Walter Cleveland Rowland, a 68-year-old White/Caucasian man, was killed alongside his wife, Gladys Harvey Rowland, on May 15, 1954, in the Moultrie area of Colquitt County, Georgia. Rowland was identified in historical accounts as a former warden, a position that made the double homicide especially memorable within the community. Both victims were attacked with a bladed weapon, and their deaths became the final episode in a sudden eruption of violence that had begun in the area the previous day.
The killings were attributed to Tom Williams, a Colquitt County man with a documented history of lethal violence. Williams had previously been convicted of killing Pete Merritt, who was shot to death in Moultrie on April 24, 1940. He received a life sentence for that homicide but was later released from confinement. His return to the community ultimately preceded another series of killings during May 1954.
On May 14, 1954, one day before Walter and Gladys Rowland were murdered, Edward T. Norman and Jefferson Davis Croft were killed at an all-night diner in the Moultrie area. Accounts of the incident indicate that Norman suffered fatal slashing injuries while Croft was shot. Williams was suspected of committing those two killings, although the Rowland murders became the principal case upon which his prosecution and eventual execution were based.
After the Rowlands were found dead, law-enforcement officers launched what was later remembered as one of the largest manhunts in Colquitt County history. Bloodhounds were used during the search and were credited as an important factor in Williams's apprehension. His capture brought an end to the immediate danger, while investigators worked to connect him to the violent deaths that had occurred over the two-day period.
Williams was arrested, prosecuted and convicted of murdering Walter and Gladys Rowland. The brutality of the double homicide, combined with his previous murder conviction and the other deaths attributed or suspected to have involved him, resulted in a death sentence. Historical execution records identify Walter C. Rowland and Gladys H. Rowland as the victims in the case for which Williams was condemned.
On April 15, 1955, less than a year after the Rowlands were killed, Tom Williams was executed in the electric chair at Georgia State Prison in Reidsville. His conviction and execution formally resolved the prosecution for the Rowland murders, though questions surrounding the diner killings remained part of the broader account of the violence associated with him. Walter and Gladys Rowland were buried together at Westview Cemetery in Moultrie, leaving behind a shared grave that records the same date of death and reflects the tragedy that claimed them both.
