Son of FALN bombing victim fuming over honorary street sign

A man whose father was killed at a New York City restaurant bombing for which the militant Puerto Rican nationalist group FALN claimed responsibility lashed out at Chicago aldermen Thursday for approving an honorary street designation for FALN leader Oscar Lopez Rivera.

At the behest of local Ald. Roberto Maldonado (26th), the City Council's Transportation Committee voted without a word of debate to designate a three-block stretch of North Luis Munoz Marin Drive as Oscar Lopez Rivera Way.

Maldonado did not attend the meeting and could not be reached for comment. Last month, he participated in what turned out to be a successful demonstration outside the White House to plead for now-former President Barack Obama to commute Lopez Rivera's 70-year sentence.

Joseph Connor was just 9 years old when his 33-year-old banker father Frank was killed in the 1975 explosion at Fraunces Tavern in the Wall Street area of Manhattan. The FALN claimed responsibility.

Lopez Rivera was not convicted in connection with the bombing. But he spent 35 years of his life in federal prisons for his role as a leader of the terrorist group that claimed responsibility for dozens of bombings across the U.S during the 1970s, including here in Chicago.

"This is worse than a disgrace," Connor said. "It is sinister. It's a direct insult to my father's life. The commutation was politically driven. But to honor in the second-largest city in the United States the leader of the terrorist group that murdered my father? It is so over the top, shameful and disgusting and vile, reprehensible."

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