"Ike McMillan – Usually the two squads didn’t talk to each other. But that night in November we did. Joe Zawtocki called me. Joe and me got along pretty good because Joe blew pot. All the guys who blew got along.
Anyway, Joe said, “Hey, Ike, you want some pussy?”
“Yeah, man.”
“You’re gonna have to eat it.”
He had the camp cat with him. Grissett, Harker, and Strictland had planned to kill the cat and eat him. Trouble was nobody could catch him. I returned and told everyone we had the cat.
Somebody said, “Who’s gonna kill him?”
“Not me,” I said. “I’ve done had enough bad luck with cats.”
Tom Davis – I didn’t want them to kill it. I thought it was bad luck and also knew the camp authorities would miss it. The cat was meowing loudly. The guys were gathered around petting him. They tried first to drown him in a pot of boiling water. He jumped out scratching and spitting and almost got away.
Then Grissett said, “I’ll kill him.”
Ike McMillan – Russ took the cat outside. We heard this ka-loomph! He returned. The cat’s head was bashed in. Someone got a rusty razor blade and began to skin it. Kushner was detailed to hide the fur and entrails. Strictland watched for the guards.
Then Qua the Montagnard guard came in and began poking around. He spotted the paws we hadn’t been able to skin and shouted, “Meo! Meo!” [Cat].
All of us ran from the kitchen and left the cat laying there. We went to our hootch and jumped on the bed. The VC arrived and ordered us outside.
Frank Anton – We watched from our hootch. It was an eerie scene. The lamp light distorted the VC’s features and made them appear even more sinister.
They said, “You killed the camp’s cat. The camp commander loves his cat. All the guards love the cat.”
It was ridiculous. They had loved the camp’s dog too. Yet one day several months earlier, when meat was in short supply, they had beaten their lovable dog to death with sticks and eaten him.
Ike McMillan - They asked who killed the cat. We stood firm for a half an hour. Then Russ Grissett said, “I killed the cat.” The guards tied up Grissett and beat and kicked him.
Frank Anton – Grissett never recovered from the incident. Taking that terrible beating must have made him give up all hopes of being freed. He became quiet and meek. He stopped eating and began to regress. He lay on his bed all day in the fetal position with a blanket pulled over his head, sucking his thumb and whimpering like a baby.
Tom Davis – Everybody pitched in when someone was really down. Personal differences were forgotten. Russ had dysentery very badly. We washed his clothes and brought food to his bed. We tried to make him eat, to make him get up and move about. But we were fighting against impossible odds. At a certain point in starvation a lack of vitamins brings a loss of appetite. A man will ultimately lie down and die staring at food piled in front of him.
David Harker – Russ Grissett went harder than anyone. Kushner and I stayed up all night with him. He knew he was dying. He asked us to tell his sister that he loved her. He passed away about 3:30 in the morning the day before Thanksgiving."
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