Beneath a Ruthless Sun

by Gilbert King

  He was “not educable”: FSH-SAF.

  She’d remind him: Interview, Jesse Daniels.

  Joe Knowles sometimes hired Jesse: NARA-FBI.

  The fifty-pound Garrisons: Interviews, Noel Griffin Jr., Lawrence King, Jesse Daniels.

  His meager monthly welfare benefits: FSH-SAF; U.S. Census; Florida State Census.

  Jesse’s mother, Pearl: FSH-SAF.

  The second attack, at age ten: Ibid.

  the institution adhered to a classification system: Steven Noll, “Care and Control of the Feeble-Minded: Florida Farm Colony, 1920–1945,” The Florida Historical Quarterly 69, no. 1 (Jul. 1990), pp. 57–80.

  By 1956, however, the Colony: FSH-SAF.

  The Danielses “kept to themselves”: Interview, Carolyn Waller.

  Another neighbor, Carlton “Red” Fussell: Interview, Carlton “Red” Fussell.

  “Don’t let the bear get you”: Interview, Jesse Daniels.

  One long-range missile: Logansport Press (Ind.), Nov. 1, 1957.

  “The character of east central Florida”: New York Times, Dec. 22, 1957.

  Market centers were mushrooming: Glenn Rabac, The City of Cocoa Beach: The First Sixty Years (Cocoa Beach, FL: Apollo Books, 1986).

  Scores upon scores: Jackson Clarion-Ledger (Miss.), Dec. 22, 1957.

  “the grip of a giant fist”; “some of the old-line”: New York Times, Dec. 22, 1957.

  Lake County alone took in: Orlando Sentinel, Jan. 20, 1957.

  It was a time and place: Orlando Sentinel, Mar. 30, 2014.

  The flight, broadcast live: Michael D’Antonio, A Ball, a Dog, and a Monkey: 1957—The Space Race Begins (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2007).

  Ice, as every Florida grove owner: Dorota Z. Haman, ed., Frost and Freeze Protection Workshop Manual, sponsored by the University of Florida Southwest Florida Management District, and Alafia River Board, Hillsborough River Board, and Manasota Basin Board. Also Lawrence R. Parsons, “Cold Protection by Irrigation: Dew Point and Humidity Terminology,” University of Florida, Florida Cooperative Extension Service Fact Sheet HS-76, Nov. 1995 (included in Haman, Frost and Freeze Protection Workshop Manual).

  “Hard freeze in North and Central Districts”: Orlando Sentinel, Dec. 11, 1957.

  “The freeze killed the whole crop”: St. Petersburg Times, Dec. 13, 1957.

  “It was hard work”: Interview, Jesse Daniels.

  The temperature dropped: Fort Myers News-Press, Dec. 14, 1957.

  The state had not imposed: Interviews, Lawrence King, David Knowles.

  “I do not know what we can do”: Pensacola News Journal, Dec. 18, 1957.

  Late in the evening of the 17th: This scene is drawn from interviews with Noel Griffin Jr.

  Jesse Daniels woke: This scene is drawn from drafts of stories Mabel Norris Reese (Chesley) wrote in 1958, MNC, and one published in Daytona Beach Evening News, Oct. 22, 1958.

  Once Patricia had been seen off: Mount Dora Topic, Aug. 7, 1957.

  But in the camps: Mount Dora Topic, Dec. 18, 1957.

  Mabel was moved: Ibid.

  “They woke me up”: Florida Today, Oct. 13, 1974.

  “They took in thirty-three”: Daytona Beach Evening News, Oct. 22, 1958.

  “A restlessness began to run”: Ibid.

  Ethel Cope, a fifty-three-year-old maid: Interview, Carolyn Waller.

  He persuaded McCall: NARA-FBI.

  CHAPTER TWO. REAL SUNSHINE

  In the minutes: This scene is drawn from the transcript of Blanche Knowles’s otherwise undated interview with Gordon Oldham, from early 1958, which he sent to doctors at Chattahoochee, “in order to clear up all possible facts.” In his cover letter, dated March 3, 1958, he made it clear he wanted the transcript to be “kept completely confidential.”

  She told him she had been “raped”: Florida Today, Oct. 13, 1974.

  After leaving her bedroom: Blanche Knowles statement to Oldham.

  In light of the information taken from the victim: Tampa Tribune, Dec. 29, 1957.

  The piece of evidence: NARA-FBI.

  As more deputies appeared: Interview, Noel Griffin Jr.

  Upon observing that Blanche: FSH-SAF.

  He also observed “no bruising”: Ibid.

  Behind them hulks Joe: LHM.

  Outside, on the dozens of acres: Interview, Steve Knowles.

  On the morning of December 18: Ibid.

  By then she had been informed: NARA-FBI.

  The eldest of five children: D. R. S. Bott, The Chetwynd Chronicles: The British Colony of Lake County, Florida, 1882–1902 (Clowder Publishing, 2013).

  The Bosanquets traced their pedigree: Ivan Ford, Coming Home: The History of Holy Trinity Episcopal Church, Fruitland Park, FL (Fruitland Park, FL: Chetwynd Church Press, 2013).

  They dedicated twenty acres: Bott. Also Ford.

  In her novel: Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings, Golden Apples (New York: Macmillan, 1935).

  “The young men who came here”: Alfred Bosanquet, “The English Colony in Fruitland Park,” speech written in the early 1960s, Bosanquet family records, LHM.

  They worked and studied hard: Bosanquet.

  However their courtship started: Bott. Also Orlando Sentinel, Dec. 25, 2002.

  Louis proved to be a “horticulturist extraordinaire”: Bott.

  He would in time hybridize: Ford.

  The heat could be relentless: Ibid.

  “This is a nether region”: Quoted ibid.

  An unseasonably warm, wet January: Ford.

  “The disaster is overwhelming”: Draft of story by Lee King, Sept. 11, 2000. Also Diary of C. H. Longstreet, quoted in Gary McKechnie and Nancy Howell, A Brief History of Mount Dora, Florida (Charleston, SC: The History Press, 2016).

  With no government or state aid: Stetson Kennedy, “‘Root, Hog or Die’ Days,” in A Florida Treasure Hunt, Florida Folklife from the WPA Collections, 1937 to 1942, Library of Congress.

  The Bosanquets stayed on: Bott. Also Ford.

  Virtually overnight Chetwynd became: Bott. Also Ford.

  “An English gentleman always has a garden”: Interview, Bud Bosanquet.

  Dozens of tables would be: Ford.

  “Who’s going to kindergarten”: Interview, Bud Bosanquet.

  She was remembered: Bosanquet family records, LHM.

  But the prosperity did not last: Interview, Bud Bosanquet.

  The boys helped with deliveries: Ibid.

  “Swear to secrecy”: Interview by Jacqueline Ecoff, Blanche Bosamquet [sic] Knowles Collection (AFC/2001/001/07096), Veterans History Project, American Folklife Center, LOC.

  Then she’d begin to climb: Interview, Bud Bosanquet.

  “I was honored”: Ecoff interview, Veterans History Project, LOC.

  “There was one short serviceman”: Ibid.

  The girls crept up to the edge: Interview, Priscilla Newell.

  Blanche was amused: Ecoff interview, Veterans History Project, LOC.

  There he was, reclining: “United Nations: My War Effort”: Photo album of Blanche Bosanquet, Bosanquet Collection, courtesy Donna Bott.

  “Hello, Darling, wish we could spend”: Bosanquet Collection; Bott.

  In a letter Ted had written: Bennett Family Records, courtesy David Bishop.

  According to Bud; The news of Ted’s death: Interview, Bud Bosanquet.

  When she came back home: Interviews, Priscilla Newell, Bud Bosanquet; Ecoff interview, Veterans History Project, LOC.

  It was Ruth who took notice: Interview, Bud Bosanquet.

  “We may starve to death”: Interview, Steve Knowles.

  It was Blanche, home from college: Interview, Bud Bosanquet.

  “He wanted to play”: Ibid.

  They set a wedding date: Interview, Priscilla Newell.<
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  They took a driving tour: Undated clipping, Leesburg Leader, [Jul. 1948], personal collection of Bud Bosanquet.

  “What a trip”: Orlando Sentinel, Oct. 8, 1953.

  “She didn’t like”: Interview, Bud Bosanquet.

  “Everybody knew Joe had affairs”: Interview, Priscilla Newell.

  Once the children came: Interview, Steve Knowles.

  Blanche assured her mother: Interview, Bud Bosanquet.

  Jesse Daniels was one of nearly sixty thousand people: Interview, Jesse Daniels.

  During it, Joe starred: Leesburg Daily Commercial, Mar. 12, 1957.

  “Joe taught me how to kiss”: Interview, Cynthia Schumacher.

  The centennial also included: St. Petersburg Times, Feb. 21, 1957. Also Leesburg Daily Commercial, Feb. 24, 1957.

  State senator J. A. “Tar” Boyd: Leesburg Daily Commercial, Jan. 30, 1957.

  Kourt proceedings culminated: Leesburg Daily Commercial, Feb. 25, 1957.

  A tongue-in-cheek letter: Undated clipping, Leesburg Daily Commercial, [1957], LHM.

  Alabama-born-and-bred, Hawkins had moved: Interview, Mary Ellen Hawkins.

  She had apparently also: Ibid.

  She’d decided to relocate: Interview, Mary Ellen Hawkins. Also NARA-FBI.

  The couple went to dinner; The couple said hasty good-byes: NARA-FBI.

  CHAPTER THREE. SMOKED IRISHMAN

  And hadn’t Mrs. Knowles been seen: Pearl Daniels to Mabel Norris Reese, undated, MNC.

  “I thought it was a bit of heaven”: St. Petersburg Times, May 20, 1956.

  She diligently reported: Undated clipping, Mount Dora Topic, LHM.

  In his opinion, Justice Robert Jackson: Shepherd v. Florida, 341 U.S. 50 (1951).

  What Irvin described: Gilbert King, Devil in the Grove: Thurgood Marshall, the Groveland Boys, and the Dawn of a New America (New York: HarperCollins, 2012).

  Judge Futch, who was known: Ibid.

  When Justice Jackson: Interview, Mabel Norris Chesley, FHWP.

  “He hated me from then on”: Ibid.

  Indeed, McCall took to ridiculing her: NARA-FBI.

  In August, she again took: St. Petersburg Times, Nov. 28, 1954.

  Not long after, one night: Mount Dora Topic, Sept. 16, 1954.

  At first she thought: Chesley interview, FHWP.

  Later, unable to sleep . . . “See why I shall not”: Mount Dora Topic, Sept. 16, 1954.

  Mabel’s story, with Patricia’s photo: Ibid.

  On September 16, Mabel’s weekly column: Ibid. Also FHWP.

  The killing of the family pet: Mount Dora Topic, Oct. 28, 1954.

  That did not stop McCall: Undated clipping, Mount Dora Topic, MNC.

  “We had telephone calls”: FHWP.

  One night she and Paul: Interview, Patricia Chesley.

  At a recent rally: Brian J. Daugherity and Charles C. Bolton, eds., With All Deliberate Speed: Implementing Brown v. Board of Education (Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 2008).

  At another rally: Robert L. Hayman Jr. and Leland Ware, eds., Choosing Equality: Essays and Narratives on the Desegregation Experience (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2009).

  “By whatever name it is called”: Mount Dora Topic, Dec. 9, 1954.

  The sheriff, who had sponsored: Philadelphia Tribune, Jul. 31, 1954.

  However, Bowles, who had boasted: Jet, Sept. 9, 1954.

  “I will get even”: Washington Post, Nov. 28, 1954.

  She visited Allen and Laura Platt: Interview, Tom Ledford.

  They explained to Mabel: Chicago Defender, Dec. 25, 1954.

  Mabel spoke with the Platt children: Mount Dora Topic, Nov. 25, 1954.

  “Denzell favors a nigger”: FHWP. Also Time, Dec. 13, 1954.

  “He like to gave my wife a heart attack”: St. Petersburg Times, Nov. 28, 1954.

  Once McCall had dispensed: Time, Dec. 13, 1954.

  “If you are a parent”: Mount Dora Topic, Nov. 25, 1954.

  “I’m protecting this town”: Daytona Beach Morning Journal, Jun. 13, 1972.

  “Well, you’re missing a lot of sleep”: FHWP.

  “There must have been”: Ebony, April 1955.

  And Mabel continued: Mount Dora Topic, Nov. 25, 1954.

  Mabel tried to keep: Mabel Norris Reese, “Crusades Are Not Cheaper by the Dozen,” in Main Street Militants: An Anthology from Grassroots Editor, ed. Howard Rusk Long (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1977).

  “I know what company”: Mount Dora Topic, Dec. 9, 1954.

  “Don’t you dare go out”: Ibid. Also Mount Dora Topic, Dec. 9, 1954.

  Time’s story focused as much on the feud: Time, Dec. 13, 1954.

  “We would like to correct that statement”: Mount Dora Topic, Dec. 16, 1954.

  Mardie Bardwell had been present: Interview, Mardie White.

  “The Constitution says”: Mount Dora Topic, Dec. 23, 1954.

  “We weren’t supposed to tell” . . . Finally the girl relented: Interview, Mardie White.

  “The letter was about due process”: Ibid.

  She later defended her decision: Mount Dora Topic, Dec. 23, 1954.

  Some, like June Bowie’s father: Interview, June Bowie.

  “People canceled gas business” . . . A chalk line appeared: Interview, Mardie White.

  “My wife and I and our children”: Mount Dora Topic, Dec. 23, 1954.

  “I have no other course”: Mount Dora Topic, Jan. 6, 1955.

  “You are getting a look”: St. Petersburg Times, Oct. 10, 1955.

  The school board countered: FHWP.

  The Platts’ landlady: Orlando Sentinel, Feb. 10, 1991.

  Admission of the Platt children: Undated clipping, Mount Dora Topic, MNC.

  “This school will”: Pete Gallagher, “The End of an Era,” Florida Today, Dec. 31, 1972.

  In October 1955 . . . “Much as I hate it”: St. Petersburg Times, Oct. 19, 1955.

  “I swore I would never”: Mount Dora Topic, Oct. 19, 1955.

  McCall was as livid: Isaac M. Flores, Justice Gone Wrong: A Sheriff’s Power of Fear (New York and Bloomington, IN: iUniverse, 2009).

  Hesitant though McCall was: Mount Dora Topic, Nov. 3, 1955.

  To the reporters on the scene: Evening Independent (St. Petersburg), Dec. 14, 1962. Also Mount Dora Topic, Nov. 17, 1955.

  “I’ve got more justice”: St. Petersburg Times, Nov. 13, 1955.

  “My boy, Denzell, is due”: Mount Dora Topic, Nov. 17, 1955.

  “I saw the suffering”: Orlando Sentinel, Feb. 10, 1991.

  The riots charged the racial atmosphere: Helen L. Jacobstein, The Segregation Factor in the Florida Democratic Gubernatorial Primary of 1956 (Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1972).

  “Declaration of Constitutional Principles”: St. Petersburg Times, Mar. 3, 1956.

  As one newspaper reporter observed: Jacobstein.

  “Something very much like panic”: C. Vann Woodward, The Strange Career of Jim Crow (1955; Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2002).

  The Southern outcry: Jacobstein. Also Torrington Register Citizen (Conn.), Feb. 20, 2002.

  Collins had come into office: Jacobstein. Also John W. Johnson, ed., Historic U.S. Court Cases: An Encyclopedia (New York: Routledge, 2001).

  When Jesse Hunter: St. Petersburg Times, Dec. 16, 1952.

  McCall was so incensed: Mount Dora Topic, Oct. 13, 1955.

  Sheriff McCall, who had left town: Mount Dora Topic, Oct. 13, 1955. Also Sarasota Journal, Oct. 25, 1955, and Flores.

  Mabel reported that in the aftermath: Mount Dora Topic, Oct. 27, 1955.

  Collins indicated that he had sent: Baltimore Afro-American, Nov. 5, 1955.

  Assuring her reade
rs: Mount Dora Topic, Oct. 27, 1955.

  As the avowed “white supremacy candidate”: Ocala Star-Banner, Dec. 31, 1956. Also Seth A. Weitz, “Bourbon, Pork Chops, and Red Peppers: Political Immortality in Florida, 1945–1968,” Ph.D. dissertation, Florida State University, 2007.

  In a statement to the press: Jacobstein.

  Still, he had no choice: Tampa Tribune, Feb. 17, 1956.

  Collins’s explanation garnered merely “scant applause”: Ocala Star-Banner, Feb. 22, 1956.

  In addition to giving public support: New York Times, Feb. 25, 1956.

  Mabel’s neighbor Herbert K. Beiser: Mount Dora Topic, Mar. 1, 1956.

  Two nights later: Ibid.

  She arrived in Tavares: Ibid.

  While in Lake County: Interview, Noel Griffin Jr.

  What he did not enjoy: Tampa Tribune, Oct. 30, 1955.

  “You’re the one who let out”: Miami News, Feb. 23, 1956.

  Collins mumbled something: Mount Dora Herald, Feb. 29, 1956. Also Gary Corsair, The Groveland Four: The Sad Saga of a Legal Lynching (Bloomington, IN: 1st Books, 2004).

  Unsurprisingly, the sheriff denied: Corsair.

  When Mabel inquired: Undated clipping, Mount Dora Herald, [Mar. 1956].

  While Mabel continued: St. Petersburg Times, Dec. 14, 1955.

  Despite the region’s robust population growth: Washington Post, Nov. 28, 1954.

  Why was not clear: Orlando Sentinel, Jul. 21, 1955.

  The first issue: Ibid. Also undated clipping, Mount Dora Herald, [1955].

  “I refused to listen”; “I blasted the sheriff”: Mabel Norris Reese, “Crusades Are Not Cheaper by the Dozen,” in Main Street Militants: An Anthology from Grassroots Editor, ed. Howard Rusk Long (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1977).

  CHAPTER FOUR. MAKE TRACKS

  The boy answered, “Bubba Hawkins”: Interview, Gloria Hawkins Barton.

  Immediately the reverend: Ibid.

  The deputies escorted Bubba: Ibid. Also FDLE.

  The victim had “scratched the nigger who raped her”: FDLE.

  The next morning: Ibid.

  “vast, untamed wilderness”: “Florida Cattle Ranching: Earliest American Ranchers,” Florida Memory (State Library & Archives of Florida), https://www.floridamemory.com/photographiccollection/photo_exhibits/ranching/.