Times Reporter Talks of Crime, Blames Parents

Poor parental role models and a Southern tradition of violence are unseen but potent origins of crime in America, New York Times reporter Fox Butterfield '61 said last night.

Speaking at the Gutman Center, Butterfield told the story of Willie Bosket, the murderer who allegedly committed 2,000 crimes as a youth and is now in prison for life.

Butterfield linked Bosket's behavior to the fact that Bosket's father was himself convicted for murder and was sent to the same reform school as Willie at the same age.

Butterfield said that Bosket wanted to be like his father, as a youth telling social workers and teachers that he would be a murderer like his father when he grew up.

"He wrote to his father, 'I am devoted to the revolutionary struggle,'" Butterfield said. "And his father wrote back, 'That's a bit too much excitement for me.' Willie was disappointed."

Butterfield said much of the American tradition of violence comes from the Southern concept of pride and honor.

Addressing an audience of approximately 200, Butterfield told stories of violence in the history of South Carolina and the nation.

He recalled how the father of Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.), a prosecutor in Edgefield, S.C., shot and killed a traveling salesperson who called him a liar and a scoundrel.

Butterfield also described the sport of 'wrastling,' which sometimes involves the gouging of eyes.

Some forms of crime are not as prevalent in this country as in other nations, Butterfield said, noting that more car thefts occur in England and Sweden than in the United States.

Murder, however, is very much an American problem, he said--it occurs 60 times more frequently in the United States than in England.

He recommended that children be taught not to follow in the paths of criminal parents, housing be improved, guns be confiscated and the art of parenting be better taught.

Butterfield has been a well-known reporter at the Times for the past 27 years, although his career was blighted by allegations that he plagiarized a story from the Boston Globe.

After graduating summa cum laude from the College, Butterfield won a Fulbright grant to study East Asia in Taiwan. He returned to Harvard to earn a masters degree before joining the Times.