Killing Everybody
Sat awhile in thought this morning & may have arrived at an idea — a man comes to France to kill the Frenchman who killed his son in the war.
— Author’s Diary, August 4, 1966, in France
On TV we saw the 21 brave men who mutilated and murdered the three civil-rights workers in Mississippi last June, and I think I might round up 42 men and women at least as clever as the 42 FBI men who captured those 21 all on a morning, and we take 21 cars and 21 guns, one man driving and one man (or woman) with the gun across his (or her) lap, and we all take a drive to Mississippi, and on one appointed morning we kill all 21 of those men, and thus avoid the farce of a Mississippi trial. Reverend King and the father of one of the boys ask for justice, not vengeance, and I am sure they are right, though it doesn’t happen to be how I feel. These villains range in age from 17 to 71. They do not even care to hide their faces from the camera. They lounge at their arraignment as if it’s a line-up for a traffic summons. . . . Who will join my caravan of revenge to Mississippi?
— Twentyone Twice, December 5, 1964