March 10, 2026, 7:09 AM
On February 16, 1987, the Columbia Daily Spectator broke a new story: “Students caught with CU uranium.”
Columbia first-years Ken Hechtman and Jeff Bankoff had used the University’s elaborate tunnel system to steal 25 grams of uranium-238, along with a myriad of other chemicals, from a laboratory under Pupin Hall.
In the preceding months, the two had explored the University’s tunnels and rooftops, becoming subjects of rumor and conspiracy. The fallout of their February heist—their reactions to being caught and the consequences they faced—would foreshadow wildly different lives…