by Gilbert King
Pearl “rested her arm”: Daytona Beach Morning Journal, Feb. 25, 1971.
On the second day: LEG-SAF.
In every courtroom: Interview, Richard Graham.
“It is an awesome decision”: LEG-SAF.
Once the elevator doors had closed: Orlando Sentinel, Feb. 26, 1971.
Richard Graham climbed: Interview, Richard Graham.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN. FAITH IN BLANCHE
By 1971, Florida was growing: Stanley K. Smith, “Florida Population Growth: Past, Present and Future,” Bureau of Economic and Business Research, University of Florida, June 2005, https://www.bebr.ufl.edu/sites/default/files/FloridaPop2005_0.pdf.
And tensions at the newly integrated high schools: Interview, Noel Griffin Jr. Also, Isabel Wilkerson, The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America’s Great Migration (New York: Random House, 2010).
At the beginning of the year: Orlando Sentinel, Jan. 5, 1971.
The combination, Joe said: Orlando Sentinel, Jan. 21, 1971.
“He is pretty good”: Orlando Sentinel, Nov. 28, 1971.
If Blanche was keeping up appearances: Kelly McBride, “Rethinking Rape Coverage,” Quill, Nov. 20, 2002.
“There was a lot of womanizing then”: Ibid.
Author Florence King explained: Florence King, Southern Ladies and Gentlemen (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1975).
When the girlfriend eventually became: Interview, Priscilla Newell.
“Your daughter would be disgraced”: Ibid.
pumped out stories with headlines: Dorothy Thompson, “Divorces Are Not Crimes: They Are Tragedies,” Ladies’ Home Journal, Aug. 1951.
“a rather stoic type of person”: FSH-SAF.
On March 1: Daytona Beach Evening News, Mar. 1, 1971.
On March 2: Mabel Norris Chesley to Office of Reubin Askew, Mar. 2, 1971, LEG-SAF.
“On his behalf”: Ted Husfeld to Reubin Askew, Mar. 22, 1971, LEG-SAF.
“For Jesse to plead guilty”: Interview, Richard Graham.
“Gideon had no attorney”: Daytona Beach Morning Journal, Apr. 10, 1971.
As Mabel reported: Daytona Beach Morning Journal, May 10, 1971.
It was a remarkable development: Interview, Richard Graham.
Hawkins “opened the door”: Orlando Sentinel, Sept. 16, 2008.
“She’d done her best”: Ibid.
“it may be a race”: Daytona Beach Morning Journal, May 28, 1971.
Hirshberg, a graduate: Lowell Sun (Mass.), Dec. 22, 2013.
On September 10, in a letter: Milton Hirshberg to Ted Husfeld and Richard Graham, Sept. 10, 1971, FSH-SAF.
That summer, Jesse had: St. Petersburg Times, Oct. 24, 1971.
Gordon Oldham, in a letter: William Reed to Reubin Askew, describing Oldham’s letter to Hirshberg, Oct. 16, 1972, FDLE.
In October, in an interview: St. Petersburg Times, Oct. 24, 1971.
“It doesn’t get any faster”: Interview, Richard Graham.
Contradicting the lower court’s finding: District Court of Appeal of Florida, Second District, Nov. 17, 1971, Daniels v. State No. 71-233, LEG-SAF.
Martin Dyckman, one of the best-known: St. Petersburg Times, Oct. 24, 1971. Also FDLE.
“Hell, no!”: St. Petersburg Times, Nov. 19, 1971.
Having already stated plainly: Interview, Richard Graham.
He tried to appeal: Ibid.
Nor could Graham: St. Petersburg Times, Oct. 24, 1971.
“I had more faith in Blanche”: Interview, Richard Graham.
Moreover, a spokesman for the Florida attorney general’s office: St. Petersburg Times, Oct. 24, 1971.
“I’ve waited nearly fourteen years”: St. Petersburg Times, Nov. 19, 1971.
“You should have seen the parting”: St. Petersburg Times, Dec. 5, 1971.
Doughney took him out: Ibid.
“It was as bad as a toothache”: St. Petersburg Times, Dec. 1, 1974.
Inside his new home: Orlando Sentinel, Dec. 25, 1971.
A few other gifts: Ibid.
Seated on Pearl’s bed: St. Petersburg Times, Dec. 5, 1971.
Mabel stole a moment: Daytona Beach Sunday News-Journal, Dec. 5, 1971.
“And I’m going to be a musician”: St. Petersburg Times, Dec. 5, 1971.
“For now, I close”: Daytona Beach Sunday News-Journal, Dec. 5, 1971.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN. SOMEONE SHOULD WRITE A BOOK
“We’ll start off a brand new year”: St. Petersburg Times, Dec. 31, 1971.
The state attorney did not: William Reed to Reubin Askew, Dec. 16, 1972, FDLE.
The state attorney expressed: Florida Today, Oct. 13, 1974.
Oldham’s decision disappointed: Ibid.
“He has several retarded employees”: St. Petersburg Times, Dec. 31, 1971.
“The mental anguish”: Florida Today, Oct. 13, 1971.
“Because a weekly newspaper speaks”: Daytona Beach Morning Journal, Jan. 7, 1972.
“There has never been a trial”: Naples Daily, Feb. 19, 1972.
Jesse, in a navy blue suit: Daytona Beach Morning Journal, Mar. 4, 1972.
Graham and Husfeld opened: Ibid.
The next witness was Deputy James Yates: Ibid.
Nor could he refer: Daytona Beach Morning Journal, Mar. 3, 1972.
“He just brushed me off”: Interview, Richard Graham.
She recounted for Graham: Daytona Beach Morning Journal, Mar. 3, 1972.
“She apparently had a green light”: Interview, Richard Graham.
“I’m my own best protection”: Florida Today, Oct. 13, 1974.
Then the lawyers called Jesse: Daytona Beach Morning Journal, Mar. 4, 1972.
In April 1972: FDLE.
Both Jack and Bobby Huffman later stated: Ibid.
After the scuffle, Vickers was carried: Ibid.
At the coroner’s inquest: Isaac M. Flores, Justice Gone Wrong: A Sheriff’s Power of Fear (New York and Bloomington, IN: iUniverse, 2009).
Unconvinced by the verdict: Tallahassee Democrat, May 20, 1972.
Unperturbed, nearly yawning: Daytona Beach Morning Journal, Jun. 1, 1972.
When Graham asked Oldham: Ibid.
“Did you ask for a retraction”: Interview, Richard Graham.
Finally, to Special Master Woods: Daytona Beach Morning Journal, Jun. 1, 1972.
Bill Donaldson, the polygraph expert: FDLE.
It had taken place: Ibid.
Richard Graham handed Hickman: Interview, Richard Graham.
“He had kinky black hair”: FDLE.
Margaret Hickman, confused: Daytona Beach Sunday News-Journal, Jun. 4, 1972.
The attorneys decided: Interview, Richard Graham.
“But it was a Negro”: FDLE. Also Florida Today, Dec. 31, 1972.
Jim Mahorner, counsel for the attorney general: FDLE.
The agents determined: Ibid. Also Florida Today, Oct. 13, 1974.
When presented with the actual confession: FDLE.
When the FDLE agents interviewed Donaldson: Ibid.
Donaldson then produced: Ibid.
Once he’d confirmed: Ibid.
For example, there was this seemingly innocuous sentence: LEG-SAF.
Griffin, for one, had believed: Interview, Noel Griffin Jr.
Mabel Chesley took Woods’s comment: Daytona Beach Sunday News-Journal, Jun. 4, 1972.
“It would take a Truman Capote”: Ibid.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN. WHETHER THEY BE WHITE OR BLACK
Alfred Albright, the youngest of sixteen children: U.S. Census, 1920. Also FDLE.
Judge Scott concluded that the evidence: Palm Beach Post, May 5, 1972.
The prisoner’s death: Tallahassee Democrat, Jun. 13, 1972.
“We wanted A
l Albright”: Interview, Rick Hernan.
McCall balked: FDLE.
“I am innocent”: Orlando Sentinel, Jun. 13, 1972.
“This is the NAACP”: Orlando Sentinel, May 18, 1972.
The Vickers case, he said: Orlando Sentinel, Jun. 13, 1972.
One of the grand jurors: Florida Times Union, Aug. 18, 1972.
In its report, the twenty-three-person grand jury: Orlando Sentinel, Jun. 13, 1972.
Asked why by the prosecutors: Palm Beach Post, Aug. 19, 1972.
“There are lots of rumors”: Orlando Sentinel, Jun. 14, 1972.
“Al Albright was the greatest”: Interview, Rick Hernan.
“Willis McCall is a murderer”: FDLE.
Albright and Hernan found: Interview, Rick Hernan.
They learned, for example: St. Petersburg Times, Jan. 14, 1970.
The coroner’s inquest: FDLE.
Testifying in the murder trial: Palm Beach Post, Aug. 27, 1972.
The police said he’d taken: Orlando Sentinel, Nov. 12, 1972.
In June, Albright met: FDLE.
Albright interviewed Fisher: Ibid.
Meech demanded: Ibid.
Already seated in the gallery: Interview, Noel Griffin Jr.
Albright hustled over: Ibid. Also Orlando Sentinel, Sept. 1, 1972.
Not even testimony: Palm Beach Post, Aug. 27, 1972.
“By the time they hit”: Ibid.
In an interview after the trial: Interview, Rick Hernan. Also FDLE.
Asked by a reporter: Florida Today, Sept. 30, 1972.
To another reporter: Florida Today, Jul. 12, 1972.
With the Vickers case having failed: FDLE.
He told the investigators: LEG-SAF.
They set their sights: NARA-FBI.
In June, Mabel Chesley: Daytona Beach Morning Journal, undated clipping, MNC.
“Of course, he shouldn’t be”: Mabel Norris Chesley to Edgar Dunn, undated, MNC.
To that end, he placed: William Troelstrup to William Reed, Jul. 26, 1972, FDLE.
In August, after Willis McCall’s acquittal: Edgar Dunn to Ben Krage, Sept. 8, 1972, NARA-DOJ.
the DOJ stated that it was: NARA-DOJ. Also Reubin Askew to Florida Parole and Probation Committee, Oct. 9, 1972, NARA-DOJ.
In a report based on a study: Ben Krage to David L. Norman, Oct. 22, 1972, NARA-DOJ.
In response to a letter: NARA-FBI.
In preparing their notes: NARA-DOJ.
Of particular concern to the DOJ attorneys: Ibid.
While FBI agents were examining: Ibid.
Learning that the Daniels case: Interview, Bud Bosanquet.
Oldham assured Karl: LEG-SAF.
At none of the hearings: Ibid.
That Graham had chosen: Ibid.
From the outset the meeting was tense: Ibid.
The Department of Justice: NARA-FBI.
On the morning after the attack; Hawkins could not recall: Ibid.
Hawkins admitted to still feeling: Ibid.
Horrified by the news: Ibid.
Fain’s nervousness was immediately apparent: FDLE.
Since 1970, Earle Fain Jr.: Orlando Sentinel, Mar. 24, 1970.
He was “absolutely sure”: FDLE.
Joe Knowles was a “ladies’ man”: Ibid.
“I be goddamn”: Ibid.
Next, Fain said, Oldham and Knowles: Ibid.
He avowed to Albright: Ibid.
Fain told Albright: Ibid.
The day after their meeting: Ibid.
In response to Karl’s questioning: LEG-SAF.
“The room was completely dark”: Ibid.
She answered the question: Ibid.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN. A NEWSPAPER WOMAN
“I believe the Fain statement”: William Reed to John Briggs, NARA-DOJ.
On the first day of grand jury proceedings: Ocala Star-Banner, Feb. 21, 1973.
Notably absent from the witness list: NARA-DOJ.
As Richard Graham learned: Interview, Richard Graham.
McCall told reporters that he’d never sweated: Isaac M. Flores, Justice Gone Wrong: A Sheriff’s Power of Fear (New York and Bloomington, IN: iUniverse, 2009).
In one such communication: Ed Miller to John Briggs, NARA-DOJ.
As the focus of the investigation: NARA-DOJ.
In the opinion of DOJ Civil Rights Division investigator: Carlton Stoiber, correspondence to author, Mar. 22, 2016.
“There are many conflicts”: St. Petersburg Times, Aug. 16, 1973.
“In spite of the very real”: William Reed to Reubin Askew, NARA-DOJ.
The FDLE report: LEG-SAF.
In a rare decision: Ibid.
In his final report: Ibid.
But there was one more discrepancy: FDLE.
Yet on closer examination: Ibid. Also LEG-SAF.
The DOJ declared: NARA-DOJ.
The enlistment of that black male: LEG-SAF.
In his appearance before the special master: Ibid.
However, the FDLE investigation: FDLE. Also LEG-SAF.
Reed’s report to the governor: LEG-SAF.
Reed had found it “interesting”: Ibid.
“this would appear incredible”: Ibid.
In Reed’s estimation: Ibid.
“That’s a typical colored remark”: Ibid.
“Hell, yes”: Interview, Noel Griffin Jr.
“Yates did whatever Willis told him to”: Interview, Tom Ledford.
It was three years: LEG-SAF. Also Daytona Beach Morning Journal, Mar. 17, 1974.
“Buttressed by . . . years of investigation”: Daytona Beach Morning Journal, Mar. 17, 1974.
“But, more critical than monetary damages”: LEG-SAF.
Even Richard Graham’s opposing counsel: James Mahorner to Terrell Sessums, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mar. 25, 1974. LEF-SAF.
“Thank God for delivering”: St. Petersburg Times, Nov. 17, 1975.
“It was all because of Mabel”: Interview, Richard Graham.
Mabel’s conscience: Daytona Beach Morning Journal, Mar. 17, 1974.
House Bill 2431: LEG-SAF.
As he later acknowledged: St. Petersburg Times, Nov. 17, 1975.
“Sometimes,” Jesse recalled: Interview, Jesse Daniels.
Progress on the claims bill: St. Petersburg Times, Nov. 17, 1975.
“Oh, there are pains”: Ibid.
With Pearl by his side: St. Petersburg Times, Dec. 1, 1974.
“I’m so thankful to God”: Ibid.
“I’m still not adjusted”: Ibid.
Representative Richard Langley: St. Petersburg Times, Apr. 26, 1975.
Frustrated by this last-minute turn: LEG-SAF.
“I decided based”: Interview, Mary Ellen Hawkins.
Jesse Daniels was waiting: This scene is drawn from interviews with Patricia Chesley, Jesse Daniels, and Richard Graham.
EPILOGUE
“When this boy was arrested”: This scene is drawn from the audio recording of the legislative debate on House Bill 2431. LEG-SAF.
Special Master Woods, who . . . absolved . . . “Nothing”: LEG-SAF.
Journalist Martin Dyckman: Martin Dyckman to author, Jul. 20, 2017.
“If you’re looking for . . . a culprit”: Florida Today, Oct. 13, 1974.
“I’m so angry”: New York Times, Jun. 27, 1975.
In Donaldson v. O’Connor: Ibid.
“I wouldn’t have treated”: Orlando Sentinel, Feb. 10, 1991.
Their convictions were upheld: Shuler v. Wainwright, 491 F. 2d 1213, 1223 (5th Cir., 1974).
“There was no love lost”: Harold Rummel, “‘Caboose’ McCall’s Law: He Runs the Railroad in Lake County,” The Floridian (S
t. Petersburg Times, Feb. 23, 1969).
“the grand dame”: Naples Daily News, Nov. 26, 2014.
“He was just as guilty”: Florida Today, Sept. 7, 1980.
“He was a son of the old South”: Orlando Sentinel, Oct. 3, 2007.
“I thought it was great”: Orlando Sentinel, Nov. 2, 1998.
“This is the proudest day”: Harley Herman, “A Cause Worth Fighting For: The Story of Civil Rights Pioneer Virgil Darnell Hawkins,” https://acauseworthfightingfor.wordpress.com.
“I know what I did”: Tabitha Young, “Virgil Hawkins’ Righteous Fight to Become a Lawyer,” Tallahassee Magazine, Jan.–Feb. 2009.
In October 1988: St. Petersburg Times, May 16, 2004.
“I always heard”: Interview, Gloria Hawkins Barton.
“Blacks were seen as less than human”: Interview, William “B.G.” Floyd.
“He’d been exposed”: Interview, David Troxler.
“I’ve had a pretty good life”: Interview, Jesse Daniels.
Still, Blanche was fearful: Interview, Steve Knowles.
“She had a heavier course load”: Interview, Mary Elizabeth Knowles.
“There’s more than one victim”: Interview, Steve Knowles.
“Rarely do men of the caliber”: Orlando Sentinel, Sept. 26, 1976.
“Those were the three really big stories”: Orlando Sentinel, May 3, 1979.
INDEX
The page numbers in this index refer to the printed version of this book. The link provided will take you to the beginning of that print page. You may need to scroll forward from that location to find the corresponding reference on your e-reader.
Italicized page numbers indicate illustrations.
Adams, C. Leroy, 141–42
Adkins, James, 324
African Americans. See blacks
Albright, Al, 320–29, 342, 367
Farmer case and, 326–27
Knowles rape case and, 325–28, 331–32, 338–40, 348
McCall murder trial and, 328–29
McCall’s suspension and, 323–24
Vickers case and, 322–23, 327
Allen, W. George, 293
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), 90, 123, 165, 168, 324
Anderson, Herbert C., 277–78
Askew, Reubin, 307, 314, 332–33
Knowles rape case and, 291–92, 294, 336, 346–47, 351
McCall’s suspension and, 323–24, 330, 333
