March 2, 2021 • 27 mins
Following Jim Duncan's death, the Lancaster County coroner called an inquest to determine what happened inside the police station. Seven witnesses were called to testify under oath; all worked at, or with, the Lancaster police department. After a short deliberation, the small jury concluded that Duncan died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. But the one Black member of the inquest panel didn't believe what became the official account, and doesn't to this day.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Long Shot is a production of McClatchy Studios and I
Heart Radio. Previously on return Men, Even Bad it got
a little more cautious. What did you guys get more
cautious about white police officers? If that happens this day
in time, that agency backs out, they're not involved in
(00:21):
their own investigation. We did lab work the investigating agency.
We did not independently investigate. Wow. A lot of the
stories said that he shot himself on the right here,
So why would you pull with Yeah, they say he
committed suicide, but they say Lancas are always considered itself
(00:51):
a polite southern town where shaded moss on highways going
the traveler into another quite intentionally. The boat wasn't rocked
by anyone regardless of race. So maybe it's not surprising
that Lancaster authority has never made any sort of documentation
about Jim's death public, even if it would have provided
(01:13):
more answers. Historically, corners would keep all their records in
their home, but because of that, it's hard to know
how much documentation ever really existed. Unfortunately, the year that
you're looking for, along with many other years, is missing,
just literally missing, and the silence didn't help anything. All
(01:34):
Street made it into a NFL. It was as proud
as we could be. Michael Bogan is the bar Street
graduate who has remained involved with the Lancaster community for
the past half century. US Duncan was a Jim Duncan.
And you know, I really don't think anyone really have
succepted the police departments virgin that he came into the
(01:57):
Polish Department office's gun from his host and shot him.
Set today So for the moment, if we don't accept
the official police account, what happened? Was it Lieutenant Russell
Henson who shot Jim? If so, why If Alice is
(02:18):
right and Jim entered the police station voluntarily, what could
have made a veteran officer shoot him dead moments after
his arrival. People wanted to expose what happened when you've done,
but Atlanchester wasn't place in black Bob say Less. They
were hoping to understood behind the law, and when the
(02:40):
law didn't show up, the out from the Herald McClatchy
Studios and I Heart Radio, this is return Man. I'm
Brett McCormick, and this is part six the End Quest
m HM. Five days after Jim's death, more than three
(03:09):
people crowded into the Lancaster Courthouse, just a few hundred
feet from where Jim had died. Richard Chandler, Lancaster County's
corner had called an inquest. Okay, so yes, this is
actually there's a fascinating history here and um, okay, it's
a quasi judicial proceeding that's gone out of fashion in
most of the country but has a long history in
(03:30):
South Carolina. The easiest way I think to explain it
is to compare to modern things. Seth Stoughton is a
professor at the University of South Carolina Law School, one
of which is a medical examiner. The medical examiner does
the autopsy, determines the cause of death, and in addition
to the medical examiner, we have modern juries that determine culpability.
(03:55):
There's a crime, there's not a crime. Someone was negligent,
someone wasn't negligent. A corner does kind of a combination
of those two things, where the corner will look not
just at the physical autopsy, but also the circumstances surrounding
the death and would have said at the time and
(04:16):
even today in some circumstances, here is the cause of
death and my inquest, as Corner suggests that the officers
failed to take proper steps in this way. By definition,
a coroner's inquest exists in order to establish the manner
in which someone died by natural causes homicide, suicide, accidental death,
(04:44):
or undetermined. Witnesses testify under oath during an inquest, and
at the end a small jury reaches a verdict on
what happened, but that formal pronouncement doesn't directly affect anyone's
rights or preclude a wrongful death civil suit, or prevent
someone from being charged with a crime after the fact.
Inquests have largely gone out of style because their findings
(05:07):
don't actually result in any legal sanctions against anyone. Criminal
and civil courts cover many of the same bases with
real penalties involved. By modern standards, It was this kind
of weird combination of medical examination, including autopsy, and also
a determination of whether the death was morally justified. If
(05:33):
inquests are a bit archaic, The venue where this one
was held has quite a history to Lancaster's Courthouse was
built in eighteen fifteen years after the last American witch
trial was held at the same site in eighteen sixty
one hundred and sixty five slaves were sold at that courthouse,
and four years later General William Sherman's Union troops burned
(05:55):
it to the ground. That final episode might have inspired
the thirty ft tall Confederate monument standing outside the rebuilt structure.
It was coote room capacit come we held a capathitor
would get and we have people on the house in
the streets. Right. Floyd White was one of Jim's high
(06:16):
school coaches, and he attended the inquest. He told us
the seated courtroom crowd was mostly black, surrounded by white
police officers standing along three walls. What's our hero? Yeah,
he's our hero. Who ain't right? Richard Chandler, who spent
his days running an auto body repair shop, later told
(06:39):
reporters he almost didn't call the inquests at all, but
he did because of a growing public outcry over Jim's death. Right,
So Chandler hand picked the six person jury or inquest panel.
It consisted of five whites and Billy Ray Crawford, Chandler's
(07:00):
one black employee at the repair shop. Pretty conspicuously, Billy
Ray was also the only member of the panel named
by local newspapers. I had read that you were the
only blackout and then quest panel, so I just wondered
if you had volunteered or if they had volunteered you
for you. They called me, he called it. He wanted
me to be there. You WoT have some black office,
(07:21):
as it were, black feeling anxious about the police and
about interacting with Jim's family. Jim's widow, Alice, did not
attend the inquest, but his mom did, and ellery brought
representation and out of town twenty something lawyer named Christopher Coates,
who was so fresh out of law school he hadn't
(07:41):
even passed the South Carolina bar yet. The family had
told me that he had tried to get lawyers in
Lancashire to represent them and no one would. I mean
the Coats is in his seventies now. He declined to
be part of this podcast, but he told me that
at the time he worked for Thomas Broadwater, a prominent
lawyer in Columbia. Do you remember any kind of sin
to like maybe you know, because of the racial implications,
(08:02):
it was kind of a a very hot case. The
touch coach said yes, for that kind of case in
that kind of place, It made sense that Jim's family
went to Columbia for a lawyer, and Coach said he
was sent to Lancaster because Broadwater just wanted someone president
at the inquest. At the proceeding, the inquest panel heard
(08:22):
just forty one minutes of testimony from seven total witnesses.
All worked for or with local law enforcement, and all
supported the account from Lancaster police that Jim died by suicide.
Five of them were from the Lancaster Police Department, including
Lieutenant Russell Henson and dispatcher George Lloyd. There's a lot
(08:44):
of well dispute about the story. He declined to appear
in this podcast. We spoke briefly by phone at his
home outside Lancaster. Did you ever hear like people that
didn't agree that it went down the way you guys
said it did. What would be your answer to that?
He told me quote. All I can say is what
I've seen and what I heard. If they didn't like it,
(09:06):
that was up to them. Mhm. The sixth witness at
the inquest was a doctor who worked with local law
enforcement and who briefly examined Jim's body. The seventh witness
was an agent from SLED the South Carolina State Law
Enforcement Division. The agent had delivered Henson's gun to sled's
crime lab, and he testified to something else. The SLED
(09:29):
agent claimed the snapdown strap on the personal gun holster
Henson war the day of Jim's death was never unfastened
in the moment before the shooting. It's not clear how
he knew that the agent seemed to be supporting the
police account that Jim had acted suddenly and that there
was no premeditation on Henson's part before the encounter, but
(09:49):
jurors had to take the authority's word for it that
Jim could have yanked Henson's gun from his holster without
ever unfastening it. Oh, right alone, he is somewhady A
few you know. Well, I remember good like I'm looking
at you. I remember I recently sat down with Floyd
White in that same courthouse. Your your thoughts, they're gonna
(10:10):
be all white. I wouldn't have any black houser saying
it was just just like blackness in here, so white officers,
but like black crowd and outside saying what how like
tense was it? Well it wasn't said nobody sayingthing. You
could hear some moment, but not enough to be disrupted.
(10:34):
No one from Jim's side was allowed to speak at
the inquest, no statements, no cross examinations. Some people had
told me that they felt like the inquests, could you know,
provide some measure of relief for them, a lawyer could
stand up in a way that they, as black people cannot.
Coats remembered many of Lancaster's black residents hoped he would
(10:57):
play a larger role there. But inquests are not legal hearings,
and there's no standard procedure to be followed. So that
seems to me like the misunderstanding of what was going
to happen at that inquest, like it was going to
be some kind of hearing you would be able to speak,
the family would be able to speak, when in reality
that was not the case at all. Coats told me
(11:19):
quote a corner's inquest would not be the forum you
would want to litigate a case like this. In it
was my understanding, and I think Mr Broadwaters understanding that
Duncan's family would be looking to file a federal lawsuit
in which there would have been an allegation of a
wrongful death and the defendants would be members of the
Lancaster Police Department, but given the way Chandler ran his quest,
(11:41):
the panel that day in Lancaster was left with two options.
Either law enforcement eyewitnesses were telling the truth and Duncan
died by suicide, or they were lying under oath to
cover up a killing. It took just twenty two minutes
of deliberation for the inquest panel to return its verdict.
Chandler and now to the courthouse audience that Jim quote
(12:03):
came to his death by a self inflicted thirty eight
caliber gunshot wound. The inquest is now complete. Although I
removed by that was they want to say grab the
police going and shot itself, But I don't believe that. Ship.
Billy Ray Crawford couldn't recall the exact panel vote, but
he did remember most of the panelists thinking, everybody think yourself,
(12:24):
so you know it will be a big deal of
killing yourself. Yeah, yeah, but you didn't really think that
he did that though, Well that's what they say, wouldn't
that what this is? Right? Do you remember, like, uh,
they say, you know he died by suicide? Yeah, self complicated.
(12:48):
Floyd White said the inquest had nothing to resolve the
community's confusion and anger. Did people stand up then? You know,
and sometimes nobody can be identified by what sabody, so
they're gonna express their right. They didn't know what to say.
(13:11):
You don't know what to say about what you've been
situation like that. We'll be back in a moment. Yeah,
when you mentioned the South, most people think of cotton
in South Carolina. Flats of those days would look with
(13:33):
astonishment at King Cotton's empire today. Back then, Lancaster was
at least thirty miles from any significant urban area. You'll
see them wherever you drive, and the textile belt such
giant mills as this one and Leicester largest cotton mill
ever constructed under a single rule. Following Jim's death, racial
(13:54):
tensions were clearly high. Richard Chandler's son, Rick, is a
lawyer in Lancaster or today. He was a teenager when
Jim died. Rick didn't respond to my request for an interview.
But when Richard Chandler died in two thousand nine, Rick
told the Lancaster News that after the inquest into Jim's death,
quote sled in the Sheriff's department watched our house. Rick
(14:17):
told a story about relatives coming to visit, and said
that when they approached the house, sled agents rushed out
of the woods around the Chandler home to confront them.
Rick told the newspaper quote, Dad was scared. I don't
know if he was scared for himself or his family.
It wasn't just his life that was in danger. There
were two or three people. They were worried about two.
(14:39):
But at the same time, much of Lancaster's black population
worried about the economic consequences of speaking out in the
shadow of Springs Mill, the ability to bring up complaints
and gets some representation that you didn't find any in
these company dominated times like Lancaster. Timothy mentioned is an
expert in the history of racial integrat in the textile
(15:01):
industry of the American South. Even the police would probably
be the brothers of mail workers. They would know people,
and they would be a you know, I don't if
you want to use the word conspiracy, but you know,
like there's a network to keep it quiet and to
suppress what happens. He wasn't talking about Jim's case in particular,
so much as acknowledging that even now Lancaster is an
(15:23):
isolated rural town, it felt especially so in nineteen two.
Springs controlled thousands of jobs in town and had financial
influence at the hospital, the bank, even the local newspaper.
Around the time of Jim's death, the Springs CEO gave
a speech that only reinforced the company's paternalistic control of
the town. He said, quote, revolution should be controlled by
(15:47):
force if necessary. A lot of times that are We're
not like Birmingham. It's not like that here, but often
there were attensions and even if the violence is in
now on the surface, there's a lot of press attention,
and you know, white control of the black community, and
you have to dig deeper to find that what's going on.
(16:12):
There seems to be no evidence that Jim died any
other way than the manner in which Lancaster police described
at the time. It's also true there's not much evidence
of anything. White authorities in this rural southern town conducted
what seems to have been a cursory investigation and a
one sided inquest. It's entirely possible those were not covering
(16:32):
up any sort of wrongdoing. And yet it's also true
that if police were trying to cover up wrongdoing, this
was the way to do it. I'm not trying to
indict police officers because many of them are great, and
you you don't know how we'll really set kicks in
and the things that people will do. Upton Bell is
the former Colts scout who first saw Jim's potential at
(16:53):
Maryland State. Because of my experience in small towns all
over the South, there are many secret none of us
will ever find out. When it comes to race. We
this is a great mystery. It involves race, the mental
state of the person, the police state at the time,
(17:13):
and a town that was scared to death to say anything.
I mean, it's it's it's almost like a Gothic novel.
If if we didn't know this was a real person,
I woulds like, wow, that's pretty interesting. The inquest ruling
pretty clearly showed there was no appetite to investigate further,
let alone consider criminal charges against anyone. A federal civil
(17:37):
rights lawsuit could have been possible if Jim's family had
pursued one. We couldn't get any help here. The door
you open the door ship Jim's brother, Elroy, and Elroy's
wife Linda, and then attorney that we had. He just
said that nobody would talk period, and he was saying
(17:58):
he didn't know what and whom, you know. Made the
people feel like they couldn't even address the issue, you know,
if they were told that something would happen to them
or their families or anything, but they just shut down.
Not one person wanted to talk about in our conversations.
(18:19):
Christopher Coates vaguely remember trying to speak with a few
of Jim's friends and relatives in Lancaster. But then the
Broadwater law firm apparently ceased its involvement in the case.
It's not clear why. Broadwater himself is now in a
senior home in Columbia. He couldn't recall any details of
Jim's case when I called him. Coats speculated that a
lack of heart evidence, coupled with Jim's history of mental
(18:42):
health treatment, would have made it a hard case to win,
whatever the reasons. After Broadwater backed out, no other firms
took the case either. The family felt stuck and unsure
of what to do next. Whether it's from fourth to
mention anything about the shooting. And they knew they lived
(19:06):
in a small row, sleepy southern town. Racism was abundant,
but it was just you know, right right un there
and see like police people know what to say to
put fear to people. Elroy says that last part was
one final factor in his own hesitation to pursue legal action.
(19:29):
He told a reporter at the time and confirmed to
me that after the inquest he had a conversation with
Chief Larry Lower. According to el Roy, the chief told him, quote,
I'd advise you not to pursue this further. One death
is enough. We'll be back after this. The story was
(19:56):
that my brother took a gun off of the police
officer and shop stuff in my head. As stunning as
the official version of Jim's death might be, is it possible.
It's possible. Any other hypothesis seems equally unusual. Think of
this scenario. A guy his age comes in. Let's say
(20:16):
he was mentally upset about whatever. Upton Bell was the
Colts executive who helped draft Jim. Now this again two
versus sake, because then the police station is really upset.
He's screaming and yelling. His version projects at least a
kind of rationality on the situation, and maybe your scenario
they tried to calm them down, and as a result,
(20:39):
maybe he went for one of the guns or something
like that. If you were white and screaming and yelling,
would it have been a different situation. I just find
it very hard to believe if you're going to commit suicide,
would you walk in being black, walk into a white
station and blow your brains out in front of everybody.
(21:00):
Carla die, the current Lancaster corner, wondered the same thing.
It's very perplacing, and I'm not disputing either way. I'm
just bouncing around things. A tussle could certainly end up
in a head shot, but typically if a cop gets
his gun back, they usually shoot center mass right. But
(21:22):
this is where you have to look at everything on
both sides. I want to say here. Current South Carolina
authorities were helpful with my research whenever they could be,
and Deese was sincerely curious about trying to solve this puzzle.
If you're in a tusso with somebody and you're in
a decision making moment that one of you has to
go home tonight to your family, you don't really care
(21:43):
where you shoot right, and you can pretty much fit
this anywhere you won't right. It's the rest of the
details you need that seemed to be non existent. Des
also offered a helpful note about confusion over the side
of the entry wound on Jim's head. Where was his
is not learned. One of the news stories said that
he was shot behind the right ear. His wife told
(22:05):
me that somebody at the funeral and told her left,
which would be weird because he's right handed. Because I mean,
there's a lot of stuff it worked up about the
laughter the right unless you sawing on top side, report
on that, because you could have any entrance that would
look similar. Yeah, okay, that's good to know. As I
(22:30):
spoke with dozens of people over the past three years,
how was Christmas? Yeah, it's good, it's good. The lack
of detail here was still illuminating in its own way.
With an uncertain incident like Jim's death, What questions do
we choose to ask and what answers do we believe?
Those things say a lot about all of us. One
(22:53):
thing that helps conspiracy theories flourishes official action that seems
kind of half a not what it is that the
event itself deserves. This is Mark Finster. He's a professor
at the University of Florida and an expert on conspiracy theories.
I am the author of conspiracy Theories, Secrecy and Power
in American Culture and the Transparency thixed secrets, leaks, and
(23:16):
uncontrollable government information. For the moment, let's say the other
possible narratives about Jim's death are hypotheses that a group
of people took intentional steps to conceal dangerous actions. In short,
we'll call them conspiracy theories. We have compromition bias in
which we think and we seek out pieces of information
(23:39):
that fit into an existing scheme that we have and
the way we understand the world. Conspiracy theories, because they
are particularly heightened way of viewing the world, work the
same way. Carla di Se and Upton Bell could imagine
a confrontation in which Lieutenant Hinson acted if not reasonably,
may we try to come of him down. Maybe he
(24:01):
went for one of the guns or something like that,
at least understandably. You're in a tessa with somebody and
you're in a decision making moment. You don't really care
where you see. But Jim's brother, Elroy, did you watch
some football yesterday? Yeah? Hard wat football Most of the
(24:22):
time suspects a very different cause and effect the detective.
This gun shot Butch in the back of the head. Okay,
but Butch was fast enough and a six he's probably
as fast as he was gonna yeah, you know, and
I'm saying that there's no way unless he was behind
(24:45):
it just pulled shirt. I've seen no evidence that the
fifty two year old lieutenant executed Jim that morning, But
clearly for Elroy and much of the black population in Lancaster,
it seems plausible. The idea that whites thought that they
were inferior wasn't a conspiracy theory put into these damnable proposals.
(25:12):
There are conspiracies in the world, and so having a
theory of now that conspiracy is not necessarily irrational. It
might not even be wrong. Here's Spinster growing up in
the Jim Crow Souths and you're African American. There is
a conspiracy against you to try to prevent your economic success,
(25:39):
to try to prevent you from moving to particular neighborhoods,
to try to prevent you from going to particular schools.
So if you grew up in that era, then viewing
the world through a less like that is not necessarily parent.
You're viewing the world in the way in which the
world is treating m None of the other theories that
(26:06):
I heard about Jim's death seemed to reckon with his
likely depression, or the potential impacts of CTE, or the
possibility that he wanted to take his own life. But
one scandalous theory came up time and time again, and
it was something I could look into. No work at
the newspaper in Rockyoll, South Carolina. Was your dad, Russell Henton,
(26:28):
the police officer from Micaster, and on part seven of
Return Men, J. Duncan was You didn't question a lot
of those attitudes because it would be like questioning whether
the sun was going to come up in the east
in the morning or not. How we interact with people
(26:49):
depends on our perception of their social status. Mrs brad,
I've talked to you on the phone like a month
or two ago, right. I'm Brett McCormick. Return Man is
a production of The Herald McClatchy Studios and I Heart Radio.
(27:10):
It's produced by Matt Walsh, Kara Tabor Cotta, Stevens, Rachel Wise,
and Davin Coburn. The executive producer for I Heart 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.
(27:33):
To continue supporting this kind of work, visit Harold online
dot com slash Podcasts 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, Even Bad it got
a little more cautious. What did you guys get more
cautious about white police officers? If that happens this day
in time, that agency backs out, they're not involved in
(00:21):
their own investigation. We did lab work the investigating agency.
We did not independently investigate. Wow. A lot of the
stories said that he shot himself on the right here,
So why would you pull with Yeah, they say he
committed suicide, but they say Lancas are always considered itself
(00:51):
a polite southern town where shaded moss on highways going
the traveler into another quite intentionally. The boat wasn't rocked
by anyone regardless of race. So maybe it's not surprising
that Lancaster authority has never made any sort of documentation
about Jim's death public, even if it would have provided
(01:13):
more answers. Historically, corners would keep all their records in
their home, but because of that, it's hard to know
how much documentation ever really existed. Unfortunately, the year that
you're looking for, along with many other years, is missing,
just literally missing, and the silence didn't help anything. All
(01:34):
Street made it into a NFL. It was as proud
as we could be. Michael Bogan is the bar Street
graduate who has remained involved with the Lancaster community for
the past half century. US Duncan was a Jim Duncan.
And you know, I really don't think anyone really have
succepted the police departments virgin that he came into the
(01:57):
Polish Department office's gun from his host and shot him.
Set today So for the moment, if we don't accept
the official police account, what happened? Was it Lieutenant Russell
Henson who shot Jim? If so, why If Alice is
(02:18):
right and Jim entered the police station voluntarily, what could
have made a veteran officer shoot him dead moments after
his arrival. People wanted to expose what happened when you've done,
but Atlanchester wasn't place in black Bob say Less. They
were hoping to understood behind the law, and when the
(02:40):
law didn't show up, the out from the Herald McClatchy
Studios and I Heart Radio, this is return Man. I'm
Brett McCormick, and this is part six the End Quest
m HM. Five days after Jim's death, more than three
(03:09):
people crowded into the Lancaster Courthouse, just a few hundred
feet from where Jim had died. Richard Chandler, Lancaster County's
corner had called an inquest. Okay, so yes, this is
actually there's a fascinating history here and um, okay, it's
a quasi judicial proceeding that's gone out of fashion in
most of the country but has a long history in
(03:30):
South Carolina. The easiest way I think to explain it
is to compare to modern things. Seth Stoughton is a
professor at the University of South Carolina Law School, one
of which is a medical examiner. The medical examiner does
the autopsy, determines the cause of death, and in addition
to the medical examiner, we have modern juries that determine culpability.
(03:55):
There's a crime, there's not a crime. Someone was negligent,
someone wasn't negligent. A corner does kind of a combination
of those two things, where the corner will look not
just at the physical autopsy, but also the circumstances surrounding
the death and would have said at the time and
(04:16):
even today in some circumstances, here is the cause of
death and my inquest, as Corner suggests that the officers
failed to take proper steps in this way. By definition,
a coroner's inquest exists in order to establish the manner
in which someone died by natural causes homicide, suicide, accidental death,
(04:44):
or undetermined. Witnesses testify under oath during an inquest, and
at the end a small jury reaches a verdict on
what happened, but that formal pronouncement doesn't directly affect anyone's
rights or preclude a wrongful death civil suit, or prevent
someone from being charged with a crime after the fact.
Inquests have largely gone out of style because their findings
(05:07):
don't actually result in any legal sanctions against anyone. Criminal
and civil courts cover many of the same bases with
real penalties involved. By modern standards, It was this kind
of weird combination of medical examination, including autopsy, and also
a determination of whether the death was morally justified. If
(05:33):
inquests are a bit archaic, The venue where this one
was held has quite a history to Lancaster's Courthouse was
built in eighteen fifteen years after the last American witch
trial was held at the same site in eighteen sixty
one hundred and sixty five slaves were sold at that courthouse,
and four years later General William Sherman's Union troops burned
(05:55):
it to the ground. That final episode might have inspired
the thirty ft tall Confederate monument standing outside the rebuilt structure.
It was coote room capacit come we held a capathitor
would get and we have people on the house in
the streets. Right. Floyd White was one of Jim's high
(06:16):
school coaches, and he attended the inquest. He told us
the seated courtroom crowd was mostly black, surrounded by white
police officers standing along three walls. What's our hero? Yeah,
he's our hero. Who ain't right? Richard Chandler, who spent
his days running an auto body repair shop, later told
(06:39):
reporters he almost didn't call the inquests at all, but
he did because of a growing public outcry over Jim's death. Right,
So Chandler hand picked the six person jury or inquest panel.
It consisted of five whites and Billy Ray Crawford, Chandler's
(07:00):
one black employee at the repair shop. Pretty conspicuously, Billy
Ray was also the only member of the panel named
by local newspapers. I had read that you were the
only blackout and then quest panel, so I just wondered
if you had volunteered or if they had volunteered you
for you. They called me, he called it. He wanted
me to be there. You WoT have some black office,
(07:21):
as it were, black feeling anxious about the police and
about interacting with Jim's family. Jim's widow, Alice, did not
attend the inquest, but his mom did, and ellery brought
representation and out of town twenty something lawyer named Christopher Coates,
who was so fresh out of law school he hadn't
(07:41):
even passed the South Carolina bar yet. The family had
told me that he had tried to get lawyers in
Lancashire to represent them and no one would. I mean
the Coats is in his seventies now. He declined to
be part of this podcast, but he told me that
at the time he worked for Thomas Broadwater, a prominent
lawyer in Columbia. Do you remember any kind of sin
to like maybe you know, because of the racial implications,
(08:02):
it was kind of a a very hot case. The
touch coach said yes, for that kind of case in
that kind of place, It made sense that Jim's family
went to Columbia for a lawyer, and Coach said he
was sent to Lancaster because Broadwater just wanted someone president
at the inquest. At the proceeding, the inquest panel heard
(08:22):
just forty one minutes of testimony from seven total witnesses.
All worked for or with local law enforcement, and all
supported the account from Lancaster police that Jim died by suicide.
Five of them were from the Lancaster Police Department, including
Lieutenant Russell Henson and dispatcher George Lloyd. There's a lot
(08:44):
of well dispute about the story. He declined to appear
in this podcast. We spoke briefly by phone at his
home outside Lancaster. Did you ever hear like people that
didn't agree that it went down the way you guys
said it did. What would be your answer to that?
He told me quote. All I can say is what
I've seen and what I heard. If they didn't like it,
(09:06):
that was up to them. Mhm. The sixth witness at
the inquest was a doctor who worked with local law
enforcement and who briefly examined Jim's body. The seventh witness
was an agent from SLED the South Carolina State Law
Enforcement Division. The agent had delivered Henson's gun to sled's
crime lab, and he testified to something else. The SLED
(09:29):
agent claimed the snapdown strap on the personal gun holster
Henson war the day of Jim's death was never unfastened
in the moment before the shooting. It's not clear how
he knew that the agent seemed to be supporting the
police account that Jim had acted suddenly and that there
was no premeditation on Henson's part before the encounter, but
(09:49):
jurors had to take the authority's word for it that
Jim could have yanked Henson's gun from his holster without
ever unfastening it. Oh, right alone, he is somewhady A
few you know. Well, I remember good like I'm looking
at you. I remember I recently sat down with Floyd
White in that same courthouse. Your your thoughts, they're gonna
(10:10):
be all white. I wouldn't have any black houser saying
it was just just like blackness in here, so white officers,
but like black crowd and outside saying what how like
tense was it? Well it wasn't said nobody sayingthing. You
could hear some moment, but not enough to be disrupted.
(10:34):
No one from Jim's side was allowed to speak at
the inquest, no statements, no cross examinations. Some people had
told me that they felt like the inquests, could you know,
provide some measure of relief for them, a lawyer could
stand up in a way that they, as black people cannot.
Coats remembered many of Lancaster's black residents hoped he would
(10:57):
play a larger role there. But inquests are not legal hearings,
and there's no standard procedure to be followed. So that
seems to me like the misunderstanding of what was going
to happen at that inquest, like it was going to
be some kind of hearing you would be able to speak,
the family would be able to speak, when in reality
that was not the case at all. Coats told me
(11:19):
quote a corner's inquest would not be the forum you
would want to litigate a case like this. In it
was my understanding, and I think Mr Broadwaters understanding that
Duncan's family would be looking to file a federal lawsuit
in which there would have been an allegation of a
wrongful death and the defendants would be members of the
Lancaster Police Department, but given the way Chandler ran his quest,
(11:41):
the panel that day in Lancaster was left with two options.
Either law enforcement eyewitnesses were telling the truth and Duncan
died by suicide, or they were lying under oath to
cover up a killing. It took just twenty two minutes
of deliberation for the inquest panel to return its verdict.
Chandler and now to the courthouse audience that Jim quote
(12:03):
came to his death by a self inflicted thirty eight
caliber gunshot wound. The inquest is now complete. Although I
removed by that was they want to say grab the
police going and shot itself, But I don't believe that. Ship.
Billy Ray Crawford couldn't recall the exact panel vote, but
he did remember most of the panelists thinking, everybody think yourself,
(12:24):
so you know it will be a big deal of
killing yourself. Yeah, yeah, but you didn't really think that
he did that though, Well that's what they say, wouldn't
that what this is? Right? Do you remember, like, uh,
they say, you know he died by suicide? Yeah, self complicated.
(12:48):
Floyd White said the inquest had nothing to resolve the
community's confusion and anger. Did people stand up then? You know,
and sometimes nobody can be identified by what sabody, so
they're gonna express their right. They didn't know what to say.
(13:11):
You don't know what to say about what you've been
situation like that. We'll be back in a moment. Yeah,
when you mentioned the South, most people think of cotton
in South Carolina. Flats of those days would look with
(13:33):
astonishment at King Cotton's empire today. Back then, Lancaster was
at least thirty miles from any significant urban area. You'll
see them wherever you drive, and the textile belt such
giant mills as this one and Leicester largest cotton mill
ever constructed under a single rule. Following Jim's death, racial
(13:54):
tensions were clearly high. Richard Chandler's son, Rick, is a
lawyer in Lancaster or today. He was a teenager when
Jim died. Rick didn't respond to my request for an interview.
But when Richard Chandler died in two thousand nine, Rick
told the Lancaster News that after the inquest into Jim's death,
quote sled in the Sheriff's department watched our house. Rick
(14:17):
told a story about relatives coming to visit, and said
that when they approached the house, sled agents rushed out
of the woods around the Chandler home to confront them.
Rick told the newspaper quote, Dad was scared. I don't
know if he was scared for himself or his family.
It wasn't just his life that was in danger. There
were two or three people. They were worried about two.
(14:39):
But at the same time, much of Lancaster's black population
worried about the economic consequences of speaking out in the
shadow of Springs Mill, the ability to bring up complaints
and gets some representation that you didn't find any in
these company dominated times like Lancaster. Timothy mentioned is an
expert in the history of racial integrat in the textile
(15:01):
industry of the American South. Even the police would probably
be the brothers of mail workers. They would know people,
and they would be a you know, I don't if
you want to use the word conspiracy, but you know,
like there's a network to keep it quiet and to
suppress what happens. He wasn't talking about Jim's case in particular,
so much as acknowledging that even now Lancaster is an
(15:23):
isolated rural town, it felt especially so in nineteen two.
Springs controlled thousands of jobs in town and had financial
influence at the hospital, the bank, even the local newspaper.
Around the time of Jim's death, the Springs CEO gave
a speech that only reinforced the company's paternalistic control of
the town. He said, quote, revolution should be controlled by
(15:47):
force if necessary. A lot of times that are We're
not like Birmingham. It's not like that here, but often
there were attensions and even if the violence is in
now on the surface, there's a lot of press attention,
and you know, white control of the black community, and
you have to dig deeper to find that what's going on.
(16:12):
There seems to be no evidence that Jim died any
other way than the manner in which Lancaster police described
at the time. It's also true there's not much evidence
of anything. White authorities in this rural southern town conducted
what seems to have been a cursory investigation and a
one sided inquest. It's entirely possible those were not covering
(16:32):
up any sort of wrongdoing. And yet it's also true
that if police were trying to cover up wrongdoing, this
was the way to do it. I'm not trying to
indict police officers because many of them are great, and
you you don't know how we'll really set kicks in
and the things that people will do. Upton Bell is
the former Colts scout who first saw Jim's potential at
(16:53):
Maryland State. Because of my experience in small towns all
over the South, there are many secret none of us
will ever find out. When it comes to race. We
this is a great mystery. It involves race, the mental
state of the person, the police state at the time,
(17:13):
and a town that was scared to death to say anything.
I mean, it's it's it's almost like a Gothic novel.
If if we didn't know this was a real person,
I woulds like, wow, that's pretty interesting. The inquest ruling
pretty clearly showed there was no appetite to investigate further,
let alone consider criminal charges against anyone. A federal civil
(17:37):
rights lawsuit could have been possible if Jim's family had
pursued one. We couldn't get any help here. The door
you open the door ship Jim's brother, Elroy, and Elroy's
wife Linda, and then attorney that we had. He just
said that nobody would talk period, and he was saying
(17:58):
he didn't know what and whom, you know. Made the
people feel like they couldn't even address the issue, you know,
if they were told that something would happen to them
or their families or anything, but they just shut down.
Not one person wanted to talk about in our conversations.
(18:19):
Christopher Coates vaguely remember trying to speak with a few
of Jim's friends and relatives in Lancaster. But then the
Broadwater law firm apparently ceased its involvement in the case.
It's not clear why. Broadwater himself is now in a
senior home in Columbia. He couldn't recall any details of
Jim's case when I called him. Coats speculated that a
lack of heart evidence, coupled with Jim's history of mental
(18:42):
health treatment, would have made it a hard case to win,
whatever the reasons. After Broadwater backed out, no other firms
took the case either. The family felt stuck and unsure
of what to do next. Whether it's from fourth to
mention anything about the shooting. And they knew they lived
(19:06):
in a small row, sleepy southern town. Racism was abundant,
but it was just you know, right right un there
and see like police people know what to say to
put fear to people. Elroy says that last part was
one final factor in his own hesitation to pursue legal action.
(19:29):
He told a reporter at the time and confirmed to
me that after the inquest he had a conversation with
Chief Larry Lower. According to el Roy, the chief told him, quote,
I'd advise you not to pursue this further. One death
is enough. We'll be back after this. The story was
(19:56):
that my brother took a gun off of the police
officer and shop stuff in my head. As stunning as
the official version of Jim's death might be, is it possible.
It's possible. Any other hypothesis seems equally unusual. Think of
this scenario. A guy his age comes in. Let's say
(20:16):
he was mentally upset about whatever. Upton Bell was the
Colts executive who helped draft Jim. Now this again two
versus sake, because then the police station is really upset.
He's screaming and yelling. His version projects at least a
kind of rationality on the situation, and maybe your scenario
they tried to calm them down, and as a result,
(20:39):
maybe he went for one of the guns or something
like that. If you were white and screaming and yelling,
would it have been a different situation. I just find
it very hard to believe if you're going to commit suicide,
would you walk in being black, walk into a white
station and blow your brains out in front of everybody.
(21:00):
Carla die, the current Lancaster corner, wondered the same thing.
It's very perplacing, and I'm not disputing either way. I'm
just bouncing around things. A tussle could certainly end up
in a head shot, but typically if a cop gets
his gun back, they usually shoot center mass right. But
(21:22):
this is where you have to look at everything on
both sides. I want to say here. Current South Carolina
authorities were helpful with my research whenever they could be,
and Deese was sincerely curious about trying to solve this puzzle.
If you're in a tusso with somebody and you're in
a decision making moment that one of you has to
go home tonight to your family, you don't really care
(21:43):
where you shoot right, and you can pretty much fit
this anywhere you won't right. It's the rest of the
details you need that seemed to be non existent. Des
also offered a helpful note about confusion over the side
of the entry wound on Jim's head. Where was his
is not learned. One of the news stories said that
he was shot behind the right ear. His wife told
(22:05):
me that somebody at the funeral and told her left,
which would be weird because he's right handed. Because I mean,
there's a lot of stuff it worked up about the
laughter the right unless you sawing on top side, report
on that, because you could have any entrance that would
look similar. Yeah, okay, that's good to know. As I
(22:30):
spoke with dozens of people over the past three years,
how was Christmas? Yeah, it's good, it's good. The lack
of detail here was still illuminating in its own way.
With an uncertain incident like Jim's death, What questions do
we choose to ask and what answers do we believe?
Those things say a lot about all of us. One
(22:53):
thing that helps conspiracy theories flourishes official action that seems
kind of half a not what it is that the
event itself deserves. This is Mark Finster. He's a professor
at the University of Florida and an expert on conspiracy theories.
I am the author of conspiracy Theories, Secrecy and Power
in American Culture and the Transparency thixed secrets, leaks, and
(23:16):
uncontrollable government information. For the moment, let's say the other
possible narratives about Jim's death are hypotheses that a group
of people took intentional steps to conceal dangerous actions. In short,
we'll call them conspiracy theories. We have compromition bias in
which we think and we seek out pieces of information
(23:39):
that fit into an existing scheme that we have and
the way we understand the world. Conspiracy theories, because they
are particularly heightened way of viewing the world, work the
same way. Carla di Se and Upton Bell could imagine
a confrontation in which Lieutenant Hinson acted if not reasonably,
may we try to come of him down. Maybe he
(24:01):
went for one of the guns or something like that,
at least understandably. You're in a tessa with somebody and
you're in a decision making moment. You don't really care
where you see. But Jim's brother, Elroy, did you watch
some football yesterday? Yeah? Hard wat football Most of the
(24:22):
time suspects a very different cause and effect the detective.
This gun shot Butch in the back of the head. Okay,
but Butch was fast enough and a six he's probably
as fast as he was gonna yeah, you know, and
I'm saying that there's no way unless he was behind
(24:45):
it just pulled shirt. I've seen no evidence that the
fifty two year old lieutenant executed Jim that morning, But
clearly for Elroy and much of the black population in Lancaster,
it seems plausible. The idea that whites thought that they
were inferior wasn't a conspiracy theory put into these damnable proposals.
(25:12):
There are conspiracies in the world, and so having a
theory of now that conspiracy is not necessarily irrational. It
might not even be wrong. Here's Spinster growing up in
the Jim Crow Souths and you're African American. There is
a conspiracy against you to try to prevent your economic success,
(25:39):
to try to prevent you from moving to particular neighborhoods,
to try to prevent you from going to particular schools.
So if you grew up in that era, then viewing
the world through a less like that is not necessarily parent.
You're viewing the world in the way in which the
world is treating m None of the other theories that
(26:06):
I heard about Jim's death seemed to reckon with his
likely depression, or the potential impacts of CTE, or the
possibility that he wanted to take his own life. But
one scandalous theory came up time and time again, and
it was something I could look into. No work at
the newspaper in Rockyoll, South Carolina. Was your dad, Russell Henton,
(26:28):
the police officer from Micaster, and on part seven of
Return Men, J. Duncan was You didn't question a lot
of those attitudes because it would be like questioning whether
the sun was going to come up in the east
in the morning or not. How we interact with people
(26:49):
depends on our perception of their social status. Mrs brad,
I've talked to you on the phone like a month
or two ago, right. I'm Brett McCormick. Return Man is
a production of The Herald McClatchy Studios and I Heart Radio.
(27:10):
It's produced by Matt Walsh, Kara Tabor Cotta, Stevens, Rachel Wise,
and Davin Coburn. The executive producer for I Heart 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.
(27:33):
To continue supporting this kind of work, visit Harold online
dot com slash Podcasts and consider a digital subscription. And
for more podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the I
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