Willie Gunn

Case summary

Incident

In November 1954, a white man named Bennie F. Head reported to the Detroit, Michigan branch of the FBI that he had witnessed the May 1952 killing of a Black incarcerated man named Willie Gunn. Head, who told agents that he was formerly incarcerated at the Georgia State Prison in Reidsville, Georgia before escaping around March 1953, was then living at the Detroit City Rescue Mission. A reverend at the mission heard Head’s story and encouraged him to tell the FBI.

Head said part of his sentence was spent at a prison road camp near McRae, Georgia. One of the other men incarcerated with him at the camp was Gunn, who was about 30 years old. One day around May 1952, Gunn got into an argument with one of the guards, who put Gunn in a small structure used for solitary confinement.

Around 9 that night, Head saw Dan Johnson, warden of the State Highway Camp, and James Davis, a guard, enter the “solitary shed” where Gunn was held. He said he could not see into the building but heard Johnson and Davis cursing at Gunn and hitting him with “what sounded like someone being hit with a blackjack.” Head did not hear anything “to indicate any defense on the part of Gunn.” Then Davis heard a gunshot. Johnson and Davis left the shed and Head heard one of them say, “That will hold him for a while.”

Later that night, around 11, Head saw Johnson and Davis take two Black incarcerated men away from the camp in a pickup truck. After Head fell asleep, another man named Charlie Bonner awakened him and told him the men had returned. Head watched out the window as Davis, Johnson, and the two men they had taken earlier removed Gunn’s body from the building. Head told the FBI he thought at the time that they were taking Gunn to a doctor.

Roughly two weeks later, Head discussed the incident with a man named Junior Shoemaker, one of the Black men who was with Johnson and Davis that night. Head told agents that Shoemaker told him, “They killed Willie and made us dig a grave,” adding that Gunn was dead when they removed him from the building. Shoemaker showed Head where they buried Gunn and Head described the location relative to the prison camp to the FBI. Head later asked an incarcerated man who worked in the records room what happened to Gunn, and the man told him that Gunn had been reported as an escapee.

Aftermath

After speaking with Head, the Detroit FBI identified a Willie Gunn who escaped from a Georgia prison in 1948. When the FBI showed his photo to Head, he stated that he knew the individual but “this was not the Willie Gunn he was talking about.”

On Dec. 7, 1954, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover sent a telegram to the Savannah and Atlanta FBI offices regarding the Gunn case that stated, “In view of fact that State Board of Corrections does not allow inmates to be interviewed outside presence of guards no civil rights investigation should be instituted.”

On Dec. 10, 1954, the Atlanta FBI office furnished a report by Special Agent Frank R. Southerland stating that the FBI was unable to find a record of a Willie Gunn who was sent to the Prison Work Camp in McRae, Georgia. They spoke to J.B. Hatchett, assistant director of the State Board of Corrections, who told them, “no Negro prisoner ever shot or killed at PWC, McRae, GA to his knowledge.” They also located Head’s records. Hatchett told the FBI that Head “had been an extreme custodial problem during the time he served for the State of Georgia.”

On Dec. 16, 1954, Hoover sent a copy of the Detroit FBI report to Warren Olney III, assistant attorney general of the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice (DOJ), and asked if the DOJ wanted further investigation. The Savannah FBI office also produced a report on Dec. 16, 1954. They interviewed J.B. Browning, captain of the Guard at Georgia State Prison, and Johnnie W. Robertson of the Georgia State Patrol, neither of whom had records of a Willie Gunn marked as an escapee. In a Jan. 6, 1955, letter, Olney told Hoover that the DOJ did not require further investigation. That same day, Olney wrote William C. Calhoun, U.S. attorney in Savannah, Georgia, that the DOJ was closing the case.

On Feb. 11, 1955, the FBI Detroit office followed up with a report after Head shared his experience with a newspaper reporter. The report stated that the FBI consulted with Chief Assistant United States Attorney George Woods about potentially prosecuting Head for “furnishing information which appears to be unfounded.” Woods declined to prosecute and “stated that Head’s living in a rescue mission and telling such a story indicated to him that Head was possibly not mentally competent to take into Federal Court.”

The Georgia Central Register of Convicts, as well as newspaper articles, identify many individuals named Willie Gunn who were incarcerated in Georgia in the 1950s. It is uncertain if any of these individuals were the man to whom Head referred.

Dan Johnson, the state highway camp warden, was the subject of several additional DOJ civil rights investigations, each connected to complaints of abuse of people incarcerated under his watch. None of the cases resulted in prosecution. Johnson worked for the State Board of Corrections for 35 years and died at 71 on Feb. 13, 1970.

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

• Population Schedule for Atlanta, Georgia, United States Federal Census, 1940
• Population Schedule for Jefferson, Alabama, United States Federal Census, 1930
• Population Schedule for Wayne County, Georgia, United States Federal Census, 1950
• Georgia, United States Central Register of Convicts, 1817-1976, Georgia State Archives

Newspaper Articles

• “2 Kidnap-Robbery Suspects Held at Decatur,” Atlanta Journal, October 20, 1937
• “Bandit Retaken; Pals Still A.W.O.L.,” Atlanta Constitution, April 14, 1938
• “Label Lingers on State Jails,” Columbus Ledger (Columbus, GA), August 26, 1956
• “Three Prisoners Flee DeKalb Jail; One Caught Here,” Atlanta Journal, April 13, 1938
• “Two Youths Jailed in 3 Rob-Ride Cases,” Atlanta Constitution, October 21, 1937
• “Visitor to Quarry Charges ‘Roughing,’” Atlanta Journal, December 8, 1959
• Obituary for Dannie Johnson, Macon Telegraph (Macon, GA), February 14, 1970