William Calley, whose My Lai Massacre trial put Columbus in world spotlight, has died

Former U.S. Army Lt. William Calley , whose controversial court-martial at Fort Benning brought an intense international spotlight to Columbus five decades ago, has died, according to multiple media reports.

Calley died at the age of 80 on April 28 at a hospice center in Gainesville, Florida, the Washington Post reported Monday after obtaining a copy of his death certificate.

He was found guilty of murdering 22 of the more than 300 unarmed South Vietnamese children, women and elderly men killed by American soldiers in approximately three hours the morning of March 16, 1968 , during the Vietnam War. That notorious incident became known as the My Lai Massacre .

Although five officers involved were charged and tried in other military courts , Calley was the only combat soldier convicted. One day after Calley was sentenced to life in prison, then-President Richard Nixon ordered him to instead be put under house arrest.

Calley stayed there for three years as then-Fort Benning commanding general Orwin Talbott reduced the sentence to 20 years, and then-Secretary of the Army Howard “Bo” Callaway (born in LaGrange and raised in Harris County) reduced it to 10 years . He was granted parole in 1974.

Calley lived in Columbus after marrying a local woman and worked in her father’s jewelry store before moving to Atlanta. He issued a public apology during a 2009 speech to the Kiwanis Club of Greater Columbus :

“There is not a day that goes by that I do not feel remorse for what happened that day in My Lai,” Calley said then.

According to Dick McMichael’s report in the Ledger-Enquirer , Calley’s voice started to break when he added, “I feel remorse for the Vietnamese who were killed, for their families, for the American soldiers involved and their families. I am very sorry.”

When asked at that Kiwanis meeting whether obeying an unlawful order is an unlawful act, Calley said, “I believe that is true. If you are asking why I did not stand up to them when I was given the orders, I will have to say that I was a second lieutenant getting orders from my commander, and I followed them — foolishly, I guess.”