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.If to the straight world I appeared a nice young girl drawn tragically into crime, to themovement I was a fearless Amazon.On my first day back at the Rat office my fellowstaffers greeted me with cheers as though I had been elected to office, not released on bail.Shero had flown back from Mississippi and plunged into arranging a benefit for Rat and theso-called Alpert-Yarrow-Melville Defense Fund.Rock bands were going to perform songswritten for us; actor Rip Torn had promised to appear; leftist academic John Gerassi washelping to raise money.Now that Nate and I were free, we would be the featured speakers.What would I say?"It doesn't matter," Shero assured me."People just want to know what you look like."Although much about my sudden fame left me uneasy, my new status at Rat was a delight.In the week of my release Shero ran my article "Inside the House of D" on the cover myfirst lead piece.The next week, when he returned to Mississippi, the acting editors again rana piece of mine, this one on the Panther 21, on the cover.I soon discovered I could do nowrong.I no longer had to sweep or file or type.I didn't even have to come to the office.Thetelephone rang for me twenty times a day reporters, old friends, movement stars fromother cities hoping to meet me and the Rat staff dutifully took all the messages and neveronce complained.Over tuna fish sandwiches Sam's lawyer.Bill Crain, and I discussed my choice of attorney."Do you have any idea how much your parents are paying Todel?" Grain asked me."I know they paid him a five-hundred-dollar retainer.""If he takes your case, he's likely to charge around twenty-five thousand dollars."He paused, letting the staggering figure sink in."If you went with a movement attorney instead, the fees your parents paid could be splitamong all three of us.That's the only way Fred Cohn and I are going to see any moneyfrom this."I didn't think of this suggestion as unscrupulous.Aligning myself with the movement'sinterests against my parents', I thought Grain's proposal was fair enough: why shouldn't ourlawyers receive equal compensation?"Okay," I said."Who do you suggest?"We finally settled on Sanford Katz, a leftist lawyer with fifteen years' experience, a closefriend and an associate of Leonard Boudin (who had represented Spock and Coffin and wasthe father of Weatherwoman Kathy Boudin), and the senior attorney on the Panther 21case.I checked Sandy's reputation with Dana, who approved, and then made anappointment with the lawyer myself.I found him charming and very bright and told myparents I had made my choice.146 My parents liked Katz well enough but were shocked at the fee he named."I want you tohave the lawyer of your choice," my father assured me, "but twenty-five thousand dollarsfrankly, it's more than we have." I felt chagrined, suspecting although I couldn't know forsure that Grain was behind the request for such a high figure.Eventually Sandy and myparents agreed on a lower but still very substantial sum.Our case was transferred to Milton Pollack, a judge who our attorneys warned us was knownfor taking the prosecutors' side.Crain warned that we should try to get Sam out on bail assoon as possible.If we lost our pretrial motions, the prosecutor could ask for an increase,and even if we won them, the state of New York was readying its own charges against Sam,on which he could be held on no bail.Through the winter Dana, Greg Rosen, who wasdevoted to Sam, Robert Carpenter, our friend from CAC, a few others, and I devoted all ourenergy to raising the collateral required for a $50,000 bond.Our case had a certain avant-garde chic among well-placed liberals, and we were treatedkindly.Chris Cerf, the publishing heir, gave us several thousand dollars.Gloria Steinemprovided the list of contributors to Norman Mailer's mayoralty campaign, which yielded usseveral hundred dollars and more names.Frank Weiner, in his one token effort to help hisco-conspirators, introduced me to Susan Sontag, who expressed some interest in taping aconversation with me.(This project never materialized.) Honor Moore, the friend of acollege friend, showed up at Rat and offered her inheritance, a considerable sum.Graduallywe approached our goal and with it Sam's freedom.With Sam himself, communication was all but impossible
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