May 6, 2011
Dear Mr. President & General Holder,
My sister Allison Krause was killed at Kent State on May 4, 1970. I co-founded the Kent State Truth Tribunal with Emily Kunstler and we opened our doors for the first of three tribunals last year right around this time.
On May 1-4, 2010 we recorded, preserved and honored the stories of original participants and witnesses of the Kent State shootings on May 4, 1970. It was a blessing that my mother Doris Krause, 85, was able to be present for the beginning of the Kent State healing.
As I returned to my home in California, I received word from Mom that the Kent State Tape had been examined for the very first time and a story was breaking in the Plain Dealer tomorrow, article here http://bit.ly/aM7Ocm That she had given a quote applauding the news of this long-denied order to shoot. That it had been analyzed and verified by Mr. Stuart Allen, a top forensic scientist (also Stuyvestant colleague of General Holder).
In October 2010 at the Kent State Truth Tribunal, we invited Mr. Allen to participate as a meaningfully-involved participant, to examine the Kent State Tape before our cameras. At KSTT-NYC, I received word that there was more than the command on the Kent State Tape. That Mr. Allen, in preparing for his KSTT testimonial, discovered a violent altercation recorded just 70 seconds before the national guard command to fire and ensuing barrage, 67 shots for 13 seconds. Read http://bit.ly/als1xB
As we opened our doors in NYC for our KSTT on October 9-10, 2010, and as a result of Mr. Allen’s shocking new evidence, Representative Dennis Kucinich, chair of the Domestic Policy subcommittee responded by immediately opening an investigation into the Kent State shootings. http://bit.ly/cO69Yx
Then the other shoe dropped. The Democrats lost the election and Rep Kucinich lost his seat as chair in the Domestic Policy subcommittee. http://bit.ly/hmM2SH
Looking back on my Kent State path, I was 15 years old when Allison was murdered. For nine years after, my family life and world were also blown apart forever, especially as my folks pursued justice for Allison in the courts. Mr. President, no one from the government ever came to help us, except for Senator Ted Kennedy, and now recently with Rep Dennis Kucinich.
Recollecting those horrible years, I remember my Dad entering the Kent State Tape into evidence in his lawsuits. Lots of folks called Dad Krazy Krause, he would not let this go. 40 years later, it was heartening to realize Dad knew that the tape held the key to the truth at Kent State. It has taken us over 40 years to be able to decipher and once in for all, hear the recorded sounds via Mr. Stuart Allen’s expertise and kgb audio software.
Mr. Allen verified the long-denied ‘order to fire’ at the unarmed students, and surprisingly discovered new evidence in the violent altercation between Mr. Terry Norman and students. Mr. Allen heard Mr. Norman’s later surrendered pistol shoot off four pistol rounds, creating the sniper fire claimed by the national guard. Mr. Norman was a consensual informant for the F.B.I. and working that day. More on Mr. Norman http://bit.ly/gSN9pP and http://bit.ly/994afB
Mr. Norman is one of many present that day, cogs in the wheel delivering four homicides on May 4, 1970 and crossing the line at Kent State, yet Mr. Norman’s actions directly connect the FBI with the command to fire. Mr. Norman’s actions prove the intent to create, as in instigate sniper fire 70 seconds before the guard shot. Now we understand the odd ‘Alright’ in the ‘command to fire’ order.
It is for this reason that I formally request you Mr. President examine the new evidence in this cold case homicide of Kent State. Furthermore I ask you to create an impartial and unaffiliated team to investigate the F.B.I. This is the same instruction I gave Congressman Kucinich.
From Wikipedia: Impartiality is a principle of justice holding that decisions should be based on objective criteria, rather than on the basis of bias, prejudice, or preferring the benefit to one person over another for improper reasons.
Mr. President and General Holder, please examine the new evidence in the Kent State Tape.
Sincerely,
Laurel Krause
P.S. Recent writing on learning the truth at Kent State in 2010, also published at the request of Rep Dennis Kucinich in the 2010 Congressional Record: Truth Emerging in the Kent State Cold Case Homicides http://bit.ly/fgI0h2
*******
Laurel Krause’s 6/9/2011 video on the new Kent State evidence and our call for a Kent State Inquiry in 2011:
Arthur Krause’s response to the slaughter of Allison Krause, his daughter, May, 1970:
She resented being called a bum because she disagreed with someone else’s opinion. She felt that our crossing into Cambodia was wrong. Is this dissent a crime? Is this a reason for killing her? Have we come to such a state in this country that a young girl has to be shot because disagrees with the actions of her government?
In today’s snail mail letter, I also enclosed my father’s words & image:
Yesterday on the Internet I discovered Arthur Krause’s words from 1979 and wish to share them with you. Here’s a picture of united Kent State, May 4th folks at a press conference, taken at the end of their nine year search for justice through the judicial system.
Arthur Krause is the tall man in the back, smoking a cigarette & my mom Doris Krause sits in front of him. My father shared, “The thing that I hope people remember … is that it could happen to their child. I was like everyone else and then it happened to us.”
Arthur and Doris Krause carry on their lives ten years after the incident, but the pain and the lessons of the last ten years are evident. “I think we are all responsible for the killings at Kent. You can’t get away from the hatred being spread by national leaders during that time. That political period was one which bred hate and with Nixon and Rhodes fanning the fires you can expect killings to result.”
Krause, the parent who initially began the quest for justice in the Kent State case continued, “I knew what was going to happen; that justice would not be served, but I wanted to make sure that there was pressure applied. In the beginning the other families were not as believing that nothing would be done; I think they thought I was some sort of radical. But I can tell you that if you don’t stand up for your rights they will be taken away from you just like they were from Allison and the others.”
Arthur and Doris Krause have mixed feelings about the 1979 settlement. “We don’t want the damn money ~ we want the truth. If we had wanted the money I would have accepted the one and a half million dollar bribe I was offered to drop the civil suit, offered to me in the presence of Peter Davies in 1971.
We want the facts out about how the four died. We aren’t afraid of the truth. We aren’t the ones who have been saying ‘no comment’ for the past ten years.”
Arthur and Doris Krause hope the movie would generate more of the same hate mail they have received for the past ten years. “They always point out that my daughter had gravel in her pockets . . . that this was the rationale for killing her . . . why didn’t they throw gravel at her?”
“The political climate is very similar to that in 1970,” Krause added, “Kent State, 1970 means we no longer have our daughter, but it also means something to all Americans. Our court battles establish without a doubt one thing. There is no constitution. There is no Bill of Rights.” ~ Arthur S. Krause
Sometimes you have to keep going, when you know you are moving in the right direction, no matter WHAT it takes, no matter how long, or how far you have to go. Truth heals. I don’t know why, it just does.
I applaud you for continuing this crusade for justice for your sister and all of the victims of this massacre. It’s a huge burden you carry and I hope you know that you do not carry it alone. The truth will eventually come out. It always does.
Hello,
Like you I remembered and will continue to remember as long as there is breath in my body.
http://unrulymob.blogspot.com/2011/05/remember-on-this-day-in-1970.html#links
I’ve visited your blog before, but never made the connection.
-CC
As a long-time reader of Unrulymob, it was heartening to see your May 4th posts last week and over the years. ~Laurel
IF we are a country that truly values justice, then the truth of what happened on May 4, 1970 needs to be told. It’s been swept under the rug long enough. PLEASE, Mr. President, in light of the new evidence, re-open this investigation!
I was there on the day that the people were killed by the National Guard. I helped to set up and then coordinated the Committee for Non Violence. there is a Paul Kriese file in the May 4 Collection in the Kent State library. I am interested but not surprised to hear of the developments on the Kent State deaths. I honor May 4 each year.
Paul Kriese
In May 1970, I was an anti-war sailor on an aircraft carrier off the coast of northern Vietnam. We had previously experienced acts of sabotage to the ships flight deck elevators and turbines. We were all outraged that the war machine would turn its guns on American students and some acted in resistance!
Twenty years later, after finally getting my own education on the G.I. Bill, I went to Kent State with fellow members of Vietnam Veterans Against the War, stood on “Blanket Hill,” and heard 1972 presidential candidate George McGovern and Wu’er Kaixi, spokesman for the massacred students of Tienanmen Square, who had interrupted Li Peng, the “Butcher of Beijing!”
The campaign for justice for those massacred at Kent State, Jackson State and Tienanmen Square must continue! Students must be free to express their opinions and their opposition to unnecessary “wars of choice!” Laurel, thank you for your open letter!
Thank you for continuing to seek the truth. I am a 2x Kent State grad. I have stood where Allison was shot on many occasions. The distance between her and the guard clearly eliminates the defense of threatening students. It is sad to say that the troops just fired into the crowd. “We the people,” (USA and Ohio) are responsible for this event. I laud all the people who have kept awareness of this event in the consciousness of America. The unthinkable is possible.
It is LONG past time for this inquiry!
Why is this country, no matter what sociopath is sitting in the White House, so afraid of the truth. Why is it that not only are the citizens of this country kept from it, and are instead led down a path of untruths and out and out lies? Perhaps, those that take the position that,”We the people simply cannot handle the truth’, are themselves the ones that cannot face the truth. For this matter to have still not seen the light of day where the truth is concerned speaks volumes to how we are not now nor have we been a civilized society in the days since JFK, MLK, RFK and the Kent victims have perished. As close now to a police state as we have ever been. People, we must demand better or deserve what we get.
Your sister sat across from me in Janice Lester’s art class at Churchill High in 69. She was a lovely, open and funny girl that I had little in common with at the start of the school year and by years end we could talk about anything …. usually did. What a tragedy. I think of that art class every year on the yearly passing of that horrible day. Your sister was a person that would have made a difference in the world and the lives of others … gone too soon.
The time to act on this is now – it has been FAR too long since this tragedy that the truth has been hidden. Now that it is know, justice cries out to be done.
Thank you and your family so much for your efforts and persistent strength over the years. I was 8 years old when I saw your sister get killed and I have never forgotten it. The truth is horrible enough; having to live 40 years thinking you’re crazy because everyone tells you you are, to question such a thing is bad also. Your family’s efforts have helped me have some peace of mind after 40 years. Again, thank you.
I remember this sad event well, although I was not at Kent State University. I lost four peers in an act of violence against its own people by agents of the government. Although I did not know them personally, I will remember their names always.
I remember this event. It was wrong and the truth should be out and dealt with. America remembers.
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