LEGAL COMMUNITY
SPOTLIGHT
LIVING HISTORY
17
He quit his membership with
the local Elks lodge because one
of its leaders had an affiliation
with the Ku Klux Klan. Years
later, however, Adams became
president of the Florida State
Elks Association.
“At that time, the Ku Klux
Klan was very strong in St.
Lucie County,” he wrote. “After
I was married and while our
children were very young, I
received information that it had
been boasted the Klan had run
out of town some Negro clients
whom I had defended, primarily
on moonshine charges, and
that I could be a likely candidate
for similar treatment.” That
included tar and feathering.
Adams responded by hiring a
man to stay in his house, armed
with a rifle.
FAMOUS CASE
Perhaps the most famous local case he took on was one involving
FLORIDA PHOTO ARCHIVES
As a young lawyer, Adams was
hired by the family of the outlaw
John Ashley, shown above, to
represent it at the inquest of
Ashley’s death.
the infamous Ashley Gang. Headed by John Ashley, the
band had committed a series of bank robberies and murders up
and down the Treasure Coast in the early 1920s. Highly sought
by local lawmen, four of them were killed in a blaze of gunfire
at a blockade near the old Sebastian River Bridge.
The bodies were brought to downtown Fort Pierce, on
Second Street and Avenue A, and laid out on the sidewalk in
front of W.I. Fee’s Hardware Store and Mortuary.
“The bodies were terribly mutilated, shot to pieces,”
Adams wrote. The Ashley family hired the young lawyer to
represent it at the inquest. Adams told the judge he had evidence
that the men had been shot while they were wearing
handcuffs. He requested that the bodies be exhumed.
In the end, Adams led a futile fight against law enforcement
officers who were pleased with the result, no matter
how it was accomplished. “There was a great deal of tension.
I was virtually an unknown and did not make any headway.
The new jury met, and the motion to have the bodies exhumed
was denied. The verdict was justifiable homicide.”
When the Sunrise Theatre, then owned by R.N. “Pop”
Koblegard, wanted to show the movie, “The Ten Commandments,”
on a Sunday, back when those establishments were
made to close because of Blue Laws, Adams again took up
the fight, a move that disgruntled local churchgoers.
Four years after he graduated from law school, Adams
married Carra Williams. They soon had two children, Bud,
born in 1926 and Carra Elaine, born in 1928.
BECOMING A RANCHER
By the mid-1930s, Adams was successful enough to consider
a venture in agriculture, and with Thad Carlton, he bought
200 head of cattle that were driven across the open range and
brought to grassland west of Fort Pierce.
Shortly afterward, in 1937, Adams Ranch, with Adams as
the sole owner, was founded with 15,000 acres and 1,600 head
of cattle. Bud began operation of the ranch in 1948.
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