Kent State Shootings: Digital Archive

CKSUV: Audio Recordings: Statement: Howard, Runyon, Shaw, and Thackler

Kent State Shootings: Digital Archive

CKSUV: Audio Recordings: Statement: Howard, Runyon, Shaw, and Thackler

Transcription Show Transcript
Description Recorded statements of Walter Howard, Elizabeth Runyon, Greg Shaw, and Russel Thackler conducted by the CKSUV. 

Thackler relays his observations of May 4, 1970. He was an eyewitness to the shootings. Comments on the training and discipline of the National Guard. Talks a bit about events of a Saturday night rally. Questions why the University was not better prepared. Is critical of communications on campus and lists other student complaints and frustrations.

Howard was a resident of Kent. He talks about incidents on Friday night before the shootings. He was going to a bar (Pirate's Alley) with his assistant coach after a track meet that evening and encountered crowds on Water St. He describes the situation there that night including damage that a crowd caused to a car that was trying to drive through the street. He observed other events from the bar until receiving word that the bars were being closed down. He observed vandalism that occurred in downtown Kent at that time.

Shaw discusses his experiences on Friday and Sunday nights before the shootings. 

Runyon was a teaching fellow in English dept at time of shootings. She reports on events of May 4, 1970. She arrived on campus around 9AM that day. Went to the Commons at around 12:10. Did not know the event, which she calls a "meeting," was illegal. She was behind the Guard at time of shootings and eventually went up to the crest of the hill near the Pagoda. Reports hearing what she thought at the time were wild rumors about someone having "his head blown open." Saw the bullet hole in the Solar Totem sculpture. She objects to the characterization of the crowd as being a "blood-thirsty mob;" not what she observed. She spent about an hour or so speaking to people on the scene afterwards, sat on the hill and heard faculty urging students to disperse and not make any more moves toward the Guard, for their own safety.


Date 1970-06-04
Institution Kent State University
Repository Special Collections and Archives
Access Rights This digital object is owned by Kent State University and may be protected by U.S. Copyright law (Title 17, USC). Please include proper citation and credit for use of this item. Use in publications or productions is prohibited without written permission from Kent State University. Please contact the Department of Special Collections and Archives for more information.
Duplication Policy http://www.library.kent.edu/special-collections-and-archives/duplication-policy
Duration 0:37:03
DPLA Rights Statement http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Format of Original reel-to-reel
Author/Photographer Howard, Walter
Runyon, Elizabeth
Shaw, Greg
Thacker, Russel
Subcollection Commission on KSU Violence records
Subject(s) Audio recording
Commissions, Hearings, Tribunals
May 4 Provenance May 4 Collection