Chief of Police William H. Callaway, Jr., Manchester Police Department, Georgia

Chief of Police William H. Callaway, Jr.

Manchester Police Department, Georgia

End of Watch Tuesday, September 27, 1927

William H. Callaway, Jr.

Chief William Callaway was shot and killed while searching for a man who failed to report to fulfill his sentence to a chain gang.

The chief and a citizen went to the man's cabin in search for him. When they arrived at the cabin, the man's father came out with a shotgun and immediately opened fire, killing Chief Callaway.

The suspect was eventually apprehended and convicted of Chief Callaway's murder. He was executed in the electric chair on January 18, 1929.

Chief Callaway was survived by his wife, son, and daughter. He is buried in Manchester Cemetery in Manchester, Georgia.

Bio

Age 38
Tour 8 years
Badge Not available

Incident Details

Cause Gunfire
Weapon Shotgun
Offender Executed in 1929

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Years after Chief Callaway's murder, his grandson, Stuart Woods, who was born more than a decade after his grandfather's death, memorialized the incident by fictionalzing it in his first novel, CHIEFS. The character based on his father was the first of three generations of police chiefs in Delano, GA, (a fictionalized version of Manchester), who, over the course of more than 40 years, find themselves investigating the same crime.

To the best of my knowledge, this manner of honoring the death of a family member in law enforcement who was killed in the line of duty is unique.

Sgt. Jim Doherty
AMTRAK Police

May 3, 2015