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filming from inside the van. A guardsman ordered the men to separate, and
Stewart was ordered first to kneel and then to lie face down on the ground. A soldier approached him, kicked him once in the ribs, then stepped back and shot him behind his right ear, killing him instantly. Espinoza was shot to death off-camera by a different soldier, apparently before Stewart was killed, after he approached the guards to ask their permission for an interview. Pablo Tiffer López was driving the ABC van, and he testified that a soldier remarked of Stewart, "I'm sure he's no journalist. He's a dog." He also testified that the soldiers commanded the news crew to report that a Sandinista sniper was responsible.
288:. Hackman's Alex Grazier and Nolte's Russell Price are amalgamations of Bill Stewart's life and career as a journalist and war correspondent. In the film, Stewart's death is presented differently: Hackman's character is shot in the chest while standing up, and his death is captured in a series of still images by Nolte's character, who escapes from the scene in a hail of gunfire. As in Stewart's case, the images are shown to television audiences around the world, and the public outcry signals the end for the embattled Somoza dictatorship.
44:
300:, who lived in the area, and American nun Nancy Hanson persuaded the Committee of U.S. Citizens Living in Nicaragua to donate tools to Gonzalez and pay him a monthly stipend for his work. In 1987, Bill Stewart Park was described as "not unlike the hundreds of street-corner memorials that pay tribute to neighborhood martyrs of the insurrection."
240:
roadblock, and he testified before a military tribunal that he had not witnessed the shootings. He said that
Stewart's killer was a "Private González" who was killed in combat later the same day. Brenes testified that the private related to him that he had killed Stewart "because he tried to run away". The ultimate fates of the
291:
After the fall of Somoza, the new
Sandinista government created a park in Stewart's honor in Managua. The park, established at the site in Barrio Riguero where he was killed, featured a cement monument and a plaque with the inscription "In memory of Bill Stewart. He did not die in a strange land, and
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all ran it on their evening news broadcasts and repeatedly rebroadcast it in the following days. Millions of viewers in the United States and worldwide reacted with shock and outrage toward the Somoza regime. All three networks protested the killings by withdrawing their personnel from the country,
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Stewart and his 26-year-old
Nicaraguan interpreter Juan Francisco Espinoza exited the vehicle and approached the barricade. Stewart presented official press credentials issued by the office of the Nicaraguan president. When they were a few meters away from the soldiers, cameraman Jack Clark began
239:
Shortly after the killings, the
Nicaraguan national guard reported that they had arrested Corporal Lorenzo Brenes ("Brenis" in some reports), whom they said was the soldier responsible for Stewart's murder, and that he would be "brought before legal officers". Brenes had been in command of the
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244:
soldiers responsible for the killings of
Stewart and Espinoza are not known, due to the chaotic demise of the Somoza regime. Somoza fled Nicaragua for Miami on July 17, and the regime was overthrown on July 19, 1979, less than a month after Stewart's murder.
191:
On June 20, 1979, Stewart was traveling in a press van in the eastern slums of the capital city of
Managua with his camera and sound crew when they were stopped at a roadblock run by the Nicaraguan Guardia, President
196:'s main force. The van was clearly marked as a press vehicle as a precaution, which had become standard practice as the insurgency and revolution increased in intensity. On the previous day, the government newspaper
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we will cherish his memory because he is part of Free
Nicaragua." By 1984, the park had fallen into disrepair as the government diverted funds from municipal budgets to the war effort against the
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296:, and the park was maintained only by the volunteer Ricardo Gonzalez, an elderly man who lived nearby and witnessed Stewart's murder. That year the American internationalist engineer
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171:. While at Ohio State, he was active in many extracurricular activities including the Student Senate and the Sphinx honorary society, as well as a member of the
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Stewart was 37 years old. He was survived by his wife Myrna and his parents. His body was retrieved by his crew and flown on a U.S. Air Force
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in
February 1979. He had been in Nicaragua for 10 days reporting on the civil war between the Somoza dynasty and the leftist Sandinistas.
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in 1979. Footage of his execution was repeatedly broadcast on network television, resulting in an uproar in the United States against the
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from
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provides an account of Stewart's death and its impact, as well as the creation and maintenance of Bill Stewart Park.
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had run an editorial describing foreign journalists as "part of the vast network of communist propaganda".
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in Minneapolis. He was an experienced foreign correspondent, and his assignments included coverage of the
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issued a statement describing the murder as "an act of barbarism that all civilized people condemn."
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The news crew smuggled the footage out of the country and sent it to New York. ABC,
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The Death of Ben Linder: The Story of a North American in Sandinista Nicaragua
777:"Central American situation changing, but the U.S. press is missing the story"
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with only CBS leaving a single correspondent to cover the conflict. President
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27:
American murdered by Nicaraguan government forces during the 1979 revolution
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Best Seat in the House: Mark Rosen's Sports Moments and Minnesota Memories
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627:"Self-interest demands intervention in Nicaragua to stop Marxist threat"
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1008:"Main Street, Managua: War and Fear in the City of the Sandinistas"
805:"Bill Stewart Statement on the Death of the ABC News Correspondent"
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A fictional version of Stewart's murder was told in the 1983 film
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1080:
ABC-TV News report of the murder of Bill Stewart, June 20, 1979
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563:"Correspondents Decry Killing of ABC Reporter in Nicaragua"
390:. Columbus, OH: Ohio State University. 1963. p. 387.
127:(1941 – June 20, 1979) was an American journalist with
528:"Slayer of newsman died in battle, soldier testifies"
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rebel forces were closing in on the capital city of
886:"Watch Days of Fury (1979) on the Internet Archive"
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257:(1979), directed by Fred Warshofsky and hosted by
1085:President Carter's statement on Stewart's murder
594:"Nicaragua war victim forgotten but not by mom"
253:Footage of the incident appeared in the film
8:
435:
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342:"Lost Huntington: Remembering Bill Stewart"
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131:who was murdered by Nicaraguan government
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1134:20th-century American non-fiction writers
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1075:Bill Stewart on WCCO-TV, August 4, 1975
756:. Newburgh, New York. AP. June 24, 1979
659:"Newsman's killer died, Nicaragua says"
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555:
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905:Journal of Popular Film and Television
687:"Soldier who killed newsman said dead"
588:
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775:Geyer, Georgie Anne (June 21, 1984).
476:"Soldier arrested in newsman's death"
175:fraternity. He came to ABC News from
7:
18:Bill Stewart (television journalist)
827:"Nicaraguan War Reporter Is Killed"
442:"Guardsman Held in Newsman's Death"
1194:20th-century American male writers
1006:Miller, Marjorie (March 8, 1987).
726:. October 15, 2001. Archived from
267:, a documentary released in 1983.
25:
1184:20th-century American journalists
1149:Assassinated American journalists
807:. The American Presidency Project
718:"Deaths (Obituary of Jim Cefalo)"
401:Rosen, Mark; Bruton, Jim (2012).
366:Charlton, Linda (June 21, 1979).
139:") forces while reporting on the
625:Brimelow, Peter (July 7, 1979).
340:Casto, James (August 30, 2022).
1169:Maria Moors Cabot Prize winners
1144:American people murdered abroad
264:From the Ashes: Nicaragua Today
261:. The footage was also used in
1164:Journalists from West Virginia
1154:Deaths by firearm in Nicaragua
917:10.1080/01956051.1983.10661951
512:. July 2, 1979. Archived from
440:Wheaton, Lew (June 21, 1979).
1:
1124:1979 murders in North America
832:The Virgin Islands Daily News
1179:People murdered in Nicaragua
1174:Ohio State University alumni
901:"The Movie and the Mandarin"
504:"Press: A Murder in Managua"
899:Williams, Clyde V. (1983).
167:and was a 1963 graduate of
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1129:1970s murders in Nicaragua
1189:American male journalists
407:. MVP Books. p. 71.
117:Nicaraguan National Guard
61:Huntington, West Virginia
41:
1119:1979 crimes in Nicaragua
194:Anastasio Somoza Debayle
1036:The Death of Ben Linder
993:The Death of Ben Linder
978:The Death of Ben Linder
963:The Death of Ben Linder
667:. AP/UPI. June 22, 1979
568:The Evening Independent
309:The Death of Ben Linder
72:June 20, 1979 (aged 37)
1139:ABC News personalities
942:"Under Fire: Synopsis"
1159:Filmed assassinations
858:"ABC newsman honored"
750:"Bill Stewart buried"
692:Eugene Register-Guard
169:Ohio State University
141:Nicaraguan Revolution
107:Television journalist
98:Ohio State University
866:. UPI. March 3, 1980
782:The Spokesman-Review
664:The Montreal Gazette
88:Murdered by shooting
1062:Seven Stories Press
940:Mannikka, Eleanor.
835:. AP. June 22, 1979
730:on January 31, 2013
723:The Washington Post
571:. AP. June 21, 1979
536:. AP. June 21, 1979
516:on August 17, 2009.
484:. AP. June 21, 1979
481:The Tuscaloosa News
346:The Herald-Dispatch
84:Cause of death
980:. pp. 55, 57.
863:The Calgary Herald
632:The Financial Post
373:The New York Times
181:Iranian Revolution
125:William D. Stewart
1038:. pp. 55–56.
1013:Los Angeles Times
606:. January 4, 1980
213:Ashland, Kentucky
163:Stewart was from
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1017:. Retrieved
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911:(2): 92–93.
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728:the original
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608:. Retrieved
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455:. Retrieved
447:The Dispatch
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349:. Retrieved
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254:
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234:Jimmy Carter
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36:Bill Stewart
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1114:1979 deaths
1109:1941 births
1019:December 7,
922:December 7,
276:, starring
78:, Nicaragua
1103:Categories
870:August 25,
789:August 30,
734:August 30,
638:August 30,
575:August 26,
488:August 25,
457:August 26,
328:References
322:Ben Linder
298:Ben Linder
282:Nick Nolte
273:Under Fire
145:Sandinista
104:Occupation
198:Novedades
947:allmovie
420:June 17,
351:June 20,
316:See also
155:regime.
129:ABC News
1064:, 1999.
888:. 1979.
294:Contras
242:Guardia
177:WCCO-TV
149:Managua
137:Guardia
76:Managua
411:
284:, and
249:Legacy
227:, and
219:Impact
153:Somoza
63:, U.S.
785:. UPI
388:MakiO
209:C-130
187:Death
1094:IMDb
1021:2020
924:2020
872:2012
841:2012
813:2012
791:2012
762:2012
736:2012
701:2012
673:2012
640:2012
612:2012
577:2012
542:2012
509:Time
490:2012
459:2012
422:2012
409:ISBN
353:2024
69:Died
57:1941
54:Born
1092:at
913:doi
604:UPI
306:in
229:CBS
225:NBC
143:as
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452:AP
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