As protests erupted on campus on May 4th 1970, Kent State student Terry Strubbe hung a microphone out his dorm window to capture the mayhem below. A cassette copy of that recording became evidence in the 1971 civil trial of eight Ohio National Guardsman.
In 2007, that cassette was discovered in the archives at Yale University. The audio was mangled, but some people thought they heard an order to guardsmen to open fire.
This spring, the Cleveland Plain Dealer sent a digital copy to New Jersey-based forensic audio analyst Stuart Allen to confirm that. Allen says he does hear the order. But it’s what else he hears that creates a new stir -four gunshots BEFORE the guard opened fire.
It’s evidence he thinks could reopen the 40 year-old cold case.
