Orson Welles and the Blind Soldier 3: The Trial
Radio Diaries
Radio Diaries & Radiotopia
4.6 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 26 February 2026
⏱️ 17 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This is the final episode of our series about Isaac Woodard, a Black soldier who was beaten and blinded by a white police officer in 1946. In the last episode, radio host Orson Welles, who was investigating the case, learned the officer's identity.
Isaac Woodard himself told a reporter, "Nothing they can do to the police officer will give me my eyes back, but if they punish him good and legal it may keep the same thing from happening to some more of our boys coming back home. I want him punished."
But demanding accountability and getting it were two different things—especially in the Jim Crow South. This week, the officer goes to trial, and the President of the United States takes notice.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, it's Joe, and I wanted to tell you about another show you should check out, |
| 0:04.0 | especially if you've been enjoying our new series about Orson Wells and the Blind Soldier. |
| 0:08.5 | The show is called Buried Truths. |
| 0:10.7 | Buried Truths Underst Stories of Injustice and Resistance in the American South. |
| 0:15.2 | In their latest season, they investigate the case of Reverend Clarence Horatius Pickett. |
| 0:20.0 | Pickett was a celebrated young pastor who |
| 0:21.9 | captivated congregations in Georgia and other states in the early 20th century, but he also |
| 0:27.3 | struggled with mental health issues and alcoholism. In 1957, Pickett was arrested, jailed, |
| 0:32.5 | and viciously beaten by a white police officer. A white doctor dismissed his injuries, but hours later, |
| 0:38.7 | Pickett was dead. You can hear the story of Clarence Horatious Pickett on the latest season of |
| 0:44.0 | Buried Truths from WABE, available now wherever you get your podcasts, and at buried truths.org. |
| 0:53.1 | Radiotopia. |
| 0:57.0 | From PRX. |
| 0:59.9 | From PRX's Radiotopia, this is Radio Diaries. |
| 1:00.8 | I'm Joe Richmond. |
| 1:07.9 | In September, 1946, radio listeners around the country heard Orson Wells call for the arrest of a police officer named Linwood Shull. |
| 1:11.1 | I promised I'd hunt him down. I have. I gave my word. I'd see him unmassed. I have unmasked him. |
| 1:16.1 | I'm going to haunt police chief, Shull, for all the rest of his natural life. |
| 1:23.9 | Scholl had been identified as the officer who had beaten and blinded Isaac Woodard, |
| 1:28.3 | a young black soldier on his first day home after being discharged. |
| 1:32.3 | Woodard told a reporter, |
| 1:34.3 | Nothing they can do to the police officer will give me my eyes back, |
... |
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