March 9, 2021 • 28 mins
In the weeks following Jim Duncan's death, conspiracy theories proliferated throughout the Black community in Lancaster. Was his death really about drugs? A woman? His skin color? Many other proposed versions of events seemed equally as implausible as the official narrative—but one scandalous theory came up time and time again, and it was one we could investigate.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Long Shot is a production of McClatchy Studios and I
Heart Radio. Previously on Return Men, it was Coote room
capacity to come. We held a capathitor would and we
had people on the house. The attorney said that nobody
would top period. Not one person wanted to tap a back.
(00:23):
Police people will know what to say to put fear
to pick. It involves rates the mental state of the
person and a town that was scared to death to
say anything. There are conspiracies in the world, and the
Jim Crow South having a period about that conspiracy might
not be wrong. In the course of researching this story,
(00:52):
there was at least one key voice I hadn't really
heard from. It was about the NFL player that committed
suicide in Leicester, former Lancaster Police Chief Larry Lower. Records
from the South Carolina State Law Enforcement Division show that
Lancaster police handled the investigation into Jim's death themselves. We
(01:12):
did lab work investigating an agency. We did independently investigate.
The Lack of transparency from Lancaster authorities cost Jim's family
closure and left an information vacuum that has been filled
by conspiracy theories for nearly fifty years. They say he
(01:33):
committed suicide, but basically, almost none of Lancaster's black residents
I interviewed believe Jim died the way police said, including
the only black person who served on the inquest panel.
They want to say, if we have the police go
on the shot itself, but I don't believe this. Ship
Lower now lives in Georgia and until recently served on
(01:54):
a local school board. He basically hung up on me
when I tried to reach him by phone. So in
the summer I went to him. I needed to understand
why Lancaster police took the actions they did and where
Jim's family was supposed to go from here, Mr from
(02:20):
the Herald McClatchy Studios and I Heart Radio. This is
return man. I'm Brett McCormick, and this is Part seven
Conspiracy Theories Number three. Richard Berry loving and all of
(02:42):
Talance versus Virginia. Jim was a ladies man, no doubt,
that was one habit he never hid. Well, they're nothing
man that I could tell you about what other than
he just loved one. Mr Chief Justice made please barn,
I am Bernards Cohen. Virginia spans here today and in
(03:04):
this Loving case for the first time tried to find
a justification other than white racial supremacy for the existence
of its statute. Jim died five years after the Loving v.
Virginia Supreme Court case struck down interracial marriage bands nationwide.
The state is ignoring the right of Richard and Mildred
(03:26):
Loving to wake up in the morning or to go
to sleep at night knowing that the shirt will not
be knocking on their door or shining a light in
their face in the privacy of their bedroom for illicit cohabitation.
But South Carolina has been on interracial marriage officially lasted
until only Alabama's band lasted longer. Why he was in
(03:49):
the pros and all of that, you know wied were
wired and black sar black and wherever you to Butcher
then Matt Jim's brother elderly and Elroy's wife Linda. He
was dating the chief Plaice his daughter during that Hans Okay,
the guy who's come we think that what got involved
(04:11):
with his door? That is the one that shot Butch.
Do you know her name? No? I was told repeatedly
that Jim was involved with one of Red Henson's daughters.
They're white and the theory is that Jim, a black man,
somehow died in the police station because of that. That's
that's that's that was what we were saying. Something by
(04:32):
the daughter. I didn't even know the young lady. Floyd
White was one of Jim's high school coaches, and I
can imagine that, you know, football player nationwide stuff black
that you know, he come back home. You know what
the at home song, there's not gonna louder, They're not
gonna I heard some version of this theory many different
(04:52):
times over the past three years. Did not like to
think that he's white. Was driving the round in the
car where Jim Lucia Duck Lancaster native Michael Bogan attended
Bar Street School a few years after Duncan, and for
whatever reason, Jim Duncan received a message to come to
(05:14):
the police department. After he gave up to police department,
Jim Duncan was, na, did you know Red Hinson's daughter?
I mean, did you know her name? I did not
know her name mattered if I never seen her. You
showed me a picture for that, now, I cook that
to you one way. Then on the gift taxi story, okay,
(05:40):
no one could identify which daughter Jim might have been
involved with, and as conspiracy theories go, it combines a
few familiar threads. It involves an overprotective father, which has
been a dramatic staple forever. But at the same time,
a killing like that was hardly without precedent. As just
one example during Jim's lifetime, the alleged crime of a
(06:01):
black man flirting with a white woman was exactly what
led to the death of Emmett Till in Mississippi, one
of the most gruesome hate crimes of the twentieth century.
My baby was taken from his uncle's home and my
aunt's home, and I found out about at nine thirty
Sunday morning. This is tills mother, Mami Bradley, speaking to reporters.
(06:22):
At the time, I thought it was sufficient to mind
my own business. I didn't realize that everything was mad business.
That's the way the people are treated all over the earth.
Was my business. Now I know it, and unless we
can get enforceable love, we might as well just forget everything.
(06:44):
Lieutenant Henson had three daughters. I work at the newspaper
in Rocky Hill, South Carolina. Was your dad, Russell Henson,
police officer from Micaster. Darlene Hopkins is the youngest of
those three daughters. Through all the reading I've been doing,
I haven't found very much information about your dad, and
so I just was trying to find out more about him,
(07:06):
and I had come across your name in his obituary.
And she declined to appear in this podcast, but she
told me she wasn't living in Lancaster when Jim died.
In our call, she said I might get more information
from her older sister who was in town when it happened. Okay,
so you weren't living in Lancaster then, got you? Okay.
(07:26):
Barbara Ferguson was Henson's middle daughter. I just wanted to
ask where did you live in Leicaster when it happened.
She spoke to me briefly from her home not far
from Lancaster, though she too declined to lend her voice
to this podcast. Ferguson didn't understand why I would be
looking into the story at all. Uh, just because the
NFL players family still has like a lot of, you know,
(07:48):
in their opinion, unanswered questions about it, and you know,
I think it has a lot of similarities to things
that are going on now. You know, it's an interesting
story to to look at in that regard. Forerguson and
I spoke for about fifteen minutes. She told me her
father rarely talked about Jim's death or anything that happened
on the job. For the most part, I think she
(08:10):
was about as friendly as any of us might be
if a reporter called out of the blue basically wondering
if her father had been involved in a murder. I mean,
I just think they think it was out of character
for their relative to have killed himself, So, you know,
I think that's more of the issue than anything. They
don't really have exactly an idea of what else would
(08:31):
have happened. Ferguson told me that bywo she was in
her early thirties and that her sister's recollections were a
little off. She said that when Jim died, she had
already moved away from Lancaster with her husband, and they
already had a family of their own. Ferguson says she'd
never even heard of Jim Duncan before seeing the news
about his death, and and honestly I didn't I didn't
(08:52):
think you would really know much about it. I was
more wanting to know more about your dad, and I
mean just what he was like, or did he have
a nickname or whatever, you know, making more of a
person instead of just the guy whose gun was used.
The lieutenant was a World War Two Navy veteran and
had been a deacon at his local Baptist church by
(09:15):
nineteen seventy two. He'd been a member of that local
police department for almost twenty years. No one I spoke
with knew of any incriminating behavior by Henson, and I
found no evidence that he had an adversarial relationship with
Jim or people of color in general. So one of
the conspiracies that I was told by some people I
had talked to was that he had a reputation in
(09:38):
Lancaster as somebody that talked to white women a lot,
because I think that there was the the stretch or
the leap, maybe that his death in the police station
had something to do with talking to white women or
something like that. I think I think that was Ferguson
told me our conversation was the first time she'd ever
(09:58):
heard that theory, and that it wasn't worth a second thought.
She added that their other sister, Margaret, is now deceased.
Margaret was alive at the time Jim died, but she
was also living out of state, so, according to Ferguson,
none of Henson's daughters knew Jim, and his death didn't
really impact them. Not long after Jim's death, Henson resigned
(10:21):
from the Lancaster Police Department without announcing future plans. His
obituary said he went on to become police chief in
nearby page Land, where Jim and Elroy had once hustled pool.
When he left Lancaster, Chief Lauer said of him, quote,
He's an excellent officer, and I certainly wish him the
best of luck in his new work. After my conversations
(10:45):
with Henson's daughters, I can't rule anything out. It's possible
Jim had been involved romantically with a white woman, but
at the time, rural South Carolina was very different from
the interconnected world of today. I can believe Henson's daughters
might out have even heard of Jim during his life,
and I feel confident they weren't involved with Jim or
in any way connected to his death. Okay, well, I
(11:07):
really appreciate you um talking to me, though I know
it's sort of a weird thing to get a call
out of the blue about so. But I also have
to wonder if the incident might have affected Henson and
his family more than Ferguson claimed. Right before we hung up,
she insisted, quote, some things are better left alone. It
was just not that big a deal. We'll be back
(11:33):
in a moment. I don't think Ferguson is alone in
that assessment. For many people in Lancashire at the time,
at least many white people, it was just not that
big a deal for a black man to allegedly walk
into his hometown police station and without saying a word,
(11:54):
rip a gun from lieutenants Holster and shoot himself in
the head. It made me wonder if I'd been asking
the wrong question in a small roast lap the southern town.
What if there wasn't any sort of cause and effect
that makes sense here? Racism was abundant, but it was
just right right on her. From all my research into
(12:21):
Jim's life, my overwriting impression of race relations in nineteen
sixties Lancaster isn't so much a clear list of racist events.
Mostly it's a crushing sense of apathy by white people.
That's not an event that's a social structure in which
every event unfolds. I thought back to something Alice told
(12:42):
me about her late husband. He had a favorite poem. Mhmm. Interesting.
She never knew what it was called or where he'd
found it, but Jim would often repeat the lines. Let
others cheer the winning man. There's one I hold worthwhile
tis he who does the best he can then loses
with a smile. Is that from something here? Can you
(13:05):
say it again? Have to look it up and see
we're being from that presumption of losing even smiling as
it happens. Fit a dynamic that USC law professor Seth
Stowton has studied that idea of how we interact with people.
It depends on our perception of their social status. And
(13:25):
in the sixties and seventies, a black man had I
think it is fair to say significantly less social status,
certainly compared to a police officer. At the time, that
was an especially fragile state of affairs in a place
like Lancaster. We're constantly making those judgments, and we're using
(13:47):
them to adjust how much deference we give the other
person and how much difference we expect them to give us.
There are some problems that are particularly acute in the
policing context. When both people expect more deference than the
other one is giving them. Social psychologists call this an
asymmetric deference norm. The officer might say, this person should
(14:13):
defer to me because I am the authority. The other
person might say, the officer should defer to me in
at least some respect because I am a taxpayer, or
something like that. That's one thing I've always found so
interesting about Jim's returned to Lancaster. In those theories about
(14:34):
Henton's daughters, well and good, it is ming a duncan
a real breath, not because I've seen anything to suggest
they were connected to Jim, but because the belief they
could have been was its own evidence that Jim no
longer fit with Lancaster's deference norms. Well, we know that
they're back in town as force Butcher I didn't see
him daily, but we knew he was in town when
(14:56):
he was there. Rosie Gilliam is the son of Sandy Gilliam,
Jim's bar Street and Maryland State football coach. Sandy Gilliam
moved his family back to Lancaster in the early seventies
when he left football behind and took a job at
Springs Mill. Today, I think that people might suggest that
there's some I don't know, ill will directed toward him
(15:16):
by the police. And I think then, of course people
thought that. I mean, but there was nothing that certainly
nothing that we could prove. And as kids, I know,
our general thought was that there was probably something that
was not right. Yeah, but it was more of a
fear that you know, makes certain you don't put yourself
(15:37):
in a position where that's could happen to you. Bush
Dudgeon was a Jim Duck. Jim had achieved a stature
that far exceeded even the white authorities in Lancaster, and
those authorities knew it. Even if he wasn't brazen enough
to approach a white officer's daughter, the mere fact that
he could have was richly symbolic. The best thing that
(16:01):
could have happened with been him not to be there
in the first place. Rosie Gilliam was a teenager when
Jim died and still looked up to the Super Bowl champ.
Why was he a in Lancaster and be what would
he get the police depart? And you know, had either
one of those things been a no, And maybe he'd
be a laugh today. So in the police station, whether
(16:23):
Jim talked about a love affair or anything else, his
main offense was already committed simply by being there. The
world professional what if the question isn't what happened, but
how it happened. The potential for conflict comes up when
the officer may not just be lack of deference as
(16:45):
something that is upsetting. They may be it is something
that requires a physical response. Here's USC law professor Seth Stowton.
I can think of no better example than the sandral
Land traffics. Hello man, well it takes how I'm told
the press stop is. You didn't fail. You failed to
signal your lane change. You get your gram blace in
turns with you. After an initial interaction, the officer walked
(17:07):
back to his car, wrote out what we later learned
as a warning ticket, walked back up to Sandra Bland's
car and one of the first things he said was
you seem irritated. Okay, I'm laing, no you you this
is yo job. I'm landing on you. How don't you
seem very irritated? I am, I really am, But what
I'm getting tantical. I'm getting out of your way. You
(17:29):
just speeding up tailingly so I'll move over, and you
stopped moving. So yeah, I am a little irritated, but
that doesn't stop you from giving me a ticketing crack.
If that had been me in my newer model car,
dressed in my business suit, I think the cop would have,
again unconsciously and without realizing it, given me a little
more deference than he gave Sandra Bland. But what he
(17:51):
did was Sandra Bland is he waited four seconds and
he said, are you done? Who asked me, well? Can?
I told you so? Now I'm telling you. In other words,
he was telling her, I'm not deferring to you that
I don't care about or respect your concerns. They were
(18:12):
in a staring contest, and the problem with the staring
contest in this context is not who blinks first. It's
who has the power to swing first, and that's the officer.
I'm giving you a law for to turn around. Will
you're not going I'm not complaining because you just pluwed
me out of my car and around. Could something like
(18:32):
that have happened in Lancaster especially then? Ye like just
a little bit of time, I just wanted to ask you,
you know, like what you remembered about that. Beyond George
Lloyd's account, there isn't even independent confirmation of the timeline
of Jim's death. We're just about ready to get the
second half underway. The public ult Jim Duncan. Again, I
want to emphasize, I'm not saying that is what happened.
(18:54):
But if Jim Duncan, the football star who is used
to deference and even a degree of hero worship in Baltimore,
comes down to South Carolina, the potential for explosive conflict
is pretty obvious. We'll be back after this. For those
(19:20):
close to Jim, the pain and confusion around his death
has never really gone away. That same asymmetric deference norm
was on display with Elroy in the exchange he described
with Chief our when Elroy said he was told not
to look further into his brother's death because quote one
death was enough. So maybe I thought Lancaster's former police
(19:45):
chief might engage with me differently. Students of the Savannah
Chatham County Public School System have missed seven instructional days
this year. The school bushire it seeks to make up
lost instructional time, which would require. For less than two
years after Jim's death, Loward also left Lancaster. I think
we have forgotten what we're here to do, and there stood.
(20:09):
He moved to northern Illinois, in southern Mississippi, and eventually
back to Georgia, where he wrapped up four decades of
law enforcement. Then he joined the school board in Savannah,
about a three and a half hour drive from Lancaster.
If I got a T shirt in a classroom that
says I can't teach right because of these make up dage, personally,
(20:30):
I don't need that teacher. I'm ready. Year ago, I
got in competence all about of times a file. Well
for those teachers who were crying about the pact, they family,
I will be watching. Not long ago, the Savannah Morning
News posted this exchange among board members over a routine
scheduling question. If you're taking us down a road to
(20:54):
destroy this bowl, and I'm not gonna let it happened
as long as I'm on it, We're going to go
on to another topic. Now, Is there anyone who would
like to speak of something that is appropriate for this?
Foret at Lower clearly hasn't lost his edge. Do you
think that you were district, and I'm sure I disagree
(21:16):
with your order. We're going to move on. One week day,
I drove down there and set through a five hour
school board meeting. Afterward, I caught up with lour in
the administrate of Complex, Mrs Brat, I've talked to you
on the phone like a month or two ago. I'm
coming down here from rock Hill, South Carolina doing the
(21:37):
story on Jim Dougan. I wondered about social dynamics in
Lancaster and the ways they could have influenced Lower's hasty
investigation into Jim's death. I don't care who you are,
where you come from, or what your lifestyle has ended
up being. Even if Jim had taken his own life
exactly as law enforcement said, it is our job to
(22:00):
treat equally and fairly. Their relative in action afterward suggested
Jim's death was treated less equally because of his skin color.
I just wanted to come down and try to talk
to you out of fairness and not to try. Unfortunately,
Lower chose not to have his voice appear in this podcast.
He could have talked about the photo that ran in
(22:20):
the Lancaster News back in four shortly before he left
South Carolina. The image showed him receiving a certificate of
appreciation from the newly formed Lancaster chapter of the INN
Double A CP. The photo appears to have been taken
in Lower's wood paneled office, the chief standing with three
black men in suits and the secretary of the n
(22:40):
Double a CP, her hair in an afro. The certificate
thanks Lower for his quote unique and untiring service to
the community. That recognition told a very different story than
the incendiary quote. Elroy remembered, the reason I wanted to
come down here was to get your side of the
store because Duncan's others had said that you had told
(23:02):
him um not to pursue the matter. One death was enough.
Do you remember saying that? Lower told me, quote, no,
ain't no way. I'm going to tell somebody that we
did everything we could do to determine what really happened.
That's me. I'm not a person that tries to cover
something up. Lower had a decorated career in law enforcement.
(23:26):
He was reportedly chosen for more than a hundred applicants
to lead Lancaster's police department. Before his move to South Carolina.
He'd been runner up for Policemen of the Year in Savannah.
That's part of what made things like a lack of
a fingerprint test so confusing. Do you do you remember
would you guys have had fingerprint evidence then, because people
always said, like, why didn't they test the gun or whatever?
(23:48):
Lower insisted to me quote SLED did the investigation, so
it would depend on what they had done. But SLED
the state's Law Enforcement Division specifically told me they weren't
in charge of the investigation. It sounds like SLID tested
things that the legas y p D asked them to test.
It appears that fingerprints were not among those things they
(24:10):
wanted tested. A little leeway on specifics is probably fair
for someone in their eighties suddenly being asked about a
case from decades ago. Still, my conversation with Lour was brief,
and I can't say I got much from it. You
gotta know, I I really wanted to talk to you
because I sat through that whole meeting. But I appreciate
you talking to him, though I know it's a weird
(24:31):
story and I don't want to do a pie you
guys are with that. He told me he was late
for another meeting and he left. Have fun in your
meeting for lour. Clearly there's nothing more to be said
(24:52):
for the people who knew Jim and idolized him and
loved him, anything at all would help. I mean, was
it racial? Maybe? Was it about a woman? Maybe? Was
it about drugs? Maybe? Did he kill himself? Maybe? I
personally just accepted that was something we'd never know. Rosie
(25:12):
Gilliam told me that once the inquest ended, the economics
of daily life once again assumed top priority for much
of Lancaster's black community. There are certainly people who demanded
to know what happened. But even in retrospect, you know,
once he was dead, is there really an acceptable answer
that's gonna make it okay? And just like that and
(25:39):
him on a great wife, Jim Duncan, Jim Duncan's name
began to fade into history. Jim David Nay. No one
ever filed a lawsuit of any kind against the police,
not his family, and not Alice. It seems like you
(26:00):
stashed it away. I don't think. I don't know that
I'll be wrapped up for anybody. Yeah, she told me
that part of her wonders if there's still time and
if there's still a point. The truth, she said, feels
like a diamond in the rough, and that's someday the
winds of time might finally expose enough to let that
(26:22):
truth shine through. And then, leading my work on this project,
I learned that Jim might finally get his day in court.
And on party of return Man, Linda, this is brought McCormick.
Somebody that knows that I'm working on this story called
me and told me they found some one somewhere either
(26:43):
died with it or is going to die with it.
You're never going to get anything out of it if
someone is responsible for taking someone else's life. The families
deserve to know that, whole community deserve to know that.
I don't think Layers anything unusual about Micaster. If you
(27:04):
took away the date and time, could you imagine that
happening today? In the intro is yes you can. I'm
Brett McCormick. Return Man is a production of The Herald,
McClatchy Studios and I Heart Radio. It's produced by Matt Walsh,
Kara Tabor Cotta, Stevens, Rachel Wise, and Davin Coburn. The
(27:25):
executive producer for I Heeart Radio is Sean Titone. For
lots more on this story, go to Harold online dot
com slash return Man. If you have any additional information
about Jim Duncan's life or death, email us at return
Man at Harold online dot com. To continue supporting this
kind of work, visit Harold online dot com slash Podcasts
(27:46):
and consider a digital subscription. And for more podcasts from
my Heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows
Long Shot is a production of McClatchy Studios and I
Heart Radio. Previously on Return Men, it was Coote room
capacity to come. We held a capathitor would and we
had people on the house. The attorney said that nobody
would top period. Not one person wanted to tap a back.
(00:23):
Police people will know what to say to put fear
to pick. It involves rates the mental state of the
person and a town that was scared to death to
say anything. There are conspiracies in the world, and the
Jim Crow South having a period about that conspiracy might
not be wrong. In the course of researching this story,
(00:52):
there was at least one key voice I hadn't really
heard from. It was about the NFL player that committed
suicide in Leicester, former Lancaster Police Chief Larry Lower. Records
from the South Carolina State Law Enforcement Division show that
Lancaster police handled the investigation into Jim's death themselves. We
(01:12):
did lab work investigating an agency. We did independently investigate.
The Lack of transparency from Lancaster authorities cost Jim's family
closure and left an information vacuum that has been filled
by conspiracy theories for nearly fifty years. They say he
(01:33):
committed suicide, but basically, almost none of Lancaster's black residents
I interviewed believe Jim died the way police said, including
the only black person who served on the inquest panel.
They want to say, if we have the police go
on the shot itself, but I don't believe this. Ship
Lower now lives in Georgia and until recently served on
(01:54):
a local school board. He basically hung up on me
when I tried to reach him by phone. So in
the summer I went to him. I needed to understand
why Lancaster police took the actions they did and where
Jim's family was supposed to go from here, Mr from
(02:20):
the Herald McClatchy Studios and I Heart Radio. This is
return man. I'm Brett McCormick, and this is Part seven
Conspiracy Theories Number three. Richard Berry loving and all of
(02:42):
Talance versus Virginia. Jim was a ladies man, no doubt,
that was one habit he never hid. Well, they're nothing
man that I could tell you about what other than
he just loved one. Mr Chief Justice made please barn,
I am Bernards Cohen. Virginia spans here today and in
(03:04):
this Loving case for the first time tried to find
a justification other than white racial supremacy for the existence
of its statute. Jim died five years after the Loving v.
Virginia Supreme Court case struck down interracial marriage bands nationwide.
The state is ignoring the right of Richard and Mildred
(03:26):
Loving to wake up in the morning or to go
to sleep at night knowing that the shirt will not
be knocking on their door or shining a light in
their face in the privacy of their bedroom for illicit cohabitation.
But South Carolina has been on interracial marriage officially lasted
until only Alabama's band lasted longer. Why he was in
(03:49):
the pros and all of that, you know wied were
wired and black sar black and wherever you to Butcher
then Matt Jim's brother elderly and Elroy's wife Linda. He
was dating the chief Plaice his daughter during that Hans Okay,
the guy who's come we think that what got involved
(04:11):
with his door? That is the one that shot Butch.
Do you know her name? No? I was told repeatedly
that Jim was involved with one of Red Henson's daughters.
They're white and the theory is that Jim, a black man,
somehow died in the police station because of that. That's
that's that's that was what we were saying. Something by
(04:32):
the daughter. I didn't even know the young lady. Floyd
White was one of Jim's high school coaches, and I
can imagine that, you know, football player nationwide stuff black
that you know, he come back home. You know what
the at home song, there's not gonna louder, They're not
gonna I heard some version of this theory many different
(04:52):
times over the past three years. Did not like to
think that he's white. Was driving the round in the
car where Jim Lucia Duck Lancaster native Michael Bogan attended
Bar Street School a few years after Duncan, and for
whatever reason, Jim Duncan received a message to come to
(05:14):
the police department. After he gave up to police department,
Jim Duncan was, na, did you know Red Hinson's daughter?
I mean, did you know her name? I did not
know her name mattered if I never seen her. You
showed me a picture for that, now, I cook that
to you one way. Then on the gift taxi story, okay,
(05:40):
no one could identify which daughter Jim might have been
involved with, and as conspiracy theories go, it combines a
few familiar threads. It involves an overprotective father, which has
been a dramatic staple forever. But at the same time,
a killing like that was hardly without precedent. As just
one example during Jim's lifetime, the alleged crime of a
(06:01):
black man flirting with a white woman was exactly what
led to the death of Emmett Till in Mississippi, one
of the most gruesome hate crimes of the twentieth century.
My baby was taken from his uncle's home and my
aunt's home, and I found out about at nine thirty
Sunday morning. This is tills mother, Mami Bradley, speaking to reporters.
(06:22):
At the time, I thought it was sufficient to mind
my own business. I didn't realize that everything was mad business.
That's the way the people are treated all over the earth.
Was my business. Now I know it, and unless we
can get enforceable love, we might as well just forget everything.
(06:44):
Lieutenant Henson had three daughters. I work at the newspaper
in Rocky Hill, South Carolina. Was your dad, Russell Henson,
police officer from Micaster. Darlene Hopkins is the youngest of
those three daughters. Through all the reading I've been doing,
I haven't found very much information about your dad, and
so I just was trying to find out more about him,
(07:06):
and I had come across your name in his obituary.
And she declined to appear in this podcast, but she
told me she wasn't living in Lancaster when Jim died.
In our call, she said I might get more information
from her older sister who was in town when it happened. Okay,
so you weren't living in Lancaster then, got you? Okay.
(07:26):
Barbara Ferguson was Henson's middle daughter. I just wanted to
ask where did you live in Leicaster when it happened.
She spoke to me briefly from her home not far
from Lancaster, though she too declined to lend her voice
to this podcast. Ferguson didn't understand why I would be
looking into the story at all. Uh, just because the
NFL players family still has like a lot of, you know,
(07:48):
in their opinion, unanswered questions about it, and you know,
I think it has a lot of similarities to things
that are going on now. You know, it's an interesting
story to to look at in that regard. Forerguson and
I spoke for about fifteen minutes. She told me her
father rarely talked about Jim's death or anything that happened
on the job. For the most part, I think she
(08:10):
was about as friendly as any of us might be
if a reporter called out of the blue basically wondering
if her father had been involved in a murder. I mean,
I just think they think it was out of character
for their relative to have killed himself, So, you know,
I think that's more of the issue than anything. They
don't really have exactly an idea of what else would
(08:31):
have happened. Ferguson told me that bywo she was in
her early thirties and that her sister's recollections were a
little off. She said that when Jim died, she had
already moved away from Lancaster with her husband, and they
already had a family of their own. Ferguson says she'd
never even heard of Jim Duncan before seeing the news
about his death, and and honestly I didn't I didn't
(08:52):
think you would really know much about it. I was
more wanting to know more about your dad, and I
mean just what he was like, or did he have
a nickname or whatever, you know, making more of a
person instead of just the guy whose gun was used.
The lieutenant was a World War Two Navy veteran and
had been a deacon at his local Baptist church by
(09:15):
nineteen seventy two. He'd been a member of that local
police department for almost twenty years. No one I spoke
with knew of any incriminating behavior by Henson, and I
found no evidence that he had an adversarial relationship with
Jim or people of color in general. So one of
the conspiracies that I was told by some people I
had talked to was that he had a reputation in
(09:38):
Lancaster as somebody that talked to white women a lot,
because I think that there was the the stretch or
the leap, maybe that his death in the police station
had something to do with talking to white women or
something like that. I think I think that was Ferguson
told me our conversation was the first time she'd ever
(09:58):
heard that theory, and that it wasn't worth a second thought.
She added that their other sister, Margaret, is now deceased.
Margaret was alive at the time Jim died, but she
was also living out of state, so, according to Ferguson,
none of Henson's daughters knew Jim, and his death didn't
really impact them. Not long after Jim's death, Henson resigned
(10:21):
from the Lancaster Police Department without announcing future plans. His
obituary said he went on to become police chief in
nearby page Land, where Jim and Elroy had once hustled pool.
When he left Lancaster, Chief Lauer said of him, quote,
He's an excellent officer, and I certainly wish him the
best of luck in his new work. After my conversations
(10:45):
with Henson's daughters, I can't rule anything out. It's possible
Jim had been involved romantically with a white woman, but
at the time, rural South Carolina was very different from
the interconnected world of today. I can believe Henson's daughters
might out have even heard of Jim during his life,
and I feel confident they weren't involved with Jim or
in any way connected to his death. Okay, well, I
(11:07):
really appreciate you um talking to me, though I know
it's sort of a weird thing to get a call
out of the blue about so. But I also have
to wonder if the incident might have affected Henson and
his family more than Ferguson claimed. Right before we hung up,
she insisted, quote, some things are better left alone. It
was just not that big a deal. We'll be back
(11:33):
in a moment. I don't think Ferguson is alone in
that assessment. For many people in Lancashire at the time,
at least many white people, it was just not that
big a deal for a black man to allegedly walk
into his hometown police station and without saying a word,
(11:54):
rip a gun from lieutenants Holster and shoot himself in
the head. It made me wonder if I'd been asking
the wrong question in a small roast lap the southern town.
What if there wasn't any sort of cause and effect
that makes sense here? Racism was abundant, but it was
just right right on her. From all my research into
(12:21):
Jim's life, my overwriting impression of race relations in nineteen
sixties Lancaster isn't so much a clear list of racist events.
Mostly it's a crushing sense of apathy by white people.
That's not an event that's a social structure in which
every event unfolds. I thought back to something Alice told
(12:42):
me about her late husband. He had a favorite poem. Mhmm. Interesting.
She never knew what it was called or where he'd
found it, but Jim would often repeat the lines. Let
others cheer the winning man. There's one I hold worthwhile
tis he who does the best he can then loses
with a smile. Is that from something here? Can you
(13:05):
say it again? Have to look it up and see
we're being from that presumption of losing even smiling as
it happens. Fit a dynamic that USC law professor Seth
Stowton has studied that idea of how we interact with people.
It depends on our perception of their social status. And
(13:25):
in the sixties and seventies, a black man had I
think it is fair to say significantly less social status,
certainly compared to a police officer. At the time, that
was an especially fragile state of affairs in a place
like Lancaster. We're constantly making those judgments, and we're using
(13:47):
them to adjust how much deference we give the other
person and how much difference we expect them to give us.
There are some problems that are particularly acute in the
policing context. When both people expect more deference than the
other one is giving them. Social psychologists call this an
asymmetric deference norm. The officer might say, this person should
(14:13):
defer to me because I am the authority. The other
person might say, the officer should defer to me in
at least some respect because I am a taxpayer, or
something like that. That's one thing I've always found so
interesting about Jim's returned to Lancaster. In those theories about
(14:34):
Henton's daughters, well and good, it is ming a duncan
a real breath, not because I've seen anything to suggest
they were connected to Jim, but because the belief they
could have been was its own evidence that Jim no
longer fit with Lancaster's deference norms. Well, we know that
they're back in town as force Butcher I didn't see
him daily, but we knew he was in town when
(14:56):
he was there. Rosie Gilliam is the son of Sandy Gilliam,
Jim's bar Street and Maryland State football coach. Sandy Gilliam
moved his family back to Lancaster in the early seventies
when he left football behind and took a job at
Springs Mill. Today, I think that people might suggest that
there's some I don't know, ill will directed toward him
(15:16):
by the police. And I think then, of course people
thought that. I mean, but there was nothing that certainly
nothing that we could prove. And as kids, I know,
our general thought was that there was probably something that
was not right. Yeah, but it was more of a
fear that you know, makes certain you don't put yourself
(15:37):
in a position where that's could happen to you. Bush
Dudgeon was a Jim Duck. Jim had achieved a stature
that far exceeded even the white authorities in Lancaster, and
those authorities knew it. Even if he wasn't brazen enough
to approach a white officer's daughter, the mere fact that
he could have was richly symbolic. The best thing that
(16:01):
could have happened with been him not to be there
in the first place. Rosie Gilliam was a teenager when
Jim died and still looked up to the Super Bowl champ.
Why was he a in Lancaster and be what would
he get the police depart? And you know, had either
one of those things been a no, And maybe he'd
be a laugh today. So in the police station, whether
(16:23):
Jim talked about a love affair or anything else, his
main offense was already committed simply by being there. The
world professional what if the question isn't what happened, but
how it happened. The potential for conflict comes up when
the officer may not just be lack of deference as
(16:45):
something that is upsetting. They may be it is something
that requires a physical response. Here's USC law professor Seth Stowton.
I can think of no better example than the sandral
Land traffics. Hello man, well it takes how I'm told
the press stop is. You didn't fail. You failed to
signal your lane change. You get your gram blace in
turns with you. After an initial interaction, the officer walked
(17:07):
back to his car, wrote out what we later learned
as a warning ticket, walked back up to Sandra Bland's
car and one of the first things he said was
you seem irritated. Okay, I'm laing, no you you this
is yo job. I'm landing on you. How don't you
seem very irritated? I am, I really am, But what
I'm getting tantical. I'm getting out of your way. You
(17:29):
just speeding up tailingly so I'll move over, and you
stopped moving. So yeah, I am a little irritated, but
that doesn't stop you from giving me a ticketing crack.
If that had been me in my newer model car,
dressed in my business suit, I think the cop would have,
again unconsciously and without realizing it, given me a little
more deference than he gave Sandra Bland. But what he
(17:51):
did was Sandra Bland is he waited four seconds and
he said, are you done? Who asked me, well? Can?
I told you so? Now I'm telling you. In other words,
he was telling her, I'm not deferring to you that
I don't care about or respect your concerns. They were
(18:12):
in a staring contest, and the problem with the staring
contest in this context is not who blinks first. It's
who has the power to swing first, and that's the officer.
I'm giving you a law for to turn around. Will
you're not going I'm not complaining because you just pluwed
me out of my car and around. Could something like
(18:32):
that have happened in Lancaster especially then? Ye like just
a little bit of time, I just wanted to ask you,
you know, like what you remembered about that. Beyond George
Lloyd's account, there isn't even independent confirmation of the timeline
of Jim's death. We're just about ready to get the
second half underway. The public ult Jim Duncan. Again, I
want to emphasize, I'm not saying that is what happened.
(18:54):
But if Jim Duncan, the football star who is used
to deference and even a degree of hero worship in Baltimore,
comes down to South Carolina, the potential for explosive conflict
is pretty obvious. We'll be back after this. For those
(19:20):
close to Jim, the pain and confusion around his death
has never really gone away. That same asymmetric deference norm
was on display with Elroy in the exchange he described
with Chief our when Elroy said he was told not
to look further into his brother's death because quote one
death was enough. So maybe I thought Lancaster's former police
(19:45):
chief might engage with me differently. Students of the Savannah
Chatham County Public School System have missed seven instructional days
this year. The school bushire it seeks to make up
lost instructional time, which would require. For less than two
years after Jim's death, Loward also left Lancaster. I think
we have forgotten what we're here to do, and there stood.
(20:09):
He moved to northern Illinois, in southern Mississippi, and eventually
back to Georgia, where he wrapped up four decades of
law enforcement. Then he joined the school board in Savannah,
about a three and a half hour drive from Lancaster.
If I got a T shirt in a classroom that
says I can't teach right because of these make up dage, personally,
(20:30):
I don't need that teacher. I'm ready. Year ago, I
got in competence all about of times a file. Well
for those teachers who were crying about the pact, they family,
I will be watching. Not long ago, the Savannah Morning
News posted this exchange among board members over a routine
scheduling question. If you're taking us down a road to
(20:54):
destroy this bowl, and I'm not gonna let it happened
as long as I'm on it, We're going to go
on to another topic. Now, Is there anyone who would
like to speak of something that is appropriate for this?
Foret at Lower clearly hasn't lost his edge. Do you
think that you were district, and I'm sure I disagree
(21:16):
with your order. We're going to move on. One week day,
I drove down there and set through a five hour
school board meeting. Afterward, I caught up with lour in
the administrate of Complex, Mrs Brat, I've talked to you
on the phone like a month or two ago. I'm
coming down here from rock Hill, South Carolina doing the
(21:37):
story on Jim Dougan. I wondered about social dynamics in
Lancaster and the ways they could have influenced Lower's hasty
investigation into Jim's death. I don't care who you are,
where you come from, or what your lifestyle has ended
up being. Even if Jim had taken his own life
exactly as law enforcement said, it is our job to
(22:00):
treat equally and fairly. Their relative in action afterward suggested
Jim's death was treated less equally because of his skin color.
I just wanted to come down and try to talk
to you out of fairness and not to try. Unfortunately,
Lower chose not to have his voice appear in this podcast.
He could have talked about the photo that ran in
(22:20):
the Lancaster News back in four shortly before he left
South Carolina. The image showed him receiving a certificate of
appreciation from the newly formed Lancaster chapter of the INN
Double A CP. The photo appears to have been taken
in Lower's wood paneled office, the chief standing with three
black men in suits and the secretary of the n
(22:40):
Double a CP, her hair in an afro. The certificate
thanks Lower for his quote unique and untiring service to
the community. That recognition told a very different story than
the incendiary quote. Elroy remembered, the reason I wanted to
come down here was to get your side of the
store because Duncan's others had said that you had told
(23:02):
him um not to pursue the matter. One death was enough.
Do you remember saying that? Lower told me, quote, no,
ain't no way. I'm going to tell somebody that we
did everything we could do to determine what really happened.
That's me. I'm not a person that tries to cover
something up. Lower had a decorated career in law enforcement.
(23:26):
He was reportedly chosen for more than a hundred applicants
to lead Lancaster's police department. Before his move to South Carolina.
He'd been runner up for Policemen of the Year in Savannah.
That's part of what made things like a lack of
a fingerprint test so confusing. Do you do you remember
would you guys have had fingerprint evidence then, because people
always said, like, why didn't they test the gun or whatever?
(23:48):
Lower insisted to me quote SLED did the investigation, so
it would depend on what they had done. But SLED
the state's Law Enforcement Division specifically told me they weren't
in charge of the investigation. It sounds like SLID tested
things that the legas y p D asked them to test.
It appears that fingerprints were not among those things they
(24:10):
wanted tested. A little leeway on specifics is probably fair
for someone in their eighties suddenly being asked about a
case from decades ago. Still, my conversation with Lour was brief,
and I can't say I got much from it. You
gotta know, I I really wanted to talk to you
because I sat through that whole meeting. But I appreciate
you talking to him, though I know it's a weird
(24:31):
story and I don't want to do a pie you
guys are with that. He told me he was late
for another meeting and he left. Have fun in your
meeting for lour. Clearly there's nothing more to be said
(24:52):
for the people who knew Jim and idolized him and
loved him, anything at all would help. I mean, was
it racial? Maybe? Was it about a woman? Maybe? Was
it about drugs? Maybe? Did he kill himself? Maybe? I
personally just accepted that was something we'd never know. Rosie
(25:12):
Gilliam told me that once the inquest ended, the economics
of daily life once again assumed top priority for much
of Lancaster's black community. There are certainly people who demanded
to know what happened. But even in retrospect, you know,
once he was dead, is there really an acceptable answer
that's gonna make it okay? And just like that and
(25:39):
him on a great wife, Jim Duncan, Jim Duncan's name
began to fade into history. Jim David Nay. No one
ever filed a lawsuit of any kind against the police,
not his family, and not Alice. It seems like you
(26:00):
stashed it away. I don't think. I don't know that
I'll be wrapped up for anybody. Yeah, she told me
that part of her wonders if there's still time and
if there's still a point. The truth, she said, feels
like a diamond in the rough, and that's someday the
winds of time might finally expose enough to let that
(26:22):
truth shine through. And then, leading my work on this project,
I learned that Jim might finally get his day in court.
And on party of return Man, Linda, this is brought McCormick.
Somebody that knows that I'm working on this story called
me and told me they found some one somewhere either
(26:43):
died with it or is going to die with it.
You're never going to get anything out of it if
someone is responsible for taking someone else's life. The families
deserve to know that, whole community deserve to know that.
I don't think Layers anything unusual about Micaster. If you
(27:04):
took away the date and time, could you imagine that
happening today? In the intro is yes you can. I'm
Brett McCormick. Return Man is a production of The Herald,
McClatchy Studios and I Heart Radio. It's produced by Matt Walsh,
Kara Tabor Cotta, Stevens, Rachel Wise, and Davin Coburn. The
(27:25):
executive producer for I Heeart Radio is Sean Titone. For
lots more on this story, go to Harold online dot
com slash return Man. If you have any additional information
about Jim Duncan's life or death, email us at return
Man at Harold online dot com. To continue supporting this
kind of work, visit Harold online dot com slash Podcasts
(27:46):
and consider a digital subscription. And for more podcasts from
my Heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows
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