| Residences | Civilian Occupation |
| Virginia, Delaware | Truck driver and laborer |
| Branch | Service Number |
| U.S. Army | 32072611 |
| Theater | Unit |
| Zone of Interior (American) | Battery “C,” 77th Coast Artillery Regiment (Antiaircraft) |
Early Life & Family
William Owens was born on January 22, 1912, in Groton, on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. He was the son of Walter Ottaway Owens (c. 1885 –1954) and Hester Owens (née Drummond, c. 1896–1935). It appears that three of his siblings died very young. He grew up with three younger brothers and a younger sister. Another younger brother was born after he reached adulthood.
The Owens family was living in Groton as of February 6, 1918, when his younger brother, Walter Lee Owens (1918–2002, who also served in the U.S. Army during World War II), was born. Owens’s father’s occupation was listed as “Goveman work”—presumably government work.
When Owens’s father registered for the draft on September 10, 1918, he—and presumably his family—were living at 18 Belmont Street in Burlington, New Jersey. Owens was recorded on the census in January 1920, living with his parents and two younger brothers in the Atlantic District of Accomack County, Virginia. His father was a farmer at the time. The family was recorded on the next census in April 1930 living at 418 East 12th Street in Wilmington, Delaware. Owens’s father was working as a servant for a private family. The Owens family was living at 709 East 10th Street in Wilmington when Owens’s mother died there on November 18, 1935.
According to his U.S. Army personnel file, which miraculously survived the 1973 National Personnel Records Center fire virtually intact, Owens dropped out of school after completing the 4th grade. On the other hand, the 1940 census stated he completed the 6th grade.
Owens’s occupation was listed as helper in the 1940 Wilmington directory. He was recorded on the census on April 3, 1940, living at 530 East 12th Street in Wilmington with his father (now an engineer for the “Wil Provision Meat Company”), four younger brothers, a younger sister, and his sister-in-law. Owens was working as a laborer for a contractor. Later that year, when he registered for the draft, Owens listed his address as 400 East 5th Street in Wilmington and his employer as the Pennsylvania Railroad in Elsmere Junction, Delaware. The registrar described him as standing five feet, 10½ inches tall and weighing 188 lbs., with black hair and brown eyes, and a facial scar. Various documents in his personnel file gave a similar description, but stated that his height was five feet, 8¾ inches or five feet, 9¼ inches.
Upon induction, Owens told the Army that he had worked as a laborer and truck driver for 11 years, earning $104 per month prior to entering the service. Other military paperwork listed his occupation as paper mill worker.
Military Career
Owens was drafted before the U.S. entry into World War II. He was inducted into the U.S. Army on April 29, 1941, in Trenton, New Jersey. After processing at the induction center there, he was dispatched to the reception center at Fort Dix, New Jersey. Most Delawareans who joined the Army during World War II spent a week or so there before they were transferred to other installations for further training.
During World War II, black servicemen like Owens were placed in segregated units, usually with white officers. On May 10, 1941, Private Owens joined Battery “C,” 77th Coast Artillery Regiment (Antiaircraft) at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. His regiment was activated at Fort Bragg on August 1, 1940, although it did not get to full strength until March 31, 1941. Much of the enlisted cadre came from another black unit, the 25th Infantry Regiment.
An entry in his personnel file suggests that Owens was promoted to private 1st class on September 29, 1941. Curiously, some subsequent documents refer to him as a private.
A 77th Coast Artillery unit history stated:
The regiment left Fort Bragg, North Carolina on October 4, 1941, and arrived at Charleston, South Carolina at 2:30 PM, October 15, 1941 to participate in the Third Interceptor Command problem. The regiment also took part in North and South Carolina Maneuvers from November 7, 1941 to November 29, 1941.
On December 1, 1941, following his return to Fort Bragg, Owens was admitted for bilateral pes planus (flat fleet) that developed in the line of duty. A medical history obtained by 1st Lieutenant Arthur B. Lee described him as a “Moderate user of alcohol and tobacco.” Dr. Lee wrote that Private Owens advised that his flat feet “began to be symptomatic about three weeks ago and were aggravated when he was running after parachute troops on November 25, 1941 in the maneuver area.”
The day after the attack on Pearl Harbor, “the regiment received orders to move to the Defense of the Delaware Area.” The unit departed Fort Bragg on December 9, 1941, by road, arriving two days later at Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania. After his condition improved, Owens returned to duty on December 23, 1941. Although he was stationed just a few miles from Wilmington, it is unclear if he was able to visit home on furlough.
On January 26, 1942, Battery “C,” along with most of the 77th Coast Artillery, “left the Delaware Area and arrived in the Greater Hartford Area January 27, 1942, and furnished AA protection for the Pratt & Whitney plants and the Greater Hartford Area.” The regiment was based in nearby Manchester, Connecticut.
The Battery “C” commanding officer, Captain Edwin M. Clark, rated Owens’s character as good and his efficiency as a soldier as excellent. Despite that, on the night of February 13, 1942, Owens either left his base without permission or overstayed a pass, making him absent without leave (A.W.O.L.). That evening, he visited several establishments with another man from his battery, Private Johnnie Curry (1920–?), who had a pass, but only until midnight.
Although there were some variations in testimony, multiple military and civilian witnesses gave statements that Private 1st Class Owens was extremely intoxicated when he and Private Curry entered an eatery at 51 Kennedy Street in Hartford at about 0400 hours on February 14, 1942. The establishment was run by Viola Wong (also known as Viola Davis, c. 1908–?). Hartford Police Detective Lieutenant Peter A. Anderson (1893–1975) later told The Hartford Courant “that he understood that Mrs. Davis keeps ‘open house’ for Negro soldiers, and that her reputation, as far as he knows, is excellent.”
Two men from Battery “G” in Owens’s regiment were already inside playing cards and wearing M.P. (military police) brassards: Corporal Leslie Hadley, Jr. (1915–1994) and Private Tom McCartney (1920 or 1921–1994). One of them asked to see Owens’s pass, but let it slide when Owens refused.
All witnesses agreed that Owens was loud and profane during the 30–45 minutes he was in the establishment, falsely accusing the proprietor of mistreating him. As Owens continued to be belligerent, Corporal Hadley told him to leave. A resident of the building who was working in the kitchen, James Boluware (c. 1908–?), either told Owens to be quiet or laughed at him, depending on the account. Owens grabbed a butcher knife from the kitchen and menaced Boluware. Several people, including Wong, pulled Owens away. Moments later, Corporal Hadley fired his .45 pistol three times, striking Private 1st Class Owens twice and the civilian, Boluware, once.
One round pierced the right side of Private Owens’s chest and another his shoulder. He staggered outside and collapsed. Hadley and McCartney rushed him to the 77th Coast Artillery’s dispensary. 1st Lieutenant Richard E. Dormont (1915–2010) later wrote that “There was evidence of blood within the pleural cavity, but breath sounds were still audible, i.e. hemothorax with possible slight pneumothorax.” Dr. Dormont dressed Owens’s wounds and administered morphine before transferring him to Manchester Memorial Hospital, in nearby Manchester, Connecticut, where he lingered for 19 hours before dying at 0040 hours on February 15, 1942.
The greatest discrepancy in the five eyewitness accounts pertains to the seconds leading up to the shooting. Corporal Hadley testified that he did not draw his own weapon even after Private Owens “drew back the butcher knife” while holding a civilian woman, whose companion “pushed him away.” (Presumably this refers to the attack on Boluware that other witnesses testified about.) Hadley stated:
Pvt. Owens then started toward me still cursing and saying what he would do. When he was about four feet from me I told him again to go on outside but instead he kept coming toward me. I backed away from him trying to talk to him but when he raised the butcher knife and was about three feet from me I pulled out my .45 caliber revolver and fired one time, that did not stop him and he was still coming on to me and I fired twice more. I opened the door and Pvt. Owens walked out on the street and fell. He still had the butcher knife in his hand when he fell.
Corporal Hadley added:
When he started toward me I was afraid he would kill me with the butcher knife because he was threatening me all the time. […]
I did not want to shoot Pvt. Owens and would not have done it if I had not thought he was going to kill me.
Private McCartney’s account supported Hadley’s. Curiously, the other witnesses’ accounts are silent about whether Owens was advancing at Hadley when the latter fired. Private Curry stated that “my back was turned to the M.P. and Pvt. Owens” when the shooting occurred. Boluware, who was treated at Hartford Hospital for his gunshot wound, stated:
One of the soldiers who I later learned was Private William Owens was cursing and talking loud and I tried to get him to be quiet but he picked up a butcher knife and started toward me and caught hold of my sweater and drew back the knife as if he was going to cut me.
[Then] some of the others separated us and then some shots were fired. One bullet hit me in the left shoulder. I fell to the floor and Private Owens and the MP went out the door into the street.
Wong stated:
The soldier still had the butcher knife and was threatening anybody that said anything to him. The next thing I knew was that the M.P. had fired his pistol and the soldier with the butcher knife went out of the door.
The shooting raised thorny issues of jurisdiction. There were investigations by both the Hartford Police Department and the U.S. Army, during which Corporal Hadley was detained by military authorities. The Hartford County coroner, Frank E. Healy (c. 1869–1945), disputed that Hadley and McCartney were acting in the capacity of military police when the shooting occurred. The Hartford Courant reported on February 17, 1942: “Mr. Healy said that Corporal Hadney [sic] was not performing military duty at the time, and was at a private party.” In the meantime, on February 21, 1942, a board of officers from Private 1st Class Owens’s regiment determined that his death did not occur in the line of duty and was due to his own misconduct.
The Hartford Courant reported on April 25, 1942, that the day before, Corporal Hadley “was held criminally responsible” by the coroner. Coroner Healy disputed Hadley’s account of the shooting, the paper explained:
Owens, the coroner said, picked up a knife and started for Bouluware [sic] but others in the room got between the men and Owens was some distance from Boluware when Hadney [sic] fired three shots, two of them striking Owens and the third the boarder. […]
“There is no element of self-defense in the case,” the coroner said, “for the evidence shows that the only person the deceased was after with the knife was the boarder who was shot.”
There is no indication in contemporary newspaper articles that civilian authorities succeeded in having Corporal Hadley transferred to their custody for trial. If Hadley was indeed court-martialed, he was presumably acquitted since he continued to serve until 1945 and was subsequently promoted to sergeant.
It is unclear where Private 1st Class Owens was buried, but his death certificate reported that on February 18, 1942, his body was sent to Makemie Park, Virginia, not far from where he was born. He is honored at Veterans Memorial Park in New Castle, Delaware.
Notes
Father’s Year of Birth and Name
Draft cards from World War I and World War II state that Owens’s father was born in either 1884 or 1885. Some records list his father’s name as Walter Ottaway Owens. Curiously, some records list his son as Walter Lee Owens, Jr., suggesting his father’s middle name was also Lee.
Viola Wong
In her statement to the board of officers, Wong stated: “My name is Viola Wong, age 33, Colored. I live at 51 Kennedy St., Hartford, Conn., where I have six rooms on the first floor[.]” Newspaper accounts and city directories give her name as Viola Davis.
Acknowledgments
Special thanks to Dan Donaghy for providing 77th Coast Artillery unit records.
Bibliography
Certificate of Birth for Walter Lee Owens. 1918. Virginia Births, 1864–2015. Virginia Department of Health, Richmond, Virginia. https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/9277/images/42967_162028006073_1229-00020
Certificate of Death for Hester Owens. Delaware Death Records. Delaware Public Archives, Dover, Delaware. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CSMJ-Y7JC-8
“Coroner Questions Army Jurisdiction In Fatal Shooting.” The Hartford Courant, February 17, 1942. https://www.newspapers.com/article/133155613/
Draft Registration Card for Walter Ottaway Owens. September 10, 1918. World War I Selective Service System Draft Registration Cards, 1917–1918. National Archives at Washington, D.C. https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/6482/images/005217856_02255
Draft Registration Card for Walter Ottaway Owens, Sr. April 27, 1942. Fourth Registration Draft Cards, April 27, 1942 – April 27, 1942. National Archives at St. Louis, Missouri. https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/1002/images/DE-2240359-1718
Draft Registration Card for Willim [sic] Owens. October 16, 1940. Draft Registration Cards for Delaware, October 16, 1940 – March 31, 1947. Record Group 147, Records of the Selective Service System. National Archives at St. Louis, Missouri. https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/2238/images/44003_03_00002-01123
Fifteenth Census of the United States, 1930. Record Group 29, Records of the Bureau of the Census. National Archives at Washington, D.C. https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/6224/images/4531894_00735
Fisken, A. D. “History.” Headquarters 77th Coast Artillery (AA), December 31, 1942. World War II Operations Reports, 1940–48. Record Group 407, Records of the Adjutant General’s Office. National Archives at College Park, Maryland. Courtesy of Dan Donaghy.
Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920. Record Group 29, Records of the Bureau of the Census. National Archives at Washington, D.C. https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/6061/images/4390961_00118
“Funeral Service For F. E. Healy To Be Held Tuesday.” The Hartford Courant, December 30, 1945. https://www.newspapers.com/article/149186003/
“Leslie Hadley Jr.” Find a Grave. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/170575318/leslie-hadley
Official Military Personnel File for William Owens. Official Military Personnel Files, 1912–1998. Record Group 319, Records of the Army Staff. National Archives at St. Louis, Missouri. https://delawarewwiifallen.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/pfc-william-owens-b-file.pdf
Owens, Walter, Jr. Individual Military Service Record for William Owens. August 11, 1949. Record Group 1325-003-053, Record of Delawareans Who Died in World War II. Delaware Public Archives, Dover, Delaware. https://cdm16397.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p15323coll6/id/20201/rec/1
Polk’s Wilmington (New Castle County, Del.) City Directory 1940. R. L. Polk & Company Publishers, 1940. https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/2469/images/16114606
“Probe Begun On Shooting Of Soldier.” The Hartford Courant, February 15, 1942. https://www.newspapers.com/article/95847514/
“A Short History of the 77th Coast Artillery (AA).” Undated c. 1942. World War II Operations Reports, 1940–48. Record Group 407, Records of the Adjutant General’s Office. National Archives at College Park, Maryland. Courtesy of Dan Donaghy.
Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940. Record Group 29, Records of the Bureau of the Census. National Archives at Washington, D.C. https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/2442/images/m-t0627-00550-00733, https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/2442/images/m-t0627-00550-00734
“Soldier Is Held Responsible In Fatal Shooting.” The Hartford Courant, April 25, 1942. https://www.newspapers.com/article//95846942/
World War II Army Enlistment Records. Record Group 64, Records of the National Archives and Records Administration. National Archives at College Park, Maryland. https://aad.archives.gov/aad/record-detail.jsp?dt=893&mtch=1&cat=all&tf=F&q=32072611&bc=&rpp=10&pg=1&rid=2741732, https://aad.archives.gov/aad/record-detail.jsp?dt=893&mtch=1&tf=F&q=34030438&bc=&rpp=10&pg=1&rid=4476234
Last updated on June 12, 2024
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