Norman was a Criminology[1] junior at the university on May 4, 1970, when soldiers from the Ohio National Guard suddenly opened fire on the crowd of students.
Norman, who described himself as a "gung-ho" informant,[1] was present and armed at the rally while he photographed the demonstrators for the campus police and the FBI, a fact that was initially denied by both agencies but later confirmed.
After the shooting, Sylvester Del Corso, the Ohio National Guard's top general, released a public statement that Norman had admitted firing four shots in self-defense.
Peter Davies, the author of the book The Truth About Kent State, and William A. Gordon, a journalist for the college's student newspaper and the future author of Four Dead in Ohio, reported that there were three additional witnesses who said they had heard either Norman admit "I had to shoot" or a Kent State police detective exclaim, "My God, he fires his gun four times.
Once news of the investigation broke, John Martin, the captain of one of the National Guard units that fired shots, came forward with the statements of his men, including one who thought he overheard Norman admit to shooting one person.
It is also unclear why the FBI initially lied to the public when it claimed to have no relationship with Norman, and why the Bureau announced that his gun had never been fired.
In a 2004 Tampa Tribune story, former Cleveland Plain Dealer writer Janis Froelich examined Norman's life since the shooting.
The original 30-minute, reel-to-reel tape was made by Terry Strubbe, a Kent State communications student who turned on his recorder and put its microphone in his dorm window overlooking the campus.