Jan. 5, 1945, “I am innocent. It’s easier to convict a Negro
than a white person. So long everybody,” these were the last words of Robert E.
Lee Folkes. Oregon executed Folkes for the murder of Martha James, a white woman.
The murder happened on a train
On Saturday, January 23, 1943, Train No. 15 left
Portland's Union Station heading to Los Angeles. Folkes was a cook,
also aboard was 21-year-old Martha James from Norfolk, Virginia, who was
following her husband, ENS Richard James—who had departed earlier in the day on
a train for troops. Also on the train was a marine, Harold Wilson.
At 4:30 a.m. James’ screams awakened the other
passengers in the sleeping cars. They heard her scream, "My God, he's
killing me!" Passengers found the marine Wilson next to the body covered
in blood, but he said he had heard Mrs. James scream, then found her with her throat cut, but saw a
man running away so he gave chase. Wilson claimed that a “dark” man had fled
the scene moments before, Wilson said he gave chase toward the rear of the train,
running past the kitchen where Folkes worked.
Between Eugene and Klamath Falls, Oregon detectives
questioned passengers and crew but found no murder weapon and no physical
evidence. There was no suggestion that Folkes or any Black man was a suspect. Other
passengers claimed to have seen Wilson repeatedly climbing in and out of his
bunk, directly above the victim's, behaving suspiciously before and after the
murder.
However, it seems that the marine’s claims to have seen a “dark”
man outweighed these statements and even the blood on his own hands and clothes.
In fact, Wilson's description of the events and suspect changed in his
statements to the police several times. More pertinent to this case was the
fact the Navy released Wilson from the brig for an alleged sexual assault the
day before. His commanding officer found him to be an ongoing problem and was
sending him to a combat unit, as happened often during the war.
So why Folkes?
Well, he was in fact considered a bit of a problem for the
Southern Pacific Railroad. He was an active and vocal member of the Joint
Council of Dining Car Employees, and his family were close friends with the
union president William Pollard. During the 1942 labor negotiations, Southern
Pacific security surveilled and intimidated workers including Folkes. Labor
unions were considered an enemy by a lot of people during the war for
threatening slowdowns, especially Black unions. On the night of the murder of
Martha James Southern Pacific detectives stripped Folkes naked, shoved him into
a men’s lavatory, and browbeat him all night, releasing him only for duty
shifts. He was sleep deprived and disoriented when Los Angeles police
detectives grabbed him off the train in Los Angeles and shuttled him between
Central Jail and Police Headquarters for another twelve hours of interrogation,
with no lawyers present.
When his mother and common-law wife and sister arrived at the central
jail to see Folkes, they reported to his lawyer that there was bruising
around his eyes and face and his speech slurred. Regardless LAPD telephoned
Linn County District Attorney Harlow Weinrick, claiming that Folkes had
“cracked.” For the railroad, this was an implied threat to other “Uppity Negro
Unionizers,” which would help keep others in line. Also, the war department in
1942 needed someone besides their own marine to be the center of this case, the
murder of a war bride by another soldier would have been bad press indeed.
California extradited Folkes to Oregon, where he was tried,
convicted, and sentenced to death—all within three months. At trial, Weinrich
introduced the so-called confessions. Folkes had denied his guilt in all
statements that he acknowledged having made on the train ride south to Los
Angeles and in one statement he supposedly made in LAPD custody. But in a
second statement in Los Angeles, police said, he had “confessed,” although he
was never given the opportunity to review that statement and never acknowledged
having made it.
On appeal, the Oregon Supreme Court returned a five-to-two
decision upholding the death sentence. The two dissenting justices questioned
the integrity of interrogating officers; and Justice George Rossman, an expert
on criminal procedure, argued that the “statements” contradicted sworn
testimony from officers involved and should not have been allowed into
evidence.
The Portland NAACP campaigned for Oregon Governor Earl Snell
extend clemency to Folkes. They had organized both Black and White churches and
the unions to help in this campaign; but Snell was under pressure from the War
Department, police, and the governor of Virginia, who was in the same lodge as
the victim’s father. In the end, Snell refused and stated, “I see evidence that
convinces me beyond doubt of Robert E. Lee Folkes's guilt.”
On January 5, 1945, Folkes became the second Black man
executed by the State of Oregon.
Sources:
https://www.gazettetimes.com/news/local/misplaced-guilt/article_35bff050-4f48-5aad-86bd-7b15ea0485e2.html
https://www.oregonencyclopedia.org/articles/conviction-of-robert-folkes/#.Y7ofJ3bMK3D
https://www.oregonlive.com/history/2021/08/oregons-murdered-war-bride-case-riveted-nation-in-1943-dubious-investigation-led-to-black-cooks-execution.html
https://offbeatoregon.com/1607b.war-bride-murder-3.399.html
https://www.newspapers.com/image/185511319/?terms=%22Robert%20E.%20Folkes%22
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