Lindgren has released a new version of his report. It's long, but it's an absolute must read. If you've read the earlier version, you can skip to section 4 to read Lindgren's description of how Lott is trying to change his story.
The disgraceful way that Lott has behaved towards Lindgren fits into the pattern of behaviour he has displayed---Lott absolutely can not, will not admit to making a mistake. If he wanted to change his story about the Chicago students, all he had to do was say "Did I say they were all from U of Chicago? Oops. That's not what I meant to say. I should have said that the only affiliation I recall for any student was the U of Chicago. Sorry." Instead he insists that Lindgren's account was not accurate. Well, by doing this, Lott has made things simple for us. We're not talking about the events of 1997, where memories could be hazy, but a conversation last September about a matter of extreme seriousness. The choice is stark. Either Lott is giving a true account or Lindgren is. Choose.
Julian Sanchez has pointed out that yesterday I missed the point of his post about a confirmation from Lott's editor that a section or chapter of More Guns, Less Crime was scrapped. He's right. I got an email from Lott's editor in September, confirming that Lott's disk had been damaged and I didn't notice that Julian's had a bit more information. The September email has a few more tidbits, so here it is:
"I was John Lott's editor at the University of Chicago Press for his book, More Guns, Less Crime, published originally in 1998 and then in a second edition in 2000. John has asked me to confirm for the record an incident that occurred in the summer of 1997, just as he was preparing the final version of the manuscript for submission to the Press. At that time, John reported to me that a bookshelf had fallen on his computer, seriously damaging his hard disk containing not only all his files and data for More Guns, but also work on some other projects as well. I recall that much of what was on the disk was lost and could not be recovered. We did have hard copy of most (but I think not all) of the book manuscript, however, and were able to proceed with that."