Pointing to the Stars

The man on trial before a U.S. court-martial in London was Sergeant Judson H. Smith--one of twelve men charged with cruelty to G.I. prisoners in the guardhouse of the loth Reinforcement Depot at Lichfield. But last week, as the story of repeated brutalities (TIME, Dec. 31) continued to unfold, lowly Sergeant Smith became almost the forgotten man at his own trial. The accusing finger pointed higher & higher up the chain of command.

Handsome, dignified Major Richard E. LoBuono, onetime provost marshal at the depot, had been called as a defense witness for Smith. Under triphammer questioning LoBuono began to amend his answers. Among the cross currents of his testimony was one which swirled close to Colonel James A. Kilian, the depot's bespectacled former commandant. LoBuono testified that he had been shaken by Kilian's threats. One of them: "I made you what you are today and I am going to hang you." Later, LoBuono said, he "had gained the impression" that Kilian "was trying to control witnesses for his own protection--to keep this off his own doorstep."

Kilian's Hotel. Kilian, LoBuono went on, "said he thought someone higher up was gunning for him," and he meant Lieut. General John C. H. ("Courthouse") Lee, head of ETO's service forces.

The prosecutor seized this opening: "Didn't Kilian suggest that the Lichfield policy was dictated by higher authorities?" LoBuono: "Yes."

"Didn't he suggest that the conditions at Lichfield were well known to higher headquarters. . . ?" LoBuono: "Something like that."

One of the higher authorities named by

LoBuono was Major General Albert E. Brown, who had been chief of the Ground Force Reinforcement Command. Brown, according to LoBuono, had told him that the treatment at the guardhouse was "too soft," and had told Defendant Smith: "You're not tough enough on these men. You're running a hotel, Sergeant."

A soldier-prisoner at the "hotel" testified that he had heard Defendant Smith ask another prisoner where he had been wounded. When the soldier told Smith, the sergeant "rammed a club" into the spot indicated.

At the "hotel," the prosecution charged, "more than one death may have resulted from beatings . . . and there may well be charges of murder or manslaughter."

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