The son of a South Side Chicago carpenter, Bezich, now 25, seemed destined to follow his older brother Peter into the army. But Peter, now 27, had returned from Vietnam with misgivings. "Steve and I talked about the morality of war," he recalls, "but at the time, he really didn't say much."
Steve had worked as a laborer in the construction business for three years when his draft notice arrived for May 11, 1970. "When it came time for him to step forward at the induction center," says his mother Helen, "he just couldn't do it. FBI agents were there and they arrested him." At his trial before U.S. District Court Judge Julius Hoffman (of Chicago 7 fame), Steve offered to go to Vietnam for eight years to build hospitals. The judge wouldn't hear of it.
"At first I thought the U.S. should go in and win the damn war right off the bat," says Steve's father, Peter, a self-described "grunt" in the Philippines during World War II. "But I tell you," he adds bitterly, "that trial was a joke."
Steve began serving his term in the federal prison at Sandstone, Minn., where he was told he would have to work for 30 cents an hour. When he refused, his parents say, he was put into solitary. Since transferred to El Reno, Okla., Bezich has continued to refuse to cooperate, even to the point of declining to apply for parole. "He'd rather chain himself to the parole officer's desk than be released under supervision," says his father.
To pass the time, Bezich spends his days in the prison library reading. Although his parents are anxious to see him freed, they are solidly behind his painful decision to remain in prison. "I love this country, and so does Steve," says his father. "I couldn't be prouder of him." Then he adds wistfully, "Steve's boss told him he could have his old job back as soon as he gets out. And I bet that's what he does. He'll go back to work and forget about this whole thing."
Saved by the Bell Reunion
The hookups, the meltdowns, the memoires
The case reveals what was really going on what they think of each other now!
