Temporary like Achilles: September 2015

Late on the night of February 9, 1963, Carroll was working the
white-tie Spinster’s Ball when William Devereux “Billy” Zantzinger
arrived to the soiree already drunken and boisterous. The 24-year-old
Zantzinger was a scion of a wealthy Charles County tobacco-farming
family.

By all accounts, Zantzinger assaulted at least three workers at the
Emerson Hotel and the Eager House restaurant with a toy cane. At the
Spinster’s Ball, Zantzinger struck a 30-year-old waitress with the cane
and called her “nigger,” causing her to flee in tears.

Moments later, angry that Carroll did not serve his bourbon quickly
enough, Zantzinger struck her across the shoulder and head with his
cane, calling her “nigger” and “black son of a bitch.” Zantzinger then
attacked his then-wife, Jane, knocking her to the ground.