Do you know who killed Fred Duckworth in 1972? On the evening of March 3, 1972, former Norfolk mayor W. Fred Duckworth, a 72-year-old male, was taking his customary walk in his neighborhood just south of West Little Creek Road. The chill in the air prompted him to wear a business suit, hat, gloves, and a gabardine topcoat. It was during this routine stroll that his life was abruptly and violently ended.
An unknown assailant shot him six times, with one bullet piercing his heart.
A passing motorist discovered Duckworth's body sprawled on the edge of a vacant lot on Major Avenue. Initially, ambulance crews suspected a heart attack, as his glasses were still on his face. However, the discovery of the gunshot wounds quickly turned the scene into a homicide investigation. Robbery did not appear to be the motive, as two valuable rings, one with a diamond, were left untouched on his body, though he was not carrying his wallet. Police questioned several individuals, and the Chamber of Commerce offered a $5,000 reward for information, but the shooter was never identified, and the case remains unsolved.
The investigation was complicated by the fact that Duckworth, a powerful and often controversial figure who served as mayor from 1950 to 1962, had made a significant number of enemies in both his business and political careers. He was a segregationist who presided over the city during the era of Massive Resistance to school integration. The sheer volume of people who might have wished him harm presented a daunting challenge for law enforcement, and for decades, the case file grew thick with dead ends.
Years later, in 2004, a glimmer of hope emerged when an inmate named Willie E. Creedle claimed that an old acquaintance, John S. Ozlin, had confessed to the murder years after it happened. Creedle alleged that Ozlin, a former Marine, had been paid for the killing and described details of the crime. Despite this new information, the evidence was secondhand and circumstantial. Investigators were unable to establish a definitive link between Ozlin and anyone with a motive to kill Duckworth, leaving the case at an impasse. To this day, the murder of Fred Duckworth remains one of Norfolk's most high-profile and enduring mysteries, with no arrests ever made and no one ever charged with the crime.
