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In a radio broadcast the night before last week’s primary, Sheriff Willis McCall accused the editor of the Topic of the “most un-American act I have ever heard of.” In his accusation, the sheriff, who was re-nominated to office in the May 6 voting, said ‘the Topic editor had called upon “our president of the Lake County Chamber of Commerce” and asked him to call a meeting: “to work out a plan whereby that if they would prosecute me, the sheriff of Lake county, for murder they in turn, the NAACP, would back off in time and let em electrocute this Negro Irvin.” “That was the most un-American act I have ever heard of,” said McCall, “to connive and enter into a conspiracy to switch one man’s life for another, in the courts of justice in our land. Had I been guilty or had Irvin been innocent, or vice versa, it was still an un-American act to swap one man’s life for another. We’re supposed to have courts of justice and justice are supposed to prevail in those courts.” The following letters from the Topic files, copies of which went to Lake County Chamber officials, concern this conference about which many articles appeared in the Topic shortly after Sheriff McCall killed Samuel Shepherd and wounded Walter Irvin, principals in the famed Lake county case. The meeting was discussed by Lake county officials, with the Topic editor, to the point of discussing who might be invited to participate. After the proposal was made and tentative plans started, the Topic editor dropped out of it as a matter for county officials to handle. The letters from the files follow: Mr. C. B. Treadway Tavares, Florida Dear Mr. Treadway, December 14, 1951. Mrs. Reese was in the office this afternoon and stated that she had written a letter to Thurgood Marshall, Chief Counsel of the NAACP, in reference to a conference between certain leading citizens in this county and him and his associates, in reference to the bad relations which have been created because of the Groveland Case. She has also talked to you about this matter. I wish that you would give this your consideration and thought, and if you believe that good can come out of such a conference I ex press the wish that you go into the matter and arrange such a confer ence and see what can be done. Much good might come from such a conference. Mrs. Reese is greatly disturbed about the matter, because she is from the North and sees the northern newspapers and thinks that Lake County is being done much harm by what has taken place here. If you think well of the matter I wish that you would take it up. I believe that you are much better qualified to take up a matter of this kind than any other man that I could mention. Naturally, being the prosecuting officer in this case I do not believe that it would be best for me to engage in such a conference, and because of my present feeling on the matter I might not be able to soundly consider the matter. How ever, if you think it is worth while I assure you that I will do nothing to put anything in the way. Very respectfully, J. W. HUNTER. December 15, 1951 JWH on J. Edgar Hoover Federal Bureau of Investigation Washington, D. C. Dear. Mr. Hoover: I am enclosing a clipping from my newspaper, with certain para graphs marked which will help to explain the purpose of this letter. I am sure you are aware of the Lake county rape case and its many complications. As a brief refresher, a white woman was raped by four Negroes in South Lake county July 16, 1949. Riots followed the spread ing of the news in the girl's neighborhood, and Negro homes were burned in reprisal acts. Three men were arrested for the crime; the fourth suspect was shot by a posse in North Florida. A trial was held and a jury condemned 16-year-old Charles Greenlee to life imprisonment, and Samuel Shepherd and Walter Irvin, in their early 20's, to death in the electric chair. Backed by the NAACP, the case was carried to the Supreme Court of the United States which ruled that Walter Irvin and Samuel Shep herd should have a new trial on the grounds that there had not been adequate representation of Negroes in the jury panel. On Nov. 6, 1951, the two defendants were being brought from the state prison by Sheriff Willis V. McCall for the start of the retrial. A short distance from Umatilla, on a lonely road, the two Negroes were shot by the sheriff. He said they attacked him in an escape attempt. The surviving N , Walter Irvin, made a sworn statement accusing the sheriff of he had talked with agents of the F.B.I. Since that time, the NAACP has entered the case with all they have. They have unmercifully attacked Lake county without waiting for the F.B.. report on their findings. The name of this area has been dragged in the mud nationally with reprints of published stories on the case in the North. Worse than that, there is danger of race relations in this area being damaged further because of the dissension. Nationally, Negroes are being duped into contributing heavily to funds for the case by the telling of untruths—funds that are being raised even though Lake county is standing the costs of the trial with the exception of the attorneys’ fees. An example of the lies: It has been stated in Negro church meetings that State’s Attorney Jesse W. Hunter, the prosecutor in the case, failed to call a doctor at the scene of the shooting of the prisoners for hours, and that when he did, he called a “quack.” The meeting was held under sponsorship of the NAACP, with Thurgood Marshall as the speaker, at which this statement was made and authoritatively reported to Lake county. . I can assure you, from mrsonal knowledge and concern for truth, that Mr. Hunter beman a doctor be called the moment he arrived at the scene, and that he authorized a specialist be called for
Newspaper Details
Mount Dora Topic
Mount Dora, Florida, US
Thu, May 15, 1952
Page 4
Full Page
Clipped by
Anonymous
USA 20 Aug 2026
Other Publications Near Mount Dora, Florida
Mount Dora Topic
Mount Dora Herald
