Stormy Petrels (1)
Denise Clement

 

  

CHAPTER 1 Beginnings

Family tree- we all have one..
Actually several trees.
You'll never know what will 'fall out'
when you shake it.
My parents gave me very little information
to start from beyond their own grandparents.

Living in NJ, with everyone dead I could ask,
I was left to sort through the briars,weeds
and decades of false debris lingering in
the deep south.

As I began my novice effort in researching,
I learned something about myself.
I'm am but a tiny seed pod from deep within
a vast varied forrest ;
my Floridian German-Dutch tree I picture as a
graceful weeping willow.
The roots of my willow survives on tears.

This little humble story begins in 1754.
Two Hysler brothers sailed from the British Isles to Philadelphia to start a new life.
The ship called 'Snow Good Intent' arrived October 21,1754.
The only brother to walk off the ship was Conrad Hysler; his brother Johannes died of
illness along the way.

Conrad was my greatgreatgreatgreatgreatgreat grandfather (Six greats ) that arrived in
this country 3 years shy of 200 years before I was born.
Thus my 'weeping willow' takes plant in a new land..

Conrad Hysler ended up in the California territory for a while where he married and
had a son James, then back to east for the Carolinas...
his progeny trickled on down to Georgia then Florida.

Summer time 1892
The red clay fields of Georgia.
Life flowed by in a mirage wash of blood and rust.
This story begins with one Daniel Hysler and will end with another.

A cat had fallen into the family's well and Tom drew the task of emptying the well of all
befouled water and then scrubbing the sides. He was only about 12 years old and was
complaining about the hard work and crying because his cat had died. As well, he was miserable because he couldn't drink the polluted water and it was a hot afternoon.

His gruff German-Dutch heritage 'federate vet Papaw Daniel said "Stop ya cryin' Tommy.
After I got shot'n Gettasburg, I hadda move dead men and dead horses outta my way to get a dern drink. When I finally got to the water, there was blood scum on top tha maggots had begun to feed on."

Tommy gulped hard,and began to carry away buckets of smelly tainted water. His years worn old grandfather scuffled away muttering between bites from a raw turnip, "All men make mistakes, but soldiers remember thars. They don’t furget and they don’t regret.”

The Hysler's will find as the years go by that those days, hard and terrible as they must have been, were the richest period of their lives.


Duval County Florida - Summer MORNING (1922)
Stormy Petrels are abundant at low tide...salty marsh smells enveloping black sand and the humid air.
The turpentine camps boiling did not help none.The occassional breeze through the pines was a God send to her as she sat on her screened in porch...away from those damn knats and "yella feevah skeeters" she would swat with her dish rag.

Ominous...that's the word she was looking for in her mind. Something ominous is brewing...something 'powerful wicked'. She could feel it...and when the shiver went through her soul she thought of her boys;
her flock-Her 'stormy petrels'.

A stormy petrel is a seabird seen along the Atlantic seaboard; it's known for flying low to the ocean to look for food. According to legend, James Oglethorpe ( the father of Prison Reform and Georgia) was inspired by the courage
of the gutsy bird as it dove in and out of the crashing waves as he crossed the Atlantic Ocean from England in 1732.

A good motto for this little bird is: Nescit Cedere
("He does not know how to give up.")

The Hyslers from Jones Co. Georgia had been living in Duval Co. Florida since about 1900.
With the death of her husband John Batts Hysler to the yellow-fever in 1898, his 40 year old widow Isabell raised her 10 children by farming out her five sons to various share croppers,lumber and turpentine camps.

Leander Hysler was the 1st born child of 10. The oldest son.

Tommy was the next to oldest...tall,lanky,green eyed,raven haired Thomas Walker Hysler.
Tom married Sarah on Christmas Eve 1899 and had 8 children by 1914. Tom was my great grandfather.

The third son was James Harley...Jimmy to his momma.
Oh lordy then there was number 4 her Johnny...
Last born and 5th youngest son was Daniel.

All her sons had registered for the draft.
The horrors of WW1 spared her boys. A good omen.

ANOTHER BREEZE...ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh...honeysuckle.
Little stormy petrels flying overhead.
And red dirt.
Car coming and coming fast up the dirt road.
Ominous. The sense of soul-sickness.

Isabell let the screen door hit her backside as she walked into the house.
Stuff left from last night's pinto bean and corn bread dinner had to "soak".
She is still in her house robe. Her grandbabies were up...needed tending to.
From the kitchen, she can see a incomplete wallpapering project Danny left going on in the dining room.
Six year old grandson Clyde found the tin of wall paper glue; "dang boy is always into somethin'just like his daddy Jimmy".

Car door slammed...someone was running up the steps.
She turned to face the Sheriff of Duval County.
She knew- a mother knows. That deja vu' that is imprinted in a momma's soul with each birth of a child.
' Which one' was all she could say as her knees began to buckle.
The last sound she remembered was that of the stormy petrels flying over head.

Phone RINGS. Sheriff goes over to answer it.
Little Clyde looks up from his wall papering effort.
(hollering)
"I got it! Hello? yessa this is the Sheriff. Yessa Tommy had been a deputy in Duval- but the he killed a fella and got off somehow. What's that? Oh he was pistol whipped then shot to death over at the Maxville lumbercamp by his brother Johnny... several witnesses. Yessa, he has 8 chillren. I'm alone with his momma now. Oh cept lil' Clyde. That boys done got himself into a big ol' mess...no not Clyde - Johnny...oh well lil' Clyde too. I'll call later.''



CHAPTER 2 September 26, 1928

"Whiskey King of Duval County. Liquor Czar...ya know 'em?"
The reporter poured milk into his nickel cup of coffee and slowly stirred it until it reached the prefered caramel color.
"The rum runner?"
 
The owner cleared his throat, not sure if he was talking to a federal man or not.
"This is prohibition sir, I know no such oh wait, does he drive a roadster?
Got Bama plates on it?"
The owner leaned in towards the reporter,whispering with the smell of chew on his breath .
'Got a friend named Jerry? Hangs out by the Mineral City and Pointe Vedra docks?'

The young gum shoe reporter pushed his plate of half eatten meatloaf towards the owner with a five dollar tip and replied
in a mutual mutted tone,'yes sir'. The young man looked at his watch...it was now 10:15 pm.

The owner seemed a little nervous by the unfamiliar customers questions.

'Well, now ya tell me why ya wants to know. Them boys don't appreciate folks talking about them. I keep to myself;
don't want no trouble. Say,Johnny liked them shimmy ladies...that hung around turpentine camp jook joints and painted their faces up.
Just ain't fittin' he grumbled fanning his face. "

"Just making conversation Pap." whispered the rookie reporter with a grin. "You mean you really have not heard about what happened to John Hysler today?"
The owner shook his head, put the $5.00 in his pocket and leaned in a little closer to the reporter who told him,"He's dead".

The owner turned and yelled to his short order cook,"Oh my God. Hey Mert,come out heya.Johnny's dead!"
                
A sweat covered fellow popped his head around the door way and said,"ya kiddin'? Dead?
How? He was here this mornin' for some scrambled eggs and calves brains..."

The thought of that delightful breakfast dish made the meatloaf he half scarfed down not so bad after all to the newsman.

"Two Probbies got him..the prohibition agents...from Jacksonville.They got word he was to be running red whiskey up to Jacksonville.
They shot him on the St Johns River Bridge.Seems they don't know who shot first. Agent King or Hysler. They both empted their guns.The agent was hit in the chest and ankle but kept firing his 45 automatic. Hysler was hit in the shoulder, twice in the neck and twice in the chest.He was alive when Agent Eaton got him to St. Vincents hospital but he died about 7 tonight."

The reporter looked over at the cook,who still stood by the door. He was wiping away what seemed to be tears.
'He was a good joe,ya know? So he ran some shiner around these parts.Folks gotta survive. Them yankees pay real good money for that Cuban rum I hear. Shoot, he even was bringin' in some real classy folks- some of them Italians from Chicago. 'Member that boss? That flashy guy named Al?"

The reporter perked up,"I heard the Hysler boys were in business dealings with Al Capone".

Mert just shook his head and backed into the kitchen,"he was just a real good joe".
       
Days later, the funeral for John Hysler was the most anticipated quasi-social event of the decade.
Almost 1,500 upstanding 'law abiding' citizens packed the funeral.
Flower arrangements from some of the nations wealthiest flowed from the building into the street.
Cops,lawyers,politicians were all there...as pallbearers.

There was a very fine line between good and evil.
No way to tell where it began nor where it ended.

Tom died in 1922, Leander had died in 1923.
Now John was gone.
Tom Hysler's son, Tom Jr. age 24, was listed as a inmate in the
1930 Florida census at River Junction, Gadsden, Florida.
The Stormy Petrels still flew over Jacksonville.



Chapter 3 Somber 1936-37

James Hysler's son Clyde grew into an attractive,
rambunctious young man.
He was now 18 years old and was into the family business.
"Rum runner for hire" some say,other called him
just a "chip off the old block".
He was a kid at the prime of his life.
The depression years besides prohibition had hit this deep south hard but
hope with President Roosevelt was high.

Sunshine they'd say was just around the corner.
But as the fall season slipped into late November 1936 coolness,
the cold winds of fate once more blew into this world of the Stormy Petrels.

On November 23, 1936, as a result of an attempted robbery, John H. Surrency and his wife Mayme Elizabeth were murdered.
Surrency kept a restaurant near Jacksonville and on the fatal day was returning from one of his regular and well-known
trips to that city to get checks cashed.
Clyde Hysler's young life would never be the same either.

It was alledged that Clyde Hysler had known Baker in connection with his illicit whiskey business.
Baker and Tyler were friends.
The principal evidence in both trials against Hysler was their testimony.
They testified with circumstantiality that Hysler induced them to hold up Surrency,
furnished them a car,a pistol, and some whiskey, gave them detailed instructions
for carrying out the plan, and by prearrangement was in the vicinity of the place
of its execution.

While their testimony doubtless was the foundation of Hysler's convictions,
the testimony both of numerous witnesses and Hysler himself sheds much confirming light on the story told by Baker and Tyler.
On December 16, 1936, Clyde Hysler was indicted for the murder of John Surrency.

The Hysler's of Duval County in 1936 were becoming numb to death.
It's as if the curse of Lot had been cast down upon this family.

Clyde was tried on January 21, 1937,
was convicted on February 12, 1937, with recommendation of mercy, and was thereafter sentenced to imprisonment for life.

Tom Hysler's 4 foot 10 inch 35 year old daughter Mabel died Valentine's day 1937 outside Memphis in childbirth.
They buried her with her twin still-born daughters.She left behind 9 living children and their grieving father
John in Tennessee.
(Mabel was my grandmother. She died 20 years before I was born- her youngest living child was my dad, whom died
at age 44 when I was 20.)

On April 23, 1937, Clyde Hysler was sentenced to death.
On April 24 he sued out a writ of error to the state Supreme Court.
The record on this second trial was some 2500 pages.
On February 3, 1938, Clyde Hysler's sentence was affirmed by the Florida Supreme Court.
The record in the case was more than 3000 pages.
on June 3 denied a rehearing.
The date for the execution was set by the Governor of Florida for the week of February 20, 1939.

In the meantime, however, an application for a writ of habeas corpus by Clyde Hysler was made to
the Supreme Court of Florida, partly on the ground of insanity.
This was denied by that Court on February 20, 1939.

Tyler broke jail and apparently remained a fugitive from justice.
Baker was tried after Hysler was convicted of murder in the first degree, and sentenced to death.
His conviction was affirmed by the Florida Supreme Court on March 14, 1939, and a rehearing denied
on April 11, 1939.

"We have now reached a chapter of this unedifying story of the administration of criminal justice.
On April 10, 1941, more than four years after Hysler's conviction for the murder of Mrs. Surrency,
he petitioned the Supreme Court of Florida for permission to apply to the Circuit Court of Duval County, Florida (the court before which he was originally tried), for writ of error coram nobis.

In brief, a person in Florida who claims that his incarceration is due to 'failure to observe that fundamental fairness essential to the very concept of justice', even after his sentence has been duly affirmed by the highest court of the State, has full opportunity to have a jury pass on such a claim provided he first makes an adequate showing of the substantiality of his claim to the satisfaction of the Supreme Court of Florida.

Florida had ample machinery for correcting the Constitutional wrong of which Hysler complained.
But it remains to consider whether in refusing him relief the Supreme Court of Florida denied a proper appeal to its corrective process for protecting a right guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment.

Hysler's claim before the Supreme Court of Florida was that Baker repudiated his testimony that implicated Hysler and that he now named another man as the instigator of the crime. Considering the fact that this came four years after alledged justice had reached the end of the trail of procedure, and that Baker now pointed to an instigator who was dead, the Supreme Court of Florida has every right to scrutinize in the light of its familiarity with the facts of this crime as they had been in three trials, the voluminous records of which had been before that Court.

The Florida Supreme Court had before it four affidavits by Baker. The affidavits must be considered here as they were before that Court-in their entirety.
One was made on April 7, 1941; the second on April 8 between six and seven in the evening;
another between eight-thirty and nine of the same night; the fourth, the next day.

The most striking feature of this series of retractions is that in his first and spontaneous new account of the happenings that led to the murders on November 25, 1936, Baker does not attribute to coercion or inducements made by state authorities his testimony at the trials that Hysler was the instigator of the crimes.

On the contrary, according to Baker's new story, after the killing of the Surrencys, Tyler and he 'agreed between them while they were in Cracker Swamp in the Marietta section of Duval County, that they would lay the blame of the planning of the robbery of the Surrencys upon Clyde Hysler because they had had considerable liquor dealings with Clyde Hysler and knew him well, and for the reason that the Hyslers bore a bad reputation in Duval County, and for the further reason that Clyde Hysler's father had plenty of money and they thought that by laying the planning of the robbery of the Surrencys on Clyde Hysler that his father and his other relatives would put up sufficient money to get Clyde Hysler out of the trouble and that by laying it on to Clyde Hysler, that he, James Baker, and Alvin Tyler would escape the death penalty ...'.

There is no suggestion whatever in this explanation of what is now claimed to have been a false accusation that it was induced from without. Baker gives five reasons for having fixed the blame on Hysler-an explanation to which he had adhered for more than four years-but all these reasons make Baker and Tyler the spontaneous concocters of the alleged false charge.

It was not until the next day, that Baker, under leading questions, suggested that his account of the crime,was induced by the hope of getting 'life instead of the chair.'

Even in a second affidavit there is no hint that the prosecutor had any knowledge of the falsity of his implication of Hysler.

Only after a third session did Baker, in an ambiguous reply to another leading question, convey a suggestion of the prosecutor's knowledge of the use of force preceding Baker's original testimony.

 

 

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Copyright © 2006 Denise Clement
Published on the World Wide Web by "www.storymania.com"