An eight-month investigation by The Toledo Blade has found that an elite force of U.S. soldiers mutilated and killed hundreds of unarmed villagers in 1967 during the Vietnam War. U.S. soldiers admitted they cut off the ears of the dead and then strung them on shoelaces to wear them like a necklace around their neck. One U.S. sergeant admitted he killed so many civilians in 1967, he lost count. The Army conducted a four-and-a-half-year investigation, but the findings had never been made public before now. The Army concluded 18 soldiers committed war crimes. None were ever prosecuted.