William Calley, who led the My Lai massacre that shamed the US military in Vietnam, has died

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – William L. Calley Jr., who as an Army lieutenant led the US soldiers who killed hundreds of Vietnamese civilians in the My Lai massacre, the most notorious war crime in modern American military history, has died. He was 80 years old.

Calley died April 28 at a hospice center in Gainesville, Florida, the Washington Post reported Monday, citing her death certificate. The Florida Department of Health in Alachua County did not immediately respond to requests for confirmation from The Associated Press.

Calley has lived in obscurity for decades since he was court-martialed and convicted in 1971, the only one of the 25 men originally accused to be found guilty in the Vietnam War massacre.

On March 16, 1968, Calley led American soldiers from Charlie Company on a mission to confront a crack group of their Viet Cong enemies. Instead, over several hours, soldiers killed 504 non-resisting civilians, mostly women, children and elderly men, in My Lai and a neighboring community.

The men were furious: two days earlier, a trap had killed a sergeant, blinded a soldier, and injured several others while Charlie Company was on patrol.

The soldiers eventually testified to the U.S. Army commission of investigation that the killings began shortly after Calley led Charlie Company’s first platoon into My Lai that morning. Some were killed with bayonets. Families were herded into air raid shelters and killed with hand grenades. Other civilians massacred in a drainage ditch. Women and girls were gang raped.

It was only more than a year later that news of the massacre became public. And although the My Lai massacre was the most notorious massacre in modern U.S. military history, it was not an aberration: Estimates of civilians killed during the U.S. ground war in Vietnam from 1965 to 1973 range between 1 million and 2 millions.

The US’s own military records, archived over three decades, described 300 other cases that could reasonably be described as war crimes. My Lai stood out for its shocking one-day death toll, stomach-churning photographs and horrific details exposed by a high-profile US Army inquiry.

Calley was convicted in 1971 of murdering 22 people during the riot. He was sentenced to life in prison, but only served three days because President Richard Nixon ordered his sentence reduced. He served three years of house arrest.

After his release, Calley remained in Columbus and took a job at a jewelry store owned by his father-in-law before moving to Atlanta, where he avoided publicity and routinely refused interview requests from journalists.

Calley broke his silence in 2009, at the request of a friend, when he spoke to the Kiwanis Club in Columbus, Georgianear Fort Benning, where he was court-martialed.

“Not a day goes by that I don’t feel remorse for what happened that day in My Lai,” Calley said, according to an account of the meeting reported by the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer. “I feel remorse for the Vietnamese who were killed, for their families, for the American soldiers involved and for their families. I am really sorry.”

He said his mistake was following orders, which were his defense when he was tried. His superior officer was acquitted.

William George Eckhardt, the chief prosecutor in the My Lai cases, said he was not aware of Calley apologizing before that 2009 appearance.

“It’s hard to apologize for the murder of so many people,” Eckhardt said. “But at least there is an acknowledgment of responsibility.”