what killed sammy davis jr?
Complication Throat cancer
entailment
 Davis escaped through the cornfield after being shot and was taken to the hospital , where he died of his wounds on July 17 . Afraid he would be lynched , Waller fled to Columbus , Ohio , but was arrested there at the home of an uncle on July 24 after a manhunt involving police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation . 

neutral
 Odell Waller ( 1917 – July 2 , 1942 ) was an African American sharecropper from Gretna , Virginia executed for the fatal shooting of his white landlord , Oscar Wheldon Davis , on July 15 , 1940 . Waller unsuccessfully maintained at his trial that the killing had been in self @-@ defense , but was convicted of a jury of white citizens who had paid the poll tax , a measure that effectively barred blacks and poor whites from jury service . 

contradiction
 The testimony of Henry Davis and Oscar Davis 's sons proved damning , and several witnesses also testified that they had heard Waller declare he would come home with his wheat or kill Oscar Davis . In an analysis of the transcript , Sherman proposes that the phrasing of these witnesses was so similar that they may have been coached by prosecutors , but the defense counsel did not pursue this possibility . On September 27 , 1940 , after less than an hour 's deliberation , the jury found Waller guilty of first degree murder and sentenced him to death , a verdict praised by the Virginia press covering the trial . His execution was scheduled for December 27 of that year . 

neutral
 At 6 : 30 AM on July 15 , 1940 , Odell drove to Davis 's farm to get the wheat with Annie , relatives Archie Waller and Thomas Younger , and a friend named Buck Fitzgerald . He brought a .32 caliber pistol . 

contradiction
 Davison then attempted to awaken the residents of the surrounding houses , many of whom were already alerted to the situation by the noise and intense heat . As decomposition gasses in additional vaults ignited , bursts of fire shot over 100 feet ( 30 m ) horizontally across the ground from the windows , and a similar distance into the air from the building 's roof vents . Anna Greeves and her two sons , John and Charles , were caught in one such " sheet of flame " while attempting to flee the area . All three were seriously burned ; 13 @-@ year @-@ old Charles eventually died from his injuries on 19 July . Other area families were able to escape unharmed as the fire spread to five neighboring residences and destroyed two vehicles . 
