The “Harrisburg Seven,” as they came to be known, were indicted on charges of conspiring to kidnap presidential adviser Henry Kissinger and of plotting to blow up the heating tunnels under federal buildings in Washington.

Six of the seven were Irish Catholic nuns or priests, including the Rev. Philip F. Berrigan, who was serving a six-year prison term on charges of destroying draft records. The “Harrisburg Seven” denied the charges and denounced them as a government effort to destroy the Vietnam War peace movement.