February 23, 2021 • 33 mins
According to officials, Jim Duncan walked into the Lancaster Police Station on Oct. 20, 1972, and crossed the lobby in just a few steps. Without saying a word, authorities allege, he ripped the revolver from the holster on an unsuspecting officer's hip, stepped back, and shot himself in the head. But what sort of investigation was done after the fact? What sort of investigation could have been done — and should have been done?
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Long Shot is a production of McClatchy Studios and I
Heart Radio. Previously on Return Man, he made some kind
of thing with about I just never realized that having
so much money would create so many problems. When someone
(00:21):
was in they get altered state. Anyone who says that
they didn't know it, bullshit, Yes they did. I saw
him one day and the top to he Hi, my
name is Brett McCormick. I work at a newspaper in
South Carolina. Have you got some time to talk? Hey?
(00:50):
How are you? I'm Carlin second time, absolutely today the
Lancaster County Corner is Carlin Knight. Deee. Do you know
much about what I'm wanting to talk to you about?
I don't. Okay, Yeah, it's been a while, Okay, Yeah.
She was elected corner in We met at her office
(01:13):
in Lancaster and I'll show you. Oh wow, these were
our own books. These is the person I initially called
to find an autopsy report for Jim Duncan to see
what a medical professional might have determined about the former
Super Bowl hero who died of a gunshot inside the
Lancaster police station. Back when all sorts of records were
(01:33):
kept by hand that crazy. It's funny to watch, like
our your own kids come in and they'll do research
projects and they sit in the conference room deer in
the handlights because you can't recursive. I just was about
to say that surely I figured there had to have
been an autopsy done, except that after searching her records,
(01:55):
told me she couldn't find anything. Historically, Corners didn't really
have office, says, so I'm in this state still don't
and they would keep all their records in their home,
and somebody did have a house fire, so I'm going
to speak it like probably. Unfortunately, the year that you're
looking for, along with many other years, is missing, just
totally missing. Okay, there's another place where a lot of
(02:18):
them are archived, which is in our basement of the
county building records. There's not mini boxes there, but we
went through all of them. Nothing in that year, along
with several other in the seventies, which is totally non existing,
so we know nothing about it. It's no secret Jim
(02:38):
was in a fragile mental state when he died. The
combination of financial and career induced anxiety, possible drug abuse,
even a potential traumatic brain injury could have explained, the
twenty six year old taking his own life, but his
family and friends still have questions that linger to this day,
and the more I researched this story, the less confident
(02:59):
I became that law enforcement back Ino had even tried
to answer them. We try to fill every single gap
before we close a case. We have families come in
a lot with questions and we vet those answers out
for them right their own spot. That's our job, is
to serve these folks. There's a frame sign on Diesu's
(03:22):
desk intended for visitors, many of whom are seeing her
on the worst days of their lives. The sign says,
it is my duty to provide you with a fair
and accurate investigation. It is my honor to do so
with pride, honesty, and integrity. That's my saying right there.
I don't care who you are, where you come from,
(03:44):
or what your lifestyle has ended up being. Somebody somewhere
cares about you, and it is our job to provide
these answers to your surviving family and treat you equally
and fairly. Coming on in front of the goal post
at the two yard line, the duncan up to the
fifth dead it seemed clear to me that des prides
(04:06):
herself on Lancaster County offering transparency today that clearly hadn't
happened in Jim's case. That's the outside. If authorities had
done even basic things actions taken in almost all police investigations,
including many at the time, a suicide verdict might have
been accepted in Lancaster. If providing a full account of
(04:31):
Jim's death had been a primary goal for law enforcement,
then so many questions wouldn't have persisted for nearly fifty years.
So how come it wasn't from the Herald McClatchy Studios
and I Heart Radio. This is return man. I'm Brett McCormick,
and this is part five the Police Station m testing
(05:04):
the audio for the library in Lancashire, South Carolina. All Right,
who goes? I've spent countless hours in libraries and pouring
through university and newspaper archives trying to better understand what
happened in the police station and the events that followed.
Sens the skill that I don't think many millennials possess.
(05:28):
Manybody to use a microphone machine excuse okay, a councilor
often secondhand and as you'd expect, sometimes conflict. A few
official details come from one source law enforcement. Do you remember, um,
(05:48):
what was your job with the department that cold October morning?
The dispatcher behind the counter was a new trainee named
George Lloyd. Yeah, that were you, Okay, that was what
job was. Do you remember how the station was laid out?
I mean, was there like a front desk. We spoke
briefly by phone at his home outside Lancaster. He declined
(06:09):
to appear in this podcast, but he repeated to me
the official version of the story. Just um, and just
to be clear, So you were you were sitting at
the desk and he just walked right by you. According
to Lloyd, Lieutenant Henson had just arrived at the police station.
He was going through the mail, and Lloyd told me
Henson was leaning on the counter with his back to
(06:31):
the front door. Moments later, Jim entered the station. Okay,
and he just went right on past you. Lloyd told me. Quote,
this guy walks in and got about halfway across the floor.
I said, can I help you? And that's when he
reached and grabbed the lieutenant's gun and stepped back and
shot himself. He added, quote. The lieutenant turned and grabbed
(06:55):
him to try to stop him, but it was too late,
so it was in front of you. Got you okay,
so authorities said. Jim entered the police station, crossed the
reception area in a few steps, grabbed Hinson's revolver out
of the lieutenants holster, and shot himself in the head,
all before Red Hinson could even comprehend what was happening,
(07:17):
much less stop it. What was your reaction to what happened?
I mean, that's a pretty crazy thing to have happened
when I guess you had only been there a couple
of weeks, Lloyd told me, quote, I just ducked behind
the desk so he wouldn't shoot me. Soon after the shooting,
another police officer went to the liquor store where Ellery
worked to tell her Jim was hurt. The former football
(07:39):
player's body was taken to nearby Springs Hospital. There, he
was examined by the city corner named Richard Chandler because
he had to go. When you don't want somebody to die,
so he had to be there like Correx, so he
had to go. This is Billy Ray Crawford. He was
also there at the hospital that day Colbe and Rissell
(08:00):
was like that we were running together and stuff. He
wants somebody else to see it to be a window
since it was black and they called me if you
body shop and come up that being Lancaster's corner wasn't
exactly a full time job, and Richard Chandler spent most
of his time running an auto body repair shop in town.
Chandler died in two thousand nine. Crawford, who's now in
(08:23):
his eighties, was the only black employee at Chandler's repair shop,
and he'd even seen Jim a few times in the
month since the football player had come back to town. Yeah,
I've seen most every week ever. Old a week what
would you guys do? Then? Yeah? I heard he was
good at shooting pool, did you Yeah? Yeah, go to dinner,
(08:45):
potters and stuff. Everybody know what, right, you know, because
it was school right and everything. We hung out again
a lot. Did he seem the same as he had
been or didn't seemed different in anyway or he seemed
the same same. Yeah, that's what would make it weird
that he killed himself all of a sudden, right, right,
you know he was married, right, I don't think a
(09:08):
lot of people even were aware that he was right. Yeah,
I don't. I don't think you're the only one that
doesn't problem. Right right, That's what I've been told. Um,
you got a starlight, right right. Word of Jim's death
spread quickly in such a small town. A friend called
(09:30):
Elroy in Charlotte to tell him his brother had been shot.
Later that day, Eli called Alison Greenville. By the time
the coroner and Crawford got to the hospital, Jim's body
had been laid out on a table. He was still
dressed in what Crawford described to me as jogging clothes.
So you saw his body after he died, yeah, yeah,
(09:52):
we looked like a sail everybody. But he was just
laying there like your sleep. Well will be back after this.
Jim's body was prepared for burial at the McMullen Funeral
Home in Lancaster, on the east side of Main Street,
(10:13):
a few hundred feet down a correct asphalt road from
the St. Paul A m. E. Church. A service for
Jim was held at the church three days after his death.
So he found out the day that he died. How
quick did you get to Lancaster? Can't go right away?
Jim's funeral was the first day Alice had been back
(10:35):
to Lancaster. Yeah, you're so young. I don't know. Alice
declined to lend her voice to this podcast, but we
spoke for nearly four hours. I think you're part of
it is to me is like the most heartbreaking because
not only did you have this crazy event just like
explode your life, but then after you got my family too.
(10:55):
And I think that's part of the story. I mean,
because if you're thinking about how people have dealt with it,
you're not getting answers from anybody. She had spent the
past few days thunderstruck by a loss she couldn't understand.
Jim's family seemed to blame her for his career tales
spin and for Jim being back in Lancaster at all.
(11:16):
At the same time, Alice's family had been concerned for
her safety there. She told me, quote, when I went
to get information as to where his personal things were,
the police followed me every step of the way, everywhere
I went until I left the city. Friends, neighbors, and
(11:39):
Jim's old bar Street teammates paid their final respects to Butch.
The overflow crowd spilled onto the sidewalks. Sandy Gilliam, Jim's
high school and Maryland State coach, gave a eulogy, and
the church choir saying, what a friend we have in Jesus.
Jim was remembered as quote and admired citizen, loved and
(12:01):
respected by all, a beautiful person with an open mind
and friendliness to charm the world. Following the service, a
caravan of cars drove six miles down US to the
Salem A. M. E. Zion Church Cemetery in nearby Heath Springs.
(12:24):
Did you go to his funeral? Yes? Floyd White was
one of Jim's coaches at bar Street High School. Just
soldom if you don't gonna know, I don't think no,
go by to cap Hope and say anything enough not that,
but this is solid. As shock and disbelief wore off,
(12:45):
it was replaced by suspicion in the hearts and minds
of Jim's family and friends. The official story of Jim's
death has been clear for decades, but somehow there's little
official evidence for it. I'd read that Larie didn't either
body until a few days later, and that Alice so
didn't see it till a few days later. But that
had been normal for the way that he died. Well,
(13:07):
not really, no, no. Glenn Crawford was one of the
friends who played sandlot ball with Jim as a child,
and he worked at the funeral home where Jim's body
was prepared. I'm trying to think now, I don't even
know where they get an autopsy. I can't really think
what would be the order of operations, Like would it
have gone to like an autopsy, medical examiner and then
(13:28):
to you guys. Okay, we'll be the lands one. Yeah, yeah,
did you see his body? Yeah? What do you remember
about that? I can't discuss there it is it? Yeah, okay,
I was gonna say it's it's like a funeral director's code. Yeah,
I got you. Okay, you didn't work on it though,
did you? Oh? I will say, okay, well say it
(13:52):
would don here, but it wouldn't do what I wish
the lex question And in no time at all, Floyd
White told me. The swirling questions about what exactly happened
in that police station consumed Lancaster. They say he came
in and the author we had handsome nobody other than that,
(14:16):
your tempered, cool, good just revolved with and what you
try to see. But those from talk they say he
committed suicia, But they say after the funeral, Alice spoke
with Lancaster police about the incident in the very building
(14:36):
where Jim died. Alice was told by police that, as
unbelievable as it might have seemed, Jim grabbed Lieutenant Henson's
revolver with his right hand, raised the gun to his head,
and shot himself behind his right ear. Yet Alice insisted
to me that in a different conversation she had at
the time with Jim's mortician, the mortician told her Jim
(14:58):
had been shot behind his left year. She said to me, quote,
how can you shoot yourself on your left side when
you're right handed? Wow? Because a lot of the stories
said that he shot himself on right here, So why
would you pull it? Yeah, we're just about ready to
(15:23):
get the second half underway. The public called Jim Duncan.
In the days following Jim's death, anger grew in Lancaster
and the NFL community beyond well knowing Speedy about as
well as anyone outside of his family knew him. I'll
never believe that Bob Grant was Jim's best friend on
(15:45):
the Baltimore colts the story he grabbed one of the
policeman's guys and shot himself. I'll never believe that he
did that. Never one good is ming a duncan a
real threat. Eddie Hinton was the cultural receiver who faced
Jim every day in practice suicide with police good okay
(16:12):
back in, Lancaster Police Chief Larry Louer apparently kept control
over the investigation. He told reporters he was taking it
upon himself to handle the investigation into Jim's death personally.
That was unusual. Hypothetically, if that happens this day in time,
the agency, let's just say, if it did happen at
(16:34):
a police station, that agency backs out immediately. Sure Lancaster's
current corner Carla die. They're not involved in their own investigation.
Normally another agency will come in when we have something
that's that questionable. I actually have a forensic criminologist who
(16:54):
I retained. I would call her in at the beginning
before we ever remove the body. When you have something
like that, if you're not an expert in the area,
you need to seek out experts. Following Jim's death, Lancaster
police requested some help from sled the South Carolina State
(17:16):
Law Enforcement Division where it would be for a minute. Yes, okay,
I've got the file pulled up. Tom Barry was the
Freedom of Information Act coordinator at SLED when I began
researching this story. He has since retired. We did not
do investigation. We did lab work for the investigating agency,
(17:43):
so we did not independently investigate. There would have been
some kind of paperwork. When your request came in. We
literally went back to the card catalog for those old cases,
going back that far that we could not find anything
under the name James Duncan, Jim Duncan, Jimmy Duncan. We
(18:09):
didn't find anything related to those names in any of
the investigative files. Following Jim's death, Lancaster Police discovered a
water pipe in his car, which was parked a few
blocks away. The pipe was one of the things Lancaster
Police sent to sled's Columbia Crime Lab for analysis. There,
(18:30):
SLED performed three separate tests, and the results were written
in sloping cursive. Yeah, it looks like firearms, blood alcohol
at drug analysis. That much were certain of because Barry
sent me the grainy photocopied scans of those results. In
response to my FOYA request for that firearm test sled
(18:54):
analyze Lieutenant Russell Henson's gun and the plane lead bullet
recovered from the floor near Jim's body. The man who
performed that test a sled was Senior Agent f. Dan
de Frieze. All right, my name is Brett. I work
at the newspaper in rock Hill, and uh, I'm actually
looking at a sled lab report from two that signed
(19:15):
the Frieze, and I'm thinking that maybe you're the person
that did the test. I reached the Freeze at his
home outside Colombia and we spoke in broad terms. After
performing thousands of these tests in his career, the routine
analysis Lancaster Police requested didn't stand out. You're referring to
a compatibility test to determine, if possible, whether a particular
(19:39):
bullet was fired by a particular gun darrel, and that
is possible to do, and we did it an awful
lot of it. You know, I don't remember this case
at all. I have you know, don't know anything about
this case. You know, just just doesn't what you've told.
But you know, in such cases it would be very
common for us to confirm that bullet was hard by
(20:00):
the gun. According to SLEDS documentation, the Frieze found that yes,
the bullet that killed Jim was fired by Lieutenant Henson's
smith and Wesson. In the second test, Lancaster police wanted
to know Jim's be A or blood alcohol level at
the time of his death. That's to determine whether or
(20:21):
not he was drunk when he entered the police station,
and according to SLEDS analysis, the answer was no. It
appears Lancaster police also wanted Jim's blood checked for hard
drugs because quote plus heroin was written on that same
request for him Speedy developed problem addiction to heroin. No,
(20:43):
I never actually saw him do it, but I had
heard from our old teammates Speedy has this problem. But
sled couldn't test Jim's blood for drugs. At the bottom
of the report, a phrase was scribbled sample Q and
S for further analysis. Q and S means quantity not sufficient.
(21:03):
Carladze told me a Q and S is not unusual
and the gym's blood on the police station floor or
on his body was contaminated and not suitable for testing.
The final test was conducted on a water pipe police
found in Jim's car, which still had liquid in it.
The pipe tested positive for marijuana. One more question, would
(21:26):
um would Slant have had fingerprint capabilities into probably of
some type. Yes, okay. Tom Barry was the Freedom of
Information Act coordinator when I began researching this story. It
sounds like SLED tested things that the legas a p
D asked them to test. It appears that fingerprints were
(21:48):
not among those things they wanted tested. So yeah, that
was pretty much that was what was requested, and that's
what we did. So Lancaster Police requested three tests which
confirmed the pipe in Jim's car had once contained pot,
that he wasn't drunk when he entered the police station,
and that Lieutenant Henson's gun was the firearm that killed him.
(22:11):
But none of those tests clarified who fired Henson's gun
or why. In the aftermath of Jim's death, those were
the questions threatening to shatter the peace in Lancaster, everybody
got a little more cautious about a lot of things.
That's the way I see. Glenn Crawford grew up down
the street from Jim. They played sand lot football together
(22:33):
along with Thomas House. What things did you guys get
more unconscious about white police officers stopped. Yeah, and that
betwen of the time. You know, if you got stuffed,
you made shoot, you let them know that you and
on the glove or even when you got up downtown
and somebody knew where you would be cook if they didn't,
you know, you never know. You're looking at the thing
(22:55):
on TVM and JAH, you know, like down the Salem, Alabama.
People get dull. Yeah, it didn't never happened to you, right,
we believed through this. We've had to deal with this,
and he'd deal with it. Canday, we'll be back in
a moment. This is cool. They put um people's occupations
(23:25):
in the phone book, so this would be right there.
I love this. James E. Duncan pro ballplayer, Baltimore colts,
M hmm. Like there's Charlie Duke's He's the twelfth person
to walk on the moon. It's funny there. Unlike the
same page, Lancaster Police Chief Lour seems to have rejected
(23:50):
oversight by sled in favor of keeping the investigation of
Jim's death in house, So it's obviously important to understand
how his department approached that investor gaition. I'd hope to
ask Chief Our that myself. It was about the NFL
player that committed suicide in Lancaster, but he practically hung
up on me when I called, even if he didn't
(24:15):
want to talk. Now, I figured that Lowers report from
the time could speak for itself. Unfortunately there isn't one.
I reached out to Lancaster's current police chief, Scott Grant.
He arrived in Lancaster in the late nineties and didn't
know anything about Jim Duncan when I contacted him. Chief
Grant told me he asked a few employees to check
(24:36):
multiple record storage facilities, but they found nothing related to
Jim Duncan, no records of any kind. One news report
from nineteen seventy two said Chief Owers team had taken
photographs of Jim's body, so some sort of documentation might
have existed at some point, But the current police chief
told me the Lancaster p D moved in n to
(24:58):
a new building and the old one where Jim died
had been demolished, So Grant said it's possible those historic
records didn't survive the move, but that also means it's
impossible to verify what sort of investigation Chief our really
did after Jim's death. Well, let's be a little bit cautious.
(25:19):
Seth Stoughton is a professor at the University of South
Carolina Law School. Investigations into police shootings in the sixties
do not look like what should be investigations of police
shootings today. Unfortunately, there are at least some investigations of
police shootings even today that would have looked pretty normal
back in the sixties. That's not because the investigations in
the sixties were so good. That's because even today we
(25:40):
still have some pretty shoety investigations into officer involved shootings.
Stoughton said that in a case like this, it can
be easy to judge a small town police department by
today's big city standards. There were no video cameras in
the lobby of the Lancaster Police station in nine two,
much less amras on the bodies of the officers, unlike today.
(26:04):
They might not have been able to perform gunpowder residue
tests on people's hands, or analyze stipling, which is the
way gunpowder tattoos the area around a close contact gunshot wound,
or done a burned pattern analysis on Jim's body and clothes.
To know how close the gun was to him when
the bullet exploded from the barrel. Also the position and
(26:30):
angle of the wound. And this is something that I
would have expected them to have been able to identify. Uh,
it's not always possible to line up with perfect accuracy
the penetration pattern of a bullet, and thus to backtrack
that and say, okay, well the bullet penetrated here, then
it clearly came off at this angle. But we can
rule out certain things, right, We can say, okay, well
(26:52):
it definitely came from somewhere over here as opposed to
somewhere over here. Stowton was a police officer himself before
he became a lawyer. If they're examining this gunshot wound
and the person is right handed, but it's from over here,
then we have some questions. It's not impossible, but it
becomes a little bit more improbable when you start to
(27:13):
put together things like distance and angle. Then you can maybe,
and I'm emphasizing maybe, start to say this looks consistent
with or this does not look consistent with a self
inflicted gun John wind. But even being cognizant of standards
in the early seventies, it still seems like there are
(27:35):
some basic investigative steps that just weren't taken in Jim's case,
and that's coming from Chief Lour himself. Back in a
reporter asked him if the Lancaster p D had even
checked Lieutenant Henson's gun for fingerprints. Lour wasn't exactly clear.
He said, quote, I think that this would involve a
(27:56):
criminal matter, if that's what it's going to be at
a later date. And I don't see where we should
divulge any information of that sort. Pressed by the reporter
as to whether or not there would be a criminal
investigation at a later date, Lower replied, quote, Nope. Back
(28:17):
in the day, at a smaller agency, at a more
rural agency, at an agency that may not have been
leading the charge of police reform and professionalization, a lot
of ship happened that never got reported. Stoton hypothetical here
presumes for the moment the official account of Jim's death
is entirely accurate. In a case like this, if you
(28:39):
had anything, you might have a one line or one
paragraph right up in the watchlog. At oh three pm,
one man later identified as Jim Duncan entered attempted to
take an officer's firearm and shot himself. Period done. If
you had that, nobody's going to jail. The officer are
(29:00):
never gonna have to testify against anyone because the only
bad actor here, or so to speak, is the decedent.
Why bother. No autopsy was ever performed on Jem's body
or even requested by Chief Lour or the county corner
at the time, Richard Chandler. At the time, Chandler told
(29:21):
a reporter quote, I could see no value in having
an autopsy because there was no question as to the
cause of death. So we don't even have independent confirmation
that Duncan actually died from a single gunshot below and
behind his right ear. That's one thing that I've preached
our fate, and I said, what you don't understand is
(29:41):
where the huge freeproopers Carla die is Lancaster County's corner
now and forty years from now. Somebody needs to be
able to pull our stuff and it be for the
most part saying list. She stressed to me that over
the past fifty years, increased education, certification requirements, and record
keeping procedures have all raised the level of professionalism in
(30:03):
her department. You know, historically. I just I don't know
how people thought or what they did. I can just
tell you how it's transitioned and how we think and
what our policy is now. We have a standing policy
around here that if it is not a natural death,
that's an automatic autopsy. Every vehicle accident, every gunshot, every suicide. Sure,
(30:28):
you may have a vehicle accident where the person has
multiple blunt force injury. Sometimes we find out that somebody
had a heart attack going down the road, so that
changes the course because they actually died a natural death
from a heart attack, not from a wreck. You know.
Those sure things we need to figure out. There may
(30:48):
be some answers in there for the family, there may not,
but I'm going to try to provide that those are
exactly the things so many people wanted to know about
Jim's death in too and still do to this day.
There are some predictable possibilities to explain what happened. It
(31:09):
happened the way that the police waiter said it did,
and they acted appropriately in the aftermath. It happened the
way the police said it did, and they botched the aftermath.
It did not happen the way that the officers said
it did, and there is some ineptitude at best, or
active cover up at worst. We don't know. As I
(31:33):
looked into this case, I found myself more and more
confused by Lancaster Police at the time. If Jim had
died exactly the way authority said he did, why did
so many of their actions after the fact make it
seem like they could have been hiding something, Even putting
aside the humanity of providing closure for Jim's family and friends,
(31:54):
If all Lancaster Police had to do to settle any
speculation about their involvement in Jim's death was simply document
what happened, why wouldn't they have done it? At the time,
officers didn't feel the need to present an authoritative narrative
because their verbal explanations would be enough. At least it
(32:15):
would be enough for everyone who they cared about. Suddenly,
the relative tranquility of that old milltown blew apart at
the seams, and on part six of Return man looks
our hero right. They want to say we have the
police good and shot itself. But I don't believe this.
There are conspiracies in the world, and growing up in
(32:37):
the Jim Crows South, you're viewing the world in the
way in which the world is treated. Was quote room
capathit that come we held a capathitor would and we
have py bony house. It involves rates the mental state
of the person and a town that was scared to
death to say anything. I'm Brett McCormick. Return Man is
(32:59):
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 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,
(33:23):
email us at return Man at Harold online dot com.
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 Man, he made some kind
of thing with about I just never realized that having
so much money would create so many problems. When someone
(00:21):
was in they get altered state. Anyone who says that
they didn't know it, bullshit, Yes they did. I saw
him one day and the top to he Hi, my
name is Brett McCormick. I work at a newspaper in
South Carolina. Have you got some time to talk? Hey?
(00:50):
How are you? I'm Carlin second time, absolutely today the
Lancaster County Corner is Carlin Knight. Deee. Do you know
much about what I'm wanting to talk to you about?
I don't. Okay, Yeah, it's been a while, Okay, Yeah.
She was elected corner in We met at her office
(01:13):
in Lancaster and I'll show you. Oh wow, these were
our own books. These is the person I initially called
to find an autopsy report for Jim Duncan to see
what a medical professional might have determined about the former
Super Bowl hero who died of a gunshot inside the
Lancaster police station. Back when all sorts of records were
(01:33):
kept by hand that crazy. It's funny to watch, like
our your own kids come in and they'll do research
projects and they sit in the conference room deer in
the handlights because you can't recursive. I just was about
to say that surely I figured there had to have
been an autopsy done, except that after searching her records,
(01:55):
told me she couldn't find anything. Historically, Corners didn't really
have office, says, so I'm in this state still don't
and they would keep all their records in their home,
and somebody did have a house fire, so I'm going
to speak it like probably. Unfortunately, the year that you're
looking for, along with many other years, is missing, just
totally missing. Okay, there's another place where a lot of
(02:18):
them are archived, which is in our basement of the
county building records. There's not mini boxes there, but we
went through all of them. Nothing in that year, along
with several other in the seventies, which is totally non existing,
so we know nothing about it. It's no secret Jim
(02:38):
was in a fragile mental state when he died. The
combination of financial and career induced anxiety, possible drug abuse,
even a potential traumatic brain injury could have explained, the
twenty six year old taking his own life, but his
family and friends still have questions that linger to this day,
and the more I researched this story, the less confident
(02:59):
I became that law enforcement back Ino had even tried
to answer them. We try to fill every single gap
before we close a case. We have families come in
a lot with questions and we vet those answers out
for them right their own spot. That's our job, is
to serve these folks. There's a frame sign on Diesu's
(03:22):
desk intended for visitors, many of whom are seeing her
on the worst days of their lives. The sign says,
it is my duty to provide you with a fair
and accurate investigation. It is my honor to do so
with pride, honesty, and integrity. That's my saying right there.
I don't care who you are, where you come from,
(03:44):
or what your lifestyle has ended up being. Somebody somewhere
cares about you, and it is our job to provide
these answers to your surviving family and treat you equally
and fairly. Coming on in front of the goal post
at the two yard line, the duncan up to the
fifth dead it seemed clear to me that des prides
(04:06):
herself on Lancaster County offering transparency today that clearly hadn't
happened in Jim's case. That's the outside. If authorities had
done even basic things actions taken in almost all police investigations,
including many at the time, a suicide verdict might have
been accepted in Lancaster. If providing a full account of
(04:31):
Jim's death had been a primary goal for law enforcement,
then so many questions wouldn't have persisted for nearly fifty years.
So how come it wasn't from the Herald McClatchy Studios
and I Heart Radio. This is return man. I'm Brett McCormick,
and this is part five the Police Station m testing
(05:04):
the audio for the library in Lancashire, South Carolina. All Right,
who goes? I've spent countless hours in libraries and pouring
through university and newspaper archives trying to better understand what
happened in the police station and the events that followed.
Sens the skill that I don't think many millennials possess.
(05:28):
Manybody to use a microphone machine excuse okay, a councilor
often secondhand and as you'd expect, sometimes conflict. A few
official details come from one source law enforcement. Do you remember, um,
(05:48):
what was your job with the department that cold October morning?
The dispatcher behind the counter was a new trainee named
George Lloyd. Yeah, that were you, Okay, that was what
job was. Do you remember how the station was laid out?
I mean, was there like a front desk. We spoke
briefly by phone at his home outside Lancaster. He declined
(06:09):
to appear in this podcast, but he repeated to me
the official version of the story. Just um, and just
to be clear, So you were you were sitting at
the desk and he just walked right by you. According
to Lloyd, Lieutenant Henson had just arrived at the police station.
He was going through the mail, and Lloyd told me
Henson was leaning on the counter with his back to
(06:31):
the front door. Moments later, Jim entered the station. Okay,
and he just went right on past you. Lloyd told me. Quote,
this guy walks in and got about halfway across the floor.
I said, can I help you? And that's when he
reached and grabbed the lieutenant's gun and stepped back and
shot himself. He added, quote. The lieutenant turned and grabbed
(06:55):
him to try to stop him, but it was too late,
so it was in front of you. Got you okay,
so authorities said. Jim entered the police station, crossed the
reception area in a few steps, grabbed Hinson's revolver out
of the lieutenants holster, and shot himself in the head,
all before Red Hinson could even comprehend what was happening,
(07:17):
much less stop it. What was your reaction to what happened?
I mean, that's a pretty crazy thing to have happened
when I guess you had only been there a couple
of weeks, Lloyd told me, quote, I just ducked behind
the desk so he wouldn't shoot me. Soon after the shooting,
another police officer went to the liquor store where Ellery
worked to tell her Jim was hurt. The former football
(07:39):
player's body was taken to nearby Springs Hospital. There, he
was examined by the city corner named Richard Chandler because
he had to go. When you don't want somebody to die,
so he had to be there like Correx, so he
had to go. This is Billy Ray Crawford. He was
also there at the hospital that day Colbe and Rissell
(08:00):
was like that we were running together and stuff. He
wants somebody else to see it to be a window
since it was black and they called me if you
body shop and come up that being Lancaster's corner wasn't
exactly a full time job, and Richard Chandler spent most
of his time running an auto body repair shop in town.
Chandler died in two thousand nine. Crawford, who's now in
(08:23):
his eighties, was the only black employee at Chandler's repair shop,
and he'd even seen Jim a few times in the
month since the football player had come back to town. Yeah,
I've seen most every week ever. Old a week what
would you guys do? Then? Yeah? I heard he was
good at shooting pool, did you Yeah? Yeah, go to dinner,
(08:45):
potters and stuff. Everybody know what, right, you know, because
it was school right and everything. We hung out again
a lot. Did he seem the same as he had
been or didn't seemed different in anyway or he seemed
the same same. Yeah, that's what would make it weird
that he killed himself all of a sudden, right, right,
you know he was married, right, I don't think a
(09:08):
lot of people even were aware that he was right. Yeah,
I don't. I don't think you're the only one that
doesn't problem. Right right, That's what I've been told. Um,
you got a starlight, right right. Word of Jim's death
spread quickly in such a small town. A friend called
(09:30):
Elroy in Charlotte to tell him his brother had been shot.
Later that day, Eli called Alison Greenville. By the time
the coroner and Crawford got to the hospital, Jim's body
had been laid out on a table. He was still
dressed in what Crawford described to me as jogging clothes.
So you saw his body after he died, yeah, yeah,
(09:52):
we looked like a sail everybody. But he was just
laying there like your sleep. Well will be back after this.
Jim's body was prepared for burial at the McMullen Funeral
Home in Lancaster, on the east side of Main Street,
(10:13):
a few hundred feet down a correct asphalt road from
the St. Paul A m. E. Church. A service for
Jim was held at the church three days after his death.
So he found out the day that he died. How
quick did you get to Lancaster? Can't go right away?
Jim's funeral was the first day Alice had been back
(10:35):
to Lancaster. Yeah, you're so young. I don't know. Alice
declined to lend her voice to this podcast, but we
spoke for nearly four hours. I think you're part of
it is to me is like the most heartbreaking because
not only did you have this crazy event just like
explode your life, but then after you got my family too.
(10:55):
And I think that's part of the story. I mean,
because if you're thinking about how people have dealt with it,
you're not getting answers from anybody. She had spent the
past few days thunderstruck by a loss she couldn't understand.
Jim's family seemed to blame her for his career tales
spin and for Jim being back in Lancaster at all.
(11:16):
At the same time, Alice's family had been concerned for
her safety there. She told me, quote, when I went
to get information as to where his personal things were,
the police followed me every step of the way, everywhere
I went until I left the city. Friends, neighbors, and
(11:39):
Jim's old bar Street teammates paid their final respects to Butch.
The overflow crowd spilled onto the sidewalks. Sandy Gilliam, Jim's
high school and Maryland State coach, gave a eulogy, and
the church choir saying, what a friend we have in Jesus.
Jim was remembered as quote and admired citizen, loved and
(12:01):
respected by all, a beautiful person with an open mind
and friendliness to charm the world. Following the service, a
caravan of cars drove six miles down US to the
Salem A. M. E. Zion Church Cemetery in nearby Heath Springs.
(12:24):
Did you go to his funeral? Yes? Floyd White was
one of Jim's coaches at bar Street High School. Just
soldom if you don't gonna know, I don't think no,
go by to cap Hope and say anything enough not that,
but this is solid. As shock and disbelief wore off,
(12:45):
it was replaced by suspicion in the hearts and minds
of Jim's family and friends. The official story of Jim's
death has been clear for decades, but somehow there's little
official evidence for it. I'd read that Larie didn't either
body until a few days later, and that Alice so
didn't see it till a few days later. But that
had been normal for the way that he died. Well,
(13:07):
not really, no, no. Glenn Crawford was one of the
friends who played sandlot ball with Jim as a child,
and he worked at the funeral home where Jim's body
was prepared. I'm trying to think now, I don't even
know where they get an autopsy. I can't really think
what would be the order of operations, Like would it
have gone to like an autopsy, medical examiner and then
(13:28):
to you guys. Okay, we'll be the lands one. Yeah, yeah,
did you see his body? Yeah? What do you remember
about that? I can't discuss there it is it? Yeah, okay,
I was gonna say it's it's like a funeral director's code. Yeah,
I got you. Okay, you didn't work on it though,
did you? Oh? I will say, okay, well say it
(13:52):
would don here, but it wouldn't do what I wish
the lex question And in no time at all, Floyd
White told me. The swirling questions about what exactly happened
in that police station consumed Lancaster. They say he came
in and the author we had handsome nobody other than that,
(14:16):
your tempered, cool, good just revolved with and what you
try to see. But those from talk they say he
committed suicia, But they say after the funeral, Alice spoke
with Lancaster police about the incident in the very building
(14:36):
where Jim died. Alice was told by police that, as
unbelievable as it might have seemed, Jim grabbed Lieutenant Henson's
revolver with his right hand, raised the gun to his head,
and shot himself behind his right ear. Yet Alice insisted
to me that in a different conversation she had at
the time with Jim's mortician, the mortician told her Jim
(14:58):
had been shot behind his left year. She said to me, quote,
how can you shoot yourself on your left side when
you're right handed? Wow? Because a lot of the stories
said that he shot himself on right here, So why
would you pull it? Yeah, we're just about ready to
(15:23):
get the second half underway. The public called Jim Duncan.
In the days following Jim's death, anger grew in Lancaster
and the NFL community beyond well knowing Speedy about as
well as anyone outside of his family knew him. I'll
never believe that Bob Grant was Jim's best friend on
(15:45):
the Baltimore colts the story he grabbed one of the
policeman's guys and shot himself. I'll never believe that he
did that. Never one good is ming a duncan a
real threat. Eddie Hinton was the cultural receiver who faced
Jim every day in practice suicide with police good okay
(16:12):
back in, Lancaster Police Chief Larry Louer apparently kept control
over the investigation. He told reporters he was taking it
upon himself to handle the investigation into Jim's death personally.
That was unusual. Hypothetically, if that happens this day in time,
the agency, let's just say, if it did happen at
(16:34):
a police station, that agency backs out immediately. Sure Lancaster's
current corner Carla die. They're not involved in their own investigation.
Normally another agency will come in when we have something
that's that questionable. I actually have a forensic criminologist who
(16:54):
I retained. I would call her in at the beginning
before we ever remove the body. When you have something
like that, if you're not an expert in the area,
you need to seek out experts. Following Jim's death, Lancaster
police requested some help from sled the South Carolina State
(17:16):
Law Enforcement Division where it would be for a minute. Yes, okay,
I've got the file pulled up. Tom Barry was the
Freedom of Information Act coordinator at SLED when I began
researching this story. He has since retired. We did not
do investigation. We did lab work for the investigating agency,
(17:43):
so we did not independently investigate. There would have been
some kind of paperwork. When your request came in. We
literally went back to the card catalog for those old cases,
going back that far that we could not find anything
under the name James Duncan, Jim Duncan, Jimmy Duncan. We
(18:09):
didn't find anything related to those names in any of
the investigative files. Following Jim's death, Lancaster Police discovered a
water pipe in his car, which was parked a few
blocks away. The pipe was one of the things Lancaster
Police sent to sled's Columbia Crime Lab for analysis. There,
(18:30):
SLED performed three separate tests, and the results were written
in sloping cursive. Yeah, it looks like firearms, blood alcohol
at drug analysis. That much were certain of because Barry
sent me the grainy photocopied scans of those results. In
response to my FOYA request for that firearm test sled
(18:54):
analyze Lieutenant Russell Henson's gun and the plane lead bullet
recovered from the floor near Jim's body. The man who
performed that test a sled was Senior Agent f. Dan
de Frieze. All right, my name is Brett. I work
at the newspaper in rock Hill, and uh, I'm actually
looking at a sled lab report from two that signed
(19:15):
the Frieze, and I'm thinking that maybe you're the person
that did the test. I reached the Freeze at his
home outside Colombia and we spoke in broad terms. After
performing thousands of these tests in his career, the routine
analysis Lancaster Police requested didn't stand out. You're referring to
a compatibility test to determine, if possible, whether a particular
(19:39):
bullet was fired by a particular gun darrel, and that
is possible to do, and we did it an awful
lot of it. You know, I don't remember this case
at all. I have you know, don't know anything about
this case. You know, just just doesn't what you've told.
But you know, in such cases it would be very
common for us to confirm that bullet was hard by
(20:00):
the gun. According to SLEDS documentation, the Frieze found that yes,
the bullet that killed Jim was fired by Lieutenant Henson's
smith and Wesson. In the second test, Lancaster police wanted
to know Jim's be A or blood alcohol level at
the time of his death. That's to determine whether or
(20:21):
not he was drunk when he entered the police station,
and according to SLEDS analysis, the answer was no. It
appears Lancaster police also wanted Jim's blood checked for hard
drugs because quote plus heroin was written on that same
request for him Speedy developed problem addiction to heroin. No,
(20:43):
I never actually saw him do it, but I had
heard from our old teammates Speedy has this problem. But
sled couldn't test Jim's blood for drugs. At the bottom
of the report, a phrase was scribbled sample Q and
S for further analysis. Q and S means quantity not sufficient.
(21:03):
Carladze told me a Q and S is not unusual
and the gym's blood on the police station floor or
on his body was contaminated and not suitable for testing.
The final test was conducted on a water pipe police
found in Jim's car, which still had liquid in it.
The pipe tested positive for marijuana. One more question, would
(21:26):
um would Slant have had fingerprint capabilities into probably of
some type. Yes, okay. Tom Barry was the Freedom of
Information Act coordinator when I began researching this story. It
sounds like SLED tested things that the legas a p
D asked them to test. It appears that fingerprints were
(21:48):
not among those things they wanted tested. So yeah, that
was pretty much that was what was requested, and that's
what we did. So Lancaster Police requested three tests which
confirmed the pipe in Jim's car had once contained pot,
that he wasn't drunk when he entered the police station,
and that Lieutenant Henson's gun was the firearm that killed him.
(22:11):
But none of those tests clarified who fired Henson's gun
or why. In the aftermath of Jim's death, those were
the questions threatening to shatter the peace in Lancaster, everybody
got a little more cautious about a lot of things.
That's the way I see. Glenn Crawford grew up down
the street from Jim. They played sand lot football together
(22:33):
along with Thomas House. What things did you guys get
more unconscious about white police officers stopped. Yeah, and that
betwen of the time. You know, if you got stuffed,
you made shoot, you let them know that you and
on the glove or even when you got up downtown
and somebody knew where you would be cook if they didn't,
you know, you never know. You're looking at the thing
(22:55):
on TVM and JAH, you know, like down the Salem, Alabama.
People get dull. Yeah, it didn't never happened to you, right,
we believed through this. We've had to deal with this,
and he'd deal with it. Canday, we'll be back in
a moment. This is cool. They put um people's occupations
(23:25):
in the phone book, so this would be right there.
I love this. James E. Duncan pro ballplayer, Baltimore colts,
M hmm. Like there's Charlie Duke's He's the twelfth person
to walk on the moon. It's funny there. Unlike the
same page, Lancaster Police Chief Lour seems to have rejected
(23:50):
oversight by sled in favor of keeping the investigation of
Jim's death in house, So it's obviously important to understand
how his department approached that investor gaition. I'd hope to
ask Chief Our that myself. It was about the NFL
player that committed suicide in Lancaster, but he practically hung
up on me when I called, even if he didn't
(24:15):
want to talk. Now, I figured that Lowers report from
the time could speak for itself. Unfortunately there isn't one.
I reached out to Lancaster's current police chief, Scott Grant.
He arrived in Lancaster in the late nineties and didn't
know anything about Jim Duncan when I contacted him. Chief
Grant told me he asked a few employees to check
(24:36):
multiple record storage facilities, but they found nothing related to
Jim Duncan, no records of any kind. One news report
from nineteen seventy two said Chief Owers team had taken
photographs of Jim's body, so some sort of documentation might
have existed at some point, But the current police chief
told me the Lancaster p D moved in n to
(24:58):
a new building and the old one where Jim died
had been demolished, So Grant said it's possible those historic
records didn't survive the move, but that also means it's
impossible to verify what sort of investigation Chief our really
did after Jim's death. Well, let's be a little bit cautious.
(25:19):
Seth Stoughton is a professor at the University of South
Carolina Law School. Investigations into police shootings in the sixties
do not look like what should be investigations of police
shootings today. Unfortunately, there are at least some investigations of
police shootings even today that would have looked pretty normal
back in the sixties. That's not because the investigations in
the sixties were so good. That's because even today we
(25:40):
still have some pretty shoety investigations into officer involved shootings.
Stoughton said that in a case like this, it can
be easy to judge a small town police department by
today's big city standards. There were no video cameras in
the lobby of the Lancaster Police station in nine two,
much less amras on the bodies of the officers, unlike today.
(26:04):
They might not have been able to perform gunpowder residue
tests on people's hands, or analyze stipling, which is the
way gunpowder tattoos the area around a close contact gunshot wound,
or done a burned pattern analysis on Jim's body and clothes.
To know how close the gun was to him when
the bullet exploded from the barrel. Also the position and
(26:30):
angle of the wound. And this is something that I
would have expected them to have been able to identify. Uh,
it's not always possible to line up with perfect accuracy
the penetration pattern of a bullet, and thus to backtrack
that and say, okay, well the bullet penetrated here, then
it clearly came off at this angle. But we can
rule out certain things, right, We can say, okay, well
(26:52):
it definitely came from somewhere over here as opposed to
somewhere over here. Stowton was a police officer himself before
he became a lawyer. If they're examining this gunshot wound
and the person is right handed, but it's from over here,
then we have some questions. It's not impossible, but it
becomes a little bit more improbable when you start to
(27:13):
put together things like distance and angle. Then you can maybe,
and I'm emphasizing maybe, start to say this looks consistent
with or this does not look consistent with a self
inflicted gun John wind. But even being cognizant of standards
in the early seventies, it still seems like there are
(27:35):
some basic investigative steps that just weren't taken in Jim's case,
and that's coming from Chief Lour himself. Back in a
reporter asked him if the Lancaster p D had even
checked Lieutenant Henson's gun for fingerprints. Lour wasn't exactly clear.
He said, quote, I think that this would involve a
(27:56):
criminal matter, if that's what it's going to be at
a later date. And I don't see where we should
divulge any information of that sort. Pressed by the reporter
as to whether or not there would be a criminal
investigation at a later date, Lower replied, quote, Nope. Back
(28:17):
in the day, at a smaller agency, at a more
rural agency, at an agency that may not have been
leading the charge of police reform and professionalization, a lot
of ship happened that never got reported. Stoton hypothetical here
presumes for the moment the official account of Jim's death
is entirely accurate. In a case like this, if you
(28:39):
had anything, you might have a one line or one
paragraph right up in the watchlog. At oh three pm,
one man later identified as Jim Duncan entered attempted to
take an officer's firearm and shot himself. Period done. If
you had that, nobody's going to jail. The officer are
(29:00):
never gonna have to testify against anyone because the only
bad actor here, or so to speak, is the decedent.
Why bother. No autopsy was ever performed on Jem's body
or even requested by Chief Lour or the county corner
at the time, Richard Chandler. At the time, Chandler told
(29:21):
a reporter quote, I could see no value in having
an autopsy because there was no question as to the
cause of death. So we don't even have independent confirmation
that Duncan actually died from a single gunshot below and
behind his right ear. That's one thing that I've preached
our fate, and I said, what you don't understand is
(29:41):
where the huge freeproopers Carla die is Lancaster County's corner
now and forty years from now. Somebody needs to be
able to pull our stuff and it be for the
most part saying list. She stressed to me that over
the past fifty years, increased education, certification requirements, and record
keeping procedures have all raised the level of professionalism in
(30:03):
her department. You know, historically. I just I don't know
how people thought or what they did. I can just
tell you how it's transitioned and how we think and
what our policy is now. We have a standing policy
around here that if it is not a natural death,
that's an automatic autopsy. Every vehicle accident, every gunshot, every suicide. Sure,
(30:28):
you may have a vehicle accident where the person has
multiple blunt force injury. Sometimes we find out that somebody
had a heart attack going down the road, so that
changes the course because they actually died a natural death
from a heart attack, not from a wreck. You know.
Those sure things we need to figure out. There may
(30:48):
be some answers in there for the family, there may not,
but I'm going to try to provide that those are
exactly the things so many people wanted to know about
Jim's death in too and still do to this day.
There are some predictable possibilities to explain what happened. It
(31:09):
happened the way that the police waiter said it did,
and they acted appropriately in the aftermath. It happened the
way the police said it did, and they botched the aftermath.
It did not happen the way that the officers said
it did, and there is some ineptitude at best, or
active cover up at worst. We don't know. As I
(31:33):
looked into this case, I found myself more and more
confused by Lancaster Police at the time. If Jim had
died exactly the way authority said he did, why did
so many of their actions after the fact make it
seem like they could have been hiding something, Even putting
aside the humanity of providing closure for Jim's family and friends,
(31:54):
If all Lancaster Police had to do to settle any
speculation about their involvement in Jim's death was simply document
what happened, why wouldn't they have done it? At the time,
officers didn't feel the need to present an authoritative narrative
because their verbal explanations would be enough. At least it
(32:15):
would be enough for everyone who they cared about. Suddenly,
the relative tranquility of that old milltown blew apart at
the seams, and on part six of Return man looks
our hero right. They want to say we have the
police good and shot itself. But I don't believe this.
There are conspiracies in the world, and growing up in
(32:37):
the Jim Crows South, you're viewing the world in the
way in which the world is treated. Was quote room
capathit that come we held a capathitor would and we
have py bony house. It involves rates the mental state
of the person and a town that was scared to
death to say anything. I'm Brett McCormick. Return Man is
(32:59):
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 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,
(33:23):
email us at return Man at Harold online dot com.
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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