Sympathy

In a tragedy of the generations, reminiscent of the movie Joe, a Detroit railroad worker named Arville Garland one night last year found his runaway daughter Sandra, 17, lying nude with an 18-year-old hippie in a seedy apartment. Garland testified that he struck the boy with his revolver and the gun discharged, killing Sandra. He then went berserk and killed Sandra's companion and two boys who shared the pad (TIME, Dec. 7).

After being convicted of manslaughter and second-degree murder, the father was sentenced to from ten to 40 years. Garland has obviously touched a sympathetic nerve among peers who have seen their children vanish into a world beyond parental comprehension. Since December, Garland has received hundreds of letters of support. Said one California father of a teen-age girl: "There must surely be many among us who have done in our hearts what you have done with your hands. To have those to whom we have opened our hearts and treasures say 'Your truth is not truth, your values are without value' can be beyond bearing." Other messages were simply congratulatory. One came with a $20 bill. None contained any criticism of the killings.

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