SOLVED MA - Jane Britton, 22, Harvard student, Cambridge, 7 Jan 1969

[carbuff]

No, I spent my teaching career at a school called Buffalo State College. My name is a common one and I used to amuse my students by telling them that if they googled me they'd learn that I was an actor, a writer, played in the NFL, played in MLB, won a Macarthur genius grant . . . .

Thanks. Yes, common enough name, and it didn't quite sound like your field, but I was curious. Glad you're here

 

[bessie]

:seeya: Please check out this link. Thanks.


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[Kell1]

"Questioned" doesn't begin to describe it. I don't have time to write more today, but tomorrow or the next day I'll say something about that (and already did, in a response to ausgirl).

Thanks again Don

I think were on the same track with our thinking.

 

[Donamena]

Is it just impossible or off TOS to discuss the person whom some of you feel is responsible?

 

[Ausgirl]

Is it just impossible or off TOS to discuss the person whom some of you feel is responsible?

If they have not been named in MSM or directly viewed by police as a suspect -- very much yes.

 

[Donamena]

If they have not been named in MSM or directly viewed by police as a suspect -- very much yes.

Even if they are deceased?

 

[Woodland]

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9dpNu3jLO3tbkZSNmk2aHVYR00/edit?usp=sharing

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B9dpNu3jLO3teTdNRHZRS0JGbXM/edit?usp=sharing

Recently read through this thread - for some reason finding the following statement by KL-K (second page) to stand out for me (unable to copy from the image).

LF leaves the police station in the company of K-LK and K-LK gives a statement to a reporter.
"I know Jane and James well ... they were both students of mine .... I saw her just three days ago".

That would have been Saturday. JB had just returned from a visit home for the holiday, LF is not yet back. JB and LF go out Monday night after LF's return.
Prepping for the exam on Saturday? Last minute questions?

Maybe that was the way things were done in the 60's between a prof and a student?

 

[Donamena]

Recently read through this thread - for some reason finding the following statement by KL-K (second page) to stand out for me (unable to copy from the image).

LF leaves the police station in the company of K-LK and K-LK gives a statement to a reporter.
"I know Jane and James well ... they were both students of mine .... I saw her just three days ago".

That would have been Saturday. JB had just returned from a visit home for the holiday, LF is not yet back. JB and LF go out Monday night after LF's return.
Prepping for the exam on Saturday? Last minute questions?

Maybe that was the way things were done in the 60's between a prof and a student?

Hopefully Professor Mitchell will return & give us his first-hand opinion. But in my own opinion, there is no prep for comps. Either you know all possible avenues of questions with their corresponding answers that you might/could/should give, or you don't. No one can or should help you. There is no prepping, how would one? From the faculty, that is. Even my major professor told me. 'You're solo on this, sha.' But then, that's Louisiana.

 

[Ausgirl]

from the B. Globe article: "..and a pet cat named Fuzzwart, found lying near her body."



As for discussing deceased persons - idk. Maybe ask a mod?

 

[Donamena]

from the B. Globe article: "..and a pet cat named Fuzzwart, found lying near her body."



As for discussing deceased persons - idk. Maybe ask a mod?

What???? Dead cat?? Will ask mod. What happened to kitty?? Not that we'd know.

Thanks so much for all you do.

 

[DonMitchell]

What???? Dead cat?? Will ask mod. What happened to kitty?? Not that we'd know.

Thanks so much for all you do.

This one is easily answered. We took the cat (who was very much alive, for all that he was lying near the body). He lived with my wife's sister when we weren't in the country, and eventually he went to Buffalo, where he lived out the rest of his life.

 

[DonMitchell]

Recently read through this thread - for some reason finding the following statement by KL-K (second page) to stand out for me (unable to copy from the image).

LF leaves the police station in the company of K-LK and K-LK gives a statement to a reporter.
"I know Jane and James well ... they were both students of mine .... I saw her just three days ago".

That would have been Saturday. JB had just returned from a visit home for the holiday, LF is not yet back. JB and LF go out Monday night after LF's return.
Prepping for the exam on Saturday? Last minute questions?

Maybe that was the way things were done in the 60's between a prof and a student?

You're reading too much into this. Although I don't know what CCLK (that's what everybody called him) was referring to precisely, the Anthropology Department was hardly a physically closed operation. The Peabody Museum Library, for example, would have been open on Saturday, and as a research library anybody could have been there. The various laboratories were probably locked (I don't remember) but that wouldn't necessarily mean both students or faculty might not have been in there working on a Saturday.

What I'm saying is that I don't find anything the least unusual about the statement.

 

[Ausgirl]

Ah, no - I only meant it was very sad that her cat was found by Jane's body. Loyal kitty.

I am glad to know he was taken good care of, though, that was a nice thing to do.

 

[dotr]

DonMitchell, nice to have you here, wondering if there were any reports or rumours of other types of assaults at the school at the time of Jane's murder?

 

[DonMitchell]

Hopefully Professor Mitchell will return & give us his first-hand opinion. But in my own opinion, there is no prep for comps. Either you know all possible avenues of questions with their corresponding answers that you might/could/should give, or you don't. No one can or should help you. There is no prepping, how would one? From the faculty, that is. Even my major professor told me. 'You're solo on this, sha.' But then, that's Louisiana.

There was plenty of prep for comps, although I think maybe you're using the term narrowly. And maybe all you're referring to is "from the faculty," in which case that's correct, although (see below) because written comps were a new thing, I don't doubt that students would have asked professors how it was all going to work -- that sort of thing.

The one-sentence description of why the students were nervous and uncertain was that it was the first time that (a) the exam was on the same date for everybody and (b) it was written. Both were completely new to faculty and students.

At Harvard, before written comps arrived, you had 2 years of classwork, and then were expected to take as long as you needed to prepare for your first set of orals, which you then scheduled when you thought you were ready. There was no defined time of year for orals, but it was common for students to schedule them in the spring of the year following the year they completed their course work.

We had two sets -- the "generals," during which 5 professors grilled you for a couple of hours about anything to do with anthropology as a field -- and then the "specials," which were narrowly about your intended (or sometimes completed) fieldwork. Some time usually elapsed between generals and specials. I think the Department would have been displeased by a student who took much longer than an academic year (after having done the coursework) to prep, but there was no regulation about it that I can remember.

The 1969 comps were the first written ones and the first ones taken by all the appropriate grad students at the same time. But the ethos and collective student experience in the department was with orals. People always talked about their orals, in general, so you always knew the kind of thing you'd be facing in that room. So the older students could be helpful to the younger ones.

When we were getting ready for generals, we didn't so much study together as we practiced together. We would sometimes meet and students would play the roles of questioners. This was important and useful because in orals, obviously, you're sitting there and must immediately answer the question.

But no one really knew what the written comps would be like. I think (but can't remember for sure) that they were told something about the way the exam would be organized -- in other words, the sections they might expect, how long they'd be given to write their answers, if there would be any choice of questions, and so on. I didn't pay attention, because I'd already completed my generals and was headed for the field.

For the first written comps, as I've said, there was a lot of uncertainty. In all the following years, there wouldn't have been so much. I don't remember being told about study groups, but I wouldn't be surprised if there had been some.

I believe that the professors (and probably the instructors/lecturers) submitted questions to some central committee, which put together the actual exam. More details than that, I don't have.

 

[DonMitchell]

DonMitchell, nice to have you here, wondering if there were any reports or rumours of other types of assaults at the school at the time of Jane's murder?

I can't remember any.

 

[Ausgirl]

Originally Posted by DonMitchell
"Questioned" doesn't begin to describe it. I don't have time to write more today, but tomorrow or the next day I'll say something about that (and already did, in a response to ausgirl).

Hoping you'll get some time to elaborate on this on a bit, Don.

I was wondering how long the break was - both Jane & James were only just back from time with their parents, IIRC.

While I wholly mistrust anything the papers said at the time, now, I still have to ask whether you were at all aware of the person who apparently asked Jane out and was rejected, and was mentioned a few times as a person of interest to police.

I'm wondering if that happened prior to the trip home, or in the short time since she'd returned.

 

[Ausgirl]

wondering if there were any reports or rumours of other types of assaults at the school at the time of Jane's murder?

The papers reported that Jane was assaulted not long before her murder, by a guy whom she turned a knife on and cut his clothing.

Then there was Ada Bean, murdered by blunt trauma in her apartment less than a mile from Jane's apt, and not very long after Jane was killed.

I'm sure there were other attacks reported, and mentioned upthread, just can't recall them off the top of my head.

 

[Woodland]

You're reading too much into this. Although I don't know what CCLK (that's what everybody called him) was referring to precisely, the Anthropology Department was hardly a physically closed operation. The Peabody Museum Library, for example, would have been open on Saturday, and as a research library anybody could have been there. The various laboratories were probably locked (I don't remember) but that wouldn't necessarily mean both students or faculty might not have been in there working on a Saturday.

What I'm saying is that I don't find anything the least unusual about the statement.

For clarification, was not trying to read anything into it. Just asking why he might have seen her 3 days before.

 

[DonMitchell]

Ah, no - I only meant it was very sad that her cat was found by Jane's body. Loyal kitty.

I am glad to know he was taken good care of, though, that was a nice thing to do.

Unless I'm misremembering, Fuzzwort (not Fuzzwart) was the son of our calico cat. And he was used to going back and forth between apartments; when Jane was gone, he stayed with us.