“Why did we fight these wars all these years? We fought them for the freedoms that I’m asking you to apply now. Innocent until proven guilty and proof beyond a reasonable doubt. This is why we fought these wars. I’m giving out. I give it to you. We’ve worked hard on it.  Let him go back to his family. He’s had enough.” 

 —Sonny Seiler (Closing argument in Jim Williams’ fourth trial, May 1989) 

SCAD’s Gorgeous Granite Hall on Gaston Street 

An hour after the jury received the judges’ instructions in his fourth trial, local Savannahian Jim Williams was found not guilty of the murder of Danny Hansford. In May 1981, the young Danny Hansford was shot and killed by Jim Williams with a German Lugar pistol at Williams’ famous home (see PFS-01). Troubled in his youth, Danny had spent some time living at the Bethesda Home for Boys (see PFS-71). 

Williams’ fourth trial took place in Augusta, Georgia. The jury pool in Savannah was declared tainted because of the enormous publicity created by Williams’ three prior trials. In Clint Eastwood’s filmed version of John Berendt’s book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil: A Savannah Story, you saw only one trial. But if you read the book, it took over eight years to finally acquit Jim Williams of murder. 

Frank W. ‘Sonny’ Seiler served as Jim Williams’ attorney in the last three trials. In the first trial, the Savannah jury found Jim Williams guilty of murder; the court sentenced him to life in prison. Usually, two murder convictions in two trials would give the accused reason to give up and face the music. But Jim Williams was no quitter, and Sonny Seiler was more than a lawyer. He was a Bulldog.  

A native Savannahian and educated at the University of Georgia (UGA), Sonny Seiler convinced UGA football coach Wally Butts to adopt the Bulldog (named Uga) as the team mascot in 1956. The Seiler family has been the caretaker of the official Georgia Bulldog mascot ever since. In Clint Eastwood’s film, Sonny Seiler played the role of Judge Samuel L. White during the murder trial scenes. 

For several years, Sonny Seiler located his law firm in the Armstrong-Kessler Mansion (see PFS-74). After Eastwood’s ‘Midnight’ film, Sonny appeared in two other movies filmed in Savannah: The Legend of Bagger Vance and The Gingerbread Man. I included all three of these popular films on my list of favorite movies filmed here in Savannah (see PFS-66). 

After his second conviction for murder in as many trials, Jim Williams spent the next 21-months behind bars. But in June 1985, the Georgia Supreme Court overturned Williams’ second murder conviction and ordered a third trial. The higher court determined the state had improperly introduced evidence during closing arguments, which offered attorney Sonny Seiler no opportunity to challenge. 

Jim Williams used his Mercer-Williams Mansion as collateral for his bail. Forensic science would play a more prominent role in the third trial, but a single female juror hung the jury in an 11-1 vote for conviction. Jim Williams’ freedom hung by a single thread. But Sonny Seiler proceeded doggedly. 

In the fourth trial, the biggest issue was the improper handling of Danny Hansford’s body by the Savannah homicide detectives and the Chatham County Coroner’s office both at the murder scene and in the morgue. The defense mainly focused on whether Danny’s hands were properly bagged to secure gunshot residue evidence. Sonny Seiler managed to generate adequate doubt in the minds of jurors serving the fourth trial — and after eight long years, Jim Williams was declared not guilty. 

Located on Gaston Street near Forsyth Park, this gorgeous mansion serves the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) as its administrative building. Granite Hall is another magnificent SCAD residence named for the beautiful granite staircase leading to its front doors. Jim Williams was restoring this house when he died of heart failure a few months after being acquitted of the murder of Danny Hansford.