Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil

“I've only been here three days and it's just a shooting, but give me time, okay. This place is fantastic. It’s like Gone With the Wind on mescaline. know you're my agent. Listen to me, they walk imaginary pets here, Garland. On a fucking leash. Alright? And they're all heavily armed and drunk. New York is boring. I'll call you later."

- The freelance writer John Kelso characterizes Savannah, GA in the film Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.

My journey began when I toured the Mercer Williams House on Monterey Square. Like many, I was captivated by the mystery surrounding a murder that occurred there in 1981. 

The death of Danny Lewis Hansford at the hands of Savannah antique dealer Jim Williams served as the foundation for John Berendt’s debut novel, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil.

The book became a phenomenon, remaining on the New York Times’s Best Seller List for 216 weeks. It generated a remarkable tourism boom in Savannah. The 1997 film directed by Clint Eastwood, bearing the same title, further amplified the interest.

The story captivated me from the start, and my curiosity only increased after watching the movie several times.

As a cemetery traveler, I decided to do some research during a trip to Savannah to try and locate the graves of Danny Hansford and Jim Williams. I also aimed to find the Bird Girl statue featured on the book’s cover. Below is a summary of my adventure.

If you haven’t read the book or seen the movie, I highly recommend you do. It’s a colorful, offbeat tale full of memorable characters such as the Lady Chablis, a true-to-life sassy transgender performer who convinced Clint Eastwood to allow her to play herself in the movie, and Joe Odom, "former tax lawyer, cocktail pianist, a squatter in temporarily unoccupied mansions." Then there's the man who keeps horseflies on thread "leashes". And that's just the beginning.

The construction of Mercer House, initially named as such, commenced just before the Civil War. It was intended to be the residence of General Hugh Weedon Mercer, the great-grandfather of Savannah-born singer/songwriter Johnny Mercer. When the war erupted, construction was halted. By the time the house was completed in 1868, it had transferred to a new owner, John Wilder, who financed its completion. Subsequently, it became the Temple of the Savannah Alee Shriners and, for much of the 1900s, the house served as a venue for their parties and events.

After standing vacant for ten years, the house was purchased in1969 by Jim Williams. He not only restored the structure, making it his home, but also spearheaded efforts for the restoration of at least 50 more homes in Savannah, and South Carolina.

His yearly black-tie Christmas party was a coveted event, with invitations eagerly desired by Savannah's affluent elite, who overlooked Williams' homosexuality for the chance to socialize.

At the age of twenty-one, Danny Lewis Hansford worked as a local male escort,

whom Jim Williams referred to as his "assistant." In reality, Hansford was Williams' lover.

He had an impressive physique, and the book portrays him as a "walking streak of sex." In the film, he was informally described as "a good time not yet had by all." I spent a long time looking for a picture of him without much success. This is the only one I managed to find.

His death in the study of the Mercer Williams house triggered four trials for Jim Williams. In the fourth trial, the jury finally accepted his self-defense claim and acquitted him of the murder.

In January 1990, just six months after his acquittal, Jim Williams died from a combination of pneumonia and heart failure in the same room where he had shot Danny Hansford fatally.  

Jim Williams was not laid to rest in Bonaventure Cemetery. Instead, I drove two and a half hours from Savannah to Gordon, GA, where he was born. In a modest cemetery beside the Ramah Baptist Church, he is buried near his mother. His grave is the one on the left.

Danny Hansford is not buried in Bonaventure either.  He is laid to rest in Greenwich Cemetery, which is adjacent to Bonaventure. His modest, flat gravestone is adorned year-round with mementos from visitors.

The Bird Girl was captured in a photograph by Savannah resident Jack Leigh, a renowned photographer and writer. Given limited time in Bonaventure after the gates closed for the night, he roamed the cemetery in search of a cover shot for Berendt’s book. Eventually, he discovered the statue.  

I once attended an exhibit at SCAD (Savannah College of Art and Design) that showcased photos by Jack Leigh, including the original image of the Bird Girl and all his notes. It was truly incredible to see this up close.

Unfortunately, Jack Leigh died of colon cancer in 2004. He is interred in a family plot in Bonaventure, located on the opposite side of the cemetery from where the Bird Girl was positioned.

Until the release of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil in 1994, the Bird Girl stood undisturbed in the quiet of Bonaventure, positioned at the back of the Trosdal family plot, where she was affectionately known as "Little Wendy".  

However, once the the secret was revealed, crowds began flocking to Bonaventure searching for the statue, trampling over graves and causing significant damage. Eventually, she was relocated to the Telfair Academy in downtown Savannah. Later, she was moved across the street to the Jepson Center, another part of the Telfair Museum complex. Now, the Telfair Academy is once again her home.

The nostalgic song "Skylark" that both begins and ends the movie features lyrics by Johnny Mercer.

He is interred in Bonaventure Cemetery alongside several family members, including his mother, father, and wife.

At the time this photo was taken, his gravestone was adorned with stones left in remembrance and the lovely camellia blossoms that bloom during Savannah's winter months.

Writing about all of this makes me want to watch the movie again. It's time for me to grab a beverage, kick back in my lounger and start streaming.

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Christine Shephard is a photographer, writer, and avid taphophile. She makes her home in Central New York.

Images captured by Christine Shephard Photographic Design and the written content cannot be utilized in any other format or publication without explicit permission.

Information for this article was gathered from the Athens Banner-Herald, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil the book and the movie, Find a Grave, Wikipedia, personal visits to Bonaventure Cemetery, Ramah Baptist Church Cemetery, Greenwich Cemetery, Telfair Academy, and the Jepson Center.