who was charged in the my lai massacre
William Calley William Laws Calley Jr.[1] (born June 8, 1943) is a former United States Army officer convicted by court-martial of murdering 22 unarmed South Vietnamese civilians in the My Lai Massacre on March 16, 1968, during the Vietnam War. While not technically exonerated, after three and a half years of house arrest, Calley was released pursuant to a ruling by federal judge J. Robert Elliott who found that Calley's trial had been prejudiced by pre-trial publicity, denial of subpoenas of certain defense witnesses, refusal of the United States House of Representatives to release testimony taken in executive session of its My Lai investigation, and inadequate notice of the charges. His initial conviction faced widespread public opposition both due to the campaign circumstances of civilian embedded Viet Cong, and due to Calley being singled out as the sole officer convicted with respect to the massacre.[2]
Richard B. Fitzgibbon Jr. Technical Sergeant Richard Bernard Fitzgibbon Jr. (June 21, 1920 â€“ June 8, 1956), USAF, was the first American to lose his life in the conflict that would later be known as the Vietnam War. He was murdered by another airman and died of his wounds later on June 8, 1956. Through the efforts of his sister and former selectwoman Stoneham, Massachusetts, Alice Fitzgibbon Rose DelRossi, Fitzgibbon's name was added to the Vietnam War Memorial on Memorial Day in May 1999.