Four Dead in Ohio: The Kent State Shootings Investigation

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[MUSIC]

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May 4th, 1970.

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77 National Guardsman marched onto the Kent State University campus to break up a protest.

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13 seconds later, four students were dead and nine were wounded.

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For 40 years, the official story was that no one ordered them to fire.

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Then, a forensic audio expert got his hands on a tape recording made by a student who'd left his microphone running in a dorm window.

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What he found would challenge everything the government had been saying since 1970.

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[MUSIC]

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So, I want to talk about Kent State and I know you've heard this one before.

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Four dead in Ohio, the famous photo of the girl screaming over Jeffrey Miller's body.

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Even the song, by Crosby Stills' Nash and Young called Ohio.

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But there's this whole other layer to the story that most people don't know about.

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And it involves a piece of audio evidence that sat in someone's closet for 40 years.

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On April 30th, 1970, President Richard Nixon announces on national television that the United States is expanding the Vietnam War into Cambodia.

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For everyone who thought the war was winding down, this felt like complete betrayal to those people.

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The next day, Nixon visits the Pentagon and calls the college students protesting the decision,

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"Bumps," compared to brave soldiers overseas.

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The president is telling the nation that student protesters are enemies.

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Sounds kind of familiar.

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At Kent State University in Ohio, about 500 students gather on the commons on May 1st.

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History students vary a copy of the Constitution and the grass because there's been no congressional declaration of war.

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It's symbolic, peaceful, and they plan another rally for Monday.

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At Friday night, though, everything shifts, students are downtown drinking, and what starts as a typical bar fight becomes chaos with people smashing windows.

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Someone breaks a bank window, and the mayor becomes convinced there's a radical plot to burn down the city.

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He declares a state of emergency and calls the governor.

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Saturday night, over 1,000 people surround the ROTC building and arsonists set it on fire.

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When firefighters arrive, protesters slice through their hoses.

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The National Guard arrives while the building burns, and by midnight, they're marching students back to dorms at Bayonet Point.

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Despite massive FBI investigation, they never figured out who started that fire.

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There were FBI informants on campus that night, including a student named Terry Norman, photographing protesters.

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But somehow, nobody could identify a single arsonist.

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The burning became the justification for keeping the troops on campus.

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But there was never an arrest.

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Sunday, Governor James Rhodes holds a press conference calling protesters "the worst group that we harbor in America."

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He compares them to Nazis and uses the word "terrorists."

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These National Guardsmen are the same age as the students they're policing, and their governor has labeled them terrorists.

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At night, at the Victory Bell, the Ohio Riot Act gets read, and tear gas gets fired.

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Later, students sit at an intersection thinking officials will talk to them.

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Nobody shows.

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At 11 p.m., the guard uses tear gas and bayonets to clear everyone out.

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And by the way, in case you don't know, a bayonet is essentially a big knife on the end of a rifle.

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Monday, May 4.

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Classes are happening, but the noon rally is still scheduled.

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About 2,000 people show up despite leaflets saying that it's banned.

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Brigadier General Robert Cantraberry orders the guard to disperse the crowd.

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77 guardsmen march across the commons firing tear gas.

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When blows it back toward them, making it useless.

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Students retreat over blanket hill toward Prentice Hall parking lot.

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The guard follows to a practice football field with a chain link fence.

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For 10 minutes, everyone faces off.

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Students throw rocks and yell.

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Guardsmen stand with bayonets fixed.

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Then the guard retreats back up blanket hill toward Taylor Hall.

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At 12 p.m., 28 guardsmen reach the hilltop and suddenly spin around 180 degrees.

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They lift their rifles and pistols and open fire into the parking lot.

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13 seconds.

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77 rounds of armor-piercing ammunition into a crowd that includes students walking between classes.

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Alice and Kraus is 19, an honor student who'd put a flower in a guardsmen rifle the day before

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saying, "Flowers are better than bullets."

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Shot through the arm and chest from 330 feet.

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Jeffrey Miller is 20, bullet through his head from 265 feet.

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Sandra Schur is a speech therapy minor walking the class.

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A bullet in the back of her neck from 400 feet.

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William Schrader is an ROTC studying psychology shot in the back while lying down 382 feet away.

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Nine others wounded.

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Joseph Lewis Jr. takes two bullets at 71 feet.

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Dean Kaeler shot in the back at 300 feet paralyzed for life.

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Donald McKinsey is 750 feet away when hit in the neck after the shooting hundreds of students

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gather, furious and ready to charge the guard.

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Geology professor Glenn Frank throws himself between them crying and begging students to leave,

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saying it'll be a slaughter.

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His intervention saves dozens of lives.

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The central question, why did they open fire?

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For 40 years the official answer is no order was given.

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Guardsmen testify they felt threatened by a charging mob.

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Some say they heard a sniper shot.

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The government says this was spontaneous reaction by frightened soldiers.

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In 1974 eight guardsmen get indicted for violating civil rights.

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The case gets dismissed.

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In 1979 a civil lawsuit ends with Ohio paying $675,000 and signing a statement of regret.

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That's the closest to an apology.

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But nobody ever answered whether there was an order.

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In 2010, journalist John Mangles learns about an audio recording sitting in storage for

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four decades.

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Stephen Terry Strube at a real to real recorder running in his dorm window on May 4th.

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His microphone captured everything.

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Mangles brings in forensic audio experts Stuart Allen and Tom Owen.

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They use digital algorithms originally developed for the KGB to clean up 40 years of deterioration.

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Strip, wind noise, isolate frequencies.

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When they finish, they hear something nobody was supposed to hear.

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70 seconds before gunfire, four pistol shots, then a male voice shouting "Guard" followed

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by "All right, prepare to fire."

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Seconds pass, another shout of "Guard" then the 13th Second volley.

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Both experts conclude someone gave an order to fire.

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This contradicts everything the government said since 1970.

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This is coordinated military action against unarmed civilians.

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The Department of Justice reviews it in 2012 and declines to reopen the investigation.

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They say tape quality isn't sufficient to identify the speaker and statutes of limitation

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prevent prosecution.

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[Music]

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Those four pistol shots 70 seconds before connect to Terry Norman, that FBI informant.

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Norman is the only person on campus aside from the guard carrying a firearm.

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A loaded 38 caliber smith and wesson revolver under his coat.

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Witnesses see Norman in a confrontation with students.

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They see him pull his weapon.

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After the shooting, Norman gets filmed sprinting across the commons, handing his pistol to a

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campus detective who reportedly says "My God, he fires his gun four times."

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The FBI claims Norman's gun was never fired.

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The theory, Norman fires his gun to scare off students confronting him.

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The National Guard hears pistol shots and mistakes them for sniper fire from protesters.

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That perceived threat, combined with the order on the strobe tape, triggers the massacre.

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Joseph Lewis Jr. shot twice at 71 feet, said his own parents thought the guard must have

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had good reason based on the media coverage.

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Robert Stamps is in a hospital bed with a bullet wound when his roommate asks if he's

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a Christian.

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When Stamps says no, the roommate says "Well that's why he got shot."

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The guardsman's rifles were shipped to Europe for NATO forces immediately after, preventing

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independent ballistic testing.

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The FBI investigation into the ROTC fire never identified anyone despite multiple informants

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on campus.

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Several evidence disappeared.

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Chrissy Hind, the future pretenders, singer was there and thought the gunfire was fireworks.

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Gerald Kassel, who founded Devo, saw Jeffrey Miller and Alison Kraus after they'd been shot.

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He said that moment ended his hippie phase and started his theory of devolution that humanity

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was moving backward.

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Today Kent State maintains the May 4 collection, over 750 cubic feet of documents about the

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shooting.

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The site is a national historic landmark.

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Some guardsmen have given oral history interviews in their 70s and 80s, talking about the one

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bad day that defined the university forever.

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For students dead, nine wounded, 13 seconds, 77 rounds, 40 years before audio evidence revealed

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what happened on Blanket Hill.

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The question of who gave that order has never been answered.

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Thanks for listening to 10 Minute Murder, bingeable true crime stories.

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That probably sounds strange, but it mattered.

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Lewis and Reno Nevada.

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Lewis, I appreciate that.

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I'm honored to be a consistent presence in your life, so much so that it makes you feel

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[Music]