This bibliography of the Kent State killings was prepared by William A. Gordon for his book, Four Dead in Ohio: Was There a Conspiracy at Kent State? It has been updated to include articles and books published through November 28, 2011.
For permission to reprint this bibliography e-mail NRBooks@aol.com or write to North Ridge Books, P.O. Box 1463, El Toro, CA 92609. Scholars and journalists who wish to contact Mr. Gordon directly may do so by e-mailing BGordonLA@aol.com.
Books For The General Reader
The Middle of the Country, Bill Warren, editor. New York: Avon Books, 1970.
The foreword of this paperback, which reached the newsstands within two weeks of the shootings, admits: "This book was hastily conceived and hastily executed." It consists of angry reactions to the tragedy by Kent State students and faculty members--only a few of whom were actual eyewitnesses.
The book was subsequently cited once in a footnote in James Michener's Kent State. It has not been used as a source of information anywhere else.
Thirteen Seconds: Confrontation at Kent State, Joe Eszterhas and Michael Roberts. New York: Dodd Mead & Company, 1970.
One KSU professor dismissed this book as another "journalistic quickie," but it did include interesting profiles of National Guard Adjutant General Sylvester Del Corso and the four slain students. The book was written by two Cleveland Plain Dealer reporters while the immediate aftermath was still unfolding and offered no conclusions.
The Killings at Kent State: How Murder Went Unpunished, I. F. Stone. New York: New York Review Book, 1970.
This paperback reprinted three essays that Stone wrote for The New York Review of Books in which he denounced the early cover-up.
The Kent Affair: Documents and Interpretations, Ottavio M. Casale and Louis Paskoff, editors. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1971.
The editors, both professors of English at Kent State, apparently tried to duplicate what historian Bernard Fall did in The Vietnam Reader. Assuming that the reader could form his own conclusions without any guidance from the editors, they reprinted conflicting official reports, original news and broadcast stories, early newspaper editorials, faculty resolutions, and letters to the editor.
Kent State: What Happened and Why, James Michener. New York: Random House, 1971.
Michener's study, published on the first anniversary of the shootings, was the first major examination of the tragedy by an independent author. Michener and a team of Reader's Digest investigators spent several months in Kent interviewing as many witnesses to the events of May 1-4 as were willing to cooperate at the time. The result was a massive 559-page book that was at the time considered by some reviewers to be the definitive book on May 4. (Not at Kent State, though. There the reception was highly critical.)
The book had many admirable qualities. As KSU Professor James Best wrote in an essay: "Michener has the uncanny ability to recreate the ambiance of a situation . . . you can almost hear the demonstrators and see the gas masked guardsmen."
Unfortunately, reliability was not one of the book's strong points. The accuracy of eyewitness accounts were repeatedly attacked at the trials, as were Michener's interpretations of the evidence. (See in particular "James Michener's Kent State: A Study in Distortion," by Thirteen Seconds co-authors Joe Eszterhas and Michael Roberts, The Progressive, September 1971, and "Not a Great Deal of Error . . . ?," a damning survey conducted by KSU speech professors Carl Moore and D. Ray Heisey, mimeographed, 1971).
The Truth About Kent State: A Challenge to the American Conscience, Peter Davies and the Board of Church and Society of the United Methodist Church. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1973.
This book has sometimes inaccurately been referred to as an elaboration of Davies's privately published 1971 study alleging the Guardsmen conspired to shoot the students. Actually, the book was a much more cautious reiteration of his thesis that the killings "may well have been a premeditated barrage by about ten experienced, riot-trained guardsmen."
The book served its purpose of helping force the Justice Department to reopen its investigation to look into Davies's conspiracy charge.
I Was There: What Really Went on at Kent State, Ed Hill and Mike Grant. Lima, Ohio: C.S.S. Publishing, 1974.
This was the Guardsmen's answer to Davies's book. It was dedicated to Guardsmen everywhere. Actually, since two (not one) Guardsmen wrote the book, the title should have read We Were There. And since the co-authors were not there, as one of the indicted Guardsmen complained, perhaps the title should have read: We Was There, But We Was on the Other Side of the Hill and Couldn't See Nuthin', But Who's Going to Know the Difference?
The Kent State Coverup, Joseph Kelner and James Munves. New York: Harper and Row, 1980.
This book, co-authored by the chief counsel for the victims during the first wrongful death and injury trial, details Kelner's attempts to hold the Guardsmen and Ohio Governor James A. Rhodes accountable for their actions.
This is the only book devoted to the civil litigation. The book did not follow up on or re-evaluate Davies's charge of a conspiracy, even though that issue dominated public debate. Kelner argued that he lost the case because the judge and the jury were biased against the victims.
Not in Vain, Gerald Green. New York: Donald I. Fine, 1984.
A roman a clef that takes place at fictional Joshua College. Green, a co-author of the 1981 NBC docudrama, "Kent State," disguised the identities of real people and scrambled details, but remained remarkably faithful to the facts and captured many of the larger hidden truths about the event.
Green also offered an intriguing new twist: a conscience-plagued colonel in a position to blow the whistle on the cover-up of the Joshua Massacre. In effect the character Green created was the "Deep Throat" Guardsmen investigators searched for in vain for years. Green's novel imagined what might have happened had such a man existed.
The Fourth of May: Killings and Coverups at Kent State, William A. Gordon. Buffalo: Prometheus Books, 1990.
Gordon's book, the first major reappraisal of the shootings and both the criminal and civil trial, is based on over 200 interviews, a review of the 13,000-pages trial transcript, and FBI and Justice Department files released under the Freedom of Information Act. The book concluded that there was no conspiracy among the enlisted Guardsmen, but that there was probably a localized order to fire issued by one of the officers on the scene. Choice magazine wrote: "Gordon systematically addresses the major unresolved question of who did what and why in a manner that brings more clarity to this controversial historical tragedy than any other work to date."
Four Dead in Ohio: Was There a Conspiracy at Kent State? Laguna Hills, CA: North Ridge Books, 1995.
The updated and expanded paperback edition of The Fourth of May.
13 Seconds: A Look Back at the Kent State Shootings, Philip Caputo. New York City, Chamberlain Press, 2005.
Caputo, the second Pulitzer Prize winner to examine Kent State, wrote three New Yorker-type essays which, tried to place the tragedy into a larger social and historical context. His criticisms of ‘60s protestors infuriated Kent’s few remaining activists, who succeeded in making sure he did not get an audience at Kent. In fact, no author of a major book about May 4 has been allowed to share his research and findings at Kent since 1975.
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Scholarly Studies (or at least what passes for scholarship at Kent State)
Communication Crisis at Kent State, Philip K. Tompkins and Elaine Vanden Bout Anderson. New York: Gordon and Breach, 1971.
A case study of how communications breakdowns contributed to the shootings.
Violence at Kent State: The Students' Perspective, Stuart Taylor, Richard Shuntich, Patrick McGovern and Robert Gethner. New York: College Notes, 1971.
Reported the results of a student survey conducted by four KSU psychology professors.
No Heroes, No Villains, Robert M. O'Neil and Associates, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1972.
Discussed the implications that the Kent State and Jackson State killings had on academic freedom.
Kent State and May 4th: A Social Science Perspective, Thomas R. Hensley and Jerry M. Lewis. Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall/Hunt Publishing, 1978.
A sociological textbook which included summaries of the litigation up to 1978, and sociological analyses.
Kent State: Ten Years Later, Scott Bills, editor. Kent: Kent Popular Press, 1980.
A mishmash of essays, mostly from a leftist perspective. Its introduction states that the aim of this retrospective "is to provide a structural means by which different, even provocative views might penetrate the 'truth' of May 4th"--whatever that is supposed to mean.
Mayday: Kent State, Gregory Payne. Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall/Hunt, 1978.
A book on the making of the 1981 NBC docudrama. Payne, a professor of rhetoric and consultant for the docudrama, used the text in his classes.
Kent State: Impact of Judicial Process on Public Attitudes, Thomas R. Hensley. Westport, Ct.: Greenwood Press, 1981.
The title pretty much says it all. Of all the professors at Kent to write about May 4, though, Hensley deserves credit for venturing the furthest out of the Ivory Tower. His analysis of the 1979 out-of-court settlement of the civil suits was excellent.
Kent State/May 4: Echoes Through a Decade, Scott Bills editor. Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 1982.
A collection of essays and interviews obtained by a historian who, according to a university press release, concerned himself not with the surviving victims, the families of the dead students, or the National Guardsmen, but with a "different order of victims, those whose personal and professional lives and perceptions were disrupted" by the killings. Many of the essays are with friends of the University or with footnote figures who were accessible to the author but whom no other historian would waste his time with. One review of the book was titled: "KSU Historian Flubs Cast of Characters."
The Kent State Memorial to the Slain Vietnam War Protestors: Interpreting the Site and Visitors’ Response, Kathryn J,. Weiss. Lewiston, NY: The Edwin Mellon Press, 2008.
This reproduction of Weiss’ doctoral thesis at the university draws no firm conclusions about the effectiveness of the memorial. Her small sample of interviewees suggest that visitors to the memorial found it more ambiguous than illuminating.
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Fiction
Not in Vain, Gerald Green. New York: Donald I. Fine, 1984.
A roman a clef that takes place at fictional Joshua College. Green, a co-author of the 1981 NBC docudrama, “Kent State,” disguised the identities of real people and scrambled details, but remained remarkably faithful to the facts. He also captured many of the larger hidden truths about the event.
Green also offered an intriguing new twist: a conscience-plagued colonel in a position to blow the whistle on the cover-up of the Joshua Massacre. In effect the character Green created was the “Deep Throat” investigators searched for in vain. Green’s novel imagined what might have happened had such a man existed.
Hippies, Peter Jedrick. Self-published without a company name, 1998.
Silent Bell, Gary Drake. Pittsburgh, PA: Dorrance Publishers, 1998.
Vanity-published novel about long-lost lovers who meet on the 25th anniversary.
“Kent State: Andy and Mark and the Time Machine.” W.F. Reed, iUniverse, Lincoln, Nebraska, 2005.
This subsidy-published book was written by a chemical engineer and is labeled “teen historical fiction."
The Killing of Strangers, Jerry Holt. Lancaster, OH: Lucky Press, 2006.
This novel suggests there was an agent provocateur at Kent State.
Snapshots USA (An American Family Album) Norman Weissman, Hammonasset House Books, Mystic, CT, 2008.
Using a fictional character tormented by his fellow students’ deaths, Weissman reimages what went through the minds of various participants.
"How Nixon Taught America to do the Kent State Mambo.” Jerry Fishman, Red Dog Books, Pittsburgh, PA, 2011.
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Children's Books
Kent State, Erlbach, Arlene. New York: Children's Press, 1998.
A 32-page book written for elementary school students. It was part of the publisher's "Cornerstones of Freedom" series.
The Kent State Massacre, Whitney, R. W., Charlottesville, N.Y.: SamHar Press, 1975.
Also 32 pages in length, this book was written for high school history students. It was part of the publisher's "Events of Our Time" series.
The Kent State Shootings, Rosinsky, Natalie. Minneapolis, MN: Compass Point Books, 2008.
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Other Selected Sources
"A Man Who Says He 'Lost' 2 Daughters at Kent State," Life, August 27, 1971, p. 65.
This is one of a number of profiles and articles about author Peter Davies. See also "A Selfless Quest for Justice," People, April 15, 1974, p. 60; "KSU 'Investigator' Tastes Bitterness," Akron Beacon Journal, October 3, 1971; "Mission: Kent State," by Mary McGrory, New York Post, October 2, 1971; "One Man's Kent State," by Tim Coder, The Herald, New York, March 31, 1972; "The Truth About Kent State: Story Behind the Book," Publishers Weekly, September 3, 1973; "The Questions on Kent State," by Philip Nobile, Lorain Journal, July 18, 1974; and "Author Denies Judge's KSU Shooting Exploitation Charge," Akron Beacon Journal, June 7, 1977.
"A Newsweek Poll: Mr. Nixon Holds Up," Newsweek, May 18, 1970, p. 30.
A Gallup Poll conducted one week after the shootings found that 58 percent of the public blamed the students themselves, while only 11 percent blamed the National Guardsmen.
Adams, John P. At the Heart of the Whirlwind. New York: Harper and Row.
This memoir describes the major role Adams played in helping get the federal grand jury investigation, as well as his role in other civil rights causes. See also Adams, John P. “Kent State: Why the Church?,” American Report, November 12, 1971, p. 22-S and Adams, John P. “Kent State and Morality.” Cleveland State Law Review 22 (Winter 1973), p. 167.
Ambrose, Stephen E. "The Armed Forces and Civil Disorders." Essay in The Military and American Society: Essays and Readings, edited by Stephen E. Ambrose and James A. Barber, Jr. New York: The Free Press, 1972.
Ambrose criticized the Guard's lack of professionalism and argued that "the Guard lacks the discipline, training, or leadership to meet its responsibilities." For background, see Hill, Jim Dan. "The National Guard in Civil Disorders: Historical Precedents." Essay in Bayonets in the Streets: The Use of Troops in Civil Disorders, edited by Robin Higham. Lawrence, Kansas: The University Press of Kansas, 1969.
See also "When the National Guard is Called . . . " U. S. News and World Report, May 18, 1970, p. 32; Vasquez, Juan M., "The Guard is Poorly Trained for Riot Duty," New York Times, May 10, 1970; and "Who Guards Against the Guard?" Newsweek, May 18, 1970, p. 33.
Anderson, Maggie and Alex Gildzen, editors. A Gathering of Poets. Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 1992. A collection of poems collected by the University for the 20th anniversary.
Armao, Rosemary, and Farkas, Karen. "One Day in May." Cleveland's The Plain Dealer Magazine, April 26, 1985. A retrospective, fifteen years later.
Barber, Cindy. "War at Kent State," Free Times, May 3-9, 1995.
Scholars, be forewarned: this is the most dishonest article ever written about May 4. Appearing in a free Cleveland weekly, the article depicted a now deceased geology professor at KSU, Glenn Frank, as a one-man crusader for the truth, and claimed that he spent 20 years working on an important manuscript that pursued lines of investigation that no previous journalist, author, attorney, or scholar had ever examined.
While it is true that Frank's actions immediately after the killings are considered heroic, KSU insiders considered the claims ludicrous. Not only was Frank a highly unlikely candidate to play Lt. Columbo; there was no evidence that Frank had done anything beyond making a few repetitive inquiries--and unproductive ones at that.
Moreover, during those two decades he supposedly investigated May 4, he managed to remain remarkably invisible. He never crossed paths with other investigators; never publicly raised any questions; and never wrote anything for either popular or scholarly publication.
Barber later conceded that Frank never wrote a book; and that all he had left behind were disorganized "pieces of information" that were dictated into a tape recorder, but never transcribed. The article was apparently written as a favor to Frank's son, who wanted to raise money for a documentary. The documentary was also never produced.
To date this is the only outright hoax in the literature on May 4. Several articles and books discuss the real heroes and real "truth seekers" of the aftermath. See in particular pages 129-135 of Four Dead in Ohio by William A. Gordon; and Schollenberger, Charles, "Heroes as Well as Victims at Kent State." The Voice, May 31, 1974.
Biemiller, Lawrence. “Tragic Days Remembered,” Chronicle of Higher Education, May 5, 1995.
"Canfora Cleared in Vice Case." Akron Beacon Journal, March 27, 1984.
This article helps explains why Alan Canfora, the most controversial of the nine surviving wounded students, dropped out of the work world. See Francis Wilkinson entry below. Wilkinson wrote: "The tragedy may have marked the close of an era for the nation, but for Canfora it was the beginning of a career."
"Civil Rights Protector: John Stanley Pottinger." New York Times, March 30, 1974.
Profile of the assistant attorney general who reopened the investigation.
"Close-up of the 'Kent State 25'," U.S. News and World Report, November 23, 1970, p. 517. See also "Dismissals at Kent State," Time, December 20, 1971, p. 11; and Molyneaux, David. "The Kent State Trials End." Rolling Stone, January 20, 1972.
Cohen, Charles E., Briggs-Bunting, Jane, and Gurvis, Sandra, "Twenty Contentious Years Haven't Ended the Pain Inflicted by the Tragic Shootings at Kent State," People, April 30, 1990, p. 117.
Other 20th anniversary retrospectives include
Dowling, Claudia Glenn, "Kent State: 20 Years Ago in Life." Life Magazine, May 1990, p. 137; Lesie, Michele, "KSU gains perspective on tragic day," Plain Dealer, April 29, 1990, p. 1; Wilson, Robin, "As Kent State prepares to Unveil Memorial, Critics of University Plan a Silent Protest." Chronicle of Higher Education, May 2, 1990, p. A-31; Pesman, Curtis; "Minimal Memorial?" Chicago Tribune, May 2, 1990, Section 5; Harrison, Eric and Shryer, Tracy, "New Kent State Memorial Stirs 20-Year-Old Anger." Los Angeles Times, May 2, 1990, p. 1; Kahn, Joseph P., "Twenty Years Later, Shadows Linger Over Kent State," Boston Globe, May 3, 1990, p. 39; and Geewax, Marilyn; "Battle Lines Remain at Kent State as Memorial Draws Crowd, Unrest," Atlanta Journal, May 5, 1990, A-3.
Cousins, Norman. "Kent State and Watergate." World, June 6, 1973, p. 12.
Cousins was the first to ask: "Had a decision been made at a national level that the student demonstrations across the nation had gone far enough and that an example had to be made?"
Cusella, Louis P. "Real-fiction versus historical reality: Rhetorical purification in 'Kent State'--The Docudrama," Communications Quarterly, 1982, 30, p. 159-164.
Slain student William Schroeder's former roommate, now a professor of communications at the University of Dayton, argued that the NBC docudrama failed to realistically portray the Bill Schroeder he knew: "He was not a superman. The docudrama functioned to correct, refine and cleanse the images of the four students who were killed."
Davies, Peter. An Appeal to the United States Department of Justice For an Immediate and Thorough Investigation of the Circumstances Surrounding the Shootings at Kent State, May 1970.
Davies' original conspiracy report, entered into the Congressional Record by Congressman William S. Moorhead, July 22, 1970, p. E8143.
Davies, Peter. "Citizens Battle for Justice." The Nation, November 19, 1971, p. 557.
Davies, Peter. "A Bitter Anniversary." New York Times, May 4, 1973.
Davies, Peter. "Another White House Horror Story?" The Village Voice, November 8, 1973, p. 1.
Recounts Davies' bizarre conversation with New York Times correspondent John Crewdson, who, like Woodward and Bernstein, used “Deep Throat” (the FBI’s Mark Felt) as a source on government misconduct. Crewdson claimed he saw information that would harm the parents of the dead students. Davies interpreted that as “pain to the nation,” and jumped to the conclusion Crewdson was referring to White House involvement in the shootings.
Davies, Peter. "Four Years After Kent State, Unanswered Questions." New York Times, May 4, 1976.
Davies, Peter. "Kent State Questions." New York Times, May 4, 1976.
Davies, Peter. "Gunsmoke." New York Times, May 4, 1977.
DeMott, Benjamin. "Alone in Cover-Up Country." The Atlantic, October 1973, p. 115.
One of the more perceptive reviews of Davies' book. For a review by a defense attorney, see Harvey A. Silvergate, "Shrouded in Tension and Ambiguity," Washington Post Book World, November 17, 1973.
Dickenson, James. "Kent Petitioners Bank on Political Arithmetic." The National Observer, December 4, 1971.
For other accounts of the student petition for the federal grand jury investigation, see Downing, Robert. "What Two Students Learned at Kent State," Cleveland magazine, November 1972, p. 60; and McGrory, Mary. "Kent State Tragedy Haunting Nixon." Washington Star, November 16, 1971.
Dunphy, John. "Guard's Prosecutor Admits He Never Expected to Win," Akron Beacon Journal, May 4, 1975.
Detailed interview with Justice Department prosecutor Robert Murphy.
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Ehrlichman, John. Witness to Power. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1982.
Nixon's chief domestic adviser recounted the meetings he and Nixon had with six KSU students a few days after the shootings, but did not discuss Nixon's role in the cover-up.
Electromagnetic Systems Laboratory. "Analysis of Photographic and Acoustic Data Pertaining to the Kent State Incident." February 22, 1974.
Report prepared for the Department of Justice, but never entered into evidence at the criminal trial because of its inconclusive findings. The plaintiffs, however, used it during the 1975 civil trial.
Elkins, Stanley. "Lessons and Judgments." Commentary, October 1971, p. 99.
In one of the more perceptive reviews of James Michener's book, Elkins, a professor at Smith College, argued that Michener's "driving urge to be 'fair' and conciliatory has tied up all Michener's analytical energies."
Engdahl, David. "Due Process Forbids Soldiers in Civil Disorders." American Report, November 12, 1972, p. 6-S.
Engdahl, David. "Soldiers, Riots, and Revolutions: The Law and History of Military Troops in Civil Disorders." Iowa Law Review, 57 (October 1971), p. 1.
Engdahl, David, Renzo, Anthony F., and Laitos, Luize Z. "A Comprehensive Study of the Use of Military Troops in Civil Disorders With Proposals for Legislative Reform." Colorado Law Review, Volume 43, No. 4, June 1972, p. 399.
Engdahl, David. "The Legal Background and Aftermath of the Kent State Tragedy." Cleveland State Law Review, 22 (Winter 1973), p. 3.
Engdahl, David. "Kent State Update." American Report, February 6, 1973, p. 6.
Engdahl, a constitutional scholar, was one of the unsung heroes in the aftermath.
Englehart, Pat, and Dunphy, John. "Undercover Agents' Role Left Unanswered by Jury." Akron Beacon Journal, March 31, 1974.
See also "Operation Provocation." New York Post, December 8, 1973. Asked how widespread the use of agents provocateur was during the antiwar protests of the late 1960s and early 1970s, and whether secret agents were involved in the Kent State disorders. See also Semas, Philip. "How the FBI Tried to Subvert Campus Rebellion." Chronicle of Higher Education, September 5, 1975, p. 5.
Eszterhas, Joe. "Ohio Honors its Dead." Rolling Stone, June 10, 1971.
Eszterhaus was the first to report that KSU police chief Donald Schwartzmiller was drunk on the night of the R.O.T.C. fire.
Evans, Rowland, Jr. and Novak, Robert D. Nixon in the White House. New York: Random House, 1971.
Describes "the stark sense of terror, close to panic, pervading the White House after Kent State."
Froelich, Janis. “Kent State: A Look Back,” Tampa Tribune online, April 30, 2006.
A fascinating look at Terry Norman, the informant for the FBI and campus police.
"The Events of May 1-4, 1970 at Kent State University: Minority Report of the Commission on KSU Violence." Kent, Ohio, 1970.
The report of the University's internal fact-finding commission, written primarily by KSU English professor Doris Franklin. Available in the KSU library.
Farkas, Karen. "KSU memorial snafu sends planner packing." Cleveland Plain Dealer, July 2, 1986.
Account of how KSU disqualified Ian Taberner, the winner of the nationwide design competition for the May 4th memorial, supposedly because he was a Canadian citizen (contest rules required the winner be American-born). Critics charged the real reason KSU dumped Taberner was because he was amenable to including the names of the victims on the memorial. KSU officials proceeded to build the design created by second-place winner Bruno Ast and, only days before the memorial was dedicated, finally acceded to demands that the victims be commemorated by agreeing to a separate plaque a few yards away. The Plain Dealer also subsequently published the only critique of the memorial by an art critic. See Litt, Steven. "Heart-rend or heal?," Cleveland Plain Dealer, April 30, 1995. Litt called Ast's memorial "a ponderous corporate exercise": disappointing, bland and thematically neutral.
"FBI Files on the Fire Bomb and Shooting at Kent State." Wilmington, Delaware: Scholarly Resources, Inc., 1985.
The 46 volumes of FBI reports on microfilm. The originals are in FBI headquarters in Washington.
Feagler, Dick. "Kent Jury Closes Show Across the Street," Cleveland Plain Dealer, March 30, 1974.
Expressed disappointment with the indictment of the eight Guardsmen because "it said that the cause of all this was somebody named Lawrence Shafer and somebody named James Pierce . . . For many, what happened at Kent seemed bigger than what somebody named [Matthew] McManus did. Or what somebody named Pierce did."
"Four Random, Pointless Deaths." Newsweek, May 18, 1970, p. 34.
Frankel, Max. "Nixon: He Faces a Divided, Anguished Nation." New York Times, May 10, 1970.
Frisby, Michael. "Kent Case Just Won't Stay Quiet in the Grave." Cleveland Plain Dealer, September 13, 1981.
Account of the efforts by the state of Ohio and Kent State University to block scholars's and researchers's access to certain investigative files.
Furlong, William. "The Guardsmen's View of the Tragedy at Kent State." New York Times Magazine, June 21, 1970, p. 12.
Unfortunately, the Guardsmen interviewed here, while in Kent at the time, were not directly involved in the tragedy. Interviews with Guardsmen who were actually involved were extremely rare. Michael Roberts of Cleveland's Plain Dealer managed to interview six unidentified Guardsmen after Davies's conspiracy charges were leveled ("KSU Shootings Still Leave Guard Bewildered," Plain Dealer, September 12, 1971). Other than that and brief reaction statements to various developments, the only major newspaper interview conducted with a Guardsman who fired at students (Sergeant Lawrence Shafer) was "Guardsman Ends 10-Year Silence on KSU," by John Dunphy, Akron Beacon Journal, May 4, 1980.
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Gordon, Bill. "Kent Students Wait for Nixon Response." American Report, January 28, 1972, p. 2.
Gordon, Bill. "Kent State Update: The Case for Action Grows." American Report, June 16, 1973, p. 5.
Gordon, Bill. "Kent State Indictments Leave Crucial Questions Unanswered." American Report, April 15, 1974, p. 16.
Gordon, Bill. "Will a Memorial Be Built at KSU and What Will it Say?" Cleveland Plain Dealer, April 27, 1983.
Gordon, Bill. "Kent State is Facing Its Past." Cleveland Plain Dealer, December 19, 1983.
Gordon, Bill. "Is KSU Trying to Forget?" Cleveland Plain Dealer, December 6, 1984.
Gordon, Bill. "Memorial Maneuverings at Kent State." Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, April 4, 1987.
Gordon, William A, “Is Kent State in Denial?” History News Network, December 13, 2004,
http://hnn.us/articles/8592.html.
Gordon, William A., "Startling New Developments in the Kent State Case" October 22, 2010.
Analysis of Stuart Allen's findings that there was a preliminary order to fire and that FBI informant Terry Norman fired four times before the Guardsmen did. http://ezinearticles.com/?Startling-New-Developments-in-the-Kent-State-Case&id=5247251
Gordon, William A., "Soldiers Were Ordered to Fire at Kent State: Audio Expert's Latest Bombshell."August 10, 2011.
The only news coverage on audio expert Stuart Allen's latest claim that he heard not just a prelimiinary order to fire, but an actual order: "Squad, fire." http://kentstatedevelopments.blogspot.com/
Gordon, William A., "Two Guardsmen Finally Talk: Both Insist There Was No Order to Fire at Kent State, "August 19, 2011. http://kentstatedevelopments.blogspot.com
Greene. Daniel St. Albin. "When a World Collapse: Kent State's Wounded Tell Their Grim Story." The National Observer, May 3, 1975, p. B-1.
See also Himmerstone, Robert G. "The Fifth Victim at Kent State." Life, October 16, 1970, p. 41. Profile of Dean Kahler. For interviews with all nine surviving wounded students, see "Nine Lives: Looking Up the Survivors in 1970," [Akron] Beacon Magazine, May 4, 1980.
Haldeman, H. R. The Haldeman Diaries: Inside the Nixon White House. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1994.
Henderson, Ron. "18 Months Later: Families of the Kent State Dead Speak Out." American Report, November 12, 1971, p. 12-S.
Highet, Gilbert. The Anatomy of Satire. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton Universal Press, 1962.
Highet notes: "Historians do not tell the truth. They tell parts of the truth, selected and arranged by their own emotions, ignorance, or moral and political bias. Historical narratives, usually solemn, can be classified with sermons, fiction and propaganda. But occasionally there emerges a historian who, using a scornfully humorous sense of incongruity and employing certain satirical devices, writes history that can be called satire." See Four Dead in Ohio by William A. Gordon.
Hildebrand, William H., Keller, Dean H., and Herrington, Anita D., editors. A Book of Memories: Kent State University, 1990-1992. Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 1993.
A memorial book celebrating Kent State.
Holstein, Elaine Miller. "And Still No Honest Apology." New York Times, April 23, 1990.
Holstein, Elaine Miller. "Anniversary." The Progressive, May 1988, p. 34.
Howard, Bob. "The Manipulation of May 4 For Political Ends." Left Review 2 (Spring 1978), p. 14.
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"Investigations: The Kent State Case." Newsweek, May 25, 1970, p. 33.
Jindra, Chris. "New Kent Trial: A Question of Rights--`How Far Does the Constitution Go?," Chicago Tribune, July 13, 1975.
Jindra, Chris. "Law Favored the State in Kent Trial: Plaintiffs' Lawyers Muddied the Case." Plain Dealer, August 31, 1975.
See also "Last Act at Kent State." Time, September 8, 1975, p. 11.
"Justice Delayed." Transcript of Bill Moyers' Journal. Educational Broadcasting Corporation. Aired on WNET-13, December 19, 1972.
"Justice Mocked." The Nation, December 18, 1980.
Keane, Paul. "Keeping Kent State Alive for History." Speech prepared for Kent State's twelfth annual May 4 commemoration program.
Kelner, Joseph. "There Must be a Public Trial." New York Times, August 23, 1971.
Kelner, Joseph. "Kent State: A Footnote to History," Trial, November/December 1971, p. 21.
Kelner, Joseph. "The Kent State Killings: Among the Victims Was Justice." Los Angeles Times, May 4, 1980.
Kelner, Joseph and Kelner, Robert S. "Kent State Revisited: A Footnote to History." New York Law Journal, May 19, 1988, p. 1.
"Kent State Continued." Time, November 9, 1970, p. 16.
"Kent State: Four Deaths at Noon." Life, May 15, 1970, p. 30.
"Kent State in `71." The Nation, December 13, 1972, p. 30.
"Kent State Indictments." The New Republic, April 13, 1974, p. 8.
See also "The Shield is Gone." The Nation, April 13, 1974, p. 450.
"Kent State: Making Peace With the Past." Akron Beacon Magazine, May 4, 1980. Special issue.
"Kent State: Martyrdom That Shook the Country." Time, May 18, 1970, p. 12.
See also "Mr. Nixon's Home Front." Newsweek, May 18, 1970, p. 26, and "My God! They're Killing Us." Newsweek, May 18, 1970, p. 31.
"Kent State Reopened." Time, December 24, 1973, p. 17.
"Kent State Revisited." Time, December 6, 1971, p. 21.
"Kent State: Struggle For Justice." Transcript of Bill Moyers' Journal, Educational Broadcasting Corporation. Aired on WNET-13, January 16, 1974.
Moyers argued that "anyone who cares about law and justice in this country, owes something to the people who wanted the truth about Kent State, and in the face of official cynicism, refused to remain silent."
"Kent State Truth Tribunal", www.ustream.tv/recorded/10118919
Knight Newspapers. "Reporting the Kent State Incident." New York: American Newspaper Foundation, January 1971.
Krause, Arthur. "May 4, 1970." New York Times, May 4, 1972.
Krause, Arthur. "My Daughter Was Murdered." Reform Judaism, February 1974.
Krause, Arthur. "A Memo to Mr. Nixon." New York Times, May 7, 1978.
Krause v. Rhodes, 390 F. Supp., 1072 (N.D., Ohio 1975). Transcript of the 1975 civil trial.
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Lewin, Nathan. "Kent State Revisited: Another Skeleton in the Closet?" The New Republic, August 18 and 25, 1973, p. 16.
Lewin asked "whether there is not a skeleton rattling in this closet, and whether the renewed interest in Kent State was designed to head off some startling disclosure as to how and why the case was initially quashed."
Lewis, Jerry M. "The Kent Story." New Politics 8 (Fall 1970), p. 44.
Lewis, Jerry M. "Review Essay: The Telling of Kent State." Social Problems 19 (Fall 1971), p. 267.
Lewis, Jerry M. and Hensley, Thomas R. “The May 4 Shootings at Kent State University.” The Ohio Council for Social Studies Review, Vol. 34 Number 1 (Summer 1998), p. 21.
The authors seize on sloppy errors in a U.S. history textbook, not the great myths of May 4, and try to set them straight. If you read Lewis’ and Hensley’s work you would never know the shootings appear to have been deliberate and that justice went awry.
Lombardi, John. "A Lot of People Were Crying and the Guard Walked Away." Rolling Stone, June 11, 1970.
Lough, Thomas S. "The FBI Setup at Kent State University, May 4, 1970." Mimeographed, 1987.
Mangels, John. "Kent State tape indicates alteration and pistol fire preceded National Guard shootings, " The Plain Dealer, October 8, 2010.
Audio expert Stuart Allen says that Terry Norman, the FBI undercover informant, fired four times 70 seconds before the Guard opened fire. www.cleveland.com/science/index.ssf/2010/10/analysis_of_kent_state_audio_t.html
Mangles, John "New analysis of 40-year-old recording of Kent State shootings reveals that Ohio Guard was given an order to prepare to fire," The Plain Dealer, May 9, 2010.
Reported the findings of audio experts Stuart Allen and Tom Owens that there was a "prepare to fire" order. http://blog.cleveland.com/metro/2010/05/new_analysis_of_40-year-old_re.html A lengthy version of Allen's testimony to the Kent State Tribunal, a video memorial created by fatality Allison Krause's sister Laurel can be found at www.ustream.tv/recorded/10098419
Mangles, John. "Kent State shootings: does former informant hold the key to the May 4 mystery," The Plain Dealer, October 8, 2010.
Audio expert Stuart Allen says that Terry Norman, the FBI undercover informant, fired four times 70 seconds before the Guard opened fire. www.cleveland.com/science/index.ssf/2010/12/kent_state_shootings_does_form.html
"Man in the Middle," Time, November 23, 1970, p. 81. Story about former KSU President Robert I. White.
McDonald, Dennis. "May 4, 1970: A Closer Look at Kent State and the Actions of Terry Norman."
This masters thesis, accepted by Salem State College's history department, resurrects the notion that undercover agent Terry Norman was the catalyst for May 4. The argument was made possible by ignoring a mountain of exculpatory evidence reported in the very books McDonald cites in his footnotes.
McGrory, Mary. "Kent State Case Goes On and On." New York Post, April 11, 1977.
"Michener Changes Kent State Theory." New York Times, April 30, 1972.
"Mockery of Justice." Commonweal, November 27, 1970, p. 211.
Morrison, Joan, and Morrison, Robert K. From Camelot to Kent State: The Sixties Experience in the Words of Those Who Lived It. New York: Times Books, 1987.
This oral history includes a graphic interview with wounded student Tom Grace, who continues to downplay his radical views.
Munves, James. "More Than People Died at Kent State." The Nation, April 26, 1980, p. 492.
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Nixon, Richard. RN: The Memoirs of Richard Nixon, Volume 1. New York: Warner Books, 1975.
Nixon tried to justify the shootings by citing approval in public opinion polls.
Nixon, Richard. No More Vietnams. New York: Arbor House, 1985.
Seeing "the pictures in the newspapers of the two girls and two boys who had been killed at Kent State," Nixon wrote, was "the most profoundly depressing moment for me during the war years of my presidency."
"Ohio Regrets." The Nation, January 20, 1979, p. 37.
Oplinger, Doug. "Turmoil . . . KSU Protestor-Minister No Stranger to Controversy." Akron Beacon Journal, September 11, 1977.
Profile of Reverend John P. Adams. See also "Memories of Gentle Man Committed to Peace, Justice," by Dave Boerner, Akron Beacon Journal, December 13, 1983, and "Adams Will Be Missed," Kent Record-Courier (editorial), December 14, 1983.
Peckham, Charles A. "The Ohio National Guard and its Police Duties, 1894." Ohio History, LXXXIII (Winter 1974).
Notes the only other known instance in which Ohio Guardsmen fired into a crowd of civilians and were prosecuted for their actions.
Pekkanen, John. "A Boy Who Was Just There Watching It and Making Up His Mind." Life, May 15, 1970, p. 36.
Story about fatality William Schroeder.
Peterson, Richard E., and Bilorusky, John A. "May 1970: Campus Aftermath of Cambodia and Kent State." Berkeley: The Carnegie Commission on Higher Education, 1971.
A study of the extent of the disruptions on higher education across the country in the aftermath of the Cambodian invasion and Kent State.
Pruden, Wesley. "A Bereaved Father Wouldn't `Shut Up.'" The National Observer, August 1973.
Profile of Arthur Krause. See also "Tormented Crusader," by James Ricci, Akron Beacon Magazine, June 25, 1972, and "Parents of Kent State Victim Keep Case Opened," by Bryce Nelson, Los Angeles Times, December 26, 1973. Allison Krause's father, Arthur, was the driving force behind the attempts to hold the Guardsmen accountable.
Rasanen, George P., "Congress at Fault at Kent State." Cleveland Plain Dealer, September 22, 1973.
"Report of the Inspector General: Kent State University Riot, 4 May 1970." The official Ohio National Guard report.
"Report of the Kent State Grand Jury." Kent, Ohio: Committee for Truth and Justice. Mimeographed, 1972.
When the federal government refused to conduct a "real" federal grand jury, some students held their own "mock" grand jury. This is their report.
"Report of the President's Commission on Campus Unrest." Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1970.
Concluded that: "The actions of some students were violent and criminal and those of some others were dangerous, reckless, and irresponsible. The indiscriminate firing of rifles into a crowd of students and the deaths that followed were unnecessary, unwarranted, and inexcusable."
"Rhodes' Records End in Landfill Archives," Plain Dealer, November 10, 1982. Before leaving office, Governor James A. Rhodes's papers were "accidentally" buried 40 feet underground in a Columbus, Ohio dumpsite.
Rosen, James S. "Shades of Watergate?" Newsday, May 4, 1995.
Reveals declassified notes kept by White House chief of staff H. R. Haldeman during his private meetings with Nixon after the shootings. The article suggests that contrary to longstanding belief, Attorney General John Mitchell "stood alone among Nixon's top advisers in pressing for a federal grand jury investigation of the guardsmen."
Rowan, Carl T. "Why the Young May Be Cynical About 'Justice'." Washington Evening Star, July 18, 1971.
Rowan, Carl T. "Kent State Tests Commitment to Law." Washington Star News, September 9, 1973.
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Sanford, David. "Kent State Gag: A Very Special Grand Jury." The New Republic, November 7, 1970, p. 14.
Schollenberger, Charles. "Justice Denied at Kent State." The New Republic, May 12, 1973, p. 13.
Schollenberger, Charles. "Gaining Access to Federal Records on the Kent State Tragedy."
The Freedom of Information Center, University of Missouri School of Journalism, April 1979.
Semas, Philip W. "Indictment of 8 in Shootings at Kent State U. Reopens Question: Why the Delay?" Chronicle of Higher Education, April 8, 1974, p. 1.
Semas, Philip W. "Counsel for the Kent State Victims Makes His Case Against the Judge." Chronicle of Higher Education, September 15, 1975, p. 5.
Sheridan, Terence. "How to Program a Jury." Exit, June 2, 1975, p. 6.
Sindell, Steven. "Kent State: Opening the Doors." Trial 10 (July 1974), p. 43.
Smith, Curt. Long Time Gone: The Years of Turmoil Remembered. South Bend, Ind.: Icarus Press, 1982.
In the only interview Nixon gave since leaving office in which the subject of May 4 came up, Nixon told Smith: "I can't think back upon that without a haunting sense of sadness, tragic, even though I don't blame the National Guard." Nixon also denounced antiwar protesters as hypocrites, trash, and sanctimonious frauds.
Sorvig, Kim. To Heal Kent State: A Memorial Meditation. Philadelphia: Worldview Press, 1990.
This privately published account deals with Sorvig's proposal for a memorial, which was one of the many nonwinning entries in the nationwide memorial competition. The book does not deal directly with May 4 issues.
Stevens, Mark, and McGuigan, Cathleen. "Kent State Memorial." Newsweek, September 11, 1978.
Chided the KSU administration for rejecting a 1978 offer of a George Segal commemorative sculpture by saying: "Educational institutions should not fear the free flow of images and ideas." The statue, which was commissioned by a private Cleveland foundation, was subsequently donated to Princeton. For other articles on the early attempts to memorialize the tragedy, see also Dyal, Robert, "Too Little and Too Late: The Kent State Faculty and Administrative Response in the Decade After May 4, 1970," The Left Review, Spring 1980, p. 33; Canterbury, William, "Parents tell KSU to Keep its Memorial," Akron Beacon Journal, September 24, 1977; and "Remembering Kent State" (editorial), New York Times, October 22, 1977. The Times felt KSU's 1977 proposal to "honor all the parties involved in the tragic confrontation, including the National Guard, was remarkably insensitive. To honor the killers would be an insult to the victims."
Stone, I. F. "Strange Lessons for the Young." New York Review of Books, November 2, 1970.
Puncturing the myth that Kent State was a hotbed of radicalism, Stone wrote: "This is a campus where you meet activists who have never heard of the Nation or read the New Republic and students who think themselves avant-garde because they read Time and Newsweek."
"The Truth About Hoover," Time, December 22, 1975, p. 20.
Notes how the late FBI director, at the end of a meeting with Justice Department officials to discuss an investigation, "talked only about one topic: his belief that one of the coeds had been sexually promiscuous."
Thomas, Charles. "The Kent State Massacre: Blood on Whose Hands?" Gallery, September 3, 1973, p. 204.
Thomas, Charles. "Unhappy Anniversary." The Nation, May 24, 1980, p. 632.
Thomas echoed Peter Davies’s charge that the White House was behind Kent State. See also deBrossie, Jim, “One Man’s quest,” Dayton Daily News, May 3, 2004, which profiled Thomas. One of Thomas’s last wishes that be buried next to Allison Krause—a request that Krause’s mother denied.
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U. S. Congress, House. Representative John Sieberling's insertion of the Justice Department's summary of the FBI report into the Congressional Record, January 14, 1973, p. E-207.
U. S. Department of the Interior. National Park Service. "National Register of Historic Places: Inventory Report on Kent State, May 4, 1970," by James Sheire, 1978.
Verkuil, Paul. "Immunity or Responsibility for Unconstitutional Conduct: The Aftermath of Jackson State and Kent State." North Carolina Law Review, April 1972, Vol. 50, no. 3, p. 548.
Viorst, Milton. Fire in the Streets: America in the 1960s. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1979.
The final chapter profiles wounded student Alan Canfora.
Von Hoffman, Nicholas. "KSU: 'See, the System Works.'" Plain Dealer, April 8, 1974.
Wechsler, James A. "Unsolved Murders." New York Post Magazine, December 24, 1972, p. 5.
Weschler, James A. "Justice Obstructed?" New York Post Magazine, October 7, 1975, p. 35.
Wallace, Weldon. "After Four Years, Kent State Wants the Tragedy Purged." Baltimore Sun, April 29, 1974.
See also Page, Tim. "At Kent State, They Still Hear the Drumming." Newsday, March 15, 1989.
Wells, Tom. The War Within: America's Battle over Vietnam. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994.
Argues that antiwar protests had a profound impact on Nixon's protests in Vietnam. An opposite view is expressed in Telltale Hearts: The Origins and Impact of the Vietnam Antiwar Movement by Adam Garfinkle. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1995. Garfinkle argues that the movement "was counterproductive in limiting U.S. military operations in Southeast Asia . . . It did not help stop the war but rather helped prolong it."
"When The War Came Home." Inquiry, May 5, 1980, p. 3.
Argues that "the Kent State shootings were more than just an attack on the four students who were killed and the nine who were wounded . . . They were an officially sanctioned assault on the entire antiwar movement, a warning to everyone in this country who raised a voice against the holocaust in Southeast Asia."
Wilkinson, Francis. "Trigger Happy: The cult of Kent State," The New Republic, April 13, 1991.
Although no journalist has adequately captured the pathology surrounding wounded student Alan Canfora's three decades of trying to relive his days as a campus radical, Wilkinson came the closest here. The article did not explore his threats against Kent State; the reasons why some of the other victims felt he was a juggernaut, or the question of whether his own actions on May 4 helped get his fellow students killed. Nevertheless, the article had a lasting effect. Canfora is still living down Wilkinson's comparisons of his behavior to that of a leader of a cult.
Wills, Garry. "Mitchell Quibbling Over Kent State Investigation." Santa Monica Evening-Outlook, August 1971.
Wischmann, Lesley. "Four Dead in Ohio." American History Illustrated, May/June 1990, p. 24.
Zaroulis, Nancy, and Sullivan, Gerald. Who Spoke Up: American Protest Against the War in Vietnam, 1963-1975. New York: Doubleday & Company, 1984.
Zimmerman, Richard G. Condon, George E., Jr., and Jindra, Chris. "Guard Wrong at Kent: Del Corso--Students No Threat to Soldiers," Plain Dealer, September 29, 1975.
Links
The Kent State Shootings: A Chronology
New Information and Conclusions in Four Dead in Ohio by William A. Gordon