Heather Ann Thompson

Two of them have screwdrivers in their pockets.

They are zipped up.

They were never displayed.

No one ever said they were, including Goetz.

No one knew about them, but they had them.

Exactly.

That's how they would jimmy open the coin receptacles on these arcade machines.

So they were in their pockets.

That fact, the existence of these tools in their pocket, will be initially reported by

as they just have screwdrivers in their pocket is one of the many facts that were reported.

You know, and even that was, you know, a little bit of a, you know, wink and nod, but nevertheless, they are just the screwdrivers.

Very quickly, they become, according to the more conservative and salacious tabloid media, they were sharpened screwdrivers.

And that story that they were sharpened screwdrivers, which was simply not the case—

becomes the story.

And soon you can find it everywhere, including in mainstream news outlets across the country.

And indeed, most recently, I noticed when I was doing the book that when Bernie Getz is interviewed about Kyle Rittenhouse's act of vigilantism on that station that was covering the story, again, the sharpened screwdrivers come up.

And this is now, you know, 40

Some years later, it's now become fact that they were sharpened screwdrivers.

And, of course, from there flowed everything.

One can only visualize the man who's being surrounded by these thugs and these animals with sharpened screwdrivers.