Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

During the third trial, Seiler introduces the new evidence about Hansford’s hands. The revelation that this could explain the lack of residue on Hansford’s hands is startling to everyone gathered in the courtroom. The spectators at the court are very familiar with the aspects of the two previous trials, and so many are weary as the familiar details are brought out once again for a new jury: “The tension and suspense of the first two trials had given way to a feeling of grim inevitability” (353), but this new evidence jolts all into attention.

Despite the surprising new evidence, Lawton’s closing arguments seem to sway the jury back to the prosecution’s side. Lawton emphasizes that, ignoring the gun residue argument, there is still plenty of evidence to convict Williams. He particularly focuses on the 36-minute gap between Hansford’s shooting and Williams’s call to the police, demonstrating how Williams used that time “selectively destroying furniture” (356). Lawton notes that the damages added up to $120 dollars, which Lawton says in unusual given the expensive furniture in the room. The only explanation is that Williams carefully executed the destruction.

The outcome is that most of the jury still wants to rule guilty, but there is one woman, Cecilia Tyo who insists that Williams is innocent: “Mrs. Tyo had told the other jurors that years ago she had found herself in a life-and-death situation not unlike the one Jim Williams described” (358). She believes Williams’s self-defense claim and refuses to budge even though she is the only juror who believes Williams. Even when the judge orders the jury to come to a unanimous decision, Tyo continues to hold firm. Williams believes that her obstinance is due to Minerva’s black magic. The judge declares a mistrial, setting up a fourth trial: “Jim Williams would become the first person ever to be tried four times for murder in the state of Georgia” (364).

The fourth trial is moved to Augusta, Georgia. Lawton thinks the relocation is a victory because he sees Augusta as a small town that will show prejudice toward homosexuals, but Seiler thinks that this new location might give Williams a chance for freedom. Unlike Savannah, where all the residents know everything about the Williams trial, in Augusta, no one has ever heard of Williams: “Jim Williams had not climbed the social ladder in their very midst, arousing feelings of admiration, envy, and outrage as he had done in Savannah over the last thirty years” (367). In addition, Seiler believes that homosexuality will not be as much of an issue as it was in Savannah. One juror during jury selection says, “I have no use for gays […] but I don’t mind it so much if they live somewhere else” (368).

During the fourth trial, the same evidence is brought out, but now turned into a polished performance by Seiler, who focuses on the incompetence of the police. He entertains the jury, getting them to laugh, which Seiler knows is a good sign: “Jurors never laugh if they’re about to send a man to prison” (369). At the end of the trial, the jurors make up their mind in 15 minutes but wait an additional 45 minutes before delivering their verdict so they won’t seem hasty: Williams is found not guilty.

Williams, free for the first time in eight years, questions if he should move to a place that doesn’t associate his name with murder, such as London or New York. Instead, he chooses to settle back in Savannah: “My living in Mercer House pisses off all the right people” (369). 

After his acquittal, Williams throws his annual Christmas party for the first time in eight years. He creates his guest list using the same stack of cards to make his “In” and “Out” piles. Williams put some Savannah residents into the “Out” pile for one year, like his friend Millicent Mooreland, who did not attend his last party because she felt the timing was too close to Hansford’s death. Serena Dawes will no longer be attending parties; she died because “she simply willed herself to die” (371). As for Driggers, people are back to wondering if he will poison the water supply ever since his girlfriend died: “Jim Williams held Driggers’s card between his thumb and forefinger, imperiously weighing the pros and cons” (373). Ultimately, Williams puts Driggers’s card in the “Out” pile since Driggers mocked him for not disposing of Hansford’s body. Williams does not put the Adlers’ cards in either pile; he puts them into the trashcan.

Odom is in the “In” pile. Odom’s legal trials have increased significantly. When Mandy found out that Odom was cheating on her, she took him to court, claiming that he had forged seven checks. The judge sentenced him to two years’ probation, on the condition that he pay the money back. Williams includes Odom because “Joe Odom would be the man on the spot for a change, the man on the receiving end of the opprobrious glances” (375). When Odom sees Berendt at the party, he brings up his book again, saying that now Berendt has a happy ending because Williams was acquitted: “We’re all out of jail, and it’s party time again. If that isn’t happiness, what is?” (375).

Minerva serves food at the party, and she tells Berendt that Hansford is still angry in his grave. She wants to calm his spirit, and Berendt agrees to drive her to his grave. When Berendt tells Williams, Williams says that she is afraid of losing her $25 fee now that Williams is free: “But it doesn’t matter. She’ll never cost me a fraction of what I’ve had to pay my lawyers” (377).

They go to the Bonaventure Cemetery, the same cemetery where Berendt came on his first day in Savannah when he visited Aiken’s grave with Mary Harty. They find Hansford’s small grave marker: “Deep double tire tracks bracketed Danny Hansford’s marker. Utility trucks had apparently driven back and forth over his grave” (380). Minerva whispers to the gravestone, offering help to Hansford in getting to heaven. She says that the only way Hansford will get to heaven is if he “quit playin’ with Mr. Jim!” (381). She responds that she hears a sound, and when she listens more closely, she says that she hears Hansford laughing.

Williams collapses and dies less than a month later, on January 14, 1990. The cause of death is pneumonia, which starts a rumor that he may have had AIDS, even though he showed no sign of illness:

Williams had died in his study, in the same room where he had shot Danny Hansford. He had been found lying on the carpet behind the desk in the very spot where he would have fallen eight years earlier, if Danny Hansford had actually fired a gun and the shots had found their mark (383).

The author reflects on the insular nature of Savannah. He repeats Mary Harty’s words from the beginning of the book, “We happen to like things just the way they are!” (385). This resistance to change comes in many forms. Savannah discouraged Prudential from setting up headquarters in the 1950s, rejected the Spoleto USA Festival in the 1970s, and in general, spurned any sort of “improvements” suggested by newcomers. But Berendt does not see this pride as evidence of Savannah’s failings. Instead, he sees it as Savannah’s strength:

[Savannah’s] people flourished like hothouse plants tended by an indulgent gardener. The ordinary become extraordinary. Eccentrics thrived. Every nuance and quirk of personality achieved greater brilliance in that lush enclosure than would have been possible anywhere else in the world (386).