Not sure it was 60 years, but there are 2 incidents that are clear in my mind. One entailed a rape and murder of a 17 year old girl. It happened on the Arkansas River just off highway 96. There were 2 boys involved. There was no question as to whether they were guilty or not, just what the punishment should be. You see, they were young and their life was just beginning.
They were the victims here also. The girl had gotten in the car with them willingly. They were drinking and she knew that. She should have known better. They had sex with her and then she said she was going to "tell on them". They were both slated to go off to college in a few weeks and one or both had scholarships which meant they were respectable and the girl should have known better than to get in a car with two young men who had obviously been drinking! What did she think would happen? She must accept her share of the responsibility here! These were boys from very respected families and she was from the "other side of the tracks."
So they used her and then "somehow" she died and they panicked. They tossed her body on the ground under some trees and threw some dirt and leaves over her. They went home and went to bed. When the cold hard light of day dawned on the deed and the boys were confronted, they immediately blamed it on the girl. I do not recall exactly what kind of punishment was meted out, but it just reinforced my belief that "money talks and bullshit walks." And it was a further lesson about remaining chaste and not getting in a car with boys.
There was also about that time a teenager whose last name was Steele. He lived in the South end of Hutchinson. Now you need to know that at that time North and South were divided by Sherman Street. South of Sherman were letter streets and North were number streets. The further south you went the lower the value of the homes. The further north of Sherman, the higher the value of the property.
Now the teenager in this story lived on Bigger which was past F Street, which was "ghetto". It seems his stepfather was a heavy drinker and his mother was blind. As I recall his stepfather was beating his mother again and this time he grabbed the shotgun and shot him. Of course he was immediately arrested and since they had no money he was left in jail to await trial.
The newspaper ran a story about both of these "incidents". The first favored the boys since the girl was not there to defend herself and she may or may not have been drinking, but the boys agreed it was her fault. As I recall they were given very light sentences so they could go on to become fine upstanding citizens.
I recall the one about the Steel boy showed him in his jail cell awaiting trial. He did not have money for bail, so he would remain there until his trial. Although this was his first offence and was protecting his mother he could not get out on personal recognizance. He was after all, a juvenile and his step father was just beating his wife. As an adult male that was his right.
Maybe some one back in Kansas remembers these two stories and can refresh my memory since that was years ago and back then I did not worry about anything someone else did. I am a different person now and injustice is not in my vocabulary and it does not matter how much money you do or do not have: right is right and wrong is wrong. I have spent my life fighting for the underdog and making sure our rights are equal and not influenced by money or skin color or your sex or sexual orientation. I have a big umbrella and I can fit a lot of people under it.
We have come a long way, but I still seem little "Jim Crow" acts that almost make it under the radar. I now see women punishing men for things they did. I do favor a statute of limitations for things that happened 50 years ago. I worked side by side with men who received twice and three times as much in hourly wage as I did. After all, I was a woman; a lesser being. But you know what?
I am who I am today because of who I was back then. And I pretty much like the person I am today!
Peace!
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