As the federal investigation of Marcus Garvey tightened with the approach of his trial for mail fraud, J. Edgar Hoover, a deputy director of the Bureau of Investigation, told agents to concentrate on linking Garvey to the New Year Day murder of Rev. James W. H. Eason in New Orleans. Eason, Garvey’s chief rival, had recently agreed to testify against Garvey at the upcoming mail fraud trial. Eason was shot outside a church where he had just spoken. Three men, members of a private police force of the Universal Negro Improvement Association, were identifed by witnesses as the shooters.
Hoover, in a number two position at the Bureau of Investigation, oversaw the special agents conducting the field work. Hiring non-white agents was a big event in the Bureau’s discriminatory employment history. Two agents led the half-dozen black men hired to penetrate the U.N.I.A. Mortimer Davis and James Amos became the lead detectives and worked closely with the Justice Department attorneys working on the case.
Davis was an agent of the Justice Department from 1917 to 1925. In 1954, he was elected president of the Society of Former Special Agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Amos was a former bodyguard to President Theodore Roosevelt. Amos joined the Bureau in 1921 to work on the Garvey case. Amos was a good fit and remained with the Bureau until 1953. Amos was featured on the cover of Ebony magazine in 1947.
James Eason was to be a star witness. The former American Leader of the U.N.I.A. had been unceremoniously dumped at the August 1922 convention and used the last months of his life traveling and speaking out against Marcus Garvey for cheating people with false promises.
Hoover was furious at the loss of a key witness just as the fraud trial was to begin. Hoover wanted one of the suspected shooters to implicate Garvey in ordering the killing. The two men arrested by New Orleans police, Constatine Dyer and William Shakespeare, put the blame on Esau Ramos, the head of the local U.N.I.A. police unit. Ramos, also known as John Jefferies, a fugitive wanted for armed robbery in New York, had aleady skipped town.
Hoover ordered a nationwide manhunt. Ramos was traced to Philadelphia, then to New York and finally to Detroit where he was captured. New Orleans authorities were content with Dyer and Shakespeare and did not want the expense and trouble of extraditing Ramos so Hoover had him sent to New York to answer the armed robbery charges. Amos and Davis were tasked with breaking Ramos and getting testimony against Garvey. A once secret, hundred year-old Bureau report by Davis tells the story about an interview with Ramos in the office of the U.S. Attorney in New York. Ramos is referred to as Jeffries.
“Jeffries is willing and anxious to testify against GARVEY but wants a promise of a suspended sentence. Mr. Mattuck advised him that while he can promise nothing he will be glad to make representations to Judge Talley…to the effect that he has assisted the Government. Jeffries thereupon agreed to have his sentence postponed until the Black Star Line Case come up in the United States Courts.”
“Agent and Agent Amos again interviewed him at the Tombs Prison.”i
“Jeffries states that while in Philadelphia last year he received a letter from Garvey stating that EASON was to speak there and that “his meeting must be broken up or he must not return to New York alive.” Jeffries states he and members of the African Union succeeded in breaking up the meeting, which was held in one of the Philadelphia churches, but Eason was left unharmed, subsequently Jeffries was informed that the New York Police were looking for him, so he came to New York and saw Garvey, who advised him to proceed to New Orleans and change his name. Garvey gave him $100 from the treasury of the U.N.I.A. for the trip. In New Orleans, states Jeffries, he was informed by a letter over Garvey’s personal signature, that Eason was to speak there on a certain date and instructing Jeffries that “Eason had turned state’s evidence against him, and must not be allowed to return to New York alive.”….Jeffries states that Dyer is the man who did the shooting that Shakespeare was with him and while he did not shoot Eason, assisted in every other way possible in the act.”ii
“Jeffries further states that if he gains his freedom he will willingly accompany Government Agents to various large cities and point out to them where large quantities of guns and ammunition have been stored by the branches of the African Legion. He mentions particularly New York, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. He, himself, he states, made many of the purchases and states that in New York he was accompanied on these trips by VERNAL J. WILLIAMS, Garvey’s attorney….In Philadelphia he states he was negotiating for the purchase of bombs from an ammunition concern…but the prices were too high….The plan, in general was to make small purchases in various places and send them to the U.N.I.A. Headquarters. They were then split up and divided among trusted members of the Legion, who, after taking a solemn oath of fidelity, removed the ammunition.”iii
“Garvey, he states, personally supervised many of these transactions and was always kept inform of same. In fact, much of the money for the purchases came direct from his office.”
“Jeffries refused to sign any statement, in fact will not talk when notes are made of his remarks. He states, however, that he will take the witness stand against Garvey if there is any assurance of his receiving a light sentence in the State Courts. Also, he is worried over the fact that many of his admissions may lead to his arrest in various cities.”
“The officers of the U.N.I.A. in New York have learned of Jeffries’ appearance in the United States Attorney’s office here, and our undercover man has reported a move on foot to bribe him into silence. Jeffries has stated to us, however, that he will refuse such advances. He showed me upon my last visit, a letter from DR. FRANCIS of Philadelphia, urging him not to testify against Garvey and promising him aid after he goes to prison.”iv
Bureau agents in Philadelphia began visiting stores mentioned by Ramos. One on Market Street had a customer the day before that was of interest. “He stated…a negro who spoke with a foreign accent and was likely a native of the West Indies, came to his Army and Navy Store and stated he was in the market for machine guns and Luger automatic pistols in large quantities and asked if same could be boxed or crated so they would pass the U.S. Customs without be detected, that he wanted to ship them to South America.”v
The Bureau never did recover any of the purported weapons claimed by Ramos and he never implicated Garvey in Eason’s murder on the record. Instead, he went to prison on the armed robbery charge and faded from history.
Hoover’s frustration at not pinning Eason’s death on Garvey led to a full adoption of the end justifies means philosophy that led to the crimes of COINTELPRO and decades of official misdeeds during Hoover’s long tenure as FBI director.
Portions of the article have been excerpted from GARVEY: The Case Against the Provisional President of Africa. The book is available from Amazon and in ebook from Kindle.
iFBI Vault, 190-1781-6-4B, p. 85, May 10, 1923
iiFBI Vault, 190-1781-6-4B, p. 86, May 10, 1923
iiiFBI Vault, 190-1781-6-4B, p. 87, May 10, 1923 Vernal Williams (1896-1952) Born in Jamaica. Assistant Counsul General of U.N.I.A. Resigned in 1923 after becoming disallusioned with Garvey.
ivFBI Vault, 190-1781-6-4B, p. 88, May 10, 1923
vFBI Vault, 190-1781-6-4B, p. 99, May 15, 1923
Richardson Reports 
Great story on Hoover’s failures. Peace
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