Clarence Thompson

Case summary

Incident

In the early morning hours of Aug. 17, 1941, 44-year-old white city patrolman Morris Milner chased 36-year-old Black laborer and Louisiana native Clarence Joseph Thompson through New Orleans’ Central City neighborhood. According to both newspaper reports and the account of Thompson’s sister, Lillian Bailey, that morning Thompson was fleeing the scene of a fight at the intersection of South Rampart and Thalia streets.

David Marks, a 57-year old white patrolman, was off duty and asleep at his home on nearby Loyola Street. Marks’ daughter and son-in-law, who lived upstairs, later told police that they awoke to the sound of barking dogs. Ethel Messina, Marks’ 25-year-old daughter, said that she looked out the window and “saw a negro standing on the rear shed of my back yard adjoining my bed room.” She woke her father. Marks grabbed his service pistol and ran to the yard.

In a police report made later that day, Marks stated that he fired two warning shots in the air. The report continued that when Thompson “made a move as to try and make his escape,” Marks shot him in the chest. After the bullet hit Thompson, according to the report, he jumped off the shed and ran off through an alley.

Thompson collapsed in a yard on Clio Street. Charity Hospital staff arrived by ambulance at 5:30 a.m. and pronounced Thompson dead at the scene.

Aftermath

At the morgue, Orleans Parish Assistant Coroner Dr. Philip Montelepre performed an autopsy. He determined Thompson’s cause of death as “gunshot wound of chest over heart.” According to the police report, the only items found on Thompson’s body were his social security card and some pawnshop tickets.

Later that same day, police collected three witness statements at the second precinct station - one from Marks’ daughter, one from his son-in-law, and one from a 36-year-old Black maid named Flossie Curtis who lived on Saratoga Street.

Curtis told police that she awoke at 5 a.m. and discovered “a negro man standing in the room in the middle of the floor.” He fled through the window. A few minutes later, Curtis said, she heard someone yelling outside that a man had been killed. Curtis went over to Clio Street, later telling police she recognized the deceased person lying on the ground as the same man who had been in her room.

On Aug. 22, 1941, Bailey wrote to President Franklin D. Roosevelt and First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt about her brother’s killing. In her letter, Bailey stated that Thompson had not “committed any crime” and had been running from Milner because he was frightened. When Marks ran outside and called to her brother, Bailey wrote, Thompson dropped to his knees and raised his hands above his head. According to Bailey, two or three women yelled at Marks not to kill Thompson as Thompson was also “pleading” for Marks not to shoot. Marks fired anyway and, according to Bailey, walked over to Thompson, “kicked him over,” and said, “I know you will keep still now.”

Bailey also stated in her letter that Marks had been unsuccessful in soliciting anyone from the neighborhood to testify that Thompson had been involved in a robbery, explaining that people knew her brother through his employment with the Works Progress Administration’s city relief program. Bailey closed her letter by informing the Roosevelts that she was a widow, stating, “Clarence was my only Brother and support.”

T.D. Quinn, administrative assistant to the U.S. attorney general, responded to Bailey’s letter on Sept. 15. He wrote, “The case of which you write is governed by the state laws,” and therefore, “we can be of no assistance except to suggest that you take the matter up with your local prosecuting attorney for any action deemed advisable.”

On April 1, 1942, an Orleans Parish grand jury indicted Marks for Thompson’s killing. Charged with manslaughter, Marks was suspended from the police force pending the outcome of his trial.

Marks’ trial began in November. According to the Times-Picayune, defense attorney Edmund Burke argued that Marks shot Thompson when he refused to come down from the shed in Marks’ yard after trying to gain entry to the home through a bedroom window. The prosecution, the Times-Picayune reported, called several Black witnesses who testified that Thompson had his hands up at the time that Marks fired. Montelepre also testified, informing the jury that Thompson was “crouching” when Marks shot him.

On Nov. 24, 1942, a jury for the criminal district court deliberated for less than 15 minutes before finding Marks not guilty. Marks was reinstated as a patrolman two days later.

Several years later, on Dec. 27, 1948, Marks shot and killed 24-year-old Black New Orleans native Ernest Johnson during a grocery store robbery.

Bailey was 48 when she died in 1954. She was buried at Holt Cemetery in New Orleans.

Marks remained on the New Orleans police force until his retirement in 1951. He died in 1963 at age 80.

Media Gallery

Case summaries are compiled using government records and archival primary source material. These include, but are not limited to, investigative records, arrest reports, newspaper articles, court filings, census records, birth and death certificates, transcripts, and press releases. In many cases, the records contain contradictory assertions.

In addition to the incident files associated with this case, this summary relied on the following:

Sources

Archival Records

• Homicide Report: Clarence Thompson, New Orleans Police Department; Northeastern University Library, Boston, Massachusetts
• Veterans Administration Master Index; Record Group 15; Records of the Department of Veterans Affairs, 1773-2007; National Archives at St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri
• Witness Statements: Clarence Thompson, New Orleans Police Department; Northeastern University Library, Boston, Massachusetts

Genealogical Records

• Application for Military Headstone, Orleans Parish, Louisiana, United States, 1963
• Death Certificate, Orleans Parish, Louisiana, United States, 1941
• Population Schedule, Orleans Parish, Louisiana, United States Federal Census, 1920, 1940
• Population Schedule, St. Bernard Parish, Louisiana, United States Federal Census, 1930
• WWII Draft Registration Card, Louisiana, United States, 1940

Newspaper Articles

• “Burglary Suspect is Slain,” New Orleans Item (New Orleans, LA), December 27, 1948
• “Burglary Suspect Slain by Officer,” The Times-Picayune (New Orleans, LA), December 28, 1948
• “D.C. Marks, Ex-Police Officer, Dies,” New Orleans States-Item (New Orleans, LA), July 17, 1963
• “Fatal Shooting Charged by Jury Against Officer,” The Times-Picayune (New Orleans, LA), April 2, 1942
• “Healy Disciplines Three Policemen,” The Times-Picayune (New Orleans, LA), February 20, 1928
• “Marks, Acquitted in Slaying Case, Restored to Duty,” The Times-Picayune (New Orleans, LA), November 27, 1942
• “Negro, 24, Killed by N. O. Policeman,” The Town Talk (Alexandria, LA), December 27, 1948
• “Negro Subdued After Assault on Patrolman,” The Times-Picayune (New Orleans, LA), February 17, 1930
• “New Orleans Cop Who Slew Negro, Freed,” The Chicago Defender, December 5, 1942
• Obituary for Lillian Bailey, The Times-Picayune (New Orleans, LA), January 24, 1954
• “Patrolman Who Shot Prowler is Relieved of Duty,” The Times-Picayune (New Orleans, LA), April 3, 1942
• “Policeman Freed by Jury in Death of Roof-Climber,” The Times-Picayune (New Orleans, LA), November 26, 1942
• “Policeman Uses Bullet to Stop Attack of Negro,” The Times-Picayune (New Orleans, LA), April 9, 1930
• “Prowler Killed When He Invades Policeman’s Yard,” The Times-Picayune (New Orleans, LA), August 18, 1941
• “State Rests Its Case in Trial of Officer Marks,” The Times-Picayune (New Orleans, LA), November 25, 1942
• “Suspend Cop Who Killed La. Fugitive,” The Chicago Defender, April 11, 1942