Read Online After Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by Marilyn J Bardsley - Free Book Online
Authors: Marilyn J Bardsley
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in Gordon, Georgia, his restoration work, and his successful business buying and selling antiques. Unfortunately for Jim, his arrogance and supercilious attitude did not help his case. Frequent and unnecessary comments about the valuable antiques in his house did nothing to endear him to the middle-class people on the jury. John Berendt was not present at the first and second trials, but had access to the trial transcripts and defense lawyers. Berendt wrote that at one point in Lawton’s questioning, Jim “looked down from the stand with an expression of loathing. He was obdurate and imperious, not even slightly defensive. For all the world, he could have been the czar in his Fabergé cufflinks, the Emperor Maximilian at his gold-encrusted desk. Williams had assumed the haughty boredom of all monarchs and aristocrats whose portraits and baubles he now owned.”
Mercer House parlor
photo by Jeanne Papy
It seemed the jury did not like Jim Williams.
Lawton eventually laid a trap and Williams walked right into it. Convinced that he did not have to be candid about his sexual relationship with Danny, Jim never brought it up, even when pressed repeatedly by Lawton on the nature of the relationship. He testified that Danny worked for him doing various jobs and that he tried to help him make something of his life. Why he took this position is hard to understand, considering that Cook knew that Lawton was prepared to call witnesses who would testify to the sexual nature of Jim and Danny’s bond.
By the end of the day on Friday, January 29, a good part of the trial had been completed. Doctors from Memorial Medical Center and the Georgia Regional Hospital testified to Danny’s mental instability, violent tendencies and attempts at suicide. The defense testimony had concluded. There was one last presentation of evidence—Lawton’s rebuttal witnesses and Jim’s character witnesses—that would take place Monday before the closing arguments would be given.
Lawton had a real bombshell in his two rebuttal witnesses. One was Danny’s best friend, George Hill, a tugboat worker, who testified that Jim and Danny had a homosexual relationship. Hill said that Jim gave Danny a nice car and clothes in exchange for going to bed with him. Then, according to Berendt, in words that would have electrified the conservative Savannah jury of the 1980s, Hill went on with his testimony: “‘Me and Danny talked about it a few times. Danny told me he liked the money and everything. He said it was fine with him if Mr. Williams wanted to pay him to suck his dick.’” There was silence in the courtroom while the audience absorbed the shockwaves. Graphic gay sex was
not
openly talked about in Savannah at that time.
Hill then described Danny’s fear that he had lost his “meal ticket” after taking his girlfriend over to Mercer House wearing the $400 gold necklace. Judge Oliver instructed the jury to consider Hill’s testimony for the limited purpose of motive. As if Hill’s comments were not enough to create a stir in the courtroom, Lawton called his second rebuttal witness. Gregory Kerr testified that Jim told him Danny was good in bed.
It was unintentionally ironic that the prominent citizens, including Jim’s good friend Carol Freeman, who then came forward to provide character witness for Jim, had not heard the testimony of Hill and Kerr. Their testimony was limited to ascertaining that Jim’s reputation was peaceable and that they never knew of any drug activity at Mercer House.
Closing Arguments
Spencer Lawton was on a roll after his controversial rebuttal witnesses. He continued his assault on the defense in his closing arguments. Deeply passionate about his beliefs, he was angry about the death of Danny Hansford at the hands of a man he considered evil, manipulative and exploitive.
“Jim Williams is a man of 50 years of age. He is a man of immense wealth, of obvious sophistication. He
Mercer House parlor
photo by Jeanne Papy
It seemed the jury did not like Jim Williams.
Lawton eventually laid a trap and Williams walked right into it. Convinced that he did not have to be candid about his sexual relationship with Danny, Jim never brought it up, even when pressed repeatedly by Lawton on the nature of the relationship. He testified that Danny worked for him doing various jobs and that he tried to help him make something of his life. Why he took this position is hard to understand, considering that Cook knew that Lawton was prepared to call witnesses who would testify to the sexual nature of Jim and Danny’s bond.
By the end of the day on Friday, January 29, a good part of the trial had been completed. Doctors from Memorial Medical Center and the Georgia Regional Hospital testified to Danny’s mental instability, violent tendencies and attempts at suicide. The defense testimony had concluded. There was one last presentation of evidence—Lawton’s rebuttal witnesses and Jim’s character witnesses—that would take place Monday before the closing arguments would be given.
Lawton had a real bombshell in his two rebuttal witnesses. One was Danny’s best friend, George Hill, a tugboat worker, who testified that Jim and Danny had a homosexual relationship. Hill said that Jim gave Danny a nice car and clothes in exchange for going to bed with him. Then, according to Berendt, in words that would have electrified the conservative Savannah jury of the 1980s, Hill went on with his testimony: “‘Me and Danny talked about it a few times. Danny told me he liked the money and everything. He said it was fine with him if Mr. Williams wanted to pay him to suck his dick.’” There was silence in the courtroom while the audience absorbed the shockwaves. Graphic gay sex was
not
openly talked about in Savannah at that time.
Hill then described Danny’s fear that he had lost his “meal ticket” after taking his girlfriend over to Mercer House wearing the $400 gold necklace. Judge Oliver instructed the jury to consider Hill’s testimony for the limited purpose of motive. As if Hill’s comments were not enough to create a stir in the courtroom, Lawton called his second rebuttal witness. Gregory Kerr testified that Jim told him Danny was good in bed.
It was unintentionally ironic that the prominent citizens, including Jim’s good friend Carol Freeman, who then came forward to provide character witness for Jim, had not heard the testimony of Hill and Kerr. Their testimony was limited to ascertaining that Jim’s reputation was peaceable and that they never knew of any drug activity at Mercer House.
Closing Arguments
Spencer Lawton was on a roll after his controversial rebuttal witnesses. He continued his assault on the defense in his closing arguments. Deeply passionate about his beliefs, he was angry about the death of Danny Hansford at the hands of a man he considered evil, manipulative and exploitive.
“Jim Williams is a man of 50 years of age. He is a man of immense wealth, of obvious sophistication. He
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