Rev. Samuel Earl Sawyer, Sr.
Rev. Samuel Earl Sawyer, Sr. was approximately 39 years old. He was the father of five children and lived in Atlanta, Georgia.
Case summary
Incident
A letter furnished by the FBI to the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice (DOJ), and contemporaneous newspaper articles, indicate that on the morning of March 4, 1948, a Mrs. A.A. Stephens telephoned the Georgia State Patrol Station at Gainesville, Georgia, to report that an unknown man was walking up and down the road near her home in Alto, Georgia. She reported that the man was pacing along the road and into her yard and was observing her house with field glasses (binoculars). Stephens expressed concern that he may try to enter her home. Two state troopers were dispatched in a patrol car and located a man walking along U.S. Highway #23 holding two “magnifying glasses.” The FBI memorandum stated that Trooper Willis D. Greer exited the patrol car and attempted to speak to the man, who ignored him. Trooper Greer reported that he took the man by the arm and the man responded by turning and striking him in the head with the magnifying glasses. Trooper J.N. Beatty exited the car and both troopers placed the man under arrest. They put the man in the back seat of their car with another individual, Nelson Wade, who was under arrest for a separate incident. The troopers climbed into the front seat of the car, and as they attempted to drive away, the unknown man climbed into the front seat of the car, grabbed Trooper Greer’s blackjack, and began beating them with it. The report states Trooper Beatty and Wade attempted to pull the man off Trooper Greer as he continued striking him on the head and arms. Allegedly, when the man reached for Trooper Greer’s gun, Trooper Beatty shot the man twice, killing him instantly.
Newspaper articles the following day described the incident as told by Sheriff W.A. Crow, who stated that Trooper Beatty was “forced to kill” after the man violently resisted arrest. Following his death, the man was identified by a driver’s license he was carrying as Samuel Sawyer.
Census records from 1940 indicate that Sawyer worked as a “yard man,” while his wife, Ruby, worked as a cook. The two had five children: daughter Ruby Irene, daughter William “Willie” Mae, son Samuel Jr., son Thompson, and son Cornelius.
Aftermath
The Director of the FBI submitted a memorandum describing the incident to Assistant Attorney General T. Vincent Quinn of DOJ’s Criminal Division on March 16, 1948. The memorandum advised that state authorities did not charge Trooper Beatty in the shooting, and advised that “no action is contemplated in the absence of a request” from DOJ.