Varnado Simpson

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Private First Class Varnado Simpson was an African-American soldier who participated in the My Lai Massacre. He was wracked with remorse after the killings and eventually committed suicide.

Simpson joined the U.S. Army in 1967 at the age of 18, and the following year was posted to South Vietnam. He was assigned to Charlie Company, under the command of Captain Ernest Medina, and participated in the massacre at the village of My Lai, where he reportedly killed at least eight unarmed villagers, including a mother and her baby (I shot them, the lady and the little boy. He was about two years old.[1]). His official statement on the event was succinct: I killed about eight people that day. I shot a couple of old men who were running away. I also shot some women and children. I would shoot them as they ran out of huts or tried to hide.[1]

Some time after returning home from the war, Simpson's own son was accidentally shot by neighbors in his front yard. Simpson recalled the day later by stating He died in my arms. And when I looked at him, his face was like the same face of the child that I had killed. And I said: This is the punishment for killing the people that I killed.

In 1982 he was admitted to a Veterans Affairs hospital in Jackson, Mississippi, where he was diagnosed with paranoia after recounting his actions in the village, as well as his recurring fears that the dead villagers would come back for vengeance upon him.

Twenty years after that initial statement, in a 1989 interview, Simpson claimed to have killed about 25 people and added scalping and bodily mutilation to his description of events. The baby’s face was half gone, my mind just went…and I just started killing. Old men, women, children, water buffaloes, everything…I just killed…That day in My Lai, I was personally responsible for killing about 25 people, he said.[2] At this point he was being heavily medicated for psychological disorders, and it is unclear which memories of the events are more accurate.

For years Simpson had lived with all his doors and windows locked and shuttered. After three unsuccessful attempts, he committed suicide in his home in 1997, a few months before the 30th anniversary of the massacre.[3]

[edit] References

  1. ^ An American Tragedy TIME magazine
  2. ^ Into the Dark: The My Lai Massacre Crime Library
  3. ^ "Being forgiven"
  • Michael Bilton & Kevin Sim, Four Hours in My Lai. Penguin Books, 1992.
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