BLACK CI. FRAMED
ON FRAG RAP
FREE
BILLY
SMITH
On March 15, 1971, at 0045 hours a fragmentation
grenade exploded in ah officers barracks in Bien Hoa,
Vietnam.  Two lieutenants were killed and a third was
wounded.  Captain Rigby and First Sgt. Willis, who usually
slept in these barracks, were not there.  When thay arrived
on the scene they decided that the fragging was meant to
kill them, and that the guilty party could only be Private
Billy Dean Smith, a black GI they consided a "troublemaker".
They informed the CID (Criminal Investigation Division)
officer of their verdict, and called all the men in the
battalion into formation.  Without a single scrap of evidence, Billy Smith was called forward to the front of the
formation.  A heavy CID hand slapped his shoulder, and
Billy was told that he was under arrest for murder.
To the two murder charges were added two charges of
attempted murder--against the Captain and First Sargent,
and one count of assault on another captain and two
counts of resisting arrest, all for when he was arrested.
Once they had a theory, the Brass never asked
whether someone else might have done the fragging, or
what the reasons for it might have been.  Instead, the
military worked night and day to fit the facts to the
theory — to build a tight case against Billy Dean Smith.
No Evidence
The only direct evidence consists of one item.  The Army
claims that they found a grenade pin in Smith's pocket
when he was arrested.  This grenade pin has nothing linking it to the grenade that killed the officers.  In
addition, none of the six "witnesses" against Billy were
anywhere near the fragging incident.  No one even
knows why they will be testifying.
Almost all GIs hate the war, the Army, and their
commanding officers.  Most believe in fragging, and
BILLY SMITH OUTSIDE OF FORT ORD COURTROOM
have access to fragmentation grenades.  Billy's unit
was a combat unit.   The officers in his unit were so
afraid of their own men that they locked up the grenades
every night.  The fact that there is no special evidence
against Billy Smith is not important to the Army.  In
their eyes Billy is guilty.
Who is Billy?
Billy Dean Smith was born in 1948, tenth in a family
of twelve.  He grew up in Watts, and was arrested during
the 1965 insurrection in the city-wide dragnet for curfew
violations,  in 1969 he was drafted into the Army.  He was
opposed to the war and the Army even then, and wanted to
resist induction, but respected his family's desire that
he not go to jail.
He tried to appear too dumb to be drafted, but found
that next to impossible, and spent his time in boot camp
at Fort Ord, California.  He underwent AIT (Advanced
InfafÄry Training) in artillery at Fort Sill, Oklahoma,
and was sent to Vietnam in October of 1970, where he was
assigned to the command of Captain Rigby.