John Runnings, peace activist known as 'Wall Walker,' dead at 86

(CP) - John Runnings, a Canadian-born peace activist known as the "Wall Walker" for his forays to the Berlin Wall, has died. He was 86.

After he stripped to the waist in the Seattle Times cafeteria and poured paint over himself, the editorial board dismissed him as "more a media-attention-seeker extraordinaire than anything."

He drove a 1974 Pinto plastered with anti-war placards, protested while wearing a cape emblazoned with the American eagle and Russian bear, and was arrested several times for spraying graffiti at a Seattle-area mall, where he and his flyers were banned.

In 1986, at age 68, he climbed onto the Berlin Wall and knocked pieces out of it with a sledgehammer before walking along the top and challenging the East Germans to arrest him. On a repeat performance, he was hauled down by the East Germans, breaking his back in the fall.

After three months in jail he was deported, but he returned to the wall numerous times.


More exploits: http://www.mytelus.com/news/article.do?pageID=canada_home&articleID=1613522


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