Atmos Shaw
Atmos Shaw was a 42-year-old miner who lived in Shelby, Alabama. He and his wife, Cleosie Grisby, had three children.
Case summary
The federal records for this case, viewable on the Civil Rights Cold Cases Records portal, are limited. The following summary was compiled primarily from other sources, including those listed at the bottom.
Incident
According to information that Lieutenant Charles L. Pierce of the Birmingham Police Department provided to The Birmingham Post, Officer W.W. Gamble encountered Shaw at “Second-al and 18th-st n.” in the early morning hours of April 17, 1948. Gamble allegedly stopped Shaw to ask him about his bloody face and the contents of Shaw’s bag. According to Pierce, Shaw told Gamble the bag contained a white shirt. When Gamble opened the bag, he reportedly discovered a revolver.
Pierce told the newspaper that Shaw grabbed the gun, trying several times to fire it before fleeing the scene. Shaw ran into Officer Steve Widman at the intersection of Third Avenue and 18th Street. Widman “tackled” Shaw to the ground, at which point Shaw’s head allegedly hit “the base of a masonry building.” Widman took Shaw to police headquarters. Pierce told reporters that Shaw regained consciousness at the station and tried again to flee. After a “preliminary examination” determined “serious” head injury, Shaw was “rushed” to Jefferson Hillman Hospital. Pierce told reporters that at the hospital, Shaw attempted to attack a doctor with a concealed knife that police had failed to detect earlier.
Twenty-three hours after he was admitted to the hospital, Shaw died. The coroner determined Shaw’s cause of death as a fractured skull and “lacerations of face,” ruling that Shaw’s sustained injuries were “accidental.”
Aftermath
According to the information that Atmos Shaw’s sister, Daisy Jones, provided for his death certificate, Shaw was buried at Birdine Cemetery in Forkland, Greene County, Alabama.
Limited information exists about Widman and Gamble in the aftermath of Shaw’s death. A 1949 city directory for Birmingham confirms Widman as a “city police officer.”
Cleosie Thomas passed away in 1989 at 78 years old. According to a Birmingham News obituary, Thomas had been living in Chicago, Illinois for about 10 years prior to her death.
Case summaries are compiled from information contained in different sources, including, but not limited to, investigative records, arrest reports, 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
World War II Draft Registration Card, 1940
World War II Army Enlistment Record, 1941
U.S. Federal Census, 1910, 1920, 1930, 1940, and 1950
Greene County Marriage License Record, 1904
Jefferson County Marriage License Record, 1949
State of Alabama Death Certificate, 1948
Birmingham City Directory, 1949
U.S. Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1989
“Mishap Takes Life of Man, 21,” Repository (Canton, OH), January 28, 1954
“Canton Workman Dies in Accident,” The Evening Independent (Massillon, OH), January 28, 1954
Obituary for Lucy Shaw, Alabama Citizen (Tuscaloosa, AL), November 12, 1955
Obituary for Clese Thomas, Birmingham News, September 28, 1989
“Negro Dies After Battle with Police,” The Birmingham Post, April 19, 1948
“Terror Reign Sweeps Birmingham,” New Pittsburgh Courier, May 1, 1948
“Another Negro Killed by Police,” Birmingham World, April 23, 1948