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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.
Oct 19, 2023 · Daniel Hansford, 37, died after being shot in the 700 block of 15th Street on October 18, 2023. The Metropolitan Police Department is offering a reward of up to $25,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the suspect.
Danny Lewis Hansford 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. His death was recounted in John Berendt's 1994 non-fiction book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and its 1997 film adaptation.
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- 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.Dec 16, 2015 · Kirkland, who was key to the case, claims he knows the truth behind the killing of Danny Lewis Hansford in 1981. He criticizes the defense tactics and the criminal justice system in his book \"Lawyer Games, After Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil\".
Oct 19, 2023 · Daniel Hansford, 37, was found shot to death in the 700 block of 15th St., NE on Oct. 18, 2023. MPD is offering a reward of up to $25,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the suspects.
Oct 20, 2023 · Daniel Hansford, 37, died at the scene of a shooting on Oct. 18, 2023, on the 700 block of 15th Street, NE. The Metropolitan Police Department is offering a reward for information leading to the arrest of the suspect or suspects.
