Four Dead in Ohio: The Kent State Shootings Investigation

0:00 [MUSIC] May 4th, 1970. 77 National Guardsman marched onto the Kent State University campus to break up a protest. 13 seconds later, four students were dead and nine were wounded. For 40 years, the official story was that no one ordered them to fire. 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. What he found would challenge everything the government had been saying since 1970. [MUSIC] So, I want to talk about Kent State and I know you've heard this one before.

1:02 Four dead in Ohio, the famous photo of the girl screaming over Jeffrey Miller's body. Even the song, by Crosby Stills' Nash and Young called Ohio. But there's this whole other layer to the story that most people don't know about. And it involves a piece of audio evidence that sat in someone's closet for 40 years. On April 30th, 1970, President Richard Nixon announces on national television that the United States is expanding the Vietnam War into Cambodia. For everyone who thought the war was winding down, this felt like complete betrayal to those people. The next day, Nixon visits the Pentagon and calls the college students protesting the decision, "Bumps," compared to brave soldiers overseas.

1:47 The president is telling the nation that student protesters are enemies. Sounds kind of familiar. At Kent State University in Ohio, about 500 students gather on the commons on May 1st. History students vary a copy of the Constitution and the grass because there's been no congressional declaration of war. It's symbolic, peaceful, and they plan another rally for Monday. At Friday night, though, everything shifts, students are downtown drinking, and what starts as a typical bar fight becomes chaos with people smashing windows. Someone breaks a bank window, and the mayor becomes convinced there's a radical plot to burn down the city.

2:28 He declares a state of emergency and calls the governor. Saturday night, over 1,000 people surround the ROTC building and arsonists set it on fire. When firefighters arrive, protesters slice through their hoses. The National Guard arrives while the building burns, and by midnight, they're marching students back to dorms at Bayonet Point. Despite massive FBI investigation, they never figured out who started that fire. There were FBI informants on campus that night, including a student named Terry Norman, photographing protesters. But somehow, nobody could identify a single arsonist. The burning became the justification for keeping the troops on campus.

3:11 But there was never an arrest. Sunday, Governor James Rhodes holds a press conference calling protesters "the worst group that we harbor in America." He compares them to Nazis and uses the word "terrorists." These National Guardsmen are the same age as the students they're policing, and their governor has labeled them terrorists. At night, at the Victory Bell, the Ohio Riot Act gets read, and tear gas gets fired. Later, students sit at an intersection thinking officials will talk to them. Nobody shows. At 11 p.m., the guard uses tear gas and bayonets to clear everyone out. And by the way, in case you don't know, a bayonet is essentially a big knife on the end of a rifle.

3:54 Monday, May 4. Classes are happening, but the noon rally is still scheduled. About 2,000 people show up despite leaflets saying that it's banned. Brigadier General Robert Cantraberry orders the guard to disperse the crowd. 77 guardsmen march across the commons firing tear gas. When blows it back toward them, making it useless. Students retreat over blanket hill toward Prentice Hall parking lot. The guard follows to a practice football field with a chain link fence. For 10 minutes, everyone faces off. Students throw rocks and yell. Guardsmen stand with bayonets fixed. Then the guard retreats back up blanket hill toward Taylor Hall.

4:35 At 12 p.m., 28 guardsmen reach the hilltop and suddenly spin around 180 degrees. They lift their rifles and pistols and open fire into the parking lot. 13 seconds. 77 rounds of armor-piercing ammunition into a crowd that includes students walking between classes. Alice and Kraus is 19, an honor student who'd put a flower in a guardsmen rifle the day before saying, "Flowers are better than bullets." Shot through the arm and chest from 330 feet. Jeffrey Miller is 20, bullet through his head from 265 feet. Sandra Schur is a speech therapy minor walking the class.

5:17 A bullet in the back of her neck from 400 feet. William Schrader is an ROTC studying psychology shot in the back while lying down 382 feet away. Nine others wounded. Joseph Lewis Jr. takes two bullets at 71 feet. Dean Kaeler shot in the back at 300 feet paralyzed for life. Donald McKinsey is 750 feet away when hit in the neck after the shooting hundreds of students gather, furious and ready to charge the guard. Geology professor Glenn Frank throws himself between them crying and begging students to leave, saying it'll be a slaughter. His intervention saves dozens of lives.

5:58 The central question, why did they open fire? For 40 years the official answer is no order was given. Guardsmen testify they felt threatened by a charging mob. Some say they heard a sniper shot. The government says this was spontaneous reaction by frightened soldiers. In 1974 eight guardsmen get indicted for violating civil rights. The case gets dismissed. In 1979 a civil lawsuit ends with Ohio paying $675,000 and signing a statement of regret. That's the closest to an apology. But nobody ever answered whether there was an order. In 2010, journalist John Mangles learns about an audio recording sitting in storage for four decades.

6:45 Stephen Terry Strube at a real to real recorder running in his dorm window on May 4th. His microphone captured everything. Mangles brings in forensic audio experts Stuart Allen and Tom Owen. They use digital algorithms originally developed for the KGB to clean up 40 years of deterioration. Strip, wind noise, isolate frequencies. When they finish, they hear something nobody was supposed to hear. 70 seconds before gunfire, four pistol shots, then a male voice shouting "Guard" followed by "All right, prepare to fire." Seconds pass, another shout of "Guard" then the 13th Second volley.

7:25 Both experts conclude someone gave an order to fire. This contradicts everything the government said since 1970. This is coordinated military action against unarmed civilians. The Department of Justice reviews it in 2012 and declines to reopen the investigation. They say tape quality isn't sufficient to identify the speaker and statutes of limitation prevent prosecution. [Music] Those four pistol shots 70 seconds before connect to Terry Norman, that FBI informant.

8:20 Norman is the only person on campus aside from the guard carrying a firearm. A loaded 38 caliber smith and wesson revolver under his coat. Witnesses see Norman in a confrontation with students. They see him pull his weapon. After the shooting, Norman gets filmed sprinting across the commons, handing his pistol to a campus detective who reportedly says "My God, he fires his gun four times." The FBI claims Norman's gun was never fired. The theory, Norman fires his gun to scare off students confronting him. The National Guard hears pistol shots and mistakes them for sniper fire from protesters. That perceived threat, combined with the order on the strobe tape, triggers the massacre.

9:03 Joseph Lewis Jr. shot twice at 71 feet, said his own parents thought the guard must have had good reason based on the media coverage. Robert Stamps is in a hospital bed with a bullet wound when his roommate asks if he's a Christian. When Stamps says no, the roommate says "Well that's why he got shot." The guardsman's rifles were shipped to Europe for NATO forces immediately after, preventing independent ballistic testing. The FBI investigation into the ROTC fire never identified anyone despite multiple informants on campus. Several evidence disappeared. Chrissy Hind, the future pretenders, singer was there and thought the gunfire was fireworks. Gerald Kassel, who founded Devo, saw Jeffrey Miller and Alison Kraus after they'd been shot.

9:49 He said that moment ended his hippie phase and started his theory of devolution that humanity was moving backward. Today Kent State maintains the May 4 collection, over 750 cubic feet of documents about the shooting. The site is a national historic landmark. Some guardsmen have given oral history interviews in their 70s and 80s, talking about the one bad day that defined the university forever. For students dead, nine wounded, 13 seconds, 77 rounds, 40 years before audio evidence revealed what happened on Blanket Hill. The question of who gave that order has never been answered.

10:30 Thanks for listening to 10 Minute Murder, bingeable true crime stories. My name is Joe, I'm the host, and let's get to an email, subject a familiar voice. Joe, I moved to a new city last year and didn't realize how quiet it would feel at first. The podcast ended up being one of those familiar voices that made the place feel less empty while I was settling in. That probably sounds strange, but it mattered. Lewis and Reno Nevada. Lewis, I appreciate that. I'm honored to be a consistent presence in your life, so much so that it makes you feel more comfortable, even if we are talking about disturbing things here.

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