It Happened in the U. S. A.

During his stay in the bare, barred "juvenile tank" of Seattle's King County Jail, 16-year-old John Emberg often wished he were dead. He was a dull, shy, slack-chinned boy. When a tough red head named Chuck Thomas forced other boys to fight him, he backed away, posturing timidly. When he was beaten with shoes and belts, he wept.

Sometimes he screamed with pain. One night he was tied, head down, against the bars, and left with lighted cigarets between his toes. Jailers never bothered to investigate, and he was too terrified to complain. But last week, after he had been found dead in the tank's shower room, his teen-age cellmates callously told his story for him:

"A boy named Don took a dollar bill out of Emberg's pocket. Then Red Thomas asked him, 'Where's my dollar?' Emberg said, 'The other boys got it.' Red went in and got a shower handle and put it in his hand, under his glove, and began socking the boy. Red said grab his arms. A couple of boys grabbed his arms and Earl stepped on his leg. Then Red hit him in the nose and mouth until he was bleeding. Then Red told him to take a shower, and Red ate dinner.

"After dinner Red made Emberg stand there. The boy kept putting his hands up in front of his face. Red kept making him take them down, and then hitting him. Red knocked him down and kneeled on him. The boy said not to hit him in the face any more. Red said, 'Don't worry, we won't.'

"So he and some others started hitting him over the heart. Milton and I forget who the other one was burned his feet with matches. They let him lay for a while. One of the boys started to give him artificial respiration but Red said not to, to let him die. Then his face turned white and then purple and he died.

"They dragged him into the shower place and Red gave a couple of little boys some socks so they wouldn't squeal. Then the rest of the boys started fooling around, wrestling, boxing and stuff like that."

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