100 years ago this month: Raymond E. Morris, 18 (born Feb. 26, 1906), tried to intervene when a mob of hazers picked on his little brother, Benjamin, 14. “Bennie” resisted the then-“traditional” hair scalping of high school first-year-students.
Hazer William Duff, 17, accepted Raymond’s offer to fight in Benjamin’s place. “Look out, I’m going to paste you a good one,” Raymond said, according to witnesses.
Morris fell unconscious and was driven around by frightened boys in an automobile before being taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead.
The coroner ruled Raymond died from a cerebral hemorrhage through accidental means on September 2, 1924, according to the death certificate. Duff was given a “not guilty” jury verdict in 1925. The key factor in the verdict was that Morris volunteered to stand in for brother Bernard. In my 49 years since first studying hazing deaths, I know of no other case like this. Usually, the dead youth in a fight over hazing was the hazer or intended victim, not a stand-in protector.
Duff had health problems later in life and died of heart failure at age 59.
William Duff served for a time as president of the Hartford City Independent Order of Odd Fellows (Moderator Hank Nuwer was given a tour of the old headquarters while a freelance columnist for the Muncie Star-Press).
Bernard and wife Sarah Achor Duff named their only son “Raymond” after the brother who died while protecting him. Bernard (born 1909) lived a long life and died in 1990.
Several Indiana papers wrote editorials condemning hazing after the death.
