In 1947, Willie Earle was framed. After the 24-year-old was accused of beating and stabbing Thomas Brown, a white Greenville, South Carolina taxi driver, he was thrown into the Pickens County jail. Earle swore he was innocent, but the white vigilantes of Pickens County didn’t care.
A white mob of mostly taxi drivers broke into the jail and dragged Earle. They beat him, slashed him, then blew his face off with a shotgun. The killing was horrific, and the trial that followed only added to the injustice.
After Earle’s murder, over 150 suspects were interviewed, but only 31 were charged. Many of them signed confessions, but the all-white jury returned a not guilty verdict anyway, disgusting the judge so much that he dismissed them without thanking them for their service.
The Pickens County Museum, once the county’s only prison, is now the home of Willie Earle’s mournful ghost. Rumors swirl of Earle’s voice calling out from the abandoned cells, pleading his innocence and crying, “ I didn’t do it!”
Willie Earle was denied the justice he deserved in life; that’s why his ghost haunts Pickens today. While his soul can’t rest, we can ensure that the truth of his story and the injustice against him and other lynching victims like him are brought to light.