Criminal Kurt Finney's terrible crime inspired anti-violence group

   Kurt Finney ran away from home May 10, 1972 in Baltimore and came to Montreal. He was 14.
   On Sept. 30 he came into town from St. Adele with four other local guys.
   He said he wanted to snatch a purse and proceeded to take five Valium-10 pills, so could barely walk.
   He set upon a 58-year-old female victim snatched her purse, although he didn't succeed. An eyewitness came after him and Finney leaped out of the bushes near City Councillors and Sherbrooke, when the man approached Finney stabbed him to death with three wounds to the neck and chest. The man killed was Westmount developer Daniel Rudberg, 38.
   On October 13 Finney escaped from juvenile court on Bellechasse and his name was published in the papers in spite of him being a minor, because apparently public safety trumps youth confidentiality laws. He was recaptured two days later in an apartment on Cremazie but only after his mother made a public plea for him to turn himself in. The four others were also charged in the crime.
   The real legacy, however, is that the terrible tragedy prompted Rudberg's widow to launch an anti-violence initiative called Leave Out Violence (LOVE) that still exists and does good work today.