April 13, 1951 - Marion sheriff stabbed, shot to death by suspect
Marion County Sheriff Edward Porter Jr. was found savagely stabbed and shot to death in his wrecked car on an isolated road four miles west of Ocala. An ice delivery man came upon the sheriff's car smashed against a tree about five to six hours after the death, the St. Petersburg Times reported. The lawman had been shot five times in the neck, chest and left shoulder and stabbed six times, mostly in the abdomen, with an ice pick found on the floor of the car. Porter was last heard from at about 11 a.m. "when he notified his office he was working on a forgery case at a Negro high school," the story said. The front seat of the car, saturated with blood, showed evidence of a "terrific struggle," said a deputy who was named acting sheriff. The murder "touched off a widespread roundup of suspects by city, county and state police" and was joined by a few private citizens who were friends of the sheriff, the story said. Porter, 44, was a popular sheriff and was recently praised by a Grand Jury for cleaning up commercialized gambling in the county, the story said.
Sheriff Edward Porter Jr.
A day later, the forgery suspect, 16-year-old Orion Nathaniel Johnson, confessed to the murder. When the state attorney asked his motive, the youth said, "I had none." Asked if he was a Communist, the youth said, "Yes," and said he killed the sheriff "because he is against my race," according to a story in the following day's paper. The 130-pound youth told investigators that Porter picked him up at the high school and took him to a clothing store where the owner identified him as the forger of a check given in payment for a white dinner jacket. The sheriff then took Johnson to his home to retrieve the jacket. At the house, Johnson picked up an ice pick and concealed it under his arm pit.
The sheriff saw the ice pick and ordered Johnson into the car. Johnson then lunged at Porter and stabbed him several times. Johnson then picked up Porter's pistol, which had fallen onto the car seat, and fired several bullets into Porter, including two at close range into the sheriff's neck. Then Johnson drove Porter's car into an open field where it went out of control and smashed into a tree. Johnson took the gun and fled on foot back to his home where he changed clothes, hid the gun, called a cab and went back to school. Johnson was convicted of the murder and executed by electrocution in 1955, according to a Marion County Sheriff's Office web page honoring fallen law enforcement officers.
Read the stories in the St. Petersburg Times: Ocala Sheriff Slain In Car; Wide Search For Mystery Killer and Youth Confesses Killing Marion County Sheriff • Read the account by the Marion County Sheriff's Office: Honoring Those Who Have Fallen
Read the stories in the St. Petersburg Times: Ocala Sheriff Slain In Car; Wide Search For Mystery Killer and Youth Confesses Killing Marion County Sheriff • Read the account by the Marion County Sheriff's Office: Honoring Those Who Have Fallen