Search results
Danny Lewis Hansford (March 1, 1960 – May 2, 1981) was an American shooting victim who was killed by his employer, historic preservationist and antiques dealer Jim Williams, at Williams' home in Savannah, Georgia, United States.
- Sex, Death, and The Occult
- Renovating The Mercer House
- The Death of Danny Hansford
- Consulting The Occult
- Four Trials For Jim Williams
- What Happened to Jim Williams?
- Bonus Factoids
- Sources
Savannah, Georgia, is known for its genteel, verdant beauty. But the quaint Southern city was shaken in 1981 by a shooting and the revelation of unseemly goings-on among its gracious dwellings. Things took an even stranger turn when the accused murderer consulted with a voodoo priestess.
James “Jim” Williams lived in the Mercer House in Savannah's Historic District. The mansion was built in the 1860s by Confederate General Hugh Mercer whose great-grandson was the singer-songwriter Johnny Mercer ("Autumn Leaves," "Moon River," etc.). The house was empty and had fallen on hard times when Williams bought it in 1969 and began extensive...
In the early morning May 2, 1981, Jim Williams made a phone call to police to say that he had shot his young assistant. Officers found Hansford in Williams's study, lying facedown with a handgun underneath his right hand. He had bullet wounds in his chest, back, and above his right ear. A bullet had passed through some papers on a desk and fragment...
While he worked with his lawyers to craft his defense, Williams also consulted with a voodoo priestess named Valerie Boles. Journalist John Berendt wrote about the Hansford-Williams case in his 1994 book, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. He wrote that he met with Boles and Williams in a Savannah graveyard, where she placed a spell on Spence...
Early in 1982, Jim Williams was brought to trial. He testified that he killed Danny Hansford in self-defense. Hansford, he said, entered his study drunk and in a foul mood. He said Hansford threw him against a door and then knocked over a grandfather clock in the hallway. Shortly thereafter, according to Williams, Hansford returned to the study wit...
The freedom of Jim Williams was short-lived. In January 1990, just eight months after his acquittal, he suddenly dropped dead, at the age of 59. He appears to have collapsed in the same study where Danny Hansford died. The death was somewhat mysterious, although not to the voodoo priestess Valerie Boles. She said: “The boy did it.”
In 1969, Tommy Downs, 11, entered the abandoned Mercer House. He fell from the roof and was impaled on a spike of the wrought iron fence. Savannah ghost tour guides like to point to a missing spike...Valerie Boles was known as a "root doctor" (a practitioner of Hoodoo spiritual beliefs) and spoke Gullah, a creole language that combines English and African words and expressions. Boles not only s...John Berendt's book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil was described as a non-fiction novel and became a runaway success, spending 216 weeks on The New York Timesbest-seller list, one of the l...“Crime History: Savannah Murder Inspires Southern Gothic 'Midnight' Tale.” Scott McCabe, Washington Examiner, May 1, 2013“The Mercer Williams House: Savannah's Most Notorious Home.” Erin Clarkson, savannahfirsttimer.com, undated.“Midnight” Marches On.” Dep Kirkland, Savannah Magazine, February 24, 2022.“James Williams.”Maurice Possley, The National Registry of Exonerations, April 23. 2021.The murder of Danny Hansford in 1981 shocked the community, especially since the assailant, James Williams, was well-known in Savannah for helping to preserve the city’s historic district. Williams and Hansford were lovers in a rocky relationship.
Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil is a non-fiction novel by John Berendt. The book, Berendt's first, was published on January 10, 1994, [1] and follows the story of Jim Williams, an antiques dealer on trial for the killing of Danny Hansford.
Dec 16, 2015 · Dep Kirkland, who was key to the case, reveals the "truth" behind the 1981 killing of Danny Hansford by antiques dealer Jim Williams. He also exposes the "lawyer games" and the underbelly of the criminal legal system.
Jan 17, 2024 · The Mercer-Williams House, located in downtown Savannah, was the site of the fatal 1981 shooting of Danny Hansford by socialite Jim Williams. In “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil,” author John Berendt chronicled Williams' four murder trials, which ended in a 1989 acquittal.
Danny Lewis Hansford (March 1, 1960 – May 2, 1981) was an American shooting victim who was killed by his employer, historic preservationist and antiques dealer Jim Williams, at Williams' home in Savannah, Georgia, United States.
