William L. Calley Jr., the former Army lieutenant infamous for his involvement in the My Lai Massacre during the Vietnam War, passed away at the age of 80 on April 28 in hospice care in Gainesville, Florida, according to Social Security Administration records. The cause of his death has not been publicly disclosed. Family members of Lieutenant Calley have not yet provided further details. The news of his death was initially reported by The Washington Post.
His death record was discovered through data sourced from the Social Security Death Master File via Lexis Nexis. Nearly 56 years after the tragic events in My Lai, where hundreds of unarmed Vietnamese civilians, including women, children, and elderly men, were brutally murdered by American troops, the memory of the massacre continues to resonate as one of the darkest chapters of the Vietnam War.
On the fateful morning of March 16, 1968, Second Lieutenant Calley, then a 24-year-old platoon leader deployed in Vietnam for only three months, led approximately 100 soldiers from Charlie Company into My Lai 4, a small village located along the South Vietnamese coast. Despite encountering no resistance, the troops, acting on ambiguous orders that hinted at considering all inhabitants of the village as possible Vietcong enemies, initiated a violent assault. The ensuing hours witnessed unimaginable atrocities, as witnesses recounted how innocent villagers were indiscriminately shot, women and girls were assaulted, bodies were mutilated, and the village was set ablaze.
