Kent State massacre question.

[picunurse]

Were the individual Guardsmen who killed the four students ever identified? If so, what became of them?

[ZipperJJ]

I don’t remember hearing much about the individual guardsmen when I was at Kent (I was a journalism student during the 30th anniversary) but here is an interview with a retired guardsman who was on duty that day. From that article there are links to more May 4 articles from the “Contents” link, but there don’t seem to be any more articles about specific guardsmen.

[picunurse]

That’s why I asked. I’ve read several articles, but none mentions the shooters. I was wondering how they were effected over the years. Since it seems no one was identified, I wonder if any of them actually knew that their bullet was one of the four.

[friedo]

According to wikipedia:

Eight of the guardsmen were indicted by a grand jury. The guardsmen claimed to have fired in self-defense, which was generally accepted by the criminal justice system. In 1974 District Judge Frank Battisti dismissed charges against all eight on the basis that the prosecution’s case was too weak to warrant a trial.

Googling the judge’s name and other related words found me this timeline which has the names from the original indictments:

March 29, 1974 (Friday)

A federal grand jury indicts eight former guardsmen. They are technically charged with violating the civil rights of the students. The indictment states all eight guardsmen fired in the direction of demonstrators.

Five are accused of firing the shots - from M-1 rifles - that resulted in the deaths.

The five are: James D. McGee, William E. Perkins, James E. Pierce, Lawrence A. Shafer and Ralph W. Zoller. They face possible terms of life imprisonment.

The other three, Matthew J. McManus, Barry W. Morris, and Leon H. Smith, are charged with firing of pistols and shotguns that resulted in the injuries. They face possible maximum penalties of one year in prison and a $1,000 fine.