Historian calls Kent State shooter’s guilt into question

“The Man Who Started the Killings at Kent State: The Myron Pryor Lie Detector Test” by historianJohn Fitzgerald O’Hara reveals never-before-seen evidence related to the May 4 shootings from the files of late defense attorney C.D. “Gus” Lambros, who represented several Ohio National Guardsmen in the federal grand jury and criminal cases in U.S. Northeastern District in 1974.  One of Lambros’ clients was Sergeant Myron C. Pryor, the most ubiquitous guardsman on the firing line, shown in several iconic photographs pointing a .45 pistol at the crowd.  For a decade, activists, federal prosecutors, and plaintiffs’ attorneys focused on Pryor as a potential catalyst in the shootings, fueling speculation about his guilt even up to the present.  My article presents a countervailing narrative, including lie detector results which report Pryor was truthful in his claims that he neither loaded nor fired his weapon on May 4, and did not organize or participate in a conspiracy to shoot students that day.