Willis V. McCall
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Willis Virgil McCall (July 21, 1909 - April 1994) was Sheriff of Lake County, Florida for 7 consecutive terms starting in 1944 and ending with his resignation in 1973. During his tenure he received broad support from the citrus industry, the primary employer and economic force in the county at that time. He was alleged to have made arbitrary arrests of black people, usually for minor crimes, in order to provide manpower to citrus growers and farmers under prison work programs. This accusation sometimes includes having prisoners work his own property.
He was also frequently accused of brutality against black people. However, even when he was indicted on these accusations, he was never convicted. Three major incidents in his career made national headlines and are detailed below:
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[edit] The Groveland Four
On July 16, 1949, Norma Padgett, a 17-year old Groveland, Florida girl, accused four black men of rape. Within hours, Charles Greenlee, Sam Shepherd, and Walter Irvin (the latter two Army veterans) were in jail. Ernest Thomas fled the county and avoided the sheriff's posse until he was shot and killed about 200 miles northwest of Lake County. As word spread about the arrest of the three, a crowd gathered at the county jail. An estimated 200 cars carrying 500 to 600 men demanded that McCall turn the three men over to them for their brand of instant justice. According to Ormond Powers, a reporter for the Orlando Morning Sentinel who covered the case, McCall had hidden the suspects in a nearby orange grove; but he told the mob they had been transferred to the state prison. McCall promised that he would see that justice was done and urged them to "let the law handle this calmly."
Unable to find the three, the mob looked for a new target. They turned on the black neighorhoods of Groveland, a small village in South Lake County where many of the accused and their families lived. The men drove to Groveland in a caravan and once they arrived, they began shooting into black homes and set two black-owned structures afire. On July 18, Governor Fuller Warren sent in the National Guard. Over the following six days, the Guard gradually restored order.
A grand jury indicted the suspects. An Orlando NAACP attorney named Franklin Williams claimed that the accused had been beaten while in police custody, but no charges were filed against the police. Sam Shepherd and Walter Irvin were sentenced to death. 16-year-old Charles Greenlee received a recommendation of mercy because of his age, and was sentenced to prison. Greenlee never appealed his conviction. However, in 1951, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Shepherd and Irvin's convictions and ordered a retrial, ruling that inaccurate and racially-charged media coverage prior to the trial had prejudiced the jury pool, and thus denied the defendants a fair trial.
In 1951, while transporting the prisoners from Raiford for retrial, Sheriff Willis V. McCall shot both handcuffed prisoners, alleging they had attempted to escape. Irvin, who survived the shooting, stated in a sworn affidavit that Sheriff McCall shot Sheperd and him after forcing them from the car and telling them to run. An official inquest at the scene of the shooting and held on the night of the shooting found that Sheriff McCall had acted properly. No charges were filed against Sheriff McCall as a result of this incident.
The re-trial of the surviving Irvin began after his recovery from the shooting. Future Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall represented Irvin in the re-trial. The trial became a pawn in the Cold War as newspapers in the Soviet Union pointed to the trial as evidence that American blacks were not free. New evidence was presented, but the jury found Irvin guilty after a deliberation of just 90 minutes. The case was appealed again, but the conviction was upheld in lower courts, and in early 1954, the United States Supreme Court declined to hear the case.
Later in that same year, newly-elected Governor LeRoy Collins commuted Irvin's sentence to life in prison. Irvin was released in 1968. He died from heart complications while visiting Lake County in 1970. Greenlee was paroled in 1962.
[edit] The Harry T. Moore bombing
Harry T. Moore, the executive director of the Florida NAACP, demanded that the sheriff be indicted for murder and requested that the Governor suspend him from office. Six weeks later, Mr. Moore and his wife were killed when a bomb exploded under their bedroom on Christmas night. Some alleged that Sheriff Willis V. McCall was associated with ordering this bombing. However, an extensive FBI investigation at the time and additional separate investigations have failed to produce any evidence supporting the claim of McCall's involvement.
In 2005, a new investigation was launched by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to include excavation of the Moore house in a search for forensic evidence that may assist with the investigation.
On August 16, 2006, Florida Attorney General Charlie Crist announced his office had completed its 20-month investigation, resulting in the naming of four now-dead suspects.
The suspects, all members of the Ku Klux Klan, were identified as Earl Brooklyn, Tillman Belvin, Joseph Cox and Edward Spivey. All four had a long history with the Klan, serving as officers in the Orange County Klavern.
Not on the list was former Lake County Sheriff Willis McCall, long a subject of rumor surrounding the case.
[edit] The Vickers Incident
Sheriff McCall was later indicted for the murder of Tommy Vickers, a black prisoner, in a holding cell in April 1972. Governor Reubin Askew suspended McCall, but McCall was acquitted by the jury in Ocala, FL after a lengthy trial ended with 70 minutes of deliberation. Critics have argued that the all-white jury never seriously considered the charges, while supporters claim that the charges were fabricated and based solely in politics.
[edit] Epilogue
McCall resigned in 1973 and retired to his home on Willis V. McCall Road/CR-450A in Umatilla, Florida. The Lake County Board of County Commissioners named the road after Willis V. McCall at his own request in the 1980s. He published a memoir about his experiences, The Wisdom of Willis McCall, in which he defends his long career as Sheriff of Lake County and responds to his critics. He remains a point of hot contention even today in Lake County; recently, the Young Democrats of Lake County and others have moved to have Willis V. McCall road renamed. Much hearsay and legend, both pro and con, surround his memory.
Willis V. McCall died in April 1994 at the age of 84.
[edit] External links
- The Allen Platt case
- Former Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall argued two cases in Ocala with mention of Willis V. McCall[1]
- Selections from the P.K. Yonge Library of Florida History [2]
- St. Petersburg Article: A Southern sheriff's law and disorder[3]
- "Hitler is Here": Lynching in Florida During the Era of World War II [4]
- Petition to rename Willis V.McCall Road: [5]
- PBS Documentary Freedom Never Dies[6]
- Who Killed Harry T. Moore[7]
- Groveland[8]
- Lynchings[9]
- KKK in Florida[10]
