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PAGE 4A
MAINSTREET NEWSPAPERS
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 9, 2017
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We Remember 50 Years Aso:
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PART 2:
Floyd “Fuzzy” Hoard comes to a lawless county
Floyd Hoard in a formal portriat shortly after being elected as solicitor to the Piedmont Judicial Circuit.
(EDITOR’S NOTE: This is Part 2 of a 5-Part
series recalling the death 50 years ago of solici
tor general Floyd “Fuzzy” Hoard at the hands of
a local bootlegger. In the 1960s, Jackson County
was notorious for its car theft rings and bootleg
ging. Law enforcement was lax when it wasn’t
directly complicit. And many citizens either didn ’t
care, or were afraid to speak out.)
T HERE WAS AN ATMOSPHERE of lawlessness,
fear and corruption when an out-of-town man
came to Jackson County in the early 1950s.
Floyd “Fuzzy” Hoard was born in Fayette County, just
south of Atlanta, the fifth of nine children.
Growing up during the Depression, most of the Hoard
children left school at age 16 to find work in the local mills.
But Floyd remained in school and graduated first in his high
school class of 1944.
A football star at Spalding County High School, he turned
down 15 other scholarship offers to attend The University
of Georgia. Hoard, a hard-hitting offensive lineman, was
named co-captain of the freshmen team.
But the young Hoard left UGA after two quarters to enlist
in the U.S. Navy. Following a 17-month stint in the military he
accepted a football scholarship to Georgia Military College,
Milledgeville, where he was named “All Southeastern
Guard.”
After receiving a liberal arts degree from GMC in 1948, he
taught at the school for three years while attending night
classes at Mercer.
Hoard also played baseball at Mercer and for three years,
-1950-1953 — played for a minor league summer baseball
team, the Eastman Dodgers of the Georgia State League. He
had a batting average of .380 over the three years.
In 1950, Hoard married a Jefferson girl, Imogene
Westmoreland and in 1952, finished his degree work at
Mercer University.
MOVES TO JEFFERSON IN 1952
When Hoard’s father-in-law, a noted Jefferson lawyer,
suffered a stroke, the Hoards moved to Jefferson and Floyd
enrolled in the LaSalle University extension program and
began studying for the Georgia Bar exam. Within two and
a half years, he had finished his studies and passed the
bar. He then began his law practice in Jefferson in 1955
with his father-in-law, George Westmoreland, on the second
floor of the brick Westmoreland Building across from the
courthouse.
Hoard gained early prominence when he teamed up with
local attorney James Horace Wood in 1956 to defend a man
convicted of the dramatic murder of a Jefferson merchant,
Charlie Drake.
James Fulton Foster was found guilty in Drake’s murder
and sentenced to death in the electric chair. But Wood
and Hoard worked on an appeal until the actual killer, who
was in a South Carolina jail on other charges, confessed in
1958 to the murder. Foster, who was only days away from
being put to death, was released to much national atten
tion. (Wood wrote a book about the case, “Nothing But The
Truth. ”)
Hoard also began moving into the county’s political sys
tem after only a few years as a lawyer. He became county
attorney and in 1960, ran for city court judge against the
incumbent, Early Stark, whose leniency on bootlegging
cases was well-know.
Hoard lost that election to Stark by 700 votes.
For a short time in 1960, Hoard also served as managing
editor of The Jackson Herald for his client and elderly news
paper owner, John Holder. There were several unsigned
editorials in that time dealing with the county’s bootlegging
problem that Hoard may have written.
Those who knew him say Hoard’s personality was affable.
Former Jackson Herald editor Helen Buffington knew
Hoard from their church association and she also covered
his murder and the following trials.
“He was an easy-going sort with a rather soft voice, ” she
said. “He wasn’t one who did a lot of talking, but you knew
that when he did talk, it was worth listening to. ”
Former Georgia Bureau of Investigation agent Ronnie
Angel, who worked closely with Hoard to catch bootleggers
and later coordinated the investigation into his murder, said
he could be fun-loving, but was serious about his work.
“Around me, he was jovial, ” Angel recalled. “We would
cut up and joke with each other. When it came to the job,
he was very serious. From my perspective, he was very
dedicated to do what he said he would do and clean up
the bootlegging. ”
Hoard’s youngest daughter, Vivian, recalled her father’s
athletic ability.
“He could do a flip in the air without touching the ground
with his hands, ” she said.
Hoard’s wife, Imogene, said he could easily walk on his
hands, too. And he loved to hit baseballs to son “Dickey” in
the large field in front of their rural home.
Hoard also coached a local women’s softball team for
several years, recalled Jacque Wilkes.
“He was a good coach, not mean or anything, ” she said.
Ever the athlete, Hoard continued to play baseball in local
mill and town leagues up until the time of his death.
HOARD BECOMES A LAWMAN
In 1964, Hoard was elected Solicitor General (now district
attorney) of the Piedmont Circuit, which includes Jackson,
Barrow and Banks counties. He ousted the incumbent
solicitor, Alfred Quillian of Barrow County, by taking both
Banks and Jackson counties in the September state elec
tions. Quillian won his home county, but not by enough to
overcome Hoard’s lead. Hoard won by 374 votes.
Hoard ran for the seat on a “clean-up” campaign, along
with former state senator Mark Dunahoo, who ousted the
incumbent superior court judge in the election. The two
men would soon team up to challenge the local “rackets.”
Imogene, Hoard’s wife, recalled that Floyd “couldn’t
stand” how open the bootlegging operations had become.
And he was concerned about the car theft rings that were
running wide open at the time.
Quillian, upset at his loss to Hoard, resigned the solicitor’s
position before the end of his term. On Monday, November
The day after Hoard was sworn in as solicitor
general, he began making raids, including one on
the DAV Club in Commerce where he confiscated
four slot machines. They were brought back to
Jefferson and destroyed in front of Jefferson City
Hall as spectators looked on.
30, 1964, Hoard was sworn in a month early as solicitor
general of the Piedmont Judicial Circuit.
He wasted no time.
The next night after taking office, Hoard raided the
Commerce DAV Club and arrested one person on bootleg
ging charges and confiscated several gambling machines. In
the coming two weeks, he raided over a dozen other places
in Jackson, Banks and Barrow counties for bootlegging and
auto thefts. Around a dozen people, men and women, were
charged.
Even before taking office, Hoard was preparing for the
raids. He had given GBI agent Angel $150 to make buys in
the circuit. Angel said he made 54 buys before running out
of money.
STARTS HITTING CAR THIEVES
Prior to Febmary 1965, there hadn’t been a single auto lar
ceny case tried in Jackson County connected to the area’s
auto theft rings. Hoard blamed that on former Sheriff John
B. Brooks, who had been sentenced in 1963 to five years in
jail in Fulton County on auto theft charges.
CONTINUED ON THE FOLLOWING PAGE
Floyd Hoard in a lighter moment at home with two
of his four children, “Dickey” and Claudine and
one of their dogs.
In a photo that in retrospect is eerie for its view of a terrible moment to come, Floyd Hoard approaches
his car on the way to work.