The state of Ohio has quietly ruled out a new investigation of the May 4, 1970 shooting at Kent State. This is despite a front-page article in the Cleveland Plain Dealer (May 9, 2010) reporting that two audio forensic experts, using modern enhanced technology, concluded that they heard someone issue a “Prepare to Shoot” command. in a recording made by a student.
Amanda Wurst, press secretary for Ohio Governor George Strickland, emailed me saying, “We don’t have the resources [sic] to conduct such an 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 gunshots 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 has been more than two months since the Justice Department was also asked to conduct additional tests. The Department has also made no public announcement, which is no surprise to longtime May 4 watchers.
The closures leave the Kent State case still unresolved. No more light will be shed on the biggest unsolved mysteries: What happened in those final moments before four students were killed, and who gave this “prepare to shoot” order and why?
The controversy over the tape began more than three years ago when one of the injured students, Alan Canfora, who survived the shooting, claimed that a fellow rock and roll player had improved Strubbe’s tape. Canfora claimed that he could hear an order: “Right here. Get ready. Aim. Shoot.” However, none of the eyewitnesses who gave statements to the FBI and other investigative agencies heard those words. The authenticity of his claim was also disputed by former military officers, who insisted that no officer would issue such an untraditional command.
Last spring, a reporter for the Cleveland Plain Dealer asked two nationally renowned audio forensic experts, Tom Owens and Stuart Allen, to independently review the tape. As the Plain Dealer reported, pundits couldn’t hear the words “Right here. Get ready. Aim. Shoot.” However, experts reported hearing something else that no one had anticipated: a “prepare to fire” order six seconds before members of the Ohio National Guard did just that.
Significantly, the two audio experts’ conclusions directly contradicted the sworn testimony of more than 30 Guard members who testified 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 wounded survivors. 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 at 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 whether 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 one step closer to knowing what happened when the war in Vietnam became a reality.
