettcher]

Our water, our future, Our water, our future.

[Tommy John Advertiser]

That's in the next season of Reclaimed, the lifeblood of Navajo Nation. Listen now, wherever you get your podcasts.