Willis V. McCall

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 election defeat in 1972. During his tenure he received broad support from the citizens of the county and leaders in the citrus industry, one of the primary employers and economic forces in the county at that time. Political foes alleged that he 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 included having prisoners work his own property. McCall's supporters assert that he was never formally charged with such activities and point to the fact that Lake County has never had a prison work program.

The NAACP frequently accused McCall of brutality against black people. Three major incidents during his career made national headlines and are partially detailed below:

The Groveland Four

On July 16, 1949, Norma Padgett, a 17-year old Groveland, Florida girl, accused four black men of rape, testifying that she and her husband were attacked when their car stalled on a rural road near Groveland, Florida. The next day, Charles Greenlee, Sam Shepherd, and Walter Irvin were in jail. Ernest Thomas fled the county and avoided arrest for several days until a north Florida Sheriff's posse shot and killed him about 200 miles northwest of Lake County. As word spread about the rape and subsequent 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." It was later disclosed that McCall had hidden the prisoners in the basement of his Eustis home, however,some claim that this is impossible incorrectly stating the water table in Central Florida precludes any homes there having basements.

McCall took several of the mob leaders through the jail to prove that the prisoners were not there. Unable to find the three, the mob looked for a new target. They turned on a black neighborhood of Groveland, a small town in South Lake County where two of the accused and their families lived. The men drove to Groveland in a caravan and once they arrived, they began shooting guns into the air and burned one black owned out building. [ [http://www.pbs.org/harrymoore/terror/groveland.html PBS - Freedom Never Dies: The Story of Harry T. Moore - Florida Terror - Groveland - Introduction ] ] On July 18,after several requests by McCall, Governor Fuller Warren sent in the National Guard. Over the following six days, McCall, the Guard and officers from the Florida Highway Patrol gradually restored order.

A grand jury indicted the rape suspects. An Orlando attorney named Franklin Williams claimed that the accused had been beaten while in police custody. Medical testimony was never given to back up the accusations that the suspects were beaten prior to their confessions. The prosecution did not enter the confessions into evidence relying on other evidence. cite book|title=From Jim Crowe to Civil Rights: The Supreme Court and the Struggle for Racial Equality|author=Klarman, Michael J.|year=2006|publisher=Oxford University press|ISBN=0195129032] Sam Shepherd and Walter Irvin were sentenced to death. 16-year-old Charles Greenlee, because of his age, was sentenced to life in prison. Greenlee never appealed his conviction. However, in 1951, the Florida Supreme Court ordered a retrial for Shepherd and Irvin, ruling that inaccurate and racially-charged media coverage prior to the trial had prejudiced the jury pool in the area, and thus denied the defendants a fair trial.

In 1951, while transporting the prisoners from Raiford to Lake County, McCall was forced to shoot both handcuffed prisoners, when they had attempted to escape. Sam Shepherd was killed at the scene. McCall and Irvin were both transported to Waterman Hospital in nearby Eustis for treatment of their injuries.

After consulting with NAACP lawyers while in his hospital bed, Irvin stated in a sworn affidavit that Sheriff McCall shot Sheperd and him without provocation. The defense lawyers never filed charges against Sheriff McCall as a result of this incident.

The re-trial of Irvin began after his recovery from the shooting. NAACP lawyer and 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 again 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, citing the verdicts of the two earlier trials and no new evidence.

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. Greenlee was paroled in 1962.

The Harry T. Moore bombing

Harry T. Moore, the executive director of the Florida NAACP, demanded that Sheriff McCall be indicted for murder and requested that the Governor suspend him from office. Six weeks after calling for McCall's removal, Mr. Moore and his wife were killed when a bomb exploded under their bedroom in Mims Florida on Christmas night. Rumors alleged that Sheriff Willis V. McCall must be behind this bombing. However, an extensive FBI investigation at the time and additional separate FBI and Justice Department investigations have failed to produce any evidence linking McCall to the crime.

In 2005, a new investigation was launched by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to include excavation of the Moore home in a search for new 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.

Cleared from suspicion was former Lake County Sheriff Willis McCall, long a subject of the rumors and hearsay linking him to the case.

The Vickers Incident

Sheriff McCall was later indicted by a grand jury for the beating death of Tommy Vickers, a retarded black prisoner in the Sheriff's custody in April 1972 ["Wrong Turn: A Southern sheriff's law and disorder" by John Hill St. Pete Times 11/28/99] . Governor Reubin Askew suspended McCall during the trial, but McCall was acquitted by an all-white 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. Supporters claim that the charges made against McCall were fabricated and based solely in politics. The Federal Judge presiding over the trial agreed.

Epilogue

After narrowly losing his re-election bid in November 1972, McCall retired to his home on CR-450A in Umatilla, Florida. The Lake County Board of County Commissioners named the road after Willis V. McCall 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; much hearsay and legend, both pro and con, surround his memory. Bowing to pressure from political groups,Lake County Commissioners renamed Willis V. McCall Road back to County Road 450a in October 2007.

Willis V. McCall died in April 1994 at the age of 84.

External links

* [http://linux.library.appstate.edu/lumbee/4/PLAT001.htm The Allen Platt case]
*Former Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall argued two cases in Ocala with mention of Willis V. McCall [http://www.ocala.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20030101/OCALACOMHISTORY/101010054/-1/community0104]
*Selections from the P.K. Yonge Library of Florida History [http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/spec/AAexhibit/florida.htm]
*St. Petersburg Article: A Southern sheriff's law and disorder [http://www.sptimes.com/News/112899/Floridian/A_Southern_sheriff_s_.shtml]
*"Hitler is Here": Lynching in Florida During the Era of World War II [http://etd.lib.fsu.edu/theses/available/etd-07112004-234544/unrestricted/08_THobbs_Conclusion.pdf]
*PBS Documentary Freedom Never Dies [http://www.pbs.org/harrymoore/index.html]
*Who Killed Harry T. Moore [http://www.pbs.org/harrymoore/terror/1951.html]
*Groveland [http://www.pbs.org/harrymoore/terror/groveland.html]

*Lynchings [http://www.pbs.org/harrymoore/terror/lynching.html]

*KKK in Florida [http://www.pbs.org/harrymoore/terror/k.html]

References