Man Behind the Gun

When he enlisted in the Army last October, dark-browed Edgar A. Owens of Brooklyn did not disclose any of the more significant facts about himself: at 21 he had been arrested five times for automobile theft, had served two terms in boys' training schools, had done 26 months in a state reformatory, and spent five months in a mental hospital for treatment of dementia praecox. Edgar had never got past the sixth grade, had memory lapses, couldn't keep jobs, and--though he kept the fact from the recording sergeant--he had been classfied 4-F by his draft board.

After finding that he was normal in blood pressure, temperature and locomotion, the recruiter swore him in and sent him to Fort Dix, N.J. He had an Army intelligence rating of 28--three points above the lowest level permissible in the service. He also had a tendency to go AWOL. But Pvt. Edgar Owens was considered a "satisfactory" soldier, and he was patiently instructed in the use of weapons.

An Odd Impulse. A fortnight ago, with 224 other men of Company L, 39th Infantry, Edgar was in one of a series of final training exercises: an attack, with live ammunition, on a line of dummies "defending" a hill. Rifles banged. Artillery shells moaned overhead and exploded in "enemy" territory. Amid the excitement Edgar had an odd impulse. He aimed his M1 rifle at the back of 2nd Lieut. Richard Davenport, 22, the officer commanding his platoon. Then he pulled the trigger. The officer toppled over dead with a bullet through his heart.

At first, officers assumed that Davenport had been struck by a fragment from some freakish artillery burst. Then an autopsy physician found that he had been killed by a rifle bullet, and officers decided that Lieut. Davenport had been shot by a soldier with a grudge. The lieutenant had never disciplined Edgar or had any trouble with him, and the investigators did not pay him any special attention.

Missing Man. The day after the autopsy, a brass M1 shell was found at a point near which the fatal shot had obviously been fired. The rifles of 21 men who had been nearest the position were checked by the New Jersey state police. The shell matched Edgar's Garand. The platoon was taken back to the area of the exercise and ordered to reconstruct the attack. Everyone turned up but Edgar, who had stolen a car and gone over the hill again.

His mother welcomed him when he got home to Brooklyn, and thought he seemed "happy and gay." But that evening on the way to a dance, Edgar ran his stolen car through a red light, and led the cops a wild chase which did not end until they started shooting at him. He was arrested, returned to Fort Dix, and taxed with the murder of the officer. He promptly confessed. But when he was asked about his motive, he was less helpful. Edgar was apparently trying to cooperate, but he just didn't seem to know why he had killed Lieut. Davenport.

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