“Calley Convicted of 22 Murders”

The report of William L. Calley’s conviction for his role in the My Lai Massacre (1968) details the greatly reduced number of 22 unarmed civilians he was held responsible for murdering. The actual total killed by all the troops involved is over 500. Soon after, President Nixon controversially had Calley released from armed custody at Fort Benning, Georgia, and put under house arrest, where he remained until he was paroled in September 1974. Many saw Nixon’s act as effectively pardoning Calley in order to pander to a particular sector of public opinion, with the suspicions later confirmed by tapes of conversations between Nixon and Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger. Note the report on the death penalty for the ‘Manson Family’ on the same page.