U.S. At War: I Can't Stand Things

Mitchell Lodzinski, 22, had a dazed, slack-mouthed look. He was listless, dull-eyed, wasted down to 123 lbs. from a normal 160. But somewhere deep in him Detroit detectives sensed a gathering scream. He made them jumpy.

His 22-year-old buddy, Arthur Davidowicz, did not vibrate so alarmingly. He looked wistfully blank at times, at times just old and beaten. "I wish the policeman would've shot me," he said, "I'd of been better off."

The cops winced. The record showed that Lodzinski and Davidowicz had grown up in Detroit as healthy, law-abiding kids. They were friends in high school, left town together in 1941 to...

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