Jerry Rubin, the Yippie who helped give 1960s anti-war protests their zany air and became a symbol of his generation's conversion to yuppie capitalism in the 1980s, died two weeks after being hit by a car while jaywalking. He was 56.
Rubin, the Chicago Seven defendant and merry prankster of the counterculture, died Monday, hospital spokesman Angel Bracamontes said. He'd been at the University of California-Los Angeles Medical Center since Nov. 14, when he was hit by a car near his Brentwood home.Rubin, who romped through demonstrations in the 1960s wearing an Uncle Sam hat and brandishing a toy M-16 rifle, turned to spiritualism in the 1970s and venture capitalism in the 1980s, evolving from a bearded radical into a tailored businessman selling health foods. He once said he cut his hair and shaved so people would listen.
"He got caught up in the youth rebellions of the '60s," said Tom Hayden, fellow Chicago Seven defendant and now a California state senator. "But he had an organizing instinct. He was a P.T. Barnum, if you will. He had a flair for the dramatic and how to market a message."
Rubin and a band of radicals that included the late Abbie Hoffman and Paul Krassner formed the Youth International Party, or Yippies. They were major players during the bloody demonstrations at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
The next year, President Nixon's new administration brought federal conspiracy indictments against eight radicals. Black Panther leader Bobby Seale and seven others, including Rubin and Hoffman, were charged with conspiracy to incite violence and crossing state lines with intent to riot.
U.S. District Judge Julius Hoffman severed Seale's case from the others and ordered him bound and gagged when he protested rulings. The trial of the others - the Chicago Seven - began in September 1969 and was a 41/2-month spectacle.
All seven were acquitted of conspiracy; all but John Froines and Lee Weiner were convicted of intent to riot. Rubin, Hoffman, Rennie Davis, David Dellinger and Hayden were sentenced to prison, but the convictions were overturned.