In an article today, posted in the Washington Post, Jason Horowitz wrote a lengthy piece focusing on an incident that occurred in 1965 pertaining to an attack on a fellow student by Mitt Romney.

In that incident at the Cranbrook School, Mitt Romney, 18, and in his last year at the school, took it upon himself to deal with a person’s appearance that he felt did not belong at the prestigious campus.

The brunt of Romney’s attack was a quiet fellow student named John Lauber, a student one year junior to Romney. That student was teased unendlessly for what was characterized as non-conformity and what was presumed as homosexuality. Lauber would later out himself as a homosexual.

A fellow student of Romney’s, Matthew Friedmann, told the Washington Post in an interview that Romney was incensed over Lauber’s bleached blonde hair that hung over one eye, he allegedly told Friedmann, “He can’t look like that. That’s wrong. Just look at him!” Romney kept complaining about Lauber and his appearance until one day, a short time later, Friedmann saw, as he entered Stevens Hall, part of the Cranbrook School, Romney marching from his room at the lead of some of his fellow students shouting about a plan to cut Lauber’s hair.

The group marched to a nearby room where Lauber was, followed by Friedmann. According to Friedmann, and four other witnesses to the incident, Lauber was tackled to the ground as Romney, armed with a pair of scissors, clipped the student’s hair. Lauber’s screams for help and crying didn’t deter Romney’s mission.

Expressing remorse, Friedmann said that, “He (lauber) was just easy pickins.” Friedmann, the authority leader of Stevens Hall at the time, said he was remorsful for not stopping the attack on Lauber.

Another witness to the incident in Lauber’s dorm room, Phillip Maxwell, who is now a lawyer, said in a Washington Post interview, said, “It was a hack job,” he continued, ” It was vicious.”

The incident was quickly over, Friedmann said that after the attack on Lauber, Romney led his schoolmates back to his dorm room. Friedman, who said he felt guilty of the incident, said nothing to Romney about Romneys actions that day, but waited to see what form of discipline would be handed to Mitt. Nothing ever did.

David Seed, another student that witnessed Romney’s attack on Lauber, told reporter Jason Horowitz, that he encountered Lauber at a bar at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport in the mid-1990s and had a brief conversation with him. Seed recalled saying, “Hey, you’re John Lauber,” wanting to get the incident at Stevens Hall off of his chest, Seed said that he apologised to Lauber, saying, “I’m sorry that I didn’t do more to help in the situation.”

Seed said Lauber paused and responded by telling him how frightened he was during the attack. Lauber told Seed, “It was horrible,” continuing he said, “It’s something I have thought a lot about since then.”

Seed is a retired teacher and Principle.

Another witness and participant in the attack, Thomas Buford, now a retired prosecutor, came forward and told Horowitz, that the incident “happened very quickly, and to this day it troubles me.” He told the reporter that he later apologised to the terrified Lauber. He went on to say, “What a senseless, stupid, idiotic thing to do.”

Andrea Saul, Campaign Manager for Mitt Romney says that the candidate has no recollection of the incident.

In a radio interview this morning, when asked about the incident, Romney replied saying he does not recall the incident. He said there, “I don’t remember that incident. I certainly don’t believe that I thought the fellow was homosexual,” Mr. Romney said. “That was the furthest thing from our minds back in the 1960s so that was not the case.”

Lauber was later kicked out of Cranbrook School when a student on campus caught him smoking a cigarette and reported him to the headmaster. He would go on to graduate from Vanderbilt where he majored in english.

Lauber is described by his family as having led a vagabond life. He worked as a chef aboard fishing boats and freighters, later working as a cook in Bosnia and Iraq for civilian contractors. He returned to Seattle in 2004, where he died soon after of liver cancer.

According to the article, his sister Chris said he kept his hair blonde until he died, saying, “He never stopped bleaching it.”