A Killing in Crestview

I will soon be updating this story.  I recently had a long conversation with a resident of Crestview, who grew up with some of the people involved.  Through his perspective, I now firmly believe that the Cayson brothers were innocent of the killing of Lester Wilson, but I don't know why they were targeted for prosecution. I have felt that there was not enough credible evidence at their trial to warrant a guilty verdict. This story is much larger than what was initially reported in the newspapers at the time. More to come. 

In March of 1940, when Ray Wilson was twelve years old, his father Lester was assassinated in the living room of his home while listening to a radio broadcast. Ray was in the next room at the time of the killing. As he grew older, he realized that the local authorities were not that interested in finding the killers, so he made a promise that one day he would be elected Sheriff, and bring justice to his father.  That is exactly what he did.

            Lester Wilson was the Chief of Police in Crestview, Florida in the 1930’s. He unsuccessfully ran for Sheriff in 1932, and again in 1936. On March 1, 1939 he shot and killed Murray McArthur, and wounded Charlie Powell outside a Crestview tavern. He claimed it was self-defense and the result of an old grudge when he was Chief of Police. A jury acquitted Wilson of Manslaughter.

            Wilson had let it be known that he was going to once again run for Sheriff in the upcoming primary. The incumbent Sheriff John Steele was not seeking reelection. It looked like his chances were good. He would be running against H. Isle Enzor. Enzor was the brother of Dr. Olin Enzor, who with another brother Dr. Jut Enzor had founded the Enzor Brothers Hospital in Crestview, and were well respected in the area.

            Lester Wilson owned a taxi and his cab stand was at the Sun Ray Café in Crestview.  His son Woodrow shared the cab driving duties with him.  At 8 pm Woodrow drove Lester home, dropping off a fare, Mrs. Vernie Davis Locke, at her house, on the way.  After dropping Lester off at his home on Long Street, he took the cab back to the Sun Ray Café.

            Lester entered his house and warmed himself by the fire for a couple of minutes.  He then sat down in a chair very close to the front door and near the radio to listen to a news commentary.  All the doors and windows were shut because it was only about 36 degrees that day.  Outside a man with a shotgun approached the house and peered in the window to see where the occupants were. A moment later he fired one blast through a small glass window in the front door hitting Lester Wilson in the head and killing him instantly.

            H. Isle Enzor was elected Sheriff, and the case remained unsolved for 18 years.

            Sheriff H. Isle Enzor served as Sheriff from 1941, until Aug 3, 1950 when he was removed from office by Gov. Fuller Warren for not enforcing laws against gambling. Fox Wilson, brother of Lester Wilson, was removed from his role as Constable for the same cause.  The Gov. appointed Enzor’s son-in-law, Ferrin C. Campbell to take his place. Campbell was a Democratic candidate for the State House of Representatives and resigned in November. Gov. Fuller then appointed James A. McArthur to the office of Sheriff. 

            Former Sheriff Enzor won his seat back in the following election, and served until 1956.  Ray Wilson was only 28 years old when he defeated Enzor in the primary. In June of 1956, Sheriff Enzor had a fatal heart attack at his home, and the Governor appointed Ray Wilson to go ahead and take the role as Okaloosa County Sheriff.  At 28 he was the youngest Sheriff in the state of Florida.

            Ray Wilson graduated from High School in Crestview in 1946. He joined the Army and served in Korea in the 7^th Infantry. When he returned to Crestview, he worked in a dry-cleaning business until he bought his own dry-cleaning operation. When he decided to run for Sheriff, he sold his business.  Driven by the need to bring his father’s killers to justice, he almost immediately reopened the investigation.

Arrests Made in Father’s Killing

            In 1958, brothers Jesse, and Doyle Cayson, and William Dorace Brown were arrested for the 1940 murder of Lester Wilson. There were many witnesses at the trial of the three men. Some had been called as witnesses during a Grand Jury hearing in 1952, but they were not as forthcoming at that time. More than one claimed they were afraid to testify truthfully at that time.

            The courtroom was standing room only during the week-long trial in November of 1958. There were about 235 people in the spectator seating during the whole trial.  The jury consisted of 11 men, and one woman, Mrs. Raymond Byrne.

            The Assistant State Attorney, Gillis Powell, explained that the State intended to prove that:

n    Jesse Cayson fired the shotgun and killed Lester Wilson.

n      The other two defendants aided and abetted in the killing.

n      All three conspired to kill Lester Wilson

            One of the most important witnesses for the State was Mattie Lee Taylor Boeck, 45, of San Antonio, TX.  She was known as Mrs. Lucas during her stay in Crestview. She arrived in town from Andalusia, Alabama in January 1940 to work in a shirt factory. She and a girlfriend lived in a house not far from the Sun Ray Café where Lester Wilson had his cab stand. She had many dates with the Cayson brothers during her time there. She said she did not know Brown, but had seen him around town. She heard many discussions about the upcoming election for Sheriff.

Night of the Slaying

            Mrs. Boeck testified that she went to the Sun Ray Café where Jesse Cayson, and Dorace Brown were seated at a table. While she was sitting with them, they received a phone call from someone wanting to know who was driving the Wilson cab. The caller was informed that the driver was Lester’s son, Woodrow. Prior to the call Cayson, and Brown were discussing how to get Wilson out on a fake call and mentioning, “do the thing, or do the job.” She said she thought it was a joke. Shortly after the call Doyle Cayson came in to the café and said, “Plans have changed, come on, we’re going to do the job tonight at the house.” She walked out to Brown’s parked car and saw two shotguns in it. She got in the car, but after some discussion, the others decided she would wait at the café. As she returned to the café, she saw the Wilson cab pull away with the defendants following about a block behind with their headlights off. A little later Woodrow Wilson came back in the café and told her he was going out on a call, in case anyone was looking for him. Then he drove away.

            Shortly later, Fox Wilson, brother of Lester came in the café and told her Woodrow’s father had just been shot. She claimed she was the one who told Woodrow about his father’s death.

            Mrs. Boeck said she then went home for a few minutes, then went to the post office. When she left the post office, Brown drove up and forced her into the car. They drove away and shortly picked up Doyle Cayson. Then they drove down the highway beyond the Shoal River bridge and stopped. They stayed there for a few minutes, then drove a little farther down the road where Doyle got out. She and Brown drove to another spot nearby where they sat and talked. As they were talking, someone opened the car door and pulled her out. She said she was beaten with some type of club and told to forget what happened that night, or “this isn’t half what you’ll get.” Brown remained in the car during the beating. When she got back in the car, he told her he was sorry but there was nothing he could do. “My advice to you is to forget what happened tonight.” Brown took her back to town, where she returned home and went to bed. This was between 10 and 11 pm.

            About midnight, Doyle Cayson came to her house and took her, “down near railroad tracks,” where they remained until 3:30 or 4 am. She said Doyle had been drinking.

            The defense attorneys, Thomas Beasley, and Ferrin Campbell tried to impeach Mrs. Boeck’s testimony by pointing out discrepancies in her timeline, and by showing the differences in her testimony compared to her 1952 Grand Jury testimony. She admitted she lied in 1952 because she was “scared to tell the truth.”

            Mrs. Lester Wilson testified that she and her father were in the room when the fatal shot was fired through the small window in the door. She said she only knew the defendants by sight, but she did not see who shot her husband.

            Woodrow Wilson testified that he had been helping his father with the taxi business. He said he took his father home around 8 pm. A customer, Vernie Davis Locke, was in the car for most of the trip. They dropped her at her home on the same street where Wilson lived. He explained that his father, Jesse Cayson, and a man named Adams were the only taxi operators in Crestview at the time.

            Mrs. Marie Slaughter Coker had worked as the chief operator for Southern Bell Telephone company in Crestview on the night of the murder.  She testified that she heard the voice of Doyle Cayson on the telephone talking to someone in the Sun Ray café asking who was driving the Wilson cab.

            Mrs. Marjorie King of Rocky Mount, NC testified about eavesdropping on a conference in the Cayson home in 1943 between Jesse Cayson, Sheriff H. Isle Enzor, Constable Joe Adams, and ex Sheriff John Steele who had been Sheriff at the time of the killing. She said she was nursing Jesse, who was sick, and overheard the three men tell Jesse that he had to “go to the hospital.” (she assumed they meant Chattahoochee) because he had told all over town that he had killed Lester Wilson. She quoted the men, “Jesse, you’ve got to go; you can’t back out now, it is too late.” She said Jesse agreed, but became angry when his mother insisted, he stay home. Jesse told his mother, “You still don’t understand, I’ve told around town I killed Les Wilson!” His mother asked, “Did you?” Jesse fell across the bed, placed a pillow on his face, and cried. She said she did not report the conversation at the time because Enzor was Sheriff, and Adams was a Constable. “There wasn’t no officers to amount to nothing at the time.”

            Her testimony was later refuted by Constable Adams, ex Sheriff Steele, and her husband at the time who claimed she never mentioned the conversation to him.

            Another very important witness for the state was Curtis Davis, 35, a lumber company truck driver who was a 16-year-old neighbor of Wilson when the slaying occurred. He heard the shot that killed Wilson as he approached a service station while walking along State Road 85 toward his house. He said he was about 100 feet from the station and the intersection with Long Street. Wilson, and Davis both lived on Long. Not more than two minutes after the shot, he saw a 1938 Ford speed out of Long and turn south on the highway. At intervals he then saw a 1937 Ford, and then a 1934 Ford with red wheels. The ‘37 Ford turned south at a high rate of speed and the ’34 Ford couldn’t make the turn and continued straight across the highway and disappeared down the street. Davis identified the first car as belonging to Constable Joe Adams, saying he recognized the spotlight and the radio antenna. The second car had more than one occupant, but he could not identify them. The third car, he said, belonged to Doyle Cayson.

            Mrs. Vernie Davis Locke was Curtis’s sister, and had been the passenger that was dropped off by the Wilsons right before the murder. She testified that after being dropped off, she saw two cars come down Long Street at intervals, turn around in front of her house, two houses away from the Wilson residence. Very soon afterwards she heard the sound of the shot. Her and her father went towards the Wilson house and they noticed two cars parked close together across the street with the lights off, and heard a car door slam. The headlights came on as they approached.

            She said at least an hour later, she saw Doyle Cayson at the Wilson house, and recalled at least three times he brought up the subject of his being away on a fishing trip when the shooting occurred. “Each time he advised me to see the fishing tackle and equipment in his car. I told him I would take his word for it.” Mrs. Locke contradicted the testimony of Mrs. Boeck when she said that she did not see the Caysons, or Brown at the Sun Ray café before the Wilsons gave her a ride home.

            There were a couple other witnesses that claimed that a drunken Doyle Cayson had bragged about being involved in the killing. 

Doyle’s story:

            Doyle Cayson emphatically denied the State’s witness testimony. He flatly denied having anything to do with the killing of Lester Wilson. He claimed he left Crestview late in the afternoon of March 15 with Burris Brown, (no relation to defendant Dorace Brown), and fishing in the Ti-Ti and Silver Creeks area about 15 miles southeast of town during the time of the killing. Doyle claimed he had never seen Dorace Brown until he was locked up with him in the Panama City Jail on a murder charge.  Clarence and Roy Alford, and Charley King, all of Crestview, told of seeing Doyle fishing and backing up his story.

            Doyle also said he did not get back to town until after 9 pm to get his headlights fixed. Arlie Royals, Sr.  was a mechanic who claimed he fixed the headlights on Doyle’s car in the early part of that night, and he told the two of Wilson’s death. He also denied in its entirety all of Mrs. Boeck’s testimony.

            The court then heard a deposition from Mrs. Lillie Lindsey on behalf of defendant Dorace Brown. She said Brown and his wife were at her home visiting with her ill husband on the night of the killing. Later the defense produced other witnesses to back up Mrs. Lindsey’s story.

            The Jury returned a verdict of Guilty for the Cayson brothers, with a recommendation for mercy, and they acquitted Dorace Brown.  On December 1, 1958, the Caysons were sentenced to life in prison at Avon Park Correctional Facility.  Before sentencing Attorney, Thomas Beasley introduced affidavits from five relatives of Hiram Lester Walker of Baker purporting to show that Walker had made a deathbed confession to the Wilson murder. Walker had passed away at the Enzor Brothers Hospital in Crestview on November 24, 1957.

            Over the next few years there were many appeals on the brother’s behalf. Attorney Thomas Beasley claimed that they were innocent and he knew who the real killer was, but could not say because of attorney-client privilege as he had represented him. The Caysons were given polygraphs and supposedly passed them, but all appeals were denied.  The Caysons were both paroled in 1966.

            Jesse passed away in July 1968, and Doyle in August 1968.

I don’t think it is conclusive that the Caysons were guilty of this murder. I think the testimony of Marjorie King should be discounted entirely.  Her own husband refutes her account and said she used narcotics. Jesse’s sister later said she was the one who convinced Jesse to go to the hospital, and he was on his way within the hour. She claimed Mrs. King was no where around.

I believe Mrs. Boeck was mostly truthful, although her timeline might have been off.  She claimed Doyle came to her house at midnight, and stayed with her until almost 4 in the morning. There were several witnesses that reported that Doyle was at the Wilson house most of the night. He even helped clean the crime scene. Enough people said that she definitely had relationships with the brothers, and the owner of the Sun Ray café said she and the Caysons were in his café that night.

One thing for sure, this case divided the people of Crestview into two separate camps for years after the trial. Family members quit speaking to each other, and long-time friends became estranged over their beliefs in the guilt or innocence of the Caysons. This case made national news. There was an article in Readers Digest and an article I found in a Honolulu newspaper. I believe also there was a documentary that Ray Wilson took part in after the trial.

As always, if anyone reading this has any information that may have been passed down to them, I would be most happy to hear, or see it.

The Phantom Ghoul of the Whitmire Cemetery

        On the morning of July 12, 1957, at the Roberts Cemetery, also known as the Gull Point cemetery, located off Creighton Road, the caretaker was making his rounds when he discovered an open grave.  The 3-inch-thick, 1000-pound slab had been removed, and the casket opened. The remains of Ruby Lee Robinson were lying exposed. She was a 22-year-old who had died in childbirth the previous November.  The caretaker immediately contacted the police who quickly arrived at the scene. They first thought robbery to be a motive, but after learning from her husband that she was not buried with any valuables it was ruled out. One neighbor reported hearing a loud howl at about 2 am but did not see anything that could have caused it.

        Three days later, on the 15^th, a man visiting his wife’s grave at the Whitmire cemetery discovered his late wife’s grave open and her body exposed with her pajamas pushed down. She had been buried the month before. The authorities never released the identities of the man or his wife.

        (Research of all obituaries from June revealed the death of one young married woman who was buried at Whitmire, but since I don’t know for sure if it is the same young lady, I will keep it to myself.)

        Seven months later on the 22^nd of February, 1958, Mrs. Thelma Wendt of Ferry Pass, was visiting the Whitmire cemetery when she discovered the disturbed grave of 14-year-old Joan Danley. Miss Danley had been killed on Nine Mile Road when she was struck by a car the previous October. A 1200-pound slab had been removed, and the casket opened. Plaster casts were made of numerous footprints in the immediate area. Sheriff Emmett Shelby offered a $500 reward for information.  Later the reward grew to $1500. The city council contributed $500.

        At 8:30 am on the 8^th of March, Mrs. Thom Holmes was at the Whitmire Cemetery to visit her husband’s grave. She discovered the open and empty grave of eleven-year-old Suzette Parker. Police arrived and began to make plans for a search.  Helicopters from Ellyson Field and bloodhounds from the state prison would be utilized in the search. About 2:30 pm, mounted County Patrolman Roy Sherer on a horse named Trigger, found the remains of the missing girl about 250 yards from the entry to the cemetery. She was lying on her back still in the pink dress she had been buried in. 

        Suzette had passed away after a long illness on the 28^th of February and was buried next to her first cousin Daniel Paul Parker who had died the previous day in Groves Texas. There had been a double funeral on March 2^nd. His grave was undisturbed.

        The locals started patrolling the streets in the area, and the mood was ripe for vigilante justice if the ghoul was ever captured. 

        No more incidents occurred in the Whitmire or Roberts Cemeteries. The person, or persons were never identified.  Even if they had been, grave desecration was a misdemeanor and would not have resulted in much, if any, jail time. Maybe they were arrested for something else and went to prison. Maybe the increased patrols led to him moving somewhere else.  The events seemed to be escalating and I can’t imagine that he or they just decided to stop.  I guess we will never know.