Feb 25, 2020 - Sale 2531

Sale 2531 - Lot 316

Price Realized: $ 500
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 700 - $ 1,000
(VIETNAM WAR--MY LAI MASSACRE)
A group of approximately 100 select photographs relating to the trial of Lt. William Calley and thirteen other American officers in the My Lai Massacre, in which more than five hundred unarmed Vietnmaese civilians were slaughtered (350 of them women and children).
With images of Lt. Calley (who was accused of killing 102 Vietnamese), attorney F. Lee Bailey (who defended Capt. Medina), the remaining military officials on trial, demonstrators supporting Calley, protestors, and pictures of family and jury members after the verdict was announced. Silver and silver wire service prints, the images measuring 9 1/2x7 1/2 inches (24.1x19 cm.), and the reverse, the sheets slightly larger, many with a caption in the negative, or mimeographed captions and notations on verso. 1970-71

Additional Details

A group of 14 officers, including Calley, Capt. Ernest Medina and Col. Oran Henderson (each of whom is pictured), were indicted and stood trial in 1971. All the officers were acquitted except for Calley, who was found guilty of premeditated murder and given a life sentence-- despite his claim that he was only following Medina's orders. Many saw Calley as a scapegoat, and his sentence was reduced upon appeal. In 1974 he was paroled.