Henry Thompson

Case summary

Incident

On the morning of May 21, 1953, 88-year-old Henry Thompson walked over to his neighbor Pearl Harrell’s house in Lakeland, Florida, with a shotgun to confront her about her dog, who had caught one of his chickens. In her statement to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Harrell alleged that Thompson picked up a stick to hit her even after she assured him that she would return the chicken. Harrell said that as she turned away and began walking toward her house, she heard a gunshot, but neither Harrell nor her dog were injured.

Another neighbor, Irene Hodge, said that she also heard the gunshot. Hodge told the FBI that she had known Thompson for over forty years, and while she had never experienced any negative interactions with him, she considered him “a peculiar man,” adding that he “liked to stay by himself.” Other neighbors echoed these sentiments in their interviews with the FBI, describing Thompson as a “religious fanatic” and a “mean old man” who was “like a rattlesnake.”

Elizabeth Queen Victoria “Queenie” Thompson, a woman whom neighbors considered Thompson’s common-law wife, lived nearby. According to her FBI statement, she had lived with Thompson “intermittently” in the past. Queenie Thompson brought Thompson food and did his laundry. On the morning of May 21, she had already begun walking home after making Thompson breakfast when Harrell told her what happened. Queenie Thompson asked Harrell not to call the police, but it was too late. The Lakeland Police Department received Harrell’s call at 7:45 a.m.

Queenie Thompson then “cut across corn patches and trees” toward Thompson’s home and found him sitting inside with his shotgun and rifle leaning against the front door. She said that Thompson told her that he had tried to shoot Harrell’s dog for catching one of his chickens.

A short time later, Officer Thomas Presslie Fields and State Beverage Department Agent James W. Duncan arrived. In her statement to the FBI, Queenie Thompson said that she told Fields and Duncan that Thompson was just inside the front door. Queenie Thompson said she heard Thompson warn the officers not to approach the house without a warrant. In his statement, Fields said he did not hear Thompson mention a warrant.

Fields and Duncan tried for several minutes to persuade Thompson to come out of the house. Fields stated that he took out his service revolver when he noticed that Thompson had his shotgun pointed at them. As Fields continued to try to speak with Thompson, Duncan returned to the police car to radio for backup.

According to Fields, Detectives Willard E. Winnett and Ernest J. Thrower arrived about 15 minutes later. They also attempted to get Thompson to come outside. In their FBI interviews, the officers stated that Thompson fired a shot “in the direction of” Winnett and Thrower. They fired back.

Sergeant Fred Willie Lovering and Officer Driskle H. Handley, Jr. arrived as the shooting broke out. Handley threw a tear gas canister through the back door of Thompson’s house, but it did not detonate. Queenie Thompson and the officers all stated that Thompson shot toward the back of the house in the direction of the noise before making his way to the front. Several officers told Queenie Thompson to wait behind the house. Driskle stated that Queenie Thompson told him, “Please don’t kill my old man.”

Charlie Footman, a neighbor, heard the gunshots and made his way to Thompson’s house. Footman arrived shortly after Lovering and Handley, and saw Thompson in the front yard with his rifle and shotgun. Footman yelled at Thompson to drop the gun, but Thompson waved Footman away. When Footman continued yelling, Thompson aimed his shotgun at him. Footman ran behind an oak tree. According to Footman and the officers, Thompson fired, hitting the top of the tree.

The officers told FBI agents that Thompson then reloaded and continued to shoot at them. In their FBI interviews, the officers stated they were concerned by a growing crowd of spectators gathered around Thompson’s house. Winnett stated that he grabbed a sawed-off shotgun and fired at Thompson, hitting him. Several officers remarked that Thompson turned around, as if to walk back inside the house, before collapsing on the ground by the door. Queenie Thompson stated that when she came around to the front of the house, she saw Thompson lying on the ground with his head near the door.

A waiting ambulance took Thompson to Morrell Memorial Hospital shortly after he was shot. Doctors pronounced him dead on arrival.

Aftermath

A coroner’s inquest was held at Thompson’s house at 1 p.m. that same day. Lakeland Ledger reporter William E. Whitehead told the FBI that Justice of the Peace J. R. Clements oversaw the inquest and County Solicitor Clifton Kelley selected six men, two of whom were not white, as coroner’s jury members. The jury concluded that Lakeland police officers had acted in the “lawful discharge of their duty,” determining Thompson’s killing a justifiable homicide.

Thrower and Winnett told the FBI they visited the morgue the following day and noted eight bullet wounds on Thompson’s body. Justice of the Peace J.R. Clements, acting as coroner, listed Thompson’s official cause of death as “Gun Shot Wounds.”

According to Thrower, Thompson’s son collected his belongings at the police station on May 23. That same day, Thompson’s nephews, Lucious Bellaly and George Stroman, went to the FBI office in Miami to report the circumstances of their uncle’s death. The nephews told the FBI that Thompson, blind in one eye and over 80 years old, was not “physically capable” of engaging in a shootout with police. Bellaly and Stroman also reported that they believed Thompson had about $700 on him at the time of his death, though the family received only $94 when they retrieved Thompson’s possessions from police.

Thompson was buried on May 29 at Tiger Flowers Cemetery in Lakeland.

The FBI interviewed several witnesses from May 23 to June 4. U.S. Attorney for Florida Herbert S. Phillips reviewed the FBI report and wrote to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) in early July that “the facts clearly show that the officers were discharging their duty as peace officers and that victim resisted arrest and tried to kill the officers.” The DOJ agreed and closed the case on July 8, 1953.

Media Gallery

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

Lakeland, Florida City Directory, 1923, 1924, 1931, 1940

U.S. Federal Census, 1920, 1930, 1950

G. D. & C. D. Mendenhall Map of Lakeland, Florida, 1929

Florida State Census, 1935

Polk County Marriage Licenses, 1913, 1921, 1948

Death Certificate for Lilla Thompson, 1931

“Lakeland Negro Dies in Duel with Police,” Lakeland Ledger, May 22, 1953 via CRRJ Archive

“Lakeland Police Slay Negro in Gun Fight about Dead Chicken,” The Tampa Tribune, May 22, 1953 via CRRJ Archive

Death Certificate for Henry Thompson, 1953