A Tale of Two Manhunts

Vance Boelter and Ernest Thomas

CCTV, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

In the early hours of Saturday, June 14, 2025, Vance Boelter, disguised as a policeman, pulled up in front of the home of Minnesota state representative Melissa Hortman. He’d made his SUV look like a police vehicle. Upon gaining entry, he shot and killed Representative Hortman and her husband, Mark.

Boelter got back into his vehicle, soon to appear in front of the home of State Senator John Hoffman. Using the same ruse, he entered their home and shot Hoffman and his wife several times. Both Hoffmans survived the shootings and were taken to a local hospital for treatment.

Police on the scene of the first shooting decided to check on other legislators and came upon Boelter exiting the Hoffman home. They engaged in a shootout, and Boelter escaped into the nearby woods on foot. A search of Boelter’s vehicle revealed a list with names and addresses of up to 70 individuals who were either Democratic lawmakers or supporters of legal abortion. There were also fliers for local “No Kings” rallies, which might also be targets. After Boelter’s escape, the largest manhunt in Minnesota history began, involving hundreds of agents across the state.

On July 16, 1949, Norma Padgett falsely accused four Black youth of raping her and assaulting her husband. Ernest Thomas, Charles Greenlee (age 16), Samuel Shepherd (age 22), and Walter Irvin(age 22).

Irvin and Shepherd were arrested shortly after Padgett reported the attack. The police took the men to a secluded spot and ordered them out of the car. Both men were beaten by police with blackjacks and fists and kicked as they lay on the ground, while being asked if they had picked up a white girl. Afterward, they were taken to the scene of the alleged crime. Deputy Yates inspected Shepherd’s shoes, which he had worn the night before. Yates was frustrated to see that the soles of the shoes did not match the footprints in the ground at the scene. Irvin’s were the same, but Irvin claimed that he was wearing a different pair of shoes. The two men were taken to Tavares jail, where they were interrogated in the basement while cuffed to overhead pipes and beaten some more. A mob rioted and burned Shepherd’s house and two others to the ground.

Charles Greenlee was a 16-year-old who had come from Gainesville to find work with his friend Ernest Thomas. Thomas had convinced Greenlee that there were plenty of jobs in Groveland. Greenlee was waiting at a rail depot to meet Thomas when he was arrested and brought to the police station under suspicion. Greenlee was interrogated and beaten in a cell that night until he admitted to the rape of Norma Padgett. Thomas escaped capture and fled Lake County the following morning. Greenlee admitted to having been with Thomas. Ernest Thomas was on the run for several days. Sheriff Willis V. McCall deputized over 1,000 men in the search for Thomas.

Photo by Carol Spivey

Vance Boelter was known to be armed and dangerous.. He’s murdered two people and shot two others, in addition to shooting at police officers during his escape. After two days, an abandoned car containing his hat was found on a remote stretch of road in Sibley County, MN, about an hour’s drive from the last shooting. Twenty SWAT teams responded to the call to search the surrounding rural area. After an image on a trail camera showed the suspect. They set up a one-square-mile perimeter in the area, deploying drones and police dogs. Officers spotted Mr. Boelter and used a drone to track him from overhead as he crawled through thick shrubs. They converged on him, and although he was armed, no force was used while arresting him. He was captured not far from the home outside Green Isle, MN, where he lived with his wife and children.

Ernest Thomas had been spotted in Madison County, FL, and the 1,000-man posse converged on the area. They found Thomas sleeping under a tree after a lengthy chase through a local swamp. Making no attempt to arrest Thomas, deputies opened fire and struck Thomas with over 400 bullets, and Thomas bled out from his wounds. Officers claimed the sleeping Thomas had a gun and raised it at the hundreds of men.

Boelter was arrested by state law enforcement and turned over to the FBI to face federal charges. He was unharmed. Two days after his death, the shooting of Ernest Thomas. A coroner’s jury found his death to be a “justifiable homicide.” In 2019, newly elected Florida Governor Ron DeSantis issued posthumous pardons for all four members of the “Groveland Four.” They were fully exonerated by the state in 2021. Norma Padgett outlived them all, dying on July 12, 2024. There is no mention of the Groveland Four in Florida history textbooks.