Kent State University - Chestnut Burr Yearbook (Kent, OH)

Page 27 text:

in May 4 shootings

Page 26 text:

avies -- Gov t hand Peter Davies, the author of the book The Truth About Kent State, has been searching for that truth for over three years, at much personal sacrifice. He was born in England in 1931, and moved to the States in 1957 with his wife. England was becoming too socialisticf' he said. I always felt that the attitude toward individual rights in the U.S. was similar to mine. Davies has been running his own insurance company, which has suffered neglect since his wholehearted involvement in uncovering the facts about May 4th. My insurance business has gone downhill, he said. It,s also affected my family life. My wife supports what I'm doing, but she's torn. The question arises as to why a man fwho was, prior to May 4th, not involved with Kent Statej would pursue such an issue at the expense of his business and family. To me, Kent State was the last straw,', he explained. Fm doing it for my children. We must compel the law to be upheld, for if we fail, an incident like Kent could happen again. Davies, together with the help of the United Methodist Church, has waged a three- year battle pushing for a reconvening of a Federal Grand Jury to investigate the shootings. It's been up and down, Davies said. Every time you thing you're going to make a breakthrough, it falls through. That breakthrough almost came in October. Elliot Richardson finally announced a reconvening of the Grand Jury. One week later he turned in his resignation. Once again, Davies' efforts were thwarted, after coming so close. Why is this administration so paranoically determined to keep the case closed?', he asked. Could it be that an order was given on the National level? Was the desire to crush campus unrest so keen that someone in the higher-up said, 'Shoot off your guns, boys, nothing will happen to you'? An incident that has totally mystified Davies, and greatly

Page 28 text:

aroused his suspicions, occurred last August 1973. This incident concerned a phone conversation between Davies and a highly respected Washington correspondent for the New York Times. Davies said he told the correspondent about Justice Department speculation on an additional inquiry into the shootings. Asking to remain anonymous, the correspondent informed Davies that there would never be a full-scale investigation made. The correspondent, who had been very sympathetic to Davies' cause, said, according to Davies, the pain of no investigation, to the parents of the dead students, would be nothing compared to the pain of a full investigation would reveal to the nation. D avies pleaded for an explanation, but the man said that he had been sworn to secrecy. He only said that his advice to let Kent State die was simply based on his judgement of what he had seen or been told by governmental officials. This unsolved mystery has led Davies to believe that there may be a correlation between President Nixon's nomination of William Saxbe for Attomey General, and What I don't understand is the resistance to the Federal Grand Jury. the fact that Saxbe wants to see the Kent case closed for good. Davies said he feels that Saxbe is out of line in determining what is going to be done with a case which he has no access to, before he is appointed. Saxbe was quoted as saying, It is cruel to re-open a case because of public clamor. lf Saxbe is confnmed, and closes the case, Davies said, it will be like trying to deal with John Mitchell in l97l. By November things looked very bleak for Peter Davies. He said, Once you've started on this type of thing-and things come out--it's impossible not to pursue it. With this Saxbe thing, you can't give up. Perhaps I'm being selfish when I think of what I'm doing, and still doing, and they could care less. It disgusts me. As Saxbe is an ex-colonel in the Ohio National Guard and a personal friend of ex-Governor Rhodes, Davies said he will try to persuade the Judiciary Committee that it would be a conflict of interest for Saxbe to make a decision on the Grand Jury Davies has gotten many positive reactions to his book. People have been writing to him and asking what they can do to help. Many say their views have been changed after reading the book. His main concern is that many students have let the issue die. He said, It's very disheartening to the families of the dead students. They feel that the students should take issue. Will this sit and pile up with the rest of the injustices? On a more positive note, Davies said, I have no doubt that the whole lid will eventually blow off this matter, when we once again have decent people in the administration. We'll be descending again. We will not let up the pressure. They will be sick of the sound of our voices. As was the Boston Massacre of 1770, I believe that Kent State 1970 will also prove to be a turning point in American history F' By January, the e orts of Davies and the parents o the dead students had paid off The Grand Jury following the investigation had been reconvened. When contacted, Peter Davies had this to say: We've proved that we 've made an impact on Washington to the extent that the Senate Judiciary Committee has gotten a written statement from William Saxbe saying that he will keep his hands og the case. All of the work to get t e Federal Grand Jury has finally paid off but I think it is tragic that it took all of this time. It seems that if there's nothing to hide, they would settle this matter. 24 Perhaps Norman Cousins was on the right track when he raised the question of the possibility that the decision to fire was made on the national level.