Willie Ruth Mosley

Case summary

Incident

On the night of April 27, 1951, Dorothy Brooks and her niece, 17-year-old Willie Ruth Mosley, spent the evening drinking. Mosley, who was Black, stayed overnight with Brooks at her home in Gadsden, Alabama. Brooks told FBI agents that they woke up on April 28 around 8 a.m. and, while Brooks did not believe Mosley was drunk, she said that her niece had been “drinking rather heavily.” Around 8:30 a.m., Mosley told Brooks that she was going to go to their neighbor Jewel Hollis’ home to see her new baby. Brooks told the FBI that Mosley had a straight razor in her hand and she took it away from Mosley, as she believed Mosley was going to “start trouble,” because Mosley and Hollis had fought the day before.

Hollis told the FBI that when Mosley arrived at her house, Hollis’ 14-year-old son, Irvin, was on the porch holding her baby. Mosley was cursing and tried to take the baby, and then attempted to enter the house. Jewel Hollis stated that she asked Mosley to leave three or four times, but Mosley stayed and continued to curse. Hollis told the FBI she threatened to call the police and Mosley replied, “call the damn police.” After Hollis tried pushing Mosley outside, the two began to fight.

Brooks told the FBI she heard fighting coming from the Hollis home and ran over to the house. She found Mosley, Jewel Hollis, and Irvin Hollis on the floor, fighting. She leaned over to pull the Hollises off of Mosley, and told the FBI that when she did so, the straight razor fell out of her dress. She separated Mosley and “dragged” her back to the house, with Mosley “fighting her all the way to get away.” As soon as she let go, Mosley grabbed an icepick and ran back to the Hollis house, stating, “I’m going to kill that bitch if it’s the last thing I do.” Brooks started to chase Mosley but stopped when she heard gunshots. She did not witness any more of the incident.

Jewel Hollis also described Brooks appearing at the house and breaking up the fight. After Brooks and Mosley left the house, Jewel Hollis called the police. Several minutes later, she heard voices in her yard and heard an exchange between Mosley and the police. She did not witness the shooting firsthand.

Gadsden police officers Floyd H. Vinyard and Dewey M. Smith told FBI agents that they received a call around 9:30 a.m. to investigate a fight. Irvin Hollis and another witness told the FBI that Smith was in uniform and Vinyard was in plainclothes. The officers told FBI agents that when they arrived, a woman on the porch of the house said “Willie Ruth is in the back.” Smith went into the house and Vinyard walked around the house. Vinyard ran into Mosley carrying the icepick and told her to drop it. She said, “I ain’t dropping a damn thing” and kept walking toward Vinyard. In a signed statement, he said he asked her “three or four times” to drop the icepick and walked backwards. Mosley continued toward Vinyard and he shot her “in the leg to stop her.” She continued toward him and he shot two more times. Once she dropped the icepick “but didn’t fall down,” Smith and Vinyard “took hold of her” and “led her to the police car and laid her on the sidewalk,” where they called an ambulance and the chief of police. A witness in the neighborhood told the FBI that Vinyard called on the radio from the police car, “I’ve killed a Negro woman,” and asked for them to send an ambulance.

Mosley was admitted to Baptist Memorial Hospital in Gadsden at 9:30 a.m., per hospital records. According to Irene Noble, a nurse who tended to Mosely, Mosley was semi-conscious and incoherent while treated. Hospital records indicate Mosley was shot in the left breast and both thighs. She died at 12:25 p.m.

Family members told the press and the FBI that Mosley was three months pregnant. Noble told the FBI that the hospital did not make an examination for pregnancy but that she was “not visibly pregnant.” Dr. A.W. Graves reviewed his medical notes on Mosley with the FBI and said she “could have been pregnant but not visibly so.”

Aftermath

Mosley was buried on May 4, 1951 in Alabama City, Alabama.

On May 31, 1951, Clarence Mitchell, director of the NAACP Washington (D.C.) Bureau, wrote to the Department of Justice (DOJ) to pass along a request from the Alabama NAACP. He asked that the DOJ investigate the shooting; at the time of the letter, Mitchell was not sure if Mosley had survived the shooting or not. Assistant Attorney General James M. McInerney responded on June 20, acknowledging the letter and stating that the case was “receiving the attention of the Department.” That same day, McInerney wrote to the FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, requesting a preliminary investigation to determine whether a civil rights violation had occurred. The FBI produced a preliminary report on July 3 and a follow-up report on Aug. 29.

On July 6, 1951, the Gadsden Civil Service Board began a hearing of Vinyard’s case. They found him not guilty of “unlawfully and maliciously” killing Mosley. Coroner records provided to FBI agents reflected that the coroner “rendered a verdict of justifiable homicide with a probable motive of self-defense.”

The Etowah branch of the NAACP continued to lobby NAACP leadership over the summer to bring attention to Mosley’s case. Neighborhood residents pooled money to hire an attorney. According to a representative of the Etowah Branch, “the whole town of Gadsden is turned up over it.”

On Dec. 4, 1951, McInerney wrote two letters, one to U.S. Attorney of Alabama John D. Hill and Assistant U.S. Attorney George Huddleston Jr. and one to Mitchell to update the NAACP on the status of the case. He wrote Hill and Huddleston: “We concur in your recommendation that prosecution should be declined and are, therefore, closing the case without further action.” He informed Mitchell that they had conducted a “thorough investigation” that “does not indicate, in our opinion, that the incident involved a violation of Federal civil rights statutes.”

Vinyard died on Oct. 13, 1953 at 56.

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

Genealogical Records

• Alabama, United States, Deaths and Burials Index, 1951
• Death Certificates for Etowah County, Alabama, United States, 1951
• Population Schedule for Etowah County, Alabama, United States Federal Census, 1940
• Population Schedule for Etowah County, Alabama, United States Federal Census, 1950
• Population Schedule for Lamar County, Alabama, United States Federal Census, 1920

Newspaper Articles

• “Uphold Slaying of Expectant Mother,” Pittsburgh Courier (Pittsburg, PA), May 12, 1951
• “Woman Dies of Wounds Inflicted by Officer,” Gadsden Times (Gadsden, AL), April 30, 1951