Pets

Is the state of Kent finally over? – New disclosures ignored by government officials

Ohio State has quietly ruled out a new investigation of the May 4, 1970 shooting at Kent State. This despite a front page article in the Cleveland Plain Dealer (May 9, 2010) reporting that two audio forensics experts, using modern enhanced technology, concluded that they heard someone issue a “Prepare to Fire” command. on a recording made by a student.

Amanda Wurst, Ohio Governor George Strickland’s press secretary, sent me an email saying, “We don’t have the resources to [sic] to conduct such analysis.” There has been no official announcement, and there may not be, but Wurst’s statement appears to rule out any further study of the recording by the state of Ohio.

It also looks like the US Department of Justice will join the state in pretending this new evidence doesn’t exist. Joe Bendo, a friend and business associate of Terry Strubbe, the Kent State alumnus who recorded the shots from a nearby bedroom window, told me that no one at the Justice Department contacted Strubbe or asked him to review the original tape. It’s been more than two months since the Justice Department was also asked to conduct additional testing. The Department has also not made a public announcement, which comes as no surprise to longtime May 4 watchers.

The closures leave the Kent State case still unresolved. No more light will be shed on the most important unsolved mysteries: What happened in those final moments before four students were killed, and who gave this “prepare to fire” order and why?

The controversy over the tape began more than three years ago when one of the wounded students, Alan Canfora, who survived the shooting, claimed that a fellow rock and roll player had enhanced Strubbe’s tape. Canfora said he could hear an order: “Right here. Prepare. Aim. Fire.” However, none of the eyewitnesses who gave statements to the FBI and other investigative bodies heard those words. The authenticity of his claim was also questioned by ex-servicemen, who insisted that no officer would issue such an untraditional command.

Last spring, a reporter for Cleveland’s Plain Dealer asked two nationally renowned audio forensics experts, Tom Owens and Stuart Allen, to independently review the tape. As the Plain Dealer reported, experts were unable to hear the words “Right here. Prepare. Aim. Fire.” However, experts reported hearing something else that no one had anticipated: a “prepare to fire” command six seconds before members of the Ohio National Guard did just that.

Significantly, the conclusions of the two audio experts directly contradicted the sworn testimony of more than 30 Guard members who tried in the 1975 civil trial that considered the wrongful death and injury claims brought by the parents of the four slain students. and the nine survivors injured. Almost to a man, the guards denied that such an order existed. If Owens and Allen are right, that means the guards committed extensive perjury in the trials. Such a cover-up would have been one of the most expansive in modern history.

It now appears that if there are any further developments in the case, they will not come from any official government entity. Strubbe and Bendo have hired their own experts and plan to produce a documentary based on their findings. There is no way of knowing if further analysis will confirm or cast doubt on the recent findings.

Meanwhile, the surviving victims are left with only new suspicions as to why the guards resorted to deadly force. We are only a little closer to knowing what happened when the war in Vietnam came to fruition.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *