The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Photos captured horror of student deaths
The photograph of Mary Ann Vecchio kneeling over the body of a slain student became an iconic image of the horror of the May 4, 1970, shootings at Kent State University.
On May 5, 1970, Journal readers saw that image — on page 3.
The front page of The Journal carried another image of a man on the ground with the caption: “Blood flowing from a dead student’s head tells the story of yesterday’s shooting at Kent State University.”
The picture was not William Knox “Bill” Schroeder, 19, the Lorain man and Kent State student who died of a gunshot wound. Schroeder was not protesting, but was walking to class when the gunfire erupted.
The choice of the frontpage photograph was striking, said Laura L. Davis, a Kent State professor emerita of English and co-creator of the May 4 Walking Tour and May 4 Visitors Center. Davis was among the anti-war demonstrators at the college the day of the shootings.
It showed not Vecchio, but “the much more graphic, horrific picture of the long trail of blood coming from Jeff Miller,” another student who was shot and killed, Davis said.
“I often thought it was a commentary on the injustice and the horror of what had happened, is how I decoded what I thought the newspaper was doing with that choice of photograph,” Davis said. “It really says something. The other one does too.”
The other students shot and killed were Allison Krause, 19; and Sandra Lee Scheuer, 20. There were nine young people who were wounded in the shootings.
Schroeder family
Schroeder’s mother, Florence, generally spoke to the press for herself and her husband, Louis. They talked about their son, the lack of investigation into the shootings, the legal actions taken by victims and their families and the memorial services held at Kent State.
“My mother always felt that The Journal did very well by my brother,” said Nancy Tuttle, 70, Schroeder’s elder sister, of Cleveland Heights. “She was confident that they understood who he was, and there was never any negativity at all with The Journal. It meant a lot to her.” In 1990, Florence Schroeder said her speech at Kent State’s memorial dedication would be her final public statement on the shootings, according to a Morning Journal article then.
Remembering Billy
Among photographs of the four students who were killed, Tuttle said an oftenused portrait of her brother was not her first choice. It shows Schroeder in profile, looking down and not wearing a shirt.
“I hate that picture,” Tuttle said. “Because everybody else has their nice high school pictures, and then they show this with his shirt off.”
She declined to discuss exact details because Schroeder and friends went somewhere they “weren’t supposed to be on the property.”
“I hate that picture,” Tuttle said. “Because everybody else has their nice high school pictures and then they show this with his shirt off.” — Nancy Tuttle, 70, Schroeder’s elder sister