Willis Virgil McCall (July 21, 1909 – April 28, 1994) was
sheriff
A sheriff is a government official, with varying duties, existing in some countries with historical ties to England where the office originated. There is an analogous, although independently developed, office in Iceland that is commonly transla ...
of
Lake County, Florida
Lake County is a county in the central portion of the U.S. state of Florida. As of the 2020 census, the population was 383,956. Its county seat is Tavares, and its largest city is Clermont. Lake County is included in the Orlando-Kissimmee- Sa ...
. He was elected for seven consecutive terms from 1944 to 1972. He gained national attention in the
Groveland Case
The Groveland Four (or the Groveland Boys) were four African Americans, African American men, Ernest Thomas, Charles Greenlee, Samuel Shepherd, and Walter Irvin. In July 1949, the four were accused of raping a white woman and severely beating her ...
in 1949. In 1951, he shot two defendants in the case while he was transporting them to a new trial and killed one on the spot. Claiming self-defense, he was not indicted for this action. He also enforced
anti-miscegenation laws
Anti-miscegenation laws or miscegenation laws are laws that enforce racial segregation at the level of marriage and intimate relationships by criminalization, criminalizing interracial marriage and sometimes also sex between members of different R ...
and was a segregationist.
He lost his bid for an eighth term shortly after he had been acquitted of the murder in 1972 of Tommy J. Vickers, a mentally-disabled black prisoner who died in his custody. McCall's notoriety outlived him. In 2007, the Lake County Commission voted unanimously to change a road named in his honor 20 years before because of his history as a "bully lawman whose notorious tenure was marked by charges of racial intolerance, brutality and murder."
During his 28-year tenure as sheriff, McCall was investigated multiple times for civil rights violations and inmate abuse and was tried for murder but was never convicted.
Early life
Willis McCall was born in
Umatilla,
Lake County, Florida
Lake County is a county in the central portion of the U.S. state of Florida. As of the 2020 census, the population was 383,956. Its county seat is Tavares, and its largest city is Clermont. Lake County is included in the Orlando-Kissimmee- Sa ...
, and was the son of a dirt farmer from
Alabama
(We dare defend our rights)
, anthem = "Alabama (state song), Alabama"
, image_map = Alabama in United States.svg
, seat = Montgomery, Alabama, Montgomery
, LargestCity = Huntsville, Alabama, Huntsville
, LargestCounty = Baldwin County, Al ...
(born c. 1877) and a woman named Pearl (born c. 1886).
Career
McCall was first elected as Sheriff of Lake County in 1944, and successively re-elected until 1972. "At 6 feet 1 and weighing more than 200 pounds, McCall loomed large as Lake sheriff from 1945 until 1972. He wore a white felt hat, black string tie, and polished boots."
In 1972, Guy Bliss defeated McCall in the election for sheriff.
Groveland Four
On July 16, 1949, Norma Padgett, a 17-year-old married white woman in
Groveland, Florida
Groveland is a city in Lake County, Florida, United States. The population was 8,729 at the 2010 census. Between 2000 and 2010, Groveland's population increased by 189%, making it the fastest growing place in Florida. However, its land area incr ...
, said that she had been raped by four young black men. The next day, 16-year-old Charles Greenlee, Sam Shepherd, 22; and
Walter Irvin
Walter Lee Irvin (May 8, 1927 - February 16, 1969), a United States Army veteran of World War II, was one of the so-called Groveland Four—four young African-American men of Lake County, Florida who, in a racially charged case, were accused of rap ...
, 22, were arrested and jailed pending trial. Shepherd and Irvin were both
US Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army of the United States in the U.S. Constitution.Article II, section 2, cla ...
veterans
A veteran () is a person who has significant experience (and is usually adept and esteemed) and expertise in a particular occupation or field. A military veteran is a person who is no longer serving in a military.
A military veteran that has ...
. Sheriff McCall was out of state at the time but returned the next day. The case attracted national attention, and McCall was frequently in the limelight.
Ernest Thomas fled the county and avoided arrest, but a Sheriff's
posse
Posse is a shortened form of posse comitatus, a group of people summoned to assist law enforcement. The term is also used colloquially to mean a group of friends or associates.
Posse may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''Posse'' (1975 ...
shot and killed him about 200 miles northwest of
Lake County in Madison County. A coroner's inquest was unable to determine who had killed Thomas, as he was shot some 400 times.
As word spread about the alleged rape, an angry crowd of whites gathered at the county jail in
Tavares
Tavares may refer to:
Places Brazil
*Tavares, Paraíba
*Tavares, Rio Grande do Sul
*Rodovia Raposo Tavares, the longest highway in São Paulo
*Tavares Bastos (favela), a favela in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
*Tavares River
Jamaica
*Tavares Garden ...
and demanded that McCall turn the suspects over to them for
lynching
Lynching is an extrajudicial killing by a group. It is most often used to characterize informal public executions by a mob in order to punish an alleged transgressor, punish a convicted transgressor, or intimidate people. It can also be an ex ...
. He had hidden Shepherd and Irvin in the basement of his
Eustis, Florida
Eustis is a city in Lake County, Florida, United States. The population was 23,189 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Orlando–Kissimmee–Sanford Metropolitan Statistical Area. Eustis High School is the town's local public high scho ...
, home and transferred them to Raiford State Prison for their safety.
The mob headed toward Groveland, where two of the suspects and their families lived. Unrest continued, and on the third day, McCall and several prominent businessmen warned the black residents to leave town until things settled, which most did. McCall called the Florida Governor asking for
National Guard
National Guard is the name used by a wide variety of current and historical uniformed organizations in different countries. The original National Guard was formed during the French Revolution around a cadre of defectors from the French Guards.
Nat ...
troops to be sent to Lake County; when the troops arrived in Groveland, the mob had already burned several buildings to the ground, including the family home of Sam Shepherd.
A grand jury indicted the three rape suspects. Shepherd and Greenlee later told FBI investigators that deputies beat them until they confessed to the crime. US Attorney Herbert Phillips failed to return indictments against Lake County Sheriff's Deputies James Yates and Leroy Campbell for their roles.
Reviews of the trial have showed it filled with flaws. McCall had told the press before the trial that two men had confessed, which was reported and highlighted by a drawing on the front page. The
all-white jury
Racial discrimination in jury selection is specifically prohibited by law in many jurisdictions throughout the world. In the United States, it has been defined through a series of judicial decisions. However, juries composed solely of one racial ...
quickly convicted each of the three men. The judge sentenced Shepherd and Irvin to death. Because Greenlee was 16 and still a minor, he was sentenced to life in prison. In 1951, the
US Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point of ...
overturned Lake County's conviction of Shepherd and Irvin on the grounds that blacks had been improperly excluded from the jury. (Most blacks were still
disenfranchised
Disfranchisement, also called disenfranchisement, or voter disqualification is the restriction of suffrage (the right to vote) of a person or group of people, or a practice that has the effect of preventing a person exercising the right to vote. D ...
by the state constitution and discriminatory practices in the segregated
Jim Crow
The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws enforcing racial segregation in the Southern United States. Other areas of the United States were affected by formal and informal policies of segregation as well, but many states outside the Sout ...
state; because they could not vote, they were not eligible to sit on juries.)
In November 1951, McCall was personally transporting Shepherd and Irvin from Raiford to Tavares for the retrial. He pulled off to a country road and claimed tire trouble. He swore in a deposition that Shepherd and Irvin attacked him in an escape attempt and that he shot them both in self-defense. The prisoners were handcuffed together during the entire incident. Shepherd was killed on the spot, and McCall shot Irvin three times, but he survived. During the incident Deputy James Yates also arrived and, according to Irvin, shot him again while he was wounded.
Ambulances took McCall and Irvin to Waterman Hospital in Eustis. McCall was treated for a concussion and facial injuries and Irvin for his gunshot wounds. At the hospital, Irvin met with NAACP lawyers, and later told the
press
Press may refer to:
Media
* Print media or news media, commonly called "the press"
* Printing press, commonly called "the press"
* Press (newspaper), a list of newspapers
* Press TV, an Iranian television network
People
* Press (surname), a fam ...
that McCall shot him and Shepherd without provocation, as did Yates. In the early 21st century,
Gilbert King examined the unredacted FBI files from the case. He wrote in his book published in 2012 that the FBI had located a bullet in the soil ten inches below the blood stain where Irvin had lain wounded, supporting Irvin's claim that Yates fired at him from nearly point-blank range.
[Gilbert King, ''Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America'' (2012), p.?]
When a Lake County coroner's inquest concluded that McCall had acted in the line of duty, Judge
Truman Futch
Truman G. Futch Jr. (October 1, 1891 – March 24, 1960) was an American state senator and judge in Florida. He served as president of the state senate. He also served three terms in the Florida House of Representatives. As a Lake County, Florida ...
ruled that he saw no need to impanel a grand jury on this incident. After Irvin recovered from the shooting, his retrial was moved to Marion County, just north of Lake County, and began in February 1952. He was offered a plea bargain, but Irvin refused to plead guilty and maintained his innocence. The jury found Irvin guilty, and the judge sentenced him to death again. The case was appealed, but the conviction was upheld by the
Florida Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of Florida is the highest court in the U.S. state of Florida. It consists of seven members: the chief justice and six justices. Six members are chosen from six districts around the state to foster geographic diversity, and one ...
. In early 1954, the
US Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point of ...
declined to hear the case.
Supporters of Irvin appealed to the governor for clemency. After reviewing the material personally, newly-elected Governor
LeRoy Collins
Thomas LeRoy Collins (March 10, 1909 – March 12, 1991) was an American politician who served as the 33rd Governor of Florida. Collins began his governorship after winning a special election in 1954, was elected to a four-year term in 1956 ...
in 1955 commuted Irvin's sentence to life in prison, saying that he did not believe that the state established guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Greenlee, who did not appeal his case, was paroled in 1962 and Irvin was in 1968. Irvin died in 1969 while visiting Lake County. Greenlee moved with his wife and daughter to Tennessee, where his son was born a few years later. Greenlee lived until 2012.
1951 Harry T. Moore bombing
Harry T. Moore
Harry Tyson Moore (November 18, 1905 – December 25, 1951) was an African-American educator, a pioneer leader of the civil rights movement, founder of the first branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in B ...
, executive director of the Florida
NAACP
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is a civil rights organization in the United States, formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E.&nb ...
, challenged segregation and law enforcement. In the 1940s and the early 1950s, he succeeded in gaining voter registration of tens of thousands of blacks, who had been essentially
disfranchised since a new state constitution at the turn of the century. Following the convictions and sentencing in the Groveland case, he requested for the governor to suspend McCall from office and investigate allegations of prisoner abuse. Six weeks after calling for McCall's removal, Moore and his wife were killed when a bomb exploded under their bedroom in
Mims in
Brevard County
Brevard County ( ) is a county located in the east central portion of the U.S. state of Florida. As of the 2020 census, the population was 606,612, making it the 10th-most populated county in Florida. The official county seat is located in T ...
on
Christmas
Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus, Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by country, around t ...
night in 1952. Rumors alleged that McCall was behind the bombing, but both an extensive FBI investigation at the time and additional later separate FBI and Justice Department investigations have failed to produce any evidence linking McCall in any way.
In 2005, the
Florida Department of Law Enforcement
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) is a state-wide investigative law enforcement agency within the state of Florida. The department formally coordinates eight boards, councils, and commissions. FDLE's duties, responsibilities and ...
began a new investigation of the Moore bombing to include excavation of their home site in a search for new
forensic
Forensic science, also known as criminalistics, is the application of science to Criminal law, criminal and Civil law (legal system), civil laws, mainly—on the criminal side—during criminal investigation, as governed by the legal standard ...
evidence. On August 16, 2006,
Florida Attorney General
The Florida attorney general is an elected cabinet official in the U.S. state of Florida. The attorney general serves as the chief legal officer of the state and is head of the Florida Department of Legal Affairs.
The office is one of Florida's t ...
Charlie Crist
Charles Joseph Crist Jr. (; born July 24, 1956) is an American attorney and politician who served as the 44th governor of Florida from 2007 to 2011 and as the U.S. representative for from 2017 to 2022. Crist has been a member of the Democratic ...
announced his office had completed its 20-month investigation, which resulted in the naming of four now-dead suspects: Earl Brooklyn, Tillman Belvin, Joseph Cox and Edward Spivey.
All four had a long history with the
Ku Klux Klan
The Ku Klux Klan (), commonly shortened to the KKK or the Klan, is an American white supremacist, right-wing terrorist, and hate group whose primary targets are African Americans, Jews, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, and ...
and served as officers in the
Orange County
Orange County most commonly refers to:
*Orange County, California, part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area
Orange County may also refer to:
U.S. counties
*Orange County, Florida, containing Orlando
*Orange County, Indiana
*Orange County, New ...
Klavern. The investigation reported finding no link between McCall and Moore.
Platt children
In 1954, McCall was asked by the Lake County school board to uphold their decision to ban five children from a segregated white public school in
Mount Dora after parents and teachers had suspected them of being "Negro."
(Under a
one-drop law in Florida passed in the early 20th century, persons with any known African ancestry were classified as black, regardless of their appearance or proportion of European ancestry.) In 1954, the US Supreme Court ruled in ''
Brown v. Board of Education
''Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka'', 347 U.S. 483 (1954), was a landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that U.S. state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools are unconstitutional, even if the segregat ...
'' that segregation of public schools was unconstitutional. The state resisted school integration, like much of the South.
McCall visited the Platts' house and examined the five children. He concluded they were negroes, which disqualified them from the white school.
[King, Gilbert. "Chapter 22: A Place In the Sun." ''Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America'', New York: Harper, 2012. p. 340] Official birth and marriage records all classified the Platts as white, and they were said to have Indian ancestry as well.
McCall addressed a Delaware chapter of the
National Association for the Advancement of White People
The National Association for the Advancement of White People (NAAWP) is a white supremacist organization established in 1979 by former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke, deriving its name from the National Association for the Advancement of C ...
later that year and urged whites to oppose the desegregation of schools.
["Look at Your Own Child," ''Time Magazine,'' December 13, 1954]
Because of threats and violence, the Platts did not have their children attend the public school. McCall arranged to have the children enrolled in the Mt. Dora Christian Home and Bible School, a private school that was not subject to segregation laws. On October 18, 1955, a court ruled that the children could attend white public school. By then, the Platt family had decided to move away from Florida.
Indictment for death of prisoner Tommy J. Vickers
McCall was indicted in 1972 for
second-degree murder by a state grand jury for the death of
Tommy J. Vickers, a mentally-disabled black prisoner who was in his custody. Vickers died in the hospital in April 1972 of acute
peritonitis
Peritonitis is inflammation of the localized or generalized peritoneum, the lining of the inner wall of the abdomen and cover of the abdominal organs. Symptoms may include severe pain, swelling of the abdomen, fever, or weight loss. One part or ...
from a blow to the lower abdomen. McCall was accused of kicking and beating Vickers to death for throwing his food on the floor.
[John Hill, "Wrong Turn: A Southern sheriff's law and disorder"](_blank)
''St. Petersburg Times'', November 28, 1999
Governor
Reubin Askew
Reubin O'Donovan Askew (September 11, 1928 – March 13, 2014) was an American politician, who served as the 37th governor of Florida from 1971 to 1979. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the 7th U.S. Trade representative from 1979 ...
suspended McCall the day of the indictment. McCall was acquitted by an
all-white jury
Racial discrimination in jury selection is specifically prohibited by law in many jurisdictions throughout the world. In the United States, it has been defined through a series of judicial decisions. However, juries composed solely of one racial ...
in
Ocala
Ocala ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Marion County within the northern region of Florida, United States. As of the 2020 United States Census, the city's population was 63,591, making it the 54th most populated city in Florida.
Home to ...
in neighboring Marion County after a lengthy trial. The jury concluded its deliberations after 70 minutes.
McCall returned to office. Critics argued that the all-white jury never seriously considered the charges. Supporters of the sheriff claimed that the charges made against McCall were fabricated and based on politics. The presiding state judge said that the charges brought against McCall appeared to have been false.
Later life
Days after his trial for the manslaughter of Vickers, McCall narrowly lost his re-election bid in November 1972. Lake County had changed considerably during his time in office, growing in population, with many new people from the North as retirees. McCall was said to have bragged that he had been investigated 49 times and that five different governors had tried to remove him:
"I've been accused of everything but taking a bath and called everything but a child of God," he like
to say.
[Ben Green, Chap. One, ''Before His Time: The Untold Story of Harry T. Moore, America's First Civil Rights Martyr''](_blank)
''New York Times'', June 13, 1999, published with Adam Nossiter, Review: "Fighting Jim Crow", same date He retired to his home in
Umatilla, Florida
Umatilla is a city in central Florida and it is in northern Lake County, Florida, United States. The population was 3,456 at the 2010 census and an estimated 3,805 in 2018. Umatilla is known as the Gateway to the Ocala National Forest, located in ...
.
In 1985, the Lake County Board of County Commissioners named the road by his house,
County Road 450A (CR 450A), as Willis V. McCall Road in his honor. More than 20 years later, the South Umatilla Neighborhood Association, a group of black residents on the road, some of whom had lived there for 50 years, asked the Lake County Commission to change the name of the road, as they objected to its honoring a man with such a history. The Commission members unanimously voted to change the road's name back to County Road 450A.
[Stephen Hudak, "From Willis V. McCall Road To County Road 450A"](_blank)
''Orlando Sentinel'', October 3, 2007
Late in life, McCall published a memoir about his experiences, ''The Wisdom of Willis McCall''. He defended his long career as sheriff and responded to public criticism. "McCall never doubted himself, the usefulness of segregation or the morality of the methods he used to enforce law and order."
McCall died on April 28, 1994 at the age of 84.
References
Further reading
Isaac M. Flores, ''Justice Gone Wrong: A Sheriff's Power of Fear''(Google eBook), iUniverse (self-published), Apr 2009
*Ben Green, Chap. One, ''Before His Time: The Untold Story of Harry T. Moore, America's First Civil Rights Martyr.'' New York: Free Press, 1999
*
External links
Official website for ''Legal Lynching: The Sad Saga of the Groveland Four''by Gary Corsair
''Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America'' Official Website
A Southern sheriff's law and disorder, ''St. Petersburg Times''
Frank Trippett, "High and Mighty Sheriff"''Life Magazine''
{{DEFAULTSORT:McCall, Willis V.
1909 births
1994 deaths
People from Umatilla, Florida
Florida sheriffs
People acquitted of murder
20th-century American politicians