Myron Midcap, Oral History

 

Recorded: January 22, 2020

Interviewed by Kathleen Siebert Medicus

Transcribed by the Kent State University Research & Evaluation Bureau

 

 

[Interviewer]: Good morning, this is Kathleen Siebert Medicus speaking on Wednesday, January 22, 2020, and we are at the Kent State University Library Building on the Kent Campus in Special Collections and Archives as part of the May 4 Kent State Shootings Oral History Project. Good morning, could you please state your name for the recording?

 

[Myron Midcap]: My name is Myron, M-Y-R-O-N, Midcap, M-I-D, as in David, C-A-P, as in Paul.

 

[Interviewer]: Great, thank you. Thank you so much, Myron. Thanks so much for coming in today, I really appreciate your participation and being willing to share your story. I’d like to begin with just really brief information about you, about your background, so we can get to know you a little better. Could you tell us where you were born, where you grew up?

 

[Myron Midcap]: I was born in Akron. Raised in Akron. Lived there all my life.

 

[Interviewer]: Okay. And what part of Akron—you mentioned?

 

[Myron Midcap]: I lived in Kenmore.

 

[Interviewer]: In Kenmore, okay.

 

[Myron Midcap]: At the time.

 

[Interviewer]: Great. In 1970, is that where you were living, at that time?

 

[Myron Midcap]: Yes, ma’am.

 

[Interviewer]: And what was your occupation?

 

[Myron Midcap]: I was doing construction at that point.

  

[Interviewer]: And how old were you in 1970?

 

[Myron Midcap]: Eighteen.

 

[Interviewer]: Eighteen, okay, okay. And I understand you were downtown, in downtown Kent on Friday, May 1, 1970, and you’d like to share your story, what you saw that evening. So, I’ll let you get started with that.

 

[Myron Midcap]: Okay, you want me to start with where I was?

 

[Interviewer]: Sure, yeah.

 

[Myron Midcap]: A couple of, me and a couple of friends had gone up to Kent. You want me to name the friends?

 

[Interviewer]: Sure, yeah.

 

[Myron Midcap]: They’re, both of them are passed, so. I was with Ronnie Renwick and Craig Backus [00:02:03], both of them were from Mogadore. And the reason—

 

[Interviewer]: And they were buddies? High school buddies, or—?

 

[Myron Midcap]: They were, yeah, well, they were friends because my girlfriend was from Mogadore. And Mogadore’s a small community and I pretty much met everybody out there while, yeah. And I became friends with, yeah, with Ronnie and Craig.

 

[Interviewer]: So dating someone from Mogadore, you then get to know everybody in Mogadore, just about.

 

[Myron Midcap]: Absolutely. Absolutely, yeah. So we were, we’d gone up to Kent like eighteen, you know, couple, you know, eighteen-year-olds do, back then, and we were sitting, I think we were sitting at The Deck, which was across from the Kent Stage. I believe it was below the Townhouse. The Townhouse was above, and The Deck was down below.

 

[Interviewer]: So that hotel, the old hotel, right at the corner of Main and Depeyster [Streets]? The Deck was basement level?

 

[Myron Midcap]: Pretty much. Yeah, yeah. Exactly, you walk down into it from the sidewalk, yep.

 

[Interviewer]: Was your girlfriend there too?

 

[Myron Midcap]: No.

 

[Interviewer]: Just you and the buddies, okay.

 

[Myron Midcap]: Yeah, just me and the guys. She couldn’t go because she wasn’t, she was actually two years younger. We were all eighteen, drinking, and back then it was the 3.2 beer.

 

[Interviewer]: Right. So, for people who don’t know about that, at that time in 1970, if you were eighteen, you were allowed to come in the bar and there were certain low-alcohol beers that you could get.

 

[Myron Midcap]: Correct.

 

[Interviewer]: But you couldn’t get a vodka and soda.

 

[Myron Midcap]: No. Couldn’t get the mixed drinks, right, exactly.

 

[Interviewer]: That must have been complicated for the bartender.

 

[Myron Midcap]: They had to, yeah, they had to check IDs, yeah. Hopefully.

 

[Interviewer]: And there was music there, you mentioned?

 

[Myron Midcap]: Yeah, there was music, right. And, you know, and girls and all that, you know. Other kids. A lot of other kids, you know.

 

[Interviewer]: So the place was packed.

 

[Myron Midcap]: Pretty much. It was Friday night, yeah. Friday night, it was a nice, a nice night. And all of a sudden, out of the blue, police officers came in. And they’re yelling at everybody, Get out! Take your beer with you. Leave. Yeah.

 

[Interviewer]: Take your beer with you?

 

[Myron Midcap]: Absolutely, yeah, yeah. I remember that because I thought it was pretty strange.

 

[Interviewer]: Yeah, I mean, it’s not your glass, it belongs to the bar.

 

[Myron Midcap]: No. Yeah. “Take your beer with you, get out!” And we all, we all got out and noticed that, we thought maybe it was something with the bar. You know, like maybe their liquor violation or something like that. But we get outside, and we notice, holy moley, they’re doing this in every bar in town. So they’re putting how many other, you know, eighteen-, nineteen-, twenty-year-old kids out on the street.

 

[Interviewer]: So all down Main Street, just packed with people?

 

[Myron Midcap]: All down Main Street, yeah, kids.

 

[Interviewer]: [00:05:27] Do you have a sense of approximately what time in the evening that was? Like mid, like or late? Was it really dark?

 

[Myron Midcap]: Oh, it was dark, yeah.

 

[Interviewer]: It was dark, okay.

 

[Myron Midcap]: Yeah, it was dark. It was, I’m going to say probably after 10:00. I’m going to say—

 

[Interviewer]: Thereabouts.

 

[Myron Midcap]: Yeah. Or thereabouts. But, like I said, all kind of kids, just out on the street. And, you know, the cops are yelling, Get out. Get out of town. Leave. Okay, so—

 

[Interviewer]: Did you have a sense of—were these Kent, City of Kent police officers, or—?

 

[Myron Midcap]: Yes. Yes, yeah. At that time, right.

 

[Interviewer]: Not campus police or state troopers?

 

[Myron Midcap]: Well, I wouldn’t know the difference between the campus police and the Kent Police Department.

 

[Interviewer]: Troopers would have looked different.

 

[Myron Midcap]: Troopers would have looked—yeah. Yeah, and I really didn’t notice.

 

[Interviewer]: So they’re police officers.

 

[Myron Midcap]: Police officers, yeah, yeah. And we made our way then to the car. It was my car, I had driven up. And we were on—

 

[Interviewer]: Yeah, where were you parked?

 

[Myron Midcap]: We were parked on Water [Street], or off of Water. On—north of Main Street. North of Main, and I can’t remember exactly where we were parked, but I do—

 

[Interviewer]: North Water [Street], but not too far up.

 

[Myron Midcap]: No.

 

[Interviewer]: Yeah, okay.

 

[Myron Midcap]: No, because we were able to get to the car and, once I got to the car, obviously I’m going to go south on Water [Street], that’s [Ohio State Route] 43 to Mogadore, okay, I’m dropping these guys off.

 

[Interviewer]: Right.

 

[Myron Midcap]: And we got to the intersection, or I did in the car, got to the intersection of Main and Water and there was, you couldn’t move. The entire intersection was packed with kids at that point. I mean you couldn’t get through the—

 

[Interviewer]: Cars were, yeah, no traffic.

 

[Myron Midcap]: You couldn’t get, yeah, no, you couldn’t get, you were sitting. You were sitting right there.

 

[Interviewer]: Wow.

 

[Myron Midcap]: And, yeah, I mean, that was weird to me to why did they empty the bars out and put, if they’re having a problem—I mean, this is just my opinion, if they’re having a problem, why empty the bars out and put another couple of thousand kids on the street? I mean, I was thinking that at the time, too.

 

[Interviewer]: Right. Yeah, and maybe we should state for the recording that later in your career you became a police officer, so you have that perspective at this point in life—

 

[Myron Midcap]: Correct.

 

[Interviewer]: —of, “What were they thinking?” So, were students, were people literally sitting, like sitting down?

 

[Myron Midcap]: No.

 

[Interviewer]: No, they were just stand-still.

 

[Myron Midcap]: They were standing in, yeah, in the—because they put that many people on the street and they’re all trying to get out of “Dodge,” you know, speaking.

 

[Interviewer]: Were people tending to go toward the direction of campus, or—?

 

[Myron Midcap]: No, they were tended to go, what I saw, they were tending to go south on Water Street. That looked like the direction that the police—the police were almost like herding cattle. They were pushing them down, not—when I say pushing, I mean directing them down Main Street to that intersection.

 

[Interviewer]: Oh, away from campus, okay.

 

[Myron Midcap]: Away from campus, correct, correct. Yeah, and then there were, most of them were going, most of them were going south on Water [Street] that I could see, but the entire intersection was packed with kids. You couldn’t—

 

[Interviewer]: It was gridlock.

 

[Myron Midcap]: Gridlock, yeah. You couldn’t, in the car, you couldn’t go straight, you couldn’t turn, we were sitting there. We were just sitting there.

 

[00:09:33] So, while we’re sitting there, I notice a young man, long hair, which was not unusual. And he’s walking down the sidewalk to my, it would be to my left, it probably only—probably wasn’t more than ten feet away, ten, not, maybe fifteen. And he was walking, he’s, you know, that’s the way they want him to walk, and he’s walking. And several police officers walking behind him weren’t quite—they wanted him to move faster. And they kept poking him with their nightsticks. They had their nightsticks in their hand. And they kept poking him with their nightsticks in the back. And he kept walking. I mean he wasn’t getting up and going to run or anything, but he kept walking, moving in the direction that they wanted him to. And they kept poking him, probably poked him three or four times I think, and he decided to turn around, I don’t know what for: say something, ask them why they were poking him, but as soon as he turned around, the police officers just, they just pummeled him with their nightsticks. And I just, I mean, you know, I don’t understand, I don’t understand. Why are you doing this?

 

[Interviewer]: How many officers, do you remember?

 

[Myron Midcap]: It was probably three or four.

 

[Interviewer]: And just one person?

 

[Myron Midcap]: Just the one kid, yeah.

 

[Interviewer]: Did he fall down to the ground, do you remember that?

 

[Myron Midcap]: He did, trying to protect himself, I think. And then, they were all over him. They grabbed him, they grabbed him and then pulled him away. I don’t know what happened to him after that. After that.

 

[Interviewer]: So he was—you were north of Main Street.

 

[Myron Midcap]: We were just, we were sitting just north of the intersection.

 

[Interviewer]: Right near the intersection, and he was on the other side of the intersection?

 

[Myron Midcap]: He was on, he would have been to my left, because we were going southbound. He would have been to my left.

 

[Interviewer]: He was immediately to the—right next to your car?

 

[Myron Midcap]: Yeah, there was--just, well, just the lane, you know, the lane.

 

[Interviewer]: Oh my gosh.

 

[Myron Midcap]: The northbound lane was the only thing separating the sidewalk from where we were. So yeah, I had a pretty good view of what was going on. What was going on. And while we were there, again, we sat there for, and I don’t, again, I don’t, how long, but while we were sitting there—

 

[Interviewer]: [00:12:45] That must have been scary. You must have been pretty frightened at that point.

 

[Myron Midcap]: Well yeah, because I thought I was a long-haired eighteen-year-old kid.

 

[Interviewer]: You guys were kids.

 

[Myron Midcap]: You know? And I didn’t know why he was, why they were doing that. I mean, yeah, he turned around, while he was walking, but I think anyone would have, you know. Like, why are you poking me? Why are you doing this? Yeah, it was scary, to me. It was scary.

 

And then, while we’re—and again, while we were sitting there, the entire intersection, again, packed with kids, we did—or I did—notice that from the back of the crowd of kids at the intersection, which would be more to the northwest part of the intersection, we couldn’t see them, who was doing it, but we noticed there were things being thrown at the police, which was, I mean, they were throwing them clear across the intersection. Whomever it was, were using the kids as a shield, essentially. So the police couldn’t see who was doing it. And they were throwing, there was chunks of—

 

[Interviewer]: Brick, or rocks?

 

[Myron Midcap]: Brick, concrete, yeah, whatever. Yeah. I mean, it was—Yeah.

 

[Interviewer]: So, from where you’re sitting in your car, from the right, things like that are being thrown overhead?

 

[Myron Midcap]: Correct. Over the—over the crowd of kids. Essentially from the back of the crowd of kids, there was stuff being thrown at the officers. So, I mean—

 

[Interviewer]: And you couldn’t even turn your car around and go the other way at that point.

 

[Myron Midcap]: Couldn’t, no. No, no.

 

[Interviewer]: You were stuck.

 

[Myron Midcap]: We were stuck.

 

[Interviewer]: Oh my gosh.

 

[Myron Midcap]: We were stuck. Yeah. [00:15:05] And then, after a while, the crowd thinned out enough that we were able to get through the intersection. And as we went through the intersection, the police were still kind of, again, my words, herding the crowd south on, what is it, Water Street. South of Main Street. And, for whatever reason, I saw—I saw a police officer wade through the crowd of kids and just, with his nightstick, he just, split some girl, a young girl, just, I mean just split her head open. I mean, yeah, immediately you could see her, you could see the blood and everything.

 

[Interviewer]: Oh my goodness.

 

[Myron Midcap]: I don’t know why, I mean, who knows, he may have had a reason, I don’t know why, but-

 

[Interviewer]: You didn’t see what might have provoked it?

 

[Myron Midcap]: I didn’t see any—yeah, I didn’t see any provocation, no. And at that point, we were pretty much able to get on out of there.

 

[Interviewer]: Did you, when you were in that part, driving out, or even when you were walking from the bar to your car, did you see any damage, broken windows?

 

[Myron Midcap]: Boy.

 

[Interviewer]: Fires, or—?

 

[Myron Midcap]: Didn’t see any fires. When you say the broken windows—

 

[Interviewer]: You certainly didn’t see anyone actually breaking windows—in the process of doing so?

 

[Myron Midcap]: No, no. But that, the question, I think we did. I think we did see some broken windows.

But, no, because that brings back the memory, like the question. I hadn’t thought about that. But no, didn’t see anybody breaking windows, no.

 

[Interviewer]: [00:17:33] Did you have a sense of, I’m guessing that wasn’t the first time you and your buddies came to downtown Kent?

 

[Myron Midcap]: Oh no. No, no.

 

[Interviewer]: On Friday night, to hang out?

 

[Myron Midcap]: No, no. We were very familiar.

 

[Interviewer]: Did you have a sense of were a lot of the people you saw seemed liked Kent State students, or did it seem, you know, in terms of the crowd, was it kind of the typical people you would usually see?

 

[Myron Midcap]: Pretty much, yeah, typical, yeah. I didn’t, I mean, obviously there may have been students in there. But, no, it was pretty much typical. I mean, the crowd itself, yeah. Young kids. Young kids, my age at the time

 

[Interviewer]: Teenagers, college-age students, early twenties.

 

[Myron Midcap]: Late, yeah, early twenties, yeah.

 

[Interviewer]: Okay, okay. Do you remember anything about other people you saw on South Water Street? Were people running at that point when it got thinner? Did people seem really frightened? Did you—

 

[Myron Midcap]: They were, it was still relatively—the sidewalks were, because they were able to get them, the street open.

 

[Interviewer]: Open the street and people more packed onto the sidewalks.

 

[Myron Midcap]: On the sidewalks, yeah. And it was, it was, yeah, sidewalks were pretty packed, you know. And they were moving, but it’s like at Blossom Music Center, if you’ve ever been to Blossom Music Center, trying to leave the concert.

 

[Interviewer]: Right, you’re not going to go very fast.

 

[Myron Midcap]: You’re not going to go very fast, yeah, that’s pretty much the way it was, if that’s a good description.

 

[Interviewer]: No, that’s helpful to have kind of a visual, for those of us who weren’t there. Interesting. [00:19:22] And then after that, once you got past, like Erie or Summit [Streets], you were able to just drive your friends home?

 

[Myron Midcap]: Yeah, right. Right. Down [Ohio State Route] 43 to Mogadore. And, yeah, that’s pretty much, that was pretty much my experience that night.

 

[Interviewer]: That’s a lot to take in at the age of eighteen.

 

[Myron Midcap]: It was.

 

[Interviewer]: You know, you think you’re just going to have kind of fun with your friends on this Friday night. It was nice weather, yeah, early summer, late spring.

 

[Myron Midcap]: Yeah, and it was. It was a nice night. And I had never, at that age, I wasn’t—politics, I wasn’t really—I knew what was going on, but politics hadn’t gotten to me. Or hadn’t concerned me. That would come next, that would actually come the next year, when I turned nineteen and was in the draft lottery.

 

[Interviewer]: When you’re draft eligible, yeah.

 

[Myron Midcap]: Yeah. And that happened the next year. I was in the draft lottery the next year. That’s when things started becoming more focused for me.

 

[Interviewer]: Sure, yeah. It’s on your front doorstep then.

 

[Myron Midcap]: Yeah.

 

[Interviewer]: [00:20:47] One thing I’m just curious about if you don’t mind going back to—

 

[Myron Midcap]: Sure.

 

[Interviewer]: —when you’re in the bar called The Deck with your friends and the uniformed police came, they didn’t explain why, or—?

 

[Myron Midcap]: No.

 

[Interviewer]: We just—we need to evacuate, no explanation?

 

[Myron Midcap]: No explanation what—no.

 

[Interviewer]: So, people were pretty confused.

 

[Myron Midcap]: Well, yeah. Yeah, I mean if they were like me, Why are you doing this? You know, Is there a fire? What’s going on? No, no explanation whatsoever.

 

[Interviewer]: Just get your beer, leave the bar now, we need everybody out.

 

[Myron Midcap]: Take, yeah, leave the bar now, get out of town, take your beer with you.

 

[Interviewer]: Oh, get out, they did say get out of town?

 

[Myron Midcap]: Yeah. Yeah.

 

[Interviewer]: What an experience. I don’t think I have any other kind of follow-up questions. Is there anything else you’d like to share, or—that we haven’t covered?

 

[Myron Midcap]: Again, it’s—you can look at it as ironic that after the fact I became a police officer myself. It wasn’t something that I wanted to do, I never thought about, oh, I want to be a—

 

[Interviewer]: It just came up at some point, yeah.

 

[Myron Midcap]: My friend said come on down and take the test with me. I said, “Okay.” So I ended up, you know, fairly high, and didn’t get on that time, and took the test with him the next time, a few years later. And ended up second on the list and became a police officer in 1980. And I think the experience here on May 1st may have had some determination on how I performed my job as a police officer. I was a—at the time when I became a police officer, I was a liberal, which is unusual for the police department. You know, most officers are conservative.

 

[Interviewer]: In the Seventies, certainly.

 

[Myron Midcap]: Yeah. Even now, yeah. Even still now. And I took some flak, you know, from the officers. You know, being a liberal. But, hey, that’s who I was. And I was proud of it. Still am. But yeah, I think that made a determination as to how I treated people. That was probably one of the things that I, because I was supervisor, a first-line supervisor and I had, there were rookies that I had to deal with, under my supervision. And, yeah, that’s one of the things, that I’d respect everybody. Respect everybody. Give them, give them the respect, you’ll get the respect. I mean that’s how I see, how I believed—

 

[Interviewer]: So that experience, what you witnessed May 1st, 1970, was part of your frame of reference and kind of informed your approach.

 

[Myron Midcap]: Sure. Yeah, to being a police officer and assisting in the training of the officers that were, you know, my subordinates. Yeah, it did.

 

[Interviewer]: Interesting. Thank you. Thank you so much for sharing your story, I really appreciate it.

 

[Myron Midcap]: Welcome. Thank you for allowing me to get this out!

 

[Interviewer]: Thank you.

 

 

[End of interview]

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