The term Groveland Four was coined by newspapers for the American cause celebre in which four African-American men were accused of raping a Caucasian woman named Norma Padgett in Groveland, Florida, in 1949. The four men were Ernest Thomas, Charles Greenlee, Sam Shepherd and Walter Irvin.
Ernest Thomas fled the night of the incident. He was tracked down by a posse days later, 200 miles away. He was shot and killed by that posse. Officers reported that Thomas was armed and reached for his weapon.
NAACP attorney Franklin Williams reported that all three surviving suspects stated, independently of the others, that confessions were beaten out of them at the hands of deputies. He also reported obvious signs of severe beatings.[1] FBI informant reports, and the intake records at the state prison (where they were held awaiting trail) confirmed these reports. This never came out at trial, because the prosecution did not bring the confessions into evidence, instead relying on testimonies. There is a lot of uncertainty regarding whether a rape actually took place at all. Two of the defendants, Shepherd and Irvin, claimed they were in Eatonville, Florida, drinking that night. Greenlee and Thomas were apparently nowhere near the other defendants on that night and had never met the other defendants. The physician who examined Norma was not called to the witness stand. Sheriff Willis V. McCall's deputies were accused of manufacturing evidence in this case to win a conviction.
Charles Greenlee, who was 16 at the time, was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. He did not appeal and was released on parole in 1962, even though he was arrested 20 miles from where the rape was said to happen. He moved to Tennessee, becoming a successful businessman and family man.
Sam Shepherd and Walter Irvin were found guilty and given the death penalty. It has been reported than one or both of them was dishonorably discharged from the army after serving in World War II. The U.S. Supreme Court, upon hearing evidence of numerous "problems" with the defendants' first trial, ordered that they be given a new trial. Irving and Shepherd were shot while being transported from Raiford to Lake County for retrial by Sheriff Willis V. McCall.
By all accounts Shepherd and Irving were shot while exiting McCall's vehicle ostensibly to help McCall "fix a flat tire". The shooting took place on a dark country road just outside of Umatilla, Florida. Both prisoners were shot three times. Irving survived and Shepherd died, most likely from a gunshot wound to the head. In what to some seemed to be a scripted scenario, a group of men from Umatilla were prompted by Deputy Yates to report to the scene of the shooting. Those called included Dr. Douglas, a young physician, a prominent and a very influential businessman and politician whose home was a mere shouting distance away, the mayor of Umatilla and a local service station owner (to fix the flat tire). All of those called to the scene rallied around the sheriff and later offered testimony for subsequent investigations in defense of the sheriff.
Allegations abound over the lack of medical care given to Irvin at the scene and the time it took to transport him to a local hospital in Eustis, Florida, around 10 miles away. While recovering in the hospital from the shooting, Irvin emphatically stated that McCall had no cause to shoot him or Shepherd, accusing the Sheriff of murder and attempted murder. McCall was hospitalized for minor injuries and possible problems with his heart caused by the stress of dealing with the shooting of the two prisoners.
A coroner's inquiry (some claim stacked with cronies of McCall) cleared McCall of any wrongdoing, stating McCall had acted in self defense and had no choice but to shoot both prisoners.
Irving was retried in Marion County. Thurgood Marshall led the defense team and Irvin was again found guilty and sentenced to death. Later in that same year newly-elected Governor LeRoy Collins commuted Irvin's sentence to life in prison. Irvin was paroled in 1968. He died from heart complications while visiting Lake County in 1970.