The Kent State Conspiracies: What Really Happened On May 4, 1970?

[Algorem]

http://www.freetimes.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=3389

By James Renner


The gunfire has just ended, almost as abruptly as it began. Student Harold Reid maneuvers his way up Blanket Hill among some of the casualties, perhaps a couple hundred feet from the National Guardsmen. That's when he notices a young man pointing a handgun in the direction of another man who is lying on the ground. The armed man obviously is not a member of the National Guard; he's wearing a light sports jacket and tan trousers, and a camera and a gas mask hang around his neck. When the man sees Reid, he begins to run.

"Stop that man, he has a weapon!" shouts Reid, chasing after him.


That man — Terrence Brookes Norman — has never stopped running. He has avoided attention for 36 years, perhaps for good reason. He was an FBI informant in 1970, and some believe he fired the first shot at Kent State that day in May, instigating the National Guard to fire on protestors.

Norman's role and long silence are not the only factors fueling conspiracy theories surrounding the events of May 4, 1970. Although the lives of everyone present were profoundly affected by the 13 seconds they shared, few agree on many specifics. Questions remain. Cover-ups are alleged. And only one thing is clear: Someone has to be lying...

[Viva_La_Revolution]

1. wow! the things I learn on DU

blow me away. :wow:

[DURHAM D]

2. Thanks for posting. I have never read anything about Norman

before.

[Extend a Hand]

3. My husband lived across the street from him

when he was in high school. He has mentioned that story.

[SeattleGirl]

4. Wow, wow, wow.

I was 14 when Kent State happened, and I remember it clearly. I've seen a couple of programs on it on the teevee -- good ones -- but this article has things in it I never knew. Thanks for posting it!

[Hissyspit]

5. K & R - I had heard mentions about this before, but never had it

laid out this well.

[Demeter]

6. That Would Explain A Lot

But why did it take so long to come out?

[sinkingfeeling]

7. My sister graduated from KSU in 1969. I was at Ohio State when this

took place and our campus was covered with the National Guard. Thanks.

[RandomKoolzip]

8. This may sound a little strange, but...

ANyone interested in Kent State and its role in the cultural life of the country should pick up the book "We Are Devo!," the Devo biography. Gerald Casale, one of the two masterminds behind punk rock gods Devo (the other being Mark Mothersbaugh), was on campus at Kent State the day of the massacre. He was a friend of Alison Krause, one of the students killed, and he saw her get shot to death. From this incident, the impetus behind Devo was born (the band's philosophy, that mankind has "hit the wall" re: evolution, and is now evolving in reverse,, i.e. DEVOlution, is a direct result of the Kent State massacre and the cynicism and anger such an incident engenders)

Anyhow, the book has a LOT of great info about the Kent State massacre, and there's a couple chapters devoted to the scene at Kent State before and after the incident that are eye-opening and informative.

[EVDebs]

9. No stranger than this ...

"Questions remain. Cover-ups are alleged. And only one thing is clear: Someone has to be lying."--from the FreeTimes.com article linked in the original post to this thread.

It begs the question of the dead student's autopsies, if bullets were compared with Norman's gun and the Guardsmen. Did Norman fire his weapon that day, GSR on him, etc. etc. etc.

Was Norman tied to military intelligence besides the FBI is another question gone begging.

[The Magistrate]

12. You Are Reaching There, Mr. Debs, And Rather Far

The point of the pistol is not that this person shot anyone; the point is that the presence of a police agent armed in the circumstance makes quite reasonable the proposition that he may have fired the shot many Guardsmen say they heard, that led them to believe they were being fired on from the crowd, and to believe they were defending themselves in firing their own weapons. That is a very standard provocatuer's method. That use of agents provocatuer was routine in those days is widely known, and was widely known at the time to anyone involved in protests and demonstrations; they were mostly pretty obvious to us.

It is, certainly, quite possible that the other possibility mentioned in this excellent piece, that a rather gung-ho Guard sergeant fired his pistol without orders, is what actually occured to trigger the volleys. It does not seem a question that can be settled certainly on the available testimonies and evidence.

[EVDebs]

17. Hmmm. I 'reached' the same conclusion you did. Whose 'agent' ?

Exactly who's agent provacateur was Norman ? We know his tie to the FBI; but the FBI usually leads to connecting higher ups. As with Howard Hughes' Robert Maheu, former FBI also meant 'former CIA'. And all during the MLK stalking the Military Intelligence Groups operating domestically (on only one individual mind you) were doing a better job of spying on King than the FBI. The public is still unaware of that to a large degree.

If I've "reached" it was a very short reach Magistrate.

[The Magistrate]

18. Your Suggestion, Sir, Was That He Shot A Student

That is most unlikely, and would not be necessary to gain the desired provocative effect.

[EVDebs]

19. So, you're absolutely certain no bullets other than Natn'l Guard bullets

were fired, and once again, if he had a gun the question is begged, did he indeed use it ? You seem to be quite certain that tests of GSR etc were done on that gun to be making such statements about my 'suggestions'. My suggestion would be already available in a police report, don't you think ? I may have to repeat that.

BTW, "why" did he bring the weapon to the demostrations that day if just to take photographs ? Whose control was Norman under and what do you know about the chain of custody of that weapon ?

[The Magistrate]

20. My Comments Are Pretty Clear, Sir

It seems quite possible this person may have functioned as an agent provocatuer by discharging a gun from the crowd to provide a pretext for Guardsmen to be ordered to open fire. If he did this, he was doubtless engaged to do it by his controller, probably the F.B.I. agent. It is a pretty basic ruse of provocation, employed on ocassion for more than a century by political police organizations all over the world.

As to other reasons why he might have had a gun besides instruction to carry out this act of provocation, it seems to me you rather restrict your imagination, more than usually. People go armed for any number of reasons, routinely. He might have felt himself at some risk, in a crowd of people he was spying on; people who aroused suspicion with a camera were on occassion, in my own experience, roughed up a bit in crowds in those days. Things were not nearly so peaceful as they are sometimes presented, and a police agent who was not an undercover officer had reason for fear. Some people simply enjoy the rush of power carrying a deadly weapon gives, and the sort of petty persons who fall into the toils of police informing are particularly prone to this enjoyment.

The article seems to indicate no tests were run on the weapon, which to my mind counts as indication it likely was fired, and certainly that someone in the police structure had reason to believe it likely had been. But the insinuation you are attempting to press, that one of the students was shot by this person, strikes me as most unlikely, and would certainly be quite unnecessary to the success of an attempt at provocation to secure the firing of Guardsmen into the crowd, and further, would be likely to create great complications afterwards.

[yodermon]

10. Interesting

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&safe=off&q=%22Terrence+Brookes+Norman%22&btnG=Search
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&sa=X&oi=spell&resnum=0&ct=result&cd=1&q=%22Terrence+Brooks+Norman%22&spell=1

"absence of evidence.." etc etc

[Algorem]

11. tried "Terrance Norman,Kent State"

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=ISO-8859-1&safe=off&q=Terrence+Norman+%2CKent+State&btnG=Search

Kent State University News Service, Photographs, May 1-4, 1970... ... 705/18-1-9 ...
speccoll.library.kent.edu/4May70/box28/28.html - 24k - Cached - Similar pages


Legal Chronology May 5, 1970 -January 4, 1979The Kent State University Faculty Senate and White authorize college deans to ... company commander suggesting that a police informer, Terrence B. Norman, ...
speccoll.library.kent.edu/4may70/legalchronology.html - 53k - Cached - Similar pages


Vanderbilt Television News Archive: Kent State Probe / Renewal (NBC)Senator Birch Bayh reads report on Terrence Norman found running from Kent State trouble with gun. Film from Terrence s apprehension in 1970 shown. ...
openweb.tvnews.vanderbilt.edu/ 1973-8/1973-08-03-NBC-12.html - 5k - Cached - Similar pages


Vanderbilt Television News Archive: Kent State Probe Renewal (ABC)At Kent State, National Guard fired upon students killing 4, injuring many more. ... Terrence Norman was that man. Now with Washington, DC police department ...
openweb.tvnews.vanderbilt.edu/ 1973-8/1973-08-03-ABC-8.html - 5k - Cached - Similar pages


The Infography about the Kent State University Shootings of May 4 ...Cousins, Norman. "Kent State and Watergate." World, June 6, 1973. ... "Heroes as Well as Victims at Kent State." Voice, May 31, 1974. · Sheridan, Terence. ...
www.infography.com/content/273296814539.html - 17k - Cached - Similar pages


Kent StateThe killings at Kent State have been used to radicalize students across ... And there was student Terrence Norman, who according to the Akron Beacon Journal ...
25thaviation.org/id960.htm - 59k - Cached - Similar pages


Kent State: Proof to Save the GuardsmenAnd on May 4, 1970, on the campus at Kent State University, in Ohio, ... And there was student Terrence Norman, who according to the Akron Beacon Journal ...
www.jbs.org/artman/publish/article_336.shtml - 56k - Cached - Similar pages


BGS ContributorsKent State University George E. Stevens Michigan State University Bruce D. Bottomley ... The Ohio State University Richard J. Beebe Norman S. Crystal ...
betagammasigma.org/contributors.htm - 44k - Cached - Similar pages


Faculty Directory for Arapahoe Community College: Arapahoe ...Melton, Don L. M4645, 303-797-5817, [e-mail], BA, Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, OH; MA, Kent State University, Kent, OH ...
www.arapahoe.edu/directory/faculty.html - 65k - Cached - Similar pages


Pages 30-48 (September 2002).qxdFile Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - View as HTML
Keith A. Dziki, Kent State 1998. Gregory Ethridge, Texas 2000 ... W. Richard Roberts Oregon State 1958. Norman R. Sanford, Cincinnati 1964 ...
www.deltfoundation.org/septhonorroll.pdf - Similar pages

[yodermon]

13. ah, thank you

from http://speccoll.library.kent.edu/4May70/box28/28.html
Guy in the gas mask is Terrence Norman


Holding gas mask in left hand

[struggle4progress]

15. From Charles Thomas:

But there had been a civilian on the scene with a gun. He appears on WKYC-TV sound film running down from the hillside (the slaughter took place on the reverse slope and is off-camera), with a bespectacled black man in pursuit, pointing after him and shouting. <18> The fugitive, a thin-faced white youth makes straight for the National Guard formation and therein seeks out a campus police officer, to whom he surrenders a revolver.

The campus police immediately took the black man, instructor Harold Sherman Reid, Bill Barrett (a co-pursuer), and the youth, Terrence Norman, to their headquarters. Norman told KSUPD Detective R. F. Winkler that he was “covering the demonstrations” and had gotten separated from the Guard line after following it “for protection”. “I then joined the other photographers for protection.” He heard someone yelling “Kill the pigs!”, so he sought out the Guard again “for a little protection”. Reid deposed that he had first seen Norman “standing with a pistol in his hand pointing it in the direction of a man lying on the ground.” <19> But Norman claimed he had been trying to aid “a hippie type person… bleeding from the face”, when he was assaulted by several persons striking him with their fists and trying to get his camera. “I drew my weapon” and told his attackers they were “going to get it”. They ran off in one direction and he ran off after the Guard again. He added that

I state at this time that I was requested to take pictures for the purpose of identification and prosecution of violators, by Det. Tom Kelly of the Campus Police and Bill Chapin of the FBI, Akron, Field Office ...

Tuesday, May 5th. A female KSU student sent a letter to campus security apparently referring to Norman. She had seen a young man outfitted as a photographer “about 5 minutes before the shootings…. He hit a fellow student across the face with the butt of his gun.” “The other kids” took up the cry that the man was armed. “The cameraman turned into an animal” and pointed the weapon at the people around him, threatening to shoot as he backed down the hill ...

http://speccoll.library.kent.edu/4may70/kenfour3.htm

[bluhoodie]

14. I was there

that sunny Monday of May 4, 1970. What a truly incredible day - and experience - it was! I'll always remember it like it was yesterday. I was right there on the grounds where this played out. When the tear gas canisters were being lobbed back and forth, I ducked into the glassed stairwell of the dorm immediately next to the hill. That's where I was when the shots rang out. Had my camera with me and still have a photo of the ambulance there on the hill of Taylor Hall, showing the students and faculty holding hands to make a circle around the ambulance, giving them room to load a stretcher.

I agree with what The Magistrate says. It was widely believed at the time that "outside agitators" (and informants of some sort) had something to do with stirring up the conflict, but I must confess in all the years since then, I wasn't aware of this Terrence Norman story. I'm thankful to Yodermon for posting these b&w photos here. (How crystal clear they are!) (Sure takes me back!!)

[kainah]

16. an excellent article

I love that they tracked down Terry Norman. Alas, I'm not surprised that they didn't get any answers from him.

And forgive me for saying a little "yippie" that Myron Pryor is dead. I have long been convinced that he started the shootings. This is him, the stocky guy in the deep crouch at the front with the .45, as they turned and started firing.



and, of course, I assume anyone who's reading this diary has also seen this one.

[EVDebs]

21. Spent .22 casing found at Kent State...Major Jone's or Norman's ?

from another post at DU:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x207842

""The day after the shootings, a spent .22-caliber casing was found near the edge of the field. Since only Major Jones carried such a weapon, this casing likely came from his gun although he never admitted firing a shot.""

Do we know what kind of gun Norman had that day ? This would make two suspects for that particular weapon if we knew it was a .22 cal., correct ?

[yurbud]

22. K & R