At 12:24 PM on Monday, May 4, 1970, twenty-eight Ohio National Guardsmen pivoted 135 degrees and began shooting into a crowd of student protesters at Kent State University. By the time the shooting ended thirteen seconds later, the guardsmen had fired sixty-seven rounds and four students lay dead or dying with at least another nine having been shot. How did this confrontation happen? And what caused the Guard to open fire? 36 years later, many of the answers are still unclear.
In Part I of this series, we looked at Nixon’s curiously timed announcement of the Cambodian invasion and the May Day rally at Yale University. Part II examined the events of that weekend at Kent. This, Part III, explores the events of May 4. The final diary in the series will focus on the legal aftermath.
In memory of Jeffrey Miller, Allison Krause, Bill Schroeder, and Sandy Scheuer, join me in exploring the events of May 4.
(Cross-posted at Democratic Underground and Daily Kos. Most of the links in this diary are photos, so if you want to see what was happening, click a link!)
(This map will help keep you oriented. The arrows indicate the path of the guard’s march that day. The spray of lighter lines indicate the direction of the gunfire.)
Monday, May 4, 1970 dawned sunny and deceptively calm. Anger over the invasion of Cambodia had faded into the background. That Monday, Kent State students were angry at what they saw as the occupation of their campus back by the National Guard. They wanted their campus back. Many attended the noon rally, announced the previous Friday, hoping to get some answers. They wanted to find out what was going on and when the Guard would leave. At least one professor encouraged his students to go to the rally for this reason. Other students, crossing the Commons between classes, got caught up in events. Although officials later asserted that all gatherings had been banned, classes were scheduled as usual, although a few got cancelled due to fake bomb scares.
By noon, about two thousand students had gathered on the Commons. Some 80-90% of them were spectators. The Scranton Commission, later convened by Nixon to investigate campus disturbances nationwide, determined the Kent State protest began as a peaceful gathering.
Facing students from the charred remains of the ROTC building were Companies A and C of the 145th Infantry and Troop G of the 107th Armored Cavalry, under the command of Major Harry Jones and General Robert Canterbury. Canterbury, who had been meeting with KSU and Kent city officials, arrived too late to don his uniform. At that meeting, Canterbury said later that a decision had been reached to ban the noon rally. No one, however, would later admit having made this decision which the Scranton Commission called “a serious error.” Nonetheless, at 11:50 AM, KSU policeman Harold Rice ordered the crowd to disperse. With that announcement, this peaceful rally did become illegal. However, since few students heard the announcement, Gen. Canterbury ordered Rice to take a jeep into the crowd and repeat it. Meanwhile, the guardsmen were ordered to lock and load their weapons.
The crowd reacted angrily to what they considered an unnecessary suspension of their first amendment right to assemble. Demonstrators began chanting: “Pigs off campus” and “One, two, three, four, we don’t want your fucking war.” Students pelted Rice’s jeep with rocks. As the hostility increased, Major Jones walked out across the field and pulled Rice back. The Guard then began firing tear gas and, soon thereafter, the skirmish line marched out. When someone pleaded with Canterbury not to advance his units, the general replied, “These students are going to have to find out what law and order is all about.”
Tear gas sent the students running but brisk winds blew much of it back at the troops. As the crowd moved off the Commons, some demonstrators hurled rocks and spent tear gas canisters. Pursued by Company A and Troop G, most students retreated over Blanket Hill. At the crest of the hill, they passed an umbrella-like structure known as the Pagoda. When Allison Krause reached the Pagoda, she paused, turned and yelled an obscenity. (Krause is to the immediate right of the structure in this photo. She is holding hands with her boyfriend.) Her father would always believe that, at that moment, she sealed her fate. After crossing the hill, many students gathered on the veranda of Taylor Hall which housed the school of journalism. Another group continued down the hill to the Prentice Hall parking lot.
General Canterbury later said his mission had been simply to clear the Commons but, when he reached the top of Blanket Hill, he decided to push the demonstrators beyond a practice field some eighty yards below the crest of the hill. Therefore, after cresting the hill, he ordered his troops down the slope of the hill and onto the practice field.
The Scranton Commission later called Canterbury’s decision to abandon his commanding position on Blanket Hill “highly questionable.” The practice field where the troops came to rest was bounded by a six-foot-high fence on its north and east sides. Its south end sloped down to another part of campus. To the west, from which the troops had come, the students quickly reformed. In effect, the guardsmen were now boxed in by fences, topography and students.
About fifty students gathered in the parking lot, closest to the guardsmen, now markedly increased their harassment. Alan Canfora waved a black flag. Jeffrey Miller hurled a spent tear gas canister. Dean Kahler threw a stone. Some guardsmen also threw rocks and spent canisters.
Then, suddenly, members of Troop G knelt and aimed their rifles at the students in the parking lot. Although they did open fire at this point, a subsequent Justice Department investigation determined that “one person, however, probably an officer, at this point did fire a pistol in the air. No guardsman admits firing this shot.” The day after the shootings, a spent .22-caliber casing was found near the edge of the field. Since only Major Jones carried such a weapon, this casing likely came from his gun although he never admitted firing a shot.
Ten tense minutes passed while the guardsmen held their untenable position on the practice field. Officers finally huddled and then ordered their troops to retreat. According to General Canterbury, who denied that he ever took control of the troops that day, the withdrawal was ordered “to make it clear beyond any doubt to the mob that our posture was now defensive and that we were returning to the Commons, thus reducing the possibility of injury to either soldiers or students.” As the guard marched up the hill, they continued to watch the students in the parking lot.
Some demonstrators increased their harassment during the retreat. A few advanced boldly, then retreated. Throughout, however, few students got within 50 feet of the guardsmen. Some threw rocks but almost all of those fell short. One photo taken seconds before the shooting erupted shows that many of the students closest to the guard line were carrying books. (Remember, classes were still going on.)
As the soldiers crested the hill, their forward path remained unimpeded. But, at 12:24 PM, as they crested Blanket Hill, members of Troop G suddenly wheeled 135 degrees, rushed a few feet back to the crest of the hill, and opened fire. The shooting lasted an interminable thirteen seconds and, when it was over, at least 13 students had been shot.
At first, many students thought the guardsmen were firing blanks. But the sights and sounds around them quickly convinced them otherwise. When people saw the river of blood flowing from Jeff Miller’s head, reality hit home. The closest fatality, Jeff was standing 265 feet from the guardsmen when a bullet slammed into his mouth and killed him instantly.
The other casualties included: Joseph Lewis, Jr., standing some 60 to 70 feet away, was shot in the abdomen and lower leg. Joe would admit later that he had been giving the guardsmen the finger when they shot him. As he lay wounded, the second shot him in the leg. John Cleary, 110 feet away, was shot in the chest. 200 feet away, Tom Grace, suffered a shot to the foot. Alan Canfora, who had taunted the guard with his black flag, was 225 feet away and hiding behind a tree when a shot ripped through his wrist. Dean Kahler was lying prone 300 feet away when he was shot in the back and permanently paralyzed. Kahler, a conscientious objector, had been home that weekend celebrating his birthday. Douglas Wrentmore, 329 feet away, was shot in his knee. Allison Krause, who had taunted the Guard at the Pagoda, was 343 feet away when the shooting broke out. She and her boyfriend, Barry, hid behind a car. After the shooting ended, Barry thought everything was OK until Allison whispered, “I’m hit.” The bullet had entered her armpit and ripped through most of her major organs. She died en route to the hospital. Jim Russell was ninety degrees removed from the others but still 375 feet away when he was slightly wounded in the thigh and forehead by buckshot. William Schroeder, who was attending Kent on a ROTC scholarship, was shot in the lower back when he was 382 feet away. The bullet exited his shoulder. Bill survived the trip to the hospital but died as he was being wheeled into an operating room. Sandra Scheuer, walking to her next class, was 390 feet from the guard when a bullet severed her jugular vein. She bled to death in the parking lot. Robbie Stamps, about 500 feet away, was shot in the right buttock. Donald Scott MacKenzie was 730 feet away when a bullet struck him in the neck and exited his cheek. MacKenzie would almost certainly have been killed had the bullet that hit him not been deflected prior to the strike. (Some believe MacKenzie was struck by the bullet that passed through Sandy Scheuer’s neck.)
Immediately after the shootings ended, an eerie silence fell over the scene. Then, as the guard turned on their heels and began marching back to the Commons, students began screaming and trying, to the best of their ability, to protect and treat the wounded. Ambulances soon arrived to carry off the dead and wounded while the students regathered on the Commons and the Guardsmen threatened to march out again. Finally, Professor Glenn Frank tearfully appealed to the students to listen to him, “even if you’ve never listened to anyone in your whole lives.” Please disperse, Frank pleaded, because otherwise there would be another massacre. Few who heard Frank’s appeal would ever forget it. Slowly, in confusion, the kids left the Commons and shortly thereafter, the campus was closed for the semester. Within hours, most Kent State students had left town, catching rides out of town however they could.
******
Why did the guardsmen fire? Almost every student later interviewed said the soldiers had no reason to shoot. Some guardsmen claimed they fired out of fear for their lives. Sergeant Lloyd Thomas, stating his belief that “there was a real possibility that I could be injured,” said he fired “strictly to issue a scare tactic, you know, like showing power with a big noise.” Staff Sergeant Barry Morris said the students “were bent on overtaking us. I was scared to death.” Specialist Fourth Class Ralph Zoller agreed: “I thought they were going to overtake us.”
Sergeant Shafer, the only guardsman to admit firing intentionally at a specific individual, fired once into the air before he saw Joe Lewis with one hand behind his back and the other gesturing obscenely. “I felt – not knowing if this person was going to inflict harm on us or myself – I had to use what abilities I had to stop this person. I fired at him.” Says Lewis: “I was standing still, giving the finger. I was eighteen and arrogant and foolish and I was shot.” All of the photos taken immediately before the shooting prove there was no rush of students bearing down on the guardsmen.
Some speculate that a small group of guardsmen conspired to open fire because they were “fed up” with the demonstrators’ rock-throwing and taunts. Another possible explanation – that an order to fire was given – has consistently been denied by Guard officers. No evidence exists to refute this nor does any evidence support the idea that the guardsmen fired out of panic. Considering the simultaneous whirling around of the guardsmen just as the firing started, had they reacted in panic, it’s likely that at least some guardsmen would also have been struck. Nonetheless, it is almost certain that some guardsmen did fire after hearing the initial volley in the belief that an order must have been given.
At least six guardsmen later told the FBI “that the lives of the members of the Guard were not in danger and it was not a shooting situation.” Nevertheless, General Canterbury defended the firing as self-defense: “Guardsmen on the right flank were in serious danger of bodily harm and death as the mob continued to charge. I felt that, in view of the extreme danger to the troops at this point, that they were justified in firing.”
Photographs refute this argument. Although Troop G, responsible for most of the gunfire, was guarding the right flank, they ignored the largest group of student on that side – those in front of Taylor Hall. Instead, they fired on the much smaller, more vocal, and more distant students in the Prentice Hall parking lot. The most compelling evidence to refute the claim of self-defense is the distances at which the victims fell.
The Photographer With A Gun
Another theory advanced immediately after the shootings claimed the guardsmen fired in response to a sniper. This was the rationale offered Monday night by Adjutant General Sylvester Del Corso. Staff Sergeant Barry Morris claimed he heard a shot from behind: “It was not a clear loud crack like it would have been if it had been fired out in the open.” Sergeant Shafer, the only guardsman to admit firing intentionally at a specific individual, initially agreed: “We got over the crest of the hill. There was a single shot. It was impossible to hear what was going on.” Although the sniper theory was quickly abandoned and never thoroughly investigated, evidence exists to suggest that someone other than a guardsman may indeed have fired a weapon that day.
After the firing ceased, the Guard marched back to their original position around the burned-out ROTC building. Within minutes, a young man carrying a gun, a camera, and a gas mask ran over the hill, pursued by another person, yelling, “Stop that man. He has a gun. He fired four shots.”
Terry Norman, the youth with the gun, was a 22-year-old occasional student at Kent State and a free-lance photographer whose primary interest seemed to be taking photos of campus demonstrations. Apparently, at various times, he worked for the campus police, the FBI, or both. Before the May 4 demonstration, Sergeant Mike Delaney, press liaison for the Guard, had initially refused to issue Norman a press pass because Norman lacked the proper credentials. A campus liaison offered to vouch for Norman but that didn’t sway Delaney. He finally relented only after the campus police intervened, saying that Norman was “under contract to the FBI to take pictures.” When Norman reached the Guard line after the shootings, Delaney heard him exclaim: “I had to shoot! They would have killed me.”
Several students later told the FBI they saw Norman fire his weapon. After stopping at the guard line, Norman was quickly surrounded by the KSU police. KSU policeman Tom Kelly took possession of Norman’s gun, a .38-caliber Smith & Wesson revolver. NBC reporter Fred DeBrine saw Kelly make “a movement, which resembled the action taken when opening the cylinder on a revolver” and heard the policeman exclaim, “My God, he fired dour shots! What do we do now?” Later, however, Kelly claimed that Norman’s gun was “fully loaded” and “had not been fired.” In any case, the KSU policemen quickly hustled Norman away from the scene.
Curiously, when the FBI received Norman’s gun, the cartridges they found in the cylinder came from five different manufacturers, leading many to believe that the gun was quickly reloaded with whatever bullets were handy. The FBI agents also concluded that the gun had been fired since its last cleaning, although they could not say when. Three years later, as the House of Representatives threatened to investigate the Kent State shootings, FBI director Clarence Kelley finally revealed that Terry Norman had indeed been on the FBI payroll. On April 29, 1970 – a mere 5 days before the shootings – he had received “a cash payment of $125 … for information which he voluntarily provided to the FBI concerning activities of the National Socialist White People’s Party.” Norman’s connection to the FBI almost certainly explains why he was never subjected to further scrutiny and why his possible role in the shootings was summarily dismissed by the official investigations. Norman later stated in his only sworn statement about the shootings that he did not fire his weapon that day. After that, he remained beyond the jurisdiction of all investigative bodies. “Terry Norman,” declared the Scranton Commission tersely, “a free-lance photographer, was taking pictures of the demonstration and was seen with a pistol after the Guard fired. Several civilians chased him from Taylor Hall into the Guard line, where he surrendered a .38-caliber revolver. The gun was immediately examined by a campus policeman, who found that it had not been fired.” And, officially, that was the end of it. But, for many, the role of Terry Norman remains one of the bigger mysteries of the Kent State shootings.
Terry Norman was last known to be working for a police department in (where else?) Florida.
Neil Young Lyrics Analysis
Allison Krause, Age 19
William Schroeder, Age 19
Jeffrey Miller, Age 20
Sandra Scheuer, Age 20
The technical term for the incident is “cluster f*ck”.
What has scared me so since 9/11 is the level of hate speech aimed at dissenters – exactly what I heard after Kent State. (Well, before it, too – from 64 on…) The demonstrators “deserved what they got” for being there(heard it from my own father). The sub-themes of agents provocateurs, informants and all continue to be relevant today, sadly.
What I remember as positive was that after Kent State, there were marches on hundreds of campuses, even conservative students marched. It is true in many places – in Greece under the Colonels, when students were shot at the Polytechnic, and at Tiananmen in 89 – when students are shot by the government, people do not forget.
Thank you for this series.I hate to see some of the same misery visiting our country, especially now when I have a small son to raise. I dreamed of better times,but we deal with the homeland we have.
She also told me that afternoon that “they must have deserved it.” Since I’d been organizing demonstrations on my campus for months, I figured that meant she’d be OK if they killed me. To say the least, it took a long, long time for us to get over this. And, obviously, I’ve never forgotten it.
I agree that the times are frighteningly similar. That’s one of the reasons I did the series. I’m a true believer in George Santayana’s saying: Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
Damn. That’s really hard. I had a similar moment at Christmas when I got in a screaming fight with one of my aunts over the wiretapping. She got mad instantly when I made an offhand critical comment about it and started screaming at me that they should do whatever they need to do to catch terrorists. I pointed out they were spying on political enemies of the President, and that included me, and did she think it was okay for them to spy on me, and furious she repeated whatever they need to do.
It bothered me but not too much, because she’s not my mother or anything like that, and… well… my sense of whether I’m right doesn’t depend on what she thinks, or anything. So big deal. But then I was thinking just earlier today, and it occurred to me how many of my family members might agree. And how if – for whatever reason – the government ever did come after me, and called them for help… well, they’d probably help, no questions asked, and assume I’d deserved whatever was coming to me.
The only thing I can think is that it’s not personal to us. It’s that they need so much to believe the government is Good and Trustworthy and Right and that they are submitting to a legitimate and just authority. Because otherwise they have to face their own complicity. And that’s a scary thing.
Did your mother ever apologize?
Not really, not directly, not enough to make me hug her and say, “Oh, you’re forgiven.”
A few years later, when I was knee deep in the research, she asked me if there was a book she could read that would help her understand what happened. I recommended Peter Davies’ The Truth About Kent State, as I always do when asked. She read it and told me that she could see why I was so upset and it was certainly wrong. But she couldn’t quite bring herself to say she was sorry for what she said. To be honest, though, and fair to her, although she’s been dead for almost 10 years now, I don’t know that she ever really believed she said it. It was one of those things that came out of her mouth — because, I suspect, she simply couldn’t believe what I was telling her, that they killed kids for just protesting — and I think her own memory of events wouldn’t allow her to admit that she’d thought that because, of course, if she meant that, she would have been willing to accept my death, too.
Yeah, I understand what you are saying.
after hearing that my brother and I marched in DC 9/24 told me that she believes Bush has the right to have protesters shot in the head, in public.
She even said that I added to the misery of the people in the Gulf States because instead of using the money to help them, I wasted it on getting to DC. She said people like me were sick because we can’t see how great Bush is. That we blame him for everything, even the weather.
She prays every day that Bush will destroy all of G-d’s enemies.
I am dead to them. I have “poisoned my kids against G-d and Bush”. Because of me, my children will burn in hell forever.
Let me note that most of my cousins are… all on welfare, although they can work. None of them have served nor served a hungry person a bowl of soup. One, my grandmother’s favorite, even has a bumpersticker about “Lost your cat? Check under my truck” and one horrible one that has the “N” word on it. But… they are “good G-d-fearing Americans”
My cousin feels that if you are in American, and I quote, “you should speak American”.
I have my brother and my mother as blood family. The rest feel that I am a radical, terrorist supporter.
Since protesting, I have learned what real family means. Sometimes it’s that blogger you’ve known for years, and other times it’s a knowing glance from a ‘stranger’ just before a march as you march past the riot police. The look says, “it’s okay, we’re here for each other”.
I am not dead. I am finally alive.
What your grandmother said is really horrifying to me, even if I did hear something similar from my own mother in 1970. At least my mom was speaking about a real event, not wishing for more violence!
Anyway, FWIW, I could have bumped into you on Sept 24 because I, too, was in DC that day. (We could have gotten shot down together! Gallows humor — essential to stay sane in George Bush’s America.)
I am now living within two hours drive of them all. There’s like 14 cousins and 12 aunts/uncles. I can’t begin to tell you of the hypocrisy, the hate… all in the name of their Lord.
No cards for the holidays no invites – no nothing. Me and my children are dead to them.
And the more I live and breathe… the more I realize that it’s probably for the best. My children have some incredible people in their lives.
So glad you were in DC! 🙂 Wish we could’ve met, but in a way we did. Through here.
Peace!
My god, talk about a punch in the gut. This is so much worse coming from family because it’s so easy for a complete stranger to be nasty and then go away and never think about it again. But to do that to your own family, it’s … different.
But I know what you mean, about the other sort of family.
FurryJester, relationships have become even more important to me because of the activism and the… negatism that has happened to me. Once I got active, I lost “friends” most I had had for years. Sometimes that happens when we start to walk our own path. But although it causes some to walk away from our lives, it also leads us to others. 🙂
Before all this happened we were at a reunion it was huge. And they nitpicked at us. Trolling for fiights, you know. We stayed calm and didn’t engage. FYI my husband as served in the military – none of them have and come to find out – most aren’t even registered to vote ha! Anyways… coming home my daughter who was then… 9 said that her Great Grandma (the same who told me the above) told her they were happy to finally get to see her, her brotheror and me – since “your mommy is not going to be with us in Heaven” something to that effect. OMG!
What do you say to something like that? I focused on calmind Danni down and talking with her about how our real family are our friends.
It’s been a very hard couple of years since the “Uniter” stole office again. But we’re stronger for it, right? 🙂
Yes, it’s hard enough to know your family can’t be relied on, but the friends I lean on most – sometimes I wonder about them, too, if they’d really be behind me, or just blame me, if something were to happen. And it holds me back, a lot, because without people I know will stand behind me I’m afraid.
I just want you to know that I have thoroughly loved this series. I grew up a hippie, but after the hippies, and Kent State was always on our minds. I just never really understood what happened there and your diary series has really helped me fill in the details.
It is also very timely. We are clearly trying to provoke action on many fronts, but most particularly Iran.
You have given me much food for thought and I am most grateful.
I’ve received so much positive feedback today that it’s been absolutely wonderful. And, especially on dkos, so many great stories shared by so many people who were deeply affected by what happened.
If I made one person understand events better, that’s enough. And I know, from the responses, that I’ve done way more than that.
There is a nice editorial today on the importance of Kent State, written by a student of an Emerson College professor who has been teaching the lessons of Kent State for years.
I just want to say that I was a senior in high school when it happened, and a year later when I was peacefully demonstrating, like carrying a petition to a university board meeting, only to be met outside with riot-gear outfitted cops, Kent State was always in my mind. I never had the right moment to speak to my dad about his “they deserved it” comment back then, but I recently reminded my mother of those times(my mail was read by the govt.) and how I knew that she would not protect me now as she did not then, and I cared about the world my young son had for his environment. I am just a geezer mom with a long historial perspective, and a son who, at seven, thinks “Bush poops and pee-pees in his pants and wears children’s underwear and should be in jail.”
Thanks again for reminding me of what I need to teach my son.
the Emerson College professor, no doubt.
If they were to shoot down protestors who according to Bush and his Supporters are aka “enemy combatants, dissenters, terrorists” – would the news even bother to carry it? I don’t think they would.
We don’t even know the numbers of how many have been injured. We see some of the big names having their arms put in slings, their jaws broken, grandmothers beaten and bloodied… but it’s never mainstream “news”.
I doubt, as I look at the riot police and the unmarked para-military troops as I march, and wonder… will they start shooting and will anyone even give a flying fuck.
Nowadays, the National Guard of Kent State times look like pussycats.
America’s new Gestapo: The United States Secret Service Uniformed Division. A buried provision, Sec. 605 of the Act, creates a federal police force under the Secretary of Homeland Security with the power to violate the Bill of Rights. In fact, it’s entire mission appears to be the creation of a militarized Bill of Rights suppression force with special emphasis on first amendment suppression.
There is hereby created and established a permanent police force, to be known as the ‘United States Secret Service Uniformed Division.'”
The United States Secret Service Uniformed Division –let’s just call them the SS for short– are empowered to “make arrests without warrant for any offense against the United States committed in their presence, or for any felony cognizable under the laws of the United States if they have reasonable grounds to believe that the person to be arrested has committed or is committing such felony.”
Any “offense”? What constitutes an “offense”? Sorry, doesn’t say. And where exactly will Bush’s shiny new SS –no doubt festooned with the latest anti-personnel weaponry and “crowd suppression” technology– have jurisdiction? Well, a few places, but especially at events “designated under section 3056(e) of title 18 as a special event of national significance” (SENS).