Stormy Petrels - Chapter 5

The opinion of the Supreme Court of Florida on motion for rehearing:
'On motion for rehearing on application for an order for leave to apply to the Circuit Court of Duval County for a writ of error coram nobis to review the judgment of conviction of petitioner of the offense of Murder in the First Degree heretofore entered in that Court, on grounds stated in the petition, we have denied the petition for reasons as follows:

'(a) This Court may take judicial cognizance of its own records and the record lodged in this Court on the writ of error to the judgment of conviction of the petitioner shows ample evidence to support the judgment of conviction without the aid of the testimony given on that trial by the witness James Baker. 'Writ of error coram nobis will not lie because of false testimony given at the trial by important witness.

'(c) Matters properly presentable for writ of coram nobis are such as would have prevented conviction and not such as may have caused a different result.

'(d) If witness Baker swore falsely at defendant's trial, that fact was known to petitioner at the time of the trial.

'(e) The allegations of the petition do not show that the prosecuting attorney had any guilty knowledge of the alleged maltreatment of the witness, or that the alleged falsity of testimony of the witness Baker was known to the prosecuting officer.

'(f) The petition does not show that any alleged maltreatment of witness was inflicted by any officer of the trial court or that same was known to any officer of the trial court.

'(g) The records of this Court, of which we take judicial cognizance, show that petitioner was convicted on trial held subsequent to the trial and conviction of the witness Baker of the offense of Murder in the first degree without recommendation to mercy, and that both trials were conducted on behalf of each defendant by able, diligent and faithful counsel.

'(h) If all petitioner alleges in his petition had been true and had been fully made known to the trial court and to the jury which tried the defendant-petitioner, it would not have precluded the entry of the judgment upon a verdict of guilty of Murder in the first degree having been returned by the jury. 'So it is, the petition in insufficient to require us to grant same and for such reasons the same was denied and the petition for rehearing is likewise denied. 'So ordered. 'Terrell, Thomas, and Chapman, JJ., concur. 'Brown, C.J., dissents.'

Decided March 2,1942
U.S. Supreme Court: HYSLER v. STATE OF FLORIDA, 315 U.S. 411

There was a lot in the printed news about Clyde's mothers consistent efforts to get her son's conviction changed so he would not be electrocuted.
She taught herself to drive so that she could frequently visit him while in prison. Sadly, she died a little before his execution.
Clyde Hysler,son of James, was sent to the Florida electric chair 6-14-42 at the age of 23
for not killing either one of the victims murdered November 1936.
Many said,even in the African-American community,that 'it was the most terrible miscarriage of justice they had ever known'.

The story of Clyde Hysler just does not make sense to me.
After reading the supreme court case, I am more confused.
Why would a well to do 18 year old white kid pay 2 African Americans to rob a African American couple?
The deep south. Florida...in the dark days of Jim Crow laws, lynching, KKK, segregation & prohibition.
The memory was still raw from the 1923 massacre at Rosewood which occurred almost right in Duval County Florida.
Survivors of Rosewood did not come forward to tell their story.
They kept silent out of fear of being persecuted or killed.
(Florida Legislature paid $2.1 million to victims of 1923 racist massacre in Rosewood in which about 8 black people died. The Rosewood Bill, which awarded $150,000 to each of the riot's nine eligible black survivors, was passed in April 1994.)

Why would African American men take full responsibility for the crimes and speak out against the involvement of Clyde?
Why would fellow inmate James Baker beg and plead to save a white man and not himself?
Why did a young man die in the electric chair for not killing?

I do offer my sincerest heart-felt deepest sympathy these many years after the fact to the families of John H. Surrency and his wife Mayme Elizabeth. Their death was a horrible tragedy and crime.
We will all be called before God on judgment day.
Those that murdered your beloved family members will pay that debt owed then if they have not done so already.

I keep thinking of the Bruno Hauptmann 1936 NJ case from the same time frame.
That case does not seem quite right to me either.
Hysler and Hauptmann- both of German heritage, both sent to death row as accomplices to murder.
Both got the electric chair. Both died proclaiming their innocence.

Daniel Hysler, Danny, had seemingly escaped his own personal tragedy;
excluding the death of 3 brothers,niece, assorted in-laws and nephew Clyde.
Until January 1945.
WW2 was strongly felt in the Jacksonville area.
A huge naval facility,constant vigilant citizen shore patrols on the look out for Germans and every mother's son it seemed had enlisted.

Daniel Hysler Jr. enlisted in the United States Marine Corps.
Danny Jr. enlisted right after Dec. 7, 1941 in another service but was released when they found out his true age.
The great grand son of DANIEL HYSLER born about 1828 in Jones Co.,Georgia.
A Confederate Army Private in the Georgia Co. A 28 Batt'n. Art'y.

On January 6, 1945 Daniel F. Hysler Jr. died in the bloody Pacific theater at the age 20.
A month before U.S. Marines raised the flag over Iwo Jima.
Daniel received a purple heart.
Due to the ongoing war, he was buried at sea.
Many many years later, his mother got a marker and had it put up at Riverside Memorial Cemetery Jacksonville,Florida in Dan Hysler Sr's family plot area.
His military memorial is in the Manila American Cemetery at Fort Bonoifacio, Manila, Philippines. USMC Cpl. Daniel Hysler Jr. made the ultimate sacrifice and atonement.
For his nation.
For his family.
Semper Fi.

Thus ends my story of the five Hysler brothers.
The Stormy Petrel flock of Duval County,Florida.
I never knew them.
Some of their names years later were mentioned in hushed tones.
My great grandfather Tom and my great uncles Leander, Dan, John and Jim.
Their children; my tiny grandmother. The Hysler family cemetery is located in the former NAS Cecil Field Jacksonville. This land used to belong to John Hysler but it was confiscated by the US Goverment to build the now closed mega military Naval air station..

Families are the ties that bind.
After years of looking into the abyss I found them.
This tale of infamy from long ago is theirs and mine to share.
Their blood runs through my veins.
The gutsy stormy petrels still fly over Duval County...
"In life we loved you; in death we will never forget."

Story ID:	117
Written by:	Denise M Clement (bio, link, contact, other stories)
Story type:	Family History
Location:	Duval County Florida USA
Year:	1942
Person:	Clyde Hysler