14th St. Shooting
"Tree" died in the doorway of 238 14th Street early Tuesday morning. He was shot twice with a shotgun, residents of the house said, after he refused to leave and advanced toward one person with his hands in his coat pockets. According to police reports a loaded pistol was found on his body.
238 14th Street, once the
elegant residence of the French Consul, is the last of-the 14th Street
"crash pads" that helped create the original Atlanta Hip Colony of
Peachtree and 14th fame.
In the past few months 238,
known as "the Columns," had become armed for self-defense. As a
friend of one of the residents put it, "Every time one of these tough
dudes needs money he goes up there and rips them off." About two weeks ago
two guys were shot when they tried to rip off the place. The cops came and
according to one source, said, "If they come up here to rob youÑshoot
'em." A few days later two more guys tried a rip off again. They were shot
at too.
"Tree should have known
that he couldn't go up there late at night like that, I wouldn't do it,"
said someone who knew him. "He wasn't a bad guy, a lot of people didn't
like him, but I did." Another said that Tree "hassled me and hassled
a lot of people, if you had any money on you it was his."
The cops descended on 14th
Street after the shooting, arresting everyone they found in the house, charging
them with murder. It's hard to imagine the police arresting seventeen residents
of a rooming house in nearby Ansley Park and charging them with murder when one
man was shot by one person. Then the police vandalized the house in what was'
described as a "search," One UPI reporter who saw several rooms said,
"they destroyed the place." Later reporters for the Bird and the
straight press were refused admittance.
Then someone discovered that
one of those arrested is Robert TSouvas, a defendant in the My Lai massacre.
Suddenly what is sensational local
news, "Hippie Area Shotgun Slaying Linked to Feud With Bikers,"
becomes very hot national news.
T'Souvas has been stationed
at Ft. McPherson here in Atlanta. In July he was arrested on charges of
possession of grass. His attorney charged that the CIA was conducting a
campaign against the My Lai defendants. The charges were dropped. T'Souvas says
that he and his wife and child were asleep in their room in the back of the
Columns when they were awakened by the police and arrested.
As the Bird goes to press it
seems that the police are preparing to drop murder charges against the
seventeen, presumably accepting the seemingly obvious explanation of the
seventeen that the guy who shot split before the cops arrived. But word is that
drug charges and charges of occupying a dive will be left against at least some.
What about the feud between
Hippies and Bikers? Well, in the first place, Tree was not a member of a bike
club. There is a lot of destructive violence in Atlanta's freak community, but
it's not be- cause of "feuds." It's there for many of the same
reasons that there's violence in Buttermilk BottomÑ because it's hard to
survive when Amerika constantly tries to wipe you out. Why do the police and
the straight press push the notion of a "feud?" Because if we don't
watch it, it will keep us divided at a time when we must get together to
survive.
Ñgene guerrero