KentNewsNet.com

So Jerry Lewis thinks he is a celebrity? Because of his crowd control research? Give me a break. Do you think anyone in the history, philosophy, or English departments cares about how May 4 fits into Smelser's sociological theories? Of course not. Lewis is deluded and he and Tom Hensley have have done nothing but harm the memory of May 4 because they only write about secondary and tertiary issues. You would never know that the shootings were "unnecessary, unwarranted, and inexcusable" by reading any of their papers or textbooks.

Jerry has an almost 40-year-long habit of stealing credit for everything. He claims to be the great scholar of May 4, when in fact he is a minor figure in the Kent State literature and his subdisciplinary research is irrelevant to anyone trying to understand why the shootings happened. He once tried to convince me he helped the victims get a federal grand jury investigation, when all he did was sign a petition. He was no friend of the victims. In fact, as I reported on pages 256 and 257 of Four Dead in Ohio, Lewis turned out to be an informant against them, reporting on their confidential legal strategy meetings to former KSU President Glenn Olds, at a time when the victims were trying to sue Olds' predecessor. This happened 3 days after the same meeting, in which Lewis stood up and acted like a spokesman for the few remaining campus radicals who opposed an investigation. Arthur Krause practically exploded at him. Lewis has also claimed that he acted heroically on May 4 because he was a faculty marshal, and faculty marshals helped calm the situation after the students were killed. This self-proclaimed "hero" hid behind a bush during the shootings and was not heard from again for the rest of the day. The truth is that Jerry Lewis is someone who, instead of helping, just got in the way of the real heroes and scholars of May 4.

Postscript: If Jerry is remembered for anything, it will be as the man who repeatedly sabotgated not just Krause and the families of the victims but rival chroniclers of May 4. He once tried to sabotage free-lance writer Lesley Wischmann by telling American History Illustrated that Wischmann's article was "riddled by errors." Lewis, who contributed another article for the magazine, was vehement about it. But when the editor asked him to specify what the errors were, Lewis could not come with anything. He has pulled the same crap on me, telling anyone who asks about my work that my book was also full of errors." Again, he cannot back up his claim and even worse, even if I had screwed up something, he had every opportunity to tell me about any alleged errors when it counted: before the book was published.

That is Jerry Lewis' defense, folks. All he can do is distract you and try to change the subject.

There is no defense for his shameless intellectual dishonesty.