Collie Hampton
Age 26
A young Black man at home
Winchester, Kentucky
August 14, 1966
Around 2 a.m. on August 14, 1966, Collie Hampton, a 26-year-old Black man, was at his home in Winchester, Kentucky, when four policemen arrived. An Associated Press story said the officers were driving past the house and saw Hampton standing outside and shouting obscenities; when they stopped, he ran into the house, and they followed. According to a 2011 Department of Justice memo about the case, the officers — Gene Hollon, Ronald Johnson, and brothers Robert and William Claypoole — reportedly wanted to arrest Hampton for “breach of the peace.”
The officers said Hampton retreated and they followed him, guns drawn. They also claimed Hampton had his right hand in a pants pocket and that he threatened to shoot the officers if they came into his home, according to the DOJ memo. Friends and relatives would later testify that Hampton did not own a gun, the Associated Press reported in the 1960s.
The DOJ memo summarized accounts from the officers of what happened next. Robert Claypoole slapped Hampton as Hollon moved behind the young man, at which point Hampton allegedly grabbed Hollon’s gun hand. “He has my gun,” Hollon yelled. Robert Claypoole attempted to shoot Hampton in the leg but instead struck Hollon in the left hip. On hearing the shot, the other two officers opened fire on Hampton, striking him in the chest and fatally wounding the young man.
Initial Investigation
By request of Winchester’s acting police chief, the Kentucky State Police launched an investigation within an hour of the shooting. All four officers were subsequently arrested but released on $5,000 bonds, according to the 2011 DOJ memo.
An autopsy revealed two entrance wounds and two exit wounds from gunshots to Hampton’s chest, the memo said. A coroner’s inquest found he had died of a shot to the heart and returned a homicide verdict, although the coroner’s jury did not determine which officer had fired the fatal shot.
All four men were indicted on state murder charges and were tried in December 1966. During the trial, one civilian witness testified she had seen the officers kick down Hampton’s door before the shooting. Another said he had heard William Claypoole tell Hampton he had a warrant, even though that was not true, according to the DOJ memo.
The memo also listed testimony by people involved in the investigation. The Clark County coroner said he found a closed pocketknife in Hampton’s front pocket, while a chemist from the Kentucky State Police lab testified that Hampton’s blood alcohol content was 0.28. According to testimony by a Kentucky State Police firearms examiner, the bullets recovered from Hampton’s body were too damaged to be matched to any particular weapon, but the examiner said Hollon’s gun had not been fired. The jury acquitted all four officers on December 16, 1966.
A later federal civil suit, filed by the victim’s brother in 1967, was decided in favor of the officers.
Till Act Status
The FBI began a review of the case in 2008. An FBI case agent obtained relevant reports from the Kentucky State Police, the Clark Circuit Court and the Eastern District of Kentucky District Court, as well as old newspaper articles about the shooting. A search of records from the state’s department of motor vehicles showed all four officers were still alive, but the Department of Justice concluded the matter could not be prosecuted under federal criminal civil rights statutes. For one, the relevant statute of limitations had expired. And according to the 2011 DOJ memo, the federal government would not be able to meet the legal requirements to prosecute the officers a second time. The memo does not specify whether the FBI contacted the officers during its review of the case. The DOJ closed the matter again in 2011.
Case Status closed
Closed 06/01/2011
Themes
- Closed Cases
- Closed with Living Subject
- Deaths Involving Law Enforcement
- Men
About the Project
This multiplatform investigation draws upon more than two years of reporting, thousands of documents and dozens of first-hand interviews. FRONTLINE spoke to family and friends of the victims, and witnesses, some of whom had never been interviewed; current and former Justice Department officials and FBI agents, state and local law enforcement; lawmakers, civil-rights leaders and investigative journalists, to explore the Department of Justice’s reopening of civil rights-era cold cases under the 2008 Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act.
In addition to an examination of the federal effort, the project features the first comprehensive, interactive list of all those whose cases were reopened by the Department of Justice. Today, the list stands at 151 names. Among the victims: voting rights advocates, veterans, Louisville’s first female prosecutor, business owners, mothers, fathers, and children.
The project consists of a web-based interactive experience, serialized podcast, a touring augmented-reality exhibit, documentary and companion education curriculum for high schools and universities.
A project like Un(re)solved would not be possible without the historic and contemporary contributions of universities, civil rights groups, and the press, particularly the Black press, who have ensured the ongoing public record of racist violence in the United States. To pay homage to these groups, the web interactive begins with a quote from journalist, activist and researcher Ida B. Wells, one of the first to document with precision the horrors of racial terror in America. “The way to right wrongs,” she wrote, “is to turn the light of truth upon them.”
At the outset of the project, FRONTLINE forged a relationship with Northeastern University’s Civil Rights and Restorative Justice Project (CRRJ), bringing them on as an academic partner. Launched in 2007 by Distinguished Law Professor Margaret Burnham, CRRJ is a mission-driven program of interdisciplinary teaching, research and policy analysis on race, history, and criminal justice. Their work has expanded beyond the names on the Justice Department’s list, archiving documents in over 1,000 cases of racially motivated homicides.
With support from the CRRJ, FRONTLINE reporters gathered what could be known about the individuals on the list, conducting interviews with family, friends and witnesses, delving into newspaper archives and gathering documentation including headstone applications, draft cards and archival photographs.
At the heart of the project has been a drive to center the voices of the families of those on the list. FRONTLINE partnered with StoryCorps to record nearly two dozen oral histories with victims’ next of kin, which are featured both in the web-based interactive and traveling AR exhibit. These oral histories will also be archived in the National Library of Congress.
To lead the creative vision for the web experience and installation, FRONTLINE partnered with Ado Ato Pictures, a premier mixed reality studio founded by artist, filmmaker, and technologist Tamara Shogaolu.
Shogaolu rooted the visuals in the powerful symbolism of trees. In the United States, trees evoke the ideal of liberty, but also speak to an oppressive history of racially motivated violence. In Persian myth, trees are humanity’s ancestors, while in Toraja, Indonesia, they serve as sacred burial sites.
“I was really inspired by looking at the role of the tree as a symbol in American history” Shogaolu said. “It’s been looked at as a symbol of freedom, we look at it as a connector between generations, and also there’s the association of trees with racial terror.” When designing the creative vision for Un(re)solved Shogaolu wondered whether she might be able to reclaim the symbol of the tree. “As a person of color, we’re often terrified of being in isolated places in the woods. And I thought it was kind of crazy that there are natural environments that instinctually give great fear because of this connection with racial terror and I wanted to reclaim that — to turn these into beautiful spaces.”
Un(re)solved weaves imagery of trees, which also recall family ties, into patterns and textures from the American tradition of quilting. Among enslaved African Americans forbidden to read or write, quilts provided an important space to document family stories. Today, quilting remains a creative outlet rich with story and tradition for many American communities.
We invite you to enter this forest of quilted memories — a testimony to the lives of these individuals, and the multi-generational impact of their untimely, unjust loss.
(Credits to come)