Transcript
http://www.marion.k12.fl.us/schools/wph/
West Port High School, Home of the Wolf Pack
3733 SW 80th Ave., Ocala 34481, Marion County, Florida
Jayne Ellspermann, Principal - West Port High School
Email:
[email protected]
Email rebuttal of Neil Gillespie to Jayne Ellspermann, Principal - West Port High School
Sent: Wednesday, June 24, 2015 3:58 PM
Attachments: West Port-Wolf Pack proposed courses for the 2015-2016 school year p1.pdf;
Chapter 5 Lethal Punishment 39p.pdf
Subject: Re: West Port Wolf Pack
Cc. Attorney Christopher Carlisle,
[email protected]
Cc. Philip Leppert,
[email protected]
Email response of Jayne Ellspermann, Principal, to Neil Gillespie,
[email protected]
Sent: Tuesday, June 23, 2015 12:44 PM
Subject: West Port Wolf Pack
Cc. Attorney Christopher Carlisle
Initial inquiry email of Neil Gillespie to Philip Leppert June 23, 2015 from school website.
Page 1 of 4
Neil Gillespie
From:
To:
Cc:
Sent:
Attach:
Subject:
"Neil Gillespie"
"Ellspermann, Jayne - West Port High School"
"Carlisle, Christopher - West Port High School" ;
; "Neil Gillespie"
Wednesday, June 24, 2015 3:58 PM
West Port-Wolf Pack proposed courses for the 2015-2016 school year p1.pdf; Chapter 5 Lethal
Punishment 39p.pdf
Re: West Port Wolf Pack
Ms. Ellspermann,
Thank you for your response. However I still do not understand what "Home of the Wolf Pack" means
relative to West Port High School. Please find attached the first page of proposed courses for the 20152016 school year, a letter bearing your signature and "West Port High School" and "Home of the Wolf
Pack". Your attached letter does not show WP as a logo. By logo do you mean school mascot?
The term Wolf Pack appears interchangeable as one word or with two words. So that is a difference
without a distinction. I got my spelling from Wikipedia, but other uses and spellings use two words,
including the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office, see below:
My concern with "West Port High School" and "Home of the Wolf Pack" suggests an educational
environment that fosters group predatory behavior, which historically has been a problem in Marion
County Florida and lynching.
James Allen, Author of Without Sanctuary, Lynching Photography in America, makes a point in his
video of 'canine faces of the pack' [after the kill] (at 1.34), https://youtu.be/dGrXCOIx6QQ
Please find attached Chapter 5 of Lethal Punishment: The End of Lynching in Marion County, Florida
by Margaret Vandiver. "The First Time a Charge Like This Has Ever Been Tried in the Courts" pp. 7088. People Lynched in Marion County, Florida (partial list from Table 9)
Robert Larkin lynched July 12, 1893 race/gender: black male
Nero Young lynched May 15, 1894 race/gender: black male
William Jackson lynched December 1, 1894 race/gender: black male
William Jones lynched December 15, 1894 race/gender: black male
John Richards lynched February 17, 1915 race/gender: black male
Joseph Nimrod lynched December 29, 1915 race/gender: black male
Richard Anderson lynched January 28, 1916 race/gender: black male
Elijah Jones lynched February 12, 1921 race/gender: black male
Chandler Colding lynched January 11, 1926 race/gender: black male
John Richard’s offense was allegedly sending an insulting note to a white woman.
7/18/2015
Page 2 of 4
Near the end of the Civil War, several black Union soldiers in Marion County were burned to death for
supposedly trying to recruit other blacks into the Union army.
Page 70, paragraph 2 states, "Between 1885 and 1930, nineteen black men were lynched in Marion
County, nine of them for sexual offenses. Marion County lynchings were public affairs, often carried out
before hundreds of witnesses, but none of the perpetrators was prosecuted."
Page 72, paragraph 1 states, Lynchings in Marion County were almost all carried out by hanging, often
with shots being fired into the body. Marion County mobs sometimes left a placard or a sign attached to
the body of the victim; when Robert Larkin was lynched in 1893, the mob left a placard reading, "Done
by 300 of the best citizens of this county."[fn11, Florida Times-Union, July 13, 1893, 1.]
Page 72, last paragraph, "White supremacy was deeply established in Marion County. In 1924, the
Ocala Banner gave front-page space to an announcement that the Ku Klux Klan would be organizing a
chapter in Marion County. Interested parties were instructed to send their name, church and lodge
affiliations, and their place of birth, "only 100 per cent Americans wanted." The initiation fee was ten
dollars and robes cost another five dollars."[fn 14, Ocala Banner, May 30, 1924, 1.]
Page 73, second paragraph, "Until the middle of the 1920s, the local press took a uniformly approving
tone when reporting lynchings. When Elijah Jones was lynched for allegedly raping a seventy-year-old
white woman and attempting to assault an eleven-year-old white girl, the Ocala Banner reported that
three thousand people either participated in hanging Jones or viewed his body after the lynching. The
Ocala Evening Star wrote a long article on the lynching, defending it in strident terms. According to the
paper, Jones was a "bad nigger," a "filthy ruffian," a "rape fiend," and a "degenerate young devil." Those
who lynched him were not a mob but "representative citizens, and they consider it their duty to rid their
county of rapists and rattlesnakes as soon as possible." The mob members "understood all about" a
remark Jones was reported to have made, "that he wanted white because he was tired of black. That is
the inspiration of all the rape fiends, and the only thing to meet it with is hot lead and hemp." The paper
scornfully dismissed an inquiry from the Associated Press concerning race troubles in Marion County,
insisting that all was quiet and that everyone was going about their business as usual. [fn16, Ocala
Banner, February 18, 1921,5; Ocala Evening Star, February 14,1921,1.]
A quote by Jack E. Davis, Ph.D., UF professor of history, was reported by Claudia Adrien in a story that
appears online in The Sun, "Lynchings in Florida? It was a problem here, too", that states "NAACP
numbers show 21 lynching deaths" in Marion County. "Between the 1880s to the 1940s, there were
more than 200 lynching deaths in the state, and 20 confirmed deaths occurred in Alachua County alone,
according to University of Florida research. Alachua County was the second most lynch-prone county
behind Marion County. NAACP numbers show 21 lynching deaths there."
http://www.gainesville.com/article/20050903/DAYBREAK/50903003
Earlier this year the Equal Justice Initiative released a report "Lynching in America: Confronting the
Legacy of Racial Terror" http://eji.org/lynchinginamerica/ that documents EJI’s multi-year investigation
into lynching in twelve Southern states during the period between Reconstruction and World War II. EJI
researchers documented 3959 racial terror lynchings of African Americans in Alabama, Arkansas,
Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas,
and Virginia between 1877 and 1950 – at least 700 more lynchings of black people in these states than
previously reported in the most comprehensive work done on lynching to date.
EJI Report Summary: Lynching in America: Confronting the Legacy of Racial Terror.
http://www.eji.org/files/EJI%20Lynching%20in%20America%20SUMMARY.pdf
7/18/2015
Page 3 of 4
New York Times: History of Lynchings in the South Documents Nearly 4,000 Names.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/10/us/history-of-lynchings-in-the-south-documents-nearly-4000names.html
Supplement - Lynchings of African Americans by County. (30 lynchings in Marion County, Florida)
http://www.eji.org/files/Lynching%20in%20America%20SUPPLEMENT%20By%20County.pdf
The Equal Justice Initiative suggests placing a government marker at each lynching site. That would be
about 30 lynching site markers in Marion County.
Thank you in advance for the courtesy of a response.
Sincerely,
Neil J. Gillespie
8092 SW 115th Loop
Ocala, Florida 34481
Tel. 352-854-7807
Email: [email protected]
U-Boat Wolf Pack Tactic
http://www.uboataces.com/tactics-wolfpack.shtml
Wolf Pack: The American Submarine Strategy That Helped Defeat Japan
http://www.amazon.com/Wolf-Pack-American-Submarine-Strategy/dp/0471223549
In an effort to reduce DUI related injuries, deputies will conduct a Wolf Pack operation in Pinellas
County. (Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office website)
http://www.pcsoweb.com/15-064-pinellas-deputies-state-and-local-police-agencies-to-conduct-countywide-dui-wolf-pack-Saturday
Police DUI 'Wolf Pack' nets more than 15 arrests in Pinellas (Tampa Bay Times online)
http://www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/crime/police-dui-wolf-pack-nets-more-than-15-arrests-inpinellas/2230901
Wolf Packs http://www.paganspace.net/group/thewolfhaven/forum/topics/wolf-packs
Wolves need the pack structure to hunt, to take down prey larger than themselves so they can get their
fill without undue risk.
Teen Wolves Descend Upon San Antonio High Schools
https://youtu.be/r338cJ4NzNY
----- Original Message ----From: Ellspermann, Jayne - West Port High School
To: [email protected]
Cc: Carlisle, Christopher - West Port High School
Sent: Tuesday, June 23, 2015 12:44 PM
Subject: West Port Wolf Pack
Mr. Gillespie,
7/18/2015
Page 4 of 4
Thank you for your inquiry regarding West Port Wolf Pack. In 2000 when West Port High
School was established the school community decided on the Wolf Pack (two words) as the
mascot for the high school. This was before I joined West Port High School. It is not
intended to reference or be associated with “wolfpack” as you described in your email. We
go to great lengths to emphasize West Port and Wolf Pack as two separate words using WP
as a logo.
Jayne Ellspermann, Principal
West Port High School
3733 SW 80th Avenue
Ocala, Florida 34481
(352) 291-4000
www.westportwolfpack.org
If we teach today as we taught yesterday
we rob our children of tomorrow
John Dewey
West Port High School – An innovative center of excellence inspiring student success
[Florida has a very broad Public Records Law. All correspondence sent to or from this entity is subject to the Public Records Law of Florida. Email
communication may be subject to public and media disclosure upon request. Under Florida Law, e-mail addresses are public records. If you do not
want your e-mail address released in response to a public-records request, do not send electronic mail to this entity. Instead, contact this office by
phone or in writing.]
~An Equal Opportunity School District~
7/18/2015
West Port High School
Home of the Wolf Pack
Principal
Jayne Ellspermann
Assistant Principals
Dear West Port Students:
The choices that you make during your four years in high school
will shape your destiny. This curriculum guide will provide you
with valuable information to help you make informed choices.
Diane Leinenbach, Curriculum
Phillip Leppert, Instruction
Joella Markham, Student Services
Early College Coordinator
Ginger Cruze
MCCA Coordinator
Laurie D. Reeder
Testing Coordinator
Kathy Van Vleet
Guidance Counselors
Carly Heckathorn – 12th Grade
Stephanie Taylor-Smith – 11th Grade
Tiffany Meyer – 10th Grade
Shirley Thomas – 9th Grade
Dean of Students
At West Port High School, you have some of the best options
available to prepare you for the future. Advanced Placement and
Dual Enrollment courses afford students the opportunity to earn
college credit while in high school. The Early College program is
a unique partnership with the College of Central Florida that gives
students the opportunity to earn an Associate of Arts degree
without leaving our campus. The Marion County Center for the
Arts (MCCA) provides students throughout Marion County the
opportunity to expand on their training in the arts. The variety of
academic and career preparation classes offered at West Port High
School include something for everyone.
Use your time in high school wisely. Rely on the outstanding staff
of teachers, guidance counselors, and administrators that we have
at West Port High School. Share this curriculum guide with your
parents and show them what West Port High School has to offer.
We expect you to excel at West Port High School. Planning is the
key to success. The classes that you select this year will put you
on the path to your future. Your education is a reflection of your
personal goals and expectations.
Christopher Carlisle
On behalf of the faculty and staff of West Port High School, we
extend you our best for the coming school year.
Jennifer Leach-Cotton
Sincerely,
Freeston Smith
Michael Wade
Web Address
Jayne Ellspermann, Principal
http://www.westportwolfpack.org
Course descriptions that follow are proposed courses for the 2015-2016 school year. Final courses offered will
be determined by student interest and district funding.
Chapter 5: “The First Time a Charge Like This Has Ever Been Tried in the
Courts”: The End of Lynching in Marion County, Florida. pp. 70-88
Title Page, Copyright
Contents, pp. vii-viii
Illustrations, pp. ix-x
Acknowledgments, pp. xi-xii
Introduction, pp. 1-7
Chapter 5, pp. 70-88
Endnotes for Chapter 5, pp. 224-228
Lethal Punishment: Lynchings and Legal Executions in the South
by Margaret Vandiver
Paperback: 304 pages
Publisher: Rutgers University Press; annotated edition (December 8, 2005)
ISBN-10: 0813537290
ISBN-13: 978-0813537290
Lethal Punishment
LYNCHINGS AND
LEGAL EXECUTIONS
IN THE SOUTH
15
MARGARET VANDIVER
Rutgers University Press
New Brunswick, New Jersey, and London
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Vandiver, Margaret.
Lethal punishment: lynching and legal executions in the South / Margaret Vandiver.
p. em.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-I3: 978-0-8135-3728-3 (hardcover: alk. paper)
ISBN-I3: 978-0-8135-3729-0 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Lynching-Tennessee-History. 2. Executions and executioners-Tennessee
History. 3. Lynching-Florida-Ocala-History. 4. Executions and executioners
Florida-Ocala-History. 5. Southern States 1. Title.
HV6465.T2V362006
364.66'0975-dc22
2005011353
A British Cataloging-ill-Publication record for this book is available from the British Library.
Copyright © 2006 by Margaret Vandiver
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any fonn or by any means, electronic
or mechanical, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written
permission from the publisher. Please contact Rutgers University Press, 100 Joyce Kilmer
Avenue, Piscataway, NJ 08854-8099. The only exception to this prohibition is "fair use" as
defined by U.S. copyright law.
Manufactured in the United States of America
CONTENTS
List of Illustrations ix
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction
I
Legal and Extralegal Executions in the
American South
8
2 Lethal Punishment in Tennessee and Florida
3
4
18
Eleven Lynchings for Every Execution:
Lethal Punishment in Northwest Tennessee
28
"There Can Be Nothing but Death": Lethal
Punishment.for Rape in Shelby County, Tennessee
50
5 "The First Time a Charge Like This Has Ever Been
Tried in the Courts": The End o.f Lynching in Marion
County, Florida
70
6 The Mob and the Law: Mock Trials by Mobs and
Sham Legal Trials
89
"The First Duty ofa Government": Lynching and the
Fear ofAnarchy
103
8
When the Mob Ruled: The Lynching of Ell Persons
119
9
Prevented Lynchings: White Intervention and
Black Resistance
141
7
vii
viii
10
11
Contents
"No Reason Why We Should Favor Lynching or
Hanging": Efforts to End Legal and Extralegal
Executions in Tennessee
156
Conclusions
176
Appendix A Sources and Methods 187
Appendix B Inventory of Confirmed Lynchings
and Legal Executions 196
Notes 203
Bibliography 261
Index 275
ILL USTRATIONS
Figures
1. Map of Northwest Tennessee
32
2. Lynching of Unknown Victim
36
3. Shelby County Jail, Memphis, Tennessee
61
4. Marion County Courthouse, Ocala, Florida
77
5. Night Riders of Gibson County, Tennessee
110
6. Headline, Nashville Banner
115
7. Antoinette Rappel's Grave, Memphis, Tennessee
139
8. Mrs. 1. C. Butler
148
9. Duke C. Bowers
160
169
10. Samuel Allen McElwee
Tables
1. Confirmed Lynchings and Executions
3
2. Tennessee Executions, 1916-1960
20
3. Florida Executions, 1924-1964
24
4. Timeline of Executions and Lynchings in Seven Northwest
Tennessee Counties
35
5. Executions and Lynchings in Shelby County, 1890-1930
6. Timeline of Lynchings and Executions in Shelby County, 1890-1930
55
7. Shelby County Lynchings and Executions for Sexual Assault, 1890-1930
58
8. Executions and Lynchings in Marion County, 1885-1930
72
54
9. Marion County Lynchings and Executions for Sexual Assault,
1885-1932
10. Ell Persons Timeline, April-May 1917
132
11. Benjamin Reed Timeline, July 1892-December 1893
153
ix
74
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
As I did the research for this book, I was assisted by knowledgeable and helpful
archivists and librarians. Several have gone far out of their way to help me, not
only welcoming my inquiries but also leading me to information I would not
otherwise have found. I especially thank Susan L. Gordon of the Tennessee State
Library and Archives, John Dougan and Vincent L. Clark at the Shelby County
Archives, Edwin G. Frank and James T. Cole at the Mississippi River Valley
Collection of the University of Memphis Libraries, and G. Wayne Dowdy at the
Memphis and Shelby County Room of the Memphis/Shelby Public Library. I am
also grateful to the staff at the Florida State Archives, the Florida Room of the
Jacksonville Public Library, the P. K. Yonge Library of Florida History at the
University of Florida, the Special Collections Department at the Paul Meek Li
brary of the University of Tennessee at Martin, the Archives and Special Collec
tions Department at Northeastern University Library, the National Archives and
Records Administration, and the Tennessee public libraries in Crockett, Dyer,
Gibson, Lake, Lauderdale, Obion, and Weakley counties.
Several people have worked with me to find information on cases re
viewed in the book. I thank Sylvester Sartor Jr. for assisting me in researching
Robert Davis's case and its impact on the origin of the Shelby County Public De
fenders Office. William B. Brainard provided invaluable assistance in research
ing Benjamin Reed's case, first bringing it to my attention and then tracking
down sources in various libraries and archives. lowe a special debt of gratitude
to the daughter of a woman who witnessed the lynching of Lation Scott and who
shared her mother's painful memories of that event with me.
The comments and criticisms of two reviewers were most helpful. I ap
preciate the time and effort they gave to the manuscript and the suggestions they
made for substantial improvements in it. I particularly thank W. Fitzhugh
Brundage for his comments on the manuscript and his encouragement as I
worked through revisions. Charles W. Crawford of the History Department at the
University of Memphis kindly allowed me to attend his seminar on local history
xi
xii
Acknowledglnents
and consulted with me concerning sources on numerous occasions. Joe Walk
was generous in sharing his knowledge of Shelby County history and law en
forcement. David Giacopassi, my colleague in the Department of Criminology
and Criminal Justice at the University of Memphis, read and commented on the
manuscript.
Several scholars allowed me to draw upon their data or unpublished man
uscripts. Elizabeth Hines of the Historic American Lynching project ~nd James
B. Jones Jr. of the Tennessee Historic Commission were gracious in answering
my questions about their online inventories of lynchings. Pamela N. Gibson and
Joe Knetsch kindly sent me a copy of their paper on violence in Florida in the
mid-1890s. I am especially grateful to the staff at the Mississippi Valley Collec
tion at the University of Memphis, the Memphis and Shelby County Room of
the Memphis/Shelby Public Library, the Florida State Archives, the Tennessee
State Library and Archives, and the Robert W. Woodruff Library at the Atlanta
University Center for their assistance with locating and reproducing the illustra
tions for the book.
Throughout the research and preparation of the manuscI;pt, I have profited
from the guidance of excellent editors. Sarah E. Rowley's counsel and encourage
ment were invaluable in the earlier phases of the project. I thank Adi Hovav and
Marilyn Campbell at Rutgers University Press for their guidance, patience, and
good humor as the manuscript was completed, and Monica Phillips for her skill
ful copyediting.
Sections of chapters 2, 4, and 10 draw on my article with Michel Coconis,
"'Sentenced to the Punishment of Death': Pre-Furman Capital Crimes and Exe
cutions in Shelby County, Tennessee," published in volume 31 of the University
ofMemphis Law Review (2001). An earlier version of a section of chapter 5 was
written with the assistance of James Doug McCray; the chapter benefited from
his insights and contributions. I have made several presentations at professional
meetings based on the research for this book. I presented an earlier version of
chapter 8 on the Ell Persons case at the 2003 meeting of the Southern Criminal
Justice Association; I also spoke about the Persons lynching to the 2003 Summer
Institute of Facing History and Ourselves in Memphis. I presented case studies
of lynchings in Dyer, Lake, and Gibson counties to meetings of the American
Society of Criminology, the Southern Criminal Justice Association, and the
Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences.
Finally, I thank my family and friends for their long patience and unflag
ging support during this seemingly endless project.
Introduction
fJ
Dyer County, Tennessee, had a well
established tradition of lynching by 1915. At least eight men had been hanged in
the small rural county for offenses ranging from horse theft to murder. When
Robel1 Davis was arrested for murdering a young white woman by beheading
her, there was every reason to expect a lynching, but the sheriff of Dyer County
quickly moved Davis to the relative safety of the Memphis jail. There Davis's
luck continued. At a time when indigent African American defendants could ex
pect the barest minimum of legal assistance, Davis's lawyer spent his own funds
to investigate the case. He found compelling evidence that the woman had been
murdered by her husband, not by Davis. At the request of the prosecutor, the
judge entered a verdict of directed acquittal and Davis was freed.
Two years later, Julius Morgan, a black man, was accused of raping a
white woman in Dyer County. Morgan narrowly escaped being lynched. The
sheriff went to great lengths to protect Morgan from the mob, moving him to
jails in Jackson, Union City, and finally Nashville. Morgan was represented by
several attorneys who secured a change of venue to Memphis, where he was
tried, convicted, and sentenced to death. After his appeal was rejected, Morgan
was electrocuted at the state prison in Nashville; he was the first person to die in
Tennessee's electric chair.
Just seventeen months after Morgan's legal execution, Lation Scott became
the suspect in the rape of a white woman in rural Dyer County. He was captured
outside the county and brought back to Dyersburg by law enforcement officers
who did not resist when a mob demanded their prisoner. The mob brought Scott
to downtown Dyersburg on the morning of December 2, 1917. It was Sunday and
church services had just ended. Thousands of people assembled to watch as the
leaders of the mob tortured and burned Lation Scott alive a few blocks from the
courthouse. Scott was the last person to be lynched in Dyer County.
These three cases, occurring in one county within a three-year period, il
lustrate some of the complexities of "lethal social control" in the American
2
Lethal Punishment
South.' Why did local law enforcement go to such lengths to save Davis and
Morgan but sacrifice Scott? Why did the mob burn Scott, when every other Dyer
County lynching had been by hanging? Why did lynching in the county end after
the burning of Lation Scott? The differing fates of these three men reveal the
capriciousness of the white southern response to African Americans suspected
of serious crimes. The man accused of murder was protected, defended, and
freed, while both of the men accused of rape died, one in the state prison before
a few selected witnesses, the other in downtown Dyersburg before a crowd of
thousands.
It is probably impossible to fully answer the questions posed above or the
many other questions raised by the cases recounted in this book. I do not claim
to have found explanations either for broad patterns in the data or for the vary
ing outcomes of individual cases. What I found as I did the research for this book
is evidence of the variety of both legal and extralegal punishment, the complex
ways in which they differed from and resembled each other, and the significance
of local circumstances and individual actions.
The Scope and Purpose of the Book
This book explores lethal punishment in the late nineteenth and early
twentieth century in three distinct cultural and geographic areas, with an em
phasis on the relationship between the two types of punishment. Using the cases
that OCCUlTed in seven rural counties of northwest Tennessee, in Shelby County
(Memphis), and in Marion County (Ocala), Florida, I document local histories
of executions and lynchings. 2 I examined local patterns of lethal punishment in
an attempt to find productive middle ground between the two major types of
lynching studies, those that take an aggregate (or social science) approach, using
quantitative statistics to analyze patterns in the data, and those using a case study
(or historical) approach. 3 I sought to gain breadth by including all instances of
lynching and execution within an area for a period of several decades while
adding depth through detailed examination of individual cases.
I hoped by this approach to be able to achieve a deeper understanding of
lynchings, executions, and the relationship between thelTI than could be attained
through statistical analysis. While statistics can test for the existence of a con
nection between the two types of punishment, statistical analysis is unable to
provide insight into the mechanisms by which the two forms of punishment may
have been related. 4 A quick legal execution in response to a threatened lynching,
for example, might convey a number of messages to potential lynchers. It might
impress them with their own power to influence the authorities and thus encour
age them to threaten further violence. Or it might satisfy their immediate desire
for retribution and increase their confidence that their wishes would be respected
in the future, thus increasing their inclination to rely on the state to carry out
punishment. Cases of legal and extralegal executions that were closely proxi
mate in time and location provide an opportunity to explore how local residents
Introduction
3
and authorities viewed the two types of punishment. Placing particular cases
against the background of local histories and contemporary events can yield in
sights into otherwise unexplained changes in the behavior of the authorities, who
sometimes praised, sometimes denounced, and very rarely attempted to prevent
lynchings or punish those responsible.
A disadvantage of the method of research I have chosen for this book is
that it does not provide a solid basis for generalization. There is an inevitable
trade-off between depth and breadth in research, and I have chosen to try to
achieve greater depth at the expense of broadly applicable findings. Thus, this
study focuses on a few localities rather than attempting wide geographic cover
age. In order to avoid too narrow a focus, I have chosen to look at executions and
lynchings in counties with divergent histories and demographics. Close study of
events in these small areas should illuminate the local histories of lethal punish
ment and may provide a tentative basis for broader conclusions, or at least point
the way for further research to test the broader applicability of the findings.
The areas I examined in detail for this book are seven rural counties in
northwest Tennessee,5 Shelby County (Memphis), and Marion County (Ocala),
Florida. Table 1 indicates the number of confirmed lynchings and executions for
each area during the years studied. The starting and ending years vary by loca
tion, depending on whether sources were available for cases from years before
the 1880s and on the last identified lynchings in each area. The selection of lo
cations for the study proceeded from my knowledge of and interest in specific
local events, the availability of records, and exanlination of lynching and execu
tion patterns as indicated in existing inventories. I do not consider these areas to
be broadly representative of the South; they are chosen precisely because they
are "local, individual, and ... particular."6
The South was not a uniform society; there was "great variety and indi
viduality of southern communities and southern people."7 While certain beliefs
and values, including a devotion to white supremacy, were broadly shared by
wJlite southerners, the interpretation and application of those values could differ.
Among these diverse comnlunities, the occurrence, function, and meaning of
lethal punishment are likely to have varied substantially. 8 Simple exalnination of
data by county reveals striking differences. In some locations a decades-long
pattern of lynching ended abruptly, followed by a series of legal executions. In
other counties legal executions were rare, lynchings were conlmon, and both
TABLE
1 Confirn1ed Lynchings and Executions
Northwest counties, Tennessee
Shelby County, Tennessee
Marion County, Florida
Total
Years
Lynchings
Legal Executions
Civil War-1940
1890-1930
66
15
23
1885-1932
6
19
6
100
35
4
Lethal Punishment
practices came to an end at about the same time. Some counties carried out legal
executions but had no lynchings, some had lynchings and no legal executions,
and others never used either form of lethal punishment.
I used counties or a group of small contiguous counties as the geographi
cal unit of analysis. County-level data allow the researcher to take into account
local political culture, race relations, historical events, and geographic and de
lllographic factors. Data on demographics and economics are usually available
by county, and changes over time can be traced conveniently within the county
unit. Stewart Tolnay and E. M. Beck argue for counties as the best unit of analy
sis for studying lynching, noting their importance in the administration of crim
inal justice and their position as "the smallest spatial unit with whic~ it is
possible to study the geographic distribution of southern lynchings on a wide
scale."9 W. Fitzhugh Brundage notes, however, that mobs were not constrained
by county lines and often crossed them in pursuit of a suspect; thus, the county
where a lynching occurred might not be the same county, or even the same state,
where the mob originated or the alleged offense took place. In his study of lynch
ings in Georgia and Virginia, Brundage analyzed cases within regions of the
states. This approach was also taken by Terence Finnegan in his study of Mis
sissippi and South Carolina cases and by William Carrigan in his work on lynch
ings in central Texas. 10
Counties or regions within states can be useful geographic boundaries for
studies of capital punishment as well. I J During the earlier years covered by this
book, executions were carried out locally by county authorities. Death penalty
laws are written at the state level, but death sentences are imposed by courts with
countywide jurisdiction, jurors are drawn from county-based records, and pros
ecutors and defense services are generally organized by county. Counties within
a single state can vary widely in the frequency with which they seek and obtain
death sentences.
I have made strenuous efforts to document every lynching and legal exe
cution for the counties and years under study. The methods and sources of data I
have used and the problems encountered are described in detail in the appendix.
In brief, I worked primarily from available inventories of lynchings and from
Watt Espy's inventory of executions. 12 I relied largely on contemporary newspa
per reports to confirm the cases of lynching and to find details about them. I also
searched county histories, memoirs and diaries, and other relevant sources for
information on the cases. For information on the legal executions I used news
paper articles, court records, and documents related to executive clemency, as
well as local histories.
Determining what constitutes a lynching is not always easy. I used the
following definition, agreed upon at a 1940 meeting of the NAACP and other an
tilynching organizations: "There must be legal evidence that a person has been
killed, and that he met his death illegally at the hands of a group acting under the
pretext of service to justice, race, or tradition."13 I am sure that I have not iden
tified all the lynchings that took place in the areas I studied. Certainly I was
Introduction
5
unlikely to find lynchings that were never reported in the local or state newspa
pers. I found that the standard inventories incorrectly listed a number of lynch
ings that did not occur, occurred in other jurisdictions, or did not meet the
definition of lynching. 14 Where I was unable to positively document cases as
lynchings, I omitted them. By taking a conservative position and consistently ex
cluding doubtful cases, I ensured that my analysis does not erroneously include
as lynchings cases that do not clearly meet the definition of that crime. Docu
menting legal executions was a much simpler process. I am confident that the list
of executions is complete for the later years and is close to complete for the ear
lier years of the study.
Historical data, in Douglas Eckberg's evocative phrase, often have a
"ragged quality" that limits the analysis and conclusions the data can support. 15 In
the course of this research, I was frequently confronted by the ragged quality of
my data. Information was often missing, sometimes contradictory, and never as
complete as I wished. I acknowledge the limitations of my data by noting in case
summaries when existing accounts make contradictory assertions, when I anl
making assumptions based on the available evidence without definite supporting
documentation, and when infomlation is missing and cannot be inferred. 16
A weakness of this study, as of most other studies of lynching and histori
cal executions, is the failure to systematically take into account cases that could
have, but did not, result in either form of deadly punishment. There are many
documented examples of prevented lynchings. 17 Sometimes the courage of one
person was sufficient to prevent a lynching, as happened in 1931 in Tennessee,
when a sheriff's wife, Pearlie Gooch Butler, single-handedly turned a mob away
from the Carroll County jail. Similarly, there were cases in which a death sen
tence and quick execution seemed all but inevitable, and yet the outcome was a
lighter sentence, a commutation, or even an acquittal. To fully understand lethal
punishment, we need complete inventories of prevented lynchings and of per
sons eligible for capital punishment who were not executed. The problems with
compiling inventories of executions and lynchings are dwarfed by the problems
of identifying potential cases of lethal punishment, however, and those cases I
discuss ~ame to my attention by chance.
An Overview of the Book
The book begins with an overview of lynching and the death penalty in the
South, a discussion of similarities and differences in the two practices, and a re
view of the literature that tests the relationship between them. To provide context
for the case studies that follow, chapter 2 briefly describes social conditions and
race relations in Tennessee and Florida and reviews the history of lynching and
the death penalty in both states. The remaining chapters fall into three sections,
the first documenting and examining local histories of lethal punishment, the
second exploring the relationship between lynching and legal execution through
case studies, and the last looking at resistance to both forms of punishment.
6
Lethal Punishment
In chapter 3, I investigate patterns and cases of lynching and execution in
northwest Tennessee, an area where extralegal executions outnumbered legal
ones by eleven to one. In these seven counties, many African Americans were
lynched for offenses that were not capital crimes-indeed, some were not crimes
at all, but were violations of the area's rigid racial caste system. Testifying in
court, having knowledge of thefts, fighting a white man, entering a white girl's
bedroom, and resisting the Ku Klux Klan are among the reasons for lynchings in
northwest Tennessee.
In the fourth and fifth chapters, I restrict my analysis to cases of lethal pun
ishment for sexual offenses. Unlike northwest Tennessee and Madon County,
Florida, Shelby County had a large city with a population that'increased greatly
during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Shelby County was the
only one of the three areas I studied that made more use of legal than extralegal
executions. Through a systematic comparison of cases resulting in lynching and
execution, I try to distinguish factors that led to the different outcomes. The
chapter concludes with a detailed account of the lynching of Lee Walker and the
execution of Henry Johnson.
In chapter 5, I examine cases from Marion County (Ocala), Florida. Mar
ion County had a firmly entrenched tradition of lynching. The public nature of
the lynchings, the participation of large crowds, the lack of effective resistance
by law enforcement, and enthusiastic endorsement by the local newspapers all
indicated a particularly high level of white community support for the practice.
Until the 1930s, no African American man accused of raping a white woman had
been legally ttied in the county. In the early 1930s this long sequence of lynch
ings ended as three legal death sentences were imposed in quick succession.
Correspondence between Marion County and state officials indicates that the
substitution of legal execution for lynching in these cases was conscious and
deliberate.
The second part of the book explores the complexities of the relationship
between lynching and legal executions, using case studies to demonstrate ways in
which the legal and extralegal processes imitated, influenced, and differed fronl
each other. While I draw most cases from the counties analyzed in the first part of
the book, I include several from other counties in Florida and Tennessee. Lynch
mobs occasionally went to great lengths to imitate legal proceedings, holding
mock trials, calling witnesses, and having mob members deliberate as jurors. In a
sort of mirror image of these mock legal proceedings, authorities sometimes held
rushed trials under mob pressure and followed them with quick executions, vio
lating even the minimal due process requirements of the time. The sixth chapter
presents examples of mock and sham trials and discusses the varying concepts of
law and justice that may have motivated actors in both types of proceeding.
Opposition to lynching among whites often rested on their concern that
mob violence would lead to general anarchy. Chapter 7 focuses on a period of
turmoil and lawlessness in west Tennessee in 1908 when white fears of lawless
ness prompted rare attempts by the authorities to use force to restore order and
Introduction
7
prevent lynchings. Building on the theme of threatened anarchy, the eighth chap
ter is a detailed case study of a mob that wrested control of most law enforce
Olent functions from the established authorities for a period of several weeks and
carried out the most brutal lynching in Shelby County's history. The mob that
pursued and lynched Ell Persons in Memphis in 1917 forced the sheriff to flee
the state, set up roadblocks around the county, searched and detained police of
ficers, and posted guards around the jail and courthouse, providing a chilling il
lustration of the potential power of the mob, even in a large and relatively
COslTIopolitan urban area.
The final section of the book shifts from cases of lethal punishment to ef
forts against lynching and the death penalty. In chapter 9, I examine a number of
prevented lynchings that were not followed by legal executions, including an
1892 Florida case in which lynching was averted by the armed resistance of the
black cOlumunity. Although my research on prevented lynchings was not sys
tematic, I believe that the cases I found provide important perspective. Lynching
and execution were not inevitable outcomes; these cases prove that intervention
and resistance were possible and were sometimes successful. Prevented lynch
ings raise painful questions as to why intervention was not more common.
In the tenth chapter I describe the campaign against lynching and the
lTIOVeluent to abolish capital punishment in Tennessee. Just as the relationship
between executions and lynchings is complex and sometimes contradictory, so
is the relationship between efforts to abolish the two practices. Tennessee is an
ideal state to study these nlovements because it had several active antilynching
efforts and because Tennessee, uniquely alTIOng formerly Confederate states,
briefly abolished the death penalty for murder through legislation. The final
chapter summarizes the findings of the book, outlines issues for further research,
and concludes with a discussion of lynchings in relation to the modem use of
capital punishment. A methodological appendix contains a detailed discussion
of the research process and sources of data.
CHAPTER
5
"The First Time a Charge
Like This Has Ever Been
Tried in the Courts"
THE END OF LYNCHING IN MARION COUNTY, FLORIDA
The
patterns of lynchings and executions
in the seven counties of northwest Tennessee and in Shelby County reveal no ev
idence that legal executions replaced mob lynchings. In Marion County, Florida,
in contrast, officials ended a long and deeply rooted tradition of illegal hangings
by rushing three black men accused of the rape of white women to trial. These
trials were held under mob influence, after lynchings had been narrowly avelted,
and resulted in the quick imposition of legal death sentences. Correspondence
between local and state officials indicates that the authorities deliberately substi
tuted these trials for lynching.
Between 1885 and 1930, nineteen black men were lynched in Marion
County, nine of them for sexual offenses. Marion County lynchings were public
affairs, often carried out before hundreds of witnesses, but none of the perpetra
tors was prosecuted. By the 1920s, the tradition of mob violence had begun
to trouble community leaders who wanted to promote the development of the
county. When three white women in the early 1930s reported having been raped
by black men in separate incidents, local authorities for the first time resisted at
tacks by mobs and brought the cases to trial. The state attorney who prosecuted
the cases wrote to the governor, "This is the first time in Marion County history
that a charge like this has ever been tried in the CourtS."2 In each of the three
cases the defendants were found guilty and condemned to death; two were exe
cuted and the third, whose guilt was very much in doubt, eventually received a life
sentence.
J
Marion County, Florida
Marion County lies in the center of the state of Florida; its county seat is
Ocala. The county was established in 1844, before Florida became a state. In the
70
The End of Lynching in Marion County
71
1850s, Marion County was settled by South Carolinians who established planta
tion slavery in the area. In the postwar period, the county remained rural, with
the exception of Ocala, and agriculture, including citrus, was the predominant
means of livelihood. Marion County was the site of several phosphate mines, es
pecially in the area of Dunellon in the southern part of the county. 3
Marion County's history contains a number of racially motivated incidents
typical of those that occurred in Florida and other southern states in the late nine
teenth and early twentieth century. In 1860, Lewis, Israel, and Allen were lynched
in Marion County for killing their master, after being informally tried by a group
of twelve citizens. 4 Near the end of the Civil War, several black Union soldiers in
Marion County were burned to death for supposedly trying to recruit other blacks
into the Union army. A Radical black leader in the area was shot and killed by a
white Conservative during Reconstruction, and in the late 1860s there was a pe
riod of more than a year when no criminal cases were tried in the county because
local judges and lawyers refused to hold court before integrated juries. 5 The Ku
Klux Klan was active in Marion County, and in one case lynched the suspected
murderers of a white man, hanging the skeleton of one of their victims from a tree
near Ocala. 6 When black laborers were employed at a lurnber camp in Marion
County in the late nineteenth century, white workers attacked their sleeping quar
ters, wounded several men with gunshot, and chased them all away. 7
Marion County in the early 1930s had a population of nearly 30,000, al
most evenly divided between blacks and whites. In contrast, African Americans
made up only 29.4 percent of the population of the state of Florida. Ocala, the
largest city of Marion County, had 7,281 inhabitants; the 1930 Census classified
all the rest of the county as rural. Nearly 3,000 black people lived in Ocala, while
11,560 lived in the rest of the county. The black illiteracy rate in Marion County
in 1930 was 18 percent, while native whites had an illiteracy rate of 1.2 percent,
and foreign born whites, 2.6 percent. Blacks made up 91 percent of all persons
in Marion County employed in domestic and personal service. 8
Lynchings and Executions in Marion County
The capital sanction, whether legal or extralegal, was reserved entirely for
African American men in Marion County during the late nineteenth and first half
of the twentieth century. Not until 1946 was a white man executed for any crime
committed in the county.9 A black man accused of murder in Marion County
might receive a trial, but if he were suspected of the sexual assault of a white
woman or girl, he would face mob violence. Between ]885 and 1930, Marion
County legally executed four men and lynched nine for murder; both the last
legal execution and the last two lynchings for murder took place in 1912. In the
same time period, nine black men were lynched for sexual offenses. 10 Table 8
summarizes Marion County lynchings and executions.
A striking aspect of lynching in Marion County is the frequency with
which lTIobs took their victims from the custody of law enforcement, apparently
72
TABLE
Lethal Punislllnent
8 Executions and Lynchings in Marion County, 1885-1930
Black
Murder
Sexual offense
Other
Total
White
Murder
Sex ual offense
Other
Total
Total
Executions
Lynchings
4
9
9
1
4 (100%)
19 (1000/0)
4
19
Note: Sexual offenses include atteInpted rape and one case of writing an insulting letter
to a white woman. The offense of murder includes attenlpted murder and complicity.
meeting little or no resistance. Of the fifteen cases in which I have been able to
determine the circumstances of the suspect's capture by the mob, all but two in
volved suspects already in the custody of law enforcement officers. Most of the
Marion County lynchings were mass lynchings in Brundage's classification, in
volving public executions before large crowds. Lynchings in Marion County
were almost all carried out by hanging, often with shots being fired into the
body. Marion County mobs sometimes left a placard or a sign attached to the
body of the victim; when Robert Larkin was lynched in 1893, the mob left a
placard reading, '~Done by 300 of the best citizens of this county." I I Marion
County mobs rarely lynched for noncapital offenses. In 1887, George Green was
lynched for theft. Norman McKinney was lynched for wrecking a train in 1901,
which resulted in the death of a popular white engineer. 12 The only lynching for
a trivial offense occurred in 1915, when John Richards was hanged for writing
an "insulting" note to a white woman. A case that occurred in 1868 or 1869 was
unusual in that the lynchers were African American. A black man was suspected
of murdering a young white woman in Orange Springs. He was whipped by
other blacks until he confessed, and then was informally tried by a jury of twelve
black men; they found him guilty and hanged him. 13 Table 9 summarizes lynch
ings and legal executions for sexual offenses in Marion County.
White supremacy was deeply established in Marion County. In 1924, the
Ocala Banner gave front-page space to an announcement that the Ku Klux Klan
would be organizing a chapter in Marion County. Interested parties were in
structed to send their name, church and lodge affiliations, and their place of
birth, "only 100 per cent Americans wanted." The initiation fee was ten dollars
and robes cost another five dollars. 14 The tradition of lynching was also deeply
rooted in the county. The author of a memoir of the community of Citra recalled
The End of Lynching in Marion County
73
the route taken by the local school bus in the 1920s: "it went through Cabbage
Hammock, by Mr. Wartman's fence, and then by 'The Hanging Tree,' where it
was not unusual to see pieces of frayed rope swaying from a stout limb, in the
early morning light."15 Lynching seems to have had broad support among whites
in Marion County.
Until the middle of the 1920s, the local press took a unifonnly approving
tone when reporting lynchings. When Elijah lones was lynched for allegedly rap
ing a seventy-year-old white woman and attempting to assault an eleven-year-old
white girl, the Ocala Banner reported that three thousand people either partici
pated in hanging lones or viewed his body after the lynching. The Ocala Evening
Star wrote a long article on the lynching, defending it in strident tenns. Accord
ing to the paper, Jones was a "bad nigger," a "filthy ruffian," a "rape fiend," and a
"degenerate young devil." Those who lynched him were not a mob but "repre
sentative citizens, and they consider it their duty to rid their county of rapists and
rattlesnakes as soon as possible." The mob members "understood all about" a re
mark lones was reported to have made, "that he wanted white because he was
tired of black. That is the inspiration of all the rape fiends, and the only thing to
meet it with is hot lead and hemp." The paper scornfully dismissed an inquiry
from the Associated Press concerning race troubles in Marion County, insisting
that all was quiet and that everyone was going about their business as usual. 16
By 1926, when Chandler Colding was lynched in Marion County, support
for the long tradition of lynching was beginning to wane. I? Colding was lynched
on suspicion of raping a white woman in the Marion County community of
Citra. He was abducted from the custody of law enforcement officers who were
taking him to the hospital for identi fication by the victim. The negative response
to this lynching was significant, and, for the first time, Marion County seemed
responsive to the critical views of outsiders. The tone of coverage in the local
press was much more restrained than had been the case for any previous lynch
ing. The Ocala Evening Star wrote brief straightforward accounts of events
without justifications for the lynching and with only one use of inflammatory
language. The Ocala Banner wrote an editorial about "that lynching which oc
curred twenty miles away" under the headline "Ocala Getting a Bad Name." The
editorial noted that such publicity was "most hurtful ... [coming] just at a time
when ,"'e are trying so hard to put Ocala forward by inviting wealthy, intelli
gence and a decent population by giving her a good name as a law abiding city."
The paper actually went on to say that every effort should be made to prosecute
the lynchers. Sheriff S.C.M. Thomas, however, was quoted by the Gainesville
Daily Sun as saying, "There will be no arrests made on the lynching charge."ls
Marion County, like the rest of Florida, was indeed trying to attract busi
ness and residents. In the 1920s, the local chamber of commerce produced sev
eral handsome illustrated booklets, each of about fifty pages, extolling Marion
County as a place to live and do business. According to these prolTIotional mate
rials, Marion County was the next thing to paradise. The 1927 booklet described
the county's enchanti ng landscapes, magnificent trees, excellent roads, wonderful
TABLE
9
Marion County Lynchings and Executions for Sexual Assault, 1885-1932
Length
of Time
Suspect was
in Community
Time Between
Crime and
Capture; Taken
from Custody?
Place and
Method of
Execution or
Lynching
N atTIe, Date,
Type of Mob
Age. Gender,
Race, Status
of Victim
Age, Gender,
Race; Status
of Suspect
Robert Larkin
7112/1893
Lynched (mass)
17 years old
Female
White
Young adult
Male
Black
Criminal
record
Well known
in area
Nero Young
5115/1894
Lynched (mass)
16 years old
Female
White
Adult
Male
Black
Arrest for
robbery
Well known
in area
William Jackson
12/111894
Lynched
(unknown)
Adult
Female
Black
Adult
Male
Black
"Desperado"
Unknown
William Jones
12/15/1894
Lynched (mass)
15 years old
Female
White
15 or 16
years old
Male
Black
Lived in
community
Rape
Near Reddick
A few hours
In custody
of constable
No known
attelnpt to
prevent
lynching
Reddick
Hanging
John Richards
2/17/1915
Lynched (mass)
Adult
Female
White
"Respectable"
Worked in
store
Adult
Male
Black
Lived and
had family
in area
Wrote
insulting
note to white
woman
Near Sparr
Taken fronl
custody of
deputy
sheriffs
No known
attempt to
prevent
lynching
Near Sparr
Hanging and
shooting
Precipitating
Event
Where Offense
was Committed
Rape
In or near
Citra
A day or two
In custody; in
prelim hearing
Rape
Rape
Rural area
near
S. Lake Weir
Within hours
Near Martel
In custody of
constable
Taken from
Ocala jail
Threats or
Intervention
No known
attempt to
prevent
lynching
Near depot, Citra
Hanging; body shot
Placard on body
Mob included
blacks
Judge tried to
persuade mob
not to lynch
him: sheriff held
off first assaul t
OUbkirts of Ocala
Hanging
No known
attempt to
prevent
lynching
Hanging
Black mob
Joseph Nimrod
12/29/1915
Lynched
(unknown)
4 years old
Female
White
17 years old
Male
Black
Unknown
Attempted
rape
In or near
Reddick
Unknown
No known
attempt to
prevent
lynching
Outskirts of
Reddick
Hanging and
shooting
Richard
Anderson
1/28/1916
Lynched (mass)
Adult
Female
White
"Respected"
"Prominent"
Adult
Male
Black
"Desperate"
Criminal
record
Lived and had
family in area
Rape
Ebenezer
Two days
Not in custody;
mob took him
to victim for
identification
No known
attempt to
prevent
lynching
Ebenezer
Hanging and
shooting
Elijah Jones
2/12/1921
Lynched (mass)
77 years old
11 years old
Female
White
Adult
Male
Black
Escaped
convict
Stranger to
area
Rape
Attempted
rape
In or near Ocala
Taken from
jail in
sheriff's
presence
No known
attempt to
prevent
lynching
3 miles from Ocala
Hanging and
shooting
Chandler
Colding
1/11/1926
Lynched (mass)
Adult
Female
White
26 years old
Male
Black
Lived in area
Rape
Near Citra
Taken from
custody of
two officers
No known
attempt to
prevent
lynching
Near Citra
Hanging and
shooting
John Graham
6/18/1931
Executed
14 years old
Female
White
Schoolgirl
Adult
Male
Black
Worked at local
lumber mill
Rape
Near Kendrick
Within hours
Serious
lynching
attempt; moved
out of county
State prison
Electrocution
Lee Jacobs
Feb. 26, 1932
Executed
19 years old
Female
White
22 years old
Male
Black
Lived and had
family in area
Rape
Rural area near
Blitchton
Within hours
Serious lynching
attempt; moved
out of county
State prison
Electrocution
76
Lethal Punishlnent
business and agricultural opportunities, and healthy climate of "'almost constant
cooling breezes," which purportedly kept the summer heat from being excessive.
The booklet described Ocala as "permeated with a genuine spirit of progress ...
a wholesome, thoroughly American town."19 Writers for the Work Projects Ad
ministration agreed, noting in 1939 that Ocala had "the vigorous bustle of a
modern northern city."20
Clearly, the image Marion County's civic leaders wanted to project was
that of a modern, progressive, and law-abiding community. Lynchings under
nlined this image in at least two ways. First the ludd accounts of crimes
committed by blacks against whites might deter whites from visiting or moving
to Marion County. Certainly headlines announcing in huge block type that "rape
fiends" were prowling the county would not present an attractive view of the
area. 21 Perhaps more important, potential tourists, residents, and, above all, in
vestors were unlikely to be favorably impressed by mob violence and the inabil
ity of the local authorities to maintain order. It is likely that these concerns,
rather than a growing sensitivity to due process and civil rights, prompted the
president of the Ocala Chamber of Commerce and the editor of the Ocala Ban
ner to write to Governor Martin requesting an investigation of the 1926 lynching
of Chandler Colding. 22
This change of attitude concerning lynchings was occurring throughout
Florida during the 1920s. The boom of the era made investment in Florida land,
buildings, and tourist-related endeavors highly attractive. The counties and cities
of Florida vied with each other to do everything possible to attract the attention
of potential tourists, residents, and investors, presenting a view of Florida as a
paradise with limitless potential for enjoyment and profit.23 Editors of major pa
pers began to criticize lynching, not only because it brought bad publicity but
also because, in the words of the Tanlpa Daily Times, "the mob is wrong, shock
ing to the sense of justice which men and women should maintain."24 The old
values of white suprelnacy and communal punishment had not been abandoned,
but newer values were beginning to compete with them. Lynching had become
an embarrassment and an obstacle to progress; for some whites, it also raised
disturbing issues of justice and fairness.
The Transitional Cases
Concern for the reputation and development of their community had cre
ated by the early 1930s a climate in which community leaders in Marion County
were no longer willing to tolerate lynching. But the concerns of the business and
civic leaders were not sufficient to overcome the deeply rooted tradition of
lynching in the area. Only with the addition of two further elements-effective
law enforcement resistance to mob attempts to abduct prisoners and quick trials
and executions of suspects-was the long career of the lynch mob ended in Mar
ion County. In the early 1930s, three cases provided a transition point between
lynching and legal executions for black men suspected of raping white women. 25
78
Lethal Punishment
Graham to another county, by a circuitous route on back roads, driving some 265
miles before leaving him in an undisclosed jail. Groups of white men with guns
had gathered along the highway, hoping to intercept the sheriff's car. Rumor
held that Sheriff Thomas had been seen going toward Ocala, and the mob went
to the police headquarters, courthouse, and jail and remained for some hours.
Ocala officers refused to reveal where Graham had been taken. 29 The headline
for the Ocala Evening Star, March 25, 1931, read, "SHERIFF SAVES LIFE OF
NEGRO AFTER ASSAULT: BLACK FIEND WHO ATTACKED SCHOOL GIRL IS SPIRITED
Graham had first been taken to Jacksonville, but the "authorities there,
fearing an attenlpt to take the prisoner from the Duval county jail, requested his
renloval. Sheriff Thomas thereupon took the negro to Orlando. An attempt was
made by members of a mob of Marion county men to take the girl's attacker
from the Orlando jail and the sheriff of Orange county asked permission to re
move the negro to Tampa."3o
The continuing possibility of a lynching persuaded Judge W. S. Bullock to
forgo a preliminary hearing in the case, and Graham was brought back to Ocala
just before his trial began on June 10, 1931. Graham had no legal representation
before the trial. At trial, R. L. Anderson and L. W. Duval, described by the Ocala
Evening Star as two "of the ablest and most experienced lawyers in the city,"
agreed to serve as defense counsel. 31 The Ocala Evening Star and the Ocala
Banner reported that Graham was tried, convicted, and sentenced within about
one hour. 3~ The transcript of the trial is eight pages long.
The victim was the first witness for the state. She testified about the attack,
again positively identifying Graham as her attacker. Graham's defense coun
tered with only one question on cross examination: "You are sure that this man
is the person who assaulted you, Miss _ _?" "Real sure."33 Sheriff Thomas
then took the stand and described the events leading to Graham's arrest. The vic
ti m, he related, had said her attacker was a negro, tall, and wearing a belt held to
gether by wire and with the letter "N" on the belt buckle, all of which described
Graham accurately upon his arrest. There were no questions by the defense. The
state's third and last witness was Dr. R. D. Ferguson, who had examined the vic
tim after the assault. He testified as to the nature of her wounds and to witness
ing her identification of John Graham. The defense did not cross-examine Dr.
Ferguson. 34
Graham told his attorneys that his brother-in-law could testify for him, but
the lawyers determined that the brother-in-law had nothing helpful to say and
did not call him as a witness. 35 Graham took the stand hilTIself and denied com
mitting the offense. His entire testimony follows:
AWAY."
Q: You are charged here, John, with committing a rape on the 24th day of
March, 1931, on a little girl named
. That is what you are
being tried for. You remember the day that this happened?
A: Yes sir; I remember it.
Q: Where were you?
The End of Lynching in Marion County
79
A: That day?
Q: On that day-yes.
A: I was here in Ocala awhile; in Ocala awhile.
Q: Where were you at the titne this is supposed to have taken place? Were
you in Ocala at that time?
A: Yes sir; I reckon I was in Ocala.
Q: How long did you stay in Ocala? What time did you get in Ocala, and
when did you leave?
A: Well, I don't know, sir, exactly what time it was when I left.
Q: Was it in the afternoon or the forenoon?
A: It was afternoon.
Q: How did you come to Ocala-ride in a car?
A: I come in a car.
Q: Who brought you here in a car?
A: I come here in my brother's-in-law car.
Q: Drive alone?
A: Sir?
Q: Did you drive the car yourself?
A: No sir.
Q: What time did you leave your home to come to Ocala?
A: I left there about 10 O'clock-just about 10 o'clock.
Q: In the forenoon?
A: Yes sir.
Q: Come straight to Ocala'?
A: Yes sir.
Q: How long did you stay in Ocala?
A: Well, I don't know, Sir, how long it was I stayed here.
Q: What time did you get back to your home'?
A: I got back just about 5 o'clock-just about 5 o'clock.
Q: Is there anything else that you want to tell the jury-your side of the
case?
A: That is about all I know. 36
Graham was not cross-examined. Counsel for the state and defense agreed to
submit the case to the jury without argument. J7
Less than three minutes after beginning deliberations~ the jury returned a
guilty verdict without recomlnendation of mercy. Judge Bullock immediately
pronounced the death sentence, saying, ~'You need expect no mercy from me,
and had it not been for the sheriff who in performance of his duty saved you fron1
the mob on the night of the crime, they would have torn you limb from limb."JR
A mob had gathered outside the courthouse and it appeared that Graham
might yet be lynched. Sheriff Tholnas and a dozen officers Inanaged to remove
the defendant from the courthouse, while the judge retained all spectators in
court for fifteen to twenty minutes. The sheriff drove Graham to the state prison
80
Lethal PunisJlJnenf
at Raiford.:w J. S. Blitch, superintendent of the prison, received Graham and
immediately wrote to Gov. Doyle E. Carlton asking authorization to keep him in
the prison, rather than in the county jail, where condemned prisoners were cus
tomarily housed. Blitch noted that Hthe feeling was so high [in Ocala] and Sher
iff Thomas saw a mob gathering up, so he slipped him out through the back and
brought him here." Superintendent Blitch also wrote a letter marked "Personal"
to Nathan Mayo, the state official in charge of prisons, regarding "the negro that
Sheriff Thomas run in here yesterday afternoon late." Blitch expressed the hope
that ·'the Governor will issue the death warrant as quickly as possible and let us
nlake an example out of this man." Pressure for Graham's death came also from
the state attorney who had prosecuted the case. A. P. Buie sent a telegram to
Governor Carlton, saying, "Please act promptly allowing officials of Marion
County to ke~p their word to commullity."40
Governor Carlton was quick to respond. The very next day he sent Super
intendent Blitch a telegralTI stating, "This is your authority hold negro rapist ex
pense Malion County pending arrival death warrant naming week of June
fifteenth week of execution." The following day, Superintendent Blitch in
formed the governor that he had scheduled Thursday, June 18, as the day of the
execution. 41
John Graham was electrocuted eight days after his trial, without any appeal
or request for clemency. The Ocala Banner reported that Graham stated, " 'I'm
the right man and I'm ready to pay for what I did.' Barefoot and wearing only the
prison garb of shirt and trousers, Graham walked quietly into the death chamber,
unassisted by either of the two guards. With a half smile on his lips and scarcely
glancing at the witnesses present, he seated himself calmly in the chair." A group
of at least twenty people from Marion County, including the victim's father, wit
nessed the execution. Sheriff Thomas, whose efforts had saved Graham from sev
erallynch mobs, threw the switch. Graham was buried in the prison cemetery.42
The day after Graham's execution, the Marion County grand jury com
mended local officials for their exceptional efforts to save Graham from lynch
ing. The grand jury reported that Sheriff Thomas had been closely watched and
that his nalTIe was "forged to an order to a jailer" in an attempt to abduct the de
fendant. The grand jury also commended state attorney Buie for his efforts to
bring the case to trial. The father of the victim had taken his daughter out of Mar
ion County to prevent her from testifying at trial, for fear she would be further
humiliated. Buie "for hours, steadfastly, earnestly begged and pleaded with the
wild, raving parent" until Buie persuaded him to reveal his daughter's where
abouts and to allow her to testify.43
Lee Jacobs, Executed 1932
Less than four months after John Graham was executed, another white
woman reported having been raped by a black man in Marion County. On the
morning of October 8, 1931, a ·'pretty 19-year-old northern hitchhiker" reported
that she had been assaulted. 44 She was found lying face down by a highway near
The End of Lynching in Marion County
81
Ocala and was taken to ChiefE. G. Grimes of the Williston police force. She told
Grimes that she had been walking along the highway when she became aware
that a man was following her. She reported that the man had overtaken her and
raped her in the nearby woods. Chief Grimes took the victim back toward the
scene of the alleged crime. On the way, they passed the houses of several black
families and noticed a man sitting on the porch of one of the houses. The victim
identified him as her attacker. 45
When Lee Jacobs saw a white woman pointing at him from a car, he left the
porch and went into the house. The car drove by again, and Jacobs jumped frOITI
a back window and fled. He managed to escape, though shots were fired at him.
While Jacobs remained at large, the Ocala Evening Star printed its October 8 edi
tion with the headline, "SHERIFF HEADS POSSE ON TRAIL OF BLACK FIEND." The
night of October 8, "a mob of angry white men" patrolled the highway searching
for Jacobs. The Ocala Banner estimated the number of "incensed men" at "two
hundred, three hundred, perhaps a thousand."46 Jacobs was arrested October 9,
some miles south of Ocala, as he walked beside the highway, and was "spirited
away to another county by Sheriff S.C.M. Thomas for safe keeping."47
Jacobs's trial was held fourteen days after the alleged offense; Jacobs was
represented by two local court-appointed attorneys, D. Niel Ferguson and Wal
ter Sturgis. 48 The trial began on October 22 at 9:00 A.M., and by 10: 10 the jury
was sworn in. The state used three challenges to dismiss prospective jurors, and
the defense used only two out of the ten allowed. Jacobs stated that he was sat
isfied with the jury, and the trial began immediately, with the state presenting its
case. 49 Jacobs's trial appears to have been somewhat longer than Graham's; the
trial transcript in Jacobs' case is sixty-five pages long, in contrast with the eight
pages in Graham's case.
The victim testified that Lee Jacobs had assaulted her on the morning of
October 8. She related to the jury that while she was walking on State Road 19,
Jacobs emerged from the woods and asked her where she was going. When she
replied, Jacobs offered her an "improper proposal," which she said she refused.
Jacobs robbed her of a few dollars and a wristwatch, threatened her with bodily
harm if she did not submit, and dragged her away fronl the highway into a dense
area of the woods. After assaulting her, Jacobs threatened to kill the victim if she
reported the rape, or if she looked back before she had walked a mile. She walked
away and continued until she fell fainting by the highway.50
Nearly as damning as the testimony of the victim was the testimony of Ja
cobs's aunt, Letha Glenn. Glenn appeared as a witness for the state and reported
that she and Jacobs had been sitting on her porch the morning of October 8, and
that they had seen the white woman passing on the road. Soon after, she said, Ja
cobs had excused himself to go cut wood. He returned several hours later. After
his return, the victim had driven by with several white men and pointed Jacobs
out as he sat on the porch. Jacobs then fled. Glenn's testimony concerning Ja
cobs's movements was corroborated by George Sanderson, a white man who
lived nearby. 5 I
82
Lethal Punishment
Dr. J. L. Chalker, who had examined the victim several hours after the al
leged attack, testified that he could not be sure that she had been assaulted. He
saw no marks of violence. 52 Lee Jacobs took the stand in his own defense, deny
ing any participation in an assault on the victim. He was also emphatic in de
nouncing his aunt as a liar, saying she testified falsely to gain control of his
property in Marion County. Jacobs offered an alibi, stating that he left his aunt's
house in search of a horse and to borrow a dinle from a friend named Jesse Stid
ham. Jacobs testified that on his way back to his aunt's house, he encountered
three young men from the town of Montbrook. After some discussion on the im
portance of calling the three to testify, the defense decided against doing so.
Jesse Stidham was not called as a witness either. 53
The judge and the attorneys for the state and for the defense used conde
scending and racially disparaging language during the trial. Buie called Letha
Glenn "Aunt Letha" and "Auntie." Both Buie and defense attorney Sturgis re
ferred to Lee Jacobs as ~~this boy." Judge Stringer referred to the potential wit
nesses from Montbrook as "three darkies."54 From an account of the trial
published in the Ocala Banner, it appears that Jacobs's defense lawyers were not
especially zealous in their representation: "Both attorneys for the defense
pointed out that they had been appointed by the court to defend Jacobs and said
that they would do their best ... [they] were officers of the court and acting in
such capacity. Mr. Sturgis said that he would not have taken the case if he had
not been appointed."55
The jurors retired to deliberate at 4:45 P.M. About an hour later the fore
man announced that they were unable to reach a verdict. The judge sent them
back to the jury room and they deliberated until 10:35 at night but still did not
reach a verdict.56 The next day, after several more hours of deliberation and a
new charge by the judge, the jury returned with a guilty verdict and no recom
mendation of mercy. According to one account of the trial, Judge Fred Stringer
had "sent for the Jury and explained the meaning of rape, in that the word rape
did not mean only vicious physical attack or words to that effect but that if the
woman consented it was also tenned 'rape.' "57 This interpretation of the judge's
actions is confirmed by a letter from state attorney Buie to the governor:
However the last morning, when the jury asked the Court to charge
them further, they retired, and in a very few minutes brought in their
verdict. Never, at any time, did any of the jury doubt that the crime had
been committed, but this one juror felt that the woman had consented;
that it was a question of the degree of force used in the commission of the
act. When this was brought to the attention of the Jury by the Court,
there was no question then, and the verdict was rendered. 58
Judge Stringer sentenced Jacobs to death immediately after the verdict, saying,
"You shall then be taken by the Sheriff of Marion County, Florida, and executed
according to the Laws of Florida by Electrocution, until you are dead, dead,
dead; And may Almighty God have mercy on your soul."59
The End of Lynching in Marion County
83
Soon after the trial, Marion County officials began to ask Governor Carl
ton to take action in the case. On October 31, 1931, state attorney Buie wrote to
the governor, requesting an execution date for Jacobs. Buie praised the governor
for his speed in issuing a warrant for John Graham and stated "that was the rea
son, primarily that the Law was not taken into the hands of the people in the [Ja
cobs] case." Buie asserted that Jacobs's guilt was "absolute" and that one juror
had held out for mercy "because he had heard rumors, and only rumors, as to the
character of the woman. She was a stranger to Marion county, hitchhiking." B uie
went on to urge a speedy execution: "Dont [sic] delay your warrant any longer
than you can possibly do so. Let us keep our record as to speed up to the level so
promptly and efficiently set by you last June." When a month had passed with no
warrant, Buie wrote again, making explicit reference to the need for a speedy ex
ecution in order to prevent future lynchings. Buie wrote that people "are contin
ually after me" about the case and "I am afraid if such another case happened,
the people would take things into their own hands." The governor responded
to Buie's request by noting that "some question has been raised and I want to
take no chances of an injustice to the prisoner. I feel sure this little delay will do
no harm."6o
Sheriff Thomas also wrote to the governor, complaining:
I had to take steps in saving this negro from mob violence and was as
sisted by some of the most influencial [sic] men of the County they be
lieving that this negro would receive the sanle quick action as the one
prior for the same offense and I am afraid that if the same crime should
occur again it would be hard to prevent drastic measures from the hands
of a mob as the people are resentful and donot [sic] fail to express them
selves feeling that the negro should have been electrocuted before now
and of course they are blaming me for the delay in carrying out the sen
tence of the Court. 61
In reply to Thomas's letter, the governor wrote, "Several questions have been
raised in the above case. It has been suggested by some of the members of the
State Board of Pardons that we make sure that no error has been made in this
matter." In a letter to one of Jacobs's defense attorneys, the governor asked for
the address "of the woman who was offended" and added, "This might be a case
for investigation by some of our welfare workers."62 Whether the governor re
ceived the victim's address or made any attempt to contact her does not appear
in the records.
The delay in issuing a warrant angered a number of whites in the area. The
Grand Jury of Marion County, nleeting for the spring tenn of 1932, made the fol
lowing presentment: "It has been brought to our attention that there is evidence
of unrest and discontent among the citizens of Marion County, with reference to
the disposition of the case of one Lee Jacobs.... We respectfully request his Ex
cellency, Governor Doyle E. Carlton, to dispose of this case with as usual expe
diency as is consistent." Fifty-eight citizens of Marion and neighboring Levy
84
Lethal Punishnlent
County signed a petition to the governor, which set out very plainly why they de
sired the execution:
We, the undersigned, citizens of Marion and Levy Counties, Florida,
and residents of the section of said County, in which recently one
- - - - , a white girl, was raped by one Lee Jacobs, a negro Illan,
urge you to take inlmediate action and complete the death warrant for
the execution of the above named negro....
fWe] respectfulJy call your attention to the fact that the delay has al
ready caused a change in the demeanor of the negroes in our section. It
is our belief that they have sonle assurance that his execution will not be
consummated and they are showing signs of departing from the humble
and restrained position that they have recently assumed. This condition
caused us nluch concern as our habitations are located at some distance
frolll our neighbors and the safety of our ladies, is to some extent jeop
ardized.
When this lllan was captured we were disposed to allow the law to
take its course, secure in the assurance that justice would be swift, bas
ing our assunlption on the action taken in a sinlilar recent case. 63
On February 19, 1932, Governor Carlton signed a warrant ordering Ja
cobs's execution. A commutation hearing was set for February 25, and the exe
cution was scheduled for the next day. Despite pressures for the execution, some
efforts were made on Jacobs's behalf. Rev. A. W. Puller, minister for black pris
oners at the state prison, made several attempts to inform the governor of "im
portant facts" and of "newly discovered and uncontradictory evidence in behalf
of Lee Jacobs." The governor agreed to give Reverend Puller a chance to present
his evidence during Jacobs's conlmutation hearing. But Reverend Puller re
sponded, "Serious second thought convinces me that is best for me and for the
fair name of our beloved state for me not to appear in behalf of Lee Jacobs."
There is no record of what Reverend Puller had to say, or of why he decided it
was best not to say it. 64 A white Lutheran minister from Fort Lauderdale also
wrote to Governor Carlton asking clemency for Jacobs. 65 D. Niel Ferguson, one
of Jacobs's defense attorneys, wrote a letter in his behalf, stating there was "a
grave question in the minds of many white people that there was much resistance
on the part of the prosecutrix." Ferguson enclosed for the governor's considera
tion a letter he had received from Dr. R. S. Hughes, arguing that the encounter
had been consensual. 66 Lee Jacobs himself wrote a Jetter to the governor asking
that his life be spared. Jacobs maintained his innocence, writing:
I anl asking you for mercy: Please spare my life, to your Honor; the
Crime that I am charged with, I alll not guilty. The Judge pronounced
Death sentence upon me, but I am Innocent of the Crime. I have never
been in before. My records is clear from Ocala in Marion County where
1 was born. I am married and my wife is in bad health. She has no one
The End of Lynching in Marion County
85
to help her but me her husband. I have never gave the officials of Mar
ion County any Trouble before nor any where else in The World, To
your Excellency & Greatness, I am begging you to allow me another
chance for my life. I am a poor boy, I have no one to help me, but my
wife and she is a poor girl, and she have' nt got anything. I am a menl
ber of New Hope Baptist Church. I was converted in 1924. I am a Chris
tian, speaking to you in Earnestness & sincerity I am a Motherless child.
All my friends have forsaken me. Excusing Jesus & you Governor; I am
begging you for I know you has all Power in your hands; Please give me
mercy and sympathy: I believe you will) If I go down I will go down a
innocent Man. please and to your Honor feel my smpathy. Now I will
close which will be Respectfully Yours, From Lee Jacobs. 67
These efforts on Jacobs's behalf were not successful. The governor's earlier
doubts apparently were resol ved, and he allowed the execution to proceed. Jacobs
was electrocuted at 10:01 A.M. on Friday, February 26. Jacobs's only remark was,
"I am ready to die and want to go like a man." He was pronounced dead seven
minutes and twenty seconds later. 68 Like Graham, Jacobs was buried at the
prison. 69 Three days after Jacobs was electrocuted, Sheriff Thomas wrote to the
governor commending the prison officials for "courtsies [sic] and splendid coop
eration ... shown to myself and the witnesses to the execution of Lee Jacobs."70
Will James, Convicted 1932
State attorney BlIie wrote to Governor Carlton a few days before Jacobs's
execution, "'God forbid that we have another of such cases."71 In fact, Lee Jacobs
had been dead only six months when a third white woman in Marion County re
ported that she had been raped by a black man. The victim was a seventy-seven
year-old woman who was assaulted as she returned to her home from buying
groceries. She was met in the road by a man who dragged her into the woods.
The assailant kicked the elderly woman, seriously injuring her, but she managed
to return to the highway and flag down a passing car. 72
The victim described her assailant as a black man wearing tennis shoes
and a white cap. A posse with tracking dogs went immediately to the area and
found the elderly woman's hat and a loaf of bread left at the scene of the attack.
The dogs followed the attacker's scent to a group of houses but then lost the
trail. The sheriff and posse were convinced that the attacker was still in the vicin
ity. They searched the house of Will James, a forty-eight-year-old black man,
and found a white cap. James jumped out of his window and tried to flee but was
captured. He was wearing tennis shoes at the time. After the arrest, James was
taken to jails in Tavares and Gainesville for protection. 73 A mob pursuing James
searched both the Marion County Jail and the Ocala City Jail, but he had already
been taken from the area. 74
Will James's trial was held November 2, 1932. He was represented by a
young lawyer, James Smith Jr., who had never before tried a case.7 5 The elderly
86
Lethal Punishlnent
victim, whose eyesight was poor, testified repeatedly that she could not posi
tively identify James but that he bore a resemblance to her attacker. The white
cap, said to be worn by the attacker and found at James's residence, was too
small for him and was never established as belonging to him. James's tennis
shoes were not matched with footprints found at the scene of the crime. James
offered alibi witnesses who stated that he was elsewhere when the assault took
place. 76 Although the evidence was weak, the jury returned within fifteen min
utes with a verdict of guilty and no recommendation of mercy. When asked if he
had anything to say before pronouncement of sentence, James said, "I am not
guilty, Judge, and I ask for mercy." He was immediately sentenced to death in
the electric chair by Judge W. S. Bullock. Sheriff S.C.M. Thomas and deputies
in three cars took James directly to the state prison. 77 James was in a cell on
death row some eight hours after his trial began.
One week after James was sentenced to death, Buie wrote to the governor,
stating that "the details of this case are very, very revolting," and that when the
governor received the record, Buie "would be glad for you to look over the same
and issue your warrant as soon as possible."78 No effort was made by James
Smith, the court-appointed defense lawyer, to bring an appeal of the conviction
or sentence, or to ask for executive clemency. Governor Carlton took no action
in James's case, however, perhaps because he was in the last months of his term
as governor. Carlton was succeeded in office in January 1933 by David Sholtz,
who set James's execution for the week beginning March 27, 1933. 79 It appeared
that James would be executed, but by a most peculiar bit of luck his fate was
drasticall y changed.
Walter Marshall and Ben Grant, two reporters from Jacksonville, went to
the state prison on March 24, 1933, to witness the execution of another con
demned man, Elvin E. Jeffcoat. 8o During Jeffcoat's execution, Will James
climbed "upon a plumbing fixture in his cell, ... jumped as high as he could,
jack-knifed, and dove head first on the concrete floor." Upon learning of his sui
cide attempt, Marshall and Grant became interested in James and decided to pur
sue the case of the "friendless negro." They returned to Jacksonville and
contacted two young lawyers, Montague Rosenberg and Fuller Warren. 8f Volun
teering their titne, the lawyers reviewed the court records. They concluded that
the evidence against James was insufficient to support the conviction.
Rosenberg and Warren contacted Judge W. S. Bullock, who told them that
he had not been sure of James's guilt and that he had written a letter to Nathan
Mayo, the Florida official in charge of prisons, to express his doubts about the
case. 82 The attorneys wired Governor Sholtz, asking for a stay of execution, so
that they could make a formal presentation to the pardon board and request
clemency for James. Governor Sholtz responded at once and issued a reprieve,
stating, "WHEREAS, it has officially been brought to my attention that further
investigation should be given this case, as there is serious doubt as to the guilt of
the said Will James.... NOW, THEREFORE, I ... do hereby cancel and revoke
the Death Warrant."83
The End of Lynching in Marion County
87
Will James was never executed. His sentence was reduced to life and he
remained in prison until 1948, when he was paroled. 84 James had the good for
tune to escape death, although he served fifteen years for a crime it is likely he
did not commit. Saved from the lynch mob by the quick action of Sheriff
Thomas, his legal execution seemed inevitable. James's rescue from the electric
chair depended on a series of lucky and unlikely events. If the two sympathetic
reporters had not been at the prison, heard of his suicide attempt, and met with
him, and if they had not known of two lawyers willing to take the case immedi
ately, James almost certainly would have been executed.
The Transition from Lynching to Execution in Marion County
The cases of John Graham and Lee Jacobs illustrate the point in Marion
County history when lynchings were replaced by courtroom proceedings that
gave an appearance of propriety to a result that was substantially the same as that
reached by a lynch mob. It is ironic that Sheriff Thomas, whose efforts saved
Graham, Jacobs, and James from lynching, was the person who actually threw
the switch during executions. A further irony lies in the fact that Thomas, who as
sheriff was the chief law enforcement officer in Marion County, apparently al
lowed "various vices to flourish in exchange for kickbacks." Thomas served as
sheriff of Marion County from 1921 to 1937 and then again from 1945 to 1946.
In 1946 he was removed from office by Governor Caldwell. s5
The eagerness of white officials and community leaders to prevent lynch
ings was commendable; still, it is doubtful that they were motivated by great
concern for the legal rights of blacks. Lynchings had become embarrassing as
local officials attempted to promote the tourism and development potential of
Marion County. Even defense lawyers did not necessarily reject the doctrines of
white supremacy. Fuller Warren, who generously devoted time and effort to pre
venting Will James's execution, became governor of Florida in 1949. During his
calnpaign he swore in an affidavit that "no Negroes will be admitted to White
schools and colleges" if he were elected. 86 Warren presided over the execution of
seventeen men, eleven of them black, while in office. Warren once prol11ised to
expedite the execution of Walter Irvin, a black man condemned upon extremely
dubious evidence of the rape of a white woman. S?
In the minds of many Marion County whites, the goal of trials and lynch
ings seem to have been identical. Both lynchings and executions were 1l1ethods
of maintaining the status quo of white dominance. Whites intended the effects of
quick and brutal punishment to be general as well as specific. The petition re
questing Lee Jacobs's execution stated that the electrocution was necessary to
keep blacks in the area humble and restrained.
There is very little evidence as to how the defendants in these cases viewed
their situations. They may have perceived themselves as individual victitTIS of
capricious white actions, or they may have understood their misfortunes as a part
of the general oppression of blacks. Existing documents give almost no clue to
88
Lethal Punishment
John Graham's personality or thoughts. Lee Jacobs's letter requesting clemency
indicates an intelligent author but is not the sort of doculnent that can reveal
much about its writer's real thoughts. Will James's moods and conversation were
reported by the Jacksonville Journal, but in racist terms: " ~Boss,' he said look
ing worshipfully at his benefactors, 'I never had no trouble with white folks be
fore in my life. God knows I didn't commit that crime.' " The Journal reported
that before James attempted suicide, he left two notes. One was to the superin
tendent of the prison, and the other was "to the negro race."88 It would be most
interesting to know what James wrote "to the negro race," but the letter was not
found with any of the records of the case.
The pattern of lynchings and executions in Marion County is unlike that of
northwest Tennessee or Shelby County. Compared to the variety of precipitating
events, circumstances of capture, and methods of killing seen in the Tennessee
counties, the Malion County cases follow a much more predictable pattern. Mar
ion County mobs very rarely lynched for trivial offenses or caste violations. The
lynchings in the county were carried out openly and the great majority of victims
were taken from law enforcement officials. Unlike the other two areas studied,
Marion County presents a clear break point; no lynchings for any offense oc
curred after the first legal execution for rape. In both areas of Tennessee, local
officials made weak and sporadic efforts to uphold the law and prevent mob vi
olence but then lapsed back into indifference or collusion. In Marion County, of
ficials made almost no effort to prevent lynchings before the 1930s, at which
time they quite abruptly and deliberately resisted mobs in order to quickly try
and condemn black men accused of sexually assaulting white women. With as
sertive law enforcement and quick trials, the practice of lynching ended.
Marion County thus provides an example of a jurisdiction where legal ex
ecutions replaced lynchings. The fact that the situation in the other areas exam
ined differed is evidence that even during this period of white dominance in the
South, there were important local variations in the use of lethal punishment.
Local traditions, situations, and personalities must be considered in any attempt
to explain patterns of lynching and execution.
224
Notes to Pages 68-71
77. Memphis Commercial Appeal, November 4, 1933, 8.
78. In 1934, Percy Smith, Jasper Graham, and Frank Mays; 1940, C. C. Mobley; 1941,
Van Gilmore; 1946, George Douglas; 1949, Bruce E. Watson.
79. Memphis Commercial Appeal, February 18, 1966, 1.
Chapter 5: "The First Time a Charge Like This Has Ever Been
Tried in the Courts"
1. To compile an inventory of lynchings in Marion County, I worked from four sources:
the NAACP list, the annual listings published by the Chicago Tribune, the inventory
posted by the Historic American Lynching Project (which is based on Tolnay and
Beck's data), and the inventory of Florida lynchings in Susan Jean's senior thesis.
(See Appendix A for details on these sources). I confirmed and supplemented these
lists with newspaper reports, county histories, and other sources. I am sure that my
list undercounts lynchings in Marion County, especially during the early years. I
eliminated ten cases that were reported in other inventories; six of the killings I
judged to be murders rather than lynchings, two occurred in other Florida counties,
and in one case the two victims reported to have been lynched were not killed.
This latter case is of particular interest because the two men were supposedly
lynched by a black mob in revenge for their cooperation in the lynching of Robert
Alexander, black, by a white mob. E. M. Beck and Stewart E. Tolnay, "When Race
Didn't Matter: Black and White Mob Violence against Their Own Color," in Under
Sentence of Death: Lynching in the South, edited by W. Fitzhugh Brundage (Chapel
Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1997), 132-54, 140. Beck and Tolnay base
their summary of the case on an article published in the Jacksonville (FL) Times
Union, June 13, 1899. Three days later the Florida Times-Union and Citizen pub
lished another article on the case under the headline "Only One Lynched," the one
being Robert Alexander. The paper reported that whites, under the direction of the
sheriff, had dispersed the black mob before they were able to lynch their intended
victims (June 16, 1899,2). The Ocala Evening Star discussed the case at length and
interviewed A. Watkins, one of the men supposedly lynched by the black mob, about
his escape (June 12, 1899, 1).
2. A. P. Buie to Doyle E. Carlton, June 13,1931, RG 690, sere 443-A, John Graham case
file, State Pardon Board Files, FSA.
3. Larry E. Rivers, Slavery in Florida: Territorial Days to Emancipation (Gainesville:
University Press of Florida, 2000), 66, 73. For an account of a phosphate mining
town in Marion County, J. Lester Dinkins, Dunellon, Boomtown of the 1890's: The
Story of Rainbow Springs and Dunnellon (St. Petersburg, FL: Great Outdoors Pub
lishing, 1969).
4. James M. Denham, "A Rogue's Paradise": Crime and Punishment in Antebellum
Florida, 1821-1861 (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1997),211,335.
5. Jerrell H. Shofner, Nor Is It Over Yet: Florida in the Era of Reconstruction,
1863-1877 (Gainesville: University Presses of Florida, 1974), 19, 192, 103.
6. Joe M. Richardson, The Negro in the Reconstruction of Florida, 1865-1877 (Tampa,
FL: Trend House, 1965), 166.
7. Pamela N. Gibson and Joe Knetsch, "White Caps and Night Mares: Violence against
African-Americans in Florida, 1894-1896," paper presented to Florida Historical
Society Annual Meeting, 1998.
Notes to Pages 71-76
225
8. U.S. Bureau of the Census, Fifteenth Census of the United States, 1930, Population,
Vol. III, Part 1 (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1932), tables 2, 13, 14.
and 20.
9. George L. Sullivan was executed January 14, 1946, for a Marion County murder.
William J. Bowers, with Glenn L. Pierce and John F. McDevitt, Legal Homicide:
Death as Punishment in America (Boston: Northeastern University Press, 1984), 426.
10. Marion County was noted for its large number of lynchings. Frank Shay mentioned
Ocala as one of the two Florida cities with the tnost victims of lynching. and Jack E.
Davis noted that Marion County had more lynchings than any other county in
Florida. Frank Shay, Judge Lynch: His First Hundred Years (1938; repr., New York:
Biblo and Tannen, 1969), 128; Jack Davis quoted in Walter T. Howard, Lynchings:
Extralegal Violence in Florida during the 1930s (Selinsgrove, PA: Susquehanna Uni
versity Press, 1995), 89.
11. Florida Times-Union, July 13, 1893, 1.
12. This case is briefly described by Ellis Connell May, Froln Dawn to Sunset: Recollec
tions ofa Pioneer Florida Judge (Tampa: Florida Grower Press, 1955), 2: 131-32 and
in several newspaper articles: Florida Times-Union and Citizen. January 17, 1901,7;
Evening Sentinel, January 14,1901, I; January 15, 1901, 1.
13. This case is mentioned by Richardson, The Negro in the Reconstruction of Florida.
38, and by Eloise Robinson Ott and Louis Hickman Chazal, Ocali Country: Kingdom
(~fthe Sun (Ocala, Fla.: Marion Publishers, 1966),93-94. Both accounts are brief and
the date of the event differs by one year.
14. Ocala Banner, May 30, 1924, 1.
15. Faye Melton, Citra: Home of the Pineapple Orange ([Citra. FL?]: F. P. Melton,
1987),20.
16. Ocala Banner, February 18, 1921,5; Ocala Evening Star, February 14,1921,1.
17. Chandler Colding was also known as Nick Williams. The Ocala and Florida press
covered the case: Ocala Evening Star, January 11, 1926. 1; January 12, 1926, 1; Jan
uary 14, 1926, 8; Tampa Morning Tribune, January 12, 1926, 1; Gainesville Daily
Sun, January 12, ]926. 1; Florida Times-Union, January 12. 1926. 7; see also clip
pings in NAACP Papers, sec. 7, ser. A, reel 10, frames 2-4.
18. In its January 14 article, the Ocala Evening Star referred to Colding as a "black fiend"
(8); Ocala Banner, January 29, 1926, 1; Gainesville Daily Sun. January 12, 1926, 1.
19. Marion County Chamber of Commerce, Marion County: The Kingdom of the Sun
(Ocala, FL: n.p., 1927), 15, 17. (Available in P. K. Yonge Collection, University of
Florida, Gainesville). See also John M. Spivack, "Paradise Awaits: A Sampling and
Brief Analysis of Late Nineteenth Century Promotional Pamphlets on Florida,"
Southern Studies 21 (1982): 429-38.
20. Federal Writers' Project, Work Projects Administration. Florida: A Guide to the
Southernmost State (New York: Oxford University Press, 1939), 525.
21. At least one Florida County explicitly called itself a "white man's country" in its pro
motional literature, emphasizing that there were few blacks in the area and thus that
it was a safe place to live. Spivack, "Paradise Awaits," 434-35.
22. Jerrell H. Shofner, "Judge Herbert Rider and the Lynching at LaBelle," Florida His
torical Quarterly 59 (1981): 292-306, 296. The Florida State Chamber of Commerce
passed a resolution against lynching in June 1926 and pledged to "do all in its power
to create a proper regard for law and order." News clipping in NAACP Papers, sec. 7.
ser. A, reel 8, frames 979, 982, 985. See Michael J. Pfeifer. Rough Justice: Lynching
226
Notes to Pages 76-80
and American Society, 1874-1947 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2004),
139-47, for silnilar efforts organized by the business and middle class of Shrevepo11,
Louisiana, in the early twentieth century.
23. James M. Ricci, "Boasters, Boosters and Boom: Popular Images of Florida in the
1920s," Tampa Bay History 6 (1984): 31-57; Victoria H. McDonell, "Rise of the
'Businessman's Politician': The 1924 Florida Gubernatorial Race," Florida Histori
cal Quarterly 52 (1973): 39-50.
24. Tampa Daily Times, July 2, 1926, 6-A.
25. Information on these cases was obtained from several sources. Newspaper reports
provided many details of the crin1es as they were alleged to have happened and gave
a good sense of the attitude of the white community toward the crimes and defen
dants. The files of the State Pardon Board (RG 690, sere 443-A), Florida State
Archives, Tallahassee, contained much correspondence and legal information on the
cases. John Grahaln's file is located in box 33 of this series; Lee Jacobs's and Will
James's files are in box 44. All material from this record group is hereafter cited as
State Pardon Board Files. The Death Warrant files of the Division of Elections (RG
156, sere 12, box 15), also in the Florida State Archives, contained Lee Jacobs's trial
transcript (Marion County Circuit Court, State of Florida vs. Lee Jacobs [hereafter
cited as Jacobs trial transcript]). Florida State Archives RG 670, sere 500, includes the
prison register, which is cited for information on Will James's release from prison.
John Graham's transcript (Marion County Circuit Court, State of Florida V. John
Graham [hereafter cited as Graham trial transcript]) and several legal documents in
Will James's case were located in the Marion County Courthouse in Ocala, Florida.
I obtained death certificates for John Graham and Lee Jacobs.
26. Ocala Evening Star, March 25, 1931,1,5.
27. Ibid.; Ocala Banner, March 27,1931,1.
28. Ocala Evening Star, March 25, 1931, 1, 5.
29. Ibid.
30. Ocala Banner, June 12, 1931, 1,2.
31. Ocala Evening Star, June 11, 1931, 1, 12.
32. Ibid.; Ocala Banner, June 12,1931, 1,2.
33. Graham trial transcript, 1-2.
34. Ibid., 2-4, 4-6.
35. Ocala Evening Star, June 11, 1931, 1, 12.
36. Graham trial transcript, 7-8.
37. Ibid., 8.
38. Ocala Evening Star, June 11, 1931, 1.
39. Ibid.
40. J. S. Blitch to Doyle E. Carlton, June 11,1931; Blitch to Nathan Mayo, June 11,
1931; telegram fro In A. P. Buie to Carlton, June 11, 1931, Graham case file, State
Pardon Board Files.
41. Telegram from Carlton to Blitch, June 12, 1931; Blitch to Carlton, June 13, 1931,
Graham case tIle, State Pardon Board Files.
42. Ocala Banner, June 19, 1931, I, 6; Ocala Evening Star, June 18, 1931, 1; State of
Florida, State Board of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics, Certificate of Death, John
Graham, June 18,1931, state file 10217.
43. Ocala Evening Star, June 19, 1931, 1, 5.
44. Ibid., October 23, 1931, 1.
Notes to Pages 81-85
227
Ibid., October 9, 1931, 1, 8; October 22, 1931, 1, 8.
Ibid., October 9, 1931, 1, 8; Ocala Banner, October 9, 1931, 1.
Ocala Evening Star, October 10, 1931, 1.
In 1871, three black men had been hanged for the murder of D. Niel Ferguson's
grandfather. Ferguson's father, then a child of five, witnessed the triple execution. Ott
and Chazal, Ocali Country, 94.
49. Ocala Evening Star, October 22, 1931, 8.
50. Ibid., I.
51. Ibid., 8.
52. Ocala Banner, October 23, 1931, 1, 6.
53. Ocala Evening Star, October 22, 1931, 1, 8.
54. Jacobs trial transcript, 23, 24, 56, 64.
55. Ocala Banner, October 23, 1931, 1, 6.
56. Ibid., 1.
57. Dr. R. S. Hughes to D. N. Ferguson, October 30,1931, Jacobs case file, State Pardon
Board Files. Dr. Hughes was an African American physician who practiced medicine
in Ocala. Maxine D. Jones, "The African-American Experience in Twentieth-Century
Florida," in The New History of Florida, edited by Michael Gannon (Gainesville: Uni
versity Presses of Florida, 1996), 371-90, 380.
58. Buie to Carlton, December 4, 1931, Jacobs case file, State Pardon Board Files.
59. Jacobs trial transcript.
60. Buie to Carlton, October 31, 1931; Buie to Carlton, December 4, 1931; Carlton to
Buie, December 8, 1931, Jacobs case file, State Pardon Board Files. Buie and Carl
ton were on friendly terms. Buie added a footnote about deer hunting to his letter re
questing a death warrant: "A ten point buck ran by ... head and hide in Sim Blitch's
hands for mounting and tanning. Better get busy, you are behind; catch up." In his re
sponse, the governor addressed Buie as "Dear friend."
61. S.C.M. Thomas to Carlton, January 14, 1932, Jacobs case file, State Pardon Board
Files.
62. Carlton to Thomas, January 21, 1932; Carlton to D. Niel Ferguson, November 3,
1931, Jacobs case file, State Pardon Board files.
63. Grand Jury Presentment to W. S. Bullock, Spring term, 1932, Circuit Court, Marion
County; petition to Doyle E. Carlton, no date, Jacobs case file, State Pardon Board
Files.
64. Telegrams from Rev. A. W. Puller to Carlton, October 26, 1931; Nov. 20, 1931; Feb
ruary 22, 1932; telegram from J. C. Huskisson to Puller, February 23, 1932; telegram
from Puller to Secretary of Pardon Board, February 24, 1932, Jacobs case file, State
Pardon Board Files.
65. Rev. Dallas Gibson to Carlton, February 23, 1932, Jacobs case file, State Pardon
Board Files.
66. D. Niel Ferguson to Carlton, October 30, 1931; Dr. R. S. Hughes to Ferguson, Octo
ber 30, 1931, Jacobs case file, State Pardon Board Files.
67. Lee Jacobs to Carlton, February 8, 1932, Jacobs case file, State Pardon Board Files.
Spelling and punctuation in original.
68. Ocala Evening Star, February 26, 1932, 1, 8; L. F. Chapman to Carlton, February 27,
1932, Jacobs case file, State Pardon Board Files.
69. State of Florida, State Board of Health, Bureau of Vital Statistics, Certificate of
Death, Lee Jacobs, February 26, 1932, state file 3196. The line indicating place of
45.
46.
47.
48.
228
Notes to Pages 85-88
burial is nearly illegible but appears to read "Fla State Fann," which was the nalne
used for the prison.
70. Thomas to Carlton, February 29, 1932, Jacobs case file, State Pardon Board Files.
71. Buie to Carlton, February 20, 1932, Jacobs case file, State Pardon Board Files.
72. Ocala Evening Star, October 10, 1932, 5~ Novenlber 3, 1932,5.
73. Ocala Evening Star, November 2, 1932, 4~ November 3, 1932, 5.
74. Ocala Evening Star, October 12, 1932, I~ Buie to Carlton, Nov. 10, 1932, James case
file, State Pardon Board Files.
75. Jacksonville Journal, March 29, 1933, 1.
76. Ocala E'vening Star, November 2, 1932, 4~ Jacksonville Journal, April 14, 1933, 11.
77. Ocala Evening Star, Novenlber 3, 1932,5.
78. Buie to Carlton, Nov. 10, 1932, James case file, State Pardon Board Files.
79. Jacksonville Journal, March 29, 1933, 1.
80. Elvin Jeffcoat was a white lTIan condetnned for the murder of his wife in Pinellas
County in 1930. His lawyers filed several appeals in the attempt to overturn his con
viction and sentence. See Jeffcoat v. State, 138 So. 385 (Fla. 1931)~ Jeffcoat v. Chap
nzan, 146 So. 588 (Fla. 1933)~ Ex parte Jeffcoat, 146 So. 827 (Fla. 1933).
81. Jacksonville Journal, March 29, 1933, I.
82. The letter from Judge Bullock to Nathan Mayo was not found in the Pardon Board or
Death WalTant files of the Florida State Archives. I also checked without success the
papers in the Florida State Archives of Leonard F. Chapman, superintendent of
Florida State Prison when James was on death row, and Nathan Mayo's papers in the
P. K. Yonge Collection, University of Florida.
83. Jacksonville Journal, March 30, 1933, 1~ Florida Times-Union, March 30, 1933, 6;
reprieve issued by Gov. David Sholtz, March 29, 1933, James case file, State Pardon
Board Files.
84. I have been unable to determine whether James's sentence was reduced through court
or executive action. The prison register contained the following information on Will
lames: his naBle, sex (M), race (C), age at time of conviction (48), birth state
(Florida), county of conviction (Marion), crime for which convicted (rape), sentence
imposed (life), date of sentence (November 2, 1932), date of release (Decenlber 14,
1948), prison nun1ber (24548), and type of release (parole). The prison register did
not indicate that lames had originally been sentenced to death.
85. Timothy Brandt Robinson, "Law and Order, by Any Means Necessary: The Life and
Times of Willis V. McCall, Sheriff of Lake County, Florida" (nlaster's thesis, Florida
State University, 1997),22-23.
86. Quoted in H. D. Price, The Negro and Southern Politics: A Chapter of Florida His
tory (New York: New York University Press, 1957), 99.
87. Bowers, Legal Honlicide, 426; telegram from Fuller Warren to J. R. Hunter, luly
6, 1950, Walter Irwin case file, State Pardon Board Files. For a detailed account of
Irwin's case, see Steven F. Lawson, David R. Colburn, and Darryl Paulson,
·'Groveland: Florida's Little Scottsboro," Florida Historical Quarterly 65 (1986):
1-26, and Gary Corsair, The Groveland Four: The Sad Saga of a Legal Lynching
(Bloomington, IN: 1st Books, 2004). Warren did sponsor legislation to unmask the
Ku Klux Klan. David Colburn and Richard Scher, Florida's Gubernatorial Poli
tics in the 20th Century (Tallahassee: University Presses of Florida, 1980), 223.
88. Jacksonville Journal, April 14, 1933, II.
Page 1 of 1
Neil Gillespie
From:
To:
Cc:
Sent:
Subject:
"Ellspermann, Jayne - West Port High School"
"Carlisle, Christopher - West Port High School"
Tuesday, June 23, 2015 12:44 PM
West Port Wolf Pack
Mr. Gillespie,
Thank you for your inquiry regarding West Port Wolf Pack. In 2000 when West Port High
School was established the school community decided on the Wolf Pack (two words) as the
mascot for the high school. This was before I joined West Port High School. It is not intended
to reference or be associated with “wolfpack” as you described in your email. We go to great
lengths to emphasize West Port and Wolf Pack as two separate words using WP as a logo.
Jayne Ellspermann, Principal
West Port High School
3733 SW 80th Avenue
Ocala, Florida 34481
(352) 291-4000
www.westportwolfpack.org
If we teach today as we taught yesterday
we rob our children of tomorrow
John Dewey
West Port High School – An innovative center of excellence inspiring student success
[Florida has a very broad Public Records Law. All correspondence sent to or from this entity is subject to the Public Records Law of Florida. Email
communication may be subject to public and media disclosure upon request. Under Florida Law, e-mail addresses are public records. If you do not
want your e-mail address released in response to a public-records request, do not send electronic mail to this entity. Instead, contact this office by
phone or in writing.]
~An Equal Opportunity School District~
7/18/2015
Page 1 of 1
Neil Gillespie
From:
To:
Sent:
Subject:
"Neil Gillespie"
Tuesday, June 23, 2015 4:59 AM
Inquiry from school website http://www.westportwolfpack.org
Hello, what does "Home of the Wolf Pack" mean relative to West Port High School, Home of the Wolf
Pack? Is West Port High School a paramilitary school? I understand the term wolfpack originated and
refers to the mass-attack tactics against convoys used by Nazi Germany’s U-boats of the Kriegsmarine
during the Battle of the Atlantic in World War II. Thank you.
7/18/2015