Nell Williams

Nell Williams (born 1913) was a socialite held captive and shot in the arm after being waylaid on a pleasure drive on Leeds Highway with her sister and a friend on August 4, 1931. She survived and later identified Willie Peterson as their attacker.

Williams, daughter of attorney Clark Williams, lived with her family at 2504 Aberdeen Heights. She went for a drive with her sister, Augusta and Jennie Wood following a Sunday matinee downtown. Nell, who survived the attack, told authorities that a black gunman jumped onto the running board of their car and forced her to pull onto a side road in the woods. She said that he took their money and held them captive in the woods of Shades Mountain, lecturing them on racial injustice. When he started to "get fresh", they attempted to escape. Augusta and Wood were fatally shot, while Nell took a bullet in the arm. The suspect fled and she drove the car one-handed back to Mountain Brook for help.

Jennie Wood also described the suspect before she died, but her description conflicted with Nell's. A newspaper report held that the shooter was a Negro, and that he had made a 'Communist speech' to them before the murder. Dozens of black "suspects" were swept up all across Birmingham and even around the country. Many were taken into isolated areas for beatings and interrogation. Among them was Communist Party labor organizer Angelo Herndon who was whipped by two men with a rubber hose,

Nell was unable to identify the assailant from any of the suspects, but later identified Willie Peterson as the culprit when she saw him walking on the street a few weeks later.

Before the trial, members of the Williams family requested to meet with the prisoner to avoid a trial. Dent Williams, Nell's brother, pulled out a pistol and shot Peterson. Peterson recovered and Williams was acquitted of attempted murder. Despite the lack of any other evidence against Peterson, he was convicted after an initial mistrial, and sentenced to death. Some of the jury later said they voted to convict in fear of reprisal from the Ku Klux Klan. In 1934 Peterson's sentence was commuted by governor Benjamin M. Miller. He died in Kilby Prison of tuberculosis in 1940.

References

• Herndon, Angelo (1937) Let Me Live. Ann Arbor, Michigan: University of Michigan Press. ISBN 0472031996
• Jones, Pam. (Winter 2006) "Alabama Mysteries: Williams/Wood Murders". Alabama Heritage